@ d Roy: Don't know where you think this was going. It doesn't even qualify as an argument.

If you say so, sure.

Some really nice AppleShy (Humanized)

Appleshy...huh, come to think of it, the very concept never dawned upon me before.

@Syd: I think that's true, but I'd debate whether or not they effectively pulled it off. Sombra was an interesting concept with a lot of Fridge Brilliance going for him, but they just didn't have the time needed to build him up as an interesting threat. There just wasn't much going for him in that regard.

Fluttershy kind of looks like she's been into the "special" herbs that she grows out in back of her cottage.

I wonder what kind of movie they are going to watch.

I am guessing it's Gia.

I wonder what kind of movie they are going to watch.

They're going to a matinee showing of "Equestria Girls."

And They'll bring Lyra with them only for her to Squee them out of the theater.

Sombra would probably make a great video game villain. The Crystal Empire has a ton of backstory, he has an evil castle with lots of stairs. I mean, just give the guy an organ to play while the heroes ascend the staircase and he's crystal Ganandorf.

Oh, and Slice of Life updated!

edited 14th Feb '13 9:22:33 PM by Calnos

Woona :3

Slice update? Yay!

I'd call Games Ponies Play a stinker. It was more of a game of dumbassball than usual, and the ending was a cosmic facepalm. Both Spike episodes were lacking, mostly whenever Spike was onscreen because he was being more of a dumbass than is usual. Bad Seed wasn't really bad, but they took the easy way out on the ending.

edited 14th Feb '13 9:50:09 PM by Pykrete

I am not sure about a moral but I sure saw a lot of morons.

edited 14th Feb '13 9:51:08 PM by dRoy

I think it was also lacking in conflict.

Apple Family Reunion confirms it to me; AJ shouldn't get her own episodes.

AJ was fine that episode. The problem was that none of the family reacted to her. The main conflict of the episode was supposed to be "AJ ruins the family reunion by overplanning", but said family was so willing to go with it that it came across as "AJ mildly annoys her family by overplanning".

Honestly, I think the biggest issue with the AJ centric episodes is that they focus too much on the other characters:

• Applebuck Season is the best, as it actually focuses on AJ for a good chunk of time.

• The Last Roundup was a problem because we saw the episode from the POV of her friends rather from AJ herself. If we would have followed Applejack from the start I think it would have been a lot more interesting because we'd get to see her motivation more in depth rather than only getting it at the tail end of the episode.

• SSCS 6 K was a problem in that AJ was mostly sidelined in favor for the rest of her family.

If they would build an episode that focused entirely around AJ having an issue with somepony, and followed her for the whole time, it could work easily.

edited 14th Feb '13 10:05:02 PM by JapaneseTeeth

AJ shouldn't get her own episodes.

Okay, now this we can argue about. I'm not going to, though.

That's not how you mix stuff in chemistry

You spin me right 'round, baby...

She just needs a bit more focus even outside of her own episodes, to get her to the point where she's developed enough for people to write about her interestingly.

Anyhow... I'll honestly admit this season has been really, really forgettable to me. I liked sleepless in Ponyville and Wonderbolt Academy, and I kind of enjoyed One Bad Apple for Babs, but the rest... none of them were BAD, but none of them were really good at all. Even the opening two-parter doesn't add much to the 'saga' portion of the show... although I really, really like Sombra in retrospect, just not in his episode.

@Kegi: I'm actually kind of with you on that one, strangely. I haven't even seen 'Too Many Pinkie Pies' or 'Just For Sidekicks' yet, and I don't think I could list the names of the others if you paid me.

@Kegisak: I think she is sufficiently developed, it's just that the writers seem reluctant to give her her own episodes where she isn't supporting someone else. In particular there's a lot to work with if they ever wanted to pull out a friends vs. family storyline, or something else involving her work ethic that makes flaws evident in other ponies rather than in herself. There's material there, but the writers don't seem to want to risk attempting it.

Okay, I have to get to sleep. If the debate about the quality of S3 and/or Applejack episodes is still going on I'll jump back in then.

edited 14th Feb '13 10:12:06 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Sombra has the potential to be a very interesting villain. We got a lot of character in retrospect from that two-parter.

He's exceedingly arrogant, he chose to rule through fear and set things up around it (the only entrance to the Heart Chamber was in his throne room. Nobody would dare come before him)
He was very prepared. The staircase in the throne room could only be opened with shadow magic, but using that same magic on the Scary Door would set it off. Anyone without magic or wings (that is, everyone in the Crystal Empire) would have been exhausted by the climb to the heart, and nobody but a flier could get to the heart without triggering the floor trap.
And he's freaky resiliant and determined (horn snaps off; he uses it to corrupt the inside of the shield and just grows another. Though that could be living shadow stuff)

It's a shame that none of it could be expressed from an amorphous shadow, and most of it was inferred from what he left behind. He would be a great villain in his prime, which is why many of us were hoping that he would return in some capacity by the end of the season.

Though, personally, I still think it's possible, though I get the feeling that whatever is being built up to with Discord's reformation is bigger than him.

edited 14th Feb '13 10:16:17 PM by Enlong

@Kegi Actually, I think that the problem is that she's too developed, so much so that she's become hard to write for. Right from the get-go, she's the most mature and grounded of the group, and the vast majority of her development was explored in Season 1 with Applebuck Season, Look Before You Sleep, and Fall Weather Friends. Almost everything past that point becomes a reaffirmation of her past development, or a use of her involvement to spotlight her family.

Basically, she needs an arc like Twilight and Rainbow Dash, since she's been almost fully explored and fleshed out by this point. Problem is that she has no long term goals. She's extremely content with her life, since the biggest ambition she's ever shown is to make money to maintain her life, not to experience anything new or advance in any way. Something big needs to shake her up, otherwise she has nowhere else to go.