MLP:FIM Rock Soild Friendship

This episode was written by Nick Confalone, who wrote what is my favorite episode of last season, The Saddle Row Review. This is his sixth episode, his previous ones were Party Pooped, Hearthbreakers, No Second Prances, The Saddle Row Review and Dudgeons and Discords. He is currently one of my favorite writers on the show. The storyboard artists are Sherann Johnson (who has been working on the show since the first episode) and Ward Jenkins (who started on the show last season).

This is an excellent episode that brings together my two favorite ponies besides the mane six or the CMC. This is Starlight Glimmer and Maud Pie. Luckily these two characters have great chemistry. You really believe their friendship and it feels so natural. It is just a joy watching these two work together.

There is much more than this to recommend the episode though. Pinkie, while she annoys the characters, never comes off as annoying to the audience. This is something that is done all together wrong too often in cinema and TV, and it is great to see it done so well here. She is actually funny and gets some good laughs and we can always see her heart is in the right place. On top of all this the humor in this episode is fantastic, Maud's delivery of comic lines has lost none of what makes it so great. A flashback scene (which I will not give away here) gets very huge laughs.

In other words this is just a great episode.

-Michael J. Ruhland   

MLP:FIM Flurry of Emotions

This episode introduces us to two new writers for the show, Sammie Crawley and Whitney Wetta, who do a fantastic job on their first episode. This episode is storyboarded by Elise Stevens (who as far as I can tell is another newcomer) and Tim Maltby (who started boarding for the show last season).

This is an excellent episode that manages to be adorable without ever feeling forced. Much of this is achieved through Flurry Heart. I know there have been many baby characters in many shows over the years, but this one works better than so many others I have seen. This is because so many of those characters are either trying too hard to be cute or can be more annoying to the audience than to the characters. Flurry works so well because she just seems so natural. She is cute and the episode lets us get into her mind enough (without the use of dialogue I may add) that when she does misbehave we understand and aren't annoyed by her doing so. As well as Flurry all the other characters are great. Twilight seems to be back to her worried freaking out adorkable self and the episode is all the better for it, Pinkie only gets a brief appearance but it is delightful and Spike is proving that he is a truly great straight man to Twilight's freak-outs, and on top of this is given time to shine as a comic at the episode's end and does a great job.

-Michael J. Ruhland

MLP:FIM All Bottled Up

This episode was written by Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco (who have been writing for the show since season five). The episode was storyboarded by Steve Lecoulliard and Kelli Bort.

This episode is not as good as the season premiere and definitely has its share of problems but it is not a bad episode just below par for the show.

The problem with this episode is simply that Trixie is not that well written here, and she feels out of character. While Trixie did first appear in my least favorite episode of the show (Boast Busters), I have grown to like her a lot. So it is disappointing how not well she is written here. She seems more like a plot device to make Starlight angry than really a real character. Also her obliviousness to doing anything wrong simply isn't believable, because it doesn't quite mesh with her previously set personality. However there is enough good humor in this story to keep this from being too distracting, and the idea of Trixie trying to learn real magic is a very good one that I hope they expand on in a more fulfilling episode in the future. Also Starlight remains very likable through this whole episode and also keeps a poorly written Trixie from ruining the episode.

The subplot however is near perfect. It is such a small story and doesn't need much time devoted to it. Therefore it works great as a subplot as it is given exactly as much time as the plot needs. It also has the best humor of the episode and the joke about the song number is fantastic. All the Mane Six are perfectly within character and joy to watch even if this is only a very brief subplot.

-Michael J. Ruhland

MLP:FIM Celestial Advice

Here we are and yes I am glad to be back talking about more episodes of this great show. Of course right now I will be talking about the season premiere Celestial Advice. We got two new episodes this morning and this is the best of the two. In fact it is a fantastic episode.

This episode was not only written by Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco (who joined the show in season five), but was the very first episode in which the two were the story editors. From the look of this episode they will do a great job at it. This episode was storyboarded by Kaylea Chard (who has been boarding for the show since the third season) and Mike Myhre (who started boarding for the show in the fourth season).

This is a very interesting episode and definitely different from previous season premieres. What separates it from those other episodes is the fact that there is no real villain, or much action like other season premieres. Rather it focuses on an internal conflict. It does this very well and the episode is not only fascinating but a lot of fun to watch as well. Twilight's conflict seems very real as does Starlight's reaction to it. They both love each other and never want to leave the other, but they are unsure of where to go from here. How to deal with being so unsure is an amazingly complex thing for the show to deal with and it doesn't sugarcoat it and it doesn't say there is a real right or wrong answer as often times there isn't. This is kind of profound really. On top of this seeing Celestia deal with anxiety over her decisions makes her real and in many ways more human in a way the character isn't always presented as. I find this refreshing and a very nice touch.

This does not mean the episode is just a character study as it is also quite funny. Twilight's fantasies and the ways they go horribly wrong in the most absurd ways possible is really funny. Also like last season's finale proved Trixe and Discord have great chemistry and it was a joy to watch they work off each other here to.

Also I am a huge Starlight fan so seeing her in the spotlight is always a joy for me.

-Michael J. Ruhland