Hey. I've decided to make one of these blogs just to get my perspective out there and see if people like it.

Being the first entry any constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. I have not written anything like this in a long while and sadly I waited too long to do it so many of the ways I wanted to present these ideas were forgotten so any advice would be welcome.

At this point I don't think reviewing the episode traditionally is at all necessary. Many other people have done that, and better than I could.

The pacing was perfect, the visuals were great and the episode was able to pull off being lighthearted or serious whenever it needed to be either.

Instead I am going to focus on one aspect of the episode that I feel could be expanded upon: how this episode developed and explored both Sweetie Belle's and Rarity's characters. Fair warning: this is off the cuff.

Let's start with Sweetie.

The obvious is that it added a new facet to her character, jealousy towards her sister and anger towards feeling overshadowed.

The main pitfalls of an episode like this are: having this flaw come across as contrived and making the character unsympathetic.

Polsky avoided both through the 5th birthday Subplot. Wherein Sweetie wants to make a grand entrance like the "belle at the ball." Wait... I've heard that line before.

Showing Sweetie's desire to shine here helped the episode immensely. The indirect rejection made the audience feel sorry for her, and the existence of the subplot made the conflict seem more organic to her character.

With both pitfalls avoided one could appreciate how the episode played out.

But rather than focus on that (as other reviewers have) let's look at how this affects Sweetie's character retroactively, particularly how she responds to her sister.

It makes her desire to help Rarity into a desire to have a hand in her sister's success and catch her radiant glory as well as casting a new dimension on her... loose conception of personal property. I am referring to a few moments in Season 1 when Sweetie would "borrow" supplies from Rarity. Again, not unreasonable to assume she's trying to shine here.

However, the episode is not just about Sweetie. It is about her relationship with Rarity. And this is where the episode truly shined in my opinion. Through this, it was able to develop not just Sweetie Belle but Rarity as well.

Referencing the "Belle of the Ball" earlier, this was of course, a line from the song Becoming Popular. Sung by Rarity.

This suggests parallelism between Rarity's and Sweetie's desires to shine and be noticed.

Both are innocent desires to be adored and appreciated by others for who they are and what they can do.

This, after all, was what Becoming Popular was about. Rarity finally makes it into the circle she always wanted and revels in the attention lavished on her.

Some have confused this as some kind of egomania or narcissism on her part. But I will leave that for another blog where I go into more depth about Sweet & Elite in general as I have seen many people misunderstand what Rarity was doing in that episode. And as a result, disparage either her or the episode itself.

In addition to this, there is the obvious character development for Rarity as we are shown her being a conscientious sister (which makes sense as her takes a sisterly role with many of her friends, particularly Fluttershy and Twilight) but also she is far more patient with Sweetie in this episode that in Sisterhooves.

Some may argue that she is too saintly in this episode (presumably to discredit her or the episode). I disagree. Even though Rarity is more patient with Sweetie Belle, she is not an infinitely understanding saint. At the end Rarity still becomes frustrated by Sweetie. Not to mention that Rarity seems out of her depth when confronted by Sweetie's admittedly petty concerns. I enjoyed this a lot as well as their relationship still has the same realistic depth to it as before. They're never perfect but also never dysfunctional (aside from that lame gag in Sleepless, which was temporary as they were very close in that episode as well).

So there's no cause for alarm there.

But really, this is what always made Sweetie and Rarity's relationship resonate with me more than Applejack and Applebloom's. They have this kind chemistry and a deeper relationship. Despite being different people, they mirror one another in a way that siblings often do. Which makes their relationship a lot more interesting, and more touching in my opinion.

Kindly leave your thoughts below, I would love to hear them.