True, true. Add to that 3. Twilight visits Fluttershy to see if she needs help with being more courageous or assertive or something along those lines. She sees FS (apparently) brutalizing an adult bear, and concludes that she doesn't need any help—completely ignoring the fact that FS could (apparently) use some help dealing with her homicidal rage.

edited 12th Jun '12 8:47:41 PM by MetaFour

We know about all that. And quite frankly, none of that is Rainbow Dash's responsibility. What do you want, we spend ten minutes of the episode having the pets file waivers of liability? Rainbow Dash interviewing each one of the contestants, do a background check on them? What?

edited 12th Jun '12 8:47:50 PM by KylerThatch

iirc, Back when the episode aired, wasn't the main problem people had with it that RD's decision to pick Tank felt like a forced aesop?

I once tried to get kids to play Calvinball with me at recess. Nobody wanted to play with me, though, so I just played by myself. It's more than possible, let me tell you.

@Edveed wow that's pretty cool I am sure my sister would love to wear that.

Now we just need a line for men

@JT: Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, consider that Hobbes manages to physically abuse Calvin on more than one occasion, not to mention tying him up so tight he can't move, it's really hard to write him off as completely imaginary.

Unless Calvin is like, psychic and it manifests through Hobbes.

I used to play it with my friend all the time! It's fun, it's basically a creativity fight.

edited 12th Jun '12 8:49:04 PM by kegisak

The My Little Pony boutique store. The only fashion store that men will visit willingly.

edited 12th Jun '12 8:50:00 PM by edvedd

Well, I can tell you why I liked it.

It was funny and creative and it made me feel OK that I didn't have any friends and it was very, very awesome.

@Rainbow Dash's actitude

I agree that Rainbow has a bit hard on the pets. But I agree with Jt, she wanted a pet that coul keep up with her. Just like Twilight choose owlicious for being helpful and AJ chose Winona becuase she could rely on her.

edited 12th Jun '12 8:50:01 PM by FallenLegend

What's Calvinball o_o

@Kyler but her barreling into this whilst showing NO regard for those kinds of things is thoughtless.

..forgive me if I was concerned for the lives of these guys

Whatever you want it to be.

edited 12th Jun '12 8:51:28 PM by condottiera

I do believe it is even a trope namer.

@con I ain't interested in comedy right now.

"Vinyl Scratch" has indeed been used by WeLoveFine, but only on the website and not on The Merch itself. Now we've got "Vın̈yl Scratch" (with the dotless I and Heävy Mëtal Ümlaut, like Spinal Tap)...making both of her names fall under Spell My Name with an S

Think about it this way. RD does some pretty nutty things. Pretty sure more dangerous stuff than that gorge. Those pets knew what they where getting themselves into.

Or to be clearer, it's a game where you make up the rules as you go along.

The score can be oogie to boogie, for one thing.

Yeah Calvin and hobes name Noodle Incident

There's drama, too. It can tell a story and be funny.

I especially like Tracer Bullet arcs. I'm a sucker for noir...

They also named Most Common Superpower

edited 12th Jun '12 8:53:43 PM by condottiera

@Ginger: What Kyler said, plus RD is the only one pressuring them to take part. That's not exactly peer pressure. And again, she's not arbitrarily putting them in danger. If they're her pet they're going to be doing this kind of thing on a regular basis, which makes it kind of important that they can do it. This isn't a friend pestering another friend to snuff a packet of salt; it's more like a job interview than anything. It's kind of like interviewing for a job on a Deadliest Catch boat or to hire a stuntman or something; the job is inherently dangerous and it's your own fault if you decide to go for it. If she knew her pet was just going to chill at the house all the time, yeah, it would be thoughtless, but making them do something they're going to be doing all the time with her isn't.

@Absol: You make it up as you go.

edited 12th Jun '12 8:53:59 PM by JapaneseTeeth

@Meta Four: I think that's one of her endearing vices, Twilight can actually be very one track in how she sets up things and so sometimes comes off as Innocently Insensitive or accidentally inconsiderate as a result. Even when the Straight Man, she sometimes gets humor from the fact she is overset on proving her foil wrong, often exasperated or over the top in getting everyone to understand her point (eg. one amusing Innocently Insensitive point in Mmmystery where she attempts to point out Pinkie is wrong by essentially pointing out how run down and unsuave Joe is).

The only meaner point I found in Best Pet was maybe how overset the ponies got in favoring the underdog, not really bothered with how dejected the falcon was for winning and still getting kicked out.

edited 12th Jun '12 8:56:45 PM by Psi001

Here's a question: How do you propose Rainbow Dash filter out the contestants that were just being overconfident, or were being pressured to participate?

On the issue of Hobbes being real, I recall Watterson stating (in the 10th Anniversary book) that Calvin believes Hobbes is real; everyone else believes that Hobbes is just a stuffed animal; and neither perspective is supposed to be right or wrong. Rather postmodern there.

So that one story arc where Hobbes tied Calvin up—and Calvin couldn't get out without his dad's help—was something of a misstep on Watterson's part, rather than him intentionally providing evidence that Hobbes was really real.

I don't know. Why would you like a show for little girls?

On the gorge race thing; we can talk about the idea of them being pressured into following pack tactics, but we shouldn't forget that some of them did, in fact, drop out. And not a word was spent pressuring them for their choice. The rest of them could clearly see that it was a choice that they could make. Some of them felt ready, some of them didn't, and all who did made it through.

edited 12th Jun '12 8:57:39 PM by Enlong

It's actually pretty good.