>>/10797/
> Before I get into Swarm of the Century, I want to quickly go and rank the episodes I’ve already watched:
> So there it is, albeit a bit influenced by hindsight. I’m ranking episodes based on a criteria primarily of personal enjoyment, including guilty pleasure without deducting points for the ‘guilt’, and on comfiness factor. 
You have joined the darkside and starting rating things!


Don't worry if these numbers bonce around a bit. It is hard to quantify. I was always split between trying to rate "objective" quality versus personal enjoyment and now I lean much more towards the later myself. I say just roll with what you feel. That is osrt of what I am doing now even if sometimes other factors still come into play.

 >>/10799/
> The only other point I have against the episode is that it borders on being a reference to tribbles – it’s not QUITE there, 
I have heard conflicting information on how much they were influenced by tribbles. I think, IF, and that is a big if, I recall correctly, M.A Larson didn't conceive of parasprites being a tribbles reference but Lauren Faust did. 


> I’d say the maximum is 9.9. With those two minor points against it, I’d say I deduct two decimals… So something like 9.7? It’s easily my favourite so far, I think it holds up very well indeed. And that seems to have been reflected with the length of my review - 3 posts! I had a lot more to say about it, it seems!
And honestly fair, I think it might be my second favorite so far, but I am still debating. It certainly was top on funny factor.  

 >>/10801/
> Well worth a read/reread. After a certain point I stopped, but all the early chapters are fantastic.
This is me with a lot of fics!

> I tried, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.
Slightly different life choices and I either would've been there or nearly so. 

> Canterlot Library has a restricted section that Celestia has access to, so there is certainly some degree of classification or even censorship with Celestia's authority, but the rationale behind it (maybe preventing Cozy-Glow types) and the technicalities of how it's enforced aren't clear. 
Yeah, post early seasons, a "Celestia trying to maintain a Utopia/pain of her sister" doesn't cover all cases well. I have debated it myself. Preventing knowledge to prevent the seeking of power almost doesn't fit either but is better. I wonder if after all these threats were gone and defeated she didn't bother maintaining there memory among the wider populous from a more... how do I say, she thought they didn't need to be remembered anymore and early Equestria history is unstable and she let it slide while keeping the info closed to her chest? Still doesn't fully feel "correct" in my mind.    

 >>/10800/
> But I like to think moreso that it's her accepting that some magic doesn't fit the model she's familiar with applying to the understanding of magic in the world, rather than just accepting that some things are unknowable.
I agree in Zecora's case for sure. 

> Maybe she could have tried that with the dragon!
YES!

> it's almost impossible for a show working off a freelance-writer model to maintain those subtleties effectively
I think fandom expectations and memes could also be "harmful" in different ways but not to the level of simple flanderization. At least I'd argue that right now. Later down the road for all I know I might come to a different conclusion. As I have stated, Season 5 to 7 is where my memories are the weakest of the show in details. 

> when exposed to them I usually just shut down rather than get worked up.
Opposite myself, though I imagine such a thing ranges from person to person. 

>  And for the record I think ponies would necessarily have very similar psychologies to humans given the way we see them behave in the show. It kind of makes more sense of EQG even, where the two worlds are linked and mirror eachother.
Agreed--though what does this say about dragons?