RE "Feeling Pinkie Keen" and "Over a Barrel":
"Feeling Pinkie Keen": I suppose I should say right up front that I was one of those people who was kind of turned off by the message of this episode. It's not like I hate it, but it does kind of lessen my enjoyment of the episode. I think it's more accurate to say that the episode can come off as "anti-rationalist, " rather than "pro-religious", but there's a lot of overlap between conversations about rationalism and conversations about religion. For the record, I'm a scientist, rationalist, and pretty much a Secular Humanist, though I am very interested in questions of the nature of reality, existence, etc. I understand the appeal of orginzed religion, but I think that in a perfect world, we probably wouldn't have it, at least as most of it exists today. It might be more accurate to say I'm "anti-dogma" than "anti-religious" as I really like some aspects of organized religion, such as the sense of community and belonging it provides, and the fact that it moves people to think more deeply about how they're living their lives. The parts I'm not so crazy about are the whole "belief without evidence" aspects.
Returning from that (way too long) tangent, my primary problem with the episode's message is that it's kind of blurry as to whether the message is "just because you (or anyone) can't explain something, doesn't mean it can't be explained/isn't true" (with which I wholeheartedly agree), and "just because something can't be explained, doesn't mean it isn't true" (with which I very much disagree). Honestly, had that difference been made more clear, I think I would've been a much bigger fan of the episode, but as Lady Faust herself pointed out, that's kind of a subtle distinction to make for a kids' show. The fact that Twilight utterly gives up on finding an explanation for Pinkie's abilities (which clearly exist), rather than accepting there's an explanation that she just doesn't understand yet frosts my shorts a bit, but again, making that distinction is probably asking too much of a 22-minute cartoon.
I think the reason it hits a little close to home for some people is that discussions like "rationality vs. faith" are very visible and very important in society today, and both sides seem to feel like they're marginalized in the discussion. A lot of art, especially that geared toward kids, seems to take the "faith" side of things, and I think a lot of people in the "rationality" camp were hopeful that FIM, which has been very different (in good ways) from other cartoons, would buck the trend, and they were disappointed. It's not like it ruins the series for me or anything, but I do tend to enjoy it less than most other episodes, despite recognizing that in terms of "objective" quality, it's at least on par with the rest of FIM.
"Over a Barrel": I can understand why people get antsy about this episode; it's cartoon-ifying one of the more distasteful aspects of the U.S.'s history. But it seems to me that this is one of the points of art; we look at aspects of the world that we're not proud of and ask, "how could we do better?" And when we get that answer, we hold that up as an example to our audience — in this case, kids and internet-denizens prone to obsession over cartoons.
Now as for MY least favorite episode, that would be "Look Before You Sleep". *Grumblegrumble*
Character Derailment of
my favorite pony *grumble*.
"Someone who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person." —Dave Barry
![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
Exhibit A