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This is the official thread for information and chatting about the fourth episode of season 3 - "One Bad Apple"! So come join the conversation! The thread will open up five minutes before the episode airs (8:55am Central/9:55am Eastern).

Remember though, there are spoilers in the comments section so read at your own risk if you haven't seen the episode! :blah:

CMC_with_milkshakes_S3E04.png

This is the cutest thing ever!

<3

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YAY!!! NEW SONG!!!!

Have to admit, the MLP writers were correct!

This is a 'bullying' episode, but its a LOT of fun!

Much better than I thought it would be!

:D:D:D:D

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Anyone else note the A-Team theme when they built the Golden Apple float?

And that was a lot better than what I thought it could have been. The FiM writers have my benefit of the doubt if they write about other issues of a similar vein.

Noticed Magnum, too.

When Applejack mentioned Babs was bullied at home, I just nodded because a former assistant principal at my school reinforced a favorite mantra of his about bullying a lot at class meetings: "Hurt people hurt people." It was great that they included that point and dropped a hint at the start with her being embarrassed about her blank flank.

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There's some great stuff in this episode. The entire message was good, the CMC were adorable as always, dat song, and also, for those so inclined for little fandom bits, Derpy and The Doctor were sitting next to each other in the theatre, rather close mind you :razz:

Edit: Also, Babs' mane-blow thing is the most adorable/awesome thing ever.

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This episode, dang.

It may just be one of my favorites. It teaches that the way to handle bullies is to tell someone in charge, and that sometimes things arent just skin deep.

Favorite moments:

  • Edible Boots
  • Building a float montage to the A-Team song
  • Pinkie pie chillin on a bench while her float just goes...then letting Scootaloo drive it
  • Cutie Mark Crusaders sing
  • Babs Seeds accent (God she sounds like someone from the jershey shore)
  • DT and SS: "And what are you gonna do about it?"
  • Babs: "Tell ya muddas about ur bad attitudes."
  • Scootaloo going crazy on the bongos then holding her hooves up with that serious expression like. "Yeah, I'm totally ceral right nao."

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Babs Seed's accent was kind of bad though

While not the best, it was supposed to be a...I can never get this right. It's either Brooklyn or Bronx, one of those two New York boroughs.

Also, I never noticed the A-Team thing, that's brilliant. And I would have loved to hear Scootaloo play a recognizable song on the bongos. Imagine if she just went off and did like YYZ or something :P

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I was surprised by the song. Twas catchy indeed. As aforementioned the moral was good, but the extent of the CMC's revenge was fairly drastic. Bully on your tails? Drive 'em off a cliff - problem solved!

But in seriousness, I loved how Babs was a sympathetic bully, that was fairly realistic, actually. Loved the A-Team theme, loved the lettuce float (Though why Pinkie Pie, a baker, would be driving a vegetable is beyond me), liked the episode, and the CMC certainly have their evil laughs down. A good episode overall.

Also -

SHARK BAIT OO HA HA!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this.

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Hmm, mixed review here. :/

It had some fun moments. It was cute. Some jokes worked. The song was also very bouncy and fun and easily the highlight. I'd even say I kind of like Babs design and character (though her accent took some getting used to). There was a lot to like with the episode, and maybe with a few more watches it'll win me over.

I don't know though, it just felt heavy handed to me. I was just far too aware that I was being educated about bullying the whole time. The moral was more blatant and direct, which took me out of the narrative a bit. I can see where this could be an important episode for the target audience, but it didn't quite do enough to really reach me entirely. I think Cindy Morrow targeted the bullying theme much better way back with Griffon the Brushoff.

With amazing episodes like Ponyville Confidential and Hearts and Hooves Day, season 2 convinced me that CMC episodes could be as good as Mane Six episodes or even better. With this one, I felt more like I did while watching the season one CMC; it was just overall kiddier feeling and not as good as what's around it.

It wasn't bad though, and like I said I love that new song.... it was just... I dunno...

Emergency edible boots though? Rarity seriously has the best ideas. ;)

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Nitpick: technically, I wouldn't consider that stunt the CMCs played on Babs as an example of bullying. That was more like pulling a humiliating prank, which didn't require any intimidation on the CMCs part.

That said, I liked this episode better than last week's. Loved the A-Team homage. I give this episode a provisional 4/5.

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I was surprised by the song. Twas catchy indeed. As aforementioned the moral was good, but the extent of the CMC's revenge was fairly drastic. Bully on your tails? Drive 'em off a cliff - problem solved!

But in seriousness, I loved how Babs was a sympathetic bully, that was fairly realistic, actually. Loved the A-Team theme, loved the lettuce float (Though why Pinkie Pie, a baker, would be driving a vegetable is beyond me), liked the episode, and the CMC certainly have their evil laughs down. A good episode overall.

Also -

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this.

Too be fair, the cliff wasnt a sheer drop and there was mud down there, so im pretty sure the plan was to make her crash into the mud and get licked by pigs...

Babs also looks like someones OC.

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Not a bad episode at all. Not quite as good as last week's, but it's hard to top Pinkie Pie. :D

Golden Sweetie Belle will have an ask tumblr by the end of the day, mark my words. :P

Babs was a meh character. I don't think that her being bullied was a good excuse for her behavior. I was really hoping the CMC prank would work. She'd fall in the mud, maybe cry a little, and then she'd say something like "Oh, this is just like Manehattan" and then the CMC will learn about the bullying and say sorry. Same resolution, but with the satisfaction on the bullied getting their own back.

Oh, they're opening a Manehattan branch of the CMC. It's a franchise now.

Song was cute, and some of the animation during it was really good.

161545__safe_animated_scootaloo_apple-bloom_sweetie-belle_gif_spoilers-s03e04.gif

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"I'm sure gonna' miss that bad seed... first we called her "Bad Seed" as in actually a bad seed, but now she's bad as in good. Get it?"

*clears throat*

They say this cat Babs is a bad see-

SHUT YO MOUTH!

But I'm talkin' about Babs.

Then you can dig it!

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I haven't read other reviews yet. I just wanted to post.

This episode was terrible. It may legitimately be my vote for the worst episode in the show's entire run. It's definitely already the worst Season 3 episode. They can only get better from here.

Why so negative? Four reasons.

1. Babs Seed Okay first off, her name annoys me. "Babs" is short for "Barbara." So her name is Barbara Seed. I'm sure that fits in perfectly next to names like "Shining Armor," "Big Macintosh" and "Berry Punch."

The character herself is painfully one-dimensional, inconsistent and more a plot gimmick than a character.

2. The CMCs being so weak-kneed. Okay, the CMCs are fairly well-liked (see the ending of "Call of the Cutie" and the beginning of "Mysterious Mare-do-Well"), have good families (fanon notwithstanding), and have shown time and again that they have backbones. Who was it that first tried talking to Zecora? Oh yeah, Apple Bloom. Who was it who gave their all to put on a stage show in front of ADULTS? Oh yeah, the entire threesome. Yeah, Apple Bloom was embarrassed about her granny in that one episode, but embarrassing relatives is a thing that happens even to adults, so that gets a pass. The point is, it felt like their personalities were bent over backwards to make them seem hurt by the bullying, when that is patently out-of-character for all three of them.

Also, that song was just terrible. I seriously wanted to change the channel.

3. Political Correctness Warning! And this is the big problem. MLP was just not equipped to handle a bullying story without being all annoyingly PC. So naturally, it tries to pull the "oh, the bully is actually someone who is bullied herself," and tries to make Barbara Seed all sympathetic. No. If she's been bullied, then she should know better than to pass it on, and deserves punishment all the more for knowing full well what she was subjecting others to. This idea that we should all develop Stockholm Syndrome for our tormentors is one reason bullying stories simply should not be told... at least as long as the media is the way it is now.

4. Political Correctness Warning Part Two! On top of that, the show goes with the tired moral that the proper response to bullying is to tell somebody--a parent or other authority figure. Did none of the writer's go through high school? Or did the moral guardians stand there with guns to their heads and force them to teach kids to do the thing that only ensures they will never stop being professional victims for as long as they live? Because that's really what dependency on authority will do to you in the long run--make you weak. Sorry, but Apple Bloom and Scootaloo had the right idea when they decided revenge was better.

Like, I knew this guy who would come to a Skype group I was in and intentionally try to start fights. He would also pretend in the background to be everyone's friend so he could learn things about them, then spread it to others in private to create dissent and cause more dramas. When I figured out his game, I blocked him and then kickbanned him from the Skype chat, not even asking anyone else if it was okay. This same guy contacted me weeks ago and actually thanked me for doing this, and now he's genuinely become a much better person as a result. If I had followed this episode's advice, the guy would still be a pain and just getting worse and worse all the time.

I gotta admit, sometimes I think... well, nevermind. I'm gonna close with this:

"Pumpkin? More like LAMEkin!" Who wrote this script, R.L. Stine?

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Not a bad episode at all. Not quite as good as last week's, but it's hard to top Pinkie Pie. :D

Golden Sweetie Belle will have an ask tumblr by the end of the day, mark my words. :razz:

Babs was a meh character. I don't think that her being bullied was a good excuse for her behavior. I was really hoping the CMC prank would work. She'd fall in the mud, maybe cry a little, and then she'd say something like "Oh, this is just like Manehattan" and then the CMC will learn about the bullying and say sorry. Same resolution, but with the satisfaction on the bullied getting their own back.

I like the way the episode is for two reasons

1. Having the prank work and then having the lesson being that bullying is bad gives a mixed message. Its saying "We did this thing that is bad, but don't do it."

2. The CMC showed that they are legitimatly good people, which is what showed Babs the error of her ways. They were willing to put themselves at risk to save somebody who was mean to them. Humiliating Babs reinforces that she should be a bully to protect herself. Helping her when she didn't deserve it shows her that there is a reason she should reach out and not be afraid

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I would argue Giant Robot that the bullies I saw when I worked with juvenile delinquints failry univerily had emotional reasons they bullied. It was a coping mechanism of some sort. They were picked on by peers or adults in their lives and in order to feel power or to portray themselves as being strong enough that they shouldn't be bullied.

Those who are victims also often don't retlaite because of fear that it will be worse or in the belief they should be able to take care of it themselves

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