>>36016060Well it's probably Best Gift Ever but I don't really have anything to say about it other than "It's Perfect and the best example of what the show should try to be", so I'll go with the one I have more to say about.
I won't lie, I got off the ride at the start of Season 7. I thought the first batch of episodes were mediocre, and the fact that episodes started leaking weeks ahead of time was the last straw since I couldn't even react to it with /mlp/ the same anymore. So I just kinda left.
Few years go by, and I start thinking about the show again. Well, might as well pick up where I left off right? Oh, GREEAAAT, looks like a cringe humor episode, AND Wonderbolts? I'm sure I'm going to hate this. But I didn't. Dash's Parents are super cute and likable, and I don't find any of their encouragement painful to watch like so many other similar parts in the show. At the same time, Dash still feels justified in her outburst at them. Then it swings at you with Scootaloo calling out Dash and flat out admitting she doesn't get support from her parents, which is something I never expected the show to do and puts how she acts at the start of the episode meeting her idol's parents in even more depressing context. Rainbow's apology feels sincere and then swings back around by ending on one of the most wholesome images in the whole show. No stupid joke to ruin the moment, it just IS. As someone who's absolutely awful at taking any kind of encouragement or complements as anything other than condescending or disingenuous, rather than actually sincere, especially from my parents, this episode hurts, a lot. It makes me feel like an asshole and I've honestly tried to be better about it since then. The fact that I missed this by ONE episode by leaving made me regret getting off the ride, even if the trainwreck of 8 and 9 probably made it worth it in the end.
