When the Cutie Mark Crusaders are magically transformed into grownups,they discover that growing up the right way means gaining experience and wisdom that simply can’t be rushed.
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When another author releases his own version of the events in AK Yearling’s Daring Do books, Rainbow Dash is furious, while Fluttershy is curious to know the truth.
Reminder: Links to unofficial streams/downloads of episodes are not allowed!
Starlight decides to hire a Vice Headmare in preparation to take over the School of Friendship from Twilight. But she soon realizes that hiring the right pony for the job is going to be a lot harder than she thought.
Reminder: Links to unofficial streams/downloads of episodes are not allowed!
Twilight's hopes of keeping her Trivia Trot winning streak alive are waylaid when she's unexpectedly paired up with Pinkie Pie, who has never been to a trivia night before.
Reminder: Links to unofficial streams/downloads of episodes are not allowed!
Scooty-tooty is so adorable when she's swimming. I like swimming too, except I always pretend to be a fatass submarine.
Oh yeah, and I hope Twilight did her "research" on Seaspray while we're focused on the CMC if you catch my drift. I tried to write a Clopfic about this and failed horribly. Constipation sucks...
YAY! Another CMC episode! And it takes place in an area we visited in the movie! I have high expectations for this!
Well, this further proves my theory that the map and by extension the elements are sentient. I mean it's called upon Starlight Glimmer, Spike, and now the CMC themselves!
OKAY, QUESTION. How much time has passed since the events of the movie? Because the train from Ponyville goes all the way to the kingdom of the hippogryphs. It had to have taken a large amount of time to get it built... also does the railway system just go pass Klugetown or is there a station there too? (Speaking of which, whatever happened to Capper after the movie?)
LOL, Applebloom you little fibber!
Absolutely love how well they've rebuilt the place! Also, the ability to change species between Land and Sea is so cool! Truly a good sign of adaptability!
Okay, if there's one thing that I can complain about in this episode, it's the fact that we never even SEE Queen Novo or Princess Skystar! I get that it would be too expensive to get their voice actors back for a single episode, but couldn't they at least give them a non-speaking cameo or something? Or at the very least hire someone who could imitate their movie voices is pretty well? Revisiting their home and yet we don't get to see them. I know this is a small nitpick but it just bugs me...
....well, since had to live under water for most of their lives after the Storm King invaded, it makes sense that they'd celebrate being able to return to their original species...
Oh yes... I'm sure it's only research you are interested in Twilight. Also, salmon juice? Ugh...
Heh, Sweetie Belle went roadrunner for a few seconds....
Careful girls, showing optimism at the idea of someone having a problem is Lesson Zero Twilight levels of weird...
Cool trophy Twilight!
Yay, Seapony CMC!
Aww, Scootaloo loves swimming because it's like flying for her! That's really sweet.
Wait, is the paper waterproof? Also how do they eat and drink under water?
As per Mother tradition, bring out the baby pictures for prime embarrassment!
Screeching competition? Something tells me Twilight's going to be deaf after that...
Song cue! Eh, it's.... ok, not that catchy for me. Though Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo getting into a fight feels a little forced, I get that they're still kids, but.... well I've heard more convincing disagreements in other episodes...
That blunt stare Applebloom gives the two pretty much says "I'm done with both yer crap!"
Ahhh, sweet understanding parents. I like these two! And a nice moral from them as well!
All in all, it was a pretty good episode! We get to revisit the movie location, Twilight is part of the episode yet she doesn't feel shoehorned in, the CMC are fun to watch, though their disagreement felt a little out-of-character, and the end conclusion was pretty satisfactory!
I love this episode because it teaches and relates for those amongst us who parents divorced that you can live with both if you and those around you are willing to accept each others differences and support all choices they make.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo's respective exuberance was so damn adorable...
Funny how it kinda looked like Terramar's parents were divorced. Not to mention Twilight trying too hard to hide the fact she wanted to visit Mt. Ares.
Gotta be honest, the 'Glad to be a Hippogriff' festival felt kinda cringy, for lack of a better term, even by MLP standards. Would've been nice to get something a little more interesting from a cultural standpoint.
Scoots' and Sweetie's animosity escalated a little too quickly and intensely for my taste. It's not like they were the ones who have to live with the decision, and Terra's not a close friend of theirs either.
Overall, Scootaloo's immediate love for aquatic life was the best part of the episode for me. Springing it from her desire to overcome her particular limitation really felt like a natural extension of her character. She was so happy!
Oh, and that scene with Applebloom playing messenger between Scoots and Sweetie.
It was an ok episode, no real twists or turns and the conflict between Sweetie and Scootaloo was weak. On the other hand it was nice to see how the Seaponies/Hippogriffs adapting being able to live above land again, and I can only wonder what they will do once their population has grown so large that they aren't able to give everyone a pearl shard forcing some of their members to pick which world to live in. The dual world nature of their society might inspire interesting fics.
I did like this episode (the first season 8 episode that I did enjoy), but it reinforces my theory that we'll never see any movie characters in the show.
This episode was very colorful and I really liked seeing outside of Equestria (I haven't seen the movie yet).
I honestly knew the issue the moment they mentioned some hipogriffs went to Mt Aris while the others stayed under water. In the end it all boiled down to communicating with family even if you feel conflicted and that is a good lesson to learn.
I'm going to want to rematch this before I form any hard opinions, but if nothing else this was a fun episode. Mount Aris and Seaquestria were also very well drawn -- the scenery was quite pretty to look at, and seeing the locations themselves expanded on post-movie was a pleasant surprise.
The bit where Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle decided to never talk to each other again did kind of come out of nowhere, though.
4844534 I wouldn't call it almost losing their friendship. Even best friends get mad enough at each other sometimes that they just don't want to talk to one another. Saying never speak to me again is just kind of the overblown stuff people say when mad.
I liked this episode it adds more lore which is good. but I have to say that Applebloom isn’t really helping the group. I mean Applebloom was more the leader before now Sweetie Bell is I mean remove AB from the group and the CMC are fine . I did notice in the song both Sweetie Bell and Scooterloo missed why those places are great. Sweetie was only talking that field and not about the griffins or flying or anything while Scooterloo focuses on the sea and creatures and not on the seaponies themselves or the culture itself which is interesting . Also am I digging too deep or is this episode talking about divorce ? Decision between two worlds and between mom or dad . I mean the parents hugged but not kissed
Obviously some of it is a rehash of the hippogriff/sea pony lore and lands, but it’s still nice to see it here in the show.
More importantly we see that the map can apparently call whomever it wants. Unlike other odd calls, the crusaders have had no known interaction with the map so clearly that’s not a requirement for being called by the map. So it really looks like the only true requirement is having a cutiemark at this point.
Although given the map’s 100% success rate, I suspect that it only bothers to call those who know what the glowing cutiemark means. (Or those who would figure it out in a timely enough fashion to handle the friendship problem in question.) So I’m guessing at this point it could call most anypony in Ponyville if it wanted to.
As for the episode itself it, I thought it was okay. A nice slice of life, and travel for the crusaders. But there are two points that work against it in my mind.
The lesser one being poor Scootaloo, every time she stands up to her friends she’s been wrong without fail. Being that Scootaloo is Scootaloo, her being wrong isn’t a problem in and of itself, it’s just the pattern of always being wrong gets a little old. On the up side this time around Sweetie Belle was wrong too, but it doesn’t change the fact that Scoots has never argued with her friends and been right.
Oh and from a logic standpoint, Scootaloo's argument for seaquestria holds little merit, hippogriffs can fly so they don't need a substitute for it. So if it were up to the list it should have been MT.Aire wins no contest. But this is Scootaloo and I don't ever recall accusing her of being logical, so I don't hold that against the episode at all.
The big problem I have with the episode was well… the episode. Why did the map call the crusaders when it was Twilight who asked the all important question of “Who said he had to?” As far as I can tell the crusaders served no purpose in resolving the problem. Had the map called Twilight she’d have likely pushed away the research more easily to hunt for the friendship problem herself and done the same thing just in a different order. (Help kid first, well now that the map is happy, I’m already here so it’s research time!)
So yeah… Not good story telling when the supposed main characters don’t even need to be in the story for it to play out to the intended ending.
Those details aside, it was still a fun little episode.
Is it wrong for me to say that this episode has the most subtle way for a child struggling with the possibility of a divorce (and having to choose)? That's what I feel after seeing this.
4844573 I've been wanting to see movie characters also, but I think the sad truth is that none of the 'big' celebrities that voiced them will be up for doing it again. I will be pleasantly surprised if I'm wrong, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Also: RESEARCH (none of the Twilight emotes really fit)
If, like me, you try to avoid spoilers for upcoming episodes, be warned that one of the promos airing during the weekday morning repeats has a fairly surprising reveal in its first couple of seconds. Boo to the Discovery Family promo department.
Regarding the quick appearance of a train route to Mount Aris: I think we're just supposed to accept Phineas and Ferb logic that large structures can be built when they're needed so a story can happen. Or maybe the tracks were always there, but it's just the train schedule that's new.
I think we're supposed to not notice that this is the first time the map has called on characters to solve a problem that wasn't, even tangentially, a friendship problem ("Spice Up Your Life" brought a father and daughter closer together, so there's at least an argument to make for that one).
I don't have any experience with divorce, so I'm not qualified to analyze how well the episode tackled the subject in its own indirect way. I wonder if the story got watered down in development -- it probably would have been a better lesson if the moral was "you can love both of your parents equally even if they don't live together." Terramar having to choose between two places instead doesn't have quite the same impact.
Is this the first time Scootaloo has had a featured singer, or have I just not been paying attention?
The two mystery stallions from "Triple Threat" were sitting together on the train in this episode. There's something there.
Today's spotlight on difficult-to-write material: Well, the song, obviously. There was some ambitious rhyming going on in those lines. But let's also take a moment to appreciate the effort needed for a simple-sounding line like Twilight's "But I'm not so sure the ponies who care about you want you going off so far on your own." That's a difficult line to write when at least one of the characters she's referring to doesn't have parents!
Did MLP just do a divorce episode (pause) without the parents being technically divorced? Okay, bold, unorthodox even, but the episode handled it well. I mean, I enjoyed it. Hmm, are Sky Beak and Ocean Flow supposed to be divorced or not? I mean, they aren't living together, but we don't know why. Also, I could be TOTALLY wrong about this, but depending on how or why the divorce happened in the first place and how much time has passed, don't divorced couples usually have some degree of, umm, iciness going on between them? This episode just keeps reminding me of a divorce episode, but not all the details fit with what I normally expect out of one.
This episode. The central conflict was just such a non-starter, and the final moral and resolution were just so limp that it was hard to get invested in anything. I know kids can be irrational, but he decided to simply pressure HIMSELF to choose without anybody even asking him to? And the final solution is just to "keep doin' what you've been doin' kid"? And he didn't talk to either of his parents about any of this, which would've cleared up the whole situation instantly?
Scootaloo and Twilight really did make this episode shine, though, despite the central conflict being so awkward. Scootaloo's joy at being able to "fly" underwater really was both heartbreaking and adorable in equal measure. I'm glad they're not shying away from her disability or aiming to "fix" it for a feel-good moment.
As for the map calling the crusaders and this not being a friendship problem... it's actually interesting. At first I thought it was hilarious that the map called the CMC's, but once you realize that the problem at hand is not a "friendship" problem, but rather a "confused destiny" problem, the CMC's being called actually makes sense. Helping creatures find their way in life is literally what they DO, it's what cutie marks are all about, whether the mark is visibly there or not, so them being sent to help someone resolve where they want to spend their lives is actually completely logical. It does beg the question of when the map started caring about problems that aren't directly friendship-related, but at least sending the destiny-experts makes sense.
Every other griff of my age knows where they belong, I‘m still not sure. - Terramar
It looks like the need of choice is a social norm in hippogriffs' society. He technically had three choices:
Living on the land
Living in the sea
Alternating, but being a weirdo by social standards
He automatically eliminated the last option for some reason. As you said, there's nothing telling him to really do so, which implies it's just a social norm. Thanks to the quoted sentence, we only know every other 'griff of his age does so. Thankfully, his parents just told him at the end of the episode that they're not worried about him breaking these social norms, solving the problem.
Anyone notice that Scootaloo has a different Singing Voice instead of her usual one?
I didn't notice it during the song, but I saw that she had a voice double for it in the credits. What was up with that? I don't think they've ever done that for her before, so why now? The only time I can recall a one-off voice double for a song is "Luna's Future" in A Hearth's Warming Tail, and I assume that was an issue of vocal range (since Luna was singing at a lower pitch than normal).
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This is actually that one episode that I was honestly curious as to when it was gonna aire! Awesome to know that it's coming on today.
Oh I know this one is gonna be good
! Especially if it has the CMC
!
Can't wait!
Just one question: Are there gonna be S T A I R S???
4844513
derpicdn.net/img/2018/3/25/1689802/large.jpeg
When’s the episode where Twilight finally unlocks Ultra Instinct?
Scooty-tooty is so adorable when she's swimming. I like swimming too, except I always pretend to be a fatass submarine.
Oh yeah, and I hope Twilight did her "research" on Seaspray while we're focused on the CMC if you catch my drift. I tried to write a Clopfic about this and failed horribly. Constipation sucks...
Anyway, this is a great episode!
Bleh. Missed the first minute. That's what I get for stopping at Wendys on my way home from work.
EDIT: Purely Research
Nice trophy, Twilight. Rainbow's gonna be jealous.
Glad to be a Hippogirff Festival. Oh I can see a problem starting already.
Pony construction must work really fast if they have built the train tracks all the way to and a station at Mount Aris already.
Scootaloo: "This must be just like flying!"
Kind of the first episode of the season I wasn't a big fan of.
Not terrible, but it just felt like a boring, obvious conflict stretched out much longer than it needed to be for me.
My reactions:
YAY! Another CMC episode! And it takes place in an area we visited in the movie! I have high expectations for this!
Well, this further proves my theory that the map and by extension the elements are sentient. I mean it's called upon Starlight Glimmer, Spike, and now the CMC themselves!
OKAY, QUESTION. How much time has passed since the events of the movie? Because the train from Ponyville goes all the way to the kingdom of the hippogryphs. It had to have taken a large amount of time to get it built... also does the railway system just go pass Klugetown or is there a station there too? (Speaking of which, whatever happened to Capper after the movie?)
LOL, Applebloom you little fibber!
Absolutely love how well they've rebuilt the place! Also, the ability to change species between Land and Sea is so cool! Truly a good sign of adaptability!
Okay, if there's one thing that I can complain about in this episode, it's the fact that we never even SEE Queen Novo or Princess Skystar! I get that it would be too expensive to get their voice actors back for a single episode, but couldn't they at least give them a non-speaking cameo or something? Or at the very least hire someone who could imitate their movie voices is pretty well? Revisiting their home and yet we don't get to see them. I know this is a small nitpick but it just bugs me...
....well, since had to live under water for most of their lives after the Storm King invaded, it makes sense that they'd celebrate being able to return to their original species...
Oh yes... I'm sure it's only research you are interested in Twilight. Also, salmon juice? Ugh...
Heh, Sweetie Belle went roadrunner for a few seconds....
Careful girls, showing optimism at the idea of someone having a problem is Lesson Zero Twilight levels of weird...
Cool trophy Twilight!
Yay, Seapony CMC!
Aww, Scootaloo loves swimming because it's like flying for her! That's really sweet.
Wait, is the paper waterproof? Also how do they eat and drink under water?
As per Mother tradition, bring out the baby pictures for prime embarrassment!
Screeching competition? Something tells me Twilight's going to be deaf after that...
Song cue! Eh, it's.... ok, not that catchy for me. Though Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo getting into a fight feels a little forced, I get that they're still kids, but.... well I've heard more convincing disagreements in other episodes...
That blunt stare Applebloom gives the two pretty much says "I'm done with both yer crap!"
Ahhh, sweet understanding parents. I like these two! And a nice moral from them as well!
All in all, it was a pretty good episode! We get to revisit the movie location, Twilight is part of the episode yet she doesn't feel shoehorned in, the CMC are fun to watch, though their disagreement felt a little out-of-character, and the end conclusion was pretty satisfactory!
I give it an 8 out of 10!
It was ok, I've never been that into the CMC episodes but this was a decent one I suppose.
I love this episode because it teaches and relates for those amongst us who parents divorced that you can live with both if you and those around you are willing to accept each others differences and support all choices they make.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo's respective exuberance was so damn adorable...
Funny how it kinda looked like Terramar's parents were divorced. Not to mention Twilight trying too hard to hide the fact she wanted to visit Mt. Ares.
4844544 I know! That tugged on my heartstrings!
So, it was a divorce episode, just phrased a bit differently. Reminds me a bit of the "tank
diesgoes to sleep" episode.Now on a personal level am I the only one getting a Morlock and Eloi from Time machine feeling when seeing these two creatures?
So, it's basically 'Why not both?' the Episode.
Gotta be honest, the 'Glad to be a Hippogriff' festival felt kinda cringy, for lack of a better term, even by MLP standards. Would've been nice to get something a little more interesting from a cultural standpoint.
Scoots' and Sweetie's animosity escalated a little too quickly and intensely for my taste. It's not like they were the ones who have to live with the decision, and Terra's not a close friend of theirs either.
Overall, Scootaloo's immediate love for aquatic life was the best part of the episode for me. Springing it from her desire to overcome her particular limitation really felt like a natural extension of her character. She was so happy!
Oh, and that scene with Applebloom playing messenger between Scoots and Sweetie.
4844529
s2.quickmeme.com/img/a4/a448ca0b4c506506287765fec1ed07f5f3c2fa18936cc632856763063fb64dff.jpg
It was an ok episode, no real twists or turns and the conflict between Sweetie and Scootaloo was weak. On the other hand it was nice to see how the Seaponies/Hippogriffs adapting being able to live above land again, and I can only wonder what they will do once their population has grown so large that they aren't able to give everyone a pearl shard forcing some of their members to pick which world to live in. The dual world nature of their society might inspire interesting fics.
I did like this episode (the first season 8 episode that I did enjoy), but it reinforces my theory that we'll never see any movie characters in the show.
I'm pretty sure the hippogriffs are on their honeymoon with hippogriffdom.
This episode was very colorful and I really liked seeing outside of Equestria (I haven't seen the movie yet).
I honestly knew the issue the moment they mentioned some hipogriffs went to Mt Aris while the others stayed under water. In the end it all boiled down to communicating with family even if you feel conflicted and that is a good lesson to learn.
I like that name, The Storm King.
4844544
Yeah... I felt that too...
I'm going to want to rematch this before I form any hard opinions, but if nothing else this was a fun episode. Mount Aris and Seaquestria were also very well drawn -- the scenery was quite pretty to look at, and seeing the locations themselves expanded on post-movie was a pleasant surprise.
The bit where Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle decided to never talk to each other again did kind of come out of nowhere, though.
4844549
Hey, if your taste buds are those of an obligate carnivore...
4844534
I wouldn't call it almost losing their friendship. Even best friends get mad enough at each other sometimes that they just don't want to talk to one another. Saying never speak to me again is just kind of the overblown stuff people say when mad.
4844591
It's just, certain things just sound completely unappetizing the moment you hear them. For example:
d1ejxu6vysztl5.cloudfront.net/comics/garfield/1999/1999-07-15.gif
Great episode with a great message, in my opinion.
And maybe it's just me, but Scootaloo's "This must be just like flying" hit me hard.
I liked this episode it adds more lore which is good. but I have to say that Applebloom isn’t really helping the group. I mean Applebloom was more the leader before now Sweetie Bell is I mean remove AB from the group and the CMC are fine . I did notice in the song both Sweetie Bell and Scooterloo missed why those places are great. Sweetie was only talking that field and not about the griffins or flying or anything while Scooterloo focuses on the sea and creatures and not on the seaponies themselves or the culture itself which is interesting . Also am I digging too deep or is this episode talking about divorce ? Decision between two worlds and between mom or dad . I mean the parents hugged but not kissed
Wow! World lore city.
Obviously some of it is a rehash of the hippogriff/sea pony lore and lands, but it’s still nice to see it here in the show.
More importantly we see that the map can apparently call whomever it wants. Unlike other odd calls, the crusaders have had no known interaction with the map so clearly that’s not a requirement for being called by the map. So it really looks like the only true requirement is having a cutiemark at this point.
Although given the map’s 100% success rate, I suspect that it only bothers to call those who know what the glowing cutiemark means. (Or those who would figure it out in a timely enough fashion to handle the friendship problem in question.) So I’m guessing at this point it could call most anypony in Ponyville if it wanted to.
As for the episode itself it, I thought it was okay. A nice slice of life, and travel for the crusaders. But there are two points that work against it in my mind.
The lesser one being poor Scootaloo, every time she stands up to her friends she’s been wrong without fail. Being that Scootaloo is Scootaloo, her being wrong isn’t a problem in and of itself, it’s just the pattern of always being wrong gets a little old. On the up side this time around Sweetie Belle was wrong too, but it doesn’t change the fact that Scoots has never argued with her friends and been right.
Oh and from a logic standpoint, Scootaloo's argument for seaquestria holds little merit, hippogriffs can fly so they don't need a substitute for it. So if it were up to the list it should have been MT.Aire wins no contest. But this is Scootaloo and I don't ever recall accusing her of being logical, so I don't hold that against the episode at all.
The big problem I have with the episode was well… the episode. Why did the map call the crusaders when it was Twilight who asked the all important question of “Who said he had to?”
As far as I can tell the crusaders served no purpose in resolving the problem. Had the map called Twilight she’d have likely pushed away the research more easily to hunt for the friendship problem herself and done the same thing just in a different order. (Help kid first, well now that the map is happy, I’m already here so it’s research time!)
So yeah… Not good story telling when the supposed main characters don’t even need to be in the story for it to play out to the intended ending.
Those details aside, it was still a fun little episode.
Until next time, have fun out there!
Is it wrong for me to say that this episode has the most subtle way for a child struggling with the possibility of a divorce (and having to choose)? That's what I feel after seeing this.
4844600
No, I think it hit everyone hard.
4844609
Spike has been called. Not having a cutie mark is no defense.
Once again Scootaloo steals the show by simply existing. I feel more secure in my belief that she's one of the very best characters in the series.
Anyone notice that Scootaloo has a different Singing Voice instead of her usual one?
Other than that..... It was so awesome to be paying a visit to one of the locations that we saw in the MLP Movie: Mount Aris/Seaquestria! :D
Here is a link to the episode if you can't watch it live.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
4844573
I've been wanting to see movie characters also, but I think the sad truth is that none of the 'big' celebrities that voiced them will be up for doing it again. I will be pleasantly surprised if I'm wrong, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Also: RESEARCH
(none of the Twilight emotes really fit)
4844632
Same. -crosses fingers as well-
Certainly one of the better episodes this season.
4844630
Seriously dude?
4844638
Seems like a case of
weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/disregard-the-constabulary.jpg
At this point I'm convinced Scootaloo is disabled.
If, like me, you try to avoid spoilers for upcoming episodes, be warned that one of the promos airing during the weekday morning repeats has a fairly surprising reveal in its first couple of seconds. Boo to the Discovery Family promo department.
Regarding the quick appearance of a train route to Mount Aris: I think we're just supposed to accept Phineas and Ferb logic that large structures can be built when they're needed so a story can happen. Or maybe the tracks were always there, but it's just the train schedule that's new.
I think we're supposed to not notice that this is the first time the map has called on characters to solve a problem that wasn't, even tangentially, a friendship problem ("Spice Up Your Life" brought a father and daughter closer together, so there's at least an argument to make for that one).
I don't have any experience with divorce, so I'm not qualified to analyze how well the episode tackled the subject in its own indirect way. I wonder if the story got watered down in development -- it probably would have been a better lesson if the moral was "you can love both of your parents equally even if they don't live together." Terramar having to choose between two places instead doesn't have quite the same impact.
Is this the first time Scootaloo has had a featured singer, or have I just not been paying attention?
The two mystery stallions from "Triple Threat" were sitting together on the train in this episode. There's something there.
Today's spotlight on difficult-to-write material: Well, the song, obviously. There was some ambitious rhyming going on in those lines. But let's also take a moment to appreciate the effort needed for a simple-sounding line like Twilight's "But I'm not so sure the ponies who care about you want you going off so far on your own." That's a difficult line to write when at least one of the characters she's referring to doesn't have parents!
4844620
He was? ... Oh That's right, it just made his spine scales glow didn't it?
Well I stand corrected. So the map really seems to have no limits on who it calls.
Did MLP just do a divorce episode (pause) without the parents being technically divorced?
Okay, bold, unorthodox even, but the episode handled it well. I mean, I enjoyed it.
Hmm, are Sky Beak and Ocean Flow supposed to be divorced or not? I mean, they aren't living together, but we don't know why. Also, I could be TOTALLY wrong about this, but depending on how or why the divorce happened in the first place and how much time has passed, don't divorced couples usually have some degree of, umm, iciness going on between them?
This episode just keeps reminding me of a divorce episode, but not all the details fit with what I normally expect out of one.
This episode. The central conflict was just such a non-starter, and the final moral and resolution were just so limp that it was hard to get invested in anything. I know kids can be irrational, but he decided to simply pressure HIMSELF to choose without anybody even asking him to? And the final solution is just to "keep doin' what you've been doin' kid"? And he didn't talk to either of his parents about any of this, which would've cleared up the whole situation instantly?
Scootaloo and Twilight really did make this episode shine, though, despite the central conflict being so awkward. Scootaloo's joy at being able to "fly" underwater really was both heartbreaking and adorable in equal measure. I'm glad they're not shying away from her disability or aiming to "fix" it for a feel-good moment.
As for the map calling the crusaders and this not being a friendship problem... it's actually interesting. At first I thought it was hilarious that the map called the CMC's, but once you realize that the problem at hand is not a "friendship" problem, but rather a "confused destiny" problem, the CMC's being called actually makes sense. Helping creatures find their way in life is literally what they DO, it's what cutie marks are all about, whether the mark is visibly there or not, so them being sent to help someone resolve where they want to spend their lives is actually completely logical. It does beg the question of when the map started caring about problems that aren't directly friendship-related, but at least sending the destiny-experts makes sense.
4844652
It looks like the need of choice is a social norm in hippogriffs' society. He technically had three choices:
He automatically eliminated the last option for some reason. As you said, there's nothing telling him to really do so, which implies it's just a social norm. Thanks to the quoted sentence, we only know every other 'griff of his age does so. Thankfully, his parents just told him at the end of the episode that they're not worried about him breaking these social norms, solving the problem.
At least that's the vibe I'm getting.
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I didn't notice it during the song, but I saw that she had a voice double for it in the credits. What was up with that? I don't think they've ever done that for her before, so why now? The only time I can recall a one-off voice double for a song is "Luna's Future" in A Hearth's Warming Tail, and I assume that was an issue of vocal range (since Luna was singing at a lower pitch than normal).