Ahem, anyway, I had a bit of a mishap with my keyboard. I also decided to make this a question/discussion thread.

To the topic at hand:

(To give my thoughts)

I have been enjoying season 4 so far. Even more so than a majority of the fandom I might add. This is because I knew what I was getting myself into going in, and I knew that a massive amount of head canons were going to shatter. There is some fan service here and there, but not enough to satisfy a hefty portion of the fandom in my opinion.

I discussed this with everyone on teamspeak, and my predictions have yet to be wrong. I love season 4 regardless of its flaws. I pay attention to what it is rather than what it isn't; and what it isn't is a mass effect of head canons gone wild. That crap ruins shows and fandoms ladies and gentlemen. That is why I have not partook in any fandoms. I am a brony, but I am so because I enjoy the show. It is a nice escape from reality, to which most of us will agree. I also enjoy the other elements, but I digress.

The animation in season 4 is exceptionally better, and I love the episodes so far. Season 4 has some of my most favorite episodes ever, but nothing has topped my love for "Sleepless in Ponyville." That is for another discussion, however.

Why do I love every episode in Season 4? Because I am a die-hard fan of the show. I may not have the merchandise, and all the other neat things and talents that other bronies have. But I do have my love for the show, and that is what is important.

Since season 4 I have stopped following Digibrony and Tommy Oliver on Youtube because all they do is whine and complain about the show now. Since season 3, that is all they did and still do. They do not have a single favorite episode from this season or season 3 (that I know of) and that shows how closed-minded they really are. Disagree with me if you will, but I stand true, proud, and strong on my position.

To be a true fan of the show, you will dedicate yourself to having an undying love for the show until the very end. That is until the fans start getting what they want, and then everything goes to hell because of it; but that's not my point.

My point is: I enjoy season 4 for what it IS and NOT what it ISN'T. If you have high expectations for something, you will be disappointed. Keep your standards to a minimum, and don't set the bar too high to where it cannot be reached.

To elaborate more on Digibrony and Tommy Oliver: This ties in with the expectations thing. They expect way too much from a kids show, and a show like this isn't going to do things that are outside its realm. It is geared towards little girls (which it is, and do not try to refute this point.) We all know it is supposed to be geared towards that audience, and you cannot deny it. Digibrony and Tom need to grow up, and put their big boy pants on. I'm sick of hearing how they never got what they wanted in each episode. ONE MORE THING: Everything they want would not be able to fit into a 22 minute episode. To put it more bluntly: they are undeniably stupid in this case. In my opinion of course. Sorry if I sound like a prick for saying that, but it is my honest opinion. Nothing will change it.

Having high expectations isn't a bad thing, but don't say you're disappointed right after not getting what you want. You know what is to be expected of a kid's show. We all know what is to be expected.

Anyway, are you enjoying the season so far? I want a general opinion

3110655 Haven't disliked an episode yet!

3110655
It is entertaining and has a fuck ton of pornographic fuel so I like it.

3110662

you like it just for the porn? Grow up will ya?

3110659
3110662
There are two kinds of people. With slightly different views.

3110669
If it wasn't for the porn I wouldn't have watched it in the first place.

3110680

You disgust me

3110683
Your disgust makes me hard.

3110683
3110686
Metaknight... everything makes you hard

3110655 Leaves a lot to be desired.

The premiere was fine and I did enjoy it.

Castlemania was the blandest episode of the show yet. It was not funny, not interesting and not touching.

Daring Don't had me facepalming through out a good chunk of the episode and not because they made Daring real. No it was because of how poor the writing on the character was.

Flight to the Finish was spectacular and one of the few truly amazing episodes of season 4 in my opinion. I also really liked the song.

Power Ponies had pacing issues. BIG pacing issues. And I did not like it despite me being a comic book
fan. Also Spike has been proven useful before that episode so for me it makes the whole premise pretty uneccery.

Bats! was not bad but left a lot to be desired. I just wish they actually spent time developing a conflict then throw a flashy Flutterbat that ruined the whole episode in my opinion. Once again the song was really good.

Rarity Takes Manehattan is a great episode in my opinion. Had a great song, great morale and introduced Coco. I liked this episode.

Pinkie Apple Pie was unentertaining in my opinion. The concept was pretty good and stuff but the whole execution was poor. The song itself was mediocre but the animation that went with it was bland and uninteresting making me not want to rewatch the clip of that song.

Rainbow Falls was a great episode on my opinion. I know a lot of people probably disliked it but for me it just has that MLP charm that season 4 is desperetly missing. I also liked Bulk Biceps and Fluttershy was cute in this episode.

Three's a crowd was a very fun episode in my opinion. Discord was great in it and this episode made me smile a lot. Again many people disliked it but I on the other hand legitimetly enjoyed it.

Pinkie Pride...now this one is where almost EVERYBODY will disagree with me. I did not like the episode. I think they should not have made it a musicle episode (probably was hard to resist with Weird Al in there). The songs were some of the worst of the whole season. It really failed at making me feel for Pinkie again probably because of the boring songs. Overall the episode was meh for me but I think it may be one of the most beloved by people episodes of this season. I did not like it.

Simple Ways....oh my God. This was a 21 minute disaster. It was an atrocity and should be burned in fire. This episode was one huge

Filli Vanilli was mediocre. The song sucked bad and was unmemorable, uninteresting and it did not have the feel of MLP. I did not really like this episode much. It was watchable but I do not wish to watch it again.

After these episodes season 4 just bored me and I stopped watching it much. I only watched about 10 minutes of Twilight Time and a part of It Ain't easy being breezies. What can I say. The episode did not hold my attention for more than 10 minutes.

Overall the season left a LOT to be desired. It did not make me laugh and it for the most part was not touching exept for a couple episodes. The animation was leagues above the old one but for me it just associates with bad episodes. For me season 4 of MLP is like the newest seasons of Simpsons. They may look good and may have an occasional kind of good episode but overall just makes you want to watch the old stuff. I think I will stop watching MLP for now and rewatch the whol 4th season when it will fully come out and then form my true opinion on the whole season.

3110683 I think it is rather obvious this comment of his was made in jest.

I have been enjoying season 4 so far. Even more so than a majority of the fandom I might add. This is because I knew what I was getting myself into going in, and I knew that a massive amount of head canons were going to shatter. There is some fan service here and there, but not enough to satisfy a hefty portion of the fandom in my opinion.

For the most part, this is the reason I personally abstain from headcanon and fanon of any kind. Or rather, my not so suggestions of having a clause implemented that would forcibly limit such things from ever cropping up. You know, to avoid the inevitable disappointment in advance the wasted effort and what not.
It seems utterly pointless to put effort into something that will ultimately abandoned whenever the show disavows it in spades. But I digress.

Personally, I have not watched much of any episode since Season 2. Though the fandom itself and the content that it produces is intriguing, the show itself is somewhat lackluster, even despite it holding an early superiority over many of its competitors during the S1 era. Then again, perhaps I am spoiled by more intricate shows like that of the TMNT Show 2 of the 2002-2008 days. Consider it a type of avoidance and lack of interest.

3110810
Daring Don't: OH MY GOD! HOW COULD YOU FORGET TO MENTION RAINBOWS SANDUSKY LEER!

3110810

fair enough

3110655

It's had some of the best episodes the show has offered up and possibly some of the worse, I'd say.

That being said, I'm pretty pleased with it at the moment and look forward to more goodness this season.

3110655
The season seems okay. I was concerned after Castle Mane-ia and Daring Don't, but it seems to have (mostly) gotten back on track. It seems I'm in the minority in thinking the breezies episode was another step backward, but oh well.

There have been some good ones, too. Rarity Takes Manehattan was good, as was Twilight Time. Also a few others, but it's nearly 3am and I can't really think straight.

3110819 Yeah I am not a fan of all the faces like:

3110838 Thanks for not bashing me for my opinion.

3110926

Your opinion does matter. Even if I don't agree with it

3110655

Yes. So far it has a track record for only being great.

The premier was wonderful, and I enjoyed Discord being there and not being all forward whilst also not exactly lying about the situation. 'Twas a good time.

Castle Mane-ia was one of the funnier episodes, with the ridiculous scares and the wonderful environmental effects leaving nothing to chance, it was both a very stylistically wonderful episode and a well written one at that.

Daring Don't was a great look into a character that technically didn't exist until that moment, and showed fanboys/girls exactly how ridiculous they act with Rainbow Dash and Daring Do/A.K. Yearling. Great characterization in this one.

Flight to the Finish was spectacular and one of the few truly amazing episodes of season 4 in my opinion. I also really liked the song.

Power Ponies was spot on with the pacing. And the superhero theme was wonderful, loved how they did on that one and how they were able to make it different than the Mare-do-Well episode (one of my favourites). They did a great job with character design and lore in this one, and Spikes role was spot on.

Bats! had one of my favourite songs. In fact, most of season 4 seems to be infecting my favourite songs list. They did a great job with characterizing Applejack and Fluttershy and executed their roles in the matter of the bats perfectly. I couldn't stop smiling when they pulled out the big twist, since I knew other people that were disappointed this wasn't going to be a bat pony episode.

Rarity Takes Manehattan was a great character episode for Rarity, they did a good job with the conflict and the introduction of Coco. Song added to favourites. Lovely episode.

Pinkie Apple Pie was exactly how I expected. The song was as great as it had been in the preview, and they did a great job with not only overall animation, but the animation for the song. Especially with the integration of the happenings of the cart and Pinkie Pie and the song. I liked the literal sink joke.

Rainbow Falls not only had Rainbow Dash learning something about her own element of harmony that she was meant to represent, but she also taught her idol, Spitfire of the Wonderbolts something about loyalty too. Great episode.

There is nothing to say about Three's a Crowd other than it was one of the absolute best episodes with the the second best ever song. Also, Discord.

Pinkie Pride. The best episode with the best song. No contest. They did a wonderful job with giving Weird Al a character in the show without making it ridiculous. Whilst also making it ridiculous. If that makes any sense. I'm not sure how to explain that. Anyways, they did an amazing job with the pacing compared to Magical Mystery Cure, with the songs and inbetweens being just the perfect amount of time. They were all catchy and memorable, with the Goof Off song coming out on top. They did a wonderful job with emotion and feel of the episode as well as characterization for Pinkie. Reminded me why Pinkie was one of my top six favourite ponies.

Simple Ways was a wonderful episode. I quite enjoyed how they showed that Spike really didn't care and that he knew Rarity was just going through a phase like she did with Blueblood. He's growing up. I really enjoyed Applejack's reactions to everything in this episode, and the faces that Rarity made. Very good use of animation in this one.

Fili Vanilli was a nice chill episode. Sort of like a podcast that you listen to and can't help but have half closed eyelids and a small grin on your face. Sounded great to the ears. I really empathized with Fluttershy's stage fright. She's fine with interacting with ponies, as I am with people, (if they're friends, at least), but getting up on stage and singing is terrifying. 'Twas why I always hated elementary school plays. The song was catchy and memorable.

I enjoyed the Cutie Mark Crusaders episode, Twilight Time, which included them actually practicing and working hard to do something and trying to be successful at it, and most of all doing it right. This episode sort of sways away from the original premise of what their cutie marks may be, with Apple Bloom being good with construction and decoration, Sweetie Belle with singing and Scootaloo just being good at Scooter (though in all honesty I don't think Scootaloo really changed). Great moral for the episode, and an all around fun time.

It Ain't Easy Being Breezies was really sweet. On Fluttershy's end, it focused more on her being too nice as opposed to her simply being a doormat for the Breezies to walk all over. Great premise with a wonderful lesson. On the Breezies ed, they really surprised me. I was thinking back to the original ones from way back when, but here they bring in these little beautiful slender Swedish bugs. Really good on character design here. I really enjoyed the story with Seabreeze (whom I thought was a girl). He just wanted to get back to his newborn child all along. So cute.

Somepony to Watch over me introduced the chimera! Wonderful and interesting creature, they did a good job with the animation on this front. Episode was exactly as I expected, and lived up to my expectations. Apple Bloom's characterization was spot on, and it's great to see AJ when she's not either calm or headstrong.

I haven't seen Maud Pie yet, but I heard it had rocks.

The premiere was awesome. The Nightmare Moon flashback was amazing, Discord was awesome, and they put in some pretty cool fight scenes. I had a little gripe about Twilight being defeated so easily by the vines, but they're supposed to ensnare alicorns, that's what Discord had intended, so it's alright.

Castlemania was kind of fun, what with Rarity's hilarious whining as she's attacked by the castle, and Pinkie using her head to ring the bell was priceless. It could have done more than to just introduce the journal thing, but it was fun overall.

Daring Don't was just that. Don't.

Flight to the Finish was awesome.

Power Ponies was fun, but that's it, even if it was one of the better Spike episodes.

I liked Bats! The song was great and I liked Flutterbat, more for the concept than the execution in the episode though.

Rarity Takes Manehattan was one of the better episodes. The song wasn't bad, though I don't regularly listen to it, and the only problem for me seems to be the way they treat alicorn Twilight.

Pinkie Apple Pie was pretty good, the song was alright. It was a good episode.

Rainbow Falls was great. Probably the only episode that "broke" a headcanon, with Snowflake being named Bulk Biceps, but that's nothing to rage over.

Three's a Crowd was really meh for me. The only interesting part in that was Cadence and Twilight fighting that worm, the song was terrible, and Discord really had no reason to be there. This one feels like one of those "the fanbase wanted to see Discord, so we'll throw him in somewhere."

Pinkie Pride is my favorite Pinkie episode. Pinkie's Lament is my favorite Pinkie song. Make a Wish really needed to be longer, it was way too good to be so short, second favorite Pinkie song. The feels were felt, and that doesn't happen often for me, and it's probably the best episode of the season right now. Not the series, I'll have to marathon all four seasons to know that for sure, but it's looking to be up there.

I had to look up Simple Ways to remember what it was about. All I remember from that is "I love being covered in mud!" Pretty much the only thing about the episode was Tabitha St. Germain's voice acting, though I could have gotten that from BC.

Filli Vanilli was meh. I love Fluttershy, and the song was okay, but the best part of the episode was Pinkie unintentionally being an ass.

Twilight Time was pretty cute. Even when the CMC don't have a kick ass episode, it's still better than a Spike episode, and this is one of the better episodes of the season.

It Aint Easy Being Breezy (long name) was a good Fluttershy episode, though they probably could have had a better episode if they excluded the Breezies (even though Seabreeze was awesome) and done something else with her animals. It's one of those episodes I look for to show me how to write character development, and this one did not disappoint.

Somepony to Watch Over Me was good. Another one of the better episodes, though I agree with BC that the chimera probably would have been better if it wasn't sentient.

I haven't watch the Maud Pie episode yet due to not having the time between writing, work, and feeling sorry for myself after coming home from work.

Though I disagree that we can excuse poor quality due to it being a kids show. Faust wanted this show to be something that could be enjoyed by kids and adults, both genders. Even though she's left and her vision for the show can no longer come true, we can still try to uphold the quality of the show, and BC and Digi only expect from this show what they'd expect from any other show they watch: quality.

Then there's the point of their videos. BC analyzes the story elements and Digi's taken to analyze the show in a more philosophical way. They throw in their opinions, but the majority of what they say has to do with staying consistent with the show's established canon and how much sense the new material makes. They aren't hounding at the writers for breaking their headcanons, they're analyzing how well the episode was executed.

I'll admit, as much as I liked season 3, it did have alot of problems and episodes that were just lacking. I hesitate to call it a bad season per se, because for me every season so far has been good, but season 3 was still probably the low point so far in the show: Something about it just didn't quite click.

But so far I've enjoyed season 4 immensely. it's awesome to finally have an overarching storyline in the show with the six keys and the mystery box, but it's also nice that they're still having adventure-a-week episodes as well, just to keep to tradition a bit. It's just a clever way to advance the storyline after Twilight's alicornication, with my theory being that now it's not just about learning lessons about friendship, but also teaching them to others. and spreading Harmony to others. Nice touch.

The humour is sharper than ever, getting an ever-so-slightly snarky edge to it this season, which is very welcome after season 3's rather narmy straight-edge humour. Especially the CMC, who have grown into some very snarky fillies when they want to be. I can't really describe it or explain it, but the dialogue just seems a bit less old-fashioned and cheesy, though it still has plenty lovable cheese to it.

The music... my gods, for me, this is the best season musically. Every song a hit, every hit a smack. I can't name 1 song this season that I don't like; we got broadway musical, acoustic pop rock, Weird Al parody polka , DIsney-esque showstoppers, this season is just amazing for music. I'm probably going against the grain here, but my least favourite song this season is probably Discord's 'Little Glass of Water'. It was a hilarious song, no doubt, and suited the narrative well, but it's pretty obvious that DeLancie isn't a professionally trained singer. He's not bad, mind you, but compared to the rest of the singers in this cast, this was apparently his first time singing for a performance, and it shows. But otherwise, the songs have all been awesome.

I could probably go on for pages more about the interesting touches and stuff for season 4, but I'll leave it here and just say that, if this is the direction the show is going in future, then find me a seat and some popcorn because I am totally up for another season of this.

3110703 And what's the problem with that?

3110655

I'm kinda torn on it. Love the ideas, but the executions almost always undershoot how far I believe they could have gone with them.

Also, Flutterbat (and especially the fan reaction to her) makes me puke...

I'm going to reserve my final verdict until after the season is over (obviously), since I could still chalk up to all these actually being smaller pieces of a bigger puzzle that will all come together at (or near) the finale. In that case, and if the finale itself will be a stellar episode, then I will take back everything that I've said.

Except for Flutterbat. She needs to die!

3110655

I started watching it a little over a year ago, and I never expected to like it in the first place. Even for a guy who's taken a shine to Pixar movies, it's always been waay out of my comfort-zone. I originally refused to watch it sober, and my famous last words were, "Well, at least they aren't singing."

There are episodes in every season that I don't care for, and on some of the episodes that I do like, they're are still things that make me cringe. I don't watch this show with a critical eye, and I'm genuinely relieved when comedy prevails, as I find that the be the most tolerable aspect of the show.

I've always taken the good with the bad . . . and I've never forgotten the bad, because I damn near watched the whole thing in a week.

Season 3 seems to be where a lot of people started to lose faith in the series, and I have to admit, it's both shorter, and the saturation of 'good' episodes is . . . less saturated. Still, it's not so much as I thought a lot of the episodes were awful, so much as they didn't quite have the same 'umph' as a lot of the episodes from the previous season. In season 3's defence, "Two Many Pinkies", "Sleepless in Ponyville", "Wonderbolt's Academy" and "Keep Calm and Flutter On" were among my favorite episodes in the series.

Looking at other people's comments, It would seem that I have a different opinion of many of Season 4's episodes. I like most of them, and I seem to dislike different ones than other people. I'm not a fan of 'Pinkie Apple Pie' "Pinkie Pride" and 'Flight to the Finish'.

I thought Pinkie Apple Pie was largely annoying, save for the Apple Family accidentally taking a detour through a scary cave. I couldn't stand Cheese-Sandwich, the fact that Pinkie never actually trumped him, and just the fact that it was suggested that this curly-headed dweeb was somehow Pinkie's male counterpart. As for Flight to the Finish . . . probably my least favorite CMC episode, and I'm including 'One Bad Apple' (which I really only dislike because of it's faulty moral.)

'Princess Twilight Sparkle' is probably my favorite episode in the entire series. It screws with a lot of people's head-canons (Like that actually matters) but at the same time, that episode was far gutsier than it had any right to be. I know that Luna was possessed (or however you interpret it) but that doesn't change the fact that they basically depict a far darker version of the events that were first laid down by the narrator of the pilot episode--they basically have Luna/Nightmare Moon trying to kill her own sister.

Sure, this isn't all that dark for a boy's cartoon, but I grew up in a time when "Batman:The Animated Series" was considered to be a bit controversial. You just don't see this sort of thing in a cartoon aimed at 5-10-year-old little girls.

When Celestia had tears in her eyes, I had tears in her eyes. (Okay, so the beer might have helped with that.)

Also, I thought Flutterbat was hilarious

"Oh, Fluttershy, dear, please come down from there. Oh, and do stop being a bat."

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I was kind of with the rest of the crowd with blowing up all over the place about Alicorn Twilight. I feel silly about that now, but I do find myself biting my nails, worried that the series might tank to the point of being completely irredeemable.

That day may come yet, but I've dealt with that before. I consider myself a HUGE Silent HIll fan, but they haven't really had a stellar game in the series since 2003.

3110655
I've been all over the place with the season.

It has had a lot of episodes I absolutely adored every second of. Ones that were pure fun distilled into visual form. Bats!, Pinkie Apple Pie, Three's a Crowd, Filli Vanilli. Probably others.

There were also quite a few I was more Meh oh.

But... honestly, I'm not too broken up about it. There are episodes of all the seasons that I'm just not that interested in. They can't all be gold. And more than that, there are a lot of the episodes I don't care for that other people think are the best thing ever. And that's something to consider.

I really, really, really wish they would stop ignoring the fact that Twilight is a bloody Princess though. We had one episode that kinda touched on it a little bit... but... I want to know the more serious stuff too. Not just that foals think it's super-neat.

3111366

I really, really, really wish they would stop ignoring the fact that Twilight is a bloody Princess though. We had one episode that kinda touched on it a little bit... but... I want to know the more serious stuff too. Not just that foals think it's super-neat.

On the plus side, while they're still dropping the ball on that, I get to write a fic where Twilight is to inherit and manage her own territory, including Ponyville, with Twilight and Luna seeking to rebuild the old castles ruins.

I would never cry about plot developments for messing with my headcanon, but I'm going to at least enjoy the fact that my story hasn't been tossed before I even get to write it.

3110655 I quite like Season 4, though it's far from perfect. The biggest problem right now is too much mane six in a lot of episodes they don't all need to be in, and not enough Spike.

The animation in season 4 is exceptionally better

(*nods*) Very smooth motions, very nuanced facial expressions and body language, and we're seeing little details like the presence or absence of eye-shadow or simply the positioning of eyelids. There's variation in clothing and other accessories when appropriate. Positioning of figures is almost three-dimensional.

Everything they want would not be able to fit into a 22 minute episode.

Indeed. Watching the show I'm amazed that they can put as much story as they can into such a short format; while I think it would work as hour long (45 or so minute run-time) epsidoes that's not the format. And of course, even then, there'd always be more possible.

And this is animation. Put simply, animation is expensive compared to live-action shooting. Not as much so as it was when I was a kid (back in the 70's and 80's) but still expensive.

Having high expectations isn't a bad thing, but don't say you're disappointed right after not getting what you want. You know what is to be expected of a kid's show. We all know what is to be expected.

(*nods*)

They are very much limited by the fact that what they do has to please executives who after all are trying to buy a weekly toy commercial. I am awed at what the writers have actually managed to do: they have created complex and interesting characters in what has to be the most rich fantasy world I've ever seen portrayed on television.

But there are things they flat-out aren't allowed to directly show, and I'm not even talking about anything as controversial as explicit sex or violence. For instance, even direct mention of parental death or abandonment is verboten, which is why we get situations such as being unclear about the fate of the Apple siblings' parents or whether or not Scootaloo is an orphan. And they more or less insist on most episodes being slice-of-life because they have convinced themselves that girls aren't into action (though the most popular episodes have generally been the epic action ones).

We should be glad that the inevitable "improvements" haven't yet happened, and the show hasn't entered its death spiral, after running almost four years.

I can tell you exactly how the show will die, because I've seen this happen before in many many fandoms to many good shows.

The day will come when Hasbro will put a new executive in charge of overseeing this project. And he will come with a head full of ideas about how to streamline costs and "better reach the target demographic." He will demand that the show be changed to better suit his notion of what "little girls really want," even though he will neither be a little girl nor will he actually ask any little girls what they want in any fashion permitting a coherent answer.

And when this happens, the show will be massively dumbed-down. To the point that there will be one last season which makes no sense.

If we are lucky, it will be canceled fast then, maybe leaving a last season so terribly bad that we can all agree to pretend that it never happened. If we are unlucky, it may endure as a horrible shadow of its former self, like one of the Walkers in The Walking Dead.

Consider Season 3 of Gargoyles.

3110659

Eh, I'll admit to having disliked a few episodes of the show. "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well," for instance, and I didn't like seeing Applejack turned into a caricature of her normal self in "Somepony To Watch Over You." But even the ones I disliked I only disliked because they were down at the level of the better episodes on most children's animation shows. Let me repeat that -- the worst episodes of this series are like the best epsiodes of all but a very few animated TV series (such as Gargoyles or Adventure Time).

In other words, they are bad only by comparison with the show's normal excellence.

3111446 Hopefully that will never happen.

For me it has been a great season up to now.
There is only one episode I didn't like up to now, Maud Pie, which I found boring; I might have liked it if I actually enjoyed the jokes and puns, but I didn't. The other episodes I consider varying from just good to really great.

3111446

Positioning of figures is almost three-dimensional.

Given that it seems like the episodes are now available in 3D, I believe the positioning is actually three-dimensional.

3111151 You must be the only person I know who doesn't like Flutterbat at all. Granted, I'm not a fan of her either, but I have to admit she was fairly interesting.

3110655 I liked the last 2 episodes... yea

3111497 I don't like Flutterbat, it was a retarded concept, that whole episode was retarded

3111446

The day will come when Hasbro will put a new executive in charge of overseeing this project. And he will come with a head full of ideas about how to streamline costs and "better reach the target demographic." He will demand that the show be changed to better suit his notion of what "little girls really want," even though he will neither be a little girl nor will he actually ask any little girls what they want in any fashion permitting a coherent answer.
And when this happens, the show will be massively dumbed-down. To the point that there will be one last season which makes no sense.
If we are lucky, it will be canceled fast then, maybe leaving a last season so terribly bad that we can all agree to pretend that it never happened. If we are unlucky, it may endure as a horrible shadow of its former self, like one of the Walkers in The Walking Dead.
Consider Season 3 of Gargoyles.

I cringe, because you're right. This is exactly why I had pretty much swore off watching television. It sucks to watch something for years, only to see it fall so hard.

3110810

Castlemania was the blandest episode of the show yet. It was not funny, not interesting and not touching.

I liked it for two big reasons.

(1) It was a big contributor to the overall Season 4 story arc, namely the mystery of the Box of Harmony and the reclamation of the Castle of the Two Royal Pony Sisters, and as such

(2) It set the foundations for any number of sequels set at the Castle, which I think is the intent because that place is just full of story possibilities. The Castle itself (who will occupy it once restored?) Tree (what is the Tree?), the Library (what secrets lie within?), whatever catacombs lie beneath the Castle (for instance, there's probably an internal way down to the Tree).

And finally: What is the Pony of Shadows? (I don't believe for an instance that the mysterious shadowy thing with glowing yellow eyes is just a throwaway, especially when we know both from canon and semi-canon that Equestria has powerful enemies who could be described as living shadows).

Yeah, the plot was a recycled Scooby-Doo but heck, Scooby-Doo is what first got me into contemporary children's animation, back when I was a contemporary child over 40 years ago. So that actually made the episode kind of fun for me!.

Daring Don't had me facepalming through out a good chunk of the episode and not because they made Daring real. No it was because of how poor the writing on the character was.

But it showed some important things:

(1) Not everything revolves around the Mane Six and their Quest of the Month or Slice of Life of the Week. There is crap going on in that world which is mysterious, magical, adventurous and doesn't know or care about them.

(2) Not every hero or heroine is a wide-eyed innocent 20-year-old. Daring Do was cynical, grumpy and not at all interested in the Magic of Friendship. Yet she was clearly one of the good gals. That's a fairly mature attitude for a show of this sort to take, isn't it?

Flight to the Finish was spectacular and one of the few truly amazing episodes of season 4 in my opinion. I also really liked the song.

Beautiful episode, shows that Rainbow Dash, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle really love Scootaloo, and that none of them think her worth is dependent on her flying ability.

Power Ponies had pacing issues. BIG pacing issues. And I did not like it despite me being a comic book fan. Also Spike has been proven useful before that episode so for me it makes the whole premise pretty uneccery.

I thought it was kinda neat to see that a secondary world has attached secondary worlds. And that there's a whole subset of magic in Equestria that was previously never shown on the series.

Bats! was not bad but left a lot to be desired. I just wish they actually spent time developing a conflict then throw a flashy Flutterbat that ruined the whole episode in my opinion. Once again the song was really good.

That episode had three great strengths:

(1) It was good xenofiction: it demonstrated a way in which the main characters aren't just young human women in fur suits. The whole "herd mentality" the rest of the Mane Six displayed to Fluttershy, refusing to engage her logical points but instead going with Applejack mostly because she's simply the second most dominant Pony in the group (after Twilight) makes perfect sense for creatures descended from equines, and not as much sense for brilliant adults of our species. In other words, they dared to show the weakness inherent in the Magic of Friendship, and admit that their protagonists really aren't human. Doesn't that count for something, for a kiddie show?

(2) It was remarkably dark in places. There is one point where Fluttershy is standing there with an utterly frightened and dismayed look on her face and Rainbow Dash and Rarity are singing to her in stereo about the need to fight the bats. In context: Fluttershy suffers from what we'd diagnose as social anxiety disorder and these are her TWO BEST FRIENDS IN THE WHOLE WORLD. Her friendships with them are special: Rainbow Dash is the person she trusts most in all the world, and Rarity the one who has brought her out of her shell and encouraged her to be sociable. This must have been an emotionally-devastating situation for her to be in.

(3) It directly foreshadowed at least one thing -- that Twilight is studying transformation magics. This becomes important in "It's Not Easy Being Breezies" and may become even more important later on in the series. For instance, it may become vital to the issue of Ascension -- note that Twilight Ascended by having Celestia transform her. And it shows character development in the "skills" meaning of the term -- remember that Twilight couldn't do any but the most limited tranformations in "Magic Duel?" Well, now she can turn you into another species, if she has a template to copy.

Rarity Takes Manehattan was a great character episode for Rarity, they did a good job with the conflict and the introduction of Coco. Song added to favourites. Lovely episode.

(*nods*) Also, it gave us a detailed look at what is probably the biggest and most modern Pony city, and directly confronted an issue which I'd thought would never get explored outside of fanfic -- what does Rarity, a small businessmare -- do when somepony exploits her famous Generosity to Rarity's own detriment? How is her strategy evolutionarily robust? What are its (and her) limits? Since the presentation of characters in business as heroines (in an entertainment industry dominated by socialists) is one of the things I love about this show, I really liked this episode. And we may well see Coco again.

Pinkie Apple Pie was unentertaining in my opinion. The concept was pretty good and stuff but the whole execution was poor. The song itself was mediocre but the animation that went with it was bland and uninteresting making me not want to rewatch the clip of that song.

You really didn't enjoy seeing the internal dynamics of the Apple Family? Or watching Pinkie make real friends with them, especially Big Mac? (Note: Pinkie is "friends" in the sense of "friendly acquaintances" with over 2000 people, but only a few of them are really her friends in the sense of people she genuinely loves and trusts). Or seeing how damned tough are the Apples?

Rainbow Falls not only had Rainbow Dash learning something about her own element of harmony that she was meant to represent, but she also taught her idol, Spitfire of the Wonderbolts something about loyalty too. Great episode.

It also had Fluttershy reaching out to Bulk Biceps, showing that she's starting to emotionally-heal from whatever caused herself to wall herself off from other Ponies. If you think it was something like what happens to her in "Fluttershy's Night Out," then this is especially-touching, because Bulk would be exactly of what she was afraid (a heterosexual stallion), meaing she's finally learned that she's not repulsive, and that not all stallions will be mean to her This is a literally vital lesson in the Darwinian sense for her to learn. This is true, incidentally, even if she and Bulk are never more than just friends. As she says in a later episode, "Baby steps."

There is nothing to say about Three's a Crowd other than it was one of the absolute best episodes with the the second best ever song. Also, Discord.

With key plot points:

(1) Cadance is getting bored in the Crystal City. We don't know exactly why, though maybe she had an adventure as insane as the one Alex Warlorn gives her in his "Season Six" story before marrying Shining? Is she bored with Shining (though severe marital troubles between an "ideal couple" seems a rather dark theme for this show)? Who knows?

(2) Discord is up to something. Or do you really think that elaborate quest, involving the destruction of something probably warded against him, was just a friendship test? Why did he want that flower stolen -- or was it simply a matter of destroying it? And why did its guardian have an attack specifically capable against Discord?

(3) We actually get to see Discord and Fluttershy being friendly to one another, and it's mentioned they correspond regularly. The positive affect, at least, seems mutually genuine -- Fluttershy is comfortable with initiating physical contact with him. Note: this is Fluttershy we're talking about. And Discord is a rather terrifying being, unless one truly trusts him.

(4) Cadance and Twilight are genuine kindred spirits. Including a mutual interest in magical history and a similar sense of life. It's not just that Cadance was one of the few ponies willing to reach out to an asocial bookworm -- they really do love each other as individuals.

Pinkie Pride...now this one is where almost EVERYBODY will disagree with me. I did not like the episode. I think they should not have made it a musicle episode (probably was hard to resist with Weird Al in there). The songs were some of the worst of the whole season. It really failed at making me feel for Pinkie again probably because of the boring songs. Overall the episode was meh for me but I think it may be one of the most beloved by people episodes of this season. I did not like it.

But Pinkie Pie ... has ... a ... disciple! And a possible love interest. And this is a pony we all thought was so weird that she'd never meet anypony even remotely like herself.

And we got to see two Reality Warpers going at it full blast, in a contest in which only two entities like themselves could engage. And in character -- both of them are about comedy, not mortal combat.

Simple Ways....oh my God. This was a 21 minute disaster. It was an atrocity and should be burned in fire. This episode was one huge

I thought it was hilarious and strongly revelatory of character of all four of the characters in the Love Square (Rarity, Trenderhoof, Applejack and Spike).

(1) Rarity, despite her surface sophistication, is in matters of the heart quite naive and controlled by her romantic illusions. She has an immense crush on a pony she's never met in person. She lets this crush get in the way of her serious career plans when it's shown that he doesn't return her sentiments (and really, what's the chance that he would on a first meeting?). She also is carried away by her emotions to the point of behaving toward Spike -- who is obviously one of her best friends given her behavior toward him in this and other episodes -- in a manner which might have driven him off. And when she sees that Trenderhoof is obsessed with Applejack (in an even shallower and sillier crush) her answer is to change herself rather than admit that maybe Trenderhoof is not as smart as she assumed. Note also that Rarity's parody of Applejack was much shallower than Applejack's of Rarity.

(2) Trenderhoof -- while he's not a bad guy (and I give the show points for having him not be genuinely bad, given that his role in-story was to be disruptive to existing friendships) is not really all that bright, nor does he have a very deep or strong character. He basically just tries to identify the next travel destination trend and promote it. This is less creative and difficult than what Rarity does. He also shows that his understanding of normal ponies is very superficial: he manages to convince himself that he's in love with Applejack without comprehending a single one of her (many) admirable qualities: most importantly her Honesty. It is not very surprising that Applejack is less enamored of him than utterly creeped out by his attentions.

(3) Applejack just wants to be left out of all this stupid drama. She doesn't love Trenderhoof, nor even like him. She clearly finds him shallow, stupid and behaving so bizarrely toward her it's evident at points that she's afraid he's going to make a pass at her and force her, depending on what he does, either to (a) slap him into the next county or (b) say something brutally honest to him that he is not going to like, depending on whether it's a crude physical pass or a more civilized declaration of feelings. Applejack is a really sweet mare under her tough exterior, and she does not like to hurt other Ponies -- but she is almost uncompromisingly honest, and hence she hates situations in which someone directly asks her a question to which they will not like her honest answer. She shows in her parody of Rarity that she not only completely understand Rarity's facade but that she can do it BETTER when she wants to -- it reminds me of when Daria "played Quinn" and managed to be even more charming than her younger sister.

(4) Spike, surprisingly, showed more emotional maturity this episode than did Rarity. He loves Rarity (he's seen her bad sides more than once, and he still cares, so this is more than a "crush"), and Rarity was throwing herself at someone far Spike's inferior in every sense other than age. And yet he continued to be a good friend to her, despite all temptation he must have been feeling to not only walk out of the situation but walk out of his friendship with her. This episode actually convinced me that the problem with Sparity is not Spike's maturity. It's Rarity's.

Fili Vanilli was a nice chill episode. Sort of like a podcast that you listen to and can't help but have half closed eyelids and a small grin on your face. Sounded great to the ears. I really empathized with Fluttershy's stage fright. She's fine with interacting with ponies, as I am with people, (if they're friends, at least), but getting up on stage and singing is terrifying. 'Twas why I always hated elementary school plays. The song was catchy and memorable.

Aside from introducing two minor characters, there were important continuity elements in this episode.

(1) Pinkie Pie is now more into the Apples, to the point of participating in the turkey calling contest, and specifically she's paying attention to Big Mac (which he may see as a not entirely good thing, considering what she does!). These are both call backs to "Pinkie Apple Pie" -- she now sees them as kin, and she especially made friends with Big Mac that episode. In other words, Pinkie Pie is not just being random, she's trying to develop a more serious friendship with ponies with whom she connected.

(2) Fluttershy is more and more coming out of her shell, as we saw in "Rainbow Falls." That this is a slow process does not bother me. Most shows of this sort would have (unrealistically) had her solve all her emotional problems in one episode, then forgotten about it. This show is treating it as a prolonged character arc. I also think that being able to open herself to others will be a key part of her Ascension, if the show goes that route.

(3) Trivially (?) we see that Cheerilee still likes Big Mac. In a manner which implies that she views him romantically, to boot. This means that she really did enjoy hanging out with him at the end of "Hearts and Hooves Day." She very well may actually be his very special somepony, or hope to become that to him.

After these episodes season 4 just bored me and I stopped watching it much. I only watched about 10 minutes of Twilight Time and a part of It Ain't easy being breezies. What can I say. The episode did not hold my attention for more than 10 minutes.

"Twilight Time" is important to Twilight's character arc because it shows how she deals with one big problem of increased social status -- what to do when ponies want to know you more because of your social importance than because they really care about you or what you have to teach them. Twilight handled it very smoothly, showing that she paid attention when Celestia demonstrated how to lead strongly and yet subtly. This shows that she is becoming ready to assume a position of greater explicit political authority.

Have you somehow missed that Celestia has implicitly made Twilight her vassal with responsibility for the Everfree? Just as Cadance is her vassal over the Crystal Empire? She does this on the very second episode of the series. Or that the rest of the Mane Six are basically her "henchmen" in the D&D sense of the word? I think this may become more explicit in future episodes -- the series is strongly hinting at this as a major long-term story arc.

As for "Breezies," Twilight shows that she has further mastered transformation magics. Also it introduces a whole new sapient race, who apparently live in another dimension. What, not enough fantasy elements for you?

3111470

Hopefully, but the temptations are inherent in any prolonged series, the more so when it's not controlled by a single creator who can write her own vision.

The problem with series TV, as Alex Warlorn diagnoses through parody in the PonyPOV Series, is that the "Shadows Who Command" (producers) are not the same as the "Shadows Who Make" (writers), and the former do not clearly comprehend the nature nor the value of quality writing and conceptual integrity. The best interests of the Shadows Who Command might be served by good writing (a show watched by few is not an effective toy commercial) but issues of ego and specifically monkey-dominance intrude. There is a great temptation on the part of executives to "show their importance" by "improving the product." And since the executives have no idea what makes the product good or bad, their commands are likely to be at best irrelevant and at worst destructive.

I'll give you an example that happily failed to hurt the series too much. "Princesses" Celestia and Luna as opposed to "Queens" Celestia and Luna. Or even "Queen Celestia and Princess Luna" (which would actually depict their power-relationship more accurately, as Celestia's the one in ultimate charge of that sibling partnership). Why no good-gal Queens? Because audience surveys show that "queens" are evil. Yep. That's how dumb was their reason.

Not all "improvements" are as harmless. You get improvements that harm the series -- and in time, one which breaks the series. That's usually how it works, because a series this popular is never allowed to just end on a high note.

And when an executive issues a story-breaking command, he probably won't even be blamed for it. Because they do not understand how to write stories -- but they do understand knowing how to cover their asses.

A business person who is also a skilled artist is, alas, truly a Rarity.

To be straight forward and simple: This season has been very entertaining, and i find my self chuckling a lot more than eye rolling.

My season diagnosis:

Season 1: It was new and they weren't sure it would all work, but it did.

Season 2: It worked so they had more fun with it.

Season 3: they got a LITTLE ahead of themselves and overdid some things but it wasn't bad.

Season 4: So far it seems like they've really got a hang of things with lots of fun new ideas and themes, it has been very fun and enjoyable.

3110932 I love it. My favorite so far is either Daring don't or the one with the pony tones.( I forgot the name.) Fluttershy has a beautiful singing voice.

3111455 Was specifically referring to season 4, since that was the topic of this thread. There have been episodes of the series in its entirety I didn't like. "Dragon Quest", "Spike At Your Service", and "Apple Family Reunion" are the only three episodes of the series I don't like.

3110655

I've liked this season for the most part, though some episodes have been strangely difficult to get through. I dunno, sometimes they just rub me the wrong way somehow, or I find myself unable to stay focused.

I also find that it's been a bit too... low key, I guess. I was kinda hoping this season would kick the gear up a notch, but after a promising start it seems to have mellowed out again.

3111129
Nothing wrong with it. Just making an observation

3112021 Yeah. It seems like Hasbro is delibertly trying to keep the series from getting too interesting. They're not trying to address anything like they did in the first couple of episodes.

3112138

Yeah. I really liked the idea of Twilight restoring the Everfree castle, and I really thought they were going to make something more of that.

Oh well. At least we got one episode that actually adressed Twilight being a princess, even if it was just the kids.

3112219 Yeah. I think we need to convince Hasbro to ease off on the restrictions a bit and have faith in the DHX staff. As long as they don't suddenly turn Equestria into some grimdark paradise I'm sure they can keep things within the realm of "safe for everyone".

3112225

Eh, I doubt it's some weird kind of censorship. More likely, they just don't want to mess with a winning concept. And considering how part of the fandom react to changes, I guess they have a point.

3112255 Still, it wouldn't hurt to be a little more bold and see some of that Season 1 flare that makes it feel like they're not afraid to take chances.

3110655 Actually, over half of the episodes of season 4 thus far have lent credence to one aspect of my headcanon in some way, shape, or form.

me.

3110683 Wow, I can't believe how many people disliked this comment. People watch My Little Pony for its internet pornography? Words cannot describe how creepy that is.

But whatever, I don't know you sickos and (hopefully) never will so what you do shouldn't be my concern.

Anyways...season four has been good. I'm behind on a few episodes, but it's not bad. Will never beat the original season though. :)

3112986

Yeah metaknight is a troll, and should not be treated as someone to be taken seriously, but at the same time, should be. if that makes any sense.

3118514

and should be treated as someone to be taken seriously,

So are termite infestations, but you don't consider their words.