Saw "Viva Las Pegasus" · 9:57pm Sep 17th, 2016
Fast as lightning, sharp as a sword
And it was good. Not incredible, but very good. A refreshingly complex drama-like plot, almost like a soap opera, but good. 
And a much more cunning (male) antagonist. Hey, we're not all idiots in Equestria after all!
A touch of realism with the Flim Fliam brothers. They haven't changed, they never will change, and everything they've done wrong is still remembered from previous episodes.
We got some Sassyshy, and she goes gaga for the animals, which is sooooooooooo cuuuuuuuute! KAWAAAAAIIIII-DESU! 
Unlike a certain perfect little princess Unicorn whose name will not be mentioned. 
I just wish Applejack wasn't such a bitch. This season has made her my second-least favorite of the Six with prejudice. Her stubbornness is in-character, but it's getting old. If she got some development, I'd like her more.
The difference between her and Dash, though, is that AJ hasn't gotten a lot of focus, so it's not too late for her.
Still working on "The Fault in Our Cutie Marks". Review to come soon . . . . ish . . . . . . 
Stay quick, stay sharp, and thanks for reading!
So you hate Twilight now?
I'd say that she's gotten a fair bit of development. But season six hasn't been particularly kind to her.
4214581 Unicorn. Not Alicorn. And I say "princess" loosely, the show may as well make her one. It's given her everything else.
4214587 And as far as AJ goes, I just don't see it. She's still stubborn and overly harsh to others. We only haven't seen much of it because she hasn't had enough focus in these episodes. If she'd used her stubbornness for a good cause, like in "Leap of Faith" (kind of), it would work. But in episodes like the ones she's been in throughout S6, it fails because her friends and family suffer for it.
4214592
Starlight?
4214595 Bingo.
4214600
I'm largely indifferent towards her, but I completely get why people don't care for her. She did break brain wash people, kidnap the Equine Avengers (that's what I'm calling the Council of Harmony now), and break the universe.
BTW, do you mind if I PM you?
4214609 Sure, what for?
When we get good male antagonists, often a little diddy gets into m' head:
Well...not really; just seemed like a good a time as I'll get to post this this little humoresque.
How come you hate AJ and RD. It seems like you hate every character that isn't mushy gushy and sensitive.
4215223 I didn't used to hate Applejack, you know. And for the record, I used to hate Pinkie Pie.
Also, for the record, in this case, YOU brought up Dash, not me.
4215288 oh I know, just bringing up ones ya hate.
Open the gate? Who do you hate?
4214592
She did use it for a good cause in this episode. Fluttershy even said it herself:
"If it weren't for your history with Flim and Flam, you never would've been so determined to find somepony else to help, and we never would have found out what Gladmane was doing."
AJ's stubbornness to believe Flim and Flam led her to investigate other problems, which led to her discovering that the infighting at the hotel was beyond just Flim and Flam, and the issue was bigger then either of the two mares had anticipated. Meanwhile, Fluttershy's forgiving nature led her to give Flim and Flam a chance to explain themselves, and AJ and Flutters combined the info they learned to figure out what was going on.
Both mares used their natural qualities about themselves to work together and solve the problem, and best of all, the story didn't fall into the obvious trap of them having a fight and going their separate ways until the end of the episode. Instead, it was more of a "let's split up to find what we can and meet back up later" method.
I don't see how AJ was being a "bitch" here.
4215499 I suppose I still have cognitive dissonance about how some villains are more worthy of forgiveness than others. If they didn't, why didn't Applejack feel the same about Starlight as the Flim Flams? The brothers did wrong against her family, and the Mane Six are just as much family to AJ as the Apples are (she said it herself in "Cider Squeezy"), so Starlight was just as much in the wrong. Instant forgiveness for her and not for them?
And yes, her stubbornness did end up helping, but she didn't use it with that purpose in mind.
Don't get me wrong, I liked the episode. I'm just not liking Applejack as much as I used to. It's not just this episode, it's Season Six overall. "The Cart Before the Ponies" and "Buckball Season" are even more guilty of this.
4216027
Starlight is a whole other topic to discuss, and I'm focusing more on AJ in this episode specifically.
I don't think that's the case. AJ still wanted to solve the friendship problem in Las Pegasus. She just didn't believe that Flim and Flam were the ones that needed helping. She thought it was petty bickering between brothers and nothing more.
In the case of The Cart Before the Ponies, I'd chalk that up to bad writing since AJ wasn't the only victim of that episode's poor storytelling. As for Buckball Season, yes, she was in the wrong, but once she was called out on it, she realized what she did and she and Dash made efforts to make up for it. In most episodes that do this, we don't see the character that's in the wrong actually make up for it on-screen (A Friend in Deed, for example), we just assume that they patched things up. In Buckball Season we actually had time devoted to AJ and Dash making up for what they did.
I can't expect characters to be 100% right all the time, and if they were, then we wouldn't have a show. Sometimes I love it when characters are in the wrong' especially when it's a character I like. The entire premise of FiM is dealing with social faux-pas, and we can't deal with said faux-pas if they don't happen.
4216364
I'm sorry, but that's just not true. At least not entirely. She straight up refused to help them because she still held a grudge.
Now there, I agree.
The chief reason why she's my SECOND least favorite of the Six: she doesn't need a fake superhero or a zombie apocalypse to hammer it into her thick head.
True, and because of that, I don't have as much animosity toward that episode. I'm just tired of the whole "make Fluttershy do stuff" thing. It's getting old, even if Fluttershy changed the pattern this time.
After six seasons, most things can't just be explained away as "Oops, I didn't know!" How many times do these characters have to learn these things before they start applying them to future problems? If things worked that way, "28 Pranks Later" wouldn't exist.
It's possible to write an episode without having a character go through the motions of "Sorry, old friend whom I know how to act around by now, I was wrong". And if they hope to make Season 7, they'd better learn.
4216623
Exactly, and her belief that Flim and Flam were not the ones that needed helping was motivated by that grudge. I'm not saying that her grudge never came into play.
That happens a lot more often in reality when you think. Even among friends that you've known for years, sometimes you slip up and make a mistake even though you've known said friend for a long time, especially when said mistake is linked to a fundamental character trait that you have, and depending on the person, they do have to learn things multiple times for it to sink in.
I can't expect the Mane 6 to treat each other perfectly and be mindful of each other all the time. Mistakes are going to happen, and I find it interesting when they do, because learning from these things is a key part of what FiM is about.
4217102
Therein lies the problem. How many times does the same mistake have to be repeated before the character learns? How many times can it happen before it gets annoying, unrealistic, or unrelatable? How many times can a character, or even a real-life friend, be forgiven before people realize that character/friend is no longer forgivable? Learning things is all well and good, but learning the same lesson over and over again--in Rainbow Dash's case, "stop being an asshole"--may as well not be learned at all. Fluttershy may have needed to learn to be more assertive and confident on multiple occasions, but as of Season 5 (arguably Season 4, if not for "Filli Vanilli"), she actually has something to show for it. Again, if the same applied to Rainbow Dash, "28 Pranks Later" and parts of "The Cart Before the Ponies", "Buckball Season", and even "Stranger than Fanfiction" would not exist.
Furthermore, Dash has to be willing to learn the lesson before it has any effect on her character, just as Fluttershy has been. As a result, instead of running and hiding like she did in "Dragonshy", Fluttershy actively faced her fears of her own volition in "Scare Master", and instead of keeping quiet about being scared like in "Griffon the Brush-Off", she told everyone what Dash did in "28 Pranks Later". Fluttershy is an entirely different character than she was in Season 1 or 2, or even Season 3. The same can be applied to Twilight (she's less anti-social now), Pinkie Pie (more mature), Rarity (not as narcissistic), and even Spike (no longer a worthless "butt monkey"). But Rainbow Dash is so stubborn and self-centered, she outright refuses to listen when told something, on multiple occasions. A "character flaw" can only explain so much without being a full-on, deep-set character trait that creates an unlikable, obnoxious character. After five whole seasons, going on six, Dash's ego refuses to be reduced, even after every lesson she's learned, and as a result, she has had the least true character development of all the Six (I would say Applejack has had less, but when her character develops, however minute it is, it actually sticks). And so it's too late to make it so she does learn and have it stick with her. Bad decisions can only be overlooked so much after so long before everyone gives up on the person making them.
Trust me. I know.
4217595
Okay, maybe we should stop here, then.
4217645 I guess so. Sorry if I got carried away. I'm not at my best when I argue.
4217974
It's fine, bruh.
4218080 Thanks.