My alltime faves are Sisterhooves Social, Wonderbolts Academy, Hurricane Fluttershy, Party of One, and Sleepless in Ponyville :3

Okay. Part of me at some point said to leave these forums behind and never look back. But another part of me wants to get this posted in a pony thread that is actually active (and no part of me wants to actually visit a dedicated pony site).

Because that season finale? Most ludicrous ignoring of Magic A Is Magic A that I have seen in my entire life. I thought nothing made sense when I first watched the episode, and then got to thinking about it and realized why nothing made sense. Not even the MST3K Mantra is applicable here because the complete disregard for continuity that episode displayed is disgusting when you take a closer look at it.

So I wrote an analysis for which the link really refuses to cooperate so just go to the analysis section for S3 E13 (originally wrote it on another forum, but that section felt like a logical place to put it too) of why the episode really shouldn't have been able to happen. I guess I'm looking for some comments. Or something.

Season 3 was weak in general. I thought it had four good episodes in total. And while I'm not one to cry ruined forever, if the season 4 opener doesn't somehow clean up the mess left behind by the season 3 finale, I really fear for what season 4 will bring.

edited 18th Feb '13 8:02:07 AM by KennyMan666

@ Kenny man

Can you elaborate?

@ Rainbow

That's the Fluttershy/AJ episode we still need to see!

Your link just links to the TV tropes home page.

What didn't make sense to me was why Twilight and Spike's memories weren't affected like everyone else's. I'll buy that Twilight wasn't affected because she was the one who cast the spell (a bit like Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory) but there's no reason why Spike shouldn't have had his memories changed like everyone else.

The townspeople had their memories changed, right? That wasn't very clear.

edited 18th Feb '13 8:04:25 AM by PurpleDalek

From what I gather, the other five were the only ones who had their memories affected by the spell. The rest of the town just didn't give a crap and decided to just role with it.

That's quite a few assumptions your making. However if I was being honest i was making similar assumptions and thus also found the results of what happened questionable. It does seem like the episode, not necessarily retconed things but interpreted them differently then they had before (particularly cuite marks).

edited 18th Feb '13 8:11:04 AM by Mio

Remind me how the fuck you get things that want to turn into links to show up as plaintext in this stupid website software.

edited 18th Feb '13 8:09:48 AM by KennyMan666

@Kenny Yeah, I fail to see how Magic A Is Magic A was in any way violated here, considering that the whole thing with the Elements was explicitly Magic B. You're welcome to elaborate so that we can actually discuss it though.

edited 18th Feb '13 8:10:29 AM by PerpetualLurker

Oh. Right. Here we go.

As I was trying to say, whenever I tried to link to the actual page, it would morph the link into Analysis/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E13MagicalMysteryC- - ure and I have no idea why. So let's see if this works.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Analysis/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS3E13MagicalMysteryC- ure

Edit: For fuck's sake

edited 18th Feb '13 8:13:03 AM by KennyMan666

Long URLS break the forum software. You'll need to run it through tunyurl or something.

Perhaps we could request shortened namespaces which main.redirect to the recap pages in question?

Okay, for those who were too lazy to reach the page manually, I swear to god I'm going to flip every table ever if this doesn't work.

Linking to recap pages is always a pain in the ass.

I didn't hate Magical Mystery Cure, but I thought it could have been much, much better. The cutie mark swapping and alicorn Twilight could have made good episodes on their own, but together they just make the episode feel bloated and directionless. And the musical numbers were disappointingly forgettable.

Okay, having read your analysis, I think your whole problem stems from the fact that you missed what actually happened. The Elements being scrambled mixed up the "true selves" of the wielders, not just the cutie marks. This was pretty explicitly spelled out. Nothing about how the Elements or Cute Marks work was changed or broken.

As for your stuff on Alicorns, that's all headcanon and assumption, not actual facts. YMMV.

I think you need to sign that, or move it to the review space, or something. The Analysis page doesn't have any of the usual "this is an opinion" stuff on it, and therefore, anyone reading that could think it was written by anyone, or somehow endorsed by the TVTropes consensus.

I have it posted elsewhere, so I can remove it and change the link if you think I should. At the moment it's only on a forum but I'm planning on just tossing it on a page on my own webhost. I just need to bother to format it into proper html.

edited 18th Feb '13 8:26:25 AM by KennyMan666

Reviews only allow 400 characters, however.

And you forgot to link to Bait-and-Switch Comparison for the last line.

The rant could be split into 2 reviews one covering the breaks form reality and the other for Twilicorn.

edited 18th Feb '13 8:24:58 AM by MorningStar1337

Multi-part reviews aren't allowed, if I'm remembering correctly.

@Lurker: The Elements have never shown to have the ability to do that, spell aside. I would say that this is a case of the Elements having New Powers as the Plot Demands personally.

I would also say that his assumptions of Alicorn's are fairly supported by the show itself.

@Mio Yeah, but Tropes Are Not Bad. The Elements being able to be affected by outside spells like that is something new, but it's just more worldbuilding. It doesn't contradict anything that has come before.

As for the alicorns, we have far more evidence that they aren't as all-powerful as we originally thought them to be than otherwise.

Exactly.

edited 18th Feb '13 8:30:47 AM by PerpetualLurker

My understanding was that the swapping of the cutie marks was a symptom of what was going on, rather than the entirity of what was happening. The marks represent many things about a pony. Their passion, their talent, and sometimes it's just a representation of the event that led to the epiphany about what they want to do (that latter was the case for, like, four of the main six). Rarity's cutie mark is a set of gems, because the incident with the gemstones was what cemented her belief that dressmaking was her calling, when before she had been starting to doubt that. Just like how with Fluttershy, it was being caught by those butterflies that led to her big Disney Princess revelation.

My belief is that the Unfinished Spell didn't directly change their marks, but rather changed something fundamental about them, exchanging certain memories, personality traits, and such. They all seemed convinced that this is what they were meant to do, and what they had always known they were meant to do. And the cutie marks shifted to match that, even when the meaning of the mark is lost on its new owner. I think it's actually kinda meaningful that the meaning of, say, Rarity's mark is totally lost on Applejack. Outside the context in which it was received, it wouldn't make a lot of sense.

The Elements, too, I think were just a symptom. They were also a focus for the magic, since each one is attuned deeply to its user. They're connected. Each one took on the shape of their cutie marks after they were each revealed to be the element's new bearer. As such, when the spell changed who they each are, the elements responded in kind.

The characters' real selves were still there, but buried under the new traits that were being imposed on them. Repairing them required what was essentially a forced repeat epiphany.

edited 18th Feb '13 8:35:32 AM by Enlong

For ranking the Season 3 episodes, I don't think I can rank them all exactly, but my top three as of now are Sleepless in Ponyville, then One Bad Seed, and then Apple Family Reunion.

About the magic in the book being different from usual, what if it's because the book itself is magic? As in, reading aloud a spell from another one of Twilight's books wouldn't automatically make the spell work, but that specific book is designed so that the spells are read aloud to make them happen.

edited 18th Feb '13 8:33:27 AM by Rainbow

@Lurker: YMMV on whether you think that it makes sense for the Elements to do that or if this continues to happen.

It is pretty explicit that they are significantly more powerful then Twilight however, and I think that was the point he was trying to make.

Well, Celestia and Luna have had centuries to work this out. I still am not sure of how old Cacande is, but she does seem to be not quite as old or as powerful as Celestia.

And Twilight's newly-minted, so she's probably still close to mortal strength.

For the moment.

Okay, don't have time to argue points right now, but I've put the whole thing on a completely separate page now, so if there's reason for it to be removed from the Analysis page, it now has a permanent home that isn't a topic on a Metroid forum.