Doctor Perseus Reviews: "Games Ponies Play"/I was Interviewed!!! · 2:33am Aug 21st, 2013
In this episode, which takes place at exactly the same time as Just for Sidekicks, Twilight and her friends travel back to the Crystal Empire to help Princess Cadance prepare for the arrival of the Games Inspector, who is to decide where the Equestria Games will be held. But things go wrong very quickly when Twilight and her friends end up mistaking somepony else for the inspector while Rarity tries her best to prepare Cadance's complicated ceremonial headdress.
This episode isn't really as polarizing as it is just hardly talked about. From what I've seen, this tends to be one of the episodes of season 3 that hardly anyone mentions. I haven't come across people who hate the episode yet but I have heard some call it a pretty forgettable one. Personally, I really enjoyed it. I liked the concept the writers went with this episode in relation to Just for Sidekicks with both episodes taking place at the same time. I liked the bits where the scenes from the previous episode worked their way into this episode and we saw them from another point of view (such as the opening and ending). It sort of gave me a time turner vibe, which I enjoyed.
The episode itself, while nothing truly spectacular, is still a fun ride. I enjoyed seeing the Crystal Empire, Shining Armor, and Cadance again and I liked the introduction of the concept of the Equestria Games (I'm hoping that we actually get to see them in season 4). The comedy in this episode was also really good from Rarity messing up Cadance's mane to Rainbow Dash colliding with the spa ceiling to...well...anything with Pinkie Pie. Ms. Peachbottom was a fun side character to be introduced and I liked how the Mane 6's mistake led to them succeeding in the end. And, of course, we finally saw one of Rainbow Dash's family members...sure it was through a flashback but still! I also enjoyed the bit with Twilight learning Cadance's method of keeping calm and seeing it actually work out for her.
While there aren't really any major negatives in this episode for me, I can understand why some people call it forgettable. It's basically a long, albeit really enjoyable, comedic piece that doesn't really bring across that many big changes aside from the introduction of the Equestria Games and a new method for Twilight to remain calm.
Overall, Games Ponies Play is a fun yet not really spectacular episode, but it's still a good addition to season 3 in my book. Next, my retrospective of MLP: FiM comes to an end with the season 3 finale: Magical Mystery Cure!
You can find a link to the picture I used below:
http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Games_Ponies_Play
In other news, I was interviewed today! One of my followers, Noah1237, interviewed me for his FIMFiction group: FIMFiction interviews. You can check out the interview at the link below:
http://noahrhodes.deviantart.com/art/Interview-with-Doctor-Perseus-394764123
I liked this episode too. Like I said yesterday, if both this episode and "Just For Sidekicks" were edited together into a two part episode, it would have been a pretty decent season finale. On its own, it has it's own charms. I just really like comedy so that's why I liked it as much as I did. I'm surprised a lot of people don't mention that the plot is very similar to Nikolai Gogol play "The Government Inspector". MLP doing Gogol! (Then again, you mentioned how forgettable most people feel this episode is.) I'm sure we're going to see more about the Equestria Games since the exclusive footage from season 4 from the San Diego Comic Con mentioned Ms. Harshwhinny. The only problem I had was that Rainbow Dash's flashback seems to obliterate the common fan theory that Rainbow is an orphan. (I may have been planning a story about that. But I got a fix for it.
)
Congratulations on the interview!
I hope this is the start of getting the attention you deserve as a great author of fanfiction.