Huh, I'd have liked to see them make a deer out to be a threatening monster. I guess if it was a big antlered buck...

They probably chose not to do it cause it would have been too similar to the Ursa Major.

edited 29th Dec '12 3:52:40 PM by Bluespade

And now we wait for pantheon fanart.

Hi ho folks, just watched the episode and after seeing the leaps and bounds the thread grew I decided to hop it. What did I miss?

What did you guys think of the new ep? Besides the fact it's not one of my favorite plotlines in the world at least it was hilarious. And I didn't think Spike was ever so clumsy. Or inherited so many traits from Twilight.

edited 29th Dec '12 3:55:18 PM by MousaThe14

A little bit of feels, a little bit of rage. Heated discussion on how AJ could be made a more memorable character. At any rate, a fine discussion.

edited 29th Dec '12 3:56:16 PM by HouraiRabbit

I think that Applejack would have reacted more strongly if it wasn't Spike doing it (or, at least, someone she knows as well as Spike).

Look Before You Sleep was a good example to show us that, in the first season, not all of the Ponyville natives were friends before the Nightmare Moon incident, either. However, Applejack knows Spike well, and doesn't want to hurt his feelings, so she turns to other methods, like trying to express that he's done enough, or sending him to ask Twilight's permission, knowing that she wouldn't think right of it either. She doesn't want Spike to help her, and she makes it clear as to why, but at the same time, she doesn't want to hurt him, so it puts her in quite the predicament.

The fac that Spike's, again, pinning his idea of dragon culture on this, doesn't help.

Another way to put it is that I doubt Look Before You Sleep would happen now, even if it hadn't happened back then, and she'd gotten to know Rarity in some other way. Does that make sense? Look Before You Sleep happened, a least in part, because Applejack didn't really know Rarity very well, and she had yet to see how her way of doing things (not just her stubbornness) could be the wrong way of going about it.

edit:

As to things being predictable, I found it similar to a lot of episodes: The moral and direction of the episode was easy to predict, but the way it played out towards the end switched up expectations somewhat. In this case, it was that the zany "make him think he saved my life" followed by "he actually does save her life from something unexpected" thing happened, but the resolution of the issue wasn't because he saved her life, but because the zany scheme got them to actually talk about the issue.

edited 29th Dec '12 3:57:58 PM by Enlong

I thought it was quite entertaining but Spike himself was rather boring and bizarrely incompetent. I loved the ponies though.

It has sparked a great deal of discussion about Applejack's character development and whether or not she is a good character.

Oh Really? Why has this been brought up? What about this episodes calls AJ's development and characterization into question?

There has been some debate as to whether Applejack is too boring and flat of a character; a straight man whose role is more entertainingly done by Twilight, is how it is described by some. And whether she was a better character in Season 1, when she was more likely to display a quick temper.

Try going back one page.

I'd never heard of a Pantheon before, or at least not this type, but reading the description they don't really sound like something that would randomly attack Spike. They sound much more docile than that.

edited 29th Dec '12 4:00:58 PM by Crowfall

"Pantheon"?

The first thing that comes to mind with that is "an affiliated group of gods"

That sounds a little unfair to Spike, and really badass of AJ if the script still called for her to take them out and consider it NBD.

That's the first thing I thought of, but apparently its a type of deer. Except magic. So like the unicorn of deer.

Well, the discussion was interesting. At least it was better than "nope she is a background pony LOL LOL" I found on every single chat board I´ve been. At leas we acknoweldge she exists even if everybody has a different opinion of her.

Speaking of monsters, I´m the only who laughed when the giant timerwolf was spitting the stone? I loved how he actually stopped, asked them to wait and then he coughed. It felt like something out of a Droopy cartoon. Real funny.

Pantheon have their own nation with their own pretty pink pantheon princess. They wage war with the Crystal Empire over who is the prettiest pink princess, for There Can Only Be One.

I don't think the episode is bad. Not every episode can be as awesome as "Sleepless in Ponyville" or "The One Where Ponies Get Drunk And Applejack Learns Nothing" (My personal favorite).

The show in general does suffer slightly from Depending on the Writer and some inconsistencies, but what are you gonna do? Complain? Well, works for some folks I guess.

edited 29th Dec '12 4:28:11 PM by Calnos

She didn't say it explicitly though.

@Enlong: She can show her temper without venting it on Spike however, if anything more pressure can be shown by her trying to hold it all in and not take it out on Spike. You can show temper without outright yelling or lashing at someone. As said take Rarity's restrained frustration in Sisterhooves Social.

I feel people get the idea I want her to be over the top and wacky just because I want her to have this defining flaw, though very vibrant character can still be shown via subtle acting. Even under some of RD and Pinkie's more lucid moments their eccentricities seep through for example.

edited 29th Dec '12 4:55:26 PM by Psi001

I don't think we're ever going to agree on this, are we?

I dunno, I would say that her stubborn pride was her defining flaw, and that doesn't really come into play in this episode.

edited 29th Dec '12 5:02:22 PM by KylerThatch

We can agree to disagree.

Eh, I still don't think she was boring. Depends on what you want out of the character, I guess.

Probably not but its not necesarilly a bad thing. Everyone has opinions and sometimes its fun to discuss them. At least to me its more fun than "20% cooler duh"...gah.

They have reached the top ten on the brony songs on everfree. My money is in Tombstone for number 1. probably discord.

May our disagreements ever be civil. *bows*

Huh, that sounds like a motto for Friendly Rivalry.

I guess I tend to find a character boring that doesn't work on some sort of defining quirk most of the time. Admitedly even Twilight leans as dull to me in a few odd episodes, especially early on.

A lot of my favorite characters have this sort of consistant flaw that seeps through almost everything they do, negative or positive, and it branches out into loads of side traits and aspects in acting. Maybe this is why I like RD, she's rather versatile especially after Character Development, but still she nearly always has this abrasive ego driven air about her in everything she does, even when being perfectly nice.

AJ on the other hand tends to have a rather normal non distinct demeanor as default with only a few vibrant moments, and even those fall short at times now (as said Apple Family Reunion felt more like trying to badly shoehorn her into another character's formula rather than showcasing her own flaws).

@Kyler: I tend to find her stubborness an iffy flaw, since nearly every pony has a tendancy to be bull headed during their flawed moments, if anything their's is more developed because it is working off another flaw. I say her temper is more her defining flaw, since it was often the driving force for her stubborness early on.

edited 29th Dec '12 5:12:57 PM by Psi001

You know, I wonder if this would've been funnier if it was Rarity he was serving and he was actually hyper competent, like with the rock tower and the grass counting. It would've at least made a nice spin on the rather tired plot by requiring Rarity's lesson to be about taking advantage of someone.

I'm still not exactly sure what you mean by "vibrant" here, because I can't think of any scenes where she was generic rather than being Applejack-y. I think we're hitting the point where the differences are pretty much in our heads.

We never agree, frankly it'd be boring if that were the case and I hope we can all agree on at least that (even that I doubt)

For example I disagree on the plotlines being 90% predictable, there always seems to be a good twist in most episodes. "Too Many Pinkie Pies" for example had a lot of good twists, Spike defeating Sombra, ...wouldn't have guessed that at all, most of MA Larson's episodes have me guessing the whole time, (only his most recent didn't do that)...and lets be honest "Griffon the Brush-Off" was not straightforward at all.