Text Review Roundup: "2, 4, 6, Greaaat"

You know, for a dead fandom this one seems to be keeping me very busy. Getting ready for UK PonyCon in October (tickets running short already – buy yours now!), working on this blog, reading fanfic, writing fanfic, helping arrange meetups, playing Pocket Ponies, watching Tales from late G1... yeah, I don't think I'm going to be stuck for things to do when the S9 finale has come and gone!

That's still a little way off, though, so let's see what the text-based reviewers made of "2, 4, 6, Greaaat". And... yeah. No reviewer liked it, not a single one. MLEEP is usually among the most positive and so it was again – but this time, even that only meant a "mixed". That was as good as it got. Rainbow Dash's portrayal was the most unpopular since "Non-Compete Clause", with which this ep was frequently compared.

Talking of which: SuperPinkBrony12, new this time, called this "a poor man's version of Non-Compete Clause". Ouch.

Cuddlepug – very negative (graded D-; "an utterly skippable episode, and one I would encourage people to avoid, lest they wish to raise an eyebrow over why Rainbow Dash would act like such an immature jerk this late in the game.")

Dark Qiviut – very negative ("Smolder had one of her best outings of the season [and a few other little pluses, but t]he rest of this episode was just a colossal train wreck [... and there's one of Twilight's] most out-of-character moments of the whole series."

DrakeyC – largely negative ("I like [that] the students hold Rainbow accountable [but] it is very condescending of the episode to portray Rainbow as so totally in the wrong and everyone else in the right. [...] A frustratingly annoying episode.")

Dramamaster829 – negative ("It's like watching 1/2 of an Adam Sandler movie where he spends the whole time acting like a selfish-jerk with no reason to sympathize with his character")
Note: no blog at time of writing, so this is from a comment Dramamaster829 left on my review.

JDPrime22 – negative (rated 6/10; "Not only is Rainbow a huge ASS throughout the entire episode, all the growth she's displayed as a character (you know, being LOYAL and all) is completely thrown out the window, and for what?")

Louder Yay – largely negative (rated 2/5; "if it hadn't picked up markedly in the last third, it might even have skirted close to a one-star rating [...] a terrible disappointment.")

Mike Cartoon Pony – largely negative ("[Much of] the episode until the last six minutes is a painful exercise in watching Rainbow not even attempt to disguise her disinterest in her assigned task and put no effort into it [...] neat stuff at the margins [but] an anaemic, frustrating episode")

MLEEP Reviews – mixed (rated 6.5/10; "while having great side characters and humor [the episode] pretty much went exactly the way that I envisioned with how far back of a regression they could take with Rainbow Dash's character")

Present Perfect – very negative ("for all that the message here is great, the actual execution of it was abysmal [...] I really hated this one; it is, at best, horribly misaimed.")

SuperPinkBrony12 – negative ("a poor man's version of "Non-Compete Clause [...] Never once does [Dash] try to care, and yet she also doesn't try to talk to Twilight about how she's feeling. And why did Twilight feel the need to put Rainbow into this kind of lesson? [...] Smolder shouldn't be the only sane creature in the room.")

The Railfan Brony – very negative (rated Terrible; "There's nothing "great" about this episode, especially as it's another episode with Rainbow Dash acting like an idiot.")

TheDragonWarlock – extremely negative (rated 1.5/10; "Everything about this episode is poorly thought out and poorly executed. The concept is not only a bad idea, but the results are even worse. The writing is dreadful; especially for Rainbow. [...] easily the worst episode for Rainbow I've ever had the misfortune of watching.")