Bravely Defa-I mean, Flight to the Finish review! Yes, not being distracted by anything else at all. Completely focused! · 4:54pm Dec 14th, 2013
I really should have let my mum buy Bravely Default (Flying Fairy, they removed the subtitle for the overseas version for some reason) for Christmas. I found out though that there was a rather expensive version of it with tons of free things available if you preordered though so I opted to get it myself. Now I ultimately felt that site to be untrustworthy and so went to my regular Game.co.uk and got the regular pre-order which at least includes a nice artbook. Now at this point, as it was the original priced copy, I should let my mum buy it and put it up for Christmas but nope, after all the troubles I had with it I decided I need it now. Now I have to stave off this splendorous RPG throwback to old school Final Fantasy in order to write.
Fanfiction Progress
I have not a lot of writing done. That said I am not troubled. I feel quite calm in fact and feel confident that I’ll be able to write The Shy Knight and the Rainbow Princess 4th chapter, Wild Woods with skill and ease.
When I looked back to my notes and plans for the chapter I realised, while all the scenes where there, they were all jumbled up. Nothing looked to be in the right order so I went about rearranging the sequences of scenes. This didn’t take long but in the midst of rearranging I thought deeper about each scene and now have a clear image of what I want to write. I don’t imagine the chapter to be a long one unless, ironically, the scenes not involving the Mane 6 go on longer than anticipated.
I have already started writing some of the chapter and with my current progress, taking into account I may be called into work during the week, I should have it done around Friday-Saturday (unless I manage to be super-duper-spectacularly-amazing and get it done by Thursday). Given how close it’ll be to the weekend and how close it is to Christmas, I probably won’t have time to get Ugugg to slave away and proof-read for me. I shall try of course to aim for a 21st/22nd release, but I’m not going to stress over it this time (I’ve been warned by my doctor’s about being prone to high blood pressure as it is) and so if it ends up releasing on 28th/29th instead… so be it. As always wish me luck with this chapter, though this time I may not even need it.
Other Episode Reviews for Daring Don’t
James Corck
Thejboy88
NintendoGal55
Zyr1987
Episode Review of Flight to the Finish
In my professional opinion I can say within a professional manner that this episode was MINDBLOWINGLY AWESOME! Seriously, this episode beat my worried expectations and turned out to be absolutely terrific. This episode was just incredible and I loved just about every moment of it.
For our first positive there are all the references that appear throughout this episode. The Crystal Empire and Equestria Girls, Ms Harshwhinny slightly less so but still expected. I didn’t expect the Hurricane Fluttershy references through Heavy Weight (tiny winged muscular pegasus) nor did I expect Rainbow Dash’s and Ms Harshwhinny’s interactions to be so entertaining. That first part with Dash and Harshwhinny explaining the plot was hilarious; added bonus for the picture of Rarity’s face when mentioning the flag bearers need to be stylish.
The episode just goes on to get better with a lovely little song; Hearts as Strong as Horses. The singing was great, the music and the animation. That said the animation in general was amazing in this episode. The Cutie Mark Crusaders performances, the sequences when singing, character expression, all wonderful for my eyes to behold.
As you may be aware I was worried about the direction this episode was taking. It seemed like it was going to tackle the serious issue of disability, something that doesn’t have a straight forward answer and previous experience with One Bad Apple did not give me much confidence. They surprised me though, this issue was featured but not as the focus. The main focus was on sticking together as a team and going back to what worked if new ideas aren’t working at the time. The issue of Scootaloo’s inability to fly and the answer for it is approached but not as the sole problem and the episode doesn’t feel like it was created for the sole purpose of teaching the moral like One Bad Apple was. Rainbow Dash gives Scootaloo an answer but it is not a definitive one, it leaves room for other suggestions and ultimately works out best as the advice for the time. That said, Rainbow Dash was great in this episode and even more so when interacting with Scootaloo.
Negatives for this episode were hard to come, at least glaring ones that is. Nothing really stands out as being too much of a problem. The ending is rushed, that is definitely a flaw, but as it was showcasing something we’d already seen before I feel it to be less of a problem. It’s still a negative but not overwhelmingly so. A bigger negative I’d say is we never get to see any of the other performances. We can’t compare Diamond Tiara’s and Silver Spoon’s performances to understand why they go bully mode against the Crusaders and we don’t see how the Crusader’s amazing performance stacks up against the others. Things also end a little too neatly. With that opening moment involving Snips and Snails and how they were effectively made a joke out of for thinking they could win… I was kind of hoping they would.
Ultimately I’m like Rainbow Dash towards this episode. I’m struggling to hold in my emotions over how awesome this episode was. Scootaloo was terrific and I’m glad to see my 2nd most favourite character has had another brilliant episode. She came across well here, her insecurities sympathetic yet you can also understand why Apple Bloom gets exasperated with her and why Sweetie Belle struggles to mediate between them. I’m debating a little on where to place this episode but when ultimately my problems with the episode are rather minor I do have to say… 10/10. Season 4 you amazing season you, you’ve got another episode in my top ten. Bravo Flight to the Finish.
I am trying to release my new episode high, and nobody here is helping me tone it down. I need something...oh I got it...
The next one might not be as good as this
There I think that helped lower my new episode high...no it didn't.
By the way, I am impressed by the new writer. I just found out that he wrote an episode of Ultimate Spider-man and was pretty cool here!
1605770 Help you tone down your new episode high? When the next one involves the Mane 6 and Spike being warped inside a comic book and becoming superheroes?
Yeah, right, I'm hyped as can be for that one.
Truth be told I don't think it will be quite as good as this one, at least in the depth and character department. A fun ride with great action and comedy is what I expect but not quite the same level of character depth. All in all that still means I expect it to be fantastic and I'm interested to see they're addressing Spike's feelings about effectively being the tagalong to the group. Actually, it could be as character in depth as this one... it could be.
Yeah, other than Daring Don't this season has been amazing me more and more. I'm truly impressed with what they've done and hope the outpouring of splendid episodes continue. Thanks for commenting so quickly Alchemystudent.
on a completely unrelated note, please tell me that you've all noticed Twilight getting taller throughout these series. I find that to be a huge thing as it shows that twilight is still developing to something bigger (quite literally) but no one else has mentioned it.
P.S. crying Scootaloo was heart-rending
1606415 I haven't noticed it. Then again, I haven't been looking...
Anyway, as I said on my own blog, CMC episodes in general are not well liked by me, though, unlike "One Bad Apple" I could actually watch this one since I was confident I wasn't going to flash back to the hell that was middle school. Still, can't say I was a fan.
1605798
Well, I liked the obvious focus on Scoot's inability to fly and how no one gives a b****. I don't know about you but I think it takes some serious nerve to throw physical disabilities in a kid's show.
1605992 I don't watch a whole of films so I have no idea what you're referring to but it is nice to know that you like this episode. I enjoyed Diamond Tiara in this one as yet again she pretty much went full on evil. I find that this is when she is at her best, crushing the hopes and dreams of all ponies and generally being despicable. I love it!
I don't think there has been a CMC episode where I haven't cared for them. I really like the Crusaders and feel a great deal of sympathy towards them (which did lead to me hate one episode due to how poorly treated they were in it, along with other factors). I'm surprised you didn't give it a 4 out of 4 (did Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon really bother you that much?) but ah well, glad you enjoyed. Thanks for commenting IonXtreme.
1606415 Yes, Twilight has gotten taller in the series. That has been apparent since season 3's finale though it did start to look more pronounced within season 4. A scene of Twilight and Rainbow Dash standing near one another in Daring Don't made clear how much taller she has gotten since becoming an alicorn.
Crying Scootaloo was sad.
... Sorry, we have no sad Scootaloo emoticon. Anyway, thanks for the comment, Derpyhooves15. 
1607126 You're not a fan of the CMC? Strange, that opinion seemed to only be about during the season 1 episodes (to which I loved them back then as well). Crusaders are one of my favourite set of characters and in some ways I prefer seeing them as a group and their interactions even more than the Mane 6. Only the hilarity of Pinkue and Rarity interactions along with the loveliness of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy romantic interactions best them.
Ah well, to each their own. I'm not sure how you can dislike them but then again I don't get the big deal behind characters like Princess Luna so fair enough. Thanks for commenting, Zyr.
1621898 True, it certainly does but I'm glad the episode didn't revolve around it. The episode didn't feel like it was created with the message in mind first but more so around the character of Scootaloo. It took into account further aspects like how it affected her friends and the show never made a big deal about Scootaloo being disabled. I was worried and yet it was handled perfectly. Thank you for the comment, kiheerSEDMAN.