More pressing for me is that it left the problems that the book caused unresolved. Y'know, besides Glim going around in a few instances to tell ponies off. For example, even if Applejack manages to boot the freeloaders at her farm, Rarity will still have to work pretty hard to recover from the drop in clientele. On top of that, outside of the need to set up the episode, Twilight's journal idea was pretty dangerous from the get go and i'm surprised that ponies like Rarity would even agree to it. Despite her lessons, she still values and understands the importance of her's and other's public image. It's weird that she would let entries she's made be put out there for ponies to interpret as they pleased. It also kinda kills the idea that the Mane 6 usually lead by action/example in the moment. On a sidenote, what happened to Twilight's friendship lectures? We saw it happen once during The Cutie Re-Mark and then never again. Anyway...



Misgivings about their reasoning aside, i thought the resolution Starlight came up with was going to be different too. That she'd make the case of emphasizing that this was indeed a journal and not some story the girls wrote. Besides the gossipers for Rarity's entries and much like your comic depicts, the fans in their own world were treating them like characters and not people. It kills me that the writers who praise the show for the world it's built also turn on a dime to say "It's not that deep, bruh." when they're scrutinized. Even though nods and jabs at typical fandom discussions and points can be fun, seeing that weird defensive attitude that surfaces on occasion through social media culminate into an episode/song that tries to champion their justifications leaves a bad feeling overall. It makes it seem as if the show has changed and grown despite the writers instead of because of them.



At the same time, i think Larson was probably the only one with a decent amount of history to pull this off. But him being gone for a while kinda gives him the outlier notion to go ahead and do whatever which in turn gives the more consistent crew the possible out of "he said it, not me." which i'm sure he won't really care too much about and will revel in it for future cons because Larson's fun like that.



Overall, interesting idea, got a bit too mouthpiece-y and the resolution fell flat. "Eff tha hayters" isn't a solution, it's reaching an impasse and denying the cause being partly your fault.



At the same time, the episode can be seen from another angle. One of the bigger critiques is that despite their promotion of friendship, the show focusing so much on the Mane 6 makes them come off as a clique. That its them against the world and only sometimes they try to help make it better when nopony else can. But what happens when random ponies have a several year long manifesto of your events and history written specifically by you and your friends? Suddenly, it's not just a friend's careful opinion or one that you take on the chin because you ultimately know they mean well. This a bunch of folks who knew of, lived around, or experiences events with them looking at their pasts in a way the girls probably hadn't considered until the Journal was brought up again, especially considering it's condition before being copied. So of course it was rough, and the song by itself can be seen as an admittance of the problems they have when it's all put together but that they've grown close and exemplify friendship because they're there to keep each other afloat despite the flaws. But again, why would the crowd care? That all has nothing to do with their relationships with the girls despite as Pinkie shouted earlier "You've known me for years!" That goes both ways and i hope its something they improve on in the future.



I will say that this is what i like about these kinds of episodes. Gives me stuff to mull over which is fun.