Hey.

Nah, I liked the episode. It was supposed to be a shoutout to all of the fandom.

While I don't agree with 'fan-pandering' episodes, I don't really think that the episode was meant to be serious. I thought the jokes were clever, but it was really just a huge shoutout to the fandom.

As an episode on its own, it's .. eh.

But if you take it as it is, then it's okay. Gave a little more insight into some of the fan's favorite characters. Including the relationship between Lyra and BonBon.

I really liked how they portrayed Celesta/Luna.

I just wish they had done entire episodes devoted to those tangential storylines rather than a little two minute cameo.
And the speech at the end by the Mayor was god awful writing.

Eh, I think it was the typical sort of 'friendship and love brings people together' sort of thing. It was just one of those typical speeches that don't really mean anything in the long run.

I think they had some time that they had to fill, so they went and just did a speech.

I think the reason why they did all sort of smaller stories into one episode because they wanted to cover the whole town at once. I would love to have seen another derpy episode, with just Derpy.

But I'm not against the episode. It's not one of their best, but I don't think it was intended to be. It was supposed to be a "Thanks for watching the show, guys, thanks for supporting us" kind of thing.

I guess. I just saw it more as capitulation to rather than an accolade of the fans.

Don't you think that seems a little cynical?

I mean, most shows that have a large fanbase would do at least one fan pandering episode. Wasn't that episode the 100th episode? So they wanted to do something special for the fans? I can't recall.

While I don't agree with fan pandering and would much rather see something with a story arc, I just think that episode wasn't meant to be serious. I mean, they had a changeling in the audience. In any other real episode, it would have been chased out of town. Or worse.