Belated Reveiws and Season 6A Overview

So today I'm going to be running through three episodes that I have yet to comment on, despite having now seen about a month or two ago.

What About Discord: After finally forcing myself to watch the episode in its entirety, I have to admit it wasn't as bad as I thought. I was expecting a moral about Twilight not taking her friends for granted and spending more time with them, so the rather different direction they took with it caught me off guard. "It's okay to be jealous, as long as you admit it and deal with it constructively" was okay, I guess, but I will admit it was kinda disappointing on some level. What wasn't so disappointing was that ending, when Twilight turned the tables on Discord. Maybe it was a little mean-spirited, but it was funny, and a nice reward for sitting through the previous twenty minutes of mild cringe.
3/5 Garden Hose Snake Branches

Flutter Brutter: I wasn't really expecting much from this one, to be honest, but it turned out to be actually rather enjoyable. While I was kind of excited about the prospect of seeing Fluttershy's family after so long, the premise of her brother kind of rubbed me the wrong way at first; I think on some level I was dreading an unfunny Brony parody on the level of a certain collegehumor skit. (but yanno, more family friendly)
As it turned out, not only were my fears unfounded, but the portrayal of Zephyr, while still initially kind of annoying (but intentionally so, so it worked) ended up hitting close to home in some ways, with his self-sabotage due to fear of failure actually rather resembling my own avoidant tendancies due to fear of failure. Of course, I'm pretty sure I'm not as... ah, obnoxious about it, but I could still relate to his struggle, and the song in act 3 was legitimately inspiring. I also have to commend Fluttershy's portrayal here; she's still definitely Fluttershy, but we get to see a refreshingly different side of her in this episode. (That being her 'done dealing with all of this horseshit' side) I have more to say about this episode, but I'll save that for later.
5/5 Badly Styled Wigs

Spice Up Your Life:
Vogel's second episode after Hearth's Warming Tale, and a more original one that should hopefully offer a better chance to judge his work. And going off this, I'm looking forward to future episodes he may pen.
Some have offered the criticism that Rarity is more of a trend-setter than a trend-follower, and thus her attempts to make the Tasty Treat fall in line with the rating system seem a bit out-of-character for her. While I wouldn't disagree, per say, I would also like to point out that she also idolizes the Canterlot nobility to a rather strong degree, so in that way I'm willing to run with it. Anyway, this was a really fun episode overall, and I absolutely adored the characters of Saffron and Coriander. (Although it seems I'll have to make some adjustments to my headcanon world map. Not necessarily a bad thing!)
5/5 Flavorful Ethnic Dishes

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So... Season 6, Part 1. Despite an underwhelming premiere and the first few episodes being solidly 'meh,' It's managed to end on a pretty strong note, with some interesting developments in between. (Dash is finally part of the Wonderbolts!) I'm still not sold on Starlight Glimmer, but I'm still hoping they might do better in the season's second half. Aside from that, I really don't have much to say, except that I'm looking forward to seeing some Changelings, and how much they'll utterly wreck my intricately well-developed headcanons for OR.

(Of course, I'll just stick with what I had already come up with, but it'll be funny to see regardless)

1. Gauntlet Of Fire
2. Spice Up Your Life
3. Saddle Row Review
4. Flutter Brutter
5. No Second Prances
6. Newbie Dash
7. A Hearth's Warming Tale
8. On Your Marks
9. The Crystalling
10. The Gift Of Maud Pie
11. Applejack's Day Off

Luna's Future
It's Gonna Work
Can I Do It On My Own
Sweep Sweep Sweep (Twilight's Dance Remix)
The Seeds Of The Past
Pinkie's Present
Say Goodbye To The Holiday
Out On My Own
Hearth's Warming Eve Is Here Again