What did I episode of this think when aired it first?

On 3/26/2014 at 0:24 PM, PrymeStriker said:

I finally got around to watching this episode last night. And I thought it was really good. (...) Just an all-around brilliant episode. 

Really now? Hmmmmmm.....those are some big shoes to fill. Well, let's see how time can fuck things up. This is "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils".

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This episode opens up with Sweetie Belle waiting on Rarity to overview the costumes she made for her school play. However, Rarity is far too busy trying to perfect the dresses for one of Sapphire Shores' orders...'cause...err...remember her from season one? Once she remembers that the opening night for her sister's play is tomorrow, Rarity shits a brick. Speaking of defecating pavement blocks, after the "Skip Intro" button makes me pass a rectangular prism of cement through my bowels and out my rectum, we see that it is indeed premiere night and Rarity is not present with the costumes. Sweetie Belle fears her sister will let her down "again" until she finally shows up...to let her down "again". You see, Sweetie Belle is unimpressed with the modifications Rarity made to Sweetie Belle's dress, but the show must go on as they say in the concentration camps. 

......You know what? I agree. Those dresses look like sidewinder vomit.

Alas, all the ponies that attended the school play......which are all adults for some reason...............pedophiles....................................are just flustered over the play and...the superior craftsmanship of the dresses from the pits of Hell. Sweetie Belle, as a result, becomes rather infuriated that her sister upstaged her..."again". You see, Sweetie Bell wrote, directed, and starred in this play, and yet all anyone can talk about is how amazing Rarity's dresses are. Right....so.........do these ponies have dayjobs or was there nothing better to do on a Tuesday or whatever than to watch this school play? I mean, it's just the fucking Cutie Mark Crusaders but half the town showed up, and the last time the CMC dealt with adults was during that whole...Gabby Gums shit. So, where were we? Ah, right, the pedophiles who came to the show didn't care about anything but those sexy dresses the CMC were wearing. Sweetie Belle, being the ARTEESTSTS that she is, gets pissed off her tampon and goes to yell at Rarity for taking all the glory out of her big night, and with so little effort. Sweetie Belle says this is just like her fifth birthday party, with the lapdancing Vietnamese whore and that one guy who sold crack to all of her friends, with her father criticizing her for having two nostrils instead of one like he does, and her sister trying to jam her dick into Little Tommy's naval...........oh, wait, sorry, that was my fifth birthday party.

"And you didn't even give Little Tommy any cab fare. Slut."

That night, Sweetie Belle finds it hard to sleep believing her sister sabotaged her play on purpose. Therefore, after she takes out a lace in the dresses for Sapphire Shores that practically ruins the structure of them all....she finds it much easier to sleep now. I don't care what anyone says, that's a genuinely funny scenario. All of a sudden, Sweetie Belle starts to have dreams. OooooOOOooh. Dreams about winning a Grammy for her play, until Rarity comes along as a giant storm-cloud here to literally rain on her parade. "Comedy". Not to fear, though, 'cause here comes Princess Luna to save the day....creepin' in on children's dreams again.....yay. That said, I'm genuinely pleased to see Luna, but you know what I just realized? Princess Luna, through seasons three, four, and five, have appeared in one of the CMC's dreams to overcome a real-world problem. For Scootaloo, in the very concluded "Sleepless in Ponyville", Sweetie Belle here, and later Apple Bloom in "Bloom and Gloom". Seeing as I'm not very far into season six right now, I wonder if that was building up to something, or if it was just a little running gag. Anyways, Sweetie Belle realizes she's dreaming, and opens up to the Princess about her big sister problems. This is where Luna talks about how she's able to relate to Sweetie Belle, having an overshadowing big sister of her own, and therefore has struggled with doing the right thing in the past. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH this episode scored major points. Meanwhile, flashback to....the fifth birthday party.

"I had type 100 diabetes back then."

Sweetie Belle explains that she had it all planned out: she was going to make a grand entrance as her friends waited for her downstairs. It was going to be perfect! Then, everything changed when the fire nation-I mean, Rarity, stole the spotlight with party favors and cake. One of her "friends" even says out loud, "who needs the party girl when you have the party girl's amazing sister". What....a...BITCH. I say we castrate her and send her into the pits of the damned, forever to blaze in a thousand years of grotesque Korean men gobbing her genitals like Tasmanian hog-monkeys. WHO'S WITH ME?! .............Right, just me and my own middle finger. As usual. Alright, so after this, Princess Luna suggests that maybe there's more to this story than meets the testicle. She time warps back to about 5 minutes earlier where we see her friends bored waiting for her. Then, we learn that Rarity was trying to saves Draft* Sweetie Belle's party by giving the guests party favors and cake. There's a part of me that wants to make a "Rarity's a prostitute, so party favors are party favors" joke, but...wait, nevermind, I just made it. There you go. Sweetie Belle considers that maybe her sister isn't a piece of shit, and to twist the knife around a bit more, Luna suggests that she take a look and see what could happen now that she's sabotaged Rarity's headdresses. Basically, it descends into this super grim imagery where Rarity goes fucking insane to the point of not designing dresses anymore.

This is your brain on drugs. Any more questions?

After this, Sweetie Belle wakes up in horror, and tries to rectify this situation. Except, it appears that Rarity's already disappeared to Canterlot to show Sapphire Shores the headdresses. So she gathers her friends...for some reason...and it's off to Canterlot to save Rarity's life! A hilarious showtunes joke is made on that train. But who cares, the succeeding scenes involve the CMC swinging across tightrope through a door to stop Rarity from descending into darkness! And wouldn't you know it, they do it! They get in there, steal the box, and fly around the building like a bunch of maniacs, distracting Rarity long enough for Sweetie Belle and Luna to fix the stitching of the headdress. After Sweetie Belle explains the whole situation to Rarity, because...you know...of course...they bring the headdress to Sapphire Shores together. And wouldn't you know it, she loves it! Cue sisterly blah. 

.....................Blah.

So concludes "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils".

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Um....yeah, this episode is pretty much fucking awesome.

First of all, the plot is actually a good one on its own. Little sister feeling overshadowed by her big sister and what not. This for Sweetie Belle and Rarity actually turns out some great dynamic, so that's a passing grade right there. Now, that plot could've just worked out well on its own, but they added Princess Luna to the mix. This made things infinitely more interesting, because given Princess Luna's backstory and trials across the first two seasons, we know that she has a long history of trying to live out of her sister's shadow. The fact that she as a character in and of herself was able to overcome this, and that she's able to apply that here and actually help develop Sweetie Belle, is bringing it all full circle. That's a beautiful thing and a damn good piece of overarching storytelling, but catch this. They also added dream elements to this, 'cause Princess Luna's here. And, way much more so than "Sleepless in Ponyville", do we see how far the dream montages can go. It's not full-throttle pink elephant drug trip stuff, but there's some pretty heavy imagery going on here. For instance, when Princess Luna stomps her hoof and she and Sweetie Belle stand motionless while the sound effects and animation make you feel like you're hurdling through time at the speed of light, or the "Rarity's Mental Breakdown" montage. All are some excellent visuals and some pretty heavy imagery juxtaposed to Sweetie Belle's psyche during the episode. It's really quite gripping. Sprinkle in some great comedy with a good moral, and you have the makings for one of the heights of season four. I haven't felt so enthused of an MLP episode in a long ass time, and "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils" brought it all back home. As a simply divine episode, I'm giving this story a solid 10/10.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why are Europeans not classified as bacteria?