>>/11295/
> It did not change with this and I am neither overly impressed or disappointed.
With regard to our differing levels of enjoyment of this episode, I think what really made this episode for me was getting to have the whole Mane 6 in play. It's obviously tricky to pull off, but I really love seeing them as a group - as well as loving the character focus approach, which sounds paradoxical but we got both in that episode and to me, that's a real treat.
 >>/11297/
> This is another instance of Spike seemingly having some sort of other duties/life connected to Canterlot. I had completely forgotten about this. Actually, I am not sure if it has ever stuck out to me before to me. 
This plus the seasons have been standing out to me a lot more on this rewatch - I think there had to have been a 'background timeline' or something similar for this first season, too many things line up too neatly.
> who is ready for a forced meme? 
...110% ready, perhaps?
 >>/11298/
>  but an earth pony raised among unicorns in Canterlot may just be that, he still is culturally hip and a little snobby.
Or even a situation like with the Cakes, where ponies from one group produce a pony from a different group via, presumably, recessive genes in their background. Which makes me think - when Mr and Mrs Cake end up with a Unicorn and a Pegasus for children, that's anything from a non-factor to a blessing for them, but I can only imagine a Unicorn or even Pegasi family having Earth pony children would be a little bit awkward, for both the parents and the children - so much of what would be life's experiences for the parent, they would be unable to share, and the child would almost certainly feel deprived of having those life experiences.
> Here is how I think of ratings in my head, 
I agree with all those, but the ratings are still quite abstract so I find it easier to use episodes as benchmarks for other episodes. 
 >>/11299/
> I hope you get the gist. I think to an extent the fandom is guilty of that, I never brought the complete self guilt or self aggrandizing behavior that the fandom often adopts in viewing itself;we are complex and it is complex. 
I think I get the gist, certainly the sentiment. Complexity is something I'm falling back more and more on as an excuse as I get older - my grandfather always used to say, when asked about something a bit too current or news-y, in a slow and serious voice, "I think it's very complicated". It baffled me back then for such an intelligent man to say such a thing, but more and more I find that on topics where I know something about it intellectually, that really, I can't know much for sure and have to throw up my hands and say "it's complicated". Even something as relatively small as this fandom is large enough that I don't think I could grasp fully what can be truly definitively said about it. The edges are fuzzy and it's more efficient to define it in microcosm than in totality.