Nov
14th
2015
S5E23: "The Hooffields and the McColts" (SPOILERS) · 5:00pm Nov 14th, 2015
Twilight FINALLY gets summoned by the map!
The story begins with Fluttershy having critter book club...interrupted by the Cutie Map summons.
Twilight is being as adorably OCD as always!
Wow, the callbacks are strong with Twilight today.
WOW the Hooffields are inbred.
WOW the McColts are inbred.
Basically everypony involved in this feud is inbred.
Twilight's first use of the Royal Canterlot Voice was a little...sad.
Twilight makes the rookie mistake of assuming you can end a hillbilly feud by any means other than nuclear fire. Silly Twilight.
TROJAN CAKE!
Thanks to the animals of the ruined valley, Twilight and Fluttershy learn what's behind the feud.
Next week is the final regular episode of the season, and Amy Keating Rogers' farewell episode.
i.imgur.com/JZTm4E7.png
Much better towards the end, it suffered a little from the same problem as "Made in Manehattan" of taking too long to get to the cause of the problem, then somewhat hastily rushing through it. It's not quite as jaring this time around, but it's still there.
I'm glad Twilight finally got her nose out of her books.
I think the McColts' leader has a strong voice.
3542045 Eeyup.
Who knew that Twilight would run out of Frienship solutions?
3542055 Did anyone get a "Papa Smurf" vibe off of Pa McColt?
3542057 I never even thought about that.
But, he's definitely short.
Also, do you think Clyde might have a long lost brother?
Released 7 hours early on Amazon. That seems kinda of pointless when people would just watch it later.
3542059 Ooh, headcanon accepted!
So far, out of the 3 map episodes outside of the premiere, this is the only one I've really enjoyed.
It didn't feel as unpleasant as The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone, and it was a lot more interesting than Made in Manehatten.
So, counting "The Cutie Map" as one episode, that means that so far, the map arc is tied at 2 really great episodes and 2 kind of week ones.
The finale will break the tie.
3542142 Yep.
3542151 How exactly was "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" unpleasant? I admit it would've been nice to see some griffons that didn't care about money, and the middle did drag a bit, but I would hardly call it unpleasant.
3542158 Agreed. If anything, Griffonstone has been the only GOOD Map episode so far.
3542162 It's definitely the strongest of the three. I think part of why "Made in Manehattan" was so lackluster is because we've already had a ton of RariJack episodes prior to it, and the map didn't really offer anything we hadn't already seen out of them. Griffonstone and the feuding families at least gave us pairings we hadn't seen since all the way back in Season 1, and we can't forget how adorable young Gilda was.
3542158 Honestly, the episode isn't quite unpleasant, but it's the closest word to describe how I feel about the episode as a whole.
But my reasons for not really enjoying The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone as much as most episodes of the season (and that includes Princess Spike) boil down to four big ones:
1. The humor in the episode felt lackluster in comparison to other episodes. The only comedic moments I really enjoyed were Twilight's annoyance at the map and Rainbow imitating her on the train.
2. I couldn't bring myself to care about what the Griffons were going through... at all.
3. The fact that they lost the idol felt more like a copout than anything else.
4. Gilda's change of heart felt rushed. And so far, her change is my least favorite of all of the ones in the show so far.
3542183 Even worse than Trixie's, which literally happened in the closing minutes of "Magic Duel"?
3542203 Yes, actually.
Partly because I found Trixie more likable in general (heck, Trixie is actually my twelfth favorite character in the show. She used to be my tenth favorite, but then Slice of Life gave several of the background ponies canon personalities, causing Derpy to jump into my top ten and knocking her into 11. Then CotLM turned Diamond Tiara into a character we could actually root for, which caused her to jump into my top ten as well. Meanwhile Gilda is currently my fourth least favorite character. She used to be my fifth least favorite, but then CotLM not only made DT likable, but it also made me like Silver Spoon a lot more due to her finally standing up to DT. Gilda's not my third least favorite because the number 1 spot in my least favorites list is now taken up by Spoiled Rich), but mainly because it just felt more natural than Gilda's.
And wow, I just realized that most of this comment was me just going on a tangent.
I'm starting to think the whole "Princess of Friendship" thing is getting to Twilight's head, because instead of spending more time trying to research the history behind the problem (or using some thinking and having Fluttershy ASK the animals about what was going on, because the map called her there too), she spent half of this episode with her head buried in her "Friendship for Dummies" book and not doing anything for the episode.
Well, other than holding everyone down while Fluttershy told them what the animals have wanted to say for at least a century or so. That's really the only thing she did that mattered here.
A joke I'm honestly disappointed they didn't use...
Twilight and Fluttershy load their bags onto the balloon as Twilight's talking about what they might have to solve, with Fluttershy struggling with hers. Twilight throws the rope anchor out.
The balloon doesn't move, due to the weight of all the books.
3542238 I think it's more that she's constantly being reminded that her title doesn't make her an Instant Expert.
My reaction when I saw the first flying pumpkin
I've looked at several talks about this episode and I'm surprised no one has mentioned something. Did anyone else notice that it was pretty much red vs. blue? There are several things that come to my mind with this. What comes to everyone else's mind?
3542469 Wife pointed this out after we watched it.
I'm not sure if that was the actual Canterlot Voice. I've never seen Princess Luna zap her throught before using it. Just saying.