Talk:Honest Apple/@comment-27578467-20170515005216

At the moment I think I'm giving it a 1+/5. There were a lot of times where a potential joke was derailed just enough, and the crisis scene (AJ saying she doesn't like fashion) broke the realism for me, which up to that point was holding on fairly well (I would have expected them to be upset at Rarity for choosing an inexperienced judge rather than just offended about AJ's comments). The larger form of the story was pretty predictable and overused at this point, and the ending scene didn't impress much.

The thing is, with a few minor tweaks, this episode would be a 3/5 for me, possibly even higher for its subject matter. Only about half of the comedic and narrative build-ups were let down by the typical issues (as opposed to most), and even these weren't as grating and drawn-out as I expected each one to be. Characterization was fairly normal, pacing wasn't... too butchered, and despite my issue with the realism breaking, the writer didn't make it worse by trying to be ultra-serious like in No Second Prances. Even things like voice acting and animations felt to some degree like a throwback to the good days, to the point where for about the first half of the episode I felt (albeit weakly) the same enjoyable sensation that I did when I first started watching the series. That to me is enough reason to celebrate.