Night, Fallen.

Cutie Pox was interesting, mind, it just did not 'click' with me like some of the other episodes did.

How do I quantify it, some of my alltime favourite episodes are quite a varied bunch, from Sonic Rainboom and A Dog and Pony Show to Sisterhooves Social and Baby Cakes and Hearth's Warming.

edited 18th Jan '12 9:45:10 PM by AceOfScarabs

"The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well" is definitely the weakest episode of the series, I think.

I didn't get the big riff about MMDW, personaly I'm with Blue Lesson Zero was the weakest by far this season.

I didn't mind Mare Do Well, I thought it was a pretty good insight in how not to let fame go to your head. Cutie Pox had a good lesson at the end of it, but it was just...there, like someone else said. Best Pet just seemed "there" too, no real impact on the setting or anything. RD gets a pet. Big whoop. At least a pair of babies are something that will undoubtedly be noticed if the Cakes are in any future episodes.

edited 19th Jan '12 5:53:30 AM by theLibrarian

Okay, so... I feel kind of bad about drawing this (sad warning). So I'm going to relink this one for you guys to look at afterward. >.>

Also, at Lesson Zero being named weakest.

I should mention that Cutie Pox only makes low impact to me because I don't care that much about the CMC (unlike Sisterhooves, another low-key), and it's not offset by lore expansion (unlike Family Appreciation).

So is pretty much everyone in this thread a writer of some sort? Well I suppose writers are really common on tv tropes in general.

I'm a programmer. I tried to write a MLP fanfic once, but never got beyond the first paragraph.

Objectively? MMDW for characterization issues. This is the first time I've known the setting to be mis-characterized.

Personally, I found the setting change in MMDW to be so over the top that it's hilarious. I guess it's a Refuge in Audacity thing. My least favorite S2 episode is The Cutie Pox mainly because of the whole Lol Weird Magical Illnesses thing. It's the same reason I don't like Bridle Gossip either (yes I know, burn the heretic).

By the way, do you think Swarm Of The Century is a good starting episode?

Yea, in my limited recruiting experience, Swarm has been quite successful. Granted, the two friends I showed it to picked up on the possible Tribbles reference right away, so that was probably part of what hooked them.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. For me, the weakest was Secret of my Excess. It just wasn't particularly funny and Spike isn't very interesting to me when he's the focus. I can't remember many scenes from it that really stand out and the resolution was just a bit too sappy for me.*

I can't really think of a more fitting word...

Those capes need to come back, though.

edited 18th Jan '12 10:50:52 PM by Swasfews

Mornin' guys! What've I missed?

A debate about the weakest episode and I posted some drawings.

I used to think "Over a Barrel" was the weakest episode, but then "Mysterious Mare Do Well" airead. Superheroes simply don't fit into Ponyville.

—R.J.

weakest episode? of all time or just season 2?

Because if it's of all time then I'd have to say "Boast Busters". As much as I fucking LOVE Trixie (and I really do), I thought the actual conflict was rather lackluster.

edited 18th Jan '12 11:57:05 PM by gingerninja666

Superheroes are overdone in general and writers need to stop relying on them.

But yeah, they especially don't need to be shoehorned into MLP.

I'd definitely call Mysterious Mare-do-Well a weak episode, yes.

You forgot this.

I still stand by the second line: Superheroes aren't needed in MLP. Not with the Mane cast already being powerful enough to take on a super saiyan with just their weak grasp of physics.

I have to agree with Moe. Superheroes just don't fit into what's essentially a fantasy/adventuring setting; they're made for cities and for a certain style of plotline.

Yeah, there's that. Specifically, the whole motif of a Superhero story is that they're the few powerful dudes in a setting otherwise full of normals who are just like you and me, most exemplified by the original Superman comics of the 1930s which mostly focused on how his superhuman powers allowed him to overcome hazards that were a fact of life back then.

That kind of thing, in general, stops working well once the universe its set in gets more fantastic—if anything because there's little difference between a superhero and a guy like Conan or Bilbo Baggins in the first place.

In MLP, just about everyone has abilities, or at least quirks of character, that in Metropolis would be considered a superpower. Think of how many secret security vaults Pinkie Pie could break through with her power of offscreen teleportation. So basically the only thing to separate Mare-do-Well from anypony else is just that she wears a costume to hide her identity, which I always thought was one of the dumbest aspects of traditional superheroes, and it makes even less sense here since supposedly they're doing it just to teach Rainbow Dash a lesson in humility. How the hell this is supposed to do that, is anypony's guess. Then again, we are dealing with six characters who are quantifyably insane, so who knows what they were thinking.

But MMDW episode is Batman/Darkwing Duck style superhero - masked vigilantes.

^But Batman with superpowers relative to the series - the Mare-Do-Well is (supposedly) an alicorn who can kick like Applejack and predict with the Pinkie Sense.

edited 19th Jan '12 1:05:26 AM by RedSavant

You know what just occured to me about that?

Dash didn't seem to care that MDW was an alicorn. And she was still surprised it was more than one pony... what's up with that?

She might have been too concerned with the fact that someone was overshadowing her (in her puffed-head state) to really think it through.

Alternately, it could just be a bad episode.

I keep imagining Luna taking up the mantle of MDW.

Personally, I like to think that one of the MDW's fans saw them reveal themselves to dash, and was completely heart broken. So Pinkie donned the costume, and went to her. She inspired the filly to follow her dreams, and to be her own hero. The filly then went on to become the next mare-do-well when she grew up, travelling equestria and helping all those in need.

You saw that sad fanarts of the filly High Hopes, who had her dreams crushed when she saw the reveal at the end of the episode? I know it's on the tearjerker page for pony fanon.