Least Derpy made a comeback.

Where? I saw a few scenes with Lilly Blossom in it, but did't really find a definite Derpy scene this whole season. In one of the final scenes with Twilight being paraded through Canterlot I saw Dinky Doo with a blond Pegasus near her, but again it was Lilly Blossom. I personally think Hasbro has put the kibosh on Derpy. She'll only survive through fannon now.

Well, I for one, appreciated the numerous Derpy appearances in "Cure". Agreed that it seemed rushed; woulda done better as a two-parter.

Fave ep: "Too Many Pinkie Pies", particularly the G3 shoutout.

Least fave ep: "Spike At Your Service". Teethgrinder.

Fave song: "Babs Seed", hands down.

S4: MORE DERPY! And WEIRD AL!

As always, check out the Roocam most evenings to hang out with bronies!

http://www.rootoon.com/roocam/index.php

The episode was part 1 of a 3 parter actually :P we just won't get part 2 and 3 till season 4 XD

I mentioned it above already, but I think those scenes you think were Derpy was actually Lilly Blossom, her look alike. I didn't see any cutie marks though to confirm it.

I think both a Weird Al and Andrew W.K. appearance would be awesome.

Hee!

Andrew WK does like Pinkie Pie, even Wikipedia lists that!

This is true!

They've written themselves into a corner. Its all downhill from here. All the half-second derpy shots aren't going to save us.The end is so close. Its unbearable;e.

you try telling that to the writers

Favourite episode:
Surprisingly enough, the season finale. They somehow managed to make it work, even with the 6.5 songs.

Least favourite episode:
Spike At Your Service. A little bit thin for me.

Favourite song:
'What My Cutie Mark is Telling Me' or whatever it is called, from the season finale.

Hopes for S4:
Some letters to Sunbutt for a change! From what I could tell they formed the main theme for S1 and 2, but only made one appearance in S3. Also, more epic episodes like the Discord episodes in S2.

Plans for the season gap:
Going to BUCK in August! The guests of honour this year are looking pretty good!

OH GOD, I forgot about 'A True True Friend'!

Favourite Episode
Sleepless in Ponyville. Scootaloo needed an episode and despite her admiration of Rainbow Dash, the two of them had virtually no interaction before this one. Not only did it fill a significant void, but we get to see that wing hugs are best hugs. Runner up would be Too Many Pinkie Pies for its logical and well-paced story line amidst a sea of pink chaos. :)

Favourite Song
Babs Seed. Incrediblly catchy and filled with fun visuals. A musical home run by Daniel Ingram.

Least Favourite Episode
Spike at Your Service. Spike was completely out of character in this episode and the story line didn't feel like it had any real substance to it. The only moment that really stood out was Applejack knocking an inkwell out of place to get Twilight's attention. Runner up would be Wonderbolts Academy for its absolutely horrible ending and utter disregard for the significance of the events it was portraying.

Wonderbolt Academy had an alternate ending that somehow didn't go through. If you search around areas like Youtube, you'll find the information you'll need.

I know what you're referring to. If they had only been able to use that ending, the episode would have been infinitely better.

I'm just waiting for season 3 to come out on Netflix XD that's all haha!

I think the entire show was leading up to Twi becoming an alicorn. I think it was decided to bring that aspect in earlier than planned, possibly because they realized that if they ended the cartoon with the coronation, fans would have been screaming that they want more.

Favorite Episode
Magic Duel I love how it ties in neatly with all the previous episodes and I have to say that Zecora gets the most character development in that episode.

Favorite Song
Babs Seed I love how poppy and catchy it is. It feels like it's partly inspired by Josie and the Pussycats (The 1970 cartoon version, not the awful 2000 live action movie)

Least Favorite Episode
Spike at Your Service. Spike felt way too much out of character in that episode. The only good part are the timber wolves.

Mind reader spotted.

Yeah, this about sums it up for me too. Especially Babs Seed, though the more I listen to the finale songs, the more I get into them.

Re-opening shop on my podcast this summer. That's my plans during the gap.

I must agree when you say that the episode was rushed. Actually, I think Season 3 as a whole was rushed, probably because we couldn't much afford to make two-parters, since we only had a half season. I'm confident that when Season 4 rolls around, it being a full season, we'll see some slowing down.

Faviote song: Destiny song in the final epicsode

Faviote epsiode: WonderBolt Acedmy

Least Faviote: Spike at your service, just felt like it was pointless.

i hope the cutey mark crusaders and finally get there cuteie marks!!

I'd argue that Just For Sidekicks is more pointless because we're brought back to the same problem at the end.

I loved the crystal kingdom episodes, my fav song would either be babs seed or raise this barn.
hoping to see more bonding between the older ponies and younger ones

Favorite Episodes: Crystal Empire, which had the best pacing because it was a two-parter, and Apple Family Reunion which I didn't think I'd like but really charmed me.

Favorite Song: Babs Seed
A super SUPER catchy pop song and a cool video which referenced 70's classics like Jose & The Pussycats and The Cattanooga Cats!

Least favorite episodes: Spike at Your Service and Just for Sidekicks.

After the highs of the first two seasons I also was disappointed with season 3. Nice to see Trixie and Discord again but two episodes featuring Spike and no episodes about Rarity? And Keep Calm and Flutter On and "Magical Mystery Cure" felt rushed and needed to be two-parters.

Despite the hurried pacing of "Magical Mystery Cure," I thoroughly enjoyed the episode- watching Twilight Sparkle become an alicorn was, to this old TransFan, like watching Orion Pax become Optimus Prime. Heck, I even started up a Princess Twilight sub-faction on a message-board I frequent.

Shame that big changes like this are polarizing in ANY fandom... aren't we all supposed to be friends?

My favorite episode was Sleepless in Ponyville, while my favorite song was Raise This Barn. However, I agree that there weren't really that many memorable songs IMO.

As for if I have any plans to do anything during the season gap... I really want to write Alpha Equulei, which is essentially Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri with ponies. I made a simple image and wrote up the basic concept here (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9473963/) when I initially got the idea.

Overall, a good season, but the finale coulda been stretched out some, I think.

I enjoyed the finale, not my favorite episode but it wasn't bad.

The good - Lots of continuity; Big Mac & Cherilee, Screw Loose, Return of Trixie and Tank; a new CMC character; great songs, "Bad Seed" and all the songs from the finale; lots of Brony shout outs

The bad - Not a spike fan so having two episodes in a short season devoted to him was a bit of a letdown; none of the songs, while good, were particularly long, unlike season two's "Flim and Flam" song" and "Smile Smile Smile"

Favorite Episode - One Bad Apple and The Crystal Empire episodes were my top two favorites. Wonderbolt Academy was great also.

Least Favorite - "Spike at Your Service" Not a fan of Spike episodes at all.

Hopes for S4 - More continuity from S3, Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolt academy; I'd love to see a Zecora origins episode, or any story following a main character set before S1; One of the CMCs gets her cutie mark

As stated on my twitter at https://twitter.com/fireflyhighmist

Season 3 MLP: FiM finale bombed! Awesome elements! Touching story. TOO SHORT!!! Extended version PLEASE!

Personally, I liked Season 3 overall. There were no truly bad episodes, but there's still a lot that I'd have done differently.

First off, I'd have dropped The Crystal Empire story arc from the episode list and instead used as the plot for the MLP movie. This'll kill two pigs with one bird. For one, it'll kill with fire any chance of humanized ponies becoming canon (even if Equestria Girls is nothing more than a spin-off), and two, it'll give King Sombra a real chance to be the proper villain he clearly had the potential to be. Seriously, Princess Celestia told us literally everything we know about King Sombra. If nothing else, he needed his own subplot in the episodes.

In keeping with a 13 episode season, after turning The Crystal Empire into a movie, I'd fill the gap with a Rarity episode and a Derpy episode. I was kinda disappointed that Rarity didn't get her own episode in Season 3.

Next, I'd have dropped Spike At Your Service entirely and made Keep Calm and Flutter On a two-parter. As I said earlier, there were no bad episodes, but Spike At Your Service was the weakest episode of the bunch. It's not because I don't like Spike. He's a great supporting character. It's just that the "Life-debt" trope is a cliché played out by just about every cartoon known to man. Also, Keep Calm and Flutter On, while one of my favorite episodes because of best pony and best villain appearing together, was too short for one episode. Discord's reformation happened too quickly, and there should've been more time for Discord to cause some real chaos.

Finally, I'd have cut the princess coronation at the end of the season finale and saved it for Season 4 if not cut it entirely. The whole coronation was rushed, and felt like it was intruding on The Magical Mystery Cure. The Best Night Ever was no epic conclusion, but it was still a good finale to Season 1. Just imagine how much worse it would've been if Discord broke out of his stone prison at the end of The Best Night Ever.

Anyway, my hopes for season 4 are that Princess Luna sings, Derpy makes more appearances (hopefully she even gets her own episode), and most importantly, that this whole Princess Twilight fiasco is only temporary. Until now, the Bearers of Harmony all stood on equal ground. No one pony was more important than the others. There were even two Earth Ponies, two Pegasi, and two Unicorns. Now with one pony becoming a princess, the harmony in species, social status, and character development are thrown completely out of balance.

As for my plans during the post-season hiatus, I'm gonna work on my own pony animations. Hopefully, I can figure out how to make a pony-themed pre-loader in Flash so I can post SWFs to here and deviantART instead of journal links to YouTube.

Favorite Episode: Wonderbolt Academy
Reason: We got to see what sort of pony Rainbow Dash is becoming, and just how much more of a badass she is now than when we first met her.

Favorite Song: Raise This Barn
Reason: It reminds me of home. It was a fun little song based on a square dance announcer calling out the moves. It was also a fun little call-out to the old-fashioned semi-festival that a barn-raising became when it was ran properly.

Least Favorite Episode: Spike At Your Service
Reason: Spike was all wrong in this episode. He's not that incompetent. It would have made much more sense for him to have been so helpful and efficient (let's be honest, being Twi's assistant has to be a kind of everlasting organizational boot-camp) that Applejack was left with nothing to do and was frustrated having him taking care of things she feels are her responsibility. It would have provided a better episode moral as well.

Hopes for Season 4: 26 more episodes of Pony that measure up to the last three season's worth.

Favorite episodes: Sleepless in Ponyville and Too Many Pinkies (though that one was so spastic and crazy that I'm not even sure I could watch it again.)

Favorite Song: Raise this Barn (though honestly, not many songs were memorable).

Least Favorite Episodes: Spike at Your Service and Keep Calm and Flutter On.
Reasons: Spike isn't stupid. He's not... I mean, I know a lot of people will say "well, he's a toddler!" yeah, that may be true, but a baby dragon is still pretty damn smart if he can read and write, assist a budding student in learning magic and can even keep a friggin library in order. Yeah, ummm, how does that make him stupid in any way shape or form? Onl good thing about that episode were the return of the Timber wolves.

Keep Calm and Flutter on.... wow.... if you're going to get a cameo by the best villain of the entire series (in my humble opinion) then you give him two episodes! If not, you end up with this episode, a story that shows plenty of promise, particularly towards the end that has a sudden, complete cop out resolution. I liked this episode up until the very end, it had a moral dilemma, whether Fluttershy should break her promise and push Discord back into stone, or whether she should keep it, and allow him a chance to ransack the world again... but no... it ruins the episode when he's like "Huh... I have a friend now... oh well, time to do good!" Nope... not Discord's style... I would have liked to have seen him bring Chaos everywhere, but not have the heart to harm Fluttershy, brood endlessly over why he was doing these things when they hurt someone who genuinely seemed to care about him, and eventually make the conscious decision to let it all go. Instead, they reduce this to nothing but a few seconds...

All in all, I was very disappointed with Season 3.... just didn't feel like the show had the same heart, and good core of storytelling that it had before. Hopefully, Season 4 will see a return to form.

Favorite episode: Apple Family Reunion (AJ FINALLY gets her own episode this time!)

Favorite song: Raise This Barn

Least favorite episode: Just for Sidekicks

Least favorite song: Babs Seed (Liked the episode, just couldn't stand this song.)


I feel like DHX felt rushed to make this season, so they did just that. It was sad. The last episode could have been SO much more impactful.. I mean, OMG ALICORN TWILIGHT! I worry us fans had a part in the blame, because a LOT of us were foaming at the mouth for season 3. I can only hope we can be more patient and let DHX make a great season 4.

Okay, seriously, I just read your journal on the Season 3 finale and I think I love you. Sanest presentation I've ever seen.

And heck yes to to a Gilda redemption episode!

To actually answer your questions, though!:

Thoughts on Season 3: I really felt it was weak, although AJ finally getting a focal episode that wasn't obscured by drama or had a 'letter to Celestia' that made me want to flip tables was gold. Easily my least favorite season - then again, the writers themselves have implied (I won't claim said as these are my own intepretations) that they've felt cornered by the constantly recycled "Twilight learning about friendship" plot so I'm hoping between the full season and the princess development things look up!

Favorite Episode: Apple Family Reunion! See above!
Least Favorite Episode: ...I can't really pick one, quite a few disappointed me - I was bored more than usual this season. The season finale, even though I fully approve of the Alicorn development, felt handled very badly. I love the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but the Babs one could have been better. And the 3D Timber Wolves bugged me, but I've never been a big fan of 3D in 2D animation (I've seen it work ONCE, in an anime called Noein).

Hopes for Season 4: My main hope is an expansion on the mythology Alicorn!Twilight created. The final episode felt like an epic conclusion to a plot that... well, it was a conclusion without an adequate lead-up in my opinion. So I'm hoping it instead is a weak opening to something epic instead. I want to actually be SHOWN the mythology talked about by some of the writers and hinted at by the royal sisters, not just... told about it. I mean I LOVE the Alicorn!Twilight development including its implications and stated by writers full meaning, but... well, I do feel like it's been handled in a rushed manner so far and needs some work.

And very much definitely on a Gilda redemption! Even if it blows my already shaky headcanon regarding her attitude and griffons (tl;dr they're generally a more aggressive race and/or culture and Gilda needed to understand ponies better and Dash & Co needed to understand griffons better and find a half-way point).

Would love to see a return of Queen Chrysalis, given that her defeat pretty much BEGGED for recurring villain status. Maybe some more development on the whole race and whatnot. I'd lose it if a popular headcanon regarding the Love Poison and Chrysalis was made canon, but that's very probably too much to hope for.

But definitely give us more information and development on Alicorn!Twilight - and I'd ABSOLUTELY ADORE to see an episode where she gets super busy with princess duties, worries about abandoning her friends, and a whole 'it's okay to take time for your work, real friends will always be there' thing comes out due to my own worrying and fretting about such things. XD

Things I'm doing until the new season: Watching Season 3 a few more times, making pony keychains to sell, and spending time in my other fandoms!

Gilda has more of a personality in her first appearance than Trixie. There can be more of Gilda if given the time.

Also I figured I may as well give my thoughts on the writers for this season including the new ones:

Meghan McCarthy: With The Crystal Empire being her only contribution, I liked some of the dark concepts, Spike getting a chance to save the day, The Crystal Empire with the ponies and the return of Shining Armor and Cadence! The weakest parts are in some of the Crystal Fair filler and Sombra being a weak villain than Nightmare Moon. Some may argue that he enslaved ponies years ago and his presence affected the crystal ponies but I argue that Nightmare Moon did a bit more. I mean, she didn't at least standby and let herself get blown to pieces by a bright blue beam!

Cindy Morrow: After the great Hurricane Fluttershy, Cindy just wasn't on top of her A game here. We got One Bad Apple and Apple Family Reunion. Apple Family Reunion I can see the issues people have with this episode but I still enjoyed it. Raise This Barn was Applejack's first song, we got to see more of the Apple Family including Babs and Braeburn and learned about the family reunion. It's flaws are that Applejack took too much time away from the other members like a missed chance to give Macintosh and Braeburn more lines and it kind of feels wobbly at times. One Bad Apple is terrible. As a writer who tackled bullying so good with Family Appreciation Day and Griffon The Brushoff, Morrow just made the moral here a mess. Telling an adult when you're bullied will stop the issue? That's not always the case, there are many different ways of dealing with it and that's just one of them. The 2 biggest highlights in the episode were Babs Seed (my favorite S3 song) and the A -Team reference. I hope she learns from One Bad Apple how to not do bullying episodes because she is good with the subject.

Dave Polsky: It seems Mr. Polsky turned out his best episode in the form of Too Many Pinkie Pies. Lots of humour, visual gags aplenty and his best moral to date! He writes good slapstick but is usually terrible or just bad in his morals. We have Feeling Pinkie Keen with the hidden religious message, Over A Barrel that kind of works better and also the other Season 3 episodes but I'll get to that later.

Merriweather Williams: We got one good episode here but again, her bad ways from Season 2 still carried over. Her highlight was Wonderbolt Academy. We got to see more of Spitfire, Dash actually gets a chance to train more for the team and I liked the new character Lighting Dash. It would have been nice also to see the alternate ending as opposed to what happened actually here. However she still has problems and that was with her teamup with Polsky for Spike At Your Service. The two write a slapstick heavy episode that reduces Spike to a dumb punching bag and it also didn't help that the episode's original plot of it being a Rarity episode was scrapped. The anti-climax also bothered me too since Williams did that in Dragonquest and I hated that episode too. I think Merriweather doesn't work well with a partner. Let's look at her 2 collaborations so far:

-In Season 2, she teamed up with Charlotte Fullerton and they made the mean spirited Putting Your Hoof Down with Fluttershy insulting Pinkie and Rarity's reasons for living in one scene.
-In Season 3, We get Spike At Your Service when she worked with Dave Polsky and it was a slapstick fest that made Spike more of a useless character than he doesn't deserve to be!

I just hope she sticks to solo writing or at least picks a better partner. Maybe Amy Keating Rogers or Cindy Morrow would be better.

MA Larson: I was pleased to see Trixie get a better character tweak since her flop debut in Boast Busters and it even seems Larson tortured Snips and Snails too, thumbs up for that! The callbacks to previous episodes are always good, Zecora has some nice screentime and it impressed me how they could go dark occasionally. As for Magical Mystery Cure, it was mixed and it could have been better if there was more time to make a 2nd episode to flesh out that plot. Overall MA Larson is still good and I hope to see more when he comes back for Season 5.

Any thoughts you'd like to add?

Personally... I didnt like the season as much, it wasnt as aspiring as season 1 and 2 and not as dark either... personally I liked FIM when it followed Earthbound formula almost meaning that not every kid show is gonna be kid friendly... I compare it to earthbound because they are both underrated and deals with real life situations, in the wackiest of ways. We need more episodes that goes into the lives of background characters and need one episode to remind the fans of underrated video games like making a parody of Disgaea, Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, Pokemon, Mario etc. But not making it ponfied but... a deeper parody that disguises itself so that way people won't identify it till they watched the whole episode... Suriously they would be almost episodes, just they need to somehow fight the important parts in one episode (maybe three parters if necessary). Suriously I would love to see how they would disguise the episode as Earthbound but nopony has a clue whats going on till they get the jokes and references. I would highly recommend this idea since there are a lot of gamers that watch it too. Ok enough of ideas... Season 3 wasnt terrible but it wasnt good either to me it was pretty meh... The last episode wasnt necessarily needed because they could have waited till they were completely done with the show but then again oh well.. My favorite episode was the other pet episode I just absolutely love spikes "Oh god why" face and the episode that followed that... What a big mistake they made this was the most funniest episode in this season. The season starter.... They killed off a evil cheaply AGAIN... and he was awesome!!! The season was short of course no surprise there

Honestly?

Well, as a lot of people might say, too short. XD

As for twilight becoming an Alicorn?
At this point in time... i'm sorta... meh about it. I mean, yes, you can see how the story has progressed and you can see that (at least cannon-wise) you can see the character progression. Just because she's an alicorn now doesn't mean she's not the same Twilight.. XD
Why does it have to be such a big deal? there have been characters in other shows who've had such changes (or some sort of huge change thats rocked the fans like a boat in a hurricane). Yes, they're planned, otherwise the whole thing wouldn't make much sense. :/

So, my expectations/thoughts on Season 4?
obviously we're going to have to see how Princess Twilight pans out.. if the scynic in me is to be beleaved, its not going to be smooth sailing to start off with. XD
More pony-specific episodes? Most definately!
Cutie mark crusaders get their cutie-marks? ........... still working on that one. o-o

Otherwise, i'm just biding my time, waiting in anticipation by producing artwork or varying quality/quantity of my OC's.. XD
yeah, boring thing to do but why not eh?

I'm meh on Twilicorn too. On one hand, it has potential for a good story but on the other hand, we now don't get to see Lauren's original plans for her. I even saw a framegrab of a tweet where she replied to someone with that answer. Magical Mystery Cure was also mixed to me from the songs and the pacing and I wish Hasbro didn't mess up Larson's attempt with the material. We should have had two episodes on the concept!

For Season 4, 5 and beyond are:

1. More Seasonal episodes. We've had two episodes on Winter, one for Fall and even one for Summer (forgot which one it was although it might have been spring). Heck, If Thomas the tank engine can have a Christmas episode or an episode with snow each Season, I don't see why FIM can't!
2. Derpy's own episode. Frankly, the soccermoms got too butthurt over her first speaking role in The Last Roundup and her censorship seems to go against what the show stands for. I'd like to see her talk again and maybe even have her own episode. We could also get a nice episode teaching kids that differences can be appreciated and Derpy has so much fan material to work with! I mean, she's portrayed as clumsy Pegasus who loves muffins, has a job delivering the mail and even a crush on Doctor Whooves!
3. Backstories, Backstories! A lot of fanfictions give us backstories and the ones I'd like to see most are the history of Luna and Celestia, Applejack's parents and maybe more on Ponyville.
4. The CMC get their Cutie Marks. The joke of the CMC being blind to their own talents is getting old and I like a 100 plus others want to see episodes where they get their marks finally! Some have stated that if one gets theirs before the others, it could cause drama. I have to agree and that's material they can work off of!
5. Movie. Not counting the sellout Equestria Girls, I want to see a movie that's FULL PONIES ONLY and action if possible that doesn't end in an anti-climax!

1= true, it would certainly open up a L-O-T of script opportunities.

2= again, true, besides whats a show that teaches kids morals without at least one 'unusual' character in it? I.e, one like derpy!

3= I see they've thought about a backstory for Luna (nightmare moon), so that does look to be on the cards.

4= Honestly, thats a bit of a mixed one. On one hand, yes, it would be great to wrap up the idea, but then what would happen next?

5= The more the merrier. X3

I'm primarily hoping for a return of Queen Chrysalis, as well. She is hooves-down my favorite villain, and one of the top three favorite ponies of mine (Along with Flutters and Dashie).