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Requisite pony thread (No creepers)

The latest episode didn't really set well with me. To quote RPG'net poster Arizona quoting someone else...

I watched it, and, unfortunately, this is the first episode since "A Friend in Deed" that I honestly didn't like much, and definitely my least favorite of the season 5 episodes we have so far. Most of my problem was with the idea that someone (or somepony) who is clumsy could have their true calling be entertaining others with that clumsiness, mainly because of the Fridge Horror thoughts I had about the idea.

I do understand that they were trying to create a situation for Troubleshoes where what was normally a liability became useful for him, and that would help him re-interpret the meaning of his cutie mark to be something positive. However, I found the idea disturbing for a few reasons. The Fridge Horror comes in when I think that unlike a real clown or slapstick actor, who pretends to be clumsy as an act (who ironically have to be well-coordinated enough to pretend to be clumsy without actually hurting themselves), Troubleshoes's clumsiness seems to be a real trait of his that he can't just turn on and off when needed. It might be fine for him to show that off as a rodeo clown, but that wouldn't solve the problem of him causing other accidents that aren't in a comedic context. There's the possibility that he would learn how to control it better in the future, though.

The other issue I had is that I felt it had the unfortunate implication that clumsy people exist for the mocking entertainment of others, because of the way it blurred the lines between watching someone pretend to be clumsy as an act and someone actually having an accident (from an in-universe perspective, of course, since none of it is real for the viewers). For example, like when Troubleshoes tried to get into the rodeos as a colt and was doing it seriously but got laughed at (possibly some of the other ponies may have assumed he was doing it on purpose). I HATE being laughed at if I'm not trying to be funny (because of experiences with having that sort of mocking laughter aimed at me when I was younger) so that ended up hitting too close to home for me.
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Moral of the story: if you're born to be an object of ridicule, you'd better learn to like it, because that's not changing.
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I didn't laugh at or with Trouble Shoes when he got into the clowns' performance at the end. I felt damned sorry for him and was wincing quite a bit.
 
It's odd because they have Fluttershy, who quite clearly has experienced that sort of mocking in the past and didn't take it very well. You'd think they could remember when they've touched on something before...
 
RK_Striker_JK_5 said:
I didn't laugh at or with Trouble Shoes when he got into the clowns' performance at the end. I felt damned sorry for him and was wincing quite a bit.
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On the positive side, Horse Eyeore is a good character personality-wise, I predict we'll see him show up a bunch in fanfic for that reason.

On with the news:




*snore*
 
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...The sad thing is it took me a minute to realize you were joking about it being a fiendship issues.

At this point, calling those two flat would be an insult to paper.
 
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