S03 E03: "Too Many Pinkie Pies"

[elsporko]

Pretty good episode I would like to see more of somewhat restrained Pinkie Pie

Is anybody else a little concerned how Twilight just sort of mass murdered a bunch of sentinent creatures one of which may have been her friend

[weesh]

After marinating on this for 24 hours or so, I have a disappointment that has been bugging me. It is one thing for Rainbow to hang out by a pond relaxing, but she was also using a reflector. I consider these to be dangerous devices because their purpose is to increase the rays you get. As someone who has had skin cancer, I don't appreciate the casual nature with which it is being used in a kids show.

This episode may well have been Pinkie's redemption as far as I'm concerned.

Ah yes, now that you say that, this really was a much deeper Pinkie than normal.

[SteelEagle]

After marinating on this for 24 hours or so, I have a disappointment that has been bugging me. It is one thing for Rainbow to hang out by a pond relaxing, but she was also using a reflector. I consider these to be dangerous devices because their purpose is to increase the rays you get. As someone who has had skin cancer, I don't appreciate the casual nature with which it is being used in a kids show.

Ah yes, now that you say that, this really was a much deeper Pinkie than normal.

I'm also pretty sure they had a pony using one during the Smile song.

[Bellosh]

Is anybody else a little concerned how Twilight just sort of mass murdered a bunch of sentient creatures one of which may have been her friend

Maybe the Pinkie clones weren't all destroyed though, and are waiting for a chance to escape so that Twilight's successor has to banish them all over again?

[Thoth]

After marinating on this for 24 hours or so, I have a disappointment that has been bugging me. It is one thing for Rainbow to hang out by a pond relaxing, but she was also using a reflector. I consider these to be dangerous devices because their purpose is to increase the rays you get. As someone who has had skin cancer, I don't appreciate the casual nature with which it is being used in a kids show.

Ah yes, now that you say that, this really was a much deeper Pinkie than normal.

Shows like Ed, Edd, n Eddy and even Spongebob Squarepants have had reflectors used by characters in them more than once.

Heck, one episode of Spongebob was ABOUT tanning until they're sun-bleached! Disgusting!

[weesh]

Is anybody else a little concerned how Twilight just sort of mass murdered a bunch of sentinent creatures one of which may have been her friend

It was more like banishing, or returning them than murdering them. Still, it was a bit graphic, and a bit more disturbing in appearance than I hoped it would be. I'm not excusing her actions, but your thought reminds me that Pinkie's actions are at least as bad. Creating certainly crosses some moral boundaries

[TheInvisiblePony]

You know, no matter how much I think about this episode I always come back to those orange critters Twilight accidently made. Its shown nopony has even the slightest interest in them besides a few Pinkie Clones who are then sent through the looking glass (By which I mean magic pond). What happens to them? Surely they can't go back to their normal lives. Imagine the ridicule they'd face!

Or maybe... just maybe... they'd be able to plant themselves. In that case, they could grow themselves into entire trees! It would be the birth of a new species! The frog-orange!

[QuietSapphire]

Don't forget about the Orangejay

[tacobob]

Always nice to see Harry the bear.

And I got the idea that showing the clones inflate and pop like balloons meant that they were not true living creatures...And if Twilight hit the real Pinkie with her spell, it probably wouldn't have done anything.....

And yeah, I also wanted to know what business Fancy Pants had in Ponyville..... <_<

I'm sure he had some smoochy-business with Rarity to attend to.

[QuietSapphire]

Maybe, Maybe not, but it seemed Twilight wasn't sure what it would do

[TheInvisiblePony]

Don't forget about the Orangejay

Of course, silly me! He'd be a new species too.

But on a slightly more serious note, I find the whole mirror pond thing to be about as unsettling as at least one of the people here do. After all, how does something like that happen? I doubt that could be the result of natural phenomena. Also, one last thing. Anypony notice how frequently swarm type foes are featured? Changelings, parasprites, and now the Pinkie army. This could very well lead to the ultimate battle.

[QuietSapphire]

Of course, silly me! He'd be a new species too.

But on a slightly more serious note, I find the whole mirror pond thing to be about as unsettling as at least one of the people here do. After all, how does something like that happen? I doubt that could be the result of natural phenomena. Also, one last thing. Anypony notice how frequently swarm type foes are featured? Changelings, parasprites, and now the Pinkie army. This could very well lead to the ultimate battle.

Dear Celestia that would be unsettling, but at the same time funny. As for the Mirror Pond, maybe it had a spell cast on it a very long time ago and was there so nopony else could find it. It is food for thought but then again they ARE legends

[weesh]

And I got the idea that showing the clones inflate and pop like balloons meant that they were not true living creatures...And if Twilight hit the real Pinkie with her spell, it probably wouldn't have done anything.....

The spell she read CLEARLY stated that it was possible to send the real one back. Perhaps the real one wouldn't have swelled up?

[NoGiantRobots1983]

It really doesn't make sense to me that a spell to send clones back could inadvertently send back the original.

And I have to agree with others that its odd nobody thought "This Pinkie is depressed. Maybe she's the real one?" Then again... maybe they were all stressed, had been sick lately or otherwise weren't thinking clearly. You have to be on a whole other plane of thought to come up with "make them watch paint dry" anyway.

I wish I could adopt one of the clone Pinkies, even if they are destructive little fun-loving bouncy balls.

[ZephyrBurst]

I liked this episode at first, but when thinking back on it, I found it completely awful.

Pinkie was shallow this episode and never actually struggles with the lesson itself. It starts out okay, but devolves into a silly unrelatable problem.

The resolution was awful and out of character. The scenario and solution brought up did not match the problem, nor did the execution. Pinkie has no attention span and Twilight just blasts away Pinkies that did so much as slightly look away from the paint. This wasn't problem solving on Twilight's end, which is what she's good at. It had nothing to do with friendship or the lesson they were trying and failed to convey.

It's also one of the first episodes of the show to make me feel uneasy. That end just takes the cake for awful writing.

[FrankT]

Now you mention it.... it is very flawed.... come to think of it - where'd Mr. Renzetti go?!

[BaconofChaos]

And I have to agree with others that its odd nobody thought "This Pinkie is depressed. Maybe she's the real one?"

Spike did. Sadly, Twilight didn't listen to him. I'm starting to think that while Twilight has the book smarts, Spike has a lot more common sense.

I liked this episode at first, but when thinking back on it, I found it completely awful.

Pinkie was shallow this episode and never actually struggles with the lesson itself. It starts out okay, but devolves into a silly unrelatable problem.

In what way is Pinkie shallow in this episode? At the beginning, sure, but are you saying that she didn't change at all over the episode?

[NoGiantRobots1983]

Yeah if anything, Pinkie is a little less shallow in this episode than she's been previously.

I mean go back and look at "sometimes its fun to be scared!" Pinkie, or "love me, Cranky!" Pinkie, or It's About Time where she's just an excuse for pointless gags. In this episode she actually behaves somewhat like a real person. Which is why earlier I called it Pinkie's redemption.

[abc]

pinkie behaved quite like a real person this episode, she actually had feelings and showed alot of character development, which makes me feel like she does have emotions, and is not just a mindless party animal......

all in all, pinkie is awesome......

[Rosewind]

I thought this episode was fantastic, though I'm sure I'm biased. All of the gags and stuff have been covered. I think my favorite would be G3.5 face or the hoof-fingers. The episode itself had a pretty creepy, spooky overtone to it, which I think was handled well and nudged the cartoon out of its comfort zone (if one even existed to begin with). The Pinkie clones explode-vanishing made me like:

I like Pinkie's existential reasoning and mental turmoil; it gives her personality complexity outside of the usual norm.

Also Tom is now the Guardian of the Forbidden Pool.

[TotalEcplise]

It really doesn't make sense to me that a spell to send clones back could inadvertently send back the original.

And I have to agree with others that its odd nobody thought "This Pinkie is depressed. Maybe she's the real one?" Then again... maybe they were all stressed, had been sick lately or otherwise weren't thinking clearly. You have to be on a whole other plane of thought to come up with "make them watch paint dry" anyway.

I wish I could adopt one of the clone Pinkies, even if they are destructive little fun-loving bouncy balls.

Well the only pony that saw Pinkie depressed for real was RD. so her not noticing was weird, spike was pretty suspicions (we all know hes the smartest) and to our knowledge none of the other mane 6 saw or interacted with the real pinkie. AJ probably couldve found the real one if they talked to her.

[Ginger Mint]

hi hi

Its not just you elsporko. As I said, I felt that Twilight's solution was truly terrifying, and I don't think the show would be able to address the moral implications even if it tried. The different Pinkie Pie's though similar to each other, were clearly alive. They could think, reason, feel emotions, talk and learn.

As far a slapstick comedy goes, this episode was full of great stuff, and I happily smiled my way through the majority of it. As far as having a lesson though, it did fall short. They spent a lot of time telling us what not to do, "don't do what Pinkie Pie is doing," but the solution for their problem didn't show us what to actually do instead. (In contrast, Ticket Master's resolution for having not enough to go around followed logically from Twilight's struggles throughout the episode.)

I felt they did give Pinkie Pie some real depth to her character in this episode, which I really liked. But if you were thinking that Pinkie Pie was shallow, I may have an explanation for why they might -paradoxically- both be true.

There are some instances where characters have good lines individually, but they don't add up to a conversation. It is like they are talking past each other, rather than along with each other. They say their piece regardless of what anyone else says. Even if a character has complex motivations and displays emotion, it loses some of its edge when nobody else responds to that. Like when Rainbow Dash says, "Found this one moping around," it would have been a good opportunity for some kind of interaction. (This is something I noticed in The Crystal Empire as well, like when Shining Armor was talking about Cadence when she was standing right there.)

(Ironically, I thought one of the best conversations where two characters were actually talking to each other was the part where Pinkie Pie is talking to her first clone, and her first clone is explaining her dilemma about missing the super fun thing at Applesauce's place. Which in turn, made me feel extra bad when Pinkie Pie's first clone got zapped away, because she felt like a real person.)

So overall, a lot of good moments, they just maybe need to work a little bit on having them mesh together into a whole. But thats nothing a little imagination can't fix.

[TotalEcplise]

Also I understand that pinkie needed to grow as a character in this episode, but the way they presented the whole dilemma could have been better. Imagine how creepy this episode would have been if all the pinkies were perfect copies, not because they were copies, but because they were parallel versions from mirror dimension (so they would have memories and act the same instead of mindless fun engines)?

Notice how the pinkie we started with walked into the pond and stepped out and the clone was already there, but then later they showed that the pinkie making the clone helps the clone out of the pool...why was the original mirror pinkie already there? Twilights spell was going to send them back...back were? If they are just magic clones they dont go back, theyd get dispelled, unless they really are parallel copies and all individuals unto themselves meaning that they would go back to their world, but none of the pinkies new here friends, but they new who they were, so perhaps they have different friends in their world.

The conundrum! If The pinkie that wants the clone is already there, and the clone is the one that comes out of the pool, does that mean that the pinkie we started with was a clone for the second pinkie we meet? And if that's the case and how the pool works, wouldn't that mean that the other pinkies were just pinkies that wanted copies of herself so they went to the pool to make more of herself only to walk into the water and come out into the world of a pinkie that wanted clones of herself...thus meaning that none of them are actually clones?

[Bellosh]

Now that I've had time to reflect on S3E3, I think I'll go ahead and give it a 3/5. This episode was decent and amusing overall, but not too remarkable in the grand scheme of things. It was clear that the Pinkie clones didn't have the same memories as the original, yet the problem's solution ignored this fact and essentially amounted to nothing more than trial by ordeal and faith. Oh well..... better luck next time, Mr. Polsky.

[Ginger Mint]

hi hi

Total Eclipse, perhaps when Pinkie Pie first stepped into the mirror, she entered a dreamworld where it was possible for multiple Pinkie Pies to exist simultaneously. And since she didn't get zapped by Twilight, she's still stuck in that dreamworld. Dun Dun Dunnn!

I honestly felt a strong emotional connection to that first Pinkie Pie clone. Growing up, I was never the popular one, I never had the best social skills, I was the less important second child, and I sometimes felt like I'd been tossed into this crazy, mixed up world without any clue on how I was supposed to get by. Whatever Twilight's spell did to those clones, I hope that first Pinkie clone is in a better place.