My only real issue with this episode is it starts the trend of Pinkie being scared of anything and panicking at everything. Even if it's just pretend, it rather tramples all over her characterization from singing Giggle at the Ghosty in the second episode.

I also always have to wonder why Granny Smith is escorting non-CMC foals around town. At least I would expect her to have Apple Bloom with her, and unless I am mistaken about which filly is in what costume I don't think she was.

Aside from those gripes I find this episode really entertaining.

I remember being entertained as hell while watching all these episodes for the first time. Now... I feel like the individual scenes in each episode are for the most part good but the resulting episode is less than the sum of its parts. I'm almost mad at you for ruining season 2 for me, hehe, but it's not your fault Faust left (or whatever the reason is).

Well now that you put it that way, I feel much different about pinkie in this episode... She seems to be tragically out of character, making Luna a miserable wreck. I do not like that Pinkie.

This episode really brought out the best of the brony community. A year of stories and fanart all depicting Luna in different ways. She finally shows up again, but has a completely different personality than anybody expected... and everyone is perfectly alright with that.

Plus, even if Pinkie Pie is a complete troll in this episode, we got what might be my favorite Pinkie line.

Maybe it's just me, but that always cracks me up.

I completely agree with you on Pinkie being annoying in this episode. Also, your point on Luna having a hard life is pretty valid here, too. She lost an entire millennium of societal changes. You simply cannot expect her to know how to act in all situations. And let's not forget her banishment... I don't think people in this community quite understand what total isolation means. For prolonged periods of time, it's the ultimate torture method. And for a thousand years? I don't even want to think about it.

This is also the biggest reason for why I have a hard time accepting Celestia as a good leader, or as a good person in general. While it is true that she had to do something to stop Nightmare Moon initially, banishing her to the Moon and leaving her to rot is hardly the best way to go about it. Furthermore, she let her sister's legacy be obscured into a myth, even though she knew, or at least she should've known that she would be back eventually, considering the prophecy. Even if she didn't believe the prophecy, that hardly makes it any better. She probably would've just let her bang her head against rocks for all eternity.

And the fact that she didn't properly prepare her for a visit to Ponyville after all this (like telling her not to use the RC voice) really makes me wonder if Celestia is psychopathic. I know that the whole Tyrant-Celestia thing is a bit old, but seriously. If the writers don't fill in the many holes they left open in the pilot, this is how I will continue seeing Celestia.

When I first saw this episode, I did not much like it. Not because of any of your problems with it; I loved Pinkie's antics and found them all perfectly fitting of her character, of course at this point I'd only first met her 25 days prior so maybe I just hadn't had as much time to build up preconceptions about what kind of character she was. Nor was I disgruntled that Luna didn't match my expectations; again new to the fandom, and while I had started reading fanfics at this point I'd been intentionally avoiding ones starring Luna since I knew this episode was coming up. No, what incessantly bugged me was that the entire drama revolved around characters misunderstanding each other's intentions and that everything could have been resolved so much faster if they'd all just sat down and talked (it's a major personal pet peeve of mine that always makes any conflict feel artificially forced dragged out). Still there are so many other wonderful touches in this episode, that subsequent viewings have eased over all of that and made it one of my favorites.

However, once you have a statue of Nightmare Moon on display, you have to start wondering, “Why didn’t anypony recognize her in the pilot?”

I'm sure you've already heard this theory, but I always liked the notion that the ponies were just caught off-guard. It's like if one were to attend a speech by say the US President, but instead the Easter Bunny came on stage. You might know who/what the Easter Bunny is, but between the randomness of it all and the fact such a figure was to your knowledge a myth, it would all probably really mess with your ability to make any rational sense of what was happening.

in the shadow of the Nightmare Moon statue with a look of pure defeat. Okay, that’s pretty blatant symbolism,

Indeed! Another bit I like is that she pushes a piece of candy towards the statue, as if participating in the yearly offering so that NMM (or rather the legacy) won't gobble her up. Then there is how quickly her facial expression changes as soon as Twilight speaks, as though she is putting back on her mask of royalty because the common citizenry can't be allowed to see their ruler in such a moment of emotional weakness. It's all so very unnecessary, but that's what make those little details amazing; so many other shows would never bother.

maybe she should have realized something was up when the entire holiday was cancelled forever because of her.

Been over most of this already in the S2 overview, but maybe she just thought even that was all Luna being intentionally melodramatic and hamming it all up. I mean the way she says *Well, Duh!* (link) makes it rather obvious how innocently clueless she is about the whole situation and that from her perspective it should have all been perfectly obvious. This is in many ways not all that dissimilar than her antics in say Swarm of the Century. Her brain just doesn't process or express information the way most others do, it's why the phrase "Pinkie is just being Pinkie" exists.

Pinkie might be crazy and random, but she isn’t oblivious to everything that’s going on around her. She can read ponies in the blink of an eye, tell exactly what kind of party they’ll need,

Really?!?

...cause I can remember back as far as the first episode when she threw a totally undesired welcome party for Twilight then proceeded to obliviously ignore the future librarian's obvious frustrations at the whole affair. Pinky Pie may want to make ponies happy with every fiber of her being, but she's never been particularly empathetic about the way she goes about it; she only really knows what makes HERSELF happy and tends to blindly assume that it will make everypony else happy too.

...

Anyway, as I've said elsewhere the lack of nuclear fallout in the wake of this episode is what finally convinced me to be more than just a guy who watches the show and enjoys the odd bit of fanworks, and truly embrace the idea of being a BRONY. I really love how not only did canon Luna not start any wars, but the fans took to her with gusto. She didn't exactly displace the S1 fanon interpretation entirly, but I was amazed to watch as ongoing fics adapted to the change (your own work on MLA being one such example).

And nothing happened.

Not entirely true; I seem to remember reading someone, at some point, posting, "THE FANON IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE CANON."

Granted, the real one didn’t have fangs or gobble up ponies (that we know of), but at the same time, the basic look was the same, and this is supposed to be one of the most popular holidays in Equestria.

The statue seems to be in the Everfree forest, which ponies avoid in general. They might have only gone there that year because they know Zecora better now and she showed it to them.

That's what I think, anyway, in order to exucse the faux pas in-universe. Out-of-universe, I know it's because the writers simply hadn't thought up the idea yet, but just because they hadn't shown it clearly in the past, doesn't mean that they shouldn't take advantage of the idea now if it has potential good results, and they expect (or at least hope) that the fans understand that "canon" is a fairly fluid and morphic thing and shouldn't get in the way of a good story.

I call this the "Enterprise Issue," since this came up a lot during Enterprise's run (well...actually, it really didn't, but a lot of people seem to think it did). For the record: NX-01 Enterprise is best Enterprise.

(and I liked the show better when it was called Enterprise rather than Star Trek: Enterprse)

Throw in her rather bad temper, raw power, and Pinkie Pie, and you can see why she failed.

Luna Does Not Need a Microphone

I think my favorite part about Luna's voice and way of acting is that it kind of shows a definite connection to Nightmare Moon. Luna has always been a goth-metal, hamtastic loudmouth, and as Nightmare Moon she was simply malevolent on top of that. It kind of really gives the impression that even if there was a distinct Nightmare entity or consciousness, Luna was still in the driver's seat and the Nightmare was simply giving directions (though, personally, I still lean more towards the idea of "dark magic corrupts like the Dark SIde of the Force")

Words cannot describe my sheer level of rage at this.

And then some people wonder why I decided to make the Pinkie Pie magic card Red/Black...Pinkie can be pretty selfish without even meaning to be. She isn't capable of normal social interaction; probably part of the reason why she throws so many parties is that as long as she's at a party, then ponies will put up with hyperactive, off-the-wall nature, because that's how you're supposed to act at parties. But outside of a party, she's still hyperactive and still off-the-wall, but now that same attitude is trying at best. She has five wonderful friends who can look past that and help her, of course, and I think she knows how lucky she is that she does, at least.

For all that Pinkie Pie wants ponies to be happy and be her friends, she seems to be completely unable to actually understand the way other ponies think. It's a tremendous struggle for her to actually empathize with other ponies or try and understand why whatever crazy or random thing she's doing at the moment might be wrong or at least not a good idea. She does seem to have some ability to understand that some ponies should be left to their own devices - witness her unwillingness to prank Fluttershy - but then again, even that can fail her - Cranky the donkey, yes, but also Gilda, who kept getting caught by Rainbow Dash's pranks and having an increasingly awful time at the party, but Pinkie was oblivious to this.

(On the other hand, there is the possibility that Pinkie enjoyed that Gilda was having an increasingly awful time given how much of a dick Gilda was, but that seems out of character. But simply not understanding what's going on? That does mesh well).

but she isn’t oblivious to everything that’s going on around her.

Actually...she kind of is. Watch her carefully in every episode she's appeared in: in the pilot, she keeps a party going at high levels even though Twilight is making it clear through any reading of her body language that she doesn't want a party (and it keeps going - in Twilight's new house - even after she leaves) and then later makes fun of the returned goddess of the night with little regard for her own safety. In "The Ticket Master," she again throws a party for Twilight, all so that she can get her hooves on tickets, regardless of what it's doing to Twilight until Twilight finally just breaks down (to be fair to Pinkie, though, that applies to the other four as well). I already touched on "Griffin the Brush-off" above. In "Applebuck Season" she was oblivious to Applejack's exhaustion (although, again to be fair, so was everypony else except Twilight); in "Dragonshy" she thought that...I don't even know what that get-up was, but she honestly thought it was a valid way to deal with a dragon that could swallow her whole if it felt like it. In "Bridle Gossip" she's the ringleader, from what we see, of the rumors surrounding Zecora, without even considering what it might be doing to the poor zebra (as it turns out Zecora seems to take it in stride, but Pinkie doesn't care), and then in "Swarm of the Century," she's incapable of stopping and communicating with others, instead simply assuming that everypony will know everything that she does or at least be able to follow her own train of logic.

I could go on, but by now I think my point is clear, since that's just what she's done in the first ten episodes - there's a certain point where, if the character is "out-of-character" often enough, then that attitude is her character, and it's actually the other stuff that's out-of-character, even if we don't want that to be the case. Only that doesn't actually apply to Pinkie Pie, because she's acted oblivious and has had a difficult time interacting with ponies on a normal social level since the first episode, and every episode in which Pinkie Pie has appeared has reinforced the idea that she simply isn't capable of it, or at least that it takes a significant struggle, and she seems to measure what is "good" and what is "bad" by how much fun it is, without regards for how it might affect other ponies. It's not that she wants to cause other ponies (or zebras, or griffins) discomfort or pain, mind - it's that she doesn't even consider them in the first place. She isn't immoral, she's amoral.

(And now I feel kind of bad for pointing all of this out, but to be completely honest, this has been my read on the character from the pilot forward. She wasn't out of character in this episode, it's just that her near-complete inability to actually empathize with other ponies really shows through here)

I hate you, Hasbro.

To be fair to Hasbro, they didn't know how popular or not popular their version of Luna was going to end up being, so it makes sense to commit her to only one episode for the moment until fan reactions can be judged. After all, if people had hated this version of Luna while they were already making more episodes with her, then they'd be screwed, while on the other hand, if people loved this version of Luna but they didn't have her in any more episodes, then they could at least sit happy on their success.

It's a cautious approach, yes, but it's probably better for being cautious from a business standpoint.

310863

what incessantly bugged me was that the entire drama revolved around characters misunderstanding each other's intentions and that everything could have been resolved so much faster if they'd all just sat down and talked

That's, like...half the episode of the show.

310866

That's what I think, anyway, in order to exucse the faux pas in-universe.

Personally, I just think that it's a prop they dig out every year, since there's no reason to have a statue of a foal-eating monster out year-round. Considering the massive amounts of crap people haul out of their garages every year for All Hallow's Eve, it makes some bit of sense.

Watch her carefully in every episode she's appeared in

Okay, I will.

In the pilot, she immediately deduced that Twilight was new and had no friends, so tried to set up a party in order to help her make some and feel welcome. In "Ticket Master," she really wasn't any worse than any of the other ponies. Nobody besides Twilight noticed and/or cared about Applejack's sleep deprivation in "Applebuck Season," and she seemed to trust that AJ knew enough about baking to not second-guess her decisions. In "Griffon the Brush-Off," the whole party was an attempt to get Gilda to stop being grumpy, and she was genuinely concerned when she turned the wrong way and slipped on the cake. In "Boast Busters," she...um...looked at Trixie? In "Dragonshy," she tried to get the dragon to leave by making him laugh and becoming friends with him, since that's how it works in 99% of all other girl's cartoons; this being a much smarter show than those, it doesn't work. In "Bridle Gossip," she's bad, but then again so's the entire town, and Zecora doesn't exactly offer a lot of compelling arguments to think otherwise. In "Swarm of the Century," she actually does try to tell them what's going on about halfway through, but everyone just writes her off as a crackpot and ignores her.

And that's just from the first ten episodes. Pinkie is simplistic and naive, but she isn't the amoral sociopath you make her out to be. All of the characters have severely crippled socialization skills, with Twilight being literal-minded and unwittingly insulting others, Rainbow Dash having an "It's all about me" attitude, Fluttershy being utterly submissive, Rarity faking an accent because she wants to pretend she's from somewhere she's not, and Applejack...well, okay, AJ is mostly fine, save for when she tries to lie. And Pinkie has been shown to be capable of interacting normally, she just prefers not to. And given what we saw of her backstory...yeah, if life on the rock farm was anywhere as dreary as she claimed, it's no small wonder how badly screwed up she is.

And I just noticed...you two seem to post here at almost the same time. Just saying.

310796
I don't see how it messes with anything from Giggle at the Ghostly. Pinkie believes in laughing in the face of fear, part of that is turning the very concept of fear itself into a game. It all fits perfectly to me.

310797 310801
It's comments like these that make me really feel all the more need to make responses to these reviews like my previous post in this thread. It's not so much that InsertAuthorHere is wrong, many valid points are raised, but there can be something very destructive about highlighting an episode's flaws while making no attempt to rationalize any of them.

310821

banishing her to the Moon and leaving her to rot is hardly the best way to go about it.

The scenes during the legend in Ep1 and later when Celestia confronts Luna in Ep2 always made it pretty obvious to me that if there had been any other way, Celestia would have done it. Banishing her own sister for a thousand years was clearly the hardest thing she'd ever done; it tore her apart to be forced into such a choice, and in some ways she suffered just as much during all those years. I mean, just look at how happy she is to not only have Luna finally back, but to be effectively forgiven for having to lock her away in the first place.

As for not properly preparing Luna to meet the public, who's to say Celestia wasn't trying? The dark cloak Luna shows up in might suggest that she basically snuck out of the castle without ever telling her sister that she was planning on making her big debut. Lune seems very stubborn and prideful, while Celestia is something of a known prankster, I don't think she would intentionally set her sister up to fail, but Luna might think such. "No Royal Canterlot voice anymore my moony flank! If Tia thinks for one minute I'm foalish enough to make such a gross social faux pas she has another thing coming."

310866

"THE FANON IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE CANON."

True, there seem to be an inordinate amount of fans (or maybe just trolls posing as such), that seem awfully fast to jump on all the ways any given new episode crushes fanon, sometimes over the more innocuously tiny details. It's like they are trying to stir up trouble or take joy from watching the hard work and/or beliefs of other go down in flames.

She isn't immoral, she's amoral.

Um... respectfully, but NO. Pinkie is incredibly moral, she always lives by that golden rule of "do unto others as you would have them do unto you". Her image song makes it very clear that above all else the one thing that makes her most happy in the entire world is spreading love and joy to all that she meets. She's not in any way, shape, or form selfish; she just sort of operates on the Blue and Orange axis of the morality spectrum.

310926
True, but here it is entirely dependent upon copious amounts of that issue. It's hard to explain really, but there are subtle differences involved that hit me on a very emotional level.

310931 I honestly don't see how it doesn't mess with Giggle at the Ghostly. Pinkie went from:

Season 1 – See something scary, laugh at it
to
Season 2 – See something scary, scream and run away

Yeah, she is still dealing with scary stuff by having fun with it, but her approach is a complete 180 and that is the change I don't like.

Don't get me wrong though, I don't hate either this episode or season two Pinkie because of it, I'm just mildly irked.

In the pilot, she immediately deduced that Twilight was new and had no friends, so tried to set up a party in order to help her make some and feel welcome.

Yes, but as pointed out, the party keeps going even after Twilight leaves it to sit in her room and sulk, with Pinkie not shown to make any effort to see if Twilight would like them to stop (nor even Pinkie checking to see if Twilight's okay after draining a glass of hot sauce). Yes, she wants Twilight to feel welcome, but on Pinkie's terms, not on Twilight's own. She only, at best, half-succeeded on her cold-read of Twilight, identifying Twilight's problem without being able to get a read on Twilight's personality itself, and utterly failing at implementing a solution since she assumed that what would help her out of Twilight's problem would also help Twilight.

In "Ticket Master," she really wasn't any worse than any of the other ponies. Nobody besides Twilight noticed and/or cared about Applejack's sleep deprivation in "Applebuck Season," and she seemed to trust that AJ knew enough about baking to not second-guess her decisions.

Granted, but it still happened. I operate on a pretty strict "show, don't tell" policy.

In "Griffon the Brush-Off," the whole party was an attempt to get Gilda to stop being grumpy, and she was genuinely concerned when she turned the wrong way and slipped on the cake.

But then we get the hot sauce again, and Pinkie taking out a marsh mallow and a stick rather than giving even cursory thought to seeing if Gilda was okay. Gilda was making her unhappiness pretty clear the whole time, and Pinkie just ignores it or - far more likely - doesn't notice it in the first place, until Gilda basically breaks down the way Twilight did in "the Ticket Master."

In "Boast Busters," she...um...looked at Trixie?

Was she even in that one? I skipped it becasue I'm not certain if she even had any lines or did anything; same reason why I skipped "Look before you Sleep."

In "Dragonshy," she tried to get the dragon to leave by making him laugh and becoming friends with him, since that's how it works in 99% of all other girl's cartoons; this being a much smarter show than those, it doesn't work.

While true, this excuse doesn't hold up in the universe itself. Yes, it makes a fun gag for those of us watching, but Pinkie isn't watching, she's experiencing. Ponies may not know too much about dragons in FiM, but it's certainly known that they can be tempermental and dangerous, but she still looked at the situation and thought that that get-up was the logical choice. It's the same kind of "makes sense only to her" thinking that lead her to act the way she did around Nightmare Moon and Discord.

In "Bridle Gossip," she's bad, but then again so's the entire town, and Zecora doesn't exactly offer a lot of compelling arguments to think otherwise.

Nor does Zecora do anything to really suggest that she's an evil enchantress, and Pinkie appears to take to the idea with extra gusto (which is why I didn't give her a sort-of pass like I did with "Ticket Master" and "Applebuck Season"). Just because everyone else is doing it, does not excuse her own actions, especially if she's even going to go so far as to write a song about the situation.

In "Swarm of the Century," she actually does try to tell them what's going on about halfway through, but everyone just writes her off as a crackpot and ignores her.

She doesn't exactly try very hard, though, and is genuinely annoyed that everypony else can't keep up with her train of logic. And she didn't explain everything from the get-go even when her friends made it pretty clear that they had no clue what a parasprite was, even though any normal approach to the situation would make explaining their nature as early as possible the top priority

And Pinkie has been shown to be capable of interacting normally, she just prefers not to.

I don't think it's a question of "preference," I think it's a question of "ability." Note that she rarely converses with anypony on a normal level, and when she tries it often comes out as something nonsensical or random.

but she isn't the amoral sociopath you make her out to be.

There is a strong case otherwise, and it comes across more clearly, as you pointed out, in Season 2. I recognize that you feel it's "out of character," the way she acts, but to me it doesn't seem out-of-character at all, just a clearer view of a negative side that always existed.

310931

She's not in any way, shape, or form selfish; she just sort of operates on the Blue and Orange axis of the morality spectrum.

Fair point - her morality doesn't operate along normal levels, then. The thing is, though, that when you take that Blue and Orange morality but look at it from a black and white (or even shades of gray) morality, it can certainly come across as amoral. It's all fine and dandy that she does have principles that she sticks to, and that what she thinks is "good" can genuinely be considered "good" on a normal level as well, but the simple fact is that what she thinks is "good" can also be bad on a normal morality scale, and that's been shown time and again.

And I don't think anyone will be able to convince me that Pinkie can't be tremendously selfish without even intending to be.

310931

It's comments like these that make me really feel all the more need to make responses to these reviews like my previous post in this thread. It's not so much that InsertAuthorHere is wrong, many valid points are raised, but there can be something very destructive about highlighting an episode's flaws while making no attempt to rationalize any of them.

Honestly...I'm sorry. The reason I don't bring up my own rationalizations and explanations that often in these is because I'm just trying to review the episode as it is presented. That's why I take the time to highlight the best parts of the episode, while also going over the things that I didn't find to work that well. So far, the only episodes I've reviewed that I would call "bad" were "Feeling Pinkie Keen" and "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well," and in both cases I tried to say what was good about them first.

Everything I touch, I destroy.

True, there seem to be an inordinate amount of fans (or maybe just trolls posing as such), that seem awfully fast to jump on all the ways any given new episode crushes fanon, sometimes over the more innocuously tiny details. It's like they are trying to stir up trouble or take joy from watching the hard work and/or beliefs of other go down in flames.

Sometimes it's this, but other times it's fanon that's been so well-established that people mistake it for canon. "A Canterlot Wedding" is the prime example of this; NOTHING it destroys was canon, and yet it's treated like it was built by a vengeful producer to blow up the show. With "Luna Eclipsed," though, people were ready for what was to come, and thus behaved fairly rationally. Cadance and Shining Armor's backstories pretty much just blindsided us, which is why a lot of people had a very knee-jerk reaction to them.

Her image song makes it very clear that above all else the one thing that makes her most happy in the entire world is spreading love and joy to all that she meets.

I would like to say I agree, and back up this statement with her actions in "Cutie Mark Chronicles." When she discovered hope and joy for the first time, she didn't throw a party for herself, but for the rest of the family. And when they were seemingly incapable of smiling, she was sad not just because they didn't like the party, but because she failed to make the ponies she's closest with happy after a lifetime of misery on a bleak, featureless rock farm. Pinkie wants to make others smile, and the problem she normally has is that she takes it way too far and has a very narrow definition of how to do it.

That's actually why I'm hoping the lesson from the ending of "A Friend in Deed" sticks, even if I dislike nearly all of that episode. There, she learns that sometimes people don't want to practice friendship the same way as you do, but that doesn't mean you can't get along, and that there are multiple ways to make a friend. Coupled with "Baby Cakes" (being a caregiver is different from being a playmate) and "MMMMystery on the Friendship Express" (use logic and reasoning instead of jumping to blind conclusions that could hurt someone), she's actually grown up a lot through the episodes dedicated to her. It's just when she's a supporting character that things seem to go wrong.

Everything I touch, I destroy.

That's not true. I printed out your list of problems with the Lunaverse and pinned it to my wall. It's probably the most helpful thing any one person has ever done for the Lunaverse.

310979
The difference was that with Giggle at the Ghostly, they were all on an important mission to save all of Equestria; they simply didn't have time to waste being scared of Nightmare Moon's illusions, and she wasn't going to let queen meenie have the upper hoof.

Nightmare Night however, is holiday built entirely around pretending to be scarred, and then later on in It's About Time she couldn't be more blatantly blunt about the fact that it's all part of a running gag and that she's just playing around (link1, link2). Heck, in that second instance she could even be viewed as trying to help in her own way. This is after all Ponyville, there is no way a three-headed hellhound isn't going to incite a panic, so the least she can do is try to lead everypony in a sort of organized chaos.

311000

And I don't think anyone will be able to convince me that Pinkie can't be tremendously selfish without even intending to be.

But she's not selfish; she always at least tries to put the wants and needs of others first. That's pretty much the very definition of SELFLESS. She's not perfect by any means, no one is. She may be frustratingly annoying, but she is never truly inconsiderate because she genuinely wants to make others happy; she just doesn't always grasp how to best go about doing so.

311014

Everything I touch, I destroy.

No please don't take my comment that way. It's important that you are trying to give clinical, no justifications, review of each episode, and you SHOULD NOT stop doing it. Now maybe, an extra section at the end for how you personally deal with those issues might be helpful for those that seem to take your words a little too seriously. Then again, maybe not; it shouldn't be your job to make excuses for what you believe are legitimate flaws on the parts of the staff and crew.

311026
Agreed. I once asked InsertAuthorHere for a more detailed explanation of what the individual faults he found with my fics were, primarily because I know that I could use a good swift kick in the rear there. I can't guarantee I'd ever agree with or make changes according to such a critique, but I could certainly use the contrast to the normally gushing praise I've been getting for what I know are my far from perfect writings.

Speaking of plot holes (heh heh heh I said plot hole dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Rainbow_dealwithit.png ) Anyone remember in Winter Wrap Up, when Twilight mentioned that it was a tradition dating back hundreds of years in Ponyville. And Granny Smith was a teenager when Ponyville was founded.

This post is brought to you by ADD and the mental Wikiwalk. dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Rainbow_dealwithit.png dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Lyra_dealwithit.png dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Cloudchaser_dealwithit.png

311065
Do you have any proof that Granny Smith is not hundreds of years old?

311119
Eenope.

310931 >Ghostly

311065 a.deviantart.net/avatars/l/y/lyramotherofgodplz.jpg

I can't agree with you anymore.

At first, I only knew the background settings of MLP-FiM and read the news about MLP-FiM is really popular in Western Countries on May 2012.
Then, I watched several episodes of season 1. "Umm.. Not bad. I liked AppleJack!"
And I saw the link from the fansite in my country. "Must WATCH - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 4" and I found a report "Who is your favorite pony?"
The voting results from two bronies website in my country showed.. The number 1 is not Twilight Sparkle (She's no.2), The number one is a background
- black (midnight blue) pony........ Princess Luna..!!??

What the....? A BLACK/DARK pony? The former tyrant? is popular (ok, not for kids, but for bronies) in a show that most ponies should be pink?
Then I watched this episode more than 3 times.. And I joined the herds... Oops..

When I watched this episode.. I screem..
no.. no.. Pinkie Pie.. you can't.... noooooooooooooooooooooo~
If Twilight Sparkle did not save the day.
I wonder if Luna could stop herself summoning massive thunder bolts to penetrate Pinkie Pie or dropping a heavenly body into ponyville
and then locking herself on the moon for another millennium.

I hate Hasbro but I can't really hate Hasbro..
She may be too dark for little girls whom Hasbro tried to sell toys to.
Celestia is not a Disney-Style princess. She acts like a motherly Queen/ruler.
Cadance is a good Disney-Style princess. She's sweet, kind-hearted (and pinky?). She has a nice wedding, great husband and a wonderful sister in law.
Luna is absolutely not a Disney-Style princess. She is Dark(midnight blue).
She's the ruler of the night (sound dangerous) and she acts like a commander/guardian more than a sweet princess.
Remembering her first time marching through the citizens of ponyville and the way she speak in S2 E25.
"Rest my sister, as always, I will guard the night" "Who goes there? Stay indoor. Twilight Sparkle"
She's a very interesting character for bronies. But I don't know if she's ok for little girls..

So we will hardly see her (S2 style) appearance in products (painting books, ice creams, even toys) for girls.
But we can see her (S2 style) in bronycon, comic-con and posters of season II characters, royal weddings.

Overall, I really enjoy reading the fictions and watching the fanart based on the canon after season 2.
It brings so much fun reading her outburst.. (I'm sorry.. ) And I wish to see more Luna in season 3. (hasbro.. plz)

Nice reviewing. Thank you!

And the worst part? She never has to apologize for this. Ever.

I do think that a short scene where Pinkie apologizes would have redeemed her almost entirely.

"I'm sorry Princess Luna, I guess I just let things get out of hand back there"
"I wanted to make things fun for everypony, and I forgot to stop and think about your feelings too"
<cue tear-jerking music>
<cue a warm expression from Luna>

It's ok for the characters to be terribly wrong in their actions - in fact it's good that they sometimes are.
So long as they learn and improve by the end of the episode.

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I mean, just look at how happy she is to not only have Luna finally back, but to be effectively forgiven for having to lock her away in the first place.

I think that scene somehow is forgotten, and in fact is somewhat of a plot hole in Luna Eclipsed.
I'm not one to get worked up about plot holes too much though, if a little drop in continuity improves the episode then I think it's ok.

But we somehow forget the very end of the pilot episode where Celestia and Luna return to Ponyville together, so that the princess can introduce her sister to everybody. And they're all happy for her, main characters and all of Ponyville celebrate that Nightmare Moon is gone and Luna is restored from evil.
It was apparently a short visit, but Ponyville was introduced to Luna in the first episode of the thing - and they rejoiced at her presence.

Here she is at the end of the episode - she doesn't say anything but she's there
I think that might be Lyra Heartstrings in the middle there
images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110818141546/mlp/images/thumb/0/09/Princess_Luna_smiling_at_her_sister_S1E02.png/640px-Princess_Luna_smiling_at_her_sister_S1E02.png

Look, even the little foals present her with some kind of sash made of flowers.
You know, in the way one might treat a beloved princess.
images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110910193027/mlp/images/thumb/7/73/Princess_Luna_wreath_pegasus_foals_S1E02.png/640px-Princess_Luna_wreath_pegasus_foals_S1E02.png

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I wish I could favorite your comment.

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True, but there she looked nothing like the terrifying NMM and more importantly the beloved Celestia was always close by which means A) everypony is reassured that their Princess will keep them safe and B) no one would want to insult her personally by being anything less than celebratory.

Contrast on Nightmare Night where Luna arrives alone on a gothic chariot pulled by monstrous guards and heralded by dark cloud and bolts of lightning. She then descends upon them in a shadowy cloak, and when finally revealed is looking far more like the terror of myth than she did at the previous celebration. To top it all off she speaks in dreadfully booming voice that deafens and literally blows back all around her. In other words all of her behaviors could easily be misconstrued as her slipping into old ways, and Celestia isn't there to reassure to the contrary any lingering fears.

I'm sorry, but I don't see any plot hole in this episode whatsoever.