An episode a day

[Rares]

S4E17 Somepony to Watch Over Me

I thought this episode was good on Apple Bloom's character, and had some really cute moments between the sisters. I have to say though, the climax itself was a little too over the top and felt really forced. I mean a talking monster threatening to eat Apple Bloom in some lava erupting ground? Just make it a freaking wolf or something.

[Rares]

S4E18 Maud Pie

I thought this was a really cute, better than I remembered, with a really heartfelt lesson, and not a lot I could think of that was wrong with it. It is another episode that does a fantastic job showing off the relationship between Pinkie Pie and Maud, even when this is her first appearance. I think it also does a good job showing some insight into Pinkie Pie herself. Might be another one of my favorite non-Rarity episodes.

[Pacifist]

S4E18 Maud Pie

I thought this was a really cute, better than I remembered, with a really heartfelt lesson, and not a lot I could think of that was wrong with it. It is another episode that does a fantastic job showing off the relationship between Pinkie Pie and Maud, even when this is her first appearance. I think it also does a good job showing some insight into Pinkie Pie herself. Might be another one of my favorite non-Rarity episodes.

Best episode.

5,000,000/10

[Rares]

S4E19 For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils

Typically I find Sweetie Belle to be a bit bad at times, but honestly I find this episode to be good on her, learning a lesson she probably needed to. It was good in that regard, and helped show some nice sister bonding between Rarity and Sweetie. And of course having cute Rari moments sprinkled in always helps.

[Rares]

S4E20 Leap of Faith

Eh. Not really impressed by it. I just don't see why the ponies were so trusting of Flim and Flam in the first place, I thought the town already established they didn't like them. And I can't say I thought the use of Applejack's element against her, as is the theme of these key episodes, wasn't quite done well in this case, compared to RTM and Pinkie Pride. I just say it's a pass in my book.

[Rares]

S4E21 Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3

This did have a very good amount of cute Twilight moments. All in all, I actually really liked this one. I think it's a good one on showing how test studying really is a process that has no exclusive way of right and wrong, and can really work for anyone in any way. I thought it was a sweet episode that had a lot good going for it. Except the rap. Who thought that was a good idea?

[7bloom]

S4E20 Leap of Faith

I say that provided plenty of excellent Apple family interaction. Bloom, Mac, and Granny were all great. As someone interested in that, it gave lots to like, for me. One of my favorites of the season, for just that; fairly letting Bloom have her own stuff going on when she's not the star.

[Rares]

S4E22 Trade Ya!

This is definitely one of the worst in the show. Easily. For a lot of reasons. While maybe not insultingly bad and difficult to watch as others, I say from how it stands, there are several things that just make it awful. First off, it's too cluttered, trying to do something with each of the Mane 6 in pairs ended up not paying off, especially since most of it is focused on Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash on something that was way to drawn out, and a concept that is way too overdone in children's media. They'd be better off if they had the minor role in the episode. I mean, Chowder sums up this premise in a single, less than two minute song, yet Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy spend half the episode on this.

Also, how inconsistant are we going to be with Twilight being a Princess? I mean you can't keep doing this extremely noticeable back and forth motion where half the time everyone loves her and recognizes she's a princess, and the other time it's normal. And then you have things like Pinkie saying that it's like an honor just to be with her in that case? That's awful to me as I really feel that just tries to separate them like that. But onto my next gripe, yet another Rarity/Applejack pairoff. Why did they need to pool their items together? Why not just separate, and then Applejack tries to show-up the Element of Generosity... and there's literally nothing there aside from "Applejack wants a thing she's into and Rarity wants a thing she's into and remember how they're opposites?" It's tiring. I'm bored of it. Then Rainbow Dash trying to trade off Fluttershy for a book, look I get split second poor decisions, but that was way over the line. And the way that Pinkie was trying to "sell" Twilight's princess-ness as an accessory to the books, again putting her on some higher level, I really disliked that. But I think the worst part is the one line Twilight gives about her books. Because that actually is something meaningful, and actually could have been one of the redeeming qualities of the episode, except for the fact that the library, with all the books that she says means the world to her with this, get destroyed for no good reason aside from an unnecessary action sequence.

Not as awful to watch as something like Carts, but this is definitely one of the worst the show has to offer.

[Rares]

S4E23 Inspiration Manifestation

Eh. I thought this one was averaged out and turned out okay. The good of it was of course Rari being so very entertaining, and Tabitha's performance is fantastic. Also not having the writer overuse "Spikey-wikey" or even say it in this episode was a plus. On that front I think it was fine, but unfortunately this is not a Rarity episode, this is a Spike episode. And Spike I don't really find him likeable in this. I mean the entire episode could have just been solved if he told Twilight what happened, and when she shows up, he neglects to tell her for frankily some extremely poor reasoning, when Rarity is clearly unwell. It seemed like he just wanted to be the hero, and it just makes a bigger problem of things and makes him a bit selfish in this case. Owlicious was right the entire episode. Well, aside from Rarity of course. But especially you'd think Spike would know better than giving someone a clearly cursed book, and showing no real empathy at the fact that Twilight had to spend all day cleaning up essentially his mess, because Rarity was cursed by the book so she didn't know anything what was going on. All in all, Rarity's moments even out with the poor actions of Spike and just make for a "meh" episode. No wonder I forgot about it.

[Gentian]

Personally, I really like this one, because Tabitha's performance was just so wonderful. She's a great voice actress, the best one on the show, imho, and this episode really gave her the chance to shine.

You're absolutely right about it making Spike look bad, though. Really, what was he thinking giving that book to her? His actions after that, though, are understandable, if all wrong. Spike really does want to be the hero, especially to Rarity. Remember the episode where she gets kidnapped by Diamond Dogs? Spike imagined himself a buff knight in shining armor saving the day. Combine his psychological need to be the hero, with his one-sided infatuation with Rarity, and, well, it makes sense.

I do wonder why Owlicious didn't go get Twilight, though.

Also, this episode raises a few questions. Why was that book in the Castle of the Twin Sisters? Celybeans hasn't lived there for a millennium, and Luna, obviously couldn't have gone there. But it was their castle, you would think they knew about it, and if they did, why would they leave such a dangerous thing just lying there? Did they forget? Was it a secret of a resident magician, say Starswirl? Was it there before the Castle, and they just never got around to finding out what it did? Was it put there by someone who moved in after they'd deserted the place?

It also makes me think about magic. The things Rari was doing under the book's influence seemed, shall we say, beyond anything she's been shown to do before. One could attribute this to the book, but then, when Spike took the book away from her she was still capable of using her new powers. So did it just open the floodgates on her natural magical potential? Was the green glow some kind of condensed magic, or supernatural entity a la Nightmare who was semi-possessing her, and providing it's own magical power?

When it left, it didn't go back in the book, does this mean the book is a normal, non-magical item now? What became of the green thing? Did it dissipate? Is it still out there looking for it's book, or some other host? Did Spike actually manage to digest that tome, and if he did, did that have any effect on the green?

So many questions.