"A Trivial Pursuit" FiM Episode

[Lady Frostbite]

I just had an epiphany. Why the heck didn't Twilight choose Spike as her plus one? Did Celestia not count him as a real person? Was he considered Twilight's extention?

It's stated why in the episode itself; Twilight asks Spike if he's ever gone, he says no and doesn't want part of that 'filly foo-foo gala gunk', and Twilight counters by saying a dance would be nice. He declined a place even before Twilight outright asked him, which makes it more bizarre that he was hurt that Celestia didn't send him a ticket when she gave the Mane Six extras. Twilight was planning to take him as her plus-one, but he declined, hence the competition

[Zapper]

I just had an epiphany. Why the heck didn't Twilight choose Spike as her plus one? Did Celestia not count him as a real person? Was he considered Twilight's extention?

It's stated why in the episode itself; Twilight asks Spike if he's ever gone, he says no and doesn't want part of that 'filly foo-foo gala gunk', and Twilight counters by saying a dance would be nice. He declined a place even before Twilight outright asked him, which makes it more bizarre that he was hurt that Celestia didn't send him a ticket when she gave the Mane Six extras. Twilight was planning to take him as her plus-one, but he declined, hence the competition

I only remembered Spike not getting a ticket. Should have rewatched it before commenting. That was a "clever" way writing Spike out. Of course Twilight could have also asked her brother she is so super close to, but he wasn't invented yet

I personally would have picked Applejack, btw. She said she needed to make money quickly to buy a new hip for Granny. Oh, Pinkie wants to go wild, Rarity wants to flirt, Rainbow wants to fangirl and Fluttershy wants to spend even more time with animals? How about that poor lady can't walk without being in pain, ponies!

[MJNSEIFER]

In regards to "The Ticket Master" I always had a headcanon that Princess Celestia was testing Twilight Sparkle out and making sure she made the right choice and refused to decide between her friends - like she wanted to make sure she had already started learning friendship, and was on the right path or whatever.  It was pointed out to me that it was unfair or mean of Celestia to do this (I forget what), but the headcanon mostly came because I was getting tired of the Celestia meme and trying to think of more justified reasons that Celestia could have given Twilight two tickets knowing she had six friends (I'm including Spike.)

And yeah, Applejack deserved the ticket the most - she was the only one who wasn't going for "selfish" reasons (the others had nice and understandable reasons for going, but they still wanted to go for themselves.)

[Al-1701]

Spoiler

20. Starlight freaks out, again, but everything is actually okay in the end.
21. Rainbow Dash Daring Do episode. RBD probably learns something about how fandom works... fanfiction?

Spoiler

You are wrong about Twilight freaking out In fact, she has a rapid heelturn character evolution and never freaks out ever again. Discord lampshades how badly written it is. Celestia is more convinced Twilight will be a perfect ruler.

20. Starlight is made headmare of the school. Then she is pressured by Trixie to make her second in command due to their friendship but Trixie is not qualified but shows other good qualities when it comes to the students. In the end Starlight has to talk it out with her, makes Sunburst her secondary and Trixie the counsellor. Trixie is ok with not getting the position and everyone is happy.

21. The entire Daring Do thing is wrapped up. In the end nobody is hunting for treasure anymore, Daring and Caballeron become friends and the new author is the creature thingie who turns out just tried to protect the artifacts.

Haven't seen the others but I sure hope they all become alicorns because that would make the Alicorn!Twilight drama from way back even more delicious Imagine the people who hated alicorn Twilight suddenly having to hate all the Mane Six? Turning their backs on the fandom and taking their crazy with them? Loving that concept.

Spoiler

The original series and even Tales are starting to sound like Shakespeare compared to FiM.  We're not going to bother giving anything a proper resolution.  Things are just going to stop because it's time for them to stop.

But them sticking bronies in the eye with them all becoming alicorns would be awesome.  Sure, it's still hot garbage, but it would be my hot garbage.

Something that really gets my dander up in this show is how it lionizes the "Crab Mentality".  They say you can leave a bucket of crabs open because if one tries to climb out, the others will pull them back down.  The Crab Mentality is when a community will drag a person aspiring to be something more because doing that betrays the community.  How dare you strive for personal accomplishment, remember your place with the rest of us.  This show does this so many times.  I'd argue it's the reason it took five seasons for the CMC to get their cutie marks and they're all the same.

The only time personal accomplishments have been achieved seems to be because the writers suddenly remembered these characters had dreams and aspirations.  And even then, I was waiting for them to pulled out from under them because friendship is the most important thing of all.

This episode strikes me as a microcosm of that.  Twilight is seeking a personal accomplishment, and the universe decides to conspire against her.  So, to make their lesson work, Twilight turns into a mean-spirited rules monger.

It's why I hate "A Hearth's Warming Tale".  "A Christmas Carol" was about a man who ruined the lives of others to enrich himself from the comfort of his desk learning the results of his cruelty and in the end doing the most harm to himself.  It was a warning to the moneyed class of Victorian England that their greedy practices of preying on the lower class would come back to bite them.  This show twisted that into someone who wasn't harming anyone suddenly deciding to destroy the holiday just cuz and the result was destroying the world.  The lesson here is going for personal accomplishment makes you evil.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

I loved the faces in this one. Much screenshotting was had.
I feel like we should just make a general "rest of s9" discussion thread with how the early airings are going. I skipped episode 18? The old ship that should have been buried one. I don't..need to watch it. That makes 2 episodes overall that I've skipped. Not too bad.

[Pinkie21]

Oh I really couldn’t stand Pinkie in this one.  She completely destroyed Twilight’s chance of completing her 3rd win, and I couldn’t stand how the message was that that just didn’t matter at all.   I don’t like this whole “winning doesn’t matter” mindset, because, well, winning does matter in life.  Pinkie was nothing but a liability, and in the end, Twilight’s just perfectly okay with losing in the end because “Well, at least we’ll have fun, har har”. I love Pinkie Pie, truly.  But this episode was just so wrong.  I also was kind of surprised at just how unintelligent Pinkie is.  Granted, she’s simple-minded, but she always struck me as ditzy-but-kinda-smart (like in the first EG film).

[Zapper]

Speaking of dumb... AJ not knowing the Zap-Apple question was so weird. I was expecting her to answer immediatly and Twilight getting her disqualified for conspiring with the host or whatever.
Also... they had an entire episode about these apples and AJ explained to everyone why they are so important. All M6 should have known but were dumbed down somehow to draw out the answering process. That's how you make an episode longer

[Pinkie21]

Oh man I almost forgot about AJ!  You’re right!  How did she not know?  She’s only been harvesting apples since birth...  Even Granny Smith’s just like, “Really, child?!”  Yeah, these characters really lost a bunch of IQ for this episode, didn’t they?  I’d hate to see what kind of dresses Rarity was making during this episode’s timeline, LOL

[Dragonflitter]

The thing about AJ not knowing the answer is that she forgot the question because Rainbow Dash distracted her. It was part of their one-uping-each-other bit that they were doing for the episode.

You see Granny ask the question, then AJ is about to answer, then RD distracts her and she says "Uh, what was the question again?" Granny just looks annoyed and doesn't repeat the question (perhaps it's against the rules? though they don't make that clear) so everyone just awkwardly waits until Fluttershy buzzes in and guesses.

Post Merge: August 22, 2019, 10:03:47 AM

Also we see several times that Pinkie DID know the answer and Twilight wouldn't let her guess... In fact they make it a point when the question is about cupcakes at a certain Canterlot event and Pinkie knows the answer because she MADE the cupcakes for that event, and Twilight still won't let her answer. Because Twilight was being a hdfjksdhf [rest of post redacted]

[otocolobus_manul]

Also, Hasbro owes me $200000 for putting the word "Appledash" in an ACTUAL EPISODE OF THE SHOW - of all the ships to reference, why that one?! And especially in an episode where they're at each other's throats and trying to sabotage each other out of competitiveness! Haha what a healthy and functional relationship! Hahaha I crave death.

[Dragonflitter]

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Also, Hasbro owes me $200000 for putting the word "Appledash" in an ACTUAL EPISODE OF THE SHOW - of all the ships to reference, why that one?! And especially in an episode where they're at each other's throats and trying to sabotage each other out of competitiveness! Haha what a healthy and functional relationship! Hahaha I crave death.

I take it you prefer rarijack?
It did feel kind of strange for them to reference shipping. Especially because [appledash rant redacted]. Also I thought we left the days of mostly pandering to the fandom behind us but I guess not.

[TJgamer]

Hey, I'll take AppleDash over RariJack any day. That said, it was frustrating to see Applejack get duped so easily yet again (and by Rainbow Dash on top of that). 

Anyway, this episode was purely made for the lols, obviously. In fact, now that Zapper has pointed it out, I am to believe this episode was meant to be the "swan song" of Twilight's psychotic freak-outs; an opportunity for the writers to have fun with her disturbed mind one last time.
Personally, I had fun with this episode. It has its share of frustrations (like the one I mentioned at the start), but the entertainment value does help make it easier to swallow for me.

Now while I can understand the annoyance with the "winning doesn't matter" moral, keep in mind that there isn't anything to gain with Twilight winning this game three times in a row. There's no award to prize or what have you. Really, it's just personal pride and nothing else. Have we ever had a competition in this show that had high stakes and still kept to the "winning isn't everything" message?

As for those who think Twilight should be past this by now, you do have a point, but even the most calm, level-headed people can be triggered.
Don't believe me? Watch me play Splatoon. You will witness my explosive fury. 

[Zapper]

Also, Hasbro owes me $200000 for putting the word "Appledash" in an ACTUAL EPISODE OF THE SHOW - of all the ships to reference, why that one?! And especially in an episode where they're at each other's throats and trying to sabotage each other out of competitiveness! Haha what a healthy and functional relationship! Hahaha I crave death.

I take it you prefer rarijack?
It did feel kind of strange for them to reference shipping.

Goodness, Equestria Girls is full of RariJack. It was only a matter of time until a shoutout the rival ship would pop up

[Al-1701]

Only they act like they hate each other.  It's like "Fall Weather Friends" never happened.  Either that or Trivia Trot is in fact one of those games that brings out the worst in people.

Oh, and can I claim "Twilight Spazzle"?  I think that's the best description of the supposed Princess of Friendship.

Really, I still say the title should be given to Wind Whistler.