Well now the episode has aired how did everyone find the first regular episode of the season? I left the thread until it aired as iTunes US derped and showed the episode early, wanted everyone to be able to see it first.
B. Pretty good, but not great. I liked the premise and it it had a lot of good gags, plus it made use of the ensemble, which I like. But it felt a little odd compared to the usual slice-of-life episodes. Not sure if that's a result of having a new story editor or a result of this episode being written by Dave Polsky, who was responsible for two of my least favorite episodes in "Feeling Pinkie Keen" and "Over a Barrel." On the other hand, I think I need to see it without commercials. Those always hurt a story's momentum. Looks like they altered the G3 Pinkie face gag for the commercials -- in the episode she's doing it to one of her clones, not Fluttershy and Rarity. Odd.
I liked it, nice character depth and growth from Pinkie to some degree, all the little continuity nods like the Daring Do book, the bear, a reference to her grandmother, etc But it was strange, felt a little odd here and there, the others not noticing the only Pinkie Pie showing remorse and not acting weird was just...annoying given they were talking right to her. And yet again Derpy is missing. Last weeks apparent sighting was either shopped or wrong. So she hasn't made an appearance yet, that's not encouraging.
Agree with the B grade. It was fun, but there were a couple of missteps. I agree with the problem of not recognising the real Pinkie - the first time, it was funny; but after that it felt wrong from a character perspective. Did like how they resolved the problem though - that was a clever bit of writing, I thought.
Upon second viewing, it's still a B. But it's a pretty good B. As often happens, taking out the ads helped with the flow. The best part of the episode was the idea that Pinkie has more depth to her than being a party animal. She genuinely cares about her friends and gets dispondant if she feels their relationships are in trouble. That was a nice touch; it almost felt like 1-dimensional fanfic Pinkie's vs. Canon Pinkie Pie. The big overarching problem, IMHO, is that a magic cloning pool which creates duplicates that may or may not be sapient entities in their own right opens up a huge can of worms that the episode didn't even try to acknowledge. Yeah, yeah, kid's show and all, but I think Twilight at the very least would have been as much fascinated by the discovery as she was concerned about fixing the problem. And there wasn't any of that; she drops a rock over the opening and that's about it. Considering her own neurosies, you just know she'd be tempted to try it herself so she could get more research done, or something similar. The episode didn't need to be about those things, but I would have liked more amazement and incredulity on the part of the mane cast. Even for Equestria, a magic clone pool is freaking weird.
I thoroughly enjoyed it. Pinkie definitely got to show a little more depth, and it just made me like her more. The G3 face gag was funny, but all too brief considering the Hub's buildup. The novel idea of making Pinkie watch paint dry was a great one. I do agree that at some point, one of the Mane Six should have said "THAT Pinkie isn't behaving like any of the others." Which would show that she was the real deal, and not a fun clone like all of the others. Still, all in all, a very fun episode, and it gets a squeaker "A" from me.
I still feel like giving it an A for the Pinkie part of it, her grandmother knew about the pool, and Twilight had a book on it in her library so I'll assume it was sort of known about at one point. And having about 30 Pinkie's running around is all the incentive anyone needs to seal the thing away forever.
Derpy is apparently hiding around in some frames but a lot less visibly these days, or not her at all. Not sure what's going on, but until then...
I wonder when they were animating these episodes, and if it could have been during the height of Derpygate. Hasbro seemed pretty skittish about her for quite a while there.
They would have been rendering season 3 starting in around May this year. Also I'm surprised you haven't mentioned Rarity's dress yet, and that Fancy Pants happened to be in town the same afternon....
Eh. Not much to say about it. It was just kinda...there. I thought it seemed like a detail thrown in because, hey, wearing fancy dresses is something Rarity does...right? It was weird that she was going outside in a fancy outfit apparently for the heck of it. Though now that you bring it up, the Fancy Pants cameo does imply there was something going on with her, doesn't it? And the two of them were dancing together in A Canterlot Wedding. Hmm...
She was also sneaking around in a cloak, only showing herself in public around Twilight and Pinkie. Oh yes, affair is in full swing my friends.
Hot damn, you may be right. How did I not pick up on that? Spike is gong to be so upset. I wonder if it'll factor on either of his upcoming episodes at all.
Man, these threads are slow this season. Where's Count Zero? Wanderlust? The various Brians? Anyway, watching it a third time. It seems difficult to credit that that Pinkie has never had to choose between activities before. What, this is only now becoming a problem? It's good to have fresh pony again.
Although it didn't have as many laugh-out-loud moments as, say "Lesson Zero," nor was it as epic as "The Crystal Empire," the episode was wonderful in a different way--after watching it a second time, I realized I was smiling almost the entire episode: I love a show that can make me do that! First off, Andrea Libman did a spectacular job! I must imagine that was a fun one to record! I saw that Dave Polsky wrote this one, and he wrote another favorite Pinkie episode of mine, "Feeling Pinkie Keen." There was so much wonderful energy in this episode, and lots of great little gags throughout: the orange animals, the older-style Pinkie Pie, Rainbow calling out Pinkie for breaking the laws of physics (Pinkie Pie for Chief Engineer? :P) and more. I liked that it was an ensemble slice-of-life episode with many great character touches from the Mane 6 (Rainbow Dash reading Daring-Do, Twilight training with magic, Fluttershy with the "neck-break" bear, and of course Rarity dressing up). I loved all of the hyper Pinkies and their quirks (like the wrong names) and the ending act was quite clever, with lots of rapid-fire gags throughout. It was also nice to see a "traditional" ending with the letter, something not seen in a few episodes. I enjoyed it quite a bit, so it gets a solid A from me. So far, like Season 2, Season 3 is off to a great start. Looking forward to what's next!
I probably have to turn in my Brony card now but I totally forgot about there being a new episode yesterday until I returned from a party this morning. I've only now watched the episode. Well, I must say that I'm not that big a fan of Pinkie Pie, at least in larger doses, and I find her hyperactive happiness very disconcerting. So I guess I can't fully enjoy such a Pinkie-heavy episode. I knew that so many Pinkies would wreak havoc although I suspected a tad bit more apocalypse. I also agree with others in the thread about the other ponies not recognising that sad and meta Pinkie was the real one. Then again, we don't know what the other Pinkies were all saying and the real Pinkie wasn't sure whether she was the real one, either, so it's understandable that the others wouldn't be sure, either. I loved the idea of making them literally watch paint dry and I loved all the little gags in that sequence (the horror about the fingers was a nice touch, too). The animation of the false Pinkies going poof was hilarious and I expect that to show up as part of a meme. Others have already mentioned the small character moments. Considering the focus on the many Pinkies this episode worked really well as an ensemble piece. Still, I'd give it a B. It was enjoyable but not great. On the other hand we got two Doctor Whooves in the crowd in front of Twilight's library.
Nah. I'm with you on that one, actually, She's a little much. Though oddly given that I'm as not fond of her as a character, I've come to enjoy Pinkie-focused episodes quite a bit. Maybe because they're consistently entertaining after a season 2 that gave us a number of misfires from usually reliable characters like Rainbow Dash and Twilight. I think they missed a chance to distinguish the clones from each other by having them reflect different aspects of Pinkie's personality. There could have been the hyper one, the grumpy one, the sad one and so forth which would have made it harder to tell who was who. We of course would know because the real one is the only Pinkie who feels bad for her friends rather than for herself. That's why this is only B episode for me – it was really good, but it feels like a premise that could have supported so much more if the writers had only gone there. I'm not sure that means anything – it's basically the same art style they used for the generic ponies in the "Hurricane Fluttershy" educational film.