Season 9 Discussion Thread [NO SPOILERS, DF airings only]

Damn, and i’m here who didn’t like the ep at all. :V

@ILoveMyoozik  
I would hate it, but I dont care a lot about the characters.

@ILoveMyoozik  

@ILoveMyoozik  
For me, it’s in that category where I just can’t muster the energy to hate it.

@LeoNero
 
@DerpyFast  
Sort of amusing/ironic that you’re both using avatars from it.

@ILoveMyoozik  
Dislike what you want to dislike and love what you want to love. :3

I’m in that spot where I’ve come to appreciate some of the decisions made.

@cheezedoodle  
I’m pretty much contractually obligated to change my avatar every Saturday and Sunday to whatever screencap I like from a recently aired episode regardless of whether I liked it or not.

@ILoveMyoozik  
How much does that pay? :)

@cheezedoodle  
Zero dollars and zero cents :D

I liked the episode.
 
Twilight Snapple is funny.

@cheezedoodle  
A good avatar is a good avatar.
 
Actually, I changed my mind. Here’s some rambling about why I hate it.
 
Twilight and Pinkie represent an interesting dynamic. Twilight is oriented towards thinking and logic, where Pinkie is oriented towards feeling and intuition. I think there are problems with how “Feeling Pinkie Keen” framed its moral, but I look at it as a lesson in the value of trusting your instincts even if you can’t offer a logical explanation.
 
As a semi-random tangent, “Yakkity-Sax” is a good setup to explore the idea of depression. Pinkie’s obsession with the Yovidaphone could have represented her losing sight of the big picture. Taking stock of your own life (counting your blessings) can be a very logical-oriented tool for combating depression. It would have been a good reincorporation of Twilight’s love of lists, and it would have been a good lesson for Pinkie to in turn learn from her.
 
This episode would have been a great opportunity to really showcase that dynamic. Instead of it being a pure trivia contest, it could have been a trivia and puzzle-solving competition. Twilight and Pinkie win, and this represents them striking a balance between logical deduction and trusting their gut.
 
Instead, we get Twilight acting like a six=year old who’s isn’t going to be invited to any birthday parties for awhile, and we get Pinkie acting like a three-year old who doesn’t understand how games work. And this is ten episodes before Twilight ascends to the throne and the show ends forever.

Is anyone else getting tired of Twilighting? It’s getting “slightly” overused lately, she used to have other defining traits…  
I really liked the Appledash tension and all the ship names they threw around :D  
Why could Derpy not get in at the end? Did she pull a push door? Or did they actively keep her out :D

@Background Pony #B837  
At this point, I am. It’s probably best to leave that flaw behind by now.

@Background Pony #B837  
My issue is that it’s been changed slightly. It used to be she’d just get really anxious, these days it’s a full blown breakdown.

@Background Pony #B837  
Twilighting wasn’t even a thing until “Lesson Zero”.
 
Even when she had reason to believe that an ancient evil was returning, she could get frustrated, but she was still calm and collected.

@DerpyFast  

Yeah, but that incident you’re referring to was before… well, everything got put on her shoulders. It’s a lot easier to be calm about the potential arrival of an ancient evil when your main responsibility in that regard is pointing out the possibility it could happen to the being you expect is going to be the one to handle it. Likewise, it’s easier to keep your composure over annoying delays in checking on party preparations when the only thing you think you’ll be doing after that is looking for more evidence the thing you’re worried about will actually show up.
 
But after that incident, things really kind of escalate. She’s suddenly the wielder of one of the six most powerful magic artifacts in Equestrian history, she’s got a task given to her by her mentor, the ruler of Equestria, and within a single season she goes from simple issues like “who’s that new zebra in town?” to facing an almost godlike being who can twist reality into a pretzel if he so chooses, and another who almost takes over Canterlot with an army of emotion hungry shape shifters. And all of that’s before an even bigger destiny for her is even hinted at.
 
So yeah, maybe she started off less prone to going overboard on “Twilight like” behavior, but given all she was entrusted with, all she was expected to do, all she did in that span of time, can you really blame her? Frankly I wonder sometimes if Celestia has a special hospital set up far away in the country where all the potential Twilights who couldn’t take the pressure and snapped like dry twigs under a steamroller ended up.

By the way, assuming there are no breaks between now and then, the finale will air two months from today.

@Spinny  

Oddly appropriate to think that season 9 will end 9 days after the 9th anniversary of the show.

@DerpyFast  
They weren’t quite on Lesson Zero’s level but Twilight had quite a few near meltdowns during season 1.

The pegasus buckball filly tagged “Sugar Cookie” in “2 4 6 Greaaat” isn’t Sugar Cookie. Aside from her cutie mark being feathers instead of cookies (seen multiple times in the episode), her cel outline and irises are different colors from the Wonderbolt cadet. Possibly her fur too, she seems a bit whiter but I don’t know for sure if that’s her or my eyes.
 
Same body/mane models for sure, but new pony.

@Ferrotter
 
Please take this to the Naming Background Ponies thread - maybe you can convince people to vote for a new name.

Well, it’s almost that time again. Congratulations to everyone who made it through another week without getting spoiled.

Here we go again, guys. Who’s ready?