My Little Pony Friendship is Magic General

[mechana2015]

Average, yes, worst episode ever? No. I found it entertaining and the resolution better thought out than the paint drying test in the previous episode, which while funny seemed... odd. We've also never actually seen fluttershy reacting to magic being directly used on her animals specifically either, especially the sort Twilight was doing (and considering what has HAS seen when twilight goes overboard with magic...especially since she was pushing her limits).

[FllMtl Novelist]

Yeah I'm in no real mood to argue about it, but I really liked this episode. Like... a lot. Continuity issues (which I honestly didn't see?) aside, I really love when they give us an episode that's more genre fantasy than fuzzy friendship every once in a while.

/casual fan

[Zeldafan2]

@Fllmtl Novelist: I have no problem with you liking the episode. Everyone's entitled to their own opinon. I just only thought of it as avarage, and an episode that could have been done MUCH better.

@Mechana: Fluttershy has reacted to magic being used directly on her animals (Season 1 finale, Best Night Ever, Twilight turned her mice into odd, horse looking things.) In that episode, she was leery of what Twilight was doing, but she didn't give her any death threats, or act like she didn't trust her. Just typical Fluttershy. In Magic Duel, she acted as if she barely knew Twilight, like she hadn't seen her magic at its best before. As I've already stated, like she treated her in episode 1 almost.

[Bio_Plus]

SPOILER: Highlight text to read: *
I loved the the episode!!!

It wasn't the best episode and it isn't my favorite, it had problems, but for once I'm not going to point them out, I'll just agree when somebody else does.
But this was a great start for Scootaloo's character and even though we didn't learn everything we still learned a lot. And there was character development for everypony. We also finally got some more world building as we learn that Luna can enter dreams and it sheds more light on why she turned into Nightmare Moon in the first place.
And although this wasn't the best episode I'll take what I can get. And what I got and what pleases the Scootaloo fan in me is that I got one of the best closures to any episode so far. And that's amazing and I love that.

Scootalove FTW!!
Scootaloo's awesome moves!
Scootaloo wanting to hang out with RD, so adorable!
Scootaloo without anypony to hug her, just too dang sad!
Scootaloo getting twigs, cuteness overload!
Scootaloo being comforted by Rainbow, all my YES!!
Scootalove fandom ending! While still keeping to the context of the story and making it work fluently. Dramatic Rarity faint of happiness.

[rocklobster]

SPOILER: Highlight text to read: My thoughts:
I agree that it was about time we got a Scootaloo episode. And I love the fact that we're seeing so much of Luna this season. Her appearance was awesome in this episode and I loved how she tried to help Scootaloo face her fears. And to top it off, someone remembered RD had a nice side too! And I think this is a first ep by a new writer. If so, I see potential. So, to sum it up: 6 cutie marks out of 6! Best ep of the season so far!

[Zeldafan2]

SPOILER: Highlight text to read: I enjoyed this episode. It was a very nice relief for me for last week's chaotic Magic Duel episode. I was glad Rainbow Dash showed some heart, and actually really cares about Scootaloo (Honestly, sometimes I find it hard to see too many redeeming qualities in Rainbow on occasion.)
Luna's appearance was a suprise to me, and it was great seeing her appear again (I'm really hoping she gets an expanded role in the season finale.) She didn't feel forced or shoved into this episode purely for fanservice, but flowed naturally into the episode's plot.
Now, a side trivia note, out of the first six episodes in the series, only one has had a Friendship letter written. Quite curious if you ask me.

Overall, I give this episode a 5 out of 6.

[Neane]

I've been watching this over the past several months and I gotta say it's a very cute, enjoyable show. I wouldn't consider myself a Brony but... yeah, it's the bee knees for children's programming right now. And Great episode this week,

[mysngoeshere56]

I've been keeping up with this as much as I could. I really liked the opening episodes of the current season. I was surprised to see a villain that was actually kind of scary (King Sombra) in the episodes, too. Don't get me wrong - the others have been threatening too, but King Sombra seemed more intimidating than the others were. I thought it was pretty cool to have a villain like him.

[raider~joseph]

The most recent ep was amazing. Way to go Scootaloo. How ever I was on EQD's irc chat and quite a few people were talking about this being the last season just because of this episode and the Trixie ep. They are saying that The Hub is tying up loose ends. To be fair its not as outlandish as it sounds. How many times did we ask for a Scoot ep and a Trixie ep during Season 2? A lot. And nothing. But now when we have 13 episodes left. It just seems...convenient. I personally don't believe it. But it worries me nonetheless. Why? Because I have paranoia. So shut up. Im allowed to be paranoid if I want to. Anyway the next ep is one I personally have been waiting for since season 1. The Wonderbolt episode. They may not be good with Dragon Chasing unlike BioPlus, but they seem to be the best race ponies around.

Oh and before I forget...LUNA!

[Bio_Plus]

The most recent ep was amazing. Way to go Scootaloo. How ever I was on EQD's irc chat and quite a few people were talking about this being the last season just because of this episode and the Trixie ep. They are saying that The Hub is tying up loose ends. To be fair its not as outlandish as it sounds. How many times did we ask for a Scoot ep and a Trixie ep during Season 2? A lot. And nothing. But now when we have 13 episodes left. It just seems...convenient. I personally don't believe it. But it worries me nonetheless. Why? Because I have paranoia. So shut up. Im allowed to be paranoid if I want to. Anyway the next ep is one I personally have been waiting for since season 1. The Wonderbolt episode. They may not be good with Dragon Chasing unlike BioPlus, but they seem to be the best race ponies around.

Oh and before I forget...LUNA!

DHX had Season 4 listed in their end-of-year financial reports (or one of those large documents that companies has to give in, I forget exactly which one). So even though S4 isn't confirmed yet, there's a very good chance that S4 is already done and waiting to be finished off by TopDraw and that it will also have 13 episodes.But don't expect it to be coming out early though.
I hope we get to see more Scoots and RD in the next episode. And thanks Raider , speaking of which, Spitfire and Soarin is still free.

[raider~joseph]

Ill take you up on that.

Still of all the hairbrained theories ive heard so far this one at leasts makes since. Its almost too creepy how much they are listening to the fans this season.

[Yuki-Anne]

Actually, it's not creepy. They probably had the plans and scripts all done for Season 2 by the time the fans started requesting stuff. A show like this takes a ton of planning, so they probably couldn't figure in fan requests until Season 3.

Speaking of which, I loved this last episode.

SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Princess Luna is Equestria's Morpheus? Nice.

And I guess I thought that Scootaloo was Rainbow Dash's sister all along. I'm not sure why... I mean, I guess in the episode where Scoot idolizes RD, I just thought, "Man, it's kind of weird that she loves her sister so much, but that's cool I guess..."

[rocklobster]

Didn't Avatar have some loose-end tieups in its second season? All shows do that so they can create more stories. That's all it is, raider. Like it says in the Hitchhiker's guide: "Don't Panic".

[raider~joseph]

I guess so. But if they make a Doctor Whooves ep I'ma panic. Then rejoice. Then panic.

[rocklobster]

That won't happen. The BBC would sue.

[raider~joseph]

Thats both comforting and depressing at the same time.

Anyway. New ep gonna feature a pony rival to Rainbow Dash if im correct. Any guess on the name?

[Bio_Plus]

Thats both comforting and depressing at the same time.

Anyway. New ep gonna feature a pony rival to Rainbow Dash if im correct. Any guess on the name?

As long as this pony rival doesn't match Rainbow speed for speed and they become best friends because of it, I'll be fine.

[mechana2015]

Actually, it's not creepy. They probably had the plans and scripts all done for Season 2 by the time the fans started requesting stuff. A show like this takes a ton of planning, so they probably couldn't figure in fan requests until Season 3.

All of this. TV episodes are not written the week before the show airs ESPECIALLY in animation, where you have to have the script done before you record the voice acting, which has to be done BEFORE animation. Even if they were to marathon all 20 or so episodes of voice acting, you can only record 2 (or possibly 1) in a day, or even 1 in two days if there's a single song. Additional songs probably add a day to recording each due to rehearsal and recording takes, which means the music for any songs must be done ahead of time, in addition to the script! This makes a single season, just of voice recording alone take about a month I would guess, if you worked straight through, which they don't since actors have other work, and you need to rest their voices. So we're looking at one month for recording, probably at least a month for writing, probably more like two or three straight (no breaks). The animators for the show have noted that the animation process has been intense with serious time crunches for the first season at least, possibly since they get to work last on an episode, so lets call 1-2 weeks for animation, per episode. After that you have Foley, editing, sound balancing, formatting and export. Added up, on the 'everyone is super fast' side I'd say each episode takes about a total of about 2 weeks of work per episode, so 46 weeks of 5 day work for a season. That's 230 work days folks. Out of 365. And that's presuming a total of 2 weeks of 40 hour work per episode, no hiccups, delays or issues. they do overlap production, so there's writing happening while animation and recording are going on, but that only saves so much time eventually.

Between seasons 1 and 2 was 4 months. This is not enough time for them to have responded to the show's popularity at all considering they were most likely writing new season episodes midway through season one airing, BEFORE any of the popular characters like Trixy even showed up. I'd suspect fan episodes, like scootaloo episodes, Trixy returning, discord returning, wierd al pony etc. could not be fit into the second season, especially the first half simply because there was no way to know that people wanted them when they were writing the episodes until after they were half (or more) done writing the next season, and partway through recording and animating as well.
You'll notice that they gave themselves 6 months this time between seasons...

If you think you could do better, I'd challenge you to see how long it takes to write a 20 minute TV script, voice act it, animate it in flash well do foley and editing and turn it out. Then respond to fan requests.

Speaking of which, I loved this last episode.

SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Princess Luna is Equestria's Morpheus? Nice.

SPOILER: Highlight text to read: That essentially makes Nightmare Moon Freddy Kreuger, if you think about what her powers would be like given to a megalomaniac supervillain.

[raider~joseph]

All of this. TV episodes are not written the week before the show airs ESPECIALLY in animation, where you have to have the script done before you record the voice acting, which has to be done BEFORE animation. Even if they were to marathon all 20 or so episodes of voice acting, you can only record 2 (or possibly 1) in a day, or even 1 in two days if there's a single song. Additional songs probably add a day to recording each due to rehearsal and recording takes, which means the music for any songs must be done ahead of time, in addition to the script! This makes a single season, just of voice recording alone take about a month I would guess, if you worked straight through, which they don't since actors have other work, and you need to rest their voices. So we're looking at one month for recording, probably at least a month for writing, probably more like two or three straight (no breaks). The animators for the show have noted that the animation process has been intense with serious time crunches for the first season at least, possibly since they get to work last on an episode, so lets call 1-2 weeks for animation, per episode. After that you have Foley, editing, sound balancing, formatting and export. Added up, on the 'everyone is super fast' side I'd say each episode takes about a total of about 2 weeks of work per episode, so 46 weeks of 5 day work for a season. That's 230 work days folks. Out of 365. And that's presuming a total of 2 weeks of 40 hour work per episode, no hiccups, delays or issues. they do overlap production, so there's writing happening while animation and recording are going on, but that only saves so much time eventually.

Between seasons 1 and 2 was 4 months. This is not enough time for them to have responded to the show's popularity at all considering they were most likely writing new season episodes midway through season one airing, BEFORE any of the popular characters like Trixy even showed up. I'd suspect fan episodes, like scootaloo episodes, Trixy returning, discord returning, wierd al pony etc. could not be fit into the second season, especially the first half simply because there was no way to know that people wanted them when they were writing the episodes until after they were half (or more) done writing the next season, and partway through recording and animating as well.
You'll notice that they gave themselves 6 months this time between seasons...

If you think you could do better, I'd challenge you to see how long it takes to write a 20 minute TV script, voice act it, animate it in flash well do foley and editing and turn it out. Then respond to fan requests.

I didn't mean to offend anyone. Im sorry. I don't have time to do detail research on stuff anymore. School and stuff. I understand your a huge animation lover Mech and I meant no disrespect to the cast and crew of MLP.

[Zeldafan2]

Thats both comforting and depressing at the same time.

Anyway. New ep gonna feature a pony rival to Rainbow Dash if im correct. Any guess on the name?

As long as this pony rival doesn't match Rainbow speed for speed and they become best friends because of it, I'll be fine.

Seeing the commercial, I have a bad feeling this may be what happens (although, regardless of the reasons someone could come up with, I don't believe for any reason what so ever would Rainbow Dash not join a Wonderbolt Academy.)

[Bio_Plus]

Thats both comforting and depressing at the same time.

Anyway. New ep gonna feature a pony rival to Rainbow Dash if im correct. Any guess on the name?

As long as this pony rival doesn't match Rainbow speed for speed and they become best friends because of it, I'll be fine.

Seeing the commercial, I have a bad feeling this may be what happens (although, regardless of the reasons someone could come up with, I don't believe for any reason what so ever would Rainbow Dash not join a Wonderbolt Academy.)

There's a reason why I don't read a lot of fanfictions. I don't know why the writers think I'm suddenly going to like it just because they make an episode out of it.

[Yuki-Anne]

I think this last episode went in a good direction, and I enjoyed it. I think it was nice how it didn't retrograde Rainbow's character development to the total arrogant jerk she has been in previous episodes.

[Bio_Plus]

I think this last episode went in a good direction, and I enjoyed it. I think it was nice how it didn't retrograde Rainbow's character development to the total arrogant jerk she has been in previous episodes.

Watching leaked episodes are we? Yeah, me too!

SPOILER: Highlight text to read: *
Aaagh!!! I wanted to see Scootaloo in this episode!

Wow, I'm really surprised, this is by far the best episode of season 3. It's not my favorite of season 3, that goes to Sleepless in Ponyville. But this episode blows all the other episodes out of the water and puts FiM back on track! The only sad thing is that it's more deep character development for Rainbow when the others need it so badly.

And man what development! And what story! I'm glad they made Lightning Dust an antagonist and she's even worse than Gilda! Speaking of which, we now have a ruff sketch of how RD and Gilda hooked up in Junior Speedsters. LD and Gilda are very much alike so there must have been similarities in them becoming friends with Rainbow.
We finally see the dedicated Rainbow hinted at for so many episodes, where she pushes back her boasting to try as hard as she can to be a wonderbolt and be a team player. Contrasted by Lightning who shows off even when inappropriate. Rainbow finally has to deal with her biggest problem as a stunt flier and that's her attitude to always be the 'front runner', when sometimes she needs to follow somepony else. And she's much faster to notice her new 'friend's' attitude than she was in Griffon the brush off. And she gave up on her dreams! And it shows, they capture the weight of her decision so good that it's impossible not to feel it.

And that twister at the end! (sorry ) caught me be surprise and suddenly her friends are in danger. And we got to see some amazing moves from Rainbow. And Rarity and Fluttershy just stole those scenes! And I have to admit, it was fun seeing Coltosterone again, I don't really like him and I don't really like shipping, but he and his partner make a cute couple.

[Yuki-Anne]

It's not like I can just flip the channel over to "Hub Japan" and watch it when it airs. Plus I didn't realize that it was leaked, I just assumed that I found one of the first people to post it.

And...

SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Scootaloo can't be in EVERY episode, man.

[mechana2015]

I completely understand, I don't have the HUB either.

SPOILER: Highlight text to read: *
Why not? Do you have something against Scootaloo? I'm kidding. But really, I wanted to see some bonding of what we saw in the last episode, even just Scootaloo cheering Rainbow on and she acknowledging it would have been cool. We may not get another RD or CMC episode this season and it would have been a nice little insert.

SPOILER: Highlight text to read: *
Oh man! I completely forgot! Where's Twister? I saw his OC in the episode, he was delivering mail!

[Yuki-Anne]

What I really want to see is an episode where one of the CMC gets her cutie mark before the other two. Learning to accept yourself at your own pace and not be jealous of or constantly comparing yourself to your friends is a really important lesson.

[Bio_Plus]

It will have to be Sweetie or Scootaloo. We already saw that they weren't jealous and was proud of Apple Bloom in the Cutie Pox. It will have to be Apple Bloom that learns that lesson.

[Twister980]

Thoughts on the Wonder Bolts Academy:
SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Top gun references, Top gun references everywhere. Oh, and a Wizard of Oz reference.
Lightning dust was kinda cool, I'm wondering if she'll turn evil eventually. Leading to a Evil Mane
Six. Also, Spitfire was kind of a jerk. But I liked her turn around. Pinkie Pie was
rediculous, like always, but still plenty of fun. There was so much fan service in this episode, the hulking pony,
Pinkie Pie being obsessive, etc.
Oh, and anyone else notice a peach colored pony with red hair flying around at the academy?
He kinda looks like my OC, except with green eyes.

BTW, I watched the leak on MLB, so don't read unless you've seen the episode.

[rocklobster]

SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Just watched it. I liked Lightning Dust and thought she was a great new character. What really surprised me was that they actually brought back the "Steroid pony" from "Hurricane Fluttershy." And Pinkie Pie was hilarious in this one. I was really taken aback by the lesson--who knew they'd do such a great spin the "be your best" cliche. Spitfire was just great in this story (she's actually my favorite Wonderbolt. To sum it up, another full 6 cutie marks for this one!

[Bio_Plus]

@Twister: So there's 2 ponies that almost look like your oc, but I can't remember if he had a short or long tail.