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(12-14-2012, 04:39 PM)CorinthianMerchant Wrote: [ -> ]Episode Title Cards (album)
The Pie Sisters
Inkie Pie
Snowball Fight on the Rock Farm
Derpy And Carrot
Peppermint Winter
Wintertime in Equestria (music)
HOW CAN YOU POST FUCKING LINKS AT A TIME LIKE THIS!?
Yay it's time for some of Kreekakon's after-episode tl;dr goodness! Will contain some SPOILERS so read with care.

This episode is called the "Wonderbolts Academy", and is the seventh episode of season three.

Now first off I just want to point out that this episode was written by Merriwether Williams, who in my opinion can be considered the "least good writer" who works on MLP episodes among the writing crew. Get what I mean?

This episode displays several of Merriwether William's writing flaws which include cheesy scenarios, and pacing issues. An example would be Pinkie's more-than-usual amount of ranting in this episode to the point that it started getting annoying rather than funny. Another one is when the Mane 6 suddenly come out of the clouds, and suddenly need to be rescued INSTANTLY. Such negative aspects aren't THAT bad in this episode, but noticeable enough for me to point out.

Now the thing I want to talk about most in this episode are the characters themselves, namely Lightning Dust, and Spitfire.

Lightning Dust will take a bit of time, so I'll start off with Spitfire. You can tell quite noticeably in this episode that the voice actor is different. That's okay for me, but what may present some controversy for me at least is that her mannerisms, and personality seem completely altered from before. It's almost a complete character switch.

I understand that some of this might be because she is basically a drill sergeant in this episode, and has to push her students. However even if this is the case she doesn't drop the act at all even when she's off-duty in her office when Rainbow goes looking for her. She doesn't even seem to remember who Rainbow is or what she's done! Then again a lot of other ponies seem to let the Mane 6's endeavors completely slip their minds.

I think it would have been awesome if this was the case: Spitfire only acts tough, and demanding while pretending not to know Rainbow Dash for sake of training. Later when Rainbow goes visit her in her office she acts softer, and more encouraging while doing a quick reassurance that she was only dissuading her in training for sake of training, and she very much remembers who she is. That would've been awesome if they did that, and wouldn't require rewriting of the plot of the episode at all.

I do like that she acknowledged Rainbow's view on what it is to truly be a good flyer, and not be reckless. If she didn't, and just let Rainbow leave without saying a word, I would've flipped my table.

...

Now onto Lightning Dust. I really REALLY liked the concept of her character, and what it represented. Anyone who pays close enough attention will notice that she's actually a reflection of Rainbow's own character except seemingly more extreme in the right circumstances.

One may say that she shares similar traits to Gilda, but I liked Lighting Dust better as such a representation of "Evil Rainbow Dash", because of how vague Lighting Dust's standing is at the early parts of the episode. She will seem like a friendly rival who will "seem" like a semi-positive/benevolent supporting character, but you just can't know for sure at this point in the episode. Only later will you see her veer off into a darker direction. I feel this deterioration of her character might've been done better though, mostly owing to pacing issues here. The change from friendly-rival to ruthless victor seemed a bit too jarring, and sudden in my opinion. The idea is okay, but the pacing could've had some work done.

After her eventual "corruption", this is where I start to really like the "idea" of her character even more (Again pacing was an issue here). You can really see aspects of Rainbow's personality inside her actions, and lines except that they are amplified to a douche-bag level. It just shows how Rainbow could've been if she had leaned slightly more to the extreme as well as showing that in reality Rainbow is still morally aware enough not to go down that path. It works great for both of the characters.

Such a character relationship reminds me of one I saw in the anime series Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's (Really great show considering it's one about card games). If you don't care about that show or the comparison I'm about to do, just skip the spoiler box:

Spoiler below!
The main character's rival is named Jack Atlus. He starts out in the series as a ruthless person who isn't above selling out his friends to become the "Dueling King" of the entire city (From around episodes 1-26). As the series goes on Jack will realize that he was wrong in his ways, and becomes a much more humble person who cares about his friends.

Much MUCH later on in a semi-filler episode arc (episodes 83-84), Jack faces what seems to be an imposter Jack Atlus who uses his exact same deck as he does. The imposter eventually turns out to be a robot sent by the antagonists, but that's besides the point here.

The main point is that the personality, and mannerisms of the fake Jack Atlus are EXACTLY the same as the real Jack from when the series began. He even uses some of his old lines.

The reason this is awesome is because while you can tell the real Jack, and the fake Jack have completely different personalities, and are two different peopl you also know that the real Jack was exactly like this so long ago. It just goes to show how far his character has evolved. The real Jack even directly confronts the fake Jack saying that his methods of treating people were wrong back then, and he sees it now. It just makes for a very powerful character-driven confrontation.


Neither Jack Atlus, or Rainbow Dash had explicitly stated outright that they see the negative qualities of themselves inside their "evil-selves", but you can tell from some of the ways that they disagree with what their counterparts are doing is that they probably do see it. And that's awesome.

That covers nearly everything I want to say about the episode. One last thing: I don't know if it's just me, but Rainbow Dash's "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" at the end seemed REALLY forced to me. It was a fandom shout-out for sure, but if just seemed really forced, and unnecessary.


Verdict*: An episode with some very interesting, and amazing ideas for characters, and overall plot which was offset by cheesy scenarios, and pacing issues. 7/10**

*Not really since most of the above was more about talking than reviewing, but I figured I'd chuck out a score anyways
**Slight guide for my rating mentality: 5 - Mysterious Mare-Do-Well ; 10 - A Canterlot Wedding. I've yet to run into a MLP episode I want to rate below a 5, and I'd be very cross if I ever ran into one!


EDIT: Oh my sweet god, that turned out way longer than I thought.

Someone had better read it! I spent an hour typing all of this! Big Grin
(12-15-2012, 06:14 PM)Kreekakon Wrote: [ -> ]Sweet Princess Celestia there's a lot of text here.
I like it. The review. And the episode. I generally don't look too deep into episodes, nor into the writing that goes into it. I leave that up to crazy people like you. (<3)
I enjoyed the episode. Mostly because I've pretty much enjoyed all of season three thus far.
And I'm a bit late on this one, but this is possibly the best gif of season three.
[Image: tumblr_meg54z3FIS1rv3xqzo1_500.gif]
CMC Y U SO ADORABRU
gahh fine, i admit.. they are KINDA cute..those CMC


you win corinthianmerchant...
(12-16-2012, 11:03 AM)Obliviator27 Wrote: [ -> ]I generally don't look too deep into episodes, nor into the writing that goes into it. I leave that up to crazy people like you. (<3)
C' mon Obliv! Writing gigantic deep analysis-es, and reviews is the so much FUNNN!!
(12-22-2012, 02:27 PM)CorinthianMerchant Wrote: [ -> ]Derpy's Christmas

Oh my god I exploded from all that DAWW

*Pops vid up for better exposure*

[video=youtube]http://youtu.be/MCHgXYssnHE[/video]
Yay it's episode review time!


This episode is called the "Apple Family Reunion", and is the eighth episode of season three.

This review will be REALLY short since there's not a whole lot to talk about this episode.

The best way to describe this episode is that it's "play-it-safe" as it gets. The pacing of the episode goes smoothly without much issues at all, has build-up, and then is resolved. This sadly also means that not a whole lot of fresh, and un-expected interesting stuff happens in this episode. One scene will feed into the next, and nothing too un-expected will ever come out of the blue to take you by surprise, or intrigue you more than it should.

And...that's it. That's almost all I have to say about the episode review-wise. I don't even need a tl;dr verdict, since the review was so short to begin with. 7.8/10

...
...i like "racist farms" though hehe
i have a feeling like we're gonna have Fluttershy or pinkie pie episode next Smile