Text Review Roundup: "Father Knows Beast"

This will be the final post made while I'm actually here, before I leave for UK PonyCon tomorrow morning. I've decided to fill the gap by beginning my "Sounds of 2011" series looking at the songs that made the Everfree Radio Top 100 that year. As such, there'll be a couple of scheduled posts while I'm away. I'm not sure when I'll be back to regular posting, but we'll see. Right now, though, it's time for TRR.

"Father Knows Beast" got a pretty positive reception from the text-based reviewers. It's hard to tell with JDPrime, who seems to have a games magazine approach to review scores, but with one exception the others were all at least broadly positive about the episode. The outlier was DrakeyC, who absolutely hated it.

Cuddlepug – mostly positive (graded B+; "we are left wondering who Spike's real parents are and why his egg was abandoned [but the ep is] a success on the whole [...] positive message this creates about the adaptable nature of family")

Derpy News – positive (graded A-; "a much better episode than “Dragon Quest” and one of the main reasons is Smolder")

The Dragon Warlock – generally positive (graded B; "a good premise [...] Sludge [...] is an enjoyable villain [but] I think we all deserve a proper explanation about why Spike ended up in Equestria")

DrakeyC – extremely negative ("THAT line left me fuming with rage [...] this is a shitty episode [...] a repeat of Dragon Quest where the villain is slimier, the heroes dumber, and the pathos recycled")

JDPrime22 – mixed (rated 8/10; " So much potential for this episode... and it was kind of wasted... but then again... not really.")

Lightening McQueen – very positive ("it may be kind of similar to Dragon Quest, but I still liked it [...] Smolder was also great in this episode")

Louder Yay – mildly positive (rated 3/5; "has Twilight really never thought to ask Celestia where [Spike's egg] came from? [Still,] Spike's interactions with Smolder were really good")

Mega Sean 45 – positive ("The episode I've been waiting for... or so I thought. [...] Smolder [...] was amazing [but] this episode just followed the same moral as Dragon Quest")

MLEEP Reviews – positive (rated 9/10; "the 'liar revealed' plotline [was] used again [but] there was so much new information about dragon culture and heart between the characters")

The Railfan Brony – broadly positive (rated Good; "a good, enjoyable episode in the end and the lesson Spike learned was a useful one for kids to learn [but] the series might be creatively stagnant")

ShutterflyEQD – positive ("It's safe to say that Sludge's moments were just more reasons to hate him. Even his song was not really anything too interesting. [However,] Smolder's pointers were perfect [and t]he Spike and Twilight moments were also very sweet and tender.")