My Little Pony: we reference Game of Thrones now.

Good

This is a nice bit of world-building. The method of bringing winter to Ponyville makes sense within the context of the show (out of context, it's probably the closest I've ever been to getting high, but that's not a bad thing), but what I really like is the idea of Cloudsdale being a city that can actually move. I hope to see the writers use that in future episodes, particularly a two-parter.

Tank is as adorable as always. Also, to my surprise, it turns out that tortoises do actually hibernate (the question was actually the first auto-complete result when I started looking up "tortoises" on Google - anyone else looking that up), so kudos to the writers for doing their homework.

Some great comedy as always, with the "Who's on first"-esque scene being my personal favourite.

I like the song. It's not my favourite in the show, by any stretch of the imagination, but it completely sells the point, mixing the energy of the situation for most ponies with Rainbow Dash's own personal turmoil.

There are so many great details in here that it would take ages for me to list them all. Therefore, I'll just give my favourite: Rainbow Dash and Tank's slippers. Those are just adorable. It's details like that that make the relationship between the two work, and thus provides the emotional punch for the episode.

Bad

The whole episode feels a bit unstructured. In particular, the ending kind of just... happens. There's no particular event that should make Rainbow Dash accept Tank's hibernation, she simply does after enough crying. I suppose that is fairly realistic, but it does feel a little bit unsatisfying as a story. It's like the writer finished the first draft, then skipped the hypothetical second draft (where they would have worked on the overall story), and went straight to fine-tuning the details.

Iffy

This is one of those episodes that makes the chronology of the show that bit more confusing. Given that we now know that this is the first winter since Rainbow Dash got Tank, we have to push "Hearth's Warming Eve" back to before "May the Best Pet Win". Overall, the decision was for the best, but it does bug a chronology nut like myself.

In conclusion, this is my favourite episode of the season so far, though I'd say that the season premiere was the better episode. What can I say? I love the details of this episode, and that's enough for me.

Getting back into the swing of things...

Good

The general concept is a very good one, and particularly relatable to me, having moved recently myself. I didn't go quite as nuts as Twilight did, but I can see why she did. It also links into the premiere nicely. As Twilight was not feeling settled into her castle at that point, it makes sense that she would look for anything to get away from there, including jumping right into a potentially dangerous quest without thinking.

Plenty of good jokes in there. Angel locking Fluttershy out was a particular favourite of mine.

The ending really worked. The idea of bringing the old tree into the new castle is a good one (and also a nice little pun on remembering your roots), but what really sold it was the specific piece of background music. This is actually the first time I can recall a specific piece of the show's score being so effective. Kudos.

Bad

The Sidekick Five (sorry, it's not exactly accurate, but it's still an easy way to refer to them) were idiots for a large portion of the episode. How could they not realise that the very specific things they wanted in a home were not what Twilight would want in one? Fortunately, they did at least realise their own stupidity and fix the problem, but it's still rather annoying.

How did they manage to put still images of memories into gemstones? I assume it was a spell Rarity knows, but it's rather odd that such a thing has never been shown before.

Overall, a fine episode. It was nothing special, but it was entertaining for what it was.

Long time no see. I went into this episode without seeing any previews, and I'm rather glad I did. So, let's begin:

The Good

The basic setup is one of the creepiest things I've ever seen in a cartoon, and all the better for it. Society seems to think that kids can't handle scary material, but this is how you make it work without alienating the younger audience: make the creepiness proportional to the viewer's age. Basically, the idea of a village where everyone is the same is really scary to me, but not so much to kids. Over the course of the episode, however, the story shows the problems with this sort of hyper-conformity, and thus the message is given in a way children can understand.

The characters introduced in this episode are well-handled, particularly Starlight Glimmer. She has enough of a motivation to be believable, while leaving enough backstory unstated that she could make for a good recurring villain. Given that she doesn't reform in any way, I think she'll be back, and I look forward to it.

Hints of a story arc, and the basic mechanic is in place to direct the characters towards the plot when necessary. This is a good setup for the season.

The Bad

The plot is occasionally driven by the characters' stupidity. Seriously, they just let the obviously evil pony monologue, without doing anything to stop her, after she'd already revealed where the cutie marks were kept.

Four of the Mane Six were bordering on useless (Twilight and Fluttershy were the obvious exceptions) once the plot really got going. While I suppose an argument could be made for Pinkie Pie helping them all meet up with Sugar Belle to keep the plot moving, that still leaves three of them without any purpose. I get what they were going for with the idea of the villagers saving the day, but it still felt rather like the Mane Six were rather lacking in agency. Still, it's far from the worst two-parter in that regard.

The Iffy

I'm not fond of how cutie marks were used in this episode. In short, I vastly prefer it when cutie marks are descriptive (character has talent x, so they have cutie mark y), rather than prescriptive (character has cutie mark, so they have talent x). It just, in my opinion, gives the characters themselves a bit more control, and also seems to match the origin stories of the Mane Six's cutie marks a lot more closely. On the plus side, they did have another plot device to explain the Mane Six's gradual loss of powers and personality (Starlight's spell and the brainwashing), but it still felt like they put the emphasis in the wrong place.

Still, the episode's strengths more than make up for its weaknesses, and make this my favourite season premiere since "The Return of Harmony".

Hmm, as I recall, Faust did create the character of Cadance, though she was only a unicorn in the initial concept. Whether she was so utterly boring in the initial concept, or whether that was the fault of specific writers is unknown to me.

Hmm, that explanation of Discord faking it again (with a personal edit of him actually getting sick, but being able to cure himself in an instant if he wanted to) does make a good deal of sense. I'll make that my headcanon, though it does still raise the question of why no one else wonders why he can't just cure himself. Still, that is definitely a lesser problem.

In which I narrowly avoid punching my iPad.

Pros
Discord. Ah, Discord. He's always entertaining, and this time is no exception. There's a lot of great wackiness from him here. My personal highlights are actually the background details of things coming to life or moving of their own accord when he sneezes.

It is nice to see that Discord and Fluttershy keep in touch, but it is also nice to see him branching out a little, testing others' friendship with him. And I did find it delightful that Pinkie Pie was actually very willing to take care of him, even if we didn't get to see her do it.

The song is another great one from Daniel Ingram. It's fast and chaotic, which not only suits Discord well, but disguises the fact that John DeLancie really can't sing.

Cons

Cadance. Yeah, you all knew that was coming. My opinion of her hasn't changed, because she hasn't changed. She's still so bloody perfect that it's just aggravating to watch her. Can't she ever be wrong? And yet I bet there will still be people saying, "Oh, she just needs more screen time to develop." No, she really doesn't. She needs a writer willing to give her some flaws, and that's just not happening, and all the screen time in the world isn't going to fix that.

Why would a unicorn need a candle to light the way? Even Snails could make a fairly powerful light from his horn. It should be child's play to Starswirl the Bearded.

How the heck can Discord get sick? Shouldn't he be able to just teleport away the germs, or otherwise alter reality to remove the disease? Yeah, I know he was faking in the first place, but this is more about the ending. Though while we're on such matters, why didn't anyone else suggest such a possibility during his initial faked illness?

The pacing of this episode feels really off. It just takes too long to get going, but maybe that's because every minute with Cadance on-screen feels like an hour.

In short, this is an episode of great highs and great lows. It was great tos ee Discord again, but every word out of Cadance's mouth was so utterly, utterly annoying that it brought the episode right back down. I have no idea where to place it on my rankings, but I do know that I have no desire to watch it again.

I've been asking that about Cadance for years, and no luck. I guess we all have our burdens to bear.

I'm sorry, but I have not even heard of this rumour until now. Do you have a source?

Actually, while I'm one of the most vehemently anti-Cadance people around, I'm going to have to disagree with you there. In the comics, she at least has a personality, even though it"a not much of one. Therefore, it should be possible to actually write her well, though no one on the show has even come close to doing so.

Discord is still conscious at the end, and still seems able to do most things. He should be able to do something that is as natural to him as standing up is to us. Yes, it would be difficult to just eliminate the disease, and could have some unintended consequences, but nothing that he couldn't fix. And yes, every character should have realised that there should at least have been a theoretical possibility of him being able to cure himself, and pointed this out to him.