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If I had to guess from the name Larson was using for that twitter post, he was referring to the Game of Thrones reference. Twilight's "Brace yourself everypony... winter is coming!" (emphasis mine).

 

I like that this episode gives us a timeline for the show, but I also find it pretty hard to believe that less than a year has passed between season 2 and this episode. Especially since there was a Christmas episode not long after the one where Dash gets Tank. Unless not all of Equestria gets wintere'd at the same time? And winter comes less than once a year? Someone else who cares more continuity can answer those questions.

 

Personally I liked the song, but it would have been better if there weren't (invisible) background singers (or the doubled voices or whatever you call it).

 

Hot cider? Sounds a little nasty

 

You've never heard of hot cider? Maybe it's a regional thing, but where I am it's pretty much only ever served as a warm beverage (the non alcoholic version anyway).

 

Anyway, I'm sorry to hear that you aren't enjoying the episodes. I hope they start turning around for you soon!

 

Hot cider? Sounds a little nasty

You've never heard of hot cider? Maybe it's a regional thing, but where I am it's pretty much only ever served as a warm beverage (the non alcoholic version anyway).

No. O.o I'm not a cider drinker at all though, so maybe that's why.

 

Anyway, I'm sorry to hear that you aren't enjoying the episodes. I hope they start turning around for you soon!

Eh, they probably won't. I feel like the show is going in the wrong direction, and as you might have been able to tell, I can easily find things to complain about.

Where I live (Virginia), hot cider is a fairly common winter drink. That's the non-alcoholic kind of cider, though. I have no idea what hard cider would be like hot.

I really loved the song in this episode. Even though it was from the perspective of Rainbow Dash at one of her more misguided, desperate moments, I still think it really spoke to just why she represents the Element of Loyalty. She deeply values her friends and will go to great, sometimes irrational, lengths to do what she thinks is best for them.

I thought the picture in the locker was supposed to be a young Lightning Dust. Perhaps one of her parents works in the weather factory. I could be completely wrong about that, though. I've heard some people say it's supposed to represent the fsjal meme, but that wouldn't have any particular meaning in this context.

My biggest gripe about the episode was that its lesson about dealing with loss was implicit rather than explicit. I picked it up perfectly fine (it even went through the whole five stages of grief thing), but I worry that it might go right over the heads of many of the kids who are the show's actual target audience.

Without an explicit friendship lesson, kids might instead interpret Dash's crying at the end as something she should have done right away that would have made acceptance possible from the start. Really, the five stages of grief do not occur in a fixed order, and so mourning a loss won't automatically make you prepared to accept it.

But I still feel it was a good episode, and even kids who don't fully understand the lesson it's teaching might be able to enjoy it for its cartoon hijinks and bittersweet ending, while getting some subconscious hints to refer back to if they experience any kind of loss in their own lives.