Text Review Roundup: "A Trivial Pursuit"

It's just hit me that, assuming there are no post-season specials, we're now into the final ten TRRs. It's not exactly of world-shaking importance, but I'm going to miss these things when they're gone. It's far too early to say whether they might be back for G5 – but even if I do return to them then, they'll certainly never be quite the same. That said, G5 will never be quite the same. Maybe it'll be like your favourite Doctor from Doctor Who. (Nine for me.)

Anyway, "A Trivial Pursuit" got a mixed reaction, though the average was on the negative side of neutral. Most reviewers still found it more enjoyable than "2, 4, 6, Greaaat", but a number were unimpressed with Twilight's characterisation. There were exceptions in both directions: Dark Qiviut was happier with Twilight's portrayal, while SuperPinkBrony12 and The Railfan Brony were appalled by the whole thing, talking in terms of its being the worst episode of the entire show.

Cuddlepug – negative (graded C-; "continues the mediocre trend of episodes so far in the second half of Friendship is Magic's final season [...] the Princess of Friendship [is] more than happy to walk over one of her best friends in order to get what she wants")

Dark Qiviut – mixed ("The best part, bar none, is Twilight's arc [...] Combined with a well-paced story, A Trivial Pursuit brought Season 9 back on track after 2, 4, 6, Greaaat derailed its streak. However, it's weaker than the worst episode of Season 9A, Going to Seed"

DrakeyC – fairly negative ("This had me afraid it was gonna be another round of "Ponk is horribly mischaracterized", but actually no, they were fine for Pinkie, it was Twilight that got on nerves [...] this episode is pretty bad on account of how awful Twilight is to everypony, not just Pinkie.")

Dramamaster829 – mixed ("Sure the episode has a few laughs, some subtle shout outs to the series, and fans of 'Trivia' games can vouch for this, but at the same time there's only so much 'Twilighting' we can take and she was a bit of a jerk at times.")
No blog review, so this is from a comment Dramamaster829 left on mine.

JDPrime22 – mixed (rated 7/10; "Honestly, Twilight needed to grow up in this one. Yeah, the episode was super entertaining, and Twilight's faces are to die for, but... she's literally going to run Equestria in, like, one month.")

Louder Yay – mixed (rated 2/5; " a long way from being a classic episode, unless you're very forgiving about Twilight's characterisation, but it was often an entertaining one..")

Mike Cartoon Pony – mixed ("would work far better in a cartoon with more edge and less sentiment then MLP [...] amusing, though your enjoyment on it will depend on how much a character being an uncharacteristic jerk bothers you.")

MLEEP Reviews – mixed (rated 7.5/10; "an episode that was made solely for those die hard fans of My Little Pony who are obsessed with every single little detail in the series and while having its good moments of humor among a majority of the cast still suffers from an extremely thin plot")

Present Perfect – rather negative ("Not nearly as rage-inducing as 2, 4, 6, of course. [...] Just Twilight acting like a dick, and tons and tons of ship names for some reason. Seriously, what was up with that? Sunburst couldn’t save it.")

SuperPinkBrony12 – spectacularly negative ("oh boy do we have one doozy of a bad episode on our hands! This might just be a contender for the worst episode of the entire show [...] Twilight's performance here is the absolute worst her character's ever been written, I don't even think flanderization describes it properly, this is straight up character assassination territory.")

The Railfan Brony – spectacularly negative (rated Atrocious; "the lesson I got from Jerkass Twilight's behavior is that "you can bully your friends and they'll still come back to help you". That is one of the most disgusting lessons this show has taught, especially for one targeted at little girls! [...] Fuck this episode. It should be sent down to Tartarus and locked up in the deepest, darkest cave so human eyes can never look at it again. It is that awful, and it has officially earned the title for the worst ever episode of the entire series.")

TheDragonWarlock – negative (rated 4/10; "Twilighting [...] a retread of another episode earlier this season, [and] using a tiresome joke again for the plot. [...] One thing I'll grant this episode is that the cast of side characters we have is big and they're all enjoyable in their own way [...] Pinkie is written enjoyably here [but the episode is] a bore and a bit of a mess.")