Season Two Overview (Part Two) · 2:31pm Feb 20th, 2016
Episode 14: The Last Round-up
Let me get this out of the way right now because if I don’t, I’m sure people are going to flood my inbox and this blog post with comments asking me what I thought about the so-called “controversy” surrounding this episode. As we all know, this is the episode where Derpy spoke for the first time. It was a joyous occasion for all of us bronies because it was one of the first times the staff recognized the brony community. (Not counting all of the pandering in “Lesson Zero” due to it being written a year in advance and therefore still intended for its target audience.) But then Hasbro went and ruined it all because some soccermoms got pissed off because they found her portrayal “offensive to disabled people.” Okay, so first of all, let me make sure I understand this and get this straight. Let me see if I got this right. It’s perfectly okay if Theodore Seville and Patrick Star act like a couple of retards. It’s perfectly okay if Mordecai and Rigby swear. Yet a pony who acts like a klutz is what these people consider “offensive?” That takes such a gigantic leap in logic and sound reasoning to come to that conclusion that it honestly leaves me baffled. It makes absolutely zero sense whatsoever.
But in the words of Macbeth, “What’s done is done.” So, what did I think about the redub? Personally, I consider this to be more offensive than the original. How, you may ask? Well, let’s take a look at the way Rainbow Dash behaves in this redub. In the original dub, she was kind of annoyed, as we would all expect her to be. Here, though, she comes off as condescending like she’s scolding a little child. So, let me see if I understand this: it’s perfectly okay for Rainbow Dash to be a bitch towards Rarity and Pinkie Pie (more on that later), but when it comes to Derpy, she’s the exception to the rule? Really? And, yes, while Derpy’s voice here does sound more feminine, the voice in the original was fine; it even sounded really cute, in fact, and it seemed to fit her character more. So, this is basically Hasbro saying that they don’t discriminate against disabled people, but then turning right around and saying that all disabled people should get special treatment. As someone who’s both blind and autistic, I can say from experience that getting special treatment just because you have an disability is a real pain in the ass. (Plus, it doesn’t help you make very many friends, either.) From what I can see, Derpy doesn’t have any mental disorders (her weird eyes are a physical one, and, yes, that is an actual disorder for some people), but even if she did, wouldn’t it be a better lesson for kids by teaching them that people with disabilities don’t always have to get special treatment or be absolved from any wrongdoing just because they’re different? It’s crap like this that makes people exploit disabilities: parents exploit them because it absolves them of any bad parenting and can explain away their kids’ bad behavior. Kids exploit them because they think they can get away with anything without having to suffer any consequences. Even Family Guy had this lesson in a season four episode. It was an awful lesson then, and it’s an awful lesson now.
Going into the technical aspects of this redub, it’s just lazy, like the staff didn’t care one way or the other. Like I said, the voice for Derpy sounds fine, but I say that once the voice has grown on me. The first time I watched this redub, I honest to God thought it was a fandub, no joke. Furthermore, I would have expected better of the staff. The lack of effort in this redub makes it seem as if the staff didn’t give a crap. Maybe that’s because they knew they were screwed over either way. They could have at least looked like they gave a damn.
Ahem, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, how did I feel about the episode overall? A lot of people like to say that this episode was basically a Rainbow Dash episode with Applejack in her place. I say, “to hell with that noise”, because I seriously doubt that Rainbow Dash would go this big a leap just to cover up something like this. So Applejack didn’t get first place. So what? I mean, is she like Rainbow Dash, where she thinks that the only reason ponies, even her friends, like her is because she does so well at these rodeos? She should know better. Maybe she is in fact like Rainbow Dash, where she measures her self-worth by how many competitions she can win.
The biggest issue with this episode is that it required every single major and minor character to be flanderized beyond belief in order to work. Let’s start with the mayor. Before Applejack left, she kept reminding Applejack about the money: “Don’t forget to bring back all that money.” What a bitch. Does she not have a treasury or something for when something needs repairing?
I’ve already gone over how Applejack is flanderized in this episode, so we’ll move onto Pinkie Pie. As I stated in my blog post “My Thoughts on Pinkie Pie”, she was very poorly handled in this episode. She’s basically there as a means of the Mane Six getting what they want. When Applejack refuses to cooperate and talk to them, they decide to sic Pinkie Pie on her, having her talk and talk and talk until Applejack can’t take it anymore and promises them that she’ll tell them everything the following morning if it just means getting Pinkie Pie to shut up. What makes this scene all the worse is the fact that it was Rainbow Dash who came up with this idea. Mind you, this is the same Rainbow Dash who isn’t annoyed by Pinkie Pie’s antics, and has actually stated that she appreciates Pinkie Pie because of said antics. (“Pinkie Pie, you are so random.” – Rainbow Dash, “Griffon the Brush-Off”) But later on in the episode, who was one of the ponies that Rainbow Dash refused to go back and get? Pinkie. Rarity’s last line of the episode makes it seem as if this was done deliberately. Like I said, this episode required all of the characters to be flanderized beyond belief in order to make Rainbow Dash as bitchy as possible and to make Pinkie as annoying as possible just so the audience could see why it drove Applejack insane. Furthermore, Pinkie immediately forgives Applejack about breaking her Pinkie Promise despite being genuinely pissed off about it earlier. What are kids supposed to take away from that? That it’s okay to break a promise if you can find a loophole in it?
But Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie are not the only ones at fault here. The others are just as bad. Yes, it’s understandable that they would travel all over Equestria looking for Applejack because they were worried about her. But once they found out that she was perfectly fine, they continuously bothered her about what happened at the rodeo, even going so far as to bother her while she was trying to work. They should have just done what Applejack requested of them and gone back home. Applejack was clearly doing fine. There was no need to constantly pester her. I mean, can you imagine if you and your spouse got a divorce and instead of giving you your privacy, your friends continuously bothered you about why you got divorced, even calling you at work? Yeah, I bet you’d be just as annoyed as Applejack was here. Unfortunately, this would not be the first time in an Applejack-centered episode where she gets royally screwed over by her so-called friends.
Episode 15: The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000
It’s a shame Applejack isn’t very good at mathematics. Otherwise, she would have been able to calculate how much cider it would take to make sure that everypony in Ponyville got a mug. When Rainbow Dash and the other ponies are understandably pissed off that they didn’t get any cider, Applejack and the others brush it off as if it’s nothing. It’s clearly implied that this sort of thing has happened multiple times before. This whole mess could have been avoided had the Apples limited one mug of cider per pony, but they let Pinkamenia “Town Drunk” Diane Pie buy a good nine mugs of cider, and then they want to get on the defensive side when ponies still calling them out because they didn’t get any. And yet they claim to value customer relations over getting rich?
Then we have Flim and Flam. These two of the weakest villains in the whole series. And I really hope you like big, over-the-top musical numbers because their song, and I timed this, goes on for nearly four minutes. What’s makes no sense regarding these characters is that the writers turn them into villains for no reason. As I said, it’s a shame that Applejack isn’t a mathematician because she would have seen that Flim and Flam’s original offer was actually quite generous; yes, the Apples only get 25% of profits, but considering that the brothers’ machine could easily quadruple their supply, why wouldn’t they take it? If you factor in the sales they would make and the hours it would save them from that machine, you’d realize that the Apples would still come out on top. But, no, we can’t have that. We have to make sure that we have an antagonist in this episode, so let’s have Flim and Flam threaten to overtake Sweet Apple Acrs out of the blue. The reaction of the Apples to this news doesn’t make any sense either. Weren’t they just a couple of seconds ago saying how good the quality of their cider was. Furthermore, they wouldn’t be in this predicament if Apple Bloom had just kept her mouth shut. Also, why did they decide the winner would be chosen due to quantity over quality? I mean, if I was going to choose whether I liked Burger King’s chicken nuggets or McDonald’s chicken nuggets, I’m pretty sure my deciding factor would be on how good the chicken nuggets taste.
Even putting that aside, the threat of the brothers to overtake Sweet Apple Acres doesn’t make sense. I don’t see how they would be able to run Sweet Apple Acres when the latter has all of the following: one, locally grown apples; two, holds a monopoly over Ponyville’s apple supply; and three, the Apples charge less for their cider than what ponies are willing to pay. It’s more than reasonable to assume this, especially seeing as how ponies are willing to camp out at Sweet Apple Acres for days on end just to get a place a line so they can get their hooves on some of their cider. So, factoring in all of that, the only business the Flim Flam Bros. would get is the disappointed ponies who ddin’t get any cider due to the Apples always running out.
Hell, the only reason the Apples won in the end is because the Flim Flam Brothers foolishly decided to let Applejack change the terms of the competition, which in itself makes her seem really selfish. Not only that, but the Flim Flam Brothers screwed themselves over three times. First, being the item mentioned above. Secondly, they doubled the power of their machine, letting rotten apples, leaves, and twigs get past the indicator. This was a stupid move because they should have realized that they still could have won even without Applejack’s enlisting the aid of the Mane Six without the risk of sacrificing the quality of their cider. Finally, they served cider from one of the top barrels from when they doubled the machine’s power, causing the ponies drinking it to spit it out and pretty much run them out of town.
Finally, we come to Applejack’s letter to Princess Celestia. She very arrogantly and smugly asserts that she didn’t learn anything, that the way her family does things is “the right way.” There’s a reason why we have things like email and iPods. It’s because these things make our lives more efficient. Before the iPod came along, I remember having to pack all of my CDs with me on vacations so I’d have something to listen to on the road. Nowadays that’s not a problem. So, the lesson in this episode easily could have been, “Competition is a good thing. It prompts people work harder and work better. It teaches people what they need to work and improve on and what they can do to become better at their craft. Or, rather, the lesson could have been something like, “Innovation isn’t always a bad thing, but innovation is no excuse for practicing greed.” The competition helped teach the Apples that by hiring outside help, they could meet the demand of the market, but, no, that’s not the lesson here.
So because Applejack is stupid, she didn’t learn a thing. (Is it any wonder she’s the least popular of the Mane Six?) She walks away from this experience still convinced that the way her family makes cider is the right way, which really sucks because with Flim and Flam now gone, it’s highly unlikely that the Apples will be able to overproduce during the following cider season so that they meet the demand of the market and thus, will be forced to once again face the same shortages as last year. This episode seemed to really go out of its way to hammer in the message that capitalism is bad. Really, after watching this episode, all I wanted to do was shake the writers by the shoulders and scream at them, “Why the hell are you vilifying industrial consumerist capitalism in a show that without exist without it?!”
Episode 16: Read It and Weep
When I was a kid, I was introduced to the Tomb Raider series via my dad. Me and my brother didn’t play it. Instead, we really enjoyed watching our dad play it on our Sega Saturn. To this day, I still vastly enjoy playing the first three original PS1 games. (The second one is probably my least favorite.) I say this because Daring Do is basically what you would get if you crossed Lara Croft with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. This pony is a total badass. She faces all kinds of deadly predators, dangerous traps, and even gets to solve puzzles. I know that a lot of people say she’s pretty much a pony version of Indiana Jones (and, yes, I am fully aware that Tomb Raider was inspired by the trilogy), but I instantly thought of Lara Croft the first time I saw this episode.
Being that I’m an avid reader, I couldn’t exactly relate to Rainbow Dash’s conflict in this episode. I don’t understand people who don’t like to read. I honestly find such a trait weird. Really, it’s not a matter of whether or not you like to read; it’s a matter of finding the right book. However, I could realte to Rainbow Dash’s boredom being stuck in the hospital in all. First of all, I don’t like hospitals. They give me the creeps. Second of all, I’m not one of those people who can stand sitting around doing nothing. (This is why I find social events so boring.) I have to be up doing something, whether that’s reading a book or working on one.
I really like that the others visit Rainbow Dash in the hospital any chance they get. Of particular not is the scene in which Fluttershy and Twilight play a ponified version of Battleship. I don’t think Rainbow Dash’s lines during said game were scripted. I think the voice director just had Asheligh Ball ad-libbing the whole time and they picked the lines that they liked best.
There is one part in this episode that surprised me. Right after Daring Do goes through the hallway of traps upon entering the temple, she enters a room that triggers another set of traps. She lets out a groan and then her lips move, but no words come out. Is it just me, or is this the animators’ way of having Daring Do cuss under her breath? The lip movements make it seem as if she’s mouthing the phrase, “Fuck me”, which honestly wouldn’t be too surprising given the situation she’s in.
Apart from Daring Do, I also really liked Dr. Stable. He seems to be a very caring individual, making sure that Rainbow Dash is comfortable during her stay at the hospital, but he’s not about to tolerate her trying to sneak back into the hospital by feigning an injury. We also get introduced to Nurse Sweetheart in this episode. Honestly, the first time I saw this episode, I thought that she may have been Diamond Tiara’s mother. (“Crusaders of the Lost Mark” have pretty much blown this headcanon to pieces, however.) We’re also introduced to another nurse – a yellow mare with a bright blue mane and tail – as well as a cute little filly who may be working as an intern there or something.
This episode made me hungry for more Daring Do. I know that this character has actually been graced with her very own real-life book series, and I can’t wait to read it when I get the chance.
Episode 17: Hearts and Hooves Day
To those of you who ship Big Mac and Fluttershy, I’m pretty sure you were disappointed with this episode. I wasn’t, however. I really liked this episode. It’s about time this big lug got his own episode. I’m sure I’m not the only one who was pining for a Big Mac episode ever since his first speaking role in “Applebuck Season.”
One of the things that I really liked about this episode was the fact that Azul gave Diamond Tiara a card. (See? She’s not a complete monster. There are some ponies who do genuinely like her.) There’s also a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment in this same shot where a colt is trying to give a card to a filly, only to stop when another colt gives the same filly a card. I also really love the fact that the Cutie Mark Crusaders give Miss Cheerileee a gigantic heart for the holiday, signifying their love for her. When they bring up the fact that she doesn’t have a special somepony, she makes a face that says, “Not this again.” I think it’s safe to say that her love life is something that Miss Cheerilee doesn’t care to talk about.
This episode is where we got the famous Button Mash and Sweetie Belle pairing. For those of you wondering, I don’t hate Button Mash. I think he’s really cute. I absolutely loved Button’s Adventures. I just can’t see him and Sweetie Belle being together, especially all because of a two-second scene. I prefer Sweetie Belle be paired with Spike. I always have and I always will.
There’s some good comedy in this episode. When Sweetie Belle is proposing that the Cutie Mark Crusaders help Miss Cheerilee find her “very special somepony”, Twist accidentally puts the tail on Cheerilee’s nose while playing Pin the Tail on the Pony. There’s also Cheerilee’s expression when she points out, ‘That’s an apple tree.” It pretty much says, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” The expressions that the Cutie Mark Crusaders pull off when it looks as if Miss Cheerilee is going to ask Big Mac to be her very special sompeony, both times, are also incredibly funny as well. Sweetie’s reactions to both of these scenes are very humorous too. I imagine Claire Corlett had fun recording those lines.
The only thing that sours my liking for this episode is the ending. I honestly don’t think the Cutie Mark Crusaders should have gotten punished in this episode. They had clearly learned their lesson. They made an honest mistake and, as far as I’m concerned, didn’t exactly do anything wrong that warrants them getting punished. There was no need to punish them whatsoever.
Episode 18: A Friend in Deed
Oh, how I hate this episode! Pinkie Pie wasn’t annoying in season one. To my recollection, there wasn’t a moment, even in the episodes I hated, where I caught myself thinking, “Oh, Pinkie, I wish you would just go away!” That changed with this season. You see, as season two progressed, I began to notice that Pinkie Pie went from a silly pony to being to get flanderized into an annoying, loud-mouthed hyperactive adult foal who wouldn’t shut the hell up.
To be fair, I really loved the opening of this episode. Pinkie does something that most moms wish they could do: work out and mind the babies at the same time. We then get an example of why Pinkie Pie is so beloved in Ponyville. She goes about smiling and chatting with the many residents of Ponyville. She compliments the tie an elderly pony is wearing. She comments on Roseluck’s flowers. She goes out of her way to wish both Cheerilee and Zecora a happy birthday. We then get what is arguably the best song in the whole series: “The Smile Song (Smile Smile Smile)” It’s one of my personal favorites. I listen to it all the time. The staff has yet to top themselves in terms of how great this song is.
But then everything goes to pot as soon as Cranky shows up. From this point on, Pinkie does nothing but pester the crap out of this poor guy. All he wanted was to get some peace and quiet. (And maybe die in peace?) Instead, he gets constantly bothered by Pinkie, who was acting even crazier than usual, all to get a complete stranger to like her. At first, I thought Cranky’s being repelled by Pinkie’s usual antics might have been the writers giving Pinkie Pie some character development as her character was deconstructed. Boy, was I in for a shock.
Pinkie goes to Twilight to talk about what she should do. Twilight advises her to just leave Cranky alone, but does Pinkie do that? No. She proceeds to pester him some more. In doing so, she ruins her scrapbook. This turns out to piss Cranky off so much that he pretty much kicks Pinkie out of his house.
And then we reach the third act, where we get the most intelligence-insulting happy ending in animation history. You see, one of the characters that Pinkie passes by in the first act is Matilda, a donkey. She happens to be Cranky’s long-lost love, who just so happens to live in Ponyville and who hasn’t moved on from Cranky. So basically, this episode teaches kids that they can get anything they want if they’re annoying enough.
About the only thing I liked about this episode was the animation style used when Pinkie is going through her checklist and I liked the callback to Pinkie chasing Rainbow Dash in “Griffon the Brush-Off”, both of which are obvious callbacks to the classic Pepe Le Pew cartoons.
Episode 19: Putting Your Hoof Down
I love Fluttershy and, like with Pinkie Pie, I’m all for the writers giving her some character development. However, the writers went about it all wrong here.
The first complaint I have is the opening where Angel Bunny is throwing a fit over what Fluttershy has given him to eat. He slaps her across the face and demand that she make him a very complicated-looking salad. Okay, first of all, this is not funny. This pisses me off because not only is domestic violence being played for laughs, but because I had to grow up in this kind of environment. If me and my brother wandered off in a department store, our father would rather leave us there than actually go looking for us. We were spanked on a regular basis for wrongdoing and told, “Children are to be seen and not heard.” It’s because of this mantra why I don’t bother to speak up for myself or try to join in on conversations or offer up my opinion on a topic. Anytime I try to, I’m told to my brother, stepdad, and cousins to shut up because no one asked for my opinion and that I don’t know what I’m talking about. So, being reminded of this kind of upbringing does nothing but piss me the hell off and it’s probably one of the things that really soured my liking for this episode. Second of all, yes, Angel has been shown to be impatient and even downright bratty at times before this episode, but he has never been portrayed as being an abusive asshole. This crap might be at home in shows like South Park and Family Guy, but it does not belong in a show like this. I watch this show to get away from that kind of crap! I don’t let reminders of how difficult my childhood was.
What’s worse than Angel literally bitch-slapping Fluttershy across the face is the fact that everypony in this episode is portrayed as an asshole. Remember in “Smile Smile Smile” where everypony was smiling and whatnot? Yeah, by any chance, can we have that Ponyville back instead of having to put up with these douchey ponies? Literally, all of the background ponies are assholes for no reason, pushing Fluttershy around, jacking up their prices (who the hell charges ten bits for one freaking cherry?!), cutting in front of her, and insulting her. It isn’t until Rarity and Pinkie Pie step in (Pinkie is used much better here than she was in “A Friend In Deed”) and try teaching her how to stand up for herself that she starts to get the ingredients she needs successfully. She tries out their methods, but fails at it miserably. Despite this, she still manages to come off as extremely adorable.
So, Fluttershy succeeds in preparing the meal for Angel, the only thing missing is the cherry. Because of this, he literally kicks her out of the house. This prompts Fluttershy to take Iron Will’s assertiveness training course. Regarding Iron Will, he sounds exactly like Hercule Satan from Dragon Ball Z. If you were to tell me that that’s the same voice actor, I’d probably be inclined to believe you.
So after Iron Will’s training course, Fluttershy proceeds to act like a bitch to everypony, including her friends. She dumps a bowl of punch on Pinkie Pie simply because Pinkie was laughing. Fluttershy should have known that Pinkie wasn’t laughing at her. Laughing hardly constitutes dumping punch all over them. But dumping punch on Pinkie is minor compared to what Fluttershy does next. When Rarity and Pinkie call Fluttershy out on the way she’s been behaving, she begins to chew them out. Oh, I’m sorry. I worded that wrong. I meant to say, verbally abusing them. She calls their interests frivolous and calls their passions petty. She proceeds to tell them that they’re wasting their lives pursuing things that nopony else gives a flying fuc – er, sorry, I mean, feather – about. Uh, excuse me, Flutterbitch, but that’s how they earn a living. They run their businesses by way of actually interacting with other ponies, rather than being a reclusive shut-in like you, taking care of woodland critters for no pay whatsoever. So, yeah, fuck you too.
I understand what the writers are trying to do here. They’re trying to say that it’s bad to go overboard. But the character they used for this lesson is all wrong. Fluttershy is not the one who should be learning this lesson. If anypony, it should be Rainbow Dash. I mean, this scene is so out of character. Fluttershy would never, ever say anything like this, especially not to her friends. The fact that she made Rarity cry (she’s clearly crying when Pinkie Pie tells Fluttershy to leave her alone), but didn’t care and went on to berate them, leading to them running away crying their eyes out certainly does not help matters. Yes, you can use the defense, “But the only reason she was acting that way is because of Iron Will’s training.” Yes, that’s true, but that excuse doesn’t work because Fluttershy is not the type of pony to verbally abuse and mentally scar her friends.
Very much like with how Pinkie Pie was handled in “Party of One,” Fluttershy’s character was handled abysmally in this episode. Again, I’m all for developing these characters, but, writers, could you please stop doing it in such a heartbreaking way? It’s not fun. It just make me want to bawl my eyes out seeing these characters being put through such misery just to learn a lesson.
Episode 20: It’s About Time
Twilight and Fluttershy are my top favorite ponies when it comes to the main cast, probably because they’re so much like me. Like Twilight, I’ve always been deeply interested in books. Like Fluttershy, I’ve always kept to myself. It’s because I really like these characters that I want to see good episodes centered on them. Was Twilight's episode better than Fluttershy’s? Somewhat, but not by much.
This episode’s biggest problem is that it’s just entirely pointless. Like episodes such as “Family Appreciation Day”, if you were to skip this episode you would be missing nothing. I say this because the lesson that Twilight learns is to not worry about stuff and let things get to her. Isn’t that what most of the episodes centered on her are about anyway? I mean, both “The Ticket Master” and “Lesson Zero” pretty much had this exact same lesson, so why did this lesson need to be repeated three times? Yes, this is the third time we’re hearing this lesson. The third time! Let me ask you a question: If in “The Ticket Master”, Twilight learns that she shouldn’t worry about giving an extra ticket to her friends, then in “Lesson Zero” she learns not to worry about turning in a friendship report to Princess Celestia, and then in “It’s About Time”, she learns not to worry about the future, are you getting the exact same lesson? Yes, you’re getting the exact same lesson, so, again I ask, why did this lesson needed to be repeated three times? The obvious answer is apparently this lesson isn’t sticking.
What really brings this episode down is the premise. This is the episode in which time travel is made canon in the show, so you would expect the writers to take full advantage of the Doctor Whooves character, right? (Hell, the music during Past Twilight's visit to the present even sounds like the Doctor Who theme.) No. Instead, we get hijinks.
Instead of acting like the smart pony we all know and love, Twilight instead proceeds to act like an idiot. Her worry over the future was completely irrational. Why didn’t she do anything to stop the time loop, like brushing her mane? I’m pretty sure putting on as much weight as possible would have done something to stop the time loop? But instead, she does nothing at all, allowing Spike to eat ice cream all day? Correct me if I’m wrong here (the staff, and even Lauren Faust herself, have never really been very clear on this), but isn’t Twilight pretty much Spike’s mother? Who lets their kid eat ice cream all day? She at least told him to stop, if only because of an impending stomachache, but he stubbornly refused to listen and she didn’t do anything to reprimand him afterwards.
Finally, you mean to tell me that Celestia is perfectly okay with Twilight breaking into what is basically the restricted section of the Hogwarts library to use a time manipulation spell? Seriously? Whatever happened to the Celestia who would step in and let Twilight know when she was being stupid? However, I did like the guard who let Twilight in the section. I wonder if there have been any fanfics with them in a relationship.
About the only thing I liked about this episode was Pinkie Pie. Given how much I dislike her, you know something is seriously wrong when I compliment her as being the best thing in an episode. I like the idea of her being a fortune teller (it’s just the sort of thing she’d do) and I like the callback to “Feeling Pinkie Keen”, as well as Pinkie Pie questioning where the flowerpot came from.
It’s episodes like this that make me see why so many people have a dislike for Twilight. Like in “A Canterlot Wedding”, we’re supposed o side with Twilight simply because she’s the main character, despite the fact that she’s in the wrong, and yet nopony cares, all because she’s the main character. As much as I love Twilight, I don’t like seeing her get special treatment simply because she’s the main character.
Episode 21: Dragon Quest
When I first heard of this episode, I remember getting really excited for it. Sadly, I was severely disappointed. Oh, the potential this episode had! Seeing Spike lamenting how he’s wondering where he comes from, I thought that we were finally going to meet Spike’s parents. We were finally going to find out how Spike ended up being in Celestia’s care. We were finally going to learn about the culture of dragons in this show. We were going to get a very heartwarming story about Spike and how Twilight is seen as something of a surrogate mother to him, with plenty of scenes to get the waterworks going too. Do we get any of that? No, of course not.
We instead get treated to the writers portraying dragons as a bunch of immature jerks. One of the things that really made me fall in love with this show was its strong female characters that defied gender stereotypes. (This is why Rarity is my third favorite pony.) So I really have to question what the hell the writers were thinking when they decided to make the teenage dragons a bunch of male stereotypes. So basically this episode says that because one group of teenage dragons are a bunch of immature jerks, then that means that all dragons are a waste of time. Therefore, Spike must reject who he is. Like I said in “Hearth’s Warming Eve”, if there’s one thing that I can’t stand, it’s racism, and the writers beat you over the head with it in this episode. We’ve seen plenty of instances where ponies, especially the Mane Six, are obnoxious jackasses. With that being said, can we please just write off all ponies as being nothing but obnoxious jackasses? And, is it just me, or is the writers subtle way of portraying dragons as people who don’t care for the show. It’s like they’re saying, “Here are some dragons who don’t like ponies. All they do all dare is dumb little dares. If you tell them you like ponies, they’ll ridicule and make fun of you.” Give me a freaking break.
However, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were bad in this episode. For one thing, Rainbow Dash and Twilight are trying to talk Fluttershy into going to see the dragon migration with them. Instead of respecting her wishes to be left alone, they continue to try to force her into going with them. Finally, Fluttershy snaps, tackles Rainbow Dash to the floor, pounces on her, and then flees from her house. Really? Rainbow Dash pointing out that Fluttershy dragged her to a butterfly migration, thus proving her to be a hypocrite, is what causes Fluttershy to snap and do Rainbow Dash physical harm? Seriously?
Then she makes fun of Spike simply because of his interests. The only pony to step in and defend him is Rarity. I’m pretty sure that Twilight wouldn’t appreciate Rainbow Dash making fun of what is essentially her son/little brother. Rarity’s defense of Spike is ruined, however, when she too begins making fun of him. The others point out that he doesn’t look or act like regular dragons, and Applejack asks him why he would want to. I want you to replace dragons with any other noun you can think of: guys, girls, gays, Christians, atheists. Do you see the problem here?
As if all of this wasn’t bad enough, we then get the ending. Spike adopts a baby phoenix as his own. Oh, I’m sorry. I meant to say he kidnaps a baby phoenix. The reason why this is such a problem for me is the fact that it’s clearly stated that nopony knows where Spike came. (This brings us to the horrific conclusion that his parents are either dead or accidentally abandoned him.) Spike, on the other hand, knows who Pee Wee’s parents are. I think he should have given Pee Wee back to his parents and written a letter to Princess Celestia about how kidnapping is wrong. Finally, what makes this extremely pointless is how this was resolved in season three. (I’ll get to that when I review season three.)
Really, the one good thing that I can say about this is that Rainbow Dash manages to redeem herself by showing concern for Spike when he announces that he’s going to join in on the migration. She redeems herself again by standing up to Spike. She’s the first one to say something in his defense. The other good thing that I can say about this episode is I liked the heartwarming hug between Spike and Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash after he calls them his family.
Episode 22: Hurricane Fluttershy
I don’t have much to say about this episode because it didn’t leave that much of an impression on me. Granted, I did like it for the character development it gave Fluttershy. I also like the way Rainbow Dash acted in this episode. She doesn’t get onto Fluttershy’s case. She tries to gingerly find out what the problem is and constantly shows concern for Fluttershy throughout the episode.
Angel Bunny was a lot more caring here than he was in “Putting Your Hoof Down.” He’s seen comforting Fluttershy while she’s crying after failing at flying. It’s because of him and the other critters that inspire Fluttershy to become a better, stronger flier.
This is the episode where the “Fluttershy is a tree” idea from “Over a Barrel” was used yet again. We also get introduced to Blossomforth, Thunderlane, and Rumble. Even Spitfire makes a brief cameo near the ending of the episode. I liked all three of these pegasi and hope that they get used more often in the future.
This is one of the few episodes this season that I actually liked.
Episode 23: Ponyville Confidential
Out of all the episodes featuring the Cutie Mark Crusaders, this is perhaps the absolute worst. I think this is the only episode featuring these three characters that I actually hate.
The episode itself started out well enough. The CMC decide to join the school newspaper. After impressing Diamond Tiara, the editor-in-chief, with an article about how Snips and Snails got gum stuck on their butts, they decide to start a gossip column under the pseudonym Gabby Gums. Soon, they begin publishing more and more gossip. Again, nothing too bad. But then everything goes downhill when they’re exposed as Gabby Gums.
First of all, Rarity was the only one who knew. Why the hell would she go around and tell everypony in town that her sister and her friends have been spreading gossip about them? It couldn’t have been Spike because he didn’t know Sweetie Belle and the others were Gabby Gums. Even if he did, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t stoop so low as to expose them as the ones who have been going around publishing slander about them.
Second of all, the way in which the denizens of Ponyville reacted to this revelation just pisses me the hell off! They were all fine with the gossip column until it was their asses on the firing line. Suddenly, everypony in town starts treating the CMC like outcasts. This is taken to a ridiculous degree when it’s shown that Applejack is refusing to talk to them, Big Mac yelling at them, Angel Bunny slamming the door in their faces, Twilight putting up a force field, and Rainbow Dash even causes it to rain on them. This is probably one of the darkest moments in the entire series. Yes, Applejack and Rarity’s reactions were understandable, seeing as how it’s a horrible thing to spread gossip about your own sister, but that still doesn’t excuse the behavior of the rest of the ponies. This was honestly horrible to witness three children being traumatized like this, especially given that it was clearly established earlier that they were feeling bad about what they were doing. So basically all of this is doing nothing but making three already hurting little fillies hurt all the more. It’s just shocking and jarring to see “adults” treating three little children this way.
I say “adults” jokingly because all of the so-called “adults” in this episode were acting like a bunch of pricks. Like I said, they all saw Gabby Gums as nothing but harmless fun until it was their asses on the firing line. As soon as they realize that the CMC are the ones who are Gabby Gums, they pretty much shun and verbally abuse them. Like in “Hearts and Hooves Day”, I don’t think the CMC should’ve gotten punished for this, because, as far as I’m concerned, they didn’t do anything abhorrently wrong in this episode. There is a fine line between being disappointed in someone and outright abusing them. There is a fine line between being reasonably upset with someone and acting like a petulant child when you’re supposed to be an adult. If you ask me, I really do think that the ponies in this episode overreacted, making them all a bunch of hypocrites. They basically encouraged Gabby Gums to victimize their neighbors all for the sake of a laugh. What’s more, they never get called out for their behavior, which was just flat-out uncalled for.
The other major problem with this episode is the aesop. I really feel like the “open letter to Ponyville” was nothing but a cop out from the writers as a means of ending the episode. Even then, it did nothing to perk up the mood of the episode, even though Diamond Tiara got her comeuppance in the end.
I’m honestly struggling to figure out what the hell the moral of this episode was. Was it supposed to be, “If you do something very bad, everybody will hate you where you live.” Or was it, “It’s okay to gossip about my friends, family, and neighbors, but please don’t gossip about me. If you do, I’ll ostracize you and so should everybody else.” In terms of the former, I’ve had to go through it and it’s not fun. It’s annoying as hell.
If I had anything to complain about regarding the Cutie Mark Crusaders, it’s the fact that they stupidly continued the gossip column even after Diamond Tiara pressured them into doing it via blackmail. Why didn’t they just go to Miss Cheerilee or one of the Mane Six and explain what was going on? If they would have done that, they wouldn’t have had to go through being traumatized like they were.
This episode was just downright terrible. I mean, for crying out loud, even Generation 3 of My Little Pony had better stories than this. No, I’m not kidding. Seriously, this is one of the absolute worst episodes of this season, if not the whole series. Writers, I beg you to please not make another episode like this ever again.
Episode 24: MMMystery On the Friendship Express
This episode was all about desserts, so I like this episode already. The thing that made this episode even better was the fact that it included a mystery too. Everybody loves a good mystery. That’s why Scooby-Doo has lasted as long as it has.
We get introduced to a couple of new characters here, mainly Gustav and Mulia. We’ve met Donut Joe before.
If I had anything to complain about it’s the fact that Pinkie Pie had this irrational fear that the other bakers were going to sabotage her entry into the competition. Why would she think that? They clearly had no ill intentions, so it’s like they were going to sabotgae her cake. Seeing as how the episode turned out, I suppose it is a good thing that Pinkie kept watch over the cake. That brings me to my next point. Just the fact that the Elements of Loyalty, Generosity, and Kindness were the ones who sabotaged the cake sickens me. For one thing, it’s hard to buy that both Rarity and Fluttershy would do this. Rainbow Dash, I can understand, and I would even settle for Applejack being one of the culprits, seeing as how she was the one who was trying to get a bite of the cake from the very beginning.
But I did like that both Pinkie and Twilight served as the team to crack the case. The way that Twilight goes about it is much more efficient than the way Pinkie goes about it. Pinkie just jumps to conclusions left and right while Twilight actually makes an attempt to search for clues and piece things together. Twilight is so corrupted by obsessive compulsive disorder that she even stops to clean the pipe Pinkie was using before she inserts it into her mouth. Yes, she was wiping it off germs, but it still comes off as an OCD moment to me.
Aside from Fluttershy and Rarity devouring half of the cake, I still really enjoyed this episode. I liked all of the pop cultural references within it and I like the way the episode ended. This is probably one of my favorite episdoes this season.
Episodes 25 & 26: A Canterlot Wedding
Sweet, loving, merciful Jesus, did part one of this season finale suck ass! I’m sorry, but it’s true. First and foremost, both Shining Armor and Princess Cadence feel as if they’ve been shoehorned into this episode, with a complete bullshit backstory about how they have life-long connections to Twilight. The writers really must think their target audience is a bunch of idiots if they honestly expect kids to buy this bullshit in a cup.
After a bland musical number, we travel to Canterlot, where there is more security than America post-9/11 simply because a threat has been issued. And that’s it. That’s all the information we’re given. We don’t know who made this threat, what they want, what they’re threatening to do, or why they made this threat. Just . . . a threat has been made against Canterlot. And yet Shining Armor and Cadence are still going to go through with their wedding plans. Uh, dude, the wedding can wait! A threat has been made against Canterlot. I think that’s more important than your wedding! Besides that, you have a force field to maintain focus on!
We’re then introduced to Cadence and the very first thing Twilight does upon seeing her is to shake her butt in Cadence’s face. If it wasn’t for Cadence’s completely bewildered expression, I would be inclined to say that this moment comes off as more disturbing than funny. As if shaking her butt in Cadence’s face wasn’t bad enough, we then get a clear shot of Twilight's ass,which becomes even more disturbing when you pause halfway through and it looks like Twilight is presenting herself to be rutted by Cadence. I’m pretty sure there are some writers out there who have taken this idea to its logical conclusion.
Because Twilight likes Cadence, we’re supposed to like her. Sorry, but I don’t like Cadence. Why? Well, for one thing, she uses mind control to make ponies fall in love. Isn’t that what the Cutie Mark Crusaders got punished for doing in “Hearts and Hooves Day?” We clearly see a couple arguing outside a coffee shop. The mare wants to get a hooficure, but who I’m assuming is her boyfriend, is acting like a dick and telling her that, no, she’s not going to get a hooficure. Instead of letting them handle the situation on their own, Cadence uses her freaky mind control powers and makes them act as if the fight never took place. Secondly, Cadence, and by extension Shining Armor, just feels like a character outside of a fanfic. These two are just jammed into the episode with no foreshadowing whatsoever. They easily could have fixed this earlier in the season, especially given all of the times the characters went to Canterlot this season.
Twilight immediately jumps to the conclusion that Cadence is evil simply because she’s meaner than usual. Upon coming to this conclusion, she proceeds to barge into the wedding rehearsal and announce that Cadence is evil. I’m sorry, but wasn’t the moral of the last episode about not jumping to conclusions, about making sure you have all of the facts before accusing someone of something they did, because you could hurt their feelings? I understand it was Pinkie who got this lesson, but still, it was made abundantly clear that Twilight knew this lesson already, so why wasn’t it implicated here? For her to do this just makes this moment come off as very out-of-character for her. Furthermore, “MMMystery On the Friendship Express” showed her to be a competent detective, but she doesn’t even try to get any evidence to back up her claims. Why?
Oh, but wait, it gets worse. Right after Cadence runs off, Shining Armor gives Twilight a stern talking to, effectively disowning her. Uh, dude, she’s trying to protect you and your reaction to this is basically to disown her? Really?
But still, it gets worse. After Shining Armor chews Twilight out, all of her friends run after to check on Cadence, with Celestia sternly telling Twilight, “You have a lot to think about.” This leaves Twilight feeling dejected. I really love the ending to part one, as well as the beginning to part two.
However, the wedding itself left a really bad taste in my mouth. For one thing, after all this time, we finally get to see Princess Celestia in action and she goes down without a hitch. Seriously? I would have much rather had Queen Chrysalis have one of her minions take out Princess Celestia in a sneak attack or something like that. Anything would have been better than having to listen Queen Chrysalis go on and on about Shining’s love.
We then get one of the worst moments of this finale, and that’s saying something. Granted, the fight scene that preceded this moment was really cool and stuff, but it turns out that this fight scene was completely pointless because Twilight and her friends end up getting captured. Wait, what? So you’re telling me that the Mane Six can face off against an army of changelings, but add a few dozen and suddenly they’re powerless to stop them? Really? It’s like the writers of this episode were trying to beat you over the head with the message that Twilight and her friends were never meant to be the heroes of this story. So it’s up to Shining Armor and Cadence to save the day.
I’m sorry, but these two honestly do feel like they were taken out of a fanfic. They’re underdeveloped. We’re told they love each other and we’re supposed to be like them simply because they’re nice. Sorry, but you have to develop your characters in order for me to like them. Their love for each other is strong enough to send a shock wave, blasting Queen Chrysalis and her changelings back to where they came from, thus saving the day. I don’t have a problem with this (as if “the magic of friendship is any less sappy”), but it feels like the writers really went out of their way to make sure that Cadence and Shining Armor were the ones who saved the day in the end. They achieved by making all of the other characters either powerless or too damn lazy to get up off their asses and do anything. It just seems like this was all pulled right out of the writers’ asses just so we had a reason to like Shining Armor and Cadence. This moment made me hate Cadence with a passion. I can say with complete confidence if that if she and Shining Armor had been created by a fan of the show, the two would have been laughed off as two Mary Sues. This ending just seemed like an extremely lame way to wrap things up.
I realize that I haven’t said very much about Queen Chrysalis. What do I think of her? I cannot for the life of me understand why this villain is so popular. She’s got to be one of the worst villains this show has had. Why can’t these writers make their villains menacing and threatening and interesting and complex? If the writers of Avatar: The Last Airbender do that, why can’t these writers? The reason why I hate Queen Chrysalis is the simple fact that she came off as more annoying than menacing. That, and she’s incredibly stupid. Now look, I know that not all villains can be brilliant; they sometimes make mistakes, but Queen Chrysalis does pretty much everything possible to ensure her own demise. Oh, let me count the ways.
First and foremost, she chooses when everypony has left Twilight to reveal herself. Why? And then she encases Twilight in fire, which sends her down into the prison where the real Cadence is being held. Yes, let’s trap two highly skilled unicorns in a cave with no restraints whatsoever and assign a trio of bimbos to guard them. Yes, that’s a brilliant plan. The only reason Queen Chrysalis’ plan even worked is just through sheer dumb luck.
Then, Queen Chrysalis proceeds to group everypony who’s capable of stopping her into one room. She doesn’t bat an eye when Twilight gets freed, and then openly mocks the notion of Cadence using her love to give Shining Armor strength for the spell. Hey, you stupid bitch, that was the same exact thing you were doing only a couple of scenes ago! Remind me again why this villain is so popular. Honestly, I think that Queen Chrysalis is one of the worst villains ever. I’ll admit that her design was kinda cool, but in order for the plot to work, the writers required her to be a complete dumbass throughout the entire thing.
Then we get to meet Luna, who swoops to join the Mane Six and asks what she missed. No. You have got to be kidding me! This just screams, “Wasted potential!” As cool as the fight scene was, I would have much rather been able to see Celestia and Luna fighting side by side.
What would have really helped this finale was if you took the Mane Six, sans Twilight, completely out of it. If they’d done that, then most of the problems with this finale wouldn’t exist. I really do feel like Twilight and her friends were shoehorned into this episode. I mean, you mean to tell me that it’s a couple of days before the wedding and Cadence hasn’t picked out a dress yet? They don’t have anything done. Not the food, the music, the outfits, nothing. Weddings take months upon months in advance to plan out and pay for. You would think that they would have had all of this crap planned out already. The reason why the others don’t work in this finale is just because they’re simply used to be a bunch of assholes to Twilight later on. It would have been a lot better had the writers completely removed them from the finale entirely and focused solely on Cadence and Shining Armor. The writers could have given them some character development. Hell, they could’ve given Luna a chance in the spotlight while they were at it.
I cannot believe how abysmal this finale was. If there’s one thing this finale was in desperate need of, it was in desperate need of some rewrites because this finale really came across as a fanfic author wrote it. About the only thing I liked about it was the expression that Twilight had while Applejack was busy running around the kitchen. She looks kinda cute when she’s angry.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This was, hands down, the worst season of this show. Out of twenty-six episodes, I think I hated a good fourteen of them and only liked about twelve. Yes, there were some episodes that were dull, but I didn’t hate them. Because of how bad this season was and how bad season one was, I have to say that it’s a good thing that Lauren Faust left the show. The show has really improved upon its writing and characterization since her departure, leaving Jayson Thiessen in charge, and that’s probably for the best.
Well, I’m off to watch and evaluate season three now. Take care, everypony.
Wow, you have some very interesting opinions.
Glad someone else agrees. Derpy is not an offensive sterotype, Seasons 4-9 Patrick Star was.
Wait, you're blind? Then, how do you see and respond to comments? Or are you only blind in one eye?
I don't think you know what flanderization means, it's a reoccurring process that takes place over time. It's constantly exaggerting a character's flaw, until it becomes their only personality trait.
Technically, Pinkie Pie was the one who jumped off Applejack's carriage and asked Rarity to catch her. Rarity could've easily done so with her magic, though Rainbow Dash should've gone back for them after they caught Applejack.
They want to know why Applejack is abandoing the same town she sang the praises of before the rodeo. Applejack is being OOC in not caring what others will think of her decision to not come back because she didn't win any prize money, especially not her family. The mane six have every right to know why she's suddenly not caring about others, and just abandoning them for a fresh start somewhere else. She at least owes them an explanation.
That's not the same as wanting to know why one of your closest friends has suddenly decided to leave town and never come back.
Glad someone else notices the problem besides just me.
Perhaps because a lot of people in Canada are likely the desecendents of people who fled there in the 60's and 70's to avoid being drafted for the Vietnam War, most of whom were very liberal. In recent years, a lot of corporations have come under fire for incredibly henious acts including wrecking the economy and then getting bailed out for it so they don't take down everyone else.
The lip syncing in this episode isn't the greatest, so I think Daring Do was supposed to say something, but the line got cut during editing.
Her name is actually Nurse Tenderheart.
They knowingly tried to force two ponies to be in love, and in the process they caused much of the town to be destroyed. Though Cheerilee probably had no authority to punish Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo without the permission of their legal guardians (Big Macintosh was right there with her, so he could give her permission to punish Apple Bloom).
Not even "The Pony I Wanna Be" or "Pinkie's Lament"?
Well, he isn't. Hercule's VA works for Funimation, and most of their talent resides in Texas (Sean Schemmel lives in New York, though he's recently moved to LA to do voice work for cartoons).
But in part one of the Season Two overview, you said your father was the subject of rumors about sexual abuse that actually resulted in the police being called. Did this become a problem after that incident, because I'm pretty sure you could've told someone outside the household, there are resources for those who need help.
Honestly, the writers do a good job of showing that Fluttershy's behavior is in the wrong. Plus, it's only natural that when you tell someone who's been pushed around all their life that they don't have to take it laying down they're going to enjoy the power it gives and start to feel like anyone who tells them to stop just wants to silence them. Also, it's not Iron Will's fault that Fluttershy takes the assertivness training too far. You can't blaim the instructor when the student exploits the lesson for personal gain.
It's not the exact same lesson, each time it's a similarly themed lesson but with a different subject, just like Fluttershy's focus episodes prior to Seasons 4 and 5.
This is only really a problem in episodes "What About Discord?", I couldn't stand Twilight in that episode, and yet they had the nerve to say she was justified in feeling jealous and thus it was okay for her to do everything she did? What kind of a friend assumes another friend is evil just because of one event? It was her own fault for missing out on it.
To be fair, the phoenixs flew off with their hatchlings, unintentionally leaving the egg behind. Spike wasn't kidnapping it, though they probably should've indicated he would have to eventually return it to its family.
That is the one thing that I dislike about this episode, the entire "It's funny until it happens to me" mentality, that's how bad people get away with doing bad things. But to be fair, Twilight was skeptical of the idea of gossip from the start.
They have a right to be mad, and they have no idea about the blackmail or that the CMC are sorry. Did they overreact, perhaps a little, but wouldn't you be mad at having your privacy violated for the sake of gossip?
Hey, I find it to be a clever twist, especially since I was expecting Pinkie Pie to be the culprit.
Blame Hasbro for creating the new toys, Lauren Faust likely never intended for them to exisit, heck she wanted Cadence to be a unicorn.
It's not mind control, she is simply reminding the couple of why they love each other in the first place. She can mend broken bonds, but even she can't force two ponies to be in love.
That was definitely something I found odd, if you know a threat has been made then why are you still holding a wedding? I'm sure everyone would understand the need for security and the wedding would have to wait until the threat had passed.
It's probably Chrysalis' mind control that made him snap so hard. But he has a right to be mad with Twilight, as a husband his loyalty is to his wife. Scolding Twilight and revoking her best mare status was fine, but kicking her out of the wedding was going too far, especially if he wanted to patch things up at a later date.
Her plan was to bait Twilight into killing the real Cadence, and it nearly worked. And it was surprising to see how close she came to victory even after her plan was foiled.
Really? I think Season 1 was the weakest. Each season so far has been better than the previous season. Season 2 topped Season 1 fairly easily, Season 3 edged past Season 2 in a close contest, Season 4 easily beat out Season 3, and Season 5 managed to top Season 4 after a while. Season 6 already looks promising.
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Blind in one eye.
By the time Rarity turned, Pinkie Pie was already falling towards her. She didn't have any time to react.
Yes, that's true. Still, they didn't have to constantly bother her. They could have easily given her some space and allowed her to tell them when she was ready.
According to the transcript for this episode, her name is Nurse Sweetheart, but I suppose either name works.
As they said, their hearts were in the right place, and both Cheerilee and Big Mac didn't seem to be too upset, hence the light punishment. Cheerilee even seemed appreciative of the fact that the CMC cared enough about her to help her find a special somepony if it meant making her happy.
Yes, I know. My point was that the two of them sound so similar that it's easy to be fooled into thinking that they're both being voiced by the same person.
This problem was back when I was growing up. The sexual abuse rumors occurred when I was in the eighth grade, long after my parents had gotten divorced.
No.
Yes, that's true. The characters themselves even point this out throughout the episode.
Again, this is why I didn't particularly like that episode.
This revelation at the beginning of 'Just for Sidekicks' honestly pissed me off.
They have no right to be mad when they're the ones who caused Gabby Gums to spiral out of control. They were perfectly fine with their neighbors and friends being publicly humiliated until it was their asses on the firing line. I think saying they overreacted is an understatement. Yes, what the CMC did in this episode was horrible (doubly so given that two of them violated their sisters' privacy), but that hardly calls for them being ostracized by everyone they know and possibly scarred for life due to being traumatized like they were.
Yes, it was a clever twist, but it would have benefited had they used different characters. I can understand Rainbow Dash, but why not use Applejack and Twilight as culprits instead?
The show has handled this much better in recent years. There could have at least been some build-up to this revelation, maybe a mention of them from Twilight every now and again? But, no, we don't even get that.
Yes, a husband must be loyal to his wife, but not at the cost of his family. I'm sure a wife understands if her husband puts his family above her.
I hated a lot more episodes this season than I did season one. However, season one had the worst character moments compared to this one.
Seasons four is where the series really started to pick up steam, and season five is where the show has hit its peak. My only real issue with season four is the way in which the overall story was handled. They could have easily gone for a flowing narrative akin to Gravity Falls or Avatar: The Last Airbender, but they didn't. This isn't any fault of the writers, mind you. According to Meghan McCarthy, when they got to work on a new season, they have no idea in which the order the episodes are going to be produced or aired, so the episodes in which the Mane Six find their keys strictly had to be stand alone episodes.
I haven't seen much coverage of it. From what I understand, we're supposed to be getting a new Christmas-themed episode with the Mane SIx and the CMC, and we're supposed to be getting introduced to a few female dragons. That's all I know. Regardless, I am looking forward to when the season will premiere, which will be in May.
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For how long?
3766621 Since birth.
A lot of your complaints of canterlot wedding are nitpicks. Twilight doing her shake in front of Cadance isn't disturbing in any way because it was shown what it means. I'm not really sure what you could confuse it with.
Also to let the wedding proceed is normal. It's to show that they aren't intimidated. Twilight is mostly concerned that Cadance will make Shining Armor unhappy in life, that was made pretty clear. Also the complaint about the mane 6 being overpowered is false. They get captured when they enter the throne room and there are thousands of changelings and there are even more coming up behind them. They can fight off a few hundred but not a few thousand.
Canterlot Wedding is my favorite double episode. It's the most dramatic, the strongest written and has the most interesting villain. Discord was fun to watch but he has almost no character (granted they have managed to give him a character after his reformation). Discord is only interesting for WHAT he is whereas Chrysalis is interesting because of WHO she is. I think Chrysalis is the only villain that actually is also an interesting character in her own right. The fact that so little was explained about her added to that, she's just so mysterious but also more real. NMM truly has no character whatsover (it's kind of the idea behind her) and Tirek is extremely simple.
I also had a problem with that though mine is slightly different. A punishment for a mistake is meant to teach you responsibility. However the CMC already took responsibility for their mistake. They themselves saw something was wrong, they themselves researched what had gone wrong, they themselves realized the potential consequences, they themselves than devised a plan and then they themselves worked extremely hard for over an hour to implement it. They not only realized their mistake completely on their own without any adult having to tell them but they also fixed it. If someone has made a mistake but then fixed it you should forgive them for that. In fact since they are still so young Cheerilee should salute them for fixing their mistakes without having been told. I think the message it sends is actually somewhat damaging; that it's pointless to try and clean up your own mess because you're going to be punished for it either way.
The Flim Flam brothers are quite good and realistic villains. They are very charismatic (which takes the form of music in equestria since ponies are very fond of music) they are efficient, they are clever and they are absolutely ruthless once they sniff an opportunity. I can understand the sentiment of the Apples of them not wanting that massive machine on their land sucking out their apples. The Flim Flam brother's every action seemed reasonable to me, they prefer diplomacy when possible but have no qualms about going to war if it benefits them. They are the perfect business ponies. I'm also impressed that they made them so charismatic, mostly ruthless business villains are portrayed as nasty and unlikable but you need a lot of charisma to reach the top and to wow an audience. The brothers do that perfectly, they are truly ruthless businessmen.
The last roundup had Pinkie Pie being infuriated about her pinkie promise. That was a really nice addition to her character.
Also characters aren't flanderized in a single episode. They are just simplified, in an episode where they all appear that is almost inevitable and there is nothing wrong with it. flanderization means that you keep simplifying the character episode after episode and you make a few characteristics more and more extreme until they are all that defines that character. In essence flanderization is the opposite of making a character deeper through character development.
Ponyville confidential is supposed to have the obvious moral about not gossiping but also a hidden moral about the hypocrisy of gossip papers. That you aren't bothered by it until it's about you. It's sort of a hidden moral, MLP has done that before. In "Suited for Success" the hidden moral is to trust the expert.
Season 2 is my favorite, I love character development and them just being themselves. Season 1 had a lot of adventure nonsense that often got in the way not to mention having Twilight be precend for every episode (she might be my favorite character but it still was too much). Season 2 still had the strong writing of season 1 but it is more light hearted what makes it more enjoyable. It also has the strongest episodes as well as the best songs.