awkwardreviews

Was I the only one that was pretty disappointed with this episode? The season had this large (albeit unexplored) arch surrounding Twilight Sparkle. Originally, I didn’t want them to overdo it, but at least add SOMETHING!

I was expecting some grand Olympics-esq games! Massive and impressive scenes with splendid animation! I got ponies running around a Crystal Empire in a cliché, and somewhat dumb fashion. Instead of gigantic games, we just got preparation. Which is sort of underwhelming for a penultimate episode!

Let me make this clear, the entirety of this episode was surrounding a misconception, in which a “Games inspector” was thought to be some overly-excited claustrophobic pony, instead of a… you know… GAMES INSPECTOR. I have no idea why they didn’t even ask “You are the Games Inspector, right?”

Stuff like this bites at me throughout the entire episode detracting from the experience. The entirety of it was somewhat anti-climactic and at times, boring. However, it doesn’t mean it was a terrible episode. In fact, it provided some really funny physical comedy (courtesy of mister Shining Armor’s reaction to Ms.Peachbottom’s advancements) and some delicious dialogue.

In fact, the entire scene where Ms. Peachbottom slowly goes nuts in the claustrophobic Crystal kingdom is gold. I think that scene has to include some of my favorite dialogue of the season, when the ponies try to give her an educated tour of the place, not actually knowing what they are looking at.

Also, here’s where I thought we’d be getting a Rarity sub-plot… NOPE, she is in like three scenes and after that, they sometimes ask her how the Princesses hair is doing… that’s about it. This was a big disappointment for me, as a Rarity fan.

Unfortunately, I can’t bring myself to write a lot about this episode, it was honestly very unremarkable. Even after re-watching it for a third time, I couldn’t see past the downright stupidity of a few plot-choices. Although it provides some funny bits, the entirety of this episode is far too simplistic, cliché, and overdone. Especially the third act when the REAL games inspector arrives (kindly named Ms. Harshwhinny) and comes off as a complete bitch… which she isn’t of course, she actually loves everything! Like that hasn’t been done on a thousand different cartoons…

This was a penultimate episode that didn’t have too much going for it, however, it did bring in a lot of laughs from me, and at the end of the day, that’s all I truly ask for. If the story, and the characterization isn’t too great, just throw some laughs at me and I won’t hate it.

Pros:

-Ms. Peachbottom’s breakdown

-Pretending to know the inside of the Crystal Empire

-Shining armor was being hit on. By a pony with a chicken for a cutie mark.

-Dash sliding off the glass ceiling=hilarious

Cons:

-Again, re-treading water

-A penultimate episode that was severly underwhelming

-Too many clichés to count

-Rarity is once again forgotten

Grade: C

This episode is yet another Spike episode, in a season with two spike episodes (counting this one) and absolutely no Rarity episodes. The writers were clearly smoking some sort of crazy pony hallucinogen that causes them to think that a small purple dragon is actually a white mare.

Anyway, this episode finds spike in over his head after he offers to take in all the pets of the “mane 6” who are off to this massive event being held in the now peaceful Crystal Empire. Right away, this episode is prone to clichés and over-written scripts with less dialogue, and more physical comedy. Cause “crazy pets be funnzies right?!”

Spike episodes have always been hit or miss, or at most just decent episodes of the show period. The writers never put him on some grand quest, and when they do (Dragon’s Quest) it turns out to be a major disappointment. This episode, although not treading in any new water, ends up succeeding where it matters.

The one thing we have found out about Spike, is that he can be sort of an asshole sometimes. This is not his true intentions, but it’s when he does stuff without thinking it through. In this case, it’s taking six pets under his wing just for some gem-incrusted cake. Clearly, this is due to spiral out of control.

The fun doesn’t truly start until Spike starts trekking around Ponyville trying to find a truly masochistic and maniacal bunny rabbit. From then on, the episode finally picks up its pace and provides some entertaining character “cameos”, like from Zecora, and some humorous bits. What stood out to me was the entire few minute scene with the CMC, whom Spike tricks into taking his pets only to return after a little to hear Scootaloo cry “Has anyone seen Tanks head!”

Tank of course being Rainbow Dashes turtle that she found in “May the Best Pet Win” (continuity!). So after that, Angel (the bunny) hops onto the “Mane 6’s” train, and spike has to find a way to sneak onto it. Queue emotional lesson about not being a turd, and then the episode pretty much comes to an end.

I’m not saying this episode was bad, I’m saying this episode doesn’t go anywhere unique or creative. It utilizes a few clichés to progress the story, and isn’t some remarkable episode that I felt excited to re watch. But, it did its job. At the end of the day it was yet another re-tread of territory by the writers, especially with Spike, a character that seems to not be too developed in general. This retread thankfully got enough right to be an entertaining departure into the world of massive pet dust clouds, and at the end of the day, that’s all I’m asking for.

Pros:

–          Enter fun little clichés that don’t take away from the episode!

–          Spike has some killer one liners

–          The scenes with the CMC

–          It may be a re-tread, but it’s a damn entertaining one

–          Buying an industrial sized pet dryer!

Cons:

–          Although it may be an entertaining re-tread, it’s still a re-tread and comes off as lazy

–          Too much unsuccessful physical comedy.

–          So spike can bake a cake NOW, but when he had to help Applejack he messes up!

–          Two spike episodes, no Rarity episodes. What heresy is this?!

Grade: B-

Discord makes his return in this cleverly made episode, that I’m sure some fans love, and some fans hate. I say this because at the end of this episode (and actually throughout its entirety) it changes the character of Discord. Discord has always been a fan favorite, so seeing him return was a huge surprise for me, but in the best way possible. I love Discord, and I love Q, and I love John De Lancie!

However, this episode does have a few missteps that are worth noting. Firstly, the biggest and probably most controversial aspect of this episode was the whole change to Discord. I, personally, do not find it inherently wrong to quote on quote “resurrect” a villain, especially a fan favorite, to be all evil for one more episode. But the writers clearly had a plan in mind to make him somewhat of a guest appearance (perhaps each season?) and they dove right into the “lets reform him” party and stuck Fluttershy at head.

This… I’m not really sure (even after like five re watches) what my true opinion on this is. I suppose the most prevalent word circling throughout my melon-shaped head is “nervous”, as I’m not sure if they ruined the Discord character. Now… I’m not saying they did, but he sure-as-hell acted differently even when he was released from his stone prison. In fact, dare I say he was less “chaotic” and more random?

I mean, this is the man-deer-snake-goat… thingy that turned Ponyville upside down! LITERALLY! So having him have peaceful discussion (albeit with chaotic connotations) was sort of jarring. But, that’s not to say that he isn’t Discord, because he is, and he still is the most original character this show has to offer, constantly making me laugh and gasp in amazement.

In fact, the entire idea of this episode was actually pretty interesting and fun. Putting the most nervous and shy character with the most outspoken and nutty one? Sounds amazing! Of course I’m still waiting for my Pinkie x Discord episode… but I digress. This provided for an interesting 2/3, but when the third act came about, I couldn’t help but bite my teeth in nervousness. This is mostly because I’m guessing they wouldn’t have made an episode like this if they didn’t plan on making him return.

The writing error of this entire episode starts at its core. How could the GOD of CHAOS become benign and nice? IT’S THE GOD OF CHAOS! That’s where the paradox kicks in and you are left scratching your head.

The comedy was well-timed for the most part, however, it seems like there was once again some continuity issues with the character. If he needed to turn normal beavers into evil beavers just to flood the dam… how the hell did he flip Ponyville on its ass in the season 2 premier? Couldn’t he just snap his… claws? Together and make it happen? I mean, the thing made ponyville have a checkered floor pattern.

But this isn’t to say the episode isn’t entertaining, oh no, this episode was really good, and downright hilarious at times. Apart from the controversial third act, I really did enjoy this episode and what it could have possibly opened up to be explored in the future. So this ended up being a welcome return of Discord, and I eagerly await seeing him again, hopefully in a more chaotic position.

Pros:

-Discord’s long awaited return!

-Great comedic timing

-“Eat any good books today?” YES!

-Fluttershy getting the starring role in this entertaining episode

-The “Q snap” should be both an action, and a name of an 80’s cheesy dance move

-Every character getting some entertaining dialogue in this character-driven episode

Cons:

-Continuity issues with Discord as a character

-Less chaotic!

-All Discord needed… was a friend? Tell that to all the ponies he brainwashed!

-The third act could be either good or bad… we’ll have to see.

Grade: B+

So this week’s episode “Spike at your service” explores what it would be like if Spike were to ditch Twilight, and run off to the Apple family. Let me just say that I heard that this episode was meant to be a Rarity/Spike episode, but for some odd and bad reason they changed it to another Applejack episode. However, this paring has not yet been explored, so it did provide for some fresh onscreen dynamics.

The plot is pretty self-evident and clear in this episode. Spike gets lost, Spike gets saved by Applejack, he pulls some “dragon code” out of his ass, and starts trying to be a servant to Applejack. A few things wrong here… first, the whole idea of being bound as a servant forever is stupid, dumb, and sort of scary. Second, they made Spike completely inept at doing anything. Half of me understands, because, well, this is a new environment for him, and maybe he’s nervous. But they didn’t hint at that in the episode. All I needed was “man… I’m a bit nervous working for you,” or something along those lines.

Also, the entire idea that Twilight didn’t notice Spike saying his goodbyes… sort of scary. Since wasn’t his BIGGEST fear (from the crystal empire) the idea of Twilight leaving him? And now, he’s leaving Twilight? WHAT?!

This downright dreadful (almost purposefully so) continuity really damages this episode. But… once all of that is said and done, we get treated to a very entertaining twenty minutes. This is mostly due to the writers having splendid animation, especially with the Timberwolves, whom are yet another fantastic addition to the lore of Equestria. I say this because not only are they unique and original, but because they have a surprisingly frightening concept behind them.

This, plus the absolutely fantastic 3D animation they used to show them (especially the scenes when they explode into a hundred shards of wood) provided some really intense action.

Of course Applejack doesn’t want spike to work for her, so they set up this elaborate scheme to try and get him to save Applejack. This provided a really funny bit when Rarity pretty much tried to teach Applejack how to be “prissy and girly” and the entirety of it was comedy gold.

The fact of the matter is, that this episode really did a fantastic job everywhere apart from those massive drops in intelligence (from spike) and the big continuity problems that dragged it down. But at the end of the day, I was having a blast. Whether it was staring at the pretty animation, or the intense action sequences, or maybe just the timberwolf raising its paw to the ponies in attempt to clear it’s throat… there was so much to love, but a good amount to get disappointed in also.

This doesn’t mean this episode was bad though, in fact, I’ll go so far as to say that this episode is in fact sort of awesome! None of it felt like it was dragging along the floor like a dog with worms, all of it was quick, fast paced, and fun! Even if there are those issues that I mentioned, I still recommend a re watch as this episode shows that this series still has a lot of unique character pairs up its sleeve… even if Rarity instead of Applejack would have been better, in my opinion.

Pros:

-Fantastic animation

-More creatures to the Equestrian lore

-A decent pairing that did its job

-Applejack trying to act girly

-Splendidly paced action sequences

-counting grass

Cons:

-Glaring continuity issues that made me cringe to watch

-The “dragon’s code”

-Spike acting like a fool

-Needed Rarity more!

Grade: B-

We can all wave “Bye-Bye” to the streak of excellent episodes! BYE BYE! Because this week we were treated with an underwhelming dose of Apples. Lots. Of. Apples.

So Applejack, a character that hasn’t been utilized in a while, finally gets an episode (and song) all to herself. Is this a good thing? In this case, no, not really. There wasn’t as much technically wrong with this episode… there just wasn’t that much going on to keep me interested or even laughing.

Every few… years? The Apple family gathers together on a apple farm and have an entire day of festivities and fun. SO this year Applejack decides she wants to host this event, and in the typical cartoon cliché “Hosting events is hard!” So she ends up having a lot of trouble making everyone (including the viewers) have fun.

Although we get some great guest appearances by Apple-family characters we haven’t seen in a while, we still are left with a sour taste in our mouths… in fact, I had a sour taste in my mouth throughout the entire episode. Because I noticed that I simply wasn’t laughing as much as I was used to with this show. Instead of comedy, it seems like this episode tried to delve deeper into the family and Applejack, however, it did not succeed in that. It came off as overly simplistic, not unique, and something I will forget after a few days.

Even the CMC, who get to see Babs again, barely get anything enjoyable past running around a tree for a few minutes, which seems like a perfect metaphor for this episode. It seems like it circles around itself over and over again stating that “LOOK, people are feeling AWKWARD with Applejack being all controlling!” Until a slightly anticlimactic event occurs and people start addressing this annoyance.

My general grievance with this episode is that it sets out to do a lot, and ends up doing too little in a very uncreative and uninspired fashion that ended up boring me midway through. Now is this a bad episode? No, not really, it just is so unremarkable that you hardly want to rewatch it. After the few slam-dunk episodes before this, I felt really underwhelmed after this one.

Overall, this episode succeeded in doing what it came in to do. To fill up this already shortened season with filling filler that isn’t particularly entertaining, but does the job as we get to see an almost heart-attack inducing scene with baby Applejack eating apple fritters.

Pros:

-Tells a cohesive, and decently paced story

-We get to see Applejack again

-The Applefamily returns

-The song was surprisingly catchy

Cons:

-Fails to entertain most of the way through

-CMC were immensely under-utilized.

-Applejack was slightly (and frustatingly) annoying in an inexcusable way

-Not enough Granny Smith Applefamily lore!

Grade: C+

There’s no doubt about it! This show is definitely on a streak right now! This is yet another episode that I felt to be fantastically put and developed. Credit goes to Merriwether Williams, who ironically wrote some of the worst episodes this show has produced. But… she seems to have redeemed herself with that slam-dunk of an episode.

So Arnbow Dish (I mean… Rainbow Dash) is going (FINALLY) to the prestigious Wonderbolts Academy! This is a major leap for this character and it involves some of the final steps of progression for this rapidly developed Pony. Firstly, this episode avoids the major clichés of an episode like this, where I expect a character to succeed in a very common and expected way. However, the writer threw that out the window and instead proceeded to craft an interesting story, more about the character herself, instead of the actual academy.

Anyway, so we have Pinkie missing the crap out of Dash (which is both scary and adorable), which is the small B-story of this episode. It is no doubt the weaker, less rewarding one, however, it still provides its fair share of laughs and is a nice relief from the more dramatic and action-ridden parts of the episode.

While Pinkie is rapidly opening and closing her mailbox, Dash goes to the Academy and we meet “Cliché drill sergeant character”. In this case, it’s actually a slightly recurring role of spitfire, the well-named firecracker of a Pony who provides the well needed dramatic voice of the episode, with well delivered lines that automatically made her one of my favorite guest stars.

However, this isn’t as much a story about Rainbow Dash surviving bootcamp, but more of a story about her growing as a pony. Que Lightning! Dust…

Dash meets a rival, sort of. Her name is Lightning Dust and it is as if the writers were poking fun at how rude and self-righteous Dash was in the first season, because Lightning Dust was almost a spit-image of Dash back in the beginning of the show. However, instead of going into a cliché “petty rivalry” route, to dish out some entertaining pieces of the show. Instead, we get the characters teamed up and here is where it gets interesting.

Instead of showing Lightning Dust as a straight up villain (although she may be perceived that way), I saw her as someone who was SO focused on getting a position in the wonderbolts, the whole aspect of coordination and team-play escaped from her mind. This caused her to be a reckless endangerment.

Thankfully, after Dash gets somewhat bested by her (due to her reckless ways), Dash understandably gets frustrated. However, instead of becoming even pettier, we see the character development kick in, and we get a wallop of maturity from Dash.

Dash ends up giving up her position in the wonderbolts… THIS. IS. BIG. She pretty much gave up her position for both loyalty, honesty, and morality. This signified a full circle (of development) for the character. After this episode, I felt that Dash could have had her entire story end there. Because not only does she do the mature, and understandable thing, she does it for her friends (who almost died trying to fly up to greet her).

This episode is not without its faults, however. It has an abrupt ending that sort of left a sour taste in my mouth. What ended up happening is that to our knowledge Lightning Dust’s entire dream of being a wonderbolt was crushed, and she was kicked out of the bootcamp. This is a dark place to go for a character that I thought wasn’t being as much of a villain, but instead, a sort of iconic reflection piece for Dash who saw how she was back in season 1, and how much she changed.

I would have loved to have Dash try and help Lightning Dust out, and maybe even get another friend. Instead, we get a fun reunion with Pinkie, who thinks that Dash forgot all about her (even her name), and then credits. We don’t even know if Dash gets taken back into the wonderbolts!

But at the end of the episode, I was nothing but happy. Because this is yet another episode that developed a character fantastically, causing them to become seemingly complete. The fact of the matter is, it’s a gorgeously created, unique, and interesting episode that I love rewatching, maybe just for the sheer joy of hearing Snowflake yell “YEAH” just one more time.

Pros:

-Fantastic character development

-Rainbow Dash being awesome

-Well paced

-Spitfire!

-Snowflake makes a welcome re-appearance

-Season 1 and Season 3 Dash/Lightning Dust comparison done well

-Pinkie totally thought Dash forgot her name!

Cons:

-A sour ending that made me feel sort of bummed out for Lightning Dust

-Pinkies B-story, although pretty funny, ultimately felt useless.

Grade: A-

                May I just start this review off by saying this episode is hands down my favorite episode the show has ever done. No, not because of the plotline, or the development, or even the comedy. But because I related to it, emotionally, and it ended up making me choke up a little at the end. (yes, yes… laugh all you want)

                The fact of the matter is, when a tv-show makes an episode, that not only hits every note with ease and fluidity, but also hits every note that YOU can relate to, it automatically sticks in your brain as a standout episode. This is no exception, although I won’t explain HOW exactly I related to it, I still did, and this made my experience (I’m sure) much better.

                Anyway, this episode surrounds the only CMC character that has not yet been fully explored (more to come in season 4), Scootaloo. She has always been my favorite CMC so this is automatically an awesome idea. However, the writers take it up a notch by crafting a fantastically paced episode with well-timed comedy (the falling down gag during the tent-setup) and well-written dramatic pieces as well.

                After a group of ponies (and the CMC) go out on a camping trip,  Scootaloo gets the crap scared out of her, she can’t sleep. I think we can all relate to this. I remember when I was just seven years old, I watched Jaws, and that movie made me fear swimming for a few years to come. This is a similar situation, however, she is thrust into a dialogue with her role model, Rainbow Dash. Who, as a character, has made significant leaps since her season 1 boring, self-righteous, egotistical, asshole-ness. So right away I was both getting diabetes and laughing my butt off.

                The scenes where Scoots is scared out of her mind are really well crafted, well-choreographed, and fantastically voice acted. As she digressed more and more into a wreck of sleepless-ness and paranoia, the episode just got better and better. This all climaxed during her “headless horse” chase scene where she meets up with Luna (always a welcome cameo) who makes it clear what needs to happen. Was this development slightly forced? Perhaps. However, it had nice continuity with the whole “Princess of the Night” thing Luna has going for her.

                Soon enough, Scoots gets thrusted into a dangerous situation, and BAM… or DASH! Rainbow is there to save the day. From then on, the episode gets feelsy in the best possible way, when a seemingly parentless filly gets partnered up with a pony (Dash) whom perhaps needs a child figure in her life to take care of, to ground herself (pun intended).

                At the end of the day, this episode hit every mark and point with fast paced and often hilarious dialogue. With fantastic set-pieces and an interesting concept. This episode truly embodies what I came to enjoy about this show. The tiny nitpicks aside, this episode really does its job in the best possible way.

                If you haven’t already, I recommend rewatching this episode, to marvel at how high (and good) this show can be when it is in its ‘A’ day!

Pros:

-PUNny title

-Well timed comedy

-Scootaloo

-Great development for rainbow dash (who has been getting development out of the wazoo as of recently)

-Sister/sister pair that I have wanted to see since season 2.

-Relate ability  

-Great dramatic set-pieces

-Luna makes a welcome (albeit brief) appearance!

Cons: Although I didn’t fully mention them in the written review above…

-Making Rarity come off as a major B-word to Sweetie belle

-Forced story during the final dream sequence

Grade: A

Well this was slightly unfortunate… just when I thought this season had a pretty good start, they have something like this. On regular standards, this episode is mediocre, however, it missed so many opportunities, and I couldn’t help but feel disappointed by the end.

This episode surrounds the lovable CMC (Cutie mark crusaders) as they get thrust into a somewhat serious situation that involves a serious subject. Bullying. And an episode dealing with such a serious subject needs to be either A.) Great character wise or… B.) Seriously dealt with!

Instead, this show went the EXTREMELY safe route, which could be considered worst of all. As not only does it come off as lazy, irreverent, and dumb, but also as a boring episode of television all together. And I say these criticisms not because I’m some ignorant asshole, but because I see many ways they could have improved on this episode!

“One Bad Apple” introduces a new character, Babs Seed, whom is equally adorable and interesting… until she opens her mouth in the second scene. From an interesting clean slate to develop a cool and interesting character I’d want to see back on the show, they instead went for the two-dimensional boring character. If you haven’t already guessed, she turned on the CMC and began bullying them, by siding with the worst characters of the show (not personality wise, but in general).

Here’s where I think this episode faltered and failed completely. It had an opportunity to create these absolutely terrible characters (Diamond Tiara, and Silver Spoon) into 3-dimensional beings with interesting backstories and some fantastic dialogue. But nope, nope nope nope nope NOPE… instead they went the safe and boring route where the CMC get bullied and have to stoop down and form some elaborate high jinx to get back at her, only to have it backfire… etc etc. We have seen all of this before in many different shows.

Instead of focusing on the CMC (who are fairly well developed) they could have switched gears and focused as to why DT and SS are such bitches all the time. How maybe… JUST MAYBE, DT has some issues with her father (Filthy Rich, that’s his name…). For example, he could not pay much attention to her, causing her to act out in that sort of way. And how SS thinks she’d look better by putting other people down due to her hidden insecurity issues. This, THIS could have been the most character driven and BEST episode the show has ever done. This is why I have such immense frustration over this episode.

It took the safe route instead of creating something truly original. Something I could point to, to show skeptics of the show how interesting it can sometimes be. Now it’s just a stain on this season, marking the season’s first truly disappointing episode.

If I’m honest, the plot itself has already been done to death with countless shows out there, and if I didn’t notice these glaring possibilities I would have given this episode a high-mediocre grade and moved on. However, it truly fails at its core for providing a deep and heartfelt episode.

ANYWAY, let’s move on. The song in this episode? Fantastic. It was choreographed really well, animated to perfection, and sung fantastically. Plus it was catchy as hell. Also, the voice acting was convincing enough to pass for an episode like this. Lastly, Pinkie had some fun dialogue and amazing physical comedy bits that saved this episode for a split moment.

In the end, however, this episode was one I was not eager to re-watch. But again, these are just my opinions, and if you enjoyed this episode, the more power to you.

Pros:

-Good voice acting

-Fun setting

-Great song

-Pinkie Pie being awesome

Cons:

-Missed opportunities

-Oddly paced

-DT and SS being… well… them.

-Unconvincing storyline and redemption.

-Introducing a new character and failing to develop her well.

Grade: C-

So while I was sitting here, sipping on yet another cup of English breakfast tea (at 10 PM) I thought to myself… “Hey, Mr.Reviewer (cause I think in the 3^rd person) why don’t you post another review?” And I agreed with myself. So here we go!

This Episode seems to keep the trend of “re-introducing characters we already know”, and takes it up a notch. Twilight is magical, pinkie is NUTZ. Things we already knew! And now we know them… AGAIN! So you can probably tell I feel that this episode felt a bit off. Once again, they have this long drawn out bit in the middle of the episode that dragged on and on until I wanted to rip my eyes out and play ping pong with them (somehow).

However, this doesn’t mean the episode was bad by any means. In fact, I thought this episode provided a healthy dose of “DA HELL DID PINKIE JUST DO?” that we all needed after that two-parter. This episode surrounds the lovable and slightly pink character “Pinkie pie” as she tries to be a part of all her friends’ “fun” activities, however, there is only one “her” and she can’t be everywhere at the same time! Or… can she?

She remembers (randomly) about this story of a mirror pond that if you recite some nursery rhymes and step (dramatically) into, you become doubled. And in the typical high jinx that cartoon shows are, this soon spirals out of control as she creates WAY to many versions of her. Her friends (somewhat slowly) find out and proceed to methodically blow up every single version of her that ISN’T the ACTUAL her… confused yet? Well her friends being the nincompoops that they are in this episode (for some reason) couldn’t tell that the ONLY not super excited jumpy and annoying pink pony was the ACTUAL pinkie pie, so they resorted to magically destroy all of them (trying to root out the real one) by making all of them stare at paint dry.

Is this a clever idea? Hell yes! I thought this was a hilarious and an extremely well done idea that quickly became the highlight of the episode. For both the fantastic G3 (generation 3 of MLP) reference, and twilight shooting her horn-beam at each version of Pinkie making them blow up (harry potter style).

Ok, so now that we got the plot synopsis out of the way, what did I think of this episode? I thought this episode was really funny, and hit each mark comedy wise. However, it had some really bad pacing and some disruptingly unrealistic plot developments. Perhaps the most glaring one being that spike found that “magical fix-all-problems” book behind some dusty god damn corner in Twilight’s library (seemingly at random).

This episode suffered from the same lack of continues pacing as the season starter did. However, as soon as things ramped up in the third act, they REALLY ramped up. This re-invigorated my enjoyment and soon enough I was laughing and cheering at my screen like some seven year old prepubescent girl that just got a WHOLE box of lollypops.

Although this episode was a decent starter to the line-up of inconsistent episodes season 3 has to offer, it still provided enough laughs to get me through the slightly boring middle. It’s often a tough task to create a follow up after the season begins, so I hand out an imaginary badge of congratulatory remarks to ‘Dave Polsky’ the writer of this episode. Good job, chap! You dun’ good.

Pros:

-Fantastic comedic timing by the “Pie”

-Interesting story

-The more Pinkie the better

-Hilarious references

-Third act was a whole dollop of good fun!

-Twilight’s Twilicious Twi-beam that destroys ponies

Cons:

-Utterly terrible pacing

-Slow middle that felt unremarkable and slightly boring

-Clichés used to progress the plot

-Finding random “solve-it-all” books in dusty corners of the room=bad plot advancement!

Grade: B