Alright, alright, alright, good morning everypony, and welcome once again to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews"! Second to last "Batbrony Reviews" of Season 5 right here ya'll, and my oh my was this a memorable episode. "The Mane Attraction," first teased at SDCC this past summer, is an episode that pretty much all of bronydom has been looking forward to since then, and for very good reason. The last episode written by Amy Keating Rogers before she left working on the show, this episode delivered in pretty much every way it could, despite being a very old and familiar story trope. Without further ado, let's dive into "The Mane Attraction"!

So first and foremost, Applejack, lovable farm pony and Element of Honesty that she is, really shined in this episode. She's consistently one of the strongest characters in the show, and this episode really highlighted why. Put simply, AJ is very consistent and straightforward in her behavior. She has a very limited set of things she truly values in life above all else, namely the basics and essentials for a happy existence. She doesn't particularly care if somepony else lives differently from her (even if she doesn't always get it), but does care that they're living a fulfilling life that makes them happy. Nopony else in the entire show is as straightforward in what they think is necessary to live a good and meaningful life, and this trait often serves AJ well in helping to ground her other friends and keep them focused on what really matters. It's why she's the ultimate helping hoof in all of Ponyville and probably the closest thing to a #2 that Twilight has, at least among the Mane 6 (not counting how Spike himself assists her in her personal business).

These traits were on full display in this episode. The problem was quickly identified and pretty simple and straightforward, but that's not unusual considering it was AJ who identified. She's a pony who gets down to business and like to keep things simple, so this felt suitable for her. What I admired was that she was the only pony who even knew there was a problem since she was the only one who previously knew Countess "Ra Ra" Coloratura, but unsurprisingly, even though her friends thought she was making much ado about nothing, AJ stuck to her guns (as a quick aside, let's keep in mind that she must have befriended Ra Ra fairly soon after her parent's deaths, probably very shortly after getting her cutie mark, yet another highlight of how quickly AJ had to grow up and mature as a filly and how much inner-strength she's developed over the years as a result). This is another strength of AJ's; when she feels strongly enough about something and cares enough about someone, she will very stubbornly and doggedly work towards whatever end she wishes to. Even when Pinkie Pie of all ponies was telling her to just let it drop, she refused to. Sometimes her stubbornness doesn't always work to her advantage ("The Last Roundup" is a very good example of this), but here it served her very, very well. Finally, the last strength of AJ's that was on full display here was the faith that she has in those whom she knows are her friends or good ponies (both in this case). She knew that Ra Ra was a good and decent pony, she never lost faith in her and only once got mad with her when there was a misunderstanding between the two. Through and through, she was honest and loyal to the pony she knew was still there inside Ra Ra, and never gave up hope and faith in her friend that she would do the right thing if only she were nudged in the right direction. Her solution, while predictable in many respects, was also smart and allowed Applejack to illustrate the truth of what she'd been telling her friend to her. She knew that if Ra Ra only knew the truth, she'd take it from there and do the right thing. Her faith in friend was rewarded, and in the end, after just being the best pony she could be and one we've come to know and love, honest, loyal, and true through and through, she got her friend back, helped make her life better, and all of Ponyville (and presumably any ponies Ra Ra entertains or comes to know from now on) reaped the reward for AJ's efforts as well. And the best part is helping Ra Ra and getting her back as a friend was reward enough for AJ; she didn't want anything else, and I'd expect nothing less from her. That's just who Applejack is, and I love her for it.

You will never be this happy (though that's probably a good thing

)

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Our new character, Countess "Ra Ra" Coloratura, was pretty solid as well. Lena Hall, primarily a theater actress and singer, did a decent job in the role. I'm not gonna pretend that it was the most amazing vocal performance ever, at least not so much in the VA department, but she has a very pleasant voice, it's very pleasing to the ears and very nice to listen to, even if she didn't come across as a natural voice actress. Her singing, as expected, was amazing; the only time it was a bit odd was when we heard it coming from her as a filly, it just sounded a bit too adult for a filly that age, but it was always lovely to listen to and she did some truly phenomenal singing here, even when she sang her gaudy and over-the-top Countess Coloratura dress rehearsal song. And that's really what we came to hear anyways, they brought her on clearly for her singing talents, and it was a well-made casting choice as far as I'm concerned. Her character was well-written, and even if we've seen this type of character in many different properties before, she was well-executed here. She was clearly still herself for the most part, she still wanted to be a good pony and use her talents to entertain others, please others, and help others, but she was just being misused and led astray by a greedy and self-centered manager. I'm not entirely sure how she wasn't aware of what he was up to considering he wasn't exactly subtle in his behavior, but to be fair she seemed like she was kept fairly busy, was very devoted to her work, and he also came off as a bit of a "yes man" who I'm sure said all the right things around her. But thankfully, despite an initial spat, as soon as AJ showed her exactly what was up and how her name and image, and what she wanted to do for others, were being sullied by that little turd, she set things straight and is now on the path to leading a career more fulfilling to herself and everypony else. She learned a solid lesson, was enjoyable to watch, and sang some lovely musical numbers; all in all, this was a solid choice for a celebrity guest appearance, and it was all the more enjoyable to watch considering Lena Hall is a fan of the show. Would love to see her return at some point in the future, if only for a cameo appearance or another musical number (but hey, I'd take another episode focused on her as well for all I care). She had a lovely appearance and character design, a lovely voice and performance, and had a very nice debut episode. What more could you ask for?

When they're able to make her likable even when she looked like THAT, that's pretty impressive

Aside from these elements, there's not a whole lot more to talk about. Pinkie Pie was where most of the humor in this episode came from, and she was very fun to watch in her typical over-the-top behavior (though I did feel a bit bad for her as she was getting run-ragged by that awful manager). Speaking of which, Ra Ra's manager, he sucked. Super petty little turd, that one, and definitely worthy of a swift kick to the balls (though I suppose his getting fired was reward enough, just desserts indeed ). Rarity had a few good scenes with AJ, Twilight did her part to help Applejack make her point at the end, and Flutters and Rainbow were just kinda there and didn't really feature all to much. The animation was lovely, it was nice that they kept the setting fairly contained to just a few locales (really helped make it a solid Slice-of-Life episode in its feel), and it was kinda nice that there wasn't too much in the humor department. It's not like it was the most emotional episode (though the emotion and feels-factor was definitely elevated by the fact that this was Amy Keating Rogers' last episode she wrote on the show), but since it was fairly low-key in the humor, it felt like it was treated as seriously as it should have been. The pacing was solid, Applejack genuinely cared about Ra Ra and you could easily tell and accept this (the flashback was an especially nice touch, filly AJ was cute as she always is, and filly Ra Ra was pretty adorable too), and this made it very easy to connect with this episode and become emotionally invested in what was going on. This was even more impressive in many ways than "Amending Fences" considering the focus was not on Twilight but one of the supporting Mane 6, and the pacing was honestly better as well (remember, Twilight reconnected with four friends in that episode, not just Moondancer, and that additional subplot made the pacing a bit trickier).

Overall, this was just about as good as one could ever want an MLP Slice of Life episode to get. We were invested in the problem, all of Applejack's strongest traits were on full display, we genuinely cared about the new character right along with AJ, had some lovely musical numbers thrown in there, and this all in all made for an episode that delivered in every respect and one in which I really have no complaints. Amy couldn't really have asked for a better final episode to work on, this was about as good as a penultimate episode in any season gets (and trust me, we've had bad ones, remember, my least favorite episode to date is "MMMystery on the Friendship Express," and that came in Season 2, which probably remains my favorite season of MLP), and it was just a pleasure through and through to watch. This is definitely an episode I look forward to returning to and rewatching in the future, most likely one of my top 5 favorite episodes on the season, and most certainly Applejack's finest episode this season. What more could you really ask for? We've got two episodes left to go everypony, the two-part season finale next week. I may be a bit late getting my review up since I may be busy with family when the episode debuts, but rest assured I will have my usual review uploaded at some point that weekend. Have a Happy Thanksgiving next week everypony to all my fellow American forum members, safe travels if you are traveling, and I'll see you all at the finish line. I've no doubt the return of Starlight Glimmer is going to be delicious, so get hype everypony!!! Until next time, this is Batbrony signing off. I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit*