In Hindsight: Season 3 · 5:24pm Feb 15th, 2018
This isn't a review blog (I've already done that). These are just observations I make in the context of hindsight as I rewatch S3 for the first time in years. Pretty sure I've rewatched seasons one and two in the last couple years; I think I might keep up a "four seasons ago" retrospective from now on. Well, for the next two seasons, anyway. >.>
I seem to recall Starlight's self-levitation being a major point of fandom upset back at the end of S5. Well, look no further than the door scene from Crystal Empire, part 2 to see that Twilight can also do it!
I cannot take Celestia's last words to Twilight at the end of Crystal Empire, that she'd rather have a student who values self-sacrifice over pursuing her own interests, as anything but a canonical nod to Sunset Shimmer. Man.
I recall getting angry at seeing Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis in a recentish episode, maybe Crusaders of the Lost Mark? Well, Fancy shows up as a quick sight gag in Too Many Pinkie Pies, so I guess that one's invalid. :B
You know who I miss? Babs. She was honestly a good character, and it would be nice to get some assurance that she still exists outside the temporal frame of S3. No, the letter about her cutie mark doesn't cut it, someone could have skinned her and then sent it. :B
Also, the reason the "Babs Seed" song montage seemed to be a strange fit for the show is that it's actually more reminiscent of, like, song sequences from other, less good, cartoons. Like, My Little Pony Tales. Hence all the footage reuse and so forth; it's there to present a catchy exploration of a single concept, rather than move the plot ahead.
I know what I said about the dark alleyway of Ponyville in Mysterious Mare-DoWell but I realize… nothing says Trixie was in Ponyville at the start of Magic Duel. <.< Which, I guess, doesn't mean anything good for Mare-Do-Well. :B
Speaking of Magic Duel, has Saddle Arabia even been mentioned since?
Okay, for the record, Sleepless in Ponyville is just as good as you remember it. Campfire Tales just sucks. :V Also, it makes me think that we were wrong to expect better than we got from RD, AJ and Rarity in Cart Before the Ponies. V:
The impossible just happened: I no longer hate Wonderbolts Academy, and it's all thanks to Top Bolt. When WBA aired, I was dismayed at Spitfire's seeming change of character. What I had thought was this cool, easygoing mare turned into a sudden hardass. I couldn't take it. But, military outfit or not, it was silly to think that she would act around her fans the same way she does around her recruits. You get to see her blow her whistle and yell at newbies; what's not to love? And so I owe an apology to all the people who told me I was wrong and to whom I did not listen. :B It does still have the issue of being a story about Lightning Dust (can we please have her come back?) out-Rainbow-Dashing Rainbow Dash and then getting punished for it. (Seriously, if you think Rainbow Dash in her horseshoes wouldn't have created a tornado, go rewatch Tanks for the Memories.) It's pretty amazing to see Dash quit the academy, but to get there, we travel through some issues. I'll at least take it off my bottom ten episodes list. (Replacing it with Over a Barrel, I think.)
Okay, so there is a branch of the Apple Family that lives in the Hollow Shades. They RSVP for the Apple Family Reunion. But it was abandoned eons ago? Sloppy world-building ho! :V (That's still not as frustrating as what "100 moons" actually entails, though.)
I think Apple Family Reunion might actually be my favorite episode of season three. It's just so much fun! :D And you could do worse than watch it ahead of writing any kind of deep character exploration of Applejack. Also worth noting: the "Spike is a flick lighter" sight gag that appears in Equestria Games has its first showing here. Minor details like this are why I'm doing this retrospective!
On the flipside of Wonderbolt Academy, I think Spike at Your Service may actually be a far worse episode than I ever gave it credit for. It's not quite as destructive to Spike's character as Owl's Well, but it's a close second.
Man, but did you realize Applejack walks to Sweet Apple Acres from somewhere in the Everfree with a hot air balloon tied around her dock? Do you know how heavy hot air balloons are? She was ludicrously strong way before Rockhoof. <.< Also, if you need a reason to rewatch this, check out just after 14 minutes in, when AJ gets Twilight's attention in the funniest way possible, and Twilight exercises her OCD.
I swear Discord's model has changed slightly over the last four years.
So hey, you remember that time Zecora just totally fucked Spike over for no good reason? XD And the CMCs nearly tried to get skydiving cutie marks by jumping off a bridge. That wouldn't have ended well.
Okay, but crystal vacuums. >.> The fuck?
Man, rewatching seasons four years on is the right idea, because Equestria Games and it's the Olympics again. XD
Magical Mystery Cure is honestly a pretty darned good episode, but I still say it could have been spectacular if only they'd been able to make it two parts. There's certainly enough material, even with the musical numbers, to have built it all up and fixed the fast pacing.
Also, that feel when Twilight writes the most monumental period in the history of written language. Also, that feel when Twilight accepts the cold embrace of death. :V And I have no idea why I forgot that the journal of Star Swirl's that appears in this season is, like, used in this episode. It's very clearly not the same one we see in Shadow Play, but I guess details are hard to remember for years on end. <.< Whatever, I'm dumb.
I'd like to think that because Twilight was still not used to her wings, once they were spread for the gown fitting, they weren't goin' back, so the other princesses agreed to stand around with their wings spread the whole time so she wouldn't feel awkward. :V Yes, instant flying at the end of the episode, but that was probably unintentional on Twilight's part, too.
If there's one real criticism I can make of season seven, it's that a season with half its episodes gave us more than twice the amount of music. Magical Mystery Cure by itself has more songs! And it's all almost uniformly better. I mean, say what you will about MMC, "Celestia's Ballad" still dominates fandom polls four years on, and "I've Got to Find a Way" was my favorite show song until S6. Don't tell me the movie kept Ingram away; they were filming EQG during S3, that's why it's so short!
As for S3, I'm feeling like it's maybe not the festering asshole of the show I always thought it was. Yes, it was disappointing due to brevity, McCarthy still hasn't figure out how to run the show, and a lot of the episodes are just really… there. Stuff like Games Ponies Play just sits there, doing a thing to move the overall plot along but not doing it terribly well. We'll have to compare it to a season four rewatch, probably next year around this time.
Okay, but who decided making this dumb horse the Princess of Friendship was a good idea, I ask ya :V
This was less cynical than I expected
They do briefly acknowledge the Hollow Shades Apples in "Shadow Play"... for all of about ten seconds. It's just Sunburst saying how they must be "a very distant branch." One that RSVP'd to the reunion. I try to give the benefit of the doubt, but I have to agree that that's a flub. (And I'm still disappointed that the Hollow Shades aren't a swamp, because card games.)
But yeah, aside from a few issues and "Spike at Your Service," this is still a fun season. It's just half of one, is all.
The inkwell? Yeah, that was priceless.
Well Hollow Shades being abandoned doesnt mean that there cant be some apple family having a farm nearby there. Sweet Apple Acers too seems to be a bit outside ponyville, what makes sense really with farms, so strictly speaking it might not be that wrong. Hollow Shades might just be the nearest landmark to point to.
Ill need to binge watch the show from s1 to s7 next time im on vacation. Forgot a lot of little details from them i bet.
You don't say
You don't say
The first half was pretty great. I still feel like the second half was way rushed, and making it a two-parter would have solved most, if not all, of those issues.
Also, "What My Cutie Mark is Telling Me" > "Celestia's Ballad"
fite me
I look forward to next year, and to you deciding that "Bats!" was a brilliant episode after all.
Me too. I know she's been in the comics, but I'd love to see her back in the show, even if they had to use a different VA for whatever reason. Lightning Dust, too.
In the show, no, but it was referenced in the opening scene of the movie.
Does it? I mean, I think it's great, but "A True, True Friend" seems to be more popular. (I like that too though, so no matter.)
Some notes:
I thought saddle Arabia was mentioned again, but I was thinking of 'maretonia' in the season 4 finale.
It could be that hollow shades the town was abandoned, but hollow shades the area has some apples stubbornly refusing to leave. Which makes me wonder if stygian might not have killed them off-screen :/
Josh scorcher reviewed spike at your service not too long ago. It was hilarious b/c he was going crazy from how bad it was.
I don't think discord's model has changed so much as the way he moves. He was a lot less... constrained in season 2 and 3.
I hated that we didn't get a musical episode in season 7. Hopefully we get one in season 8.
I always thought the reason season 3 was 13 episodes was because it was supposed to be the last season and they wanted a 65 episode cartoon? Kinda like what they did with transformers prime?
Re: unicorn self levitation. Does anyone know of a comprehensive list of all of the magic effects that Twilight (or any of the characters for that matter) have done in the show and/or in the comics? I would think it would be an invaluable reference for fanfic writers (and show writers too!)
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There's a list on the wikia for the show. I've been using it myself. Although, it's a fairly short list.
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Where?
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I Have to Find a Way is better than both of them, so :V
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Hollow Shades being an area is about the only way I can reconcile S3 with S7. It still feels like a stretch, though.
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http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Magic
This page, under "Spell Names And Incantations". The rest of the page a good read, too.
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LIES
4797816 Thanks a lot for the link.
I do think that a more complete listing of canon magical effects would be useful and fun.
I don't know if I could do this exercise... I specifically remember my reaction at the time being that the first half was mediocre with a couple gems and
needing to drink heavily in order to get the fortitude to watch most of the second half, often resulting in needing to rewatch episodes the next daythinking the second half of the season ranged mostly from downright terrible to pretty bad, plus an AJ episode and a Pinkie Pie episode that I'd spot them because the problem was likely that 1) I didn't care about AJ or most of her family and 2) I actively disliked Pinkie Pie.Fuck you and the rest of this fandom! Everyone shits on it, but they're all gay for Braeburn and would like Fluttershy to be a tree. How can y'all hate the episode that gave us Saloon Pie?
Now that's just sick! Are you deliberately trying to push my buttons? Is this revenge for the thestrals?
*sigh* At least it resulted in this:
Still kinda miffed nobody did anything with "Seaking answers"
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I think about Seaking answers often.
And yes, be careful what you wish for. :V
Pinkie's outfit in that episode is great. The opening gag with Bloomberg is fantastic. But Over a Barrel gave us uncomfortable historical inaccuracies that border on racist revisionism, and the episode is just kind of an awkward drag after that first sequence. D:
Celestia's Ballad is great, along with Behold, Princess Twilight Sparkle if only for the voice crack where Nicole Oliver almost cries at the beginning. It adds huge credence to the view of Celestia having almost motherly affection and pride in Twilight.
And pretty much I'm with you on a lot of these. I actually like Spike At Your Service. I'm confused as to why Twilight’s batman is useless, but he's just a kid and being a huge fucking dork as kids do.
The later episode where Spitfire says she has her own nickname and we're never told what it is tho. Given that they're mostly riffs on their real names, it can only be Shitfire.
Also Lightning Dust Did Nothing Wrong. In the original script she wasn't supposed to get kicked out and she and Dash were supposed to have a chat.
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I'm okay with this. :V
I also believe it's Swallowfire, but unfortunately, I am no longer the only one who does. XD
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I used to love Lightning Dust so much I wrote a story for her.
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Fair enough. I'm done defending them over that, 'cause it was pretty fucked. I adored everything else about it, though: Little Strongheart, oblivious Pinkie, horse-drawn horse-drawn carriages, Pinkie's "terrible" song (which is somehow still better than most of the post-season 2 music), the non-lethal — yet dramatic! — fighting, sloppy Pie, etc. I thought it was a pretty good Pinkie episode, overall
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I still prefer Spike's terrible song to Pinkie's. :B
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A Changeling Can Change? Ew!
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lol XD
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I think I might have a more unpopular Wonderbolts related "did nothing wrong"-ish belief, if not related to S3. Namely, in Rainbow Falls the Wonderbolts were maybe kinda jerkish, but substantially didn't do anything wrong. Also, Rainbow would have been entirely justified in ditching Ponyville, what with them assigning her to a team event with two other competitors who 1) were way substandard (ignoring the fact that previously Snowflake had been a legit Wonderbolt trainee--the writers certainly did) and 2) apparently didn't give a shit. She couldn't reasonably carry that team, and they were setting her up to fail in a situation that could have a substantial impact on her future career. If the town isn't going to bother acting like they care, why should she?