Uh...hello again. · 6:46pm Jan 25th, 2014
As you may have deduced, my life erupted in busy times. They're still ongoing, by the way, but I felt like I owed people some sort of explanation for suddenly disappearing. So here I am.
I desperately want to get back to doing my Lunch Dates series, but I'm going to be frank: I don't know how or when I'll be able to do so. My writing life has changed drastically in the past 8 weeks (all good things), and I can't commit to fanfiction like I could before. So basically...I'll get to it when I get to it, and do promise to try and get to it. That's kind of the best I've got. Really, really sorry. I'll do what I can.
As far as Season 4 goes, here are my basic thoughts on the past few episodes since Rarity Takes Manehattan:
Pinkie Apple Pie was a complete hoot. Loved it. Couldn't find any real serious faults with it. Just a heck of a lot of fun, with a great song, and some excellent characterizations. 9/10.
Rainbow Falls was a confusing episode, but it did get me teary-eyed at the end, so I wouldn't say it was a bad episode. It had a lot of continuity problems, and I felt pretty bad for Dash getting stuck with lame team members when she could easily be the star of the Equestria Games herself. Kind of wanted them to let her go and shine on her own. But the moral they went with was necessary for the season-long shimmery-rainbow maybe-related-to-that-box arc that they're going for, so I guess that's okay. And of course, Derpy. Probably a 7.5/10. Would've been higher if they'd just explained more of those continuity issues better.
Three's a Crowd was loads of Discord fun. Loved his song, loved his gags. Really enjoyed practically everything about this episode. Except...for two massive flaws. Number one, Pinkie. My poor baby. What are they doing to you? I was literally shuddering watching her bits at the beginning. That was honestly terrible. There's no way around it. That was just shoddy writing for Pinkie Pie, and I'm really ashamed it got through. She was so out of character, it hurt to watch. And the second issue was Spike. Generally, I'm okay when they randomly leave him out if it is for an entire episode. But this time, they expressly showed he was around (at the beginning and end), and yet throughout the whole middle he was mysteriously absent at the library. Just a simple explanation as to WHY would've been all I'd needed. So despite a truly epic song sequence, and some fabulous scenes, this episode only gets a 7/10 because I really can't get over the two flaws. Especially the one with Pinkie Pie. If you're someone who doesn't love her to the extent I do, you probably would rate this episode higher. But she's hands down my favorite pony forever and always.
And with that said, I look on to next week's episode with great trepidation. I want to be hyped for it, but Season 4 has been really hit or miss with Pinkie, and we just had a GLARING miss.
"Pinkie Apple Pie" was great. There was possibly some High Weirdness being set up too, regarding Pinkie herself and the record-smudging. If not set up for the show, set up for my fanon, in which Pinkie Pie is not precisely a normal Pony, in ways beyond the merely psychological. This made me so happy when I realized what that implied ... since I'd already decided on what Pinkie was a while ago. Pinkie Pie in a meta-sense made me Smile
I also really liked the characterization of the Apples.
What I liked about "Rainbow Falls" was what they did with Fluttershy. Did you notice that she's starting to open her shell up and recover from whatever traumas made her the insane hermit from the first episode? She was actually helping Bulk Biceps gain confidence. I don't know about any romantic shipping there, but she made a new friend. When's the last time Fluttershy did that -- save under direct order of the Realm?
"Three's A Crowd" -- Discord put Pinkie under a geas with the balloon. He's done it before to the exact same character using a similar tool. He did this because he wanted Pinkie out of the picture, because Pinkie actually wanted to be friendly to him, and he had other goals in mind.
The real "What Happened to the Mouse?" question is "what happened to Rainbow Dash?" She flew off at very high speed, and we don't see her again. My guess is that she went to Canterlot to warn Celestia of what Discord was doing, and Celestia told her to stay out of it, to let the game play itself out (because Discord would reveal his goals through his actions).
The really interesting question is -- what were Discord's goals here? If he just wanted to break up Cadance and Twilight's friendship, his means were inadequate and it's not surprising that he failed.
But what if he was trying something else? What if everything else was misdirection -- and he succeeded?
Why, hello to you too, intermittent vanishing act lady!
I'm very glad to hear that your writing career has taken on a good turn these last few weeks. It's okay, as much we enjoy your writing and eagerly await updates for Lunch Dates and whatever else your awesome mind is churning up, I'm sure I speak for all of us in saying we all know your professional commitments always tops the priority list. We can deal with a little waiting time, so don't rush yourself.
It's always nice to hear from you through the occasional blog posts, though, especially since you're so busy nowadays, so do try to chime in like this once a while.
1757259 I have to disagree about your reasoning for Pinkie's OOCness. There was no indication that Discord did anything to her other than show her a couple of balloons. Perhaps it can be interpreted that way if you'd like to, but it's not how I read what was happening. Discord clearly knew he could distract her with a balloon, and did so.
Which just seemed to be a shame, to me.
And regardless, it was actually her first line of "I'LL NEVER FORGET YOU!!!" while chasing the train that first made me cringe. That was before any of the balloons. Already from that line, she was OOC.
1757259 As for the rest of your points, you have a lot of interesting thoughts!
It's really just the Pinkie Pie part that I disagreed with. Lots of good insights in your post, though.
1757300 Thanks, buddy! I like to check in when I can.
1757310
I think Pinkie Pie was playing, at first, when she was chasing the train. Until Discord messed with her.
Come on now, do you really think that Pinkie could normally be distracted from something as interesting as Discord by an ordinary pink balloon? The kind of which Pinkie probably orders in warehouse lots?
1757346 Nope. I don't think she would normally be distracted by a balloon like that.
Hence why I found this so upsetting and OOC.
I think I'm just tired of writers taking the easy way out with Pinkie this season and writing her so they can just make her say utterly random stuff for "comedic effect". I want to see more of her doing what she does best: being totally oddball because of her internal Pinkie logic.
She's brilliant in her own way, and it hurts me to see her treated like an ADD toddler.
Different interpretations, I guess. I'm happy to think that her actions could be explained away if Discord messed with her head, but I personally can't see that as true in this episode. Glad to hear it makes sense for some people, though. I really loved most of the episode, so I want to love all of it!
Well, Rarity was sick, where do you think Spike was
I like Pinkie Pie too If I were Discord I would use a cotton candy cloud instead of a red balloon won't you? (but I give the episode 9.5 out of 10 personal opinion)
1757464
That's actually a very good point -- if Twilight didn't need him, and Rarity was sick, Spike probably would help take care of Rarity.
1757371
When I was out today it occurred to me that Discord usually uses his mind control powers on Ponies by mimicking or otherwise invoking their Cutie Marks. Law of Sympathy. Makes perfect magical sense.
1757371
IMO Pinkie Pie is in her own way as intelligent as Twilight Sparkle. She just reasons in a radically-different manner. And she wouldn't really abandon her friends and ignore Discord because she saw a pretty balloon. (She pretended to go off and chase the earlier balloon because she didn't really want to gallop after Fluttershy's train forever).
1757371
Note that in Apple Pie, just a couple episodes ago, Pinkie Pie was being highly and very functionally-intelligent.
1759128 Indeed she was.
And you can see in my blog post, that I heartily approved of the characterization shown in Pinkie Apple Pie. I even ended my post by saying "Season 4 has been really hit or miss with Pinkie" (which implies there have been some "hits"). 
1757464
BEST RESPONSE EVER!
1759945 Logic!
The train chasing bit, to me, was just Pinkie following through with a gag - that's just me trying to logic a pretty huge flaw away. For the life of me, I found the balloon thing to be almost unbearable, though the second instance was more well thought out (it was a "perfectly good balloon" and was worth saving).
I actually hadn't given much thought to Spike not being there. Maybe, since he knew Twi and Cadance were going out, he set off on his own too.
Whole thing kept me smiling all throughout though. Discord, while no longer villainous, was still quite the sociopath.