It's come to my attention that we have 66 days until the season premiere. Better pick up the pace and make some more streamlined reviews.

So...here you go.

That awkward moment when you get glitter in your eye and you have to play it off.

"Boast Busters" Written By Chris Savino

As I hinted at in my last review, I didn't exactly have the fondest memories of this episode, and rewatching it didn't change my initial, apparently widely agreed-with opinion: it's not very good, and unless there's an episode rewatch turns up something else, this may be the worst of S1.

There's a lot of reasons to not like it: it's particularly predictable, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't also uninteresting, an unfortunate amount of time is spent with Worst Ponies (more on that in a minute), and the writing overall is bland and uninspired.

Am I the only one offended by how uncreative this line is? It's like saying "They don't call me 'Spider' and 'Man' for nothing."

But what edges the episode past just being weak and makes it magically annoying is the murkiness surrounding the moral of the story, and what I can make out comes off as slightly sociopathic.

Okay, story establishes from the outset that Twilight is very much modest in regards to her magical prowess, which is a good thing. Humility and modesty are qualities any non-shitty person should probably have. But then Trixie rolls into town and all that stuff goes down, and they want Twilight to lay down the law, and Twilight is concerned that she would be needlessly showing off. Now this would make sense if the concern was because she isn't using her magic to help ponies, but rather to show up somebody else. But instead, she's afraid she'll make her friends feel bad.

I dunno, it comes off as passively arrogant to me. Like, she's just assuming that she's so good that she'll probably make everyone else look bad if she does anything. That's like if your art doesn't get accepted by a website, and your immediate thought is that they just didn't get the email, because your art is so obviously good that the only reason it wasn't automatically accepted is that they haven't seen it yet. What a douchey thing to think, emmiright?

Right?

Heh...

So Twilight does her thing and saves Ponyville and Trixie gets chased away, and we get the friendship lesson:

"I was so afraid of being thought of as a showoff that I was hiding a part of who I am. My friends helped me realize that it's okay to be proud of your talents, and there are times when it's appropriate to show them off... Especially when you're standing up for your friends."

Okay, decent enough lesson, I guess. You can be proud of your talents as long as you know when it's the time and place to demonstrate them and remain humble. I guess that just goes to show that--

Spike: "So, you finally admit that you're the most talented unicorn in all of Ponyville?"

Twilight Sparkle: "Well, yeah, but it's nothing to brag about."

...

Dabuq?

"It's okay to be self-assured in the fact that you are better than everyone else as long as you aren't actively bragging about it?" What the hell kind of lesson is that. I mean, yeah, at least you ain't flaunting it, but silently having the idea that you are better than everyone else isn't cool either. In fact, I'd say that's a pretty detrimental mindset to have. There's a difference between having pride in your talents and assuming you are absolutely the best at what you do. And it isn't even a small difference, those are completely different things. I mean, geez, this is the kind of thinking an entire episode would be dedicated to to show how wrong it is, and it's the ideal here. This is not a good thing.

So the lesson is more along the lines of "it's okay to know you are superior to your peers, as long as you keep it in your brain", and the episode makes sure the Great and Powerful Trixie pays dearly for her indiscretion, as her worldly possessions are destroyed, her career is shot to oblivion, and her tail is wedged right between her legs as she is ran out of town. Kind of a harsh resolution, especially when you consider that the Ursa Minor attack wasn't even her fault (how was she suppose to know somebody would be idiotic enough to bring one to town?). Of course, they get rewarded with enchanted mustaches, while her prize is having her entire world shattered.

Speaking of which, yeah, I actually quite like Trixie. I don't really know why, maybe it's Kathleen Barr's amusing performance in the role, her mannerisms and stage friendly personality (I love these type of bigger-than-life, ridiculous characters), or her design, or the fun all the fan artists and writers have had developing her personality, or it's my Draco in Leather Pants showing, but I really like her and think there's a lot of things you could do with her character, whether it be a memorable side character or Team Rocket-esque "bad guy", or whatever.

I do feel sorry for her here, though maybe not because of how the characters treated her. Yeah, the Mane Six's reaction to a magic show was a bit over-the-top, but to be honest, that probably helped Trixie. That's how magic shows back in the good ol' days worked, right? You have some shmuck in the audience try to call the magician's bluff, or better yet, they try to outdo him/her, and the magician would outsmart them and show off how awesome they were. So that was probably playing right into Trixie's hooves.

No, it's less that the character's who are too harsh on her, and more that the writer is too harsh on her. The entire climax of this episode sees to it that she gets her "just deserts", and it does so with an intensity. But it's so hypocritical that I'm not sitting there thinking "I see what she did to cause this outcome". I'm instead pondering why this character who thinks she's better than everyone else is any worst than Rainbow Dash, who literally says "I'm better than everyone else." Twice. And that's the part that really massages my dolphin: if you're going to take a strong stance against a certain behavior, fine, but don't turn around and make it okay for another character to do the same thing just because she's one of the main characters. The moral is already a bit screwy, Savino; we don't need this on top of that.

So yeah, this episode isn't very good. But "Dragonshy" is the next review, and that's a much better episode.

Right?

Heh...

4/10

Random Thoughts:

Seriously, buck those guys.

Don't you dare smile. You suck so hard, you broke Derpy's eye brows.

Top 5 reasons Snips and Snails are Worst Ponies

1.Now this isn't a hit against Lee Tokar and Richard Ian Cox, who by every indication are very nice people in real life and I'm sure they've done a lot of great voice work, but I cannot stand their voices. To borrow from the Nostalgia Critic, their voices are those annoying voices you give other people in your funny story. The only problem is that you use those voices in the first place because they annoy you.

2. Two of the few reoccurring male ponies on the show, and of course they act that way.

3.Whenever they are in a scene, the quality of the humor and writing drop significantly. What was before witty, clever, or amusing becomes tired, lazy, and tedious, and the episode comes to a halt while we wait for their schtick to end.

GET IT BECAUSE THEY ARE CURRENTLY TANGLED IN STREAMERS BUT THEY AREN'T USUALLY TANGLED IN STREAMERS GET IT?

4. They keep coming back, and each time, they have absolutely nothing to bring to any story, nor have they had any defining as characters. Even Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon get tiny miliseconds of humanity, but these guys? There is nothing. Only pain and loss and sorrow.

5. The fact that these guys get to stay but Derpy Hooves had to leave for a year really irks me. It irks me real bad.

Right in my thighs.