Well, It Only Took Them 93 Episodes · 11:56pm May 23rd, 2015
So we finally got the return of everyone's (fine, mine and a bunch of other's) favorite angry catbird. Took them bloody well long enough!!
Even Gilda herself isn't terribly happy with how long this all took.
And yes, spoilers, so click the Read More when you've seen it or just want to ruin the viewing for yourself.
So there was good and bad about the episode. Does the good outweigh the bad? Eehh.... let's see.
Obviously the best part is that we finally got to see the resolution that we'd been waiting for since Brush Off. Gilda was portrayed as Dash's best friend, and then we let a single afternoon destroy all that, with no explanation or reconciliation attempts on either side. Not cool, element of loyalty. But here we did get to see that relationship mended (not that Dash did a whole lot towards that end...) and that ended on a happy note.
Pretty much my thoughts on how they established the Griffon "Kingdom"
On the flip side, the episode also utterly annihilated a fair chunk of fanon about griffons. I mean, just, holy crap! Okay, so, apparently Kingdom is now confined to a shanty town and glorious ruins at the top of a mountain. Really Hasbro/Discovery?! Really?! Just... GAH!! Not cool! Totally not cool!
I've always been a fan of the idea that griffons were a world power on some level close to the ponies, or at least the pegasi portion of the population. Now I don't follow the extended universe material (comics, novels, etc) but I'm pretty sure they were made out to be a slightly bigger deal than... this!
So yeah, that definitely, definitely.... definitely... rubbed me the wrong way. Not happy with what they did there at all. (Thank you Amy Keating Rogers 
)
Edit: Okay, upon seeing it again with friends... Twilight: "... Griffonstone, the very heart of the griffon kingdom" (02:16). Yeah... oops. My bad. 
So, maybe the entire kingdom isn't a wreck like their capital. We can only hope.
This is why citing your sources is important, as you tend to avoiding looking like a tool in instances like this. Oh well.
The rest wasn't bad at least.
Here, have some adoreabetes to make up for that outburst earlier
The rather capitalist/mercenary/objectivist streak they introduced into the griffons wasn't too bad. I did like a lot of the lines the one that takes RD out to the abyss tosses her way. That this is part of their nature and reflected in their history was interesting and more could certainly have been done with it. (See my comments on the conclusion of the whole thing with the Idol later). Still, it's a nice contrast to the pony's more altruistic nature and they do well showing how each griff is out for themselves only during the episode.
I did get a chuckle out of them fully going with the idea of all griffon names starting with "G" though. That was cute thing to incorporate into the show. (Yes, I know we had Gustave before, but it could have been coincidence at that point. I'm not counting Gaston, Giselle and teammates from the Equestria Games, because unless you are involved in the extended universe material [or read the wiki like I just did] you wouldn't know their names as the show never states them) Nice to see it be totally undeniable now.
Gilda the baker? Yeah, did not see that coming. Professional animosity towards Pinkie in Brush Off maybe?
That said, she did act way less equicidal towards Pinkie than I may have expected. I'm glad they went with annoyed/ticked off Gilda instead of angsty Gilda, but I suppose that's what a year or so (timeline based on events in Tanks for the Memories) of cooling off time will do for you. Pinkie was good, her slap-stick ways and random popping up working well, and she wasn't too irritating at all, which was what I was most worried about for the episode. She was persistent, but not irritatingly so (see A Friend in Deed) which made things much more bearable.
... You know what, that whole friendship reconciliation thing is totally on Pinkie. Dash, you were a useless t-
-t and a stubborn jerk. Full points to Pinkie!
My biggest complaint about the story itself was the ending, and how it could have been solved with a shout of "Hey, Rainbow Dash! Catch!" (she has hind legs and prehensile wings) before Gilda tipped the idol off the ledge, or just, you know, waiting 2 minutes! Or, since you saw where it fell, just go get a better rope and go back for it. But we can't have that.
I certainly understand the moral they were going for, but I think it could have worked just as well if they had managed to recover the idol and then shown that (unlike in the history story) just having the idol there doesn't change things or griffon's attitudes. That realization could come afterwards in pretty much the same fashion that it did in the show. It would have worked into the whole self-centered, me-first, money-only tendencies the show already established them having, and more clearly shown that that was the wrong path.
Sappy, pony, feel-good endings
But extending that and working a bit of a more complex relationship mend with Rainbow Dash would have added running time, maybe even necessitating a two-parter. Oh, no. We could never have that have had that in the middle of a season </sarcasm>.
Oh, and of course Gummy just steals the scenes that he's in. Which can only be expected. I liked (and felt sorry for) Twilight in this one, and you can't deny Dash's impression of her.
In the end, I'm happy we got it (finally). Yes, it could have been better, but it wasn't a train wreck (unlike some eps). I think they could have done a lot more to make the Kingdom a Kingdom and given the griffons some more dignity that way, instead of taking the easy way out. But I guess this is what you get for a 22 min time frame in something (still) aimed primarily at children. Guess it's still up to the likes of us to rectify it.
Let's just hope it doesn't take another three whole seasons and change before we get Gilda back again.
As for next week... background ponies! A'right!!
Today in My Little Pony, we learn that gryphons are actually dwarves.
I look forward to the inevitable "Daring Do and the Twice-Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" fanfics.
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Okay, yeah, that'd be pretty cool.
This episode...
Till yesterday I thought it would be delayed for two weeks (read that somewhere) or maybe wouldn't even feature Gilda...
This episode is Fanfiction gone canon.
Seriously, there are a LOT of stories out there that come extremely close to this.
Sure, the Griffon-Kingdom being a pile of dirt was sad and all Griffons being literally 3rd world was not what I would have wished for, but everything else was as close to perfection for me as it could get.
There were a lot of possibilities for Hasbro to fuck this up REAL bad so considering everything, this was everything I wished for and then some!
Loving it
I honestly wished they would have given more detail about the kingdom, but GODS damn that monster!!! Holy shit am I in love!!
That has to be the most bad ass thing in the show and Discord is a god! Buck. I've always been a big fan of Gilda, good news for me is that they never motioned Fluttershy so I can have Shy and Gilda still completely hate each other (against Shy's nature? Maybe but she's only mammal after all)
This was one of my favorite episodes and I'm so glad I watched it, I just wish they would have had another king or queen or got the idol back...I mean really? But this still had me laughing my ass off and I'm still a fan so....more Gilda stories!!!! NOW!!!