S3E04 "One Bad Apple"

[Alsek]

     Making the thread for, "One Bad apple," now because it airs later today.  Mostly,  i just want to get people used to the format for the thread titles because we'd like to keep things well organized now that we have individual threads for each episode.  :3

Personally,  i'm starting to wonder how long they can keep up this whole thing with the cutie-mark crusaders without it getting old.  Sooner or later,  one of them has to figure out their talent.  o.o

It'll make a really interesting episode when one of them does,  too, because it's bound to cause some conflict.

[NeoFur]

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic - Season 3 Episode 4 - One Bad Apple [HD]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHfsFa5b4Oc

[Narei Mooncatt]

Ah, the "bully episode". I'm never a big fan of episodes in any series that deal with something like this. It's kinda like the stereotypical drug use episode you used to see in other shows, and comes off too preachy for me. It had some pretty nice gags and call backs to things like the A-Team theme inspired background music (I think that was the show) when building the new float and using Pinky's Parasprite music during the parade scene, but the episode as a whole was kinda on the low end for me. Much as I hate to say it, I think this was a pretty low level episode in terms of entertainment value.

[Ryffnah]

Yeah...  It came off kind of too preachy for me too.  The cousin was kind of hard to take as a character, and the moral was painfully obvious all the way through.

I did like Sweetie Belle's exclamation "Oh!  Why does life have to be so ironic!"  That was pretty cute.

[NeoFur]

Yeah...  It came off kind of too preachy for me too.  The cousin was kind of hard to take as a character, and the moral was painfully obvious all the way through.

I don't mind preachy when it's done right. Late at night Ion shows He Man She Ra and Bravestar. It's like they snatched one of their old scripts and added ponies. The episode was ok, but I've seen my fill of those.

[Luku]

Isn't MLP sort of preachy anyways? Like, the whole "Dear Princess Celestia" business at the end is sort of like He-man's moral of the day thing. Well, "sort of" in that it's exactly the same. It's not a bad kind of preachy, I find it quite endearing.

[Ryffnah]

Isn't MLP sort of preachy anyways? Like, the whole "Dear Princess Celestia" business at the end is sort of like He-man's moral of the day thing. Well, "sort of" in that it's exactly the same. It's not a bad kind of preachy, I find it quite endearing.

I think it doesn't usually bother me as much because I feel like there are more surprises along the way.  To use a phrase that pops up a lot in my writing group, the plot of this episode was "on rails."  I knew exactly where it was going all the way through, and, sure enough, it went exactly where I expected without much in the way of surprises.

[NeoFur]

Isn't MLP sort of preachy anyways? Like, the whole "Dear Princess Celestia" business at the end is sort of like He-man's moral of the day thing. Well, "sort of" in that it's exactly the same. It's not a bad kind of preachy, I find it quite endearing.

All toy based shows back in the day had to add those end bits to get around being just thirty minute commercials. I think they got educational credit too. I wish I still had the links to some of the interviews with the writers. They had to fight for their scripts, they snuck a lot in back then though.Today it's even worse. I don't recall a lot of the eps, but the special ones stick.

[rambling on]
"Everyone has the right to be free."
"If someone's touching you..."
"Smoking is bad."

Hammer that stuff in I say...
[/rambling on]

[Ryffnah]

Since my daughter keeps watching this episode, I've had a few more thoughts on it.

First, it is a really cute, nice touch the way that Babs twists her tail around to cover up her blank flank.  However, I really don't feel like knowing she was bullied a lot in Manehattan excuses her behavior throughout the episode.  Regardless of whether she's been bullied in the past, Babs was horrible to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and -- up until the prank at the end -- they were nothing but nice to her.  It would be one thing if Babs had just gone along with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon's meanness, but she really added her own.  So, I mean, it's really generous of the Cutie Mark Crusader's to instantly forgive her when they hear her back story, but I also think it's kind of naive.  At best, Babs is really weak.  More likely, based on her behavior, she really does have a significant mean streak of her own.

[Ziel]

I generally try to avoid reading any sort of synopsis of the episodes before they come out, so based off the title alone, I was really hoping for an AJ episode. I guess I'll just have to keep waiting.

I think that in general, the cuteness of Sweetie Belle made this episode for me. She had several good lines, and I felt like she was actually written pretty well this episode. Apple Bloom seemed her typical self. And Scoots, well, she felt a little off to me. It's hard to get a read on her, because half the time she seems rough-and-tumble tomboy-ish, and the other half of the time she just seemed kinda... hollow.

I also liked that they were able to have another CMC episode without it focusing solely on their quest for their cutie marks. Of course, that's always going to be a part of any CMC episode, but the ways they did it were fairly subtle. Scoots with the wrench-shaped grease mark, for example. It was a 5-second long snippet that reminds you that they're still hoping to get them at any time, but without pushing the annoying/whiny side at all.

[Corvus Corone]

This is one of my favorite episodes.

And I love the lesson.

Which is, "As long as you have a good enough excuse, it's okay to do anything."

[Ryffnah]

This is one of my favorite episodes.

And I love the lesson.

Which is, "As long as you have a good enough excuse, it's okay to do anything."

Actually, I guess the lesson is kind of amusing when you put it that way.

[Luku]

In a less cynical turn, weren't the girls the absolute cutest you've ever seen when they were drinking shakes in the Bad Seed song?