@b_jonas sorry for the late reply. Have been trying to avoid EquestriaDaily lately for this very reason.

@Derpy I think EquestriaDaily is careful, they won't spoil anything unless you ignore specific spoiler warnings.

But there are big spoilers everywhere else.

what can I say? If I recall correctly I stopped commenting at ep 12. Ep 13 Fame and Misfortune would be next - and that give a very true view of the fandom.

Could be worse.

Back when Naruto ended in Japan there were people that would go to anime conventions wearing shirts with the last comic book pages printed on them

that because in many countries the comic still didn't catch up with Japan releases....

@Derpy Oh great, you went on watching the next one.

I didn't find it a true view of the fandom, because of how the opinion of different fans differed very little. In real fandom, there's always a lot of things fans disagree on, like it was illustrated in S6 E13.

But someone gave a counterargument for this in the forum.

zimmerwald1915: "Don't be so myopic. Each criticism is associated with a clear and visually-distinct group of ponies, not all the criticisms are voiced by everyone at once. Each group, however, persists in voicing it's criticism all at the same time as the others, and nobody leaps to their favorites' defense verbally (except Rainbow's fans). So while it can seem that everybody's bandwagon on every critique all at once, that's really not what's happening."

I'm not really convinced, but maybe it does depict some fandom well.

@Derpy what did you think of E14 having a speaking character named Toola Roola?

And what do you think of when a fan let Twilight sign a book inside and then he said he'd still sell the book as "mint condition". I don't think that's what "mint condition" works for collector fans who care about that sort of thing.

Or when Applejack finally got a way to drum up business for their apple products, which he was trying to get since the very start of the show, and now that she has it, she doesn't enjoy it.

In S2 E15 The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, she was able to handle a large crowd of angry customers much better.

All taken together, I didn't enjoy this episode. It was one of the worst this season so far. Some things I did enjoy are an appearance of my favourite background filly Tornado Bolt; and Starlight stepping up to show she has another overpowered and very useful spell (a book printing spell).

@b_jonas Depends: "mint condition" is a very vague definition. A new item can and can not be considered mint condition if it has some production defect

some collector will argue that the defect augments the item rarity and will do anything to get it

@Derpy That depends on the type of defect, but sure.

in the same way, a "mint condition item with autograph" for some is far more *precioussssss" than the regular one

@b_jonas family members get free apples. Not a single bit was received ^_^

Also.... I think that the episode is a clear tribute to Lauren vision.

Admittedly it's a hardcover book, so opening it for an autograph doesn't damage it much, but still, it should be sold as near-mint.

there are too many odd lines to be just "casual circumstances"

First Twilight: "Marketing wasn't the purpose"

@Derpy I don't think they did.

@Derpy Well of course.

considering the Friendship Journal DOES have a real world on sale counterpart, that line was very specific.

One pony even says "Twilight was better before she got wings!". It's obviously teasing the fans, and this season does that much more often than any of the previous ones.

Then... yep, every single comment was a comment some part of the fandom did.

"Twilight episodes are boring"

"the show would be better if Twilight stayed in Canterlot"

"we want wingless Twilight back!"

"Fluttershy is a flat character that never changes despite learning the same lesson every time"

"Rarity does not represent generosity, worst character ever"

etc etc etc. Trust me. Every single line I saw in the episode I already saw before somewhere, be it a forum or a youtube comment.

The fans were rude, but the Mane Six was partly overreacting.

and darker yet darker odd yet odder is that most of the "criticizing ponies" are.... adult ponies

There were children among them.

the only fillies are the Yay MORE DASHIE group, a group that even in real world has the younger fans.

But sure, it's natural that the ones who buy the book without intending to read it was adults. Children don't do that.

the other groups, the one associated with the older fans where oddly represented by adults in the episode too.

also..... this episode does not resolve anything. The status-quo is broken. Probably they will skip the consequences in all the future episodes, but in the end not even a song based on friendship did work.

The crowd was still there, it is just that they actively decided to ignore it.

@Derpy Not broken. The fans will forget about the book in a few months and buy the next best-seller.

And Starlight has her ways to deal with the few ponies who don't forget.

@b_jonas didn't meant that. I meant that the episode in a way is probably the only one that "didn't end well"

the "peace" isn't completely restored. For the time begin AJ will be still annoyed, Rarity will still get order cancellations and so on.

And yet, the two ponies that understood the purpose of the book were two filly.

That's obviously my view, but it is like the writers wanted to show that they are fully aware of the fighting in the fandom and they view it as non-sensical. For that reason, they seems to suggest to simply ignore them.

Also....

It is not just a pony that said he skipped the lessons part. Multiple ponies say that, and many of the ones that didn't seems to overthink and misunderstand them

and this makes those odd lines near the end stand out even more.

"I don't understand how a book about friendship could have caused so much unfriendship in ways I couldn't even foresaw"

or the multiple times Twilight has to point out that the core in those stories where the lesson, not just the facts that happened.

It is still possible I am overthinking....

But this does feel like an explicit "MLP was born to give lessons in a fun way that children could understand and enjoy" message.

Right.

That said,

Twilight had a drawing of the Twi cane in the friendship journal.

Or, more probably, Discord had fun adding illustrations too and not just pageholders.

@Derpy Well sure! Twilight had to add the story of S4 E25, in which she inspired Discord, and she had to tell it honestly, including the Twicane Discord used to tease her.

@b_jonas yep, but had she to add the actual drawing :P?

@Derpy Yes, she's an intellectually honest scientist who documents the good things and the bad things, her failures and her successes both.

also, forget the cane. Her own page has a drawing of her profile. She probably just like to decorate the books....

If only pegasus ponies can walk on clouds (S1 E16) then how does Rainbow Dash suppose to take everyone to a cloud ride (S3 E3)?

Maybe he just assumes Twilight would cast the cloudwalk spell on everypony.