Post-Season 4 discussion

[Chishio Kunrin]

I loved this episode, so much so that I'm a little sad they missed certain things.

Spoiler: show

I was hoping Luna would make a little side comment as to why she was there in Shores studio. Yeah, it makes sense for her to be there, they are in Canterlot, but a little side comment would be nice. "I'm a Sapphire Shores fan" or something like that.

I was also hoping for maybe, maybe a Rarity style freak out, done by Sweetie Belle. She'd panick over ruining her sisters career. Though, admittedly her imitation of her during the "red ribbon" scene was great.

Otherwise, I loved this thing. Funny, cute, and Sweetie Belles's attitude was was shocking, but made sense within the story.

Wasn't Luna there specifically to help Sweetie Belle?

Um...I don't think so? I assumed she was there by coincidence. At least, that's what it looked like. Why else was she standing in that room, alone? There's no way she'd know Sweetie would run in there.

On this week's episode:

Spoiler: show

I liked it at the start, but it got a little dumb at the end. Too many things were forced. Why were the Flim Flam's advertising their tonic with Applejacks "seal of approval?" Do these ponies actually know who she is?

It also suffers from being the last key episode. I could see Silver Shill's resolution coming a mile away. It's a shame too, cause I liked the Apple Family's antics before these other things happened. Granny was hilarious, swimming without a care in the world while her family freaked out.

I figured Luna had been watching her to see if she learned her lesson or not. Celestia has watched Twilight.

Spoiler: Also somewhat in reply to Buddy Minute • show

I assume the ponies around Ponyville do know who Applejack is. I mean, remember how long the line was to get some cider in the Super Cider Squeezy 6,000 episode?

I figured the story would be Applejack being afraid to tell the truth because it'd hurt other ponies, so this was an episode where I actually hadn't turned my thinking off and predicted what would happen.

[Buddy Minute]

I loved this episode, so much so that I'm a little sad they missed certain things.

Spoiler: show

I was hoping Luna would make a little side comment as to why she was there in Shores studio. Yeah, it makes sense for her to be there, they are in Canterlot, but a little side comment would be nice. "I'm a Sapphire Shores fan" or something like that.

I was also hoping for maybe, maybe a Rarity style freak out, done by Sweetie Belle. She'd panick over ruining her sisters career. Though, admittedly her imitation of her during the "red ribbon" scene was great.

Otherwise, I loved this thing. Funny, cute, and Sweetie Belles's attitude was was shocking, but made sense within the story.

Wasn't Luna there specifically to help Sweetie Belle?

Um...I don't think so? I assumed she was there by coincidence. At least, that's what it looked like. Why else was she standing in that room, alone? There's no way she'd know Sweetie would run in there.

On this week's episode:

Spoiler: show

I liked it at the start, but it got a little dumb at the end. Too many things were forced. Why were the Flim Flam's advertising their tonic with Applejacks "seal of approval?" Do these ponies actually know who she is?

It also suffers from being the last key episode. I could see Silver Shill's resolution coming a mile away. It's a shame too, cause I liked the Apple Family's antics before these other things happened. Granny was hilarious, swimming without a care in the world while her family freaked out.

I figured Luna had been watching her to see if she learned her lesson or not. Celestia has watched Twilight.

You know...that's not impossible. It's just the way the scene went down, Sweetie ran into a random room and found Luna. Luna didn't seem to be expecting her...

I guess this can be open to interpretation? I was just hoping that, if this was a coincidence, that Luna would make a little joke about it.

Spoiler: Also somewhat in reply to Buddy Minute • show

I assume the ponies around Ponyville do know who Applejack is. I mean, remember how long the line was to get some cider in the Super Cider Squeezy 6,000 episode?

I figured the story would be Applejack being afraid to tell the truth because it'd hurt other ponies, so this was an episode where I actually hadn't turned my thinking off and predicted what would happen.

Spoiler: show

Actually, my complaint was based off the inconsistent fame of the Mane Six. However, on second viewing I found the
"answer to my question." It's not so much AJ's reputation, it was what occurred during the scene when Granny brought a second round of tonic. She was a customer who claimed the stuff worked, lied, and the Flim Flams just used her word as proof of their product's quality. Really, they would have used any customer, AJ was just the first to put in a good word for them. 

My new complaint is that Silver Shill is not nearly as good a character as say, Coco Pommel. He's kind of a dumb weenie who just bluntly explained his character arc. I would have rather the Flim Flam bros learn a lesson and cut Silver Shill out. I mean sure it'd change their characters, but what are the odds they'll show up again?

[Dawnstar]

Spoiler: show

I did see this being Applejack's key episode a mile away. I can't avoid all spoilers for the episodes so when I saw that Flim and Flam were going to be returning for this one it was obvious to me due to their less-than-honest business practices.

As for the "Applejack Approved" part, I would assume that by this point the characters are all pretty well known across Equestria (multiple stained glass windows, celebrations and even a coronation, etc.). Twilight Time did sort of highlight the sudden shift of recognition by the other residents, but I think that's more of an oversight inconsistency by the writers because they really hadn't taken character fame into consideration until recently. And of course, since Applejack is the Element of Honesty, it makes sense that the other ponies would get all excited over the hoax cure (and FlimFlam naturally took advantage of the attention).

If anything the fame thing could be explained by the fact that news probably travels slower in Equestria than it does here. We are spoiled by the speed of the internet after all, but I don't think we've seen a hint of anything similar in the show. The closest thing would be dragon mail and that's limited to Twilight/Celestia as far as we know, otherwise everything travels by regular mail and it has only been a year (supposedly) since anyone outside Canterlot had even heard of Twilight let alone know who she was.

That said, I -really- want to know what was going on in Ponyville before the episode started, because there were a LOT of injured ponies going to FlimFlam.

Only Twilight's key remains now though so we're getting really close to finding out what the replacement for the Elements of Harmony is going to be. I'm kind of curious as to what her key episode is going to entail though.

An interesting thought I picked up from somewhere is that, when they get their keys, not only are they recognizing when they're going against their Element, but they have also been passing on their Element to others (Rarity -> Coco Pommel, Pinkie -> Cheese Sandwich (When they were foals), Rainbow Dash -> Spitfire (though this one seemed forced), Fluttershy -> Seabreeze, Applejack -> Silver Shill). Of course it was pointed out that Twilight is the Element of Magic, but I think that she will get her key by passing on the Magic of Friendship to another. Showing what friendship truly means to somepony who utterly lacks it.

[Chishio Kunrin]

Spoiler: show

I did see this being Applejack's key episode a mile away. I can't avoid all spoilers for the episodes so when I saw that Flim and Flam were going to be returning for this one it was obvious to me due to their less-than-honest business practices.

As for the "Applejack Approved" part, I would assume that by this point the characters are all pretty well known across Equestria (multiple stained glass windows, celebrations and even a coronation, etc.). Twilight Time did sort of highlight the sudden shift of recognition by the other residents, but I think that's more of an oversight inconsistency by the writers because they really hadn't taken character fame into consideration until recently. And of course, since Applejack is the Element of Honesty, it makes sense that the other ponies would get all excited over the hoax cure (and FlimFlam naturally took advantage of the attention).

If anything the fame thing could be explained by the fact that news probably travels slower in Equestria than it does here. We are spoiled by the speed of the internet after all, but I don't think we've seen a hint of anything similar in the show. The closest thing would be dragon mail and that's limited to Twilight/Celestia as far as we know, otherwise everything travels by regular mail and it has only been a year (supposedly) since anyone outside Canterlot had even heard of Twilight let alone know who she was.

That said, I -really- want to know what was going on in Ponyville before the episode started, because there were a LOT of injured ponies going to FlimFlam.

Only Twilight's key remains now though so we're getting really close to finding out what the replacement for the Elements of Harmony is going to be. I'm kind of curious as to what her key episode is going to entail though.

An interesting thought I picked up from somewhere is that, when they get their keys, not only are they recognizing when they're going against their Element, but they have also been passing on their Element to others (Rarity -> Coco Pommel, Pinkie -> Cheese Sandwich (When they were foals), Rainbow Dash -> Spitfire (though this one seemed forced), Fluttershy -> Seabreeze, Applejack -> Silver Shill). Of course it was pointed out that Twilight is the Element of Magic, but I think that she will get her key by passing on the Magic of Friendship to another. Showing what friendship truly means to somepony who utterly lacks it.

Spoiler: show

I've noticed that, in some of the key episodes, there have been random objects that have been in the same rainbow color scheme as the shine on the keys. Though, of course, the "rainbow" is the mane six's coat colors.

This episode? The pie tin Granny Smith was about to jump into. Yep. That pie tin was pink, blue, white, yellow, orange, purple striped.
http://youtu.be/DjT-jLWkAIA?t=18m17s

Also, what was it that Applejack said before running up to save Granny Smith? H'lan sakes?

[Dawnstar]

Spoiler: show

Yeah, I've noticed the randomly rainbowed items as well and have seen the comparisons with the six's coat colors pointed out also. Honestly, at this point I'd be surprised if the whole Rainbow Power theme -wasn't- the new thing at the end of the season. I shall remain on the fence, however, until I see how the writers pull it off.

As for what Applejack said, I think it was supposed to be the phrase "Land Sakes" in her accent (Lan' Sakes), but there does seem to be a hint of an H tacked on to the front which I'll assume is just an oops when the line was said.

[LostSanity]

Spoiler: show

Anyone know what the actual term for what was happening with the tonic is called?

It's called 'the placebo effect'

Look it up if you don't know what that is.

Anyway...

I really liked this one. It was a really good episode.

[DawnsEmbrace]

Spoiler: show

Anyone know what the actual term for what was happening with the tonic is called?

It's called 'the placebo effect'

Look it up if you don't know what that is.

Anyway...

I really liked this one. It was a really good episode.

Spoiler: show

I was actually expecting the Flim Flam brothers to say "Placebo" somewhere in their song, but they didn't.
Now I'm sad...
After all, they taught me what "Non-Pareil" meant.
Now that I think about it, the Brothers were a little out of character in this episode, did anyone else notice?

[Howitzer]

Spoiler: show

Spoiler: I present to you, the real Flim Flam tonic • show

Created in the late 1800's, These "all cure" medicines were designed to cure anything, from headaches, joint pain, hysteria, weight, eye correction, parasites, even a cure for being addicted to the medicine! Except it being an entire placebo, the ingredient was opium, a simple pain killer that would cure everything, until it ran out.

And that is your history fact for the day.[/spoiler]

[Chishio Kunrin]

Spoiler: show

Anyone know what the actual term for what was happening with the tonic is called?

It's called 'the placebo effect'

Look it up if you don't know what that is.

Anyway...

I really liked this one. It was a really good episode.

Spoiler: show

I was really hoping someone in the episode would mention placebo.

Spoiler: show

Spoiler: I present to you, the real Flim Flam tonic • show

Created in the late 1800's, These "all cure" medicines were designed to cure anything, from headaches, joint pain, hysteria, weight, eye correction, parasites, even a cure for being addicted to the medicine! Except it being an entire placebo, the ingredient was opium, a simple pain killer that would cure everything, until it ran out.

And that is your history fact for the day.[/spoiler]

Spoiler: show

^Exactly what the tonic reminded me of.

[GoldenTerrabyte]

I can't find it online anywhere!

[Chishio Kunrin]

I can't find it online anywhere!

http://www.watchcartoononline.com/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-season-4-episode-20-leap-of-faith
watchcartoononline.com is a pretty good place for a lot of cartoons, I've noticed.

[GoldenTerrabyte]

I can't find it online anywhere!

http://www.watchcartoononline.com/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-season-4-episode-20-leap-of-faith
watchcartoononline.com is a pretty good place for a lot of cartoons, I've noticed.

Ah. And I notice YouTube's unreliable these days, but normally Dailymotion's got the newest episodes, but not this time for some reason.

[Mizuki]

Not really very spoilery, but I did have some thoughts on season 4, like, in general.

I think I probably would have liked this season a little more had I not been promised a season-long story arc.

I mean, most of the previous seasons have been pretty episodic aside from the premieres & finales, which I don't really have a problem with. But this season we were told we'd get an over-arching plot, and we...kinda haven't.

Yeah we get "key" episodes from time to time, but why aren't our characters actively looking for actual keys? Yes, we the audience know that the items they received during the key episodes are most likely the actual keys, but the mane six don't necessarily know that?? So why didn't they immediately go on an adventure to "search for keys" right after Princess Twilight Sparkle Part 2?

Did they get distracted by the Diary concept in Castlemania so much that they forgot that the whole point of the season isn't to fill diary pages, but to find keys to open the mysterious tree of harmony box? (was it executive meddling in part thanks to Hasbro/ The Hub?)

I dunno maybe I'm worrying about it too much in-universe and I'm sure the season finale will talk about the box again, but for the most part all we've seen is them cleaning up the old castle for seemingly no reason and writing in their diaries because Twilight thought it'd be a cool idea :U

idk it doesn't feel like "the season long story arc" we were promised, like the writers had no idea what a story arc actually is/was 

[Chishio Kunrin]

Spoiler: show

Not really very spoilery, but I did have some thoughts on season 4, like, in general.

I think I probably would have liked this season a little more had I not been promised a season-long story arc.

I mean, most of the previous seasons have been pretty episodic aside from the premieres & finales, which I don't really have a problem with. But this season we were told we'd get an over-arching plot, and we...kinda haven't.

Yeah we get "key" episodes from time to time, but why aren't our characters actively looking for actual keys? Yes, we the audience know that the items they received during the key episodes are most likely the actual keys, but the mane six don't necessarily know that?? So why didn't they immediately go on an adventure to "search for keys" right after Princess Twilight Sparkle Part 2?

Did they get distracted by the Diary concept in Castlemania so much that they forgot that the whole point of the season isn't to fill diary pages, but to find keys to open the mysterious tree of harmony box? (was it executive meddling in part thanks to Hasbro/ The Hub?)

I dunno maybe I'm worrying about it too much in-universe and I'm sure the season finale will talk about the box again, but for the most part all we've seen is them cleaning up the old castle for seemingly no reason and writing in their diaries because Twilight thought it'd be a cool idea :U

idk it doesn't feel like "the season long story arc" we were promised, like the writers had no idea what a story arc actually is/was 

*Shrug* We've seen some background evidence that Twilight is still studying the box. In at least, I think two, episodes, we've seen Twilight has a large sheet of paper pinned up in the library with diagrams of the box and lots of notes.

For all we know, Twilight decided to try to actually do some research and figure out more about the box first, before jumping into trying to find keys. After all, how would you go about trying to find keys for that box? "It needs six keys! Let's go look for them! But uhh... where exactly should we look for the keys?"

[Edit]: Okay, maybe only one episode, but you see it in three different scenes in Twilight Time.

Spoiler: Two large screenshots • show

[Mizuki]

Spoiler: show

Not really very spoilery, but I did have some thoughts on season 4, like, in general.

I think I probably would have liked this season a little more had I not been promised a season-long story arc.

I mean, most of the previous seasons have been pretty episodic aside from the premieres & finales, which I don't really have a problem with. But this season we were told we'd get an over-arching plot, and we...kinda haven't.

Yeah we get "key" episodes from time to time, but why aren't our characters actively looking for actual keys? Yes, we the audience know that the items they received during the key episodes are most likely the actual keys, but the mane six don't necessarily know that?? So why didn't they immediately go on an adventure to "search for keys" right after Princess Twilight Sparkle Part 2?

Did they get distracted by the Diary concept in Castlemania so much that they forgot that the whole point of the season isn't to fill diary pages, but to find keys to open the mysterious tree of harmony box? (was it executive meddling in part thanks to Hasbro/ The Hub?)

I dunno maybe I'm worrying about it too much in-universe and I'm sure the season finale will talk about the box again, but for the most part all we've seen is them cleaning up the old castle for seemingly no reason and writing in their diaries because Twilight thought it'd be a cool idea :U

idk it doesn't feel like "the season long story arc" we were promised, like the writers had no idea what a story arc actually is/was 

*Shrug* We've seen some background evidence that Twilight is still studying the box. In at least, I think two, episodes, we've seen Twilight has a large sheet of paper pinned up in the library with diagrams of the box and lots of notes.

For all we know, Twilight decided to try to actually do some research and figure out more about the box first, before jumping into trying to find keys. After all, how would you go about trying to find keys for that box? "It needs six keys! Let's go look for them! But uhh... where exactly should we look for the keys?"

[Edit]: Okay, maybe only one episode, but you see it in three different scenes in Twilight Time.

Spoiler: Two large screenshots • show

True, but we don't really know if that was written into the episode or if the animators just wanted to have that in the background.

I'm mostly talking about it from a writing standpoint. Even if Twilight wanted to research the box before looking for keys, we never have an instance of a character just checking up on her research. (Outside of Twilight studying Genealogy for funsies)

Now that I think about it, the Equestria Games has been more hyped for this season than solving the mystery of the harmony box thing

I'd love it if we got a really meta sorta explanation for all of this, though.

[GoldenTerrabyte]

Maybe she was studying the shapes of the keyholes. That would help in finding the keys.

[Night Pony]

You may also remember that Twilight went to the castle to research the box.

[VioletKnight]

So Twilight's the only one without a "key" now. I hope the episode is really good.

[Dawnstar]

Twilight going to the castle was near the beginning of the season though which doesn't really count much towards season-long story arc.

Also, I have this weird feeling that Twilight's key will be found during the season finale rather than an earlier episode which hurts the whole story arc thing a bit more.

[Chishio Kunrin]

Twilight going to the castle was near the beginning of the season though which doesn't really count much towards season-long story arc.

Also, I have this weird feeling that Twilight's key will be found during the season finale rather than an earlier episode which hurts the whole story arc thing a bit more.

That, or... I can possibly see her getting it in the episode Trade Ya.

Trege has a theory that the keys aren't actually the keys to the box and that they will lead the mane six to the real keys.