My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Headscratchers/Season 2: Difference between revisions

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**** I think that's [[Word of God]] right there. Something corrupted Luna and weakened Discord's prison. I can't remember the details.

*** If the [[Big Bad]] turns out to be those witches from that movie and TV series (the one with the smooze, remember?) I think I'll roll on the floor laughing.

**** The WMG making a STARTLINGLY good case that the [[Bigger Bad]] who's been running around weakening Discord's prison, corrupting characters and unleashing chaos on Ponyville is none other than Cheerilee.

*** It's not clear if Celestia personally is responsible for imprisoning all of them, but there's apparently enough that there's an entire realm (Tartaros -- they distinctly pronounce it with the Greek "os", not the Latin "us") dedicated to holding them, and they can potentially get out any time Cerberus decides to wander off.

* Did anyone else think that when Twilight Sparkle got corrupted, that she would become a techhead instead? After all, the obvious offense against Magic is...but my real Headscratcher comes from the lesson of this story; Friendship is hard, but if you work at it you will persevere. This is all well and good, but the problem rears its head when we look at the circumstances that their friendship is threatened. It was totally from an outside force for which they had no control over their actions and weren't acting in their frame of mind. If they had been led into those corruptions from a sense of need to lie or be cruel or be greedy or grumpy in their own personalities, then one could argue that it was their personality and they could be held responsible, but not in this case.

** Twilight was corrupted because she gave up. That's why fighting for their friendship is the lesson. Twilight didn't try to fix them, she just pressed ahead on her own.

** Fair enough. Which leads me to wonder why her strength of enduring friendships would be something to attack. For the longest time, if we are being fair, she resisted. Also, being as smart as she is, you would think she would realize her friends were being manipulated...which goes back to the second question, really. They were being manipulated.

*** She definitely knew ''something'' was wrong, and that it was Discord's fault, but she pegged all her hopes on being able to befriend the crap out of him with the Element Cannon. When that failed, she just gave up until Celestia spammed her with her own letters. To more directly answer the opening 'scratcher, for all of Discord's [[Mind Rape]], he was taking a trait that already existed and turning it [[Up to Eleven|up to about fifteen]]. As one WMG on the Mane Characters page put it, each of them (except possibly Rainbow Dash) had already acted against their Element at least once - all Discord did was let that part out to play for more than a CMFIS (Cutie Mark Failure Insanity Syndrome, in case you aren't in the know)-induced breakdown (OK, Applejack's lies were mainly to keep a surprise party secret). Meaning that yes, they ''were'' lead into those corruptions from their own flaws, just aggravated by Discord.

*** That also assumes that the opposite was there to begin with. I would feel bad if the girls were brought low because of this apparent weakness. I will certainly agree with Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and (sorry 'bout this, cutie) Fluttershy though I would call her more psychotic and desperate more than cruel. They certainly showed the opposite traits. Twilight hadn't before Season 2, and I don't think Pinkie did. She was paranoid and schizophrenic [[Played for Laughs]], but I'm not sure I'd call her grumpy, would you?

*** And as for Twilight, she absolutely ''did'' demonstrate her "Discorded" traits in Season 1...way back in the pilot. Meeting the other members of the Mane Six allowed her to get past that mindset, but with them all having abandoned her, there was nothing left to keep her from reverting to the introverted loner with no time for or interest in making friends. The additional signs of depression can be attributed to the old aphorism "you never know what you've got until you lose it."

 

**** I think that's [[Word of God]] right there. Something corrupted Luna and weakened Discord's prison. I can't remember the details.

*** If the [[Big Bad]] turns out to be those witches from that movie and TV series (the one with the smooze, remember?) I think I'll roll on the floor laughing.

**** The WMG making a STARTLINGLY good case that the [[Bigger Bad]] who's been running around weakening Discord's prison, corrupting characters and unleashing chaos on Ponyville is none other than Cheerilee.

*** It's not clear if Celestia personally is responsible for imprisoning all of them, but there's apparently enough that there's an entire realm (Tartaros -- they distinctly pronounce it with the Greek "os", not the Latin "us") dedicated to holding them, and they can potentially get out any time Cerberus decides to wander off.

**** I think that's [[Word of God]] right there. Something corrupted Luna and weakened Discord's prison. I can't remember the details.

*** If the [[Big Bad]] turns out to be those witches from that movie and TV series (the one with the smooze, remember?) I think I'll roll on the floor laughing.

**** The WMG making a STARTLINGLY good case that the [[Bigger Bad]] who's been running around weakening Discord's prison, corrupting characters and unleashing chaos on Ponyville is none other than Cheerilee.

*** It's not clear if Celestia personally is responsible for imprisoning all of them, but there's apparently enough that there's an entire realm (Tartaros -- they distinctly pronounce it with the Greek "os", not the Latin "us") dedicated to holding them, and they can potentially get out any time Cerberus decides to wander off.

** You just answered your own question. She was tied up, she couldn't cast any spells.

*** Gee, I must have never noticed when she performed an interprative dance every time before she cast any of her other spells. Oh wait, she didn't, because she '''just has to think hard enough''' to cast a spell. And maybe she did use a spell during the scene cut, it just didn't occur to her until 20 seconds later.

** Perhaps she automatically teleports anything she's touching, so she'd just teleport the tree and rope with her as well.

*** [[Forgot I Could Fly]]. There, I just explained this and every single instance similar to it that has or will happen in the series.

**** But they don't have an unlimited amount of apples, so the long run might not be long enough to ensure profit. Furthermore, even if they would make a profit, the split just wasn't fair. The Apple family would be doing all the work maintaining the farm, growing the apples and harvesting them. Furthermore, even though they already have the apple trees, the farm still has a lot of expenses. They may have to purchase fertilizer, and of course, there's maintenance of the barn, fences, signs, tools, they have to buy things like barrels, and more. Not to mention they need enough money left over to support a family of four. Big Apple Acres is more than just the orchard, they have a lot more to support. And as seem in the episode, the Flim Flam brothers cared only about profit, not quality or integrity. Would you really want to work with someponies like them?

*** As stated a few times, the expenses from running and maintaining the farm, and feeding the family, are all expenses they make already, regardless of whether they make cider. The initial idea was that if the brothers had offered something that was more enticing (like a relatively-reasonable 50/50, since they're bringing unprecedented technology they literally can't get anywhere else to the table), then they probably would've been able to discuss a real business relationship with the Apples, instead of sparking an immediate feud. As for integrity, of COURSE nopony would want to work with them if they knew the brothers for more than 30 seconds. They're jerks, but if they HADN'T been jerks, they would've offered some a split that's not insulting, and could've made something great happen. Quality, though, is a different story. Until they "cheat" at the competition, their cider is implied to actually be delicious. Granny Smith drinks some and clearly looks worried that they actually have an equal product. They very clearly put great care into making sure their machine turns out a quality product consistently. They only stopped caring about quality because they started panicking about potential loss, and they probably figured losing would've made them look even worse than having an undrinkable product.

** Because they'd hit a bottleneck with Granny Smith and Rarity inspecting the fruits and the mill only capable of juicing so many at a time. Better to split the crew among the various tasks according to their talents for better overall efficiency at all four steps than to attempt to focus on the sheer volume of one part of the process.

** We don't know how magic works exactly. It's possible that certain spells can only be performed under certain conditions. For instance, maybe in Applebuck Season Twilight had to spend a couple hours ''preparing'' the mega-apple-picking spell before she could actually use it. If so, then such a spell would be worthless in a timed competition like this.

*** Selling cider directly from the source not only allows them to set their own prices, it gets ponies to come directly to the farm and familiarize themselves with the Apple family. Doing so ensures repeat business and allows them to move other apple products while the crowds are still there. They can combine advertisement, seasonal product selling, regular products sold, and the full portion of the profits all by cutting out the middle man. Of course we don't see any additional products sold, but it would be a perfect opportunity.

*** Well, rather than sell it to a middle man, why not spend all of their time making the cider while trusted, responsible family friends like the Mane 6 work the stand. Make the cider within eyesight of the stand, interact with the customers during breaks, but also make more product, thus sell more product, get a better profit, and don't leave anywhere near as many dissatisfied customers, so the Flim Flam Brothers can't get the entire town behind them. In fact, if they got the whole gang to help work the stand, they could run 5 lines at a time while they have enough stock, thus shortening the lines so even if you get turned away you haven't wasted as much of your day waiting on it. Or if they prefer, have the trusted family friends do the cider making while the family works the counter. Either way, they make a LOT more product, without losing any of that family business feel.

**** The problem with having the Mane 6 help is that they already ''have'' jobs. Even if they're willing to help, they may well be too busy next year or the year after that.

* Flim and Flam's names are probably supposed to indicate their nature, but…how? They're certainly not nice, but they're not ''dishonest'' either. Their machine works exactly as they claim it does, and until they press that button, nothing indicates their cider is of lesser quality. Granny Smith tries some of it, and her reaction suggests that it is indeed as good as her family's, though she's not about to say so. Even when the brothers ''do'' put quantity over quality, they're perfectly willing to lower the price of the cider, if only to get ponies to buy it. So while they're definitely ruthless and callous towards the Apple family, what evidence is there that they're actually cheating anyone?

* How the hay do the hospital ponies keep up with Rainbow Dash? She's shown that she can easily outrun all the ponies in Ponyville except Applejack and Pinkie Pie. They should be falling further and further behind.

** Well, the pain from her wings could had crippled her running speed, and the one time we really saw her run against someone else was during a marathon, this was a sprint. Ponies also tends to demonstrate greater physical abilities when pushed, having a thief break into your establishment, especially after a patient claimed he was robbed sure seems like a great way to push the medical staff and a security guard... and an insane patient, apparently.

*** But that's just it: In that race she repeatedly demonstrated that she could go from way behind the pack to way in front of it, even ''without'' her wings. The only pony who could actually keep up with her was Applejack.

*** Doesn't stop her from still feeling pain from her crippled wing, though. Ever felt that stab in the ribs while running?

** Even if they collapse from exhaustion in a couple weeks and the poison wears off afterward, it'd still be pretty devastating to the farm and to the two 'lovebirds'. Victims of the love poison can be talked into making life-changing decisions with the smallest nudge, and don't make rational decisions about their own interests; that gets into some really dark places really fast. Merely not being fatal would still be terrible. Applebloom's predictions are a little ridiculous, but that's cause she's a kid with terrible long-term planning ability. Even from a more adult perspective and even presuming the poison only lasts for a short time, it's still really nasty Magic Mind Control Juice.

** Another possibility is that time passing only counts while they're awake. The spell would probably make them dream about each other.

** Teachers received apples as gifts from students sometimes? It probably doesn't happen these days anymore, but it's more like that scene in Pinocchio where he gets an apple to give to the teacher.

** Giving a teacher an apple is one of the oldest tropes around in American animation. It's reflected all over the place, how could someone not know it?

** Twilight said Starswirl had a wing of the library named after him in Luna Eclipsed, so she knew it existed. Presumably, she'd never seen a reason to visit the high-security part of the library before.

** Yes, the time loop is based upon a problem it caused. Depending on one's perception of time (which is to say, highly subjective and open to interpretation), it might imply that there was a time when the loop wasn't initiated. This particular Twilight might had simply stumbled upon the spell and used it, creating an alternate timeline which eventually stabilized into a loop. For the sake of simplicity: original Twilight goes back in time as herself for some reason, something causes her past self to become 'future Twilight', then she goes back to the past for the reason we saw, poof, the loop is made.

*** Maybe there actually WAS a disaster before she started the loop, but it was averted by disaster-proofing Ponyville.

** Maybe they only get reborn a limited number of times before they die permanently.

*** So...phoenixes are [[Time Lord|Time Lords]]?

** Fluttershy's dracophobia was established in that episode. It was only when he was directly threatening her friends that she got over it. As it stands, the dragons aren't doing much aside from collateral damage.

* Is it just me, or is this the first time in the entire series that Rainbow Dash actually acts kind and caring to someone? Even when defending her friends or doing them favors, she's still pretty loud and obnoxious about it. Here, she's soft spoken and rather supportive of Fluttershy throughout much of the episode, returning to her loud and boastful variety of friendliness when she's playing up Fluttershys performance. She's not exactly perfect (She's still begging Flutteryshy to help), but this is probably her first incident of being actually sensitive. It almost seems Dash went through a bit of character development off-screen, and we missed a friendship letter somewhere.

** How about The Last Roundup, where she was also quite nice to Applejack? Or last episode, where she was protective of Spike? The main problem here probably is that her first two episodes this season portrayed her as an asshole.

**** I did not intend that Dash was not capable of being nice. But there's a difference between her good traits manifesting loudly and energetically, like they usually do, and her being relatively low-key in this episode. To be fair, she was somewhat quiet when trying to calm Tank down when he got scared towards the end of Best Pet. However, I'm pointing out that, normally, she's more like she was at the end of the episode, where she was giving the credit to Fluttershy in her usual boisterous manner. It's not that Dash can't be kind and considerate, it's that in this case, she behaved in a much more subdued way here. It seems like a younger Dash might have tried to be a lot more energetic towards Fluttershy, rather than her much more downplayed than usual behavior here. It's like if Pinkie Pie threw a party, and it was just a quiet affair, maybe with a single cake and basic food, and it was much more about the guests simply enjoying each others company than the actual party itself. It wouldn't be completely out of character, but it would be odd, and signify positive character development and better empathy on the part of the character (Dash in the episode, Pinkie in this example).

** Her character development indeed seems to have improved over time, especially in 'Read it and Weep', in which she learned to stop hating what she doesn't understand, a lesson she truly needed. There's a few moments in which RD was actually caring to someone else, but the rather poorly planned two episodes in a row dedicated in showcasing her absolute worst features, almost making her seem like a villain in 'May the Best Pet Win' and 'Mysterious Mare-Do-Well' did a great job of changing the opinion of the community regarding her. It took some time, but it seems like she was eventually redeemed by becoming a more open-minded pony and being the target of most jokes in episodes.

 

== 2.23 Ponyville Confidential ==

** [[Completely Missing the Point|Gabby Gums didn't use a typewriter]]. Anyway, the typewriters had two hoof-sized buttons and what looked like a space bar. That changes the question from how they hit the buttons to how they fit all the functions into such few keys.

*** I've got it! They type in... Horse Code!

** Tiara was probably too over-confident in her blackmail keeping the girls in line.

** They also seemed to be right at the paper's deadline, and she probably figured any Gabby Gums piece would be better than publishing the photos and cutting ties with the [[CM Cs]] forever.

** These explanations would be acceptable for a purely print piece. However, the article actually has a picture of the Crusaders front and center, instantly implying that they are owning up to their actions as Gabby Gums, and we see during the later montage that it quickly caught the attention of those who were spiting the group. Even if Tiara didn't pick up on that implication, she'd have to wonder why they were writing a defamation article against themselves. For her to publish the article and put it on the "newstands" without realizing that it wasn't their standard fare, she must have not even ''glanced'' at the thing from the moment they handed it to her to the moment when everyone was reading it, and that would include not being anywhere near the printing or distribution process, especially so close to deadline when you need to make sure everything goes without a hitch. That's a pretty extreme reversal from earlier.

* Why does a one-room schoolhouse have its very own newspaper?