Lesbian Love Triangles [episode spoilers!] · 4:56pm Apr 30th, 2016
Y'know, the intro of Gauntlet of Fire got me really excited, not because magical light is canon, but because it made me think of Bat for Lashes. :V
Y'know, given that tsundereness is a major theme people talk about in this episode, Garble doesn't get enough credit for being tsundere. I mean, he pushed Spike off the "rock" and said he didn't like him; that's tsundere as fuck! :V
Everyone's made a big deal out of how Twilight and Rarity were able to get past all the obstacles in the Gauntlet off-screen. Obviously, it's easy to consider that Twilight did a lot of teleporting; that's so simple, it doesn't even need to be in the episode to be true. But has anyone considered that the obstacles were designed by a dragon for dragons, and dragons are kind of dumb? And therefore it was no problem for a couple of superior ponies to get through unscathed? V: Oh-ho-ho.
But no, Torch is great, he deserves more credit, too. :V
As for today's episode, it's hard not to take all the "you really understand me" and "I need you to be my friend" and "my heart as broken" as anything other than thinly-veiled shipping. :V I mean, come on, I've seen Slice of Life, you guys can't pull this shit on me.
So when I heard Nick Confalone was attached to this episode, I lowered my expectations dramatically. I didn't like Hearthbreakers or Party Pooped all that much last season, so I figured I had nothing to look forward to from this one.
Happily, I was wrong.
Like a few other episodes here and there, it's got a weird structure, with the 'real action' not taking off until Starlight finally meets Trixie, but from there, it was a hoot. And I didn't even feel like I was being massively pandered to, c.f. Magic Duel. Trixie's arc, of being jealous of Twilight, rings true, and her tsundere "I'm not sad" routine at the end was great. This was like an Amended Fences-lite, and I'm not afraid to praise it that highly.
God, but Starlight has issues with reflexive mind control, I don't even. XD "Say ya need a new friend? Ah'll ship ya with mah brother! We need ta get him over that Marble girl, after all. We might be related, y'know!"
The Marzipan Manticore Meringue Madness was a little goofy, but at least we got Hoofdini out of it. :B I was overjoyed to see Bulk is still working at the spa. Cranky's ribbing of Celestia at the end was wonderful. (And hey, she appeared in two whole episodes back-to-back! Celestia really does exist!)
I'll have to watch this one again to be sure, but I got two really stupid story ideas out of things ponies said. :V Something to look forward to! So yeah. Second actual good episode of season six!
Gauntlet of Fire
No Second Prances
The Crystalling
On Your Marks
The Gift of the Maud Pie
Out on My Own
how about you take your fandering trixie episode like 49 billion lightyears that way
This episode was good, but because of Twilight's stubbornness and utterly jerkish attitude, it wasn't my favourite.
Also, Trixie and Starlight are officially besties, and I love both of them.
I still have not seen any of season six yet. Gotta get on that...eventually.
Yes! It was great for Starlight to have minor flaws stemming from her big past she was moping over.
Yeah, the most blatant shipping is still Lyra and Bon Bon from SoL.
Like this one.
It's not tsundere without the dere! Saying Garble is tsundere for Spike is like saying Donald Trump is tsundere for Mexicans.
Was really hoping Celestia and Cranky would have become friends by the time Twilight got back, I was imagining the four of them just going crazy and having a party and trashing the castle while she was gone.
I honestly wasn't that impressed. The only part of the episode that made me happy was Cherry Berry and Comet Tail together.
I loved how Celestia felt like this whole thing was a waste of her time, it made me laugh, was the highlight of the episode for me.
"Gotta kill that clause that says a Princess can summon another Princess for emergencies related to their domains."
3908843 More like, "Have I taught her anything? Was she even paying attention in class?"
3908433
Methinks the dragon doth protest too much. :V
3908523 3908843
Honestly, that kind of dragged the episode down for me, but I suspect I'm going to be outnumbered on this.
I just can't square this episode's Celestia with the gentle prankster we've seen throughout the show. I mean, before now we've seen her actually upset with non-villains, like, twice? And one of those times was when Twilight had apparently ruined the wedding of, like, two of the most important ponies in the kingdom, and the other was in
Slice of Lifethat episode that everyone around here has repeatedly assured me is noncanon AF, when she and Luna were having a sisterly squabble.Now she's getting bent out of shape over Twilight being Twilight at a dinner party? After pranking like literally every single Gala? And she can't just smile and roll with it? Seriously, I can't overstate how disoriented I was that Celestia & co. didn't bail on Twilight's dinner and go out to watch Trixie's show once they realized what was going on.
This cries out for a fixfic, tbh.
3912227
Celestia also looked mad at Twilight when she enchanted Smarty Pants.
I don't think she's so much against visiting and fun things happening during her visits, but probably not crazy about what was supposed to happen not happening at all (wasting her time, basically).
Also, Twilight is her peer now, Celestia is allowed to hold her to a higher standard.
3912251
"Oh sweet me, she's enchanted another doll, hasn't she? That's what always happens when she looks at me like that, why did I ever let her out of her cage?"
3912227
Seconded. Celestia's aggrieved annoyance felt painfully divorced from the little character that she has.
This episode rubbed me in a lot of wrong ways. We're supposed to sympathize with Trixie's plight, but she was snide and rude to Twilight, and willfully manipulated Starlight into pulling a no-call, no-show at an important, pre-planned dinner date. Twilight had plenty of reasons for disliking Trixie, but still came off as crassly hypocritical for (IIRC) doing so based on her past. And Starlight herself seemed a sucker to me, letting the new friend guilt-trip her into bailing on the old.
Anyone else ever hear the saying, "You can judge a guy by how he treats your family?" I'm reminded of it.
Trixie's second guessing of herself was a good moment, but after? "Whelp, I lost a friend. Poor me, gonna go commit suicide now." Which was a hell of a big can of worms to open and quickly close in the fifty-odd seconds of screentime left.
Celestia's bizarre (and bizarrely voiceless) performance was just icing on the cake. I'm afraid I found this episode to be quite the mess.