Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-07-14 (Monday)

I still have secondary insomnia, which means you get a lot of pony
recaps.


S08:E01+02 - School Daze

Twilight opens a School of Friendship, open to every species. Chancellor
Neighsay tries to shut it down on the grounds that it's chaotic, which
is not without foundation. The lesson turns out to be about trust. I
almost got back to sleep during this, so I missed a lot, but I won't
rewatch since most are saying it was meh.



S08:E03 - The Maud Couple

Maud Pie, who lives in Ponyville now, finds a boyfriend, Mudbriar, who
is perfect for her. Pinky Pie can't stand him. Not only is he taking
Maud away from her, he's incredibly annoying! She consults her other
sisters, who point out that he makes Maud happy, and Pinky realizes that
what matters is that Maud likes him. He even gives Pinky good advice on
how to throw a party for Maud: with lots of advance notice and with Maud
not in attendance.

I liked this. The rest of the Mane Six learned that lesson re Pinky
herself, and now Pinky has learned it too. There might have been another
lesson that somepony might in theory consider Pinky herself to be a bit
annoying, but perhaps that would have been asking too much self-
examination for the kids.



S08:E04 - Fake It 'Til You Make It

Rarity asks Fluttershy to mind the Manehattan location of Rarity For
You. Fluttershy's insecurity leads her to take on various snooty
personas, and she then gets so into her LARPing that she drives all the
customers away. Rarity points out that she asked Fluttershy because she
wanted Fluttershy's own kind personality, and Fluttershy relaxes.

This was frankly terrible. Kindness is both part of Fluttershy's special
talent *and* her designated Element of Harmony. I have trouble believing
that she so easily slid into meanness when she wore a different costume.
In fact, it implies that her real nature is rather mean and her standard
kindness is a crafted pose ... which makes no sense for the rest of her
history. Anyway, lame episode, but I did enjoy Spike understanding the
racoons' charades.



S08:E05 - Grannies Gone Wild

Applejack asks Rainbow Dash to accompany Granny Smith and her elderly
friends to Las Pegasus. Applejack gives foolish instructions that the
old gals shouldn't be allowed to have any excitement, and Rainbow Dash
obligingly sabotages their every attempt to have fun. She gets it when
the ladies sit her down and explain it, and then they all go on a
gigantic roller coaster together.

They tell Rainbow Dash she's one of them now. Very oddly, there's a
superimposed image of Applejack looking happy and winking. She caused
all this. Applejack did say the elders might show Dash some things about
having a good time, but she also gave a long, explicit list of things
which must be prevented. She strongly implied that the good times would
consist of watching _The_Golden_Delicious_Girls_ and staying up until
9:00.

Two lame episodes in a row. Oh well.



S08:E06 - Surf and/or Turf

Because of a complicated backstory, hippogriffs and sea ponies are the
same species, and the young choose to be land or sea creatures as they
near adulthood. One, Terramar, is torn and cannot choose between his
father on the hippogriffs' mountain and his mother under the sea. The
Crusaders try to help by sampling both worlds -- Sweetie Belle loves the
mountain and Scootaloo loves the sea, and they end up arguing so badly
that they break their friendship.

This was pretty obviously aimed at children of divorce. It was always
clear that Terramar was more than welcome in both places, and in the end
he realizes that he only thought he had to choose. The girls' group-
breaking argument felt implausible; they should know better after all
they've already been through. It was very nice overall, though. I
certainly understand why Scootaloo loved being a sea pony so much, since
she can't fly.



S08:E07 - Horse Play

Twilight's putting on a show about the Pillars of Equestria, the heroes
of olden days, and Princess Celestia will play herself. What a coup!
Unfortunately, it turns out that Celestia (who is over a thousand years
old and rules a country) is uncomfortable on stage and thus a terrible
actress. This makes no sense, but it's a fun story, so I'll allow it. :)

Twilight doesn't want to tell her ruler, mentor, and friend that this
isn't working, so various schemes are tried. Eventually Twilight is
frustrated enough to yell that Celestia is the worst actress in
Equestria, and Celestia hears. Celestia is hurt, not by the dis to her
stage skills but that Twilight wasn't frank with her, and she leaves.

After they make up, Celestia taps Fluttershy to play the Celestia role
on stage. Fluttershy's intimidated, but Celestia probably remembers how
into the boutique LARPing Fluttershy got.

There is one more problem: They were all so worried about the
interpersonal problems that they didn't prioritize the play and never
made a prop sun. An offstage Celestia brings up the real sun at
Fluttershy's onstage command, and the audience is awed.

That was a killer moment. The rest of Equestria was probably
disconcerted to see the sun rise in the evening, but it worked perfectly
for the story. This one starts with a nonsensical premise, but it turned
out to be great.






--
Saturday Doctor Who watch party 1:00 p.m. Pacific time

This week: The War Games (pts 6-10)
https://discord.gg/Fd6Znkme?event=1393948552253935706