Dethroning Moment of Suck (Darth Wiki)/Western Animation/My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic



Even though this is considered to be a surprise Colt Classic, there's some episodes that not even some Bronies could love and tolerate.

Keep in mind:
 * Moments only, no "just everything he said," or "This entire show," or "This entire series" entries.
 * No contesting entries. This is subjective, the entry is their opinion.
 * No natter. As above, anything contesting an entry will be cut, and anything that's just contributing more can be made its own entry.
 * Explain why it's a Dethroning Moment of Suck.
 * No Real Life examples including Executive Meddling. That's just asking for trouble.
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Season 1

 * I think I may be the only one that was brushed the wrong way with Griffon the Brush-off. There were a lot of things wrong with this episode's aesop. For one, Gilda just suddenly being cruel to Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie for no reason other to show that she's a Jerkass quickly got on my nerves. Rainbow Dash ardently defending her wasn't helping things either. Had they not overly show how and why she's a Jerkass and gave her some Character Development, this could have been a great episode. Instead, it's on par with Dragon Quest as my least favorite episode in MLP:FiM.
 * Brushing over the issue that Twilight has to get brutally punished for being skeptical and investigative, the ending of Feeling Pinkie Keen. The rest of the episode is pretty good fun and I can handle the Amusing Injuries, but one or two things just drag it down in my eyes. It feels inconsistent with the rest of the series: Fluttershy can talk down a dragon and a manticore and stare down a cockatrice, but her ability to talk to mythological animals suddenly comes up short against a hydra. That just doesn't feel right, somehow. It was a more urgent situation than Dragonshy - surely her Mama Bear instincts would have come to the fore? Worse than that, though, is both the doozy and Twilight's reaction to what the doozy turned out to be. What was wrong with just having the hydra be the doozy? It would have been a great way for Twilight to learn to appreciate Pinkie's ability. Instead, there's a kick in the teeth for logic which is a poor way to end an episode at the best of times. That segment was worded badly, with the strange Mood Whiplash, the sudden defeat of Twilight, and Pinkie just being too oblivious. And she just gives up and accepts Pinkie Sense, when the real matter was that she was being a Jerkass to Pinkie Pie about it. No further investigations, no questions asked, not even an expansion or application of the Pinkie sense in later episodes (not until MMDW, where it was used pretty well - lifesaving Pinkie should make a comeback). A lot of the premises were good ideas, and I can live with Pinkie Sense being a valid magical power, but the execution of the episode left a bitter taste in my mouth.
 * The Show Stoppers full... stop. If the episode had centered around the Cutie Mark Crusaders thinking only of their cutie marks and forcing themselves to work at tasks they hate, then alright. That would be one thing. But they're very clearly enthusiastic about the roles they assign themselves -- Scootaloo and Apple Bloom don't want to dance and design sets, respectively, and Sweetie Belle is just flat out afraid to sing in front of a crowd. Even when their lack of natural talents frustrate them, they assist each other and keep on working hard, and in the end they go from a tone-deaf, stumbling, joke of an act to a pretty decent one indeed, stage mishaps aside. Even this wouldn't be so bad if Twilight Sparkle, of all ponies, didn't have the stones to walk up to them, cringe when she hears their plans, and begin to ask them if they're "sure" focusing on something other than their innate talents is such a good idea. That she didn't get to finish and possibly crush their enthusiasm is a miracle. Quite frankly, I could go on and on about this one, but the ultimate aesop is "don't ever try new things and don't work to improve yourself. If something doesn't come easily at first, you aren't meant to do it." And that's absolutely sickening.
 * For me, it's "A Dog and Pony Show." The episode begins with Spike and Rarity looking for gemstones. Why would Rarity pick Spike to help her? She knows (or can likely assume) that he'll just eat them. That's kinda what dragons do. Even if no one else would help her, and she didn't want to get her hooves or mane or coat dirty, she can just levitate the gems, right? She's a unicorn. Then the Diamond Dogs kidnap her and flood the holes with dirt so that her friends can't follow her. How did the Diamond Dogs know that Rarity had friends? This seems like an unnecessary step that they would not know to take. Unless it was a precaution, in which case, they should have filled the holes before the other main characters got there. They don't know when Rarity's friends are going to show up, or even if they would show up. We then see that the Diamond Dogs made Rarity work in forced labor - great message for a kid's show. Rarity then starts whining, which was the most annoying thing ever. I know that the point is to annoy the Diamond Dogs, but it annoys the audience too. And if your goal is to get your audience to hate you, then good luck keeping an audience for very long. Then the Diamond Dogs let her go, which is the biggest insult of all. I've never kidnapped a woman before, but I would think that the #1 rule is: "If you can't stand to see a woman cry, don't kidnap women." And they let her keep the gems. These are seriously the most Harmless Villains ever. They're completely incompetent, and I expect a lot more out of a show as good as My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
 * The "Party of One"; that was just plain mean of the other characters to lock Pinkie Pie out of the loop, seeing the emotional distress it was causing her. As much as I’d love a good surprise party, the secret should not be so heavily guarded that it convinces the recipient that they are unwanted. The excuse “I’d thought she’d be more excited [about the party]” doesn’t really work, as earlier in the episode, the mane cast looked as if they were fearing for their lives when they were defending the secret from an increasingly enraged Pinkie. Worse, all of the blame was put on Pinkie for how she felt, rather than taking into consideration their adamant secret-keeping drove her to this point; a simple “We’re sorry for how you felt” would have worked just fine. If it had one redeeming trait, it did give Pinkie Pie the Character Development she needed, but did so in a heart-wrenchingly frustrating way.
 * The same episode as above, for different reasons. It really calls Pinkie Pie's character into question. No one can be cheerful all the time, but no stable person does... that. She doesn't seem hurt and frustrated as much as downright homicidal; real effort was put into making her look insane, with the music, the disturbing reflection of Applejack in her Death Glare, and the background changes during her breakdown. To make things worse, it could have had an entirely different, much more appropriate Aesop; given Pinkie's unintentionally obnoxious behavior at Gummy's party and wanting to throw him another the very next day, the lesson could have been "Sometimes your friends need a break and you need to be a little more considerate. They still like you."

Season 2

 * I know I'm in a minority, but The Return of Harmony. Just the whole arc. I've written lengthy texts on its problems, but the short version is the whole premise is just off. The show is about these cute little ponies who get into and out of hijinks and come away learning valuable life lessons, most of their stories involve things that could conceivably happen in everyday life (if you make large allowances for Looney Tunes logic). And then all the sudden we have a two-parter where the mane cast are Celestia's private little superhero team, and they're being tasked with stopping the Equestrian version of Loki? The massive Genre Shift this episode does is just off-putting and it feels like it derails the characters and setting too much for me to find enjoyment in it.
 * This Troper had a lot of complaints about The Return of Harmony two-parter in general, but the one moment that really sucked was when Applejack actually bothered to listen to a bunch of Obviously Evil talking apple piles. Note that she wasn't under Discord's control at that point, and she knows that Discord is a master of illusion and deceit powerful enough to take away (or at least create the illusion of taking away) horns and wings from a pony, and yet she does not even consider the talking apples to be untrustworthy or something Discord made. The only way this moment could not be a Idiot Ball of ungodly proportions is if Applejack thought Discord wouldn't be stupid enough to make a obvious trap, and even then that's Golden-age Superboy levels of brain fart.
 * When I first found out what both parts of "Return of Harmony" were going to be about, I knew that it would be hard to watch when . And I was right. Those parts of the two episodes are always the hardest to watch for me:  . The more I watch those two episodes, the more angry and frustrated I get during those parts, and the more I hate that asshat Discord. Granted, things pick up considerably , but those parts still suck regardless.
 * I agree. The only thing saving the ending was the "I will return" face he makes while being stoned again, possibly promising he'll have his revenge on the ponies sometime in the future. The stuff leading up to that? Bullshit in a cup.
 * I guess it's pretty mutual around here that the ending was seriously too rushed... and it pretty much shortchanged everybody of what could have been a battle of epic proportions. The only action scene in that episode was really just trying to turn Rainbow Dash back to normal... but other than that, nothing. In fact, the middle showed signs that the whole thing was rushed: they could have made the middle much more emotional, since Twilight losing her 'magic' element would have a rather huge impact to the viewers. Then there was the turning everypony back to normal sequence... which again, was rushed. I can't help but feel relieved this was not the season one finale... it would have shortchanged everybody everywhere from what could have been something exciting and epic. Considering how consistent MLP's quality is this was a big letdown..
 * I realize a lot of people will disagree with me, but I found "Lesson Zero" to be the absolute worst episode of the entire goddamn series. As for why...well, there are a lot of reasons. First off, the very premise itself is rather flimsy-- Twilight has gone a week without solving some kind of crisis and preparing a lesson on friendship? So, let me get this straight...she's honestly expected to find crazy shit to solve every single week? What the hell does she do in her spare time? Does she even have any? However, that part is nothing compared to my main complaint about the episode, namely the "characterization" of Twilight and the rest of the Mane Cast throughout...or rather, the lack thereof. Practically every joke relies on either Flanderizing the hell out of characters until they're reduced to nothing but ridiculous caricatures or themselves (Twilight's extreme OCD and descent into psychosis, Rarity's one-note couch gag, Big Mac speaking in nothing but "Eeyup"s and "Nope"s), or making them do insane, exaggerated shit that reads like something out of a book of brony cliches and in-jokes (the "Rainbow Nuke" scene, Fluttershy going all Spetsnaz-CQB on the bear). I enjoy watching this show because it usually entertains me with its witty writing and likable characters; this episode, on the other hand, resorted to falling back on a bunch of cheap, crass gags that would not look out of place in an episode of Invader Zim or The Ren and Stimpy Show, not at all like the cute, optimistic series I'd come to love. And that doesn't even cover the ridiculous jumps in logic that showed up later in the episode, like having a bunch of random characters like Mayor Mare and Big Mac just happen to be hanging around the same park as Twilight. And, no, I did not find "friendly Twilight" funny at all; the disturbing behaviour and fucked up facial expressions just made her look like some kind of deranged stalker, and the latter simply increased the aforementioned resemblance to Ren and Stimpy. Overall, I'm not sure if the episode in general was some kind of hamfisted attempt at appealing to the older brony crowd or something, but if it was...I sincerely hope that future ones attempt it in a different way. MLP should stick to its strengths, rather than try to be "edgy" or whatever.
 * Took the words right out of my mouth. This show is normally pretty good, but this episode seemed like it was just made for bronies and feels out of place with the rest of the series. I'm not gonna lie, I really thought the show was gonna jump the shark at that point.
 * It's actually worse than that- the episode had to be written over a year before it aired, which means they made it before bronies were a thing. Which means that this episode was still intended for it's target audience of young girls.
 * Y'know, forget what I said about Season One (entry already removed)...this was the worst episode of the season (and in the entire series so far, beating out my former least favorite and other bad episodes like The Show Stoppers) hands down. Not even the others listed above or below come close to how a truly reviling, disgusting episode this is. The best part? It's a Microcosm of nearly every misstep Season 2 had - mishandled Aesops, Character Derailment, Forced/Ascended Memes in an attempt to pander to the Brony Crowd (for why else would Fluttershy be mauling a bear, or the "Rainbow Nuke" scene) - the list goes on.
 * I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned this one. For me, Luna Eclipsed, left a real bad taste in my mouth for a few reasons. It seems everyone in Ponyville has forgotten that Luna isn't evil anymore (or forgotten they had a huge celebration to honor Luna for turning good again) because they're all scared by her (except for Twilight and Pinkie). This includes the main cast too, as if they weren't at the celebration themselves! Then there is Pinkie, I know she is just trying to scare the kids but she's doing it right in front of Luna when she doesn't want to be seen as scary. She knows Luna isn't bad too which doesn't make her reasoning behind scaring people any better. Also, the fact Luna uses the Royal We way of speaking bugs me some. It was funny but even then, why would she speak like so even though Celestia doesn't use it herself and they are around the same age. As a Luna fan, this episode disappointed me.
 * Completely agree with Oddlyweird. The fact that Luna was portrayed as a loud mouthed Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash came off as insensitive jerks (surprise, surprise), the bad Nightmare Moon propaganda by Zecora, everyone else being scared despite that she isn't Nightmare Moon anymore, and Luna being forced to stick to her sordid past and make it look like a good thing just to be accepted is what instantly makes this episode one of the worst (if not the only) episodes of the season. Congratulations, writers; you managed to turn a well beloved Ensemble Darkhorse into a Base Breaker. One more thing: "Sometimes, it's fun to be scared", not if it means hurting someone's already hurt reputation even more, Pinkie Pie.
 * What really bugged me about this episode was the fact that Nightmare Night even existed. Alternate Character Interpretation aside, Celestia has always been a benevolent, caring ruler, almost to the point of being Crystal Alicorn Jesus. The first thing she does when Luna is cured is embrace her, welcome her back to the family and put on a big celebration for her. Then we find out that there's been a holiday that does nothing but turn her sister into a boogeyman who eats children, and for a thousand years Celestia does nothing to try and improve her sister's reputation or preserve her good name. What the hell, Celestia? Sure, you could say that she didn't want to create a revisionist history but there's a difference a fair treatment of a bad person and outright demonification.
 * Pinkie's behavior really got on my nerves in this episode too. Never mind the fact that there had been a celebration in Ponyville to celebrate Luna's redemption ages ago and that everyone bar Twilight and Pinkie seemed to forget that in the meantime. Never mind that Luna surely has had enough time to get used to any changes that happened over a thousand years. The fact that the element of laughter seems to be completely unaware that shes hurting Luna's feelings and having fun at her expensive without coming up to her and explaining just what Nightmare Night is all about just makes it worse, especially that she riles up the children to go along with it becomes hard to swallow when you see how sad Luna is getting at just wanting to fit in, it's insensitive and completely terrible behaviour by a pony who is supposed to exist to make others smile. And just when it looks like Twlight is finally going to call her out for that mean behaviour she grabs hold of the Idiot Ball and declares Pinkie a genius. While scaring can be fun, Twilight would have been completely justified saying to Pinkie "Why didn't you explain that to us at the starting of the celebration?!" It would have made the episode a lot less awkward and made Luna the butt for far less jokes.
 * I know many people will really disagree with me on this, but I found "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" to be horrible. First of all, I fully agree that Rainbow Dash was full of herself and I am all for her learning a lesson in humility. However, I strongly disapprove on what was done to achieve that. Her bragging at the beginning was relatively harmless and Ponyville didn't mind it, let alone not being bothered by it. They wanted to take pictures and interview her for crying out loud. Her friends are the only ones bothered by it, but they don't talk to her, console her, reason with her, or even warn her of the consequences. Instead, they decide to take her down a peg just because they were annoyed. All of the following events can be traced back to this fact. If they tried to reason with Dash and she doesn't listen, then the other 5 would be more justified in what they did and Dash would've definitely deserved what happened to her, but that's not what happened. While their actions and interventions did save lives, they're also what made Dash progressively become more frustrated and desperate into doing stuff like breaking the dam and bothering other ponies over trivial matters. After all of this they still think they're showing Dash how to be a real hero and not brag, yet their motivations were not hero-like at all and they were bragging about Mare Do Well's (aka their) accomplishments for no reason other than to hammer it into Dash's head that she should be more like Mare-Do-Well. The whole thing was completely unfair to Rainbow Dash and it made the other 5 into arrogant and self-righteous jerks.
 * You've gotta love the Aesop, too: if one of your friends isn't living up to your moral standards- or if they're just getting on your nerves- don't talk to them about it; lie to them and attempt to manipulate them into changing their behavior!
 * Totally concur on this episode. That scene where they sit around, rubbing MDW's accomplishments in her face to egg her on, was just an exercise in utter dickishness. Real nice friends they were...
 * tvtroper98: Sweet and Elite was a very funny Two-Timer Date episode with some memorable moments, like Twilight's fail at dancing. That is, until the Ass Pull ending. Basically, Twilight openly reveals to everypony at the Canterlot garden party that Rarity is from Ponyville, and it looks like she is about to be a huge laughingstock...but Fancypants says to her that they loved the party and are honored to have someone like Rarity among them. So, basically, Rarity got out of the whole thing without having to move a muscle. WHAT?!? That's like the same kind of ending you would find on any Nickelodeon sitcom currently running.
 * In Hearth's Warming Eve, there is the plot hole of Equestria's flag when it is first founded. The flag depicts Celestia and Luna circling each other with the moon and the sun. The main problem? At this point, the Princesses may not have even been born or seen Equestria yet. It's implied that they didn't come into power until after they defeated Discord for the first time, either. Perhaps, because it is a play, it's the modern flag, but if that is true, it would be nice to get some kind of confirmation.
 * My main issue with Hearth's Warming Eve was the pacing. It seemed very obvious to me that the writers were rushing for the Aesop. In particular, why didn't we get to actually see the peaceful times before the blizzard? Why did they have exactly one summit before deciding to find new frontiers? This was made all the worse by the good elements of the episode - the Deep Immersion Acting, the exploring of the Verse, the Awesome Music... Maybe it was Christmas Rushed?
 * "The Last Roundup." The premise, as well as several gags and plot points, pretty much required the mane 6 to act wildly out of character, Applejack especially. Everyone but Fluttershy was either unsympathetic or obnoxious. The ending seemed last-minute, even down to the cheesy dialogue. The closing scene in question felt like an afterthought. For all I've heard in this episode's defense, it's the only one that made question the friendship of the protagonists.
 * I was offended by RD's behavior in the redub. In the original scene, she was noticeably annoyed by Derpy's clumsiness, like we would all expect. In the redub, she's simpering and sympathetic. So Rainbow Dash is allowed to be a jerk to her best friend Pinkie and her good friend Rarity but just because Derpy might have a disability she's exempt? Great job Hasbro. You decided to say that you don't discriminate against disabled people by saying that they need special treatment. I have Asperger's Syndrome and I honestly don't think Derpy has any mental handicaps (the eyes count as a physical one) but if she did wouldn't be a better Aesop for kids to see that people don't have to get special treatment and always be absolved from blame just because they're different? Honestly, it's this type of thing that causes kids to think that if they pretend to be disabled they'll get to do whatever they want without any consequences. And that's just awful.
 * For this troper, it was the sheer absence of effort of the redub! The woman who voiced RD didn't even sound in character! I honestly thought it was a fan dub when I first watched it! I can get over Hasbro erring on the side of caution about the whole Derpy thing, but I can't forgive complete and utter lack of quality. Studio B knew they were screwed either way over this, maybe appearing to give a flying crap about it would've softened the blow?
 * I was legitimately pissed off at the revelation that everypony left Rarity and Pinkie Pie to fend for themselves in the desert! That is a move of such profound jerkassness that I'm both at a loss for words and wouldn't blame Rarity and Pinkie if they broke off contact with the other four.
 * The pinkie promise. At first Pinkie is genuinely pissed at Applejack, but immediately forgives her after realizing that she didn't technically broke her promise. So what were kids supposed to learn? That it's okay to break a promise as long as you do so via Loophole Abuse?
 * So Applejack "didn't learn anything" from the events of The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000? That hardly sounds like something to brag about given what happened today. They claim to value customer relations over getting rich, and yet they let Pinkie Pie buy out a very large portion of their stock. Do the not see the correlation between that and losing the support of the whole town (the Element of Loyalty included)? It's a shame that Applejack abhors "fancy mathematics" so much, because otherwise she would have noticed that the Flim Flam Brothers' offer was actually quite generous. Sure the Apples only keep 25% of profits, but if that machine can more than quadruple their sales (and there's no question it can), they still come out ahead. Not to mention the hundreds of mare-hours that are suddenly freed up. They can go on all day about how machines are evil and all that, but when the alternative is angry customers and barely making ends meet, it's hard to sympathize with their plight. And the economic follies continued in droves, the Flim Flam brothers' threat to compete should not have scared them - were they not just a second ago bragging about their superior quality? If they're so confident, why not let Ponyville vote with their hooves? Granted it's a dangerous move, but think about it, it makes no sense logistically for the Flim Flams to make good on their threat; between costs of imports and machine maintenance, they'd never be able to undercut the ones who A, can boast "locally grown," B hold a virtual monopoly on Ponyville's apple supply, and C, are already charging exponentially less than what ponies are willing to pay . The only "competition" they can do is to pick up the deadweight loss from the Apple Family. With that in mind, wagering their only leverage is just about the worst move they can make. They almost lost the farm because they foolishly agreed to challenge the Flim Flam brothers on sheer volume rather than quality - we had already established they couldn't win on that. And the only reason they still own Sweet Apple Acres is because the Flim Flam brothers screwed themselves over thrice, first by not realizing that their lead was probably wide enough that they could still win without sacrificing quality, second by allowing Applejack to change the terms from her family competing to all of Ponyville competing, third by serving the ponies cider from one of the bad barrels made late in production rather than the good barrels made earlier. And her argument about having superior quality is moot, they never actually discredited the machine's quality-control mechanism. How can she be so smug when everything worked out by luck?
 * I have to agree that Applejack not learning anything is really a failure of imagination on her part. Her farm could have been lost on a stupid bet, but she didn't learn anything about not getting caught up in stupid competitiveness. Her family lost large chunks of the southern field by letting the Flim Flam brothers harvest it so recklessly. Her "victory" over them was largely due to luck and idiocy on the part of her competitors. So, Applejack is basically proud of being an uneducated hick who shot herself in the hoof over self-destructive levels of pride that her family didn't need to be a part of and doesn't learn anything from it.
 * There is also the issue that her family, the original limits of the competition terms, really didn't win. Only by dragging the rest of the town onto her side did Applejack get ahead, and while Flim and Flam were stupid to let Applejack change the terms, Applejack was worse; selfishly recruiting the whole town for labor intensification and putting the rest of the economy on hold just so she could produce a luxury. At the very least, this episode could have ended with the rather mature Aesop that business competition is good for everyone because it prompts all competitors to try harder, but with Flim and Flam leaving and the Apple Family's monopoly maintained, they will not have such an incentive to overproduce next season and likely be faced with the same shortages. Finally, why are you vilifying industrial consumerist capitalism in a show that wouldn't have existed without it?
 * I used to like Pinkie Pie, my second favorite pony overall behind Fluttershy. But as Season 2 progressed, I started to dislike her, namely how she was Flanderized from being a silly pony to hyperactive Mare Foal who won't shut up. The moment that solidified my disdain for the character was in "A Friend In Deed". The episode started out good, with a really good musical number in the first act and the events in the second act seemed to make this episode into a deconstruction of Pinkie's character as Cranky Doodle Donkey was repelled by Pinkie's usual antics. And then in the third act, Pinkie just so happens to know that Matilda, a donkey introduced in the opening scene is Cranky's lost love who has NOT moved on from him despite not seeing him for years, just so happen to live in Ponyville this entire time, and because of this, Cranky accepts Pinkie's friendship. What. The. Fuck? Seriously, what is this bull crap. You just can't set up this episode with a more mature than usual moral yet give some ultra-contrived happy ending. And no, even though she wrote a letter to Celestia at the end, that doesn't justify the fact that she got her way in the end. I'm now convinced that the writers like Pinkie Pie too much to put her in any real crisis, anything that might lead her to develop away from being the one-dimensional Genki Girl of the group, and an overall Creator's Pet. Way to waste a perfectly good story by giving it a crappy ending, Amy Keating Rogers.
 * Agreed, that episode really bummed me out. If it had ended in ANY way other than that fairy tale happy ending Pinkie Pie would have become one of the biggest jerks in television history. If she didn't just happen to know Matilda she would have just shoehorned herself into someone's life who clearly didn't want to know her, destroyed all of his precious memorabilia, and reminded him of the worst experience of his life. The writers made sure Pinkie Pie really lucked out in this episode.
 * For someone who was already jaded by the utterly atrocious "Lesson Zero" and a long slog of underwhelming episodes, "A Friend In Deed" was bad enough to make me stop watching the show. First we have to deal with a song which is way too long to enjoy in a voice which induces headaches, then Pinkie spends most of the episode acting like a school bully (seriously, her constant annoyance and fake "I don't know what you're talking about" act is classic bully behaviour), then right when we expect her to get her comeuppance, the writers let her off the hook with an Ass Pull so huge it would involve volumes of waste comparable to that handled by a sewage treatment plant and an Aesop of "you can get whatever you want if you're sufficiently annoying".
 * There are a lot of problems with the episode "Putting Your Hoof Down", but for brevity I'll focus on the set up. The episode starts off with Angel the bunny slapping Fluttershy in the face because he was unhappy with the salad she gave him. Angel has been impatient before and even bratty at times, but he was never a domestic abuser. Anyways, Fluttershy has to go out and get ingredients to make this insanely complex salad Angel wants. What follows is basically a cringe worthy Humiliation Conga for poor Fluttershy, as literately all the background ponies become jerkasses for no reason and push her around, cut in front of her, jack up prices for ingredients to a ridiculous extreme (10 bits, and later 20 for one cherry!) and insult her. This results in Angel throwing Fluttershy out of her own house because she couldn't make the damn salad perfectly since she couldn't buy the overpriced cherry (please note that everything else about the salad was perfect, it just didn't have a cherry). This horrid scenario was probably done so that Fluttershy would be motivated to go to an assertiveness training class but honestly it seems that the writers forgot what show they were writing. Why is Angel such a violent Jerkass to Fluttershy when he has been protective of her in the past? Why does everyone hate Fluttershy all of a sudden? Fluttershy has never been the most assertive pony but she was never tormented to this extent by so many characters at once. There have been mean characters on the show but they were the exception not the rule.
 * Okay, I agree with those events going too far but I tolerated them for the sake of story. What has me writing this entry is the entire scene where she's chewing out Pinkie Pie and Rarity. Not just berating them but attacking them verbally where it hurts the most: their lives. Calling their destined pursuits "frivolous?" Telling them they're wasting their lives on something so unimportant that nopony gives a flying fuc-oh right, feather about? Excuse me Ms. Flutterbrute, but that's how they make a living, compared to being shut-up in a cottage taking care of animals for no profit. I know this episode was to show off how bad it is to go overboard with being assertive and whatnot, but the whole scene just feels waayyy out of place for Fluttershy to say. (Seeing Pinkie Pie and Rarity run away with a face full of tears didn't help matters either.) Even though justified through her assertiveness training, she's not the kind of pony to belittle and mentally break her friends. Overall, not only was the scene cringe-inducing, but handled very poorly. This really put FS down on the my pony tier list for me, and the episode ultimately leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
 * I could deal with most of those parts. What made me a bit upset was the fact that they made a nerd joke in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic! I mean, come on! This isn't a Disney/Nickelodeon sitcom! I watch this show to get away from those jokes! That really took me by surprise and left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
 * I'm probably in the minority here, but I really, really disliked It's About Time. Why? Because, just my opnion, but the episode seemed like a totally pointless rehash of old Twilight-centric episodes. Where was the character development? I mean, Twilight Sparkle walked away from that whole time-travel thing learning not to worry about stuff? Isn't that, like, what about 50% of her episodes focus on anyway? Ticket-Master? Lesson Zero? The episode had a really good potential premise, and instead it's wasted on some totally pointless, wacky hijinks. I feel guilty for even writing this because I am a Brony/Pegasister/whatever, but seriously, that episode has got to be in competition for my least favourite of season 2. The episode was hyped up to be really cool, because you know, time-travel, guys, and I even thought it might contain some foreshadowing for the series finale. But I feel like they're running out of ideas for Twilight Sparkle if the best thing they could think of to do with her in an episode about time-travel was to teach her to not worry about things. Why did they feel the need to use a time machine for that? Not only that, but several moments in the episode did go wrong, and some of it was much more interesting that the episode's conclusion. Talk about They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot.
 * Dragon Quest, has a huge DMOS for me in the form of a major Broken Aesop / Family-Unfriendly Aesop. In the episode, Spike feels like he's not in-touch with his dragon heritage and wants to go on the "Great Dragon Migration" to learn more about his heritage. His friends are reluctant to let him go at first, since they fear he could get hurt, but decide to let him leave on his journey. The problem occurs when Spike has to perform a bunch of "tests" (IE: Rowdy teenage dares) by a bunch of rowdy teenage dragons (Including stealing a Phoenix egg to smash). Spike discovers the other dragons are jerks and that he really belongs in Ponyville. Notice a problem? Spike didn't learn anything about dragon culture. Abso-freakin-lutely nothing! We get that Spike's not like other dragons. But, did it really require the use of one-dimensional teen dragon villains to drive the point home? Couldn't of the episode of just shown Spike learning about his heritage and his ancestry before returning to Ponyville and learning a lesson about being able to embrace both one's ancestry and who one is currently rather than "Anyone outside the culture you grew up in are complete jerks!"? What a great lesson to teach the kids.
 * Am I the only one who thinks that the dragon's felt like a particularly mean Take That at people who don't like the show? I dunno, watching it, the entire thing just felt like the writer's were going "Here's a group of guys who don't like Ponies. All they do is stupid dares all day. If you like ponies they'll make fun of you and ridicule you."
 * You have to love the Fantastic Racism here, too. It was noticeable in this series before, but here it's pretty much hammered hard. One group of Dragons are immature jerks, so that means all dragons are a waste of time with Spike rejecting who he is. There have been several instances of Ponies being obnoxious jackasses (Including the Mane 6), so can we automatically write off ponies as being jackasses? There's Reptiles Are Abhorrent, and then there's just insulting my intelligence.
 * Same for me, for both the above, and one other reason: During Spike's scared little ramble with Twilight in the beginning episode about where he came from and who he is, the first thought that came into my head was that we were finally, finally, going to meet Spike's parents, find out how he got into that basket at Celestia's place, and, being a huge dragon fan in general, maybe be given a little more insight on what the culture of the dragons of this show is like. And so, after getting myself more excited than I've been since The Return of Harmony that we were finally going to be given a tearjerking/heartwarming backstory on one of my favorite characters, I was given...an episode about bad influences. I was disappointed. Very.
 * Am I the only one who hated the scene with Twilight, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash in the beginning? We're supposed to agree that Fluttershy trampling Dash is awesome/hilarious/etc, but honesly, it made me dislike Fluttershy even more. Yes, okay, Rainbow could do with learning that no means no, but Fluttershy should NOT be given a pass on everything just because she's normally nice and a shy person. I already feel like she got off easy in 'Putting your Hoof Down', but in this one she just gets angry, tramples Rainbow Dash and runs off. If another one of the Mane Six had reacted like that, people would be saying they went overboard, but no, because "sweet little Fluttershy" comes out with a loud, "I. Said. NO!", we're meant to be cheering her on. It's honestly beginning to feel like everytime Fluttershy asserts herself, she automatically gets her own way, which is not exactly a brilliant message to be sending out, imo.
 * It may have worked better if they hadn't given Rainbow Dash another blatant Jerkass Has a Point moment just beforehand by pointing out Fluttershy had previously dragged her to the Butterfly Migration in a near identical scenario (except RD begrudingly suffered it in silence) and what was supposed to look like RD goading her past breaking point was just her pointing her out as a Hypocrite. That was the thing that outraged Fluttershy to the point of violence? Granted one could wonder if the plot of "Hurricane Fluttershy" straight afterwards (Fluttershy suffers a painful task for RD's sake) was supposed to balance this.
 * I normally don't agree with some of the entries, much less ever thinking I would make one but "Ponyville Confidential" has a serious problem with it. The episode starts out good enough with the Cutie Mark Crusaders looking for another way to get their cutie marks and deciding to join the newspaper, who is headed by Diamond Tiara who after writing about an embarrassing incident involving Snips and Snails wants them to write gossip stories under the guise Gabby Gums, eventually the townspeople gets upset when the privacy is invaded. This all goes downhill when Rarity finds out the truth about Gabby Gums, and suddenly everyone in Ponyville treats the CMC like outcasts! This goes to ridiculous proportions when Applejack refuses to talk to even her own sister (besides for "yeps" and "nopes") while Big Mac literally tells her to "Go away!" and Rainbow Dash literally putting a raincloud over their heads! This was horrible to see three children go through this stuff and also jarring since earlier the three have shown that they're starting to regret gathering these stories and are mostly because of peer pressure and blackmail. Sure everything ends fine in the end and it didn't ruin me from enjoying the episode but it's still shocking that the "adult" ponies could treat children this way.
 * Between Big Mac's rant, Twilight's over-reactive force field, and Rainbow Dash and Angel attacking them, this was arguably one of the darkest segments of the entire series. Not to mention it reeks of Character Derailment. Sure, RD has proven to be boisterous and blunt in the past, but she would never actually attack anypony in pure anger, much less children. The entire town basically traumatized three children, who were already hurting because of what they've done, completely ignoring that Diamond Tiara had essentially blackmailed them into publishing the embarrassing stories and photos. Look, I get that the town was angry and disappointed that the CMC would publish such "slander", but there is a fine line between being disappointed and outright abuse.
 * There is an obvious line between being reasonably upset at someone and acting like a petulant child when you're a full-grown adult. I can understand Rarity's and even Applejack's reasons for their bitterness towards the trio (having your own sister saying such things about you publicly is undoubtedly an awful experience, and reading someone's personal diary is never okay), but to go so far as for every single citizen of Ponyville to completely shun and in some cases verbally lambast them? I don't think they did anything abhorrent enough to deserve such a punishment. Overreaction, much?
 * While the reactions of the various ponies don't bother me so much, what does bother me is the Aesop that is missed by all the supposed adults in the series; namely that most of them clearly enjoyed Gabby Gums and passed off the gossip as harmless fun until it was their butts on the firing line. They seemed apparently unable to relate cause and effect and fail to realize that their demand is what caused Gabby Gums to go out of control. And while the episode ends with the CMC learning their lesson and Diamond Tiara getting her comeuppance, there seems to be no lesson learned by the other ponies who essentially encouraged the victimization of their neighbors until it was their turn. Talk about hypocrisy.
 * I have to say, that I was a bit underwhelmed by the finale episode "A Canterlot Wedding: Part 1". I know Remember the New Guy? isn't a horrible trope, but I just couldn't feel anything towards Shining Armor. He's a cool guy and all, but establishing that he was pretty much Twilight's brother seemed like it was pushing it. Also the way Twilight accused Cadence seemed a bit uncharacteristic of her. After the previous episode, where she spent time not jumping to conclusions, she just decides to accuse her because she's meaner than usual. I empathized with her, but her methods just seem like Lesson Zero again. The thing that ticked me off the most was the shunning of Twilight. Yes, she was unreasonable, but just abandoning her doesn't solve much either. Especially Celestia's blatant lack of understanding.
 * I was concerned about how the second season finale would turn out, with it apparently introducing two new Mary Sue-ish characters with shoehorned life-long connections to Twilight, but I had faith in the production team and hoped for the best. It seemed my fears had been quelled by the mid-point of part 2, with the introduction of a menacing new antagonist complete with villain song, and possibly one of the best action sequences of the whole series. What irked me about this episode, however, was the way in which the conflict was resolved; with Princess Celestia and the mane six captured and changelings running rampant around Canterlot, Cadence and Shining Armour use their love for one another to fuel a shockwave that sends all the changelings flying out of the city (Queen Chrysalis allows them to do this, scoffing at the concept despite using that same love moments ago to defeat Celestia). Now my problem isn't the use of the Power of Love in and of itself (as if the Power of Friendship as any less sappy), but with the Elements of Harmony, at least we got to see Twilight bond with each of her friends and learn about their virtues. Here, we're given two undeveloped characters, told they love each other because, um, they're both nice, and their love is powerful enough to set off the spell. I think the writers did their best with what they were given to work with, but this just feels like a really lame way to wrap things up.


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