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From: Melissa Hollingsworth <thetruemelissa@gmail.com>
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Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-07-14 (Monday)
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2025 09:32:46 -0700
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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