I recently watched the last three episodes of season three, and I loved them. There were some flaws, though.
-SPOILER ALERT-
First, I think that Spike was being very inconsiderate of Fluttershy in
Just for Sidekicks. I mean, yeah, characters have to have flaws, but Spike is supposed to be nicer than that. I really liked the episode though, especially the parts where they showed Spike with the red background and eyes narrowed: "Angel." I also really enjoyed the part where Spike freaked when he thought that something had happened to Tank's head; that's when his Spikey humor really shined. And, of course, bribeable Granny Smith.
As for
Games Ponies Play, I really like how they overlapped it with
Just For Sidekicks. That said, I personally find it slightly unconvincing that they wouldn't have figured out that the mustang wasn't the Games Inspector earlier; however, I'm willing to accept artistic license there. I was also glad to see some legit-seeming Pinkie Pie humor there, as it's seemed somewhat forced and out of place in some recent episodes. Something that I found interesting, though slightly disturbing, was that Shining Armour seemed to be training little kids for the army.
In my opinion, one of the most important parts of this episode was that Twilight learned how to stay calm in a crisis, thus finding a way to overcome one of her greatest flaws. I like how they managed to fit it into the episode without making it seem like they were just doing it so that they could get it out of the way; clearly, there was a story behind this. In my opinion, this was Twilight's second-to-last test before her she was ready.
My main issue with
Magical Mystery Cure is that it was too short. It really could've used some fleshing out, and I felt like there wasn't enough actual content in the episode. I would've much preferred a two-part episode here. Some other gripes:
*Too much music. I like MLP music, but "Morning in Ponyville Shimmers" had some weird-sounding progressions in it. They could've done it worse, but they definitely could've done it better. I also found "I've Got to Find a Way" rather tedious. The reprise of "Shimmers" at the end was nice, however, and I very much enjoyed the other songs, especially "What My Cutie Mark is Telling Me".
*Pinkie Pie's retake near the end seemed very forced to me.
*There was no explanation of what Starswirl the Bearded's spell was supposed to do, or exactly what it did when Twilight fixed it; I highly doubt Starswirl was trying to turn himself into an alicorn.
Things I liked:
*Most of the music. Although some of it was tedious, most of it was excellent.
*The mane six (well, five)'s behavior after having their Cutie Marks switched around.
*The MLPness of it all. Pony-eating squirrels, broken water pipes, cloud-quilts, etc.
*Celestia's image-scroll-through towards the end, in starland or wherever.
*And of course, Twilight's a princess now! With wings! Yeah! I'm not sure how that'll fit in with season 4, though. At least it'll be longer.
I'd give the episodes 7.5/10, 8.5/10, and 9.25/10 respectively; I liked them all a lot, especially after the weirdness that was
Spike at Your Service.
~dlgn
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