YOU MADE THIS SCENE EVEN CUTER THAN IT WAS  
AAAAAAAAAAAA dies again

@Background Pony #31E3  
You don’t know what you have until it is gone.  
Everyone who is nice to you seem pretty annoying and pathetic if that is all you are surrounded by but once you get dropped in the company of fellow assholes you yearn for the annoying chipper people.

@Prof.NightJack  
That’s pretty much RD and Gilda together. They were both rather aggressive but since being with Twi and Co., she had changed and it caused distance between the two.
 
 
@Darth Sonic  
While I get that she may have been implied as the “false friend” for the narrative, I’ve always felt that they had distanced since seeing each other and Gilda just felt jealous of her friend not being the same and the backstory to me cemented that feeling. Besides she’s still a jerk, just now a lovable jerk with some bite.

@Background Pony #31E3  
She’s still a jerk, it’s more that it goes along with original that there is a point where one is to much a jerk.  
It didn’t ruin it at all but showed that one can mend an old friendship if both sides have moved on to be a better person then they where before.  
It’s not like a jerk is bad and nothing to it, ever hear of “jerk with a hear t of gold”, that’s a jerk that one can like.

@ColdhardSilver  
In his defense, the letter did brings up “false friends”, and it was heavily implied that Gilda was this false friend. The fact of the matter is that this episode clearly states that this is not the case. Gilda just had a tough time after she and Dash initially parted ways.
 
So yeah, minor retcon going by his definition.

@Background Pony #31E3  
>Uses a specific variation of a phrase  
>Based argument on said variation  
>Didn’t initially clarify it as such  
I’d recommend being more careful
 
“That’s exactly what they ruined. The original episode was highly regarded for its lesson that some people are just jerks, and you can’t necessarily come to some rosy understanding with everyone. It’s that kind of thing that originally set the show apart. Now it’s gotten so contrived, it’s ridiculous.”  
No it wasn’t.  
“DEar Princess Celestia,  
Today I learned that it’s hard to accept when somepony you like wants to spend time with somepony who’s not so nice. Though it’s impossible to control who your friends hang out with, it is possible to control your own behavior. Just continue to be a good friend. In the end, the difference between a false friend and one who’s true will surely come to light”
 
Where in that did the lesson “lol some people are just jerks” come in?

@ColdhardSilver  
I prefer the TV tropes description:

@Prof.NightJack  
That’s exactly what they ruined. The original episode was highly regarded for its lesson that some people are just jerks, and you can’t necessarily come to some rosy understanding with everyone. It’s that kind of thing that originally set the show apart. Now it’s gotten so contrived, it’s ridiculous.

@Background Pony #31E3  
“athletes and Gustav is that they were not concerned merely with “coolness” or with money”  
And yet Gustav still had the griffon pride as see through his mannerisms and speech.
 
“Retcon is simply retroactive continuity. It doesn’t necessarily mean something was altered”  
Yes it does the definition clearly states this “Retroactive Continuity: the alteration of previously established facts in the continuity of a fictional work.”  
Shining Armor isn’t a retcon, it would be a retcon if before the season 2 final Twilight said “I was an only child” or that “I don’t have a brother”  
and in the case of Gilda all the episode was expand and add nothing contradicted what was shown in Brush off.

@Background Pony #31E3  
Oh, and learned griffon society is full of jerk-wads so how she acted before made sense.

@Background Pony #31E3  
“it just ruins what an earlier episode had going for it”  
How?  
Before all we knew of Gilda was she was friend with Dash at flight camp, nothing of how they met or what they where like when they met.

@OneOverTwo  
What we do know about the athletes and Gustav is that they were not concerned merely with “coolness” or with money. But it’s true that they might not have come from the same place.
 
@drumpowa  
Retcon is simply retroactive continuity. It doesn’t necessarily mean something was altered, per se. It can apply to simply additional stuff that wasn’t brought up before, like Shining Armor, for example. Retroactive continuity isn’t inherently bad, but in this case, it just ruins what an earlier episode had going for it.

@Background Pony #BEA2  
Your long winded explanation and sources really don’t invalidate that RD used to be rather aggro. She has since dialed it down.
 
 
@Background Pony #31E3  
We had no backstory of Gilda before this episode; there wasn’t even a mention of her backstory in S1 outside of Junior Speeders. So for one, there was no retcon. Two, not everyone adapts/reacts to their environment the same way, so Gilda’s behavior is not similar to Gustav or the the other athletes. Three, regardless of whether she was influenced by her environment or by Dash is actually irrelevant to my point: that Gilda had changed and it’s perfectly valid for her to have that change. You don’t have to like it or buy it, but it’s possible.
 
>we’re all left trying to come up with something to explain the change  
As said above: Dash or her environment or even both. (two/three obvious explanations)

@Background Pony #31E3  
“didn’t damage Gustav’s personality”  
How do you know that? He was a jerk and Gs can explain that, but we don’t even know if he came from there or maybe he left
 
“Gilda was just a jerk on her own, back in the day. She didn’t need a reason”  
“we’re all left trying to come up with something to explain the change”  
No, she was jerk if there was a reason we didn’t know then because her character nor the griffon have gotten expanded yet. Also:  
>Rainbow Dash was constantly drawing parallels between the average griffon and how Gilda acts  
>Pinkie constantly say that the problem with GS was more deep rooted and instilled  
>Gruff saying that the griffons of GS have been miserable since the end Guto’s reign

@Background Pony #31E3  
You do realize that Gustave doesn’t necessarily even hail from Griffonstone, right? There’s nothing to say that he does. & for all we know the athletes presented in “Equestria Games” could be the biggest jerks in the history of ever. Those athletes never said anything. That’s a poor defense.

@Background Pony #BEA2  
“Griffonstone society” apparently didn’t damage Gustav’s personality, or the athletes in the Equestria Games. That’s a poor defense. Gilda was just a jerk on her own, back in the day. She didn’t need a reason. But now that they’re trying to paint her as this vulnerable kid once upon a time, we’re all left trying to come up with something to explain the change.

@drumpowa  
“jerkish”.
 
Yeah because, RD sticking for up fillies being bullied (S1E23, S5E8) is clearly “jerkish”(!) Because confidence = “jerkish”(!) Because actually sticking up for your friends (S1E5) = “jerkish”(!) Because going to sugarcube corner and having to drag a somewhat depressed and crazed friend to sweet apple acers (S1E25) = “jerkish”(!) Because giving your friends their cutemarks (S1E23) = “jerkish”(!) Because saving your friend’s life (S1E16) = “jerkish”(!) Because being prepared to sacrifice yourself for your friends (S1E18 “Run, Pinkie, I’ll hold ‘em off. Save yourself!”) = “jerkish”(!) And there wouldn’t have been other influences to how Gilda behaves other than Dash… Noooo(!) Not like… Oh… IDK… Griffonstone’s society!

@Darth Sonic  
I mean, that all depends on a lot of factors we just don’t know about. We don’t know how interested in documenting other cultures equestria is, or whether they even have a formal institution that studies such things. Even though we’ve seen other griffons, we don’t know if they’re first generation immigrants, how common they are, and, again, if there’s no institution studying it, it’s possible no one beyond their immediate neighbors and friends know about the place they left.
 
And I may have to rewatch it to confirm, but it seemed like getting there was sorta a pain in the ass. These are probably pretty isolated communities that are generally aware of each other with some general knowledge about one another’s history, but without a large diffusion of information.

@rogerSnow  
Oh, I’d usually accept this answer. If we were just talking about Dashie and Pinkie, that would make perfect sense.
 
But we’re not talking about them. We’re talking about Twilight here. A member of the Royalty who obsesses over minutia and keeping up to date. And this isn’t about people from a distant land like the Zebras. It’s about a kingdom on their border that they have semi-regular immigration from and a working train to.
 
Twilight has no excuse.

@Darth Sonic  
They don’t got internet. Or apparently radio even. It may be known in certain parts of equestria, but it might not be widespread information. It seems like very few pones really ever go there. We’re a bit spoiled by the modern world. Equestria is still pretty disconnected, untamed, and full of mystery evidently.

This is the first time I have ever hated myself for spoiling something, because OMG GILDA IS SO FUCKING ADORABLE IN THIS.

@Darth Sonic  
“My question is how did Twilight not know about Griffonstones state?”  
After the fall of GS the griffons never bothered to record history as said by Pinkie and like Gilda said griffons didn’t care about anything else but money before the rise and after the fall.
 
“How the hell does a Princess have information that’s half a century out of date, especially when the train still runs there?”  
Not directly there just at the bases, Also notice that no else got off with them at the station. The only other times that happened was when they went to the Crystal Empire for the first time (which was a blizzardy mess even before the empire came back) and the “Our Town” (which was in the random mountain valley)
 
@Background Pony #31E3  
How so? Also how does Ukraine sound instead of Russia for the sake of comparison?

@PonyPon  
When you think about it, ponies have a hard time keeping track of their own history. It’s pretty sad.
 
@Darth Sonic  
Convention isn’t exactly the same as coercion, but eh.

@Background Pony #31E3  

 
RD built her confidence. Besides, from what we’ve seen from the episode, she wasn’t FS levels of timid. And with S1 Jerk Alpha RD she emulated her. It’s not hard to explain.

@Darth Sonic  
No one made a new book.
 
If it’s not in a book, she won’t find it.
 
And sometimes, even then.

@Background Pony #31E3  
Yes it does, because it’s a Somalia that actively enforces it’s misery in the culture, as opposed to just being a miserable place like most 3rd World Countries.