S5E19: "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows" (SPOILERS) · 4:01pm Oct 17th, 2015
Well, here we go.
G.M. Berrow's first foray into writing for the actual show.
I'm not going to lie: I went into this episode with low expectations. I severely dislike the chapter books and thus had a poor opinion of Berrow's writing abilities going into this.
And frankly, it's not helping AT ALL that Berrow has to follow, well...last week's jaw-dropping episode that could have been the series finale and we'd all have died happy.
But--and you'll notice I'm breaking my usual stream-of-consciousness style to admit this--I'm happy to admit that this is one instance where I was wrong, and thankfully so. I'm very much enjoying this episode.
Okay, now to the SoC rambling...
Wow. They dropped the "Cadance and Shining Armor are having a baby" thing right off the bat. I mean, right in the cold open. Just...BAM. Wow.
Okay, so Pinkie's freaking out about the secret she doesn't want to let slip. And...she's not doing the best job of it. She's...actually making herself more conspicuous than usual. Every time the word "surprise" or "baby" comes up, she kind of freaks out.
Meanwhile, Twilight is being an embarrassing little sister and it's so adorkable.
Pinkie is more made of rubber than usual in this episode.
Pinkie Pinball!
Crusaders cameo JUST to show off their new Cutie Marks!
The cartooniness of this episode is hilarious and I love it. It's perfect for a Pinkie Pie episode.
Pinkie's taking Ninja Cake Delivery to bizarre levels.
Callback to Party Pooped!
...poor Pinkie. This is a nightmare for her.
Saved by the royal bell!
...or not. She's not off the hook yet, folks!
...wow, Shining Armor is a BIG DORK. 
...a scavenger hunt? Really, Shiny? You are a SUPER DORK!
...Pinkie's snapping.
...Shining Armor's scavenger hunts are EXTRA DORKY.
...Pinkie snapped HARD.
D'aww @ Twiley's reaction to being an aunt.
Okay. I'll admit it. I was impressed by this episode. Also, I was almost SURE there would be a subversion of some kind, but they played it completely straight, which is even MORE impressive.
Cadance is pregnant, everyone! We have something amazing to look forward to in season six!
Yeah, this is easily one of the funniest episodes of the season.
And now I hope someone does a counter of how many times Pinkie Pie's breaking of the fourth wall was as blatant as it was with the ending of this episode.
My reaction to preggy Cadance the first time:
I knew she'd be the one to get pregnant. I freakin knew it.
Mythril, this means you called it too!
It's funny how Mayor Mare is the mayor of Ponyville, yet she can't get in on some of the biggest secrets.
Also, awesomeness with the baby news! Woo Hoo!
So that would make Twilight an aunt, Celestia and Luna great aunts, Cadance and Shining parents (duh), and Twilight Velvet and Night Light grandparents.
What I find funny about what I just said is that Twilight Velvet and Night Light are going to be the youngest Grandparents known in the series.
3476764 Season six must have an episode where Velvet and Night Light get named and voiced officially and we just get a break big Sparkle Family episode.
Definitely a good episode, considering what Berrow had to follow. But I suspect a massive flood of accusation fics to come out involving Shining Armor and Cadence insisting on Pinkie keeping it a secret just for some scavenger hunt, and even telling Mayor Mare before the aunt to be.
I also suspect a massive flood of accusation fics involving Pinkie Pie's friends flip flopping on their stance when it comes to Pinkie's secret, even though they never find out what it is. I mean seriously, first they say the secret should remain secret if you don't want to feel guilty, then they say "You can tell us, you'll feel so much better". Can't have it both ways.
And Featherweight has a voice, I think it's the same one as the pony working the presses in "Ponyville Confidential".
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I was also impressed.
An entire episode about spoilers.
The first time there will be a pregnant character given air-time in mlp (because Mrs. Cake apparently had ninja babies...) and confirmation that alicorns and the other tribes are capable of having children... Also, due to said fact... Prince Blueblood is likely a descendant of a long lost lover of Celestia's... Holy crap does that make me feel sad for her seeing her X-times-great-grandfoals turn into such elitist snobs with no social skills whatsoever...
I was pretty surprised that the fan speculation about the secret being a baby turned out to be the truth. overall a good funny episode. was I the only one examining cadence for signs she's showing...
edit: this episode raises so many questions on ponies and pregnancy
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Except Blueblood is Celestia's nephew.
That means he's descended from a past lover of Luna's.
Now imagine that Luna learns that's what became of her line because she wasn't there to guide them.
...suddenly the Tantabus makes more sense.
And so Pinkie breaks the wall again. Both literally and figuratively.
3477070 Equines don't really show until the last like, 6 weeks or so of the pregnancy. Or maybe 10 weeks. Somewhere in there.
3477106 Pretty sure not biological.
I can tell the callbacks were strong with this episode. Last Roundup, Return of Harmony, and I think the guy with the inflatable arm tube man thing was the same guy who didn't sell that cherry to Fluttershy in Putting Your Hoof Down.
3477139
Well, on the assumption that Alicorns can have children with the other tribes, and the assumption that that's where Blueblood came from, if Blueblood were a direct descendant of Celestia, she'd probably refer to her as her 'grandson', rather than 'nephew', based on the David Eddings convention of how immortals refer to their mortal descendant relatives (drop all the greats).
I love the episode.
Granted it contradicts her logic back in Green Isn't Your Color, but I'll chuck it to a news that will make Twilight bounce around in happiness that Pinkie can't wait to tell her.
The fact the Shining is such a dork partially makes the IDW Shining/Cadance comic canon.
I wonder if her still plays D&D?
Pinkie falling apart (literally and figuratively) is quite humorous.
I think the horse noises and him rubbing his face on his ENTIRE ROOM AND EVERYTHING IN IT was the most hilarious thing I've seen in MLP
Especially the horse noises
Also, loved when she actually fell to pieces and was like "Go Pinkie" and then "piece of cake" but not really thing when the episode ended.
I really liked how this episode went, and the freakouts were cringy (I was embarassed for her), but it was still fun to watch. I think my least favorite part was the initial slip-up when Gummy had the pacifier, and she forgot it in 5 seconds flat when Rarity showed up. That was a bit too haywire. But honestly if that is the WORST thing for me in the episode, I'd say it's a pretty good episode.
Haven't read her writing before I think, so i had zero expectations going in. Also may she is better at episodic format for videos than a pure writing medium. Writers come in all sorts of flavors. Not that I have to tell you that
3477106
Odds are more likely that Celly and Luna were adopted into Bluebloods' family then he's a biological relative.
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What you said about "Green isn't Your Color"...
I'm now picturing a one shot fic where Pinkie apologizes to Twilight for being so judgmental of her behavior back then, knowing now just how hard it really is to keep something that big to yourself.
Favorite moment of the episode: Pumpkin joining in with shushing Pinkie.
Second favorite moment of the episode: Shinings reactions to things.
Such a small detail, but it made me laugh.
This episode was extremely hilarious, in all the right ways. And the news are really something.
However, I believe that the writers could also have made it so that the audience was also in the dark about the secret. It would have been difficult to do if they needed a trigger that'd eat away at Pinkie, but it could have been done.
I did notice that, when talking about the preparations for the visit, they kept an odd ammount of focus on getting everything that Shining Armor likes, yet nothing much about what Cadance likes.
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That would be a good idea to write a fic about. Maybe the two will talk about when it is good time to keep a secret and when it is okay to disclose it.
I would write it, but I can't write and my brain wants to shutdown do to pain killers.
3477106
Aunt and Uncle are both common ways to separate responsibility without cutting all bonds to the family :b basically she wants to stay involved, but not take full responsibility since she has so many responsibilities to manage
3476911
I think this episode can kinda be understood just on what you see. I loved all the use of physical expressions in this one, particularly from Pinkie and Shining, but special mention must go to Shining's adorkable reaction to the room Twilight prepared for him and Pinkie's literally falling to pieces moment. Heh, that was adorable.
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I think keeping it in the dark would been sort of neat, but they had kind of hinted at the thing strongly with the cake already, maybe if they hadn't done that I'd think keeping it in the dark would have worked nicely actually, although, like you say it might have been a little tough juggling all of Pinkie's triggers then, and I loved those parts.
Also I wouldn't be too concerned about the Cadance thing, remember she's already had a whole episode devoted to just her and Twilight spending their time together and like three other times beside that where they hang out with each other and only each other. She's probably just aware that Shining and Twilight haven't really interacted since the wedding and so is being nice and giving the two a chance to have a bro-sis time. I mean the episode clearly focused a bit more on Shining than Cadance this time, the first time really that's happened so hopefully that means he'll start getting as much interaction as Cadance already has, so you can probably just put it down to the writers wanting to give Shining and Twilight a little more screen time together in between all the Pinkie antics. Also a lot of the stuff Twilight was talking about was stuff from Shiny's childhood she knew really well, stuff she can't really get for Cadance. Hope that helps, hate seeing a sad pony
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That whole room section definitely enters the running for best thing ever. I canned myself so hard when I saw it.
3478776
Yeah, sure. The problem is that I know of certain despicable person that would have loved to use this chapter as support that in certain story, Shining Armor is being victimized by his entire family. Luckily, that person is no longer an issue.
3477106 Regarding Blueblood: Lauren Faust posted on March 11, 2011 (between the original airings of episodes 21 and 22) that "He's the great great great great great great great great great great great (and probably even more greats) nephew on Celestia's and Luna's mother's side, about 52 times removed, roughly speaking. I would have preferred to call him a Duke, but someone in the approval process thought kids wouldn't know what a Duke is. Luna and Celestia have no siblings and no children."
I figure this translates as "He's descended from a sibling of their mother", and leave it at that until the show itself says otherwise.
Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.
And Cadance loves him for it. Of course, I'd wager that he also has a big dork, and Candance loves him for that, as well.
3479217
Meh, this is a fandom; crazy stuff's always gonna happen. My general rule of fanfics is; 'brace yourself' and then be pleasantly surprised when you find things you like, its why I've only actually read and finished like ten fanfictions in total. Haven't bumped into that particularly nugget myself, and as someone who works as a counsellor I can tell you family victimization's a pretty hefty thing, more commonly when it comes to Shining or Cadance people make them cheat on each other, which boggles the mind, or make Shining some overprotective jackass despite Twilight being way more overprotective of him then he is of her, seriously Shining's almost negligently carefree when it comes to Twilight. Then again when your little sis has a track record like her maybe he just figures she's got all the protection she needs already.
But I was discussing your 'canon' problem, not 'fanon', and you just gotta watch this episode again to realize how ridiculous half the things people do with Shiny, Caddie and Twily is. Keep that in mind and maybe you'll feel better? It helps me. But about helping you with fanon...sorry can't help there, kind of are just going to have to accept that people are gonna do stuff we don't like. If it makes you feel better have a moustache.
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Yeah Blueblood's an interesting case since I don't think they ever really bothered to think about how to integrate him in. Also, kind of a pity, I doubt we're ever going to see him again in any much capacity so finding out how he fits in at all probably won't ever be solved. A pity since its kind of a dangling thread which could be interesting to pull on.
3479397
You win a prize, don't know what it is, but you definitely win it.
3481406
Woah, hey. I don't have a problem with the characterization in the fic, because this fic explains that there's no victimization to any direction, just mistakes and micommunication. I had a problem with the guy who had a problem with their characterization in the fic; Why? Because everything this guy said was wrong, and at no point did he sputter anything that even resembled the truth.
But, he's not a problem anymore.
3481406
3481521 Not the place for this. Move along.
I can agree that I also think the episode wasn't terrible. My daughter couldn't quite figure it out well but she's really young. And this episode is coming off the back of some impressive waves, boutique, wonderbolts and cmc. Considering the fans pretty much "knew" what was coming it was just a silly ponk ep with arcing plot placement. So for some sibling adorkableness and silly distressed Pinkie it was entertaining enough