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Thrond

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  1. Thrond
    In any other season, "Not Asking for Trouble" would be a middle-of-the-road throwaway episode. It's simple, it repeats a lot of jokes, and its moral has already been done in this show. In season 7, however, I'm just glad the episode was funny, even though its simplicity wasn't enough to carry the handful of funny gags. Those repeated jokes are at least good on their own, Pinkie Pie is consistently delightful, and it's neat to learn just a little bit more about yak culture, but this is hardly a memorable episode in the grand scheme of the show, even with its small virtues. When Pinkie Pie is invited to a festival in the village of Yakyakistan, she takes on extra responsibilities as a "friendship ambassador," and is dedicated to making a good impression. However, when this festival leads to an avalanche covering the village, she and the Yak leader, Prince Rutherford, clash over whether Pinkie should ask her friends for help.    Asking for help is was one of the show's earliest morals. Season one episode four, "Applebuck Season," had this exact same moral. Because this is such a stale moral, the conflict of "Not Asking for Trouble" is never especially engaging, because it's both very simple and very familiar. In "Applebuck Season," the simple conflict contributed to Applejack's character building, and while the same is true here for Prince Rutherford, this just isn't a distinctive character trait for him. Initially, it seems that his stubbornness is partially because he doesn't want to ask non-yaks for help, but soon it becomes clear that he just doesn't like asking for help in general. At no point do either Rutherford or Pinkie have any self-doubt, and so the entire episode is little more than Pinkie trying to convince Rutherford to let her call her pony friends over.    As a result, the entire episode is reliant on how creative Pinkie's attempts are. Thankfully, they're at worst still fairly amusing. First, she tells a fable where goats stand in for the yaks and cows stand in for the ponies, and second she attempts to lie that her friends want to come over and try the snow sandwiches which the yaks have begun eating in lieu of real food. Rutherford sees through both attempts, but Pinkie's efforts are amusing to watch nonetheless, as are her earlier attempts to appreciate and fit into Yak society. She clearly doesn't fully understand it, but she's constantly self-conscious about that, and attempts to be respectful in spite of her own lack of appreciation.    Pinkie's relative maturity here doesn't come at the expense of her outgoing personality, however. She's still very loud and very excitable, and spends a good deal of the episode talking. Either she's trying to pass balloon trips by playing games with Gummy, stating her appreciation for Yak culture, or attempting to convince Rutherford, and while her characterization isn't exaggerated, it's not especially deep either. Aside from her efforts at cultural relativism, the episode doesn't tell us anything new about Pinkie, but thankfully her usual surface charms are intact. She's still creative and funny, her enthusiasm is still infectious, and her empathy is still admirable. Combine this with a small but respectable degree of patience - she respects the Yaks' wishes until she sees kids complaining - and this is probably one of her more solid appearances in recent memory.   I do enjoy seeing just a little more about Yak culture, and as always, I enjoy the relative sensitivity the show tends to treat them with. Unlike griffons, dragons, or even changelings to an extent, they don't stand in for specific personality traits, and since it's Rutherford alone who is keeping the yaks from calling for help, the climax doesn't devolve into ponies saving a foreign culture from itself, therefore avoiding unfortunate implications. Rutherford explains the Yikslurbertfest holiday as yaks smashing things to relax, and that's the kind of interesting cultural development which gave season 6's "Gauntlet of Fire" its novelty. Furthermore, Rutherford demonstrates more of a sense of humour here, at one point tricking Pinkie into thinking she broke a stick, which he announces by telling her to "check herself before she wrecks herself."    Also funny is Gummy, who makes recurring appearances for visual gags where his lack of any reaction to what's happening around him never fails to be amusing. Gummy doesn't even respond when Pinkie tries to play games with him, and all of these gags are especially funny due to the context of season 5's "Slice of Life." What is he thinking at any of these moments? The question is funnier than any answer could be. This gag is repeated a few times, as are a few others, but they're at least good gags to repeat. In the climax, Pinkie manages to bring her friends over, and we even get to hear Rainbow deny Pinkie the game she was failing to play with Gummy. Ultimately the mane six don't get many opportunities to banter, but they do wind up clearing the snow from Yakyakistan.    And yet, it's not clear how they accomplish this. Earlier, we saw the Yaks themselves failing to clear the snow together, so how were six ponies able to do a better job? They didn't even bring Spike, whose dragon breath might have been particularly helpful. Furthermore, while this situation is clearly desperate enough that going against Rutherford's wishes was the right call, I'm not sure if this moral could be applied more broadly. It actually does differ from "Applebuck Season" in that it also involves helping friends even if they don't ask for it, but I don't think I'd want unsolicited help unless the situation was indeed urgent. With that said, Pinkie doesn't barge in until she's certain that the situation is urgent and that the yaks don't have a plan, so more likely it's not meant to apply beyond such an urgent situation. Still a little rote, however.    Any other season, this would be an unremarkable episode, but this is season 7, and I'm just glad for something funny. While the episode doesn't capitalize on it, "Not Asking for Trouble" does give characters a lot more space to breathe than many others this season, and while it's not as funny as the other three episodes I liked, it's still got a lot of strong jokes going for it, and that's the most basic thing I'm asking for. It's disappointing that this is one of the season's best episodes, but beggars can't be choosers, and "Not Asking for Trouble" is enjoyable enough in its own right even if it's not terribly memorable. This show should be doing better, but this episode is fine.    Score: Entertainment: 7/10 Characters: 7/10 Themes: 5/10 Story: 6/10 Overall: 63/100   You can find more like this at my offsite blog. 
  2. Thrond
    "Honest Apple" is an Applejack and Rarity episode, and I'm genuinely not sure if I have anything constructive left to say about episodes they share. Of course I didn't like "Honest Apple," because I think that pairing is inherently unentertaining. Of course Applejack's worst traits are exaggerated here, because that's just how episodes starring this duo work. If there's one thing I can uniquely criticize about this episode, it's the moral, which is even more unbalanced than that of "Parental Glideance," and is followed by the episode falling apart at the seams with a formulaic ending and some genuinely obnoxious jokes, more or less destroying all my goodwill towards it.



    Rarity is hosting a fashion contest, and wants Applejack to participate as a judge in order to get a more function-oriented perspective on the contestants' clothing lines. However, once Applejack finally agrees and gets used to the idea, her criticism becomes increasingly rude to the point where she outright insults fashion in general, causing the contestants and other judges to leave.

    Applejack's boorishness here is the latest example of the writers apparently not understanding that we like to see these ponies approaching problems with sensitivity. It shouldn't be so hard to give characters faults without having those faults become overbearing, but I guess it's just easier to write stories when a character is obviously and unequivocally in the wrong. It's also apparently easy to write episodes about Applejack and Rarity together, because then you don't actually have to put effort into writing a conflict. They fundamentally don't understand each other, so it's natural that they'd come into conflict. People who like their dynamic apparently enjoy that they bring out the worst in each other, and I've explained over and over again why I dislike episodes pairing the two together, so I'm not going to harp too much on it. The writers simply don't agree that this contrast is a problem, so why bother criticizing it?

    But Applejack being insensitive isn't fun to me. There are other jokes in the episode, but they range from kinda amusing (Rarity shredding a guitar to relieve stress) to rather lazy (one of the contestants having a valley girl accent), and for the most part the episode coasts on Applejack's attitude. But I don't want to watch a character I like being rude, and even when she's been encouraged to be honest, I don't see why she'd outright insult fashion as a whole. If she and Rarity are friends, why would she think so badly of her friend as to insult her entire line of work?

    Sorry, I'm harping on the dynamic. I'll stop.

    It appears that Applejack becomes increasingly rude simply because Rarity doesn't stop her until it's too late. Applejack, being a farmer, has little nice to say about fancy dresses, and when she's encouraged to let out her unfiltered thoughts, of course she'll be rude. It's not fun to watch, because a character who's meant to be obnoxious is, y'know, still obnoxious, but it's also frustrating when Applejack takes the full blame for her rudeness, because Rarity did nothing to stop her. In the ending, Rarity decides to teach her by example, because Applejack realizing her mistake on her own would be too subtle, and never does the episode acknowledge that Rarity should have asked her to tone it down.

    Furthermore, while Rarity has a reasonable justification for inviting Applejack as a judge, Applejack's practicality only extends to work clothes. Nobody in Rarity's leg of the fashion industry would make clothes for farm workers, so I'm not sure what Rarity was expecting to get out of Applejack. They've been friends for over six seasons now, so if Applejack doesn't know much about chic casual wear, Rarity ought to know that by now. Different designers have different audiences in mind, and some are likely more akin to painters than salesponies. What might have been more entertaining would be if Applejack's criticisms actually did have some use, as at least then the entire episode wouldn't seem like a miscalculation on Rarity's part.

    But the actual lesson is fine, I guess. Learning to appreciate the work put into things you don't care for is pretty nice, even if it's one of the most simplistic places this episode could have gone. If they wanted to keep this moral, there must have been some way to not have Applejack only serve to act poorly and be taught a lesson. Furthermore, if Applejack really knows Rarity, shouldn't she already know how much work goes into fashion? I always felt that they just don't get along, but do they outright not spend much time with each other?

    Sorry, harping on the dynamic again.

    In the climax, the contestants and other judges return to their homes, but once Applejack learns her lesson, she effectively kidnaps them in order to prevent them from leaving, including jokes where the contestants run away from her and are later literally tied up with Applejack's lasso. Because kidnapping is hilarious, apparently. But as odious as that is, the bigger issue is that Applejack rounded them up to make things right, and that's about as predictable an ending as I can imagine for this show. In truth, the whole story here is deeply formulaic, but it's this stale, cookie-cutter ending which really got on my nerves, because it speaks even more to how lazily written this episode is.

    That Applejack was gonna be irritating comes with the premise, and I knew I wouldn't enjoy the dynamic, but while I've come to terms with that, I can at least criticize the episode for being formulaic, simplistic, and unbalanced. There are some funny jokes, and the moral is okay, but at the end of the day it's a very by-the-books Rarity/Applejack episode, and it comes with all of the things which make these episodes insufferable to me. The first half or so is relatively inoffensive and seems to be going somewhere interesting, but the latter half falls entirely apart and undoes all that good will. So it's another episode with this pairing that I don't enjoy. How surprising.

    Score:
    Entertainment: 4/10
    Characters: 3/10
    Themes: 5/10
    Story: 4/10
    Overall: 40/100
  3. Thrond
    I'd almost forgotten how it feels to hate an episode of My Little Pony this much. How long has it been? Since "What About Discord?" I mean, "Fluttershy Leans In" was awful, but at least it didn't sink to this level of annoyance and odiousness. "Hard to Say Anything" has almost nothing to redeem it. Most of its jokes fall flat, its plot is tired and lazy, the characters are borderline reprehensible, and the moral is pedestrian at best. Every season has its stinkers, but I was really hoping we'd moved past My Little Pony stooping this low, and having this in an already dire season is really starting to test my patience with this show.



    When the Cutie Mark Crusaders notice Big Mac making a surprising amount of long-distance deliveries to Starlight's old village, they hide in his cart to spy on him. Once there, they discover that he has a crush on Sugar Belle, and immediately work with him to win her affection. In the process, he's interrupted by a smug pretty boy named Feather Bangs, and so he and the CMC decide to compete with Feather Bangs to get Sugar Belle's attention, much to her dismay.

    Right from the cold open, we're "treated" to the Cutie Mark Crusaders being more obnoxious than they've been since "Twilight Time," chatting happily about invading Big Mac's privacy rather than asking him why he's going all the way to Starlight's village so much because... they think it'll be fun. That's the level of character likability the entire episode operates on, apparently assuming that the CMC pushing Big Mac to harass Sugar Belle in increasingly obnoxious ways is the height of comedy. At one point, he leans in to kiss her while she's sleeping, because the Crusaders are inspired by a Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. Sexual harassment? HILARIOUS!

    I hate this episode.

    Also, yes, the Crusaders are getting Big Mac to act out grand gestures from fairy tales, because they're idiots, and he's an idiot too. The Crusaders being detestable is one thing, but Big Mac is an adult and should know enough to question them. That he goes along with these twerps' ideas simply because they've riled him up enough speaks to a lack of maturity and self-control. He doesn't question kissing Sugar Belle while she's sleeping? The Crusaders take all the blame at the end, but Big Mac should have known to question some of these genuinely creepy acts.

    At the end, Sugar Belle tells Mac and Feather Bangs to leave her alone, but the climax has him completely disregard that and sneak into her house to rebuild her counter. This is only sweet in comparison to what he was doing previously, and if Sugar Belle had again kicked him out she'd be entirely in the right. But this is the emotional climax, so of course she immediately thanks him and starts nuzzling him, because that's how you should reward someone who does the exact opposite of what you asked him to do.

    I hate this episode.

    At first, Feather Bangs is one of the episode's few successful gags, as his smug, smarmy attitude hits the same sweet spot that Zephyr Breeze did, but there's nothing to him aside from getting in Mac's way and repeating cheezy one-liners. It gets repetitive long before he begins singing lame pastiches of pop songs from over five years ago, and between those songs and his overall appearance, he resembles nothing so much as Justin Bieber circa 2010, a reference made especailly dated due to Bieber looking nothing like that anymore and no longer making music which sounds anything like that. He's still the best character in the thing, but that only speaks to how wretched everyone else is.

    For all the elaborate exposition in the cold open, Sugar Belle doesn't do much in the episode aside from react to others, and her reactions are either swooning, surprise, or irritation. The episode's few charms come from the first, as early on her and Mac have a little chemistry, but the latter two are the ones which are most sympathetic because they reflected my own feelings of repulsion at Mac's behaviour. The episode makes no effort to develop her, and when she and Mac finally get together, it's hardly satisfying because her turn around to liking him again feels sudden, we don't know enough about her to care, and Mac's affection for her was only just introduced to us.

    The animators go nuts, because apparently nobody bothers to reign them in anymore, and add pink hearts to Mac's eyes just in case the dialogue, which outright states that Mac has a crush on Sugar Belle, was too subtle. Whole scenes, like one interminable song competition between Mac and Feather Bangs, appear to exist entirely so the animators and composers can mess around, but the songs are far too cheesy, the scene goes on for way too long, and the story is weak enough that the songs are hurt by their context. At its core, this is just another story about some dude consulting people near him to get the girl, and while his creepiness doesn't actually cause the girl to like him (at least at first), that doesn't make it any less tiresome.

    The only thing embellishing this story is that the original plans don't work, but those plans are so stupid that the story doesn't work as a subversion of traditional romantic comedies, and the scenes where Big Mac acts obnoxious or creepy towards Sugar Belle are still played for laughs as if they're not utterly insufferable. The moral might be the best part of the episode, but it too is pedestrian, and it's hurt by the fact that the Crusaders' schemes are inspired by fairy tales. I suppose that the episode isn't wrong to say that wooing someone should actually involve doing something which would make them happy, but it's worded that you shouldn't "try to impress them," and... wouldn't doing something which matters to them still impress them? What if a grand romantic gesture is exactly what they want? In context, the moral doesn't mean anything beyond "don't be obnoxious," and that's not good enough.

    I hate this episode. 

    The worst part is that while "Hard to Say Anything" is easily the season's least pleasant episode, it's hardly the only subpar entry this season. In what is rapidly shaping up to be the worst season for the show yet, it's impressive that this episode still stands out as being so vile, and between its obnoxious characters, poorly-delivered moral, generic plot and general lack of humour, this might just be one of the worst episodes of the entire show. At least S4's "Simple Ways" ends on a high note; this ends just as terribly as it began, and I cannot stand it. After this, tomorrow's Rarity and Applejack episode might not seem so bad, and I cannot think of anything more damning.

    The recurring theme of failing to communicate isn't even present here. For fuck's sake.

    Score:
    Entertainment: 1/10
    Characters: 3/10
    Themes: 4/10
    Story: 2/10
    Overall: 25/100   If you like seeing me this angry, then some of my season 5 reviews at my offsite blog might be to your taste. 
  4. Thrond
    There's a reason humour is my highest priority in this show. A funny or cute episode with narrative inconsistencies, a predictable storyline, or flawed characterization is still a funny or cute episode, whereas a boring episode with zero inconsistencies, is still a boring episode. The wonderful "Parental Glideance" is a strong example of that, demonstrating how energy and charm can overpower even a weak moral, and while I can't help but feel frustrated with the direction the moral took, everything around that is so plainly entertaining that it's still hard to resist. The fact is, I'll take a fun episode with a weak moral over yesterday's dull episode with a strong moral, and getting some lovely new characters in the form of Rainbow Dash's parents certainly helps.



    When Scootaloo is researching for a school project on Rainbow Dash, she visits Rainbow's parents in Cloudsdale, who proceed to tell her all about their daughter's life before Ponyville. While there, she discovers that the couple didn't know Rainbow became a Wonderbolt, and although Scootaloo is excited to break the news to them, she soon finds that Rainbow is less enthused, and in fact finds her parents' loud support highly embarrassing.

    Introducing Rainbow's parents follows a surprisingly consistent motif of familial relations this season, and it's also the last of the mane six's families we had to meet, since Fluttershy's parents were introduced last season. What makes these ponies, named Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles, so delightful is just how much they care about her daughter, and while they obviously go overboard, their noisy behaviour hits the sweet spot where it's easy to understand why they irritate Rainbow so much but it's not unpleasant to watch them. The other Wonderbolts all adopt knowing grins whenever the parents show up, and combined with the upbeat music choices and the couple's unabashed sweetness, they're nearly impossible to hate no matter how loud and overbearing they get.

    I think part of this comes from how the episode makes clear that they're not bothering anyone other than Rainbow herself, who doesn't outright tell them to stop at first. The episode is asking us to be amused by something which Rainbow doesn't like, and while I do have some problems with that, the episode never depicts them a mere nuisance like Pinkie in "Rock Solid Friendship." It's easy to understand where they're coming from, and they're ostensibly not causing Dash much more than embarrassment and mild irritation, and so the context provides little cause for secondhand embarrassment. Furthermore, the episode is rife with creative visual gags, ranging from the reactions of other ponies to Rainbow's parents to the parents somehow bringing a firework cannon to a show. All this creativity prevents the episode from becoming tedious, which it easily could have been in lesser hands. 

    While Scootaloo's project ultimately doesn't have much to do with the story, she maintains a consistent premise, and she's even the first pony we see in the terrific cold open, where she literally slingshots herself up to Cloudsdale. She's every bit as obsessive as she was in the past, and like Rainbow's parents, she's made a lot less irritating than she might have been simply because her admiration comes from a nice place and her obsession leads to silliness like squealing so sharply that she breaks Windy Whistles's plates. I can't help but question whether her attitude towards Rainbow is healthy, but she's sufficiently adorable in this, and one of the more interesting moments in the episode comes from when she's disappointed in Rainbow's reaction to her parents. We still haven't met Scootaloo's absentee family, but we get just a slight hint of her lonely home life, and having her in an episode about Rainbow's family simply feels right.

    Rainbow herself is at her best here, balancing the expected degree of egotism with her frustrations and just a hint of humility when needed. As proud as she is of her accomplishments (and she has every right to be!), she wants to earn those boasts, and so the fact that her parents praise even her failures is deeply frustrating to her. It makes sense that such a supportive environment would push her to feel good about herself, but also that she would push herself hard to actually earn all that praise, just as it makes sense that Rainbow, being so sensitive about her image, would be bothered by anything which could be construed as embarrassing. Best of all, Rainbow doesn't even need to be told the moral before she understands it. All she needs is the confirmation that she has disappointed someone who looked up to her, and that's exactly how a Rainbow Dash episode should work.

    All of that is excellent, but I simply cannot accept that Rainbow was wrong to feel embarrassed by her parents. While nobody thinks less of her because her parents are so supportive, it's not hard to understand why she's so bothered by them, and the episode never really acknowledges that they are overbearing, that they should back off just a little. That bad blood between them and Rainbow didn't come from nothing, and while part of it does come from Rainbow not fully appreciating their support, their antics are something which anyone would be at least a little bothered by. Sure, they're not helicopter parenting or anything like that, but there's no reason they couldn't support Rainbow without all the megaphones and fireworks, and I'm not sure the show should be encouraging this kind of behaviour, as benign as it might seem.

    But it's not a bad moral, especially because obnoxious support is still a form of support, and it's something which ought to be appreciated even if the form it takes leaves something to be desired. Scootaloo's presence helps with this regard, as she confirms that her parents are somehow not around to give that support for her, and so Rainbow should realize how lucky she is to have such loving parents. The thing is, Rainbow expresses early on that she loves her parents, so it seems that her needing to learn to appreciate them simply means that she's not allowed to criticize them for not giving her some space, which is clearly the real problem. It's nice to encourage children to appreciate their parents, but those parents should also respect their children's feelings.

    Even with those issues, however, "Parental Glideance" is exactly the surge of energy this season needed, and as an introduction to Rainbow's parents, it exceeds expectations. It intelligently paints a nuanced relationship between Rainbow Dash, her parents, and even Scootaloo, and is able to mine a lot of emotional depth even if its moral is heavily flawed. Rainbow's parents are adorable, and although I still wish for her to show a little more humilty sometimes, Rainbow's better here than she's been since early season 4. It's just a fun episode with a lot of smart touches to its characterization, and its moral isn't nearly bad enough to ruin that. Just a delight all around.

    Score:
    Entertainment: 9/10
    Characters: 9/10
    Themes: 6/10
    Story: 8/10
    Overall: 80/100
  5. Thrond
    The map is back.
     
    I thought it was over. Season 5's pitiful excuse for a running storyline, the cutie map is nothing more than a poor excuse to get specific pairs of ponies in certain locations. The show has never questioned it, never explained it, and never explored it in any detail, and worse, it brings with it a deeply predictable formula which rarely provides any development for the main characters or delves into its settings beyond mere regional flavours. I hated it, and the fact that it has been brought back for another season of its horrors fills me with nothing short of dread.
     
    And yet, even though the map is a plague on this show, each of its episodes is better than the last. "Spice Up Your Life," while even more formulaic than season 5's map episodes, is also much more charming than any of them, and lovely in its own right.
     
    When Twilight and Starlight resurrect the briefly-dormant Cutie Map, Rarity and Pinkie Pie are summoned to the nearby city of Canterlot to solve an unknown friendship problem. While there, Pinkie discovers that she doesn't care for the subtle flavours of Canterlot's high-rated restaurants, and leads Rarity by scent to a struggling Indian food place, managed by chef Saffron Masala and her father, Coriander Cumin. Coriander is frustrated with the restaurant's lack of business, which Rarity accredits to the restaurant's lack of a rating, which itself is derived from food critic Zesty Gourmand's very specific preferences.
     
    Rarity and Pinkie immediately offer to prepare the restaurant to be reviewed. Pinkie, joined by Saffron, attempts to court guests, while Rarity, knowing Zesty's preferences, works with Coriander to ensure that the restaurant looks exactly like other high-rated restaurants. Pinkie and Saffron aren't so pleased with this, selling the restaurant based on its unique identity, which Saffron is very passionate about. From there, the episode proceeds very predictably. The showcase goes poorly, Zesty declines to rate the restaurant, and not long afterwards, Rarity and Pinkie realize they were approaching the problem incorrectly, and decide to use Rarity's fame as a platform to promote the restaurant.
     
    With the episode following the formula of these map episodes to the letter, it needs to provide subtle nuances in order to stand out. Unfortunately, although the Rarity/Pinkie dynamic is still surprisingly amicable and entertaining, the episode has very little depth, arguably being the least distinctive of these map episodes. At least season 5's map episodes, for better and for worse, strained for complexity. Thankfully, this is in part made up for by just how charming Saffron and Coriander are. Unlike new season 5 characters like Sassy Saddles and Limestone Pie, they don't have a whole lot of hidden depth, but their family conflict and briefly described backstory is reasonably interesting, and their personalities are very likable. In addition, the representation of characters based on minority backgrounds is a great touch of diversity in this show*. As much as I want My Little Pony to stop piling on new characters, these are yet more solid additions.
     
    Zesty Gourmand, meanwhile, is a clear hate sink, possessing no redeeming traits and existing in the story solely as a despicable antagonist. She's not particularly memorable, but she serves the job well enough. Unfortunately, as a reviewer, I am a little uncomfortable with what this episode's implicit anti-critic stance. The primary issue is that Zesty presumes to tell others what they can and can't like, and while I'm no fan of pretentious, arrogant critics, the fact remains that critics can save you from a poor experience, and there are plenty of legitimately terrible restaurants out there. I have to wonder if Zesty's opinions are actually popular, and who she actually works for. Does she work for a newspaper? Does that newspaper get frequent complaints? Or is it some sort of regional taste thing? This doesn't really matter, but it's unclear.
     
    At the same time, though, "A Hearth's Warming Tale" writer Michael Vogel imbues the episode with charm, crafting a strong cultural atmosphere in the restaurant and keeping the interactions between the lead characters endearing. As a result, the episode is consistently enjoyable, even without a whole lot distinguishing it. A lot of this really is down to Saffron and Coriander, who are likeable enough that it's easy to be invested in their plight. The unique Indian-inspired ambiance also helps keep the episode from feeling too stale, as does the still-fresh duo of Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Moreover, aside from the whole critic issue, this is the cleanest map episode to date. It's less ambitious, but it's also free from any real major issues, and although its predictability makes it less entertaining, it's still a very consistent, likeable story.
     
    What I find especially interesting is how Rarity's fame becomes important at the end of the episode. Right now, of the mane six, Twilight is a princess and both Rarity and Rainbow Dash are celebrities. While Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Fluttershy don't share the same level of fame, they're still national heroes, even if they're so rarely recognized as such. This acknowledgement of Rarity's celebrity giving her a stronger voice is very interesting, and having her use it to promote struggling businesses is a good showcase of her generosity. Meanwhile, Pinkie continues to have her accomplishments ignored, but I suppose that comes with having smaller goals. After all, at least some of the main characters have to have more modest ambitions.
     
    The episode also boasts a song called "It's Gonna Work," and as if the showrunners somehow heard my complaints about the previous episode's song, because this song has a very distinctive flavour which utterly embarrasses "Can I Do It On My Own" from "Flutter Brutter." Much like the restaurant, it has an Indian style to it, and while the instrumental is a little overblown, the tune is very fun and catchy. I might just be happy to hear a song in this show that doesn't sound like a remix of earlier songs, but much like the season premiere, that freshness just makes the song all the more exciting.
     
    "Spice Up Your Life" doubles down on the formulas of the map episodes, but it does so in a way that is consistently enjoyable, due in no large part to a couple of great new characters and a few small touches that make the episode stand out just a little from the pack. For the most part, the episode coasts on the charm of its lead pair and its new characters, but these prove to be more than enough, thanks in no small part to the delightful writing of Michael Vogel. Add in a distinctive song, and you have yet another solid episode of season 6.
     
    I've said it before and I'll say it again: It feels so great to be satisfied with this show again.
     
    *Since writing this review, I've discovered that Saffron and Coriander are voiced by white actors. That is highly disappointing. Is there some reason why they couldn't hire South Asian voice talent? The episode doesn't seem to be culturally insensitive, but this casting does cast a bit of a shadow over the episode, especially for a forgettably charming episode like this. If you're not even going to cast actual Indian people, is the Indian cultural motif a little exploitative? I don't know, but this casting choice is highly questionable.
     
    Additional thoughts from the thread:
     

    Source: S06:E12 - Spice Up Your Life
  6. Thrond
    Daring Do has long been one of the most consistently entertaining characters in My Little Pony. As an obvious Indiana Jones homage, she allows the show to tell the kind of adventurous stories which were always part of the package without being constrained by the characters, and her appearances often boast more charm and creativity than many of the show's other adventure episodes. Until this point, all three of her episodes were great fun, but Daring Do as a character has never been explored in great detail, and is often the individual to learn the least from her journeys.

    "Daring Done?" seeks to change that, giving Daring the kind of significant internal conflict which she previously lacked. However, in spite of its genuinely interesting premise, the episode does everything in its power to water down its own story, and features some of the worst humour I've seen in the whole show. Some decent worldbuilding keeps it from being entirely worthless, but that's faint praise when so much of the episode is an exhausting chore to sit through, and it can't even commit to the things which originally made it interesting.



    When Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie learn that Daring Do has announced their retirement, they immediately seek her out to find out why. Once they arrive, Daring informs them of a village called Somnambula where she's become despised for bringing destruction wherever she goes, and that it's made her think Equestria might be better if she just quits. Shocked, Rainbow and Pinkie immediately request to see Somnambula for themselves and get to the bottom of these stories.

    The idea of a heroic character actually leaving destruction in their wake is something which is often explored in superhero media, including the recent film Captain America: Civil War, and it's endured for a reason. There's a lot of interesting points to be mined from examining the unintended side effects of a hero's actions, and the irony of Daring Do hurting those she's trying to save has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, the episode eschews any sophisticated commentary in favour of having Daring Do repeatedly state how insecure she is and the townsponies repeatedly describe stuff Daring messed up. Since Rainbow and Pinkie are here to save Daring's reputation, we never get any chance to sympathize with the townspeople, so instead the first half of the episode just repeats the same motions over and over again.

    By the halfway point, the episode has copped out entirely and introduced a suspicious hooded figure who is manipulating the townsponies, and who eventually turns out to be Daring Do's nemesis Caballeron. So not only does "Daring Done?" refuse to engage with its premise, it ultimately dismisses its most interesting ideas, leaving no real themes aside from an extremely generic pro-positivity message. In the end, Pinkie spouts a whole spiel about hope, but this such a rote, generic platitude that it's hard not to wish the episode had committed to its initial premise. Given the direction the story takes, the only way to tie these two ideas together is to suggest that Daring Do should just ignore accusations against her, no matter how valid they may be, and that's genuinely troubling.

    Worse still, Daring herself is a total wet blanket here. The energy and adventurous spirit which she brought to all of her prior episodes is entirely deflated here, replaced with a constantly morose attitude which quickly becomes tiring. She may have been sympathetic if the entire plot wasn't about disproving her, but without that, her constantly downbeat attitude quickly becomes a drag, and this isn't helped by it being effectively her only personality trait. Despite its attempt to give Daring some character development, this episode refuses to change her from the straightforward hero we saw elsewhere, except without the charisma. By the time she finally has a chance to show off and fight the villain, she's become a background character in her own story, taking a backseat to Pinkie's expository moralizing.

    All of that might have been tolerable if the episode were at all fun, but it only picks up steam at the very end, and even that isn't executed very well. Before the climax, there's very little action, and the dialogue consists overwhelmingly of Rainbow, Pinkie, and Daring shouting exposition at each other. This is one of the noisiest episodes of the entire show, featuring near-constant chatter, almost none of which consists of anything but the characters loudly stating their emotions about something which is happening. There's no subtlety, no nuance, no subtext, and there's also barely any jokes in the mix. Too often, the episode mistakes loud shouting for humour. The show's not usually like this, and for good reason.

    When the episode finally gets to that climax, Rainbow is kidnapped by Caballeron, which Daring and Pinkie don't notice in time to prevent despite being within earshot. Rainbow is kidnapped really easily, and while it makes some sense in context, it's still really disappointing to see one of the show's strongest and most adventurous characters reduced to a damsel in distress. Daring and Pinkie being so nearby is significantly more annoying, however, and the actual rescue scene is underwhelming, since its traps are passed not with cleverness or agility but with a pure leap of faith. That fits the theme, but it's still really dull, and the dialogue continues to be nothing more than ceaseless exposition.

    Rainbow and Pinkie's characterization is a bit of a mixed bag. Rainbow is nearly useless, shouting obnoxiously at everyone around her without affecting anything. The thoughtfulness which she developed through the first four seasons is totally absent here, and her aggression is somewhat exaggerated. Pinkie is somewhat less irritating, but only because it's her job to present the moral. For whatever reason, Pinkie Pie is the empathetic moderating force to Rainbow's coarse screaming (which speaks to how bad Rainbow's characterization is), but despite having some pleasantly admirable moments, Pinkie is often just as shouty and obnoxious. At least the she isn't steadfastly in the right from start to finish, as Pinkie has some doubts around the midway point, although she quicly rebounds apropos of nothing.

    It's a good thing the setting's colourful, then, because it's the closest anything in this episode comes to being fully realized. The town of Somnambula has an Egyptian aesthetic, with brown, densely packed buildings and ponies wearing Middle East-inspired clothing, and we learn a story about an ancient pharaoh who the town is named after who saved a friend from a sphinx by walking blindfolded over a rickety bridge. Somnambula isn't given enough time to display a personality, but she's admirable enough, and the ancient Egyptian aesthetic of this story is interesting. It's just too bad that it's blatantly meant to reflect the main moral, and by contrived coincidence very closely parallels Daring and Pinkie saving Rainbow in the climax. To hammer in the parallel, the climax even has visual similarities to the Somnambula story, and that just makes the coincidence feel even more contrived. Plus, nobody ever sleepwalks in this episode, so it's unclear why the pharaoh and village have that name.

    "Daring Done?" is the worst of the Daring Do episodes, and it's not even a contest. The contrived storytelling, the simplistic characterization, and the loud, expository dialogue all make for a genuinely exhausting episode to sit through. It arguably offers some of the show's best worldbuilding in recent years, as Somnambula is a fairly colourful and distinctive locale, but that's not enough to make the episode anything but a complete slog, and all the poor writing soon grows oppressive. What a huge disappointment.

    Score:
    Entertainment: 3/10
    Characters: 4/10
    Story: 3/10
    Themes: 4/10
    Overall: 35/100
    You can find more episode reviews at my offsite blog. 
  7. Thrond
    Earlier this season, "Newbie Dash" caused a lot of controversy for a number of reasons. I myself was disappointed by it, and yet, I have been completely unable to stop thinking about it since. I predict the same will be true of "Every Little Thing She Does," an interesting episode with a lot going on beneath the surface. It confirms Starlight Glimmer as an interesting character - but, unfortunately, it struggles with making her likeable, and despite a satisfying ending, has pacing issues that prevent the episode from being nearly as enjoyable to watch as it is to think about. But then, I'm still processing it even as I write, so perhaps a week from now it will have gone up in my opinion, much like the aforementioned "Newbie Dash."
     
    Starlight Glimmer is shirking on her friendship lessons. As much progress as she's made with magic, the whole friendship thing still needs to elude her, even with the help of Twilight's postcards. With Twilight away to give a lecture in Canterlot, Starlight attempts to engage in activities of friendship with her mentor's friends, and her stress eventually leads her to take up drastic - and wildly inappropriate - measures. Specifically, she uses a mind control spell in order to fulfill all of the friendship tasks Twilight has given her without any of the difficulties she perceives in them. This goes horribly wrong, as the five struggle to exercise autonomy and cause a mess as a result, and when Twilight gets back, she doesn't view Starlight's actions charitably.
     
    Although Starlight Glimmer is supposedly "reformed" this season, she's made numerous mistakes reminiscent of her previous actions. In "No Second Prances," her attempts at friendship often betrayed a character who rarely thinks about the consequences of her actions, and "Every Little Thing She Does" takes that subtext and makes it text. Here, Starlight Glimmer is practically an antagonist - while we would like to see her learn about friendship, her approach to it is clearly beyond the pale. Later in the episode, when she's confronted about this, she reveals her thought process: she had approached friendship problems as another task for her to complete, and so she was terrified of failing at them. Wrongheaded as this is, it grants further nuance to Starlight as a character, and even makes her a little sympathetic.
     
    It's even easier to sympathise with her when she realises her mistake and goes to apologize to Twilight's friends, who are amusingly nursing magical hangovers. Her apology sounds genuine and betrays real character growth, and seeing her later succeed at those same friendship lessons - entirely inadvertently at that, finally coming to understand what the lessons are supposed to mean - is deeply satisfying. Her reformation proposed that she could still learn to be better, and here, we finally get to see the initial seeds of that. She's becoming better.
     
    I have misgivings about this ending - specifically, I'm starting to lose patience with the show's refusal to give her any significant consequences. She has to clean up her own mess, but that's starting to feel like a slap on the wrist, and there's only so long that I can forgive it in exchange for character development and thematic poignancy. However, the level of character development on display here, as well as the satisfaction of Starlight making progress, is enough to negate that, even if it could have been stronger.
     
    I also kinda wish the episode more directly confronted Starlight's character faults, but perhaps this more subtle approach - having her grow out of them from slowly coming to truly understand friendship - will grow on me with time. It's certainly an interesting and emotionally evocative approach to the same issues, moving her forward as a character in a genuinely satisfying way.
     
    However, I can't help but feel that her apology would feel much more pronounced if her actions led to more severe consequences for her, as that might give her apology more emotional weight. Twilight rightly chews her out for her actions, but Starlight has to face little more than that except her own guilt, which we've been given ample reason to believe isn't productive for her. Surprisingly for this show, this feels like part of an incomplete story arc, and it might be much more satisfying if she actually appears to be growing and learning from her mistakes in subsequent appearances. Time will, of course, tell, but at least now I have a little more confidence in that happening.
     
    A bit more frustrating here is that the overall plot of this episode shares some uncanny similarities to "Lesson Zero." Starlight takes friendship lessons too seriously, gets stressed out, and uses mind control magic to solve those problems, just as Twilight did in that episode, and just like Twilight in that episode, her actions betray a significant level of character depth. I relate to Starlight's own issues a lot less than Twilight's, most likely because Starlight is simply a less likeable character than Twilight was in the first two seasons, but perhaps also because the antisocial behaviour is much more of a trend for her than it was with Twilight. The episode is clearly trying to compare Starlight to how Twilight used to be, even having her dismiss friendship in favour of magical studies, but even though her actions were similarly unacceptable, Twilight in "Lesson Zero" was still more sympathetic than Starlight is in a lot of "Every Little Thing She Does."
     
    Indeed, the real issue with Starlight here is that the episode provides very little reason to be invested in her. So far, this season is succeeding in making her sympathetic, but only in increasingly small doses, and more and more it's failing at making her likeable, especially since it's giving her few, if any, redeeming qualities. She's only really sympathetic once Twilight finally arrives to confront her about her mistakes, and even then only because she's apologetic and most likely learning from her mistakes.
     
    Part of the problem is that the character faults which led her to make her mistakes in this episode don't seem all that different from the faults which caused her actions in the season 5 premiere, where she was an outright villain. Understanding those character issues make her decisions more complex and interesting, but they do very little to endear her to me. She's one of the show's most complex characters, but it's hard to appreciate that when the show's giving us so few reasons to like her beyond her consistent character development. When her only flavour is antisocial behaviour, that can only get her so far, especially as she bizarrely becomes less and less likeable. Here, she barely even has the guilt which defined her earlier this season.
     
    All of that, however, isn't the main issue with the episode. Despite my complaints, I find the episode's take on Starlight Glimmer to be fascinating and risky, and I can appreciate a flawed experiment if it's ultimately successful and satisfying, which overall I think "Every Little Thing She Does" is. The problem is that it's not terribly entertaining, and this is especially frustrating because this show seems unable to resist the impulse to resort to shenanigans.
     
    For the bulk of the episode, all we see is the mane six robotically obeying Starlight's commands with mere slivers of their previous personalities. Applejack and especially Pinkie have a couple amusing gags, but when these fun personalities are muted and the focus character is so unlikeable, the gags have to be on point, and unfortunately, they're often simply lazy and predictable. Worse still, the trance-induced versions of the mane six are frequently more creepy than amusing, which only adds to the uncomfortable atmosphere already brought about by Starlight's manipulative actions. We have nobody to root for, and the context of the events happening onscreen is more than a little disturbing, which ends up leading to tonal dissonance. When this goes on for as long as it does, it eventually goes from unnerving to tedious, and the overall weakness of the humour doesn't help matters.
     
    That's not enough to make me dislike this episode, but while this is one of the most fascinating episodes of the season, it's yet another example that a satisfying ending and intriguing characterization only goes so far when an episode simply isn't consistently entertaining. Like many episodes of its ilk, the episode isn't a complete slog to get through, and certainly has its moments - especially closer to the end - but it drags in places, and there's a lot about Starlight as a character and how the episode handles her that I have mixed feelings about. Not a misfire, and very admirable for its ambition, but definitely flawed.
     
    Score
    Entertainment: 6/10
    Character: 7/10
    Theme: 7/10
    Story: 7/10
    Overall: 68/100
     
    Additional thoughts:
     

    Twilight's mentor role being dull is so unexceptional at this point that it's not even worth mentioning, but I need to get it off my chest somewhere. I thought having a student would allow the writers to delve further into her anxieties about all of her new responsibilities, but honestly, aside from needing to let Starlight do her own thing - something which this episode kinda calls into question - she seems awfully confident about all of this. I swear that the writers are squandering every opportunity to make Twilight's life changes meaningful and make her interesting as a character again. At least she didn't have a strong role in this episode.
     
    It's really interesting that the show seems to be having us sludge through every painful step of Starlight's reformation. Sunset Shimmer had a rapid change due to having empathy literally forced into her, but Starlight is moving a lot more slowly. Unfortunately, this makes the cries that she got off too easily ring more and more true to me. I'm interested in her, and her character development makes me happy for her, but the show has given me no reason to really care about her - she could be taken out of the show at the end of the season, and at this point, I would not even be sad. Worse still, as I mentioned, the show's increasingly making it hard to like her, as it just plain refuses to bring up anything about her to like. Even now that she's reformed, she's defined almost exclusively by her antisocial behaviour. That fear of failure is kinda deep, but it's also something which every other character on this show shares. If she's not even going to be an excuse to explore more character depth from Twilight, then why is she even here? At least she usually brings character development.
     

    Was not huge on all of the parallels between Starlight and Twilight. I don't think characters who are like "how Twilight used to be" are all that interesting, which is weird, because "interesting" is what Twilight used to be. I want Starlight to have her own personality - specifically, one with actual endearing traits.
     
    And many more comments as I continue to grapple with this episode. See the S06:E21 - Every Little Thing She Does thread for that.
     
    You can find more reviews at my offsite blog.
  8. Thrond
    Despite appearances, season 6 has radically changed the way that these cutie map episodes play out. For one, season 6 has introduced the unprecedented notion that these episodes could be fun, and even - gasp! - light-hearted and energetic. It's a positive development, but not one without negative side effects. As these adventure-driven episodes become more and more entertaining, they become less and less adventurous, to the extent that this latest entry, "Viva Las Pegasus," comes packed with almost no surprises whatsoever. That's not to say that the episode has nothing interesting going on - its villain (because of course there's a villain) isn't quite like anything we've seen in the show before, and this is likely the most outright polished episode the season has had - but it's hard to be impressed when the show is working so comfortably within its own boundaries, and when there's little here unexpected or even all that important. Still, polish and humour go a long way!
     
    When they're summoned to the party city of Las Pegasus, Applejack and Fluttershy meet a businessman named Gladmane, who runs a resort hotel and makes a big show about how he treats everyone in his employ as a friend. Not seeing a major friendship problem, they return to the lobby, where they encounter Flim and Flam, who are selling tickets when they break into an argument. Fluttershy presumes that this is the friendship problem they were sent to solve, but Applejack, resentful of the brothers after her experiences with them, refuses to help, searching for other problems - which she finds, twice over, in the form of Gladmane's other employees having arguments of their own.
     
    When they reconvene, Applejack and Fluttershy take note of how all three problems seem to benefit Gladmane, and they immediately become suspicious of him. A hint from one acrobat's pet mouse tips them off that Gladmane is feeding them lies to divide them, but it's likely that just about any viewer would have figured this out already. We know there's a friendship problem here, so when the first thing we see is six minutes of Gladmane talking about how he and his employees are friends, it's suspicious. The episode briefly distracts from that with Flim and Flam's argument, but when the real problem comes to light, it's no surprise. Thankfully, the episode isn't building up any sort of mystery, and it provides some modestly interesting ideas in the process of getting to the point.
     
    One of these things is Applejack's complete refusal to help the Flim Flam Brothers. Many people claim that Applejack doesn't have any interesting flaws, but this is the third episode this season in which she's shown to have difficulty in changing course when she's set on something. As nice as that is, though, it's frustrating that, unlike prior (and admittedly less enjoyable) episodes to spotlight this, the episode severely weakens this flaw by making it important to uncovering Gladmane's shady behaviour. Her stubbornness leads her to uncover the performers having similar issues to Flim and Flam, but this isn't nearly as interesting as tackling the negative effects of that character trait in a genuinely entertaining episode might have been.
     
    What works a little better is Gladmane himself, who keeps his employees in line with divide-and-conquer tactics. This isn't exactly new for this show - it's the same thing employed by Discord in "The Return of Harmony" - but whereas Discord turned the mane six against each other largely just for fun, Gladmane sees his employees as a threat. Repeatedly mentioned through the episode is how the various performance groups might have been able to move on from the resort, and Flim and Flam are stated - and later shown - to be capable of taking over the resort. On a subtle level, this speaks to the power of cooperation, and serves as the closest thing to a proper moral that the episode has to offer.
     
    It's just that main characters working together to outsmart some jerk isn't exactly new territory for this series. As a matter of fact, there are significant structural similarities between "Viva Las Pegasus" and the previous map episode, "Spice Up Your Life," and the new characters on offer here aren't as interesting as in the earlier episode. Gladmane initially has the potential to be a fun-to-hate villain, but he doesn't have nearly enough screentime for that, and as a result he's largely forgettable. I enjoy the modern, Vegas-inspired location, but at no point to Applejack or Fluttershy ever interact with it, rendering it as little other than somewhat unusual set dressing.
     
    Most criminal of all, however, is the simple fact that, by placing Applejack and Fluttershy in a location which interests neither and giving them an impersonal goal, all of the potential fun of their dynamic is removed. "Rarity Investigates!" is another episode with a predictable main plot and a specific goal, but it has actual stakes for Rainbow Dash, and it begins with multiple scenes just showcasing Rarity and Dash's friendship. Because Applejack and Fluttershy are summoned by the map, there's no time to see their dynamic in a casual setting. Worse still, there's no real stakes, as even when the team's initial plan is thwarted, that turns out to have been part of their plan all along. Thankfully, this is the map episode which does the most to balance its lead characters, as both Fluttershy's charitable goodwill and Applejack's stubbornness contributed to stopping Gladmane. They're equally important, and unlike "Spice Up Your Life," this isn't a case where one is doing a worse job than the other. In at least that sense, this is the most polished version of the formula yet.
     
    With that said, it is nice to see Applejack open her mind a little and finally help out Flim and Flam, even if it's only to help the other employees, and the plan which Flim and Flam come up with to thwart Gladmane is legitimately delightful. Fluttershy wearing a disguise and whispering everything she wants to say to Flam is a lot of fun, but the fake name "Impossibly Rich" is even better, subtly poking fun at pony naming conventions while being played completely straight. Additionally, the boisterous sales pitches of the Flim Flam Brothers are always entertaining, and there's plenty of other small touches which, alongside the fast pace of the episode, keep things bouncy and entertaining.
     
    "Viva Las Pegasus" is clearly not an episode which benefits from much analysis, but it's not exactly new for a My Little Pony season to be filled with episodes which don't exactly move the show forward. There's not a lot here to excite or surprise, but it's also rarely boring, chewing quickly through its plot and throwing in plenty of fun, if not terribly memorable, little moments along the way. I wish episodes like this were a lot less frequent, but if that were the case, I might not like what replaces them. I spent a lot of time complaining about all the ways in which the episode plays it safe, but in truth, this is yet another really enjoyable episode in what's shaping up to be possibly the most consistently entertaining season in a while. If the show playing it safe half the time is what that costs, then I'll take it.
     
    Score
    Entertainment: 7/10
    Characters: 7/10
    Theme: 6/10
    Story: 6/10
    Overall: 65/100
     


    Additional thoughts:

    Showing a big business type using underhanded methods to control his employees might have been really daring if the episode had anything to say about it. Oh well.

    The map has become such a blatant crutch that the episode doesn't even show it for a full minute. It does its job and then it's gone. If we're not gonna see anything interesting from these character dynamics, and if the different settings are gonna be window dressing for formulaic stories, then why even have it? It seems like an excuse to have easy stories for me.
     

    You can find more reviews at my offsite blog.
  9. Thrond
    One of the most promising changes made in season 5 was the Cutie Mark Crusaders finally acquiring their cutie marks. Although the trio had already been shifting towards more varied episodes after two seasons of grating repetition, gaining these cutie marks not only put an end to their most significant character arcs, the exact nature of these marks also paved the way for new stories, as the trio consecutively gained cutie marks which showcased how they applied their passion for cutie marks into helping others find and understand theirs. This season hasn't dwelled too much on this, however, and this is for the best, because it could easily have been overly focused on new characters like season 5 was. Instead, "The Fault in Our Cutie Marks" is only the second Crusaders club episode this season, and not only does it find a unique and novel approach to cutie marks, it's also a poignant, charming, adorable and uplifting episode which is up there with the best the show has to offer.
     
    The Cutie Mark Crusaders have been busy. They've gained a reputation for being experts on cutie marks, having made many ponies happy by helping them understand or acquire their cutie marks. However, nothing could prepare them for what they would face next: A griffon named Gabby who, admiring pony society, wants to get a cutie mark of her very own. Unfortunately for her, there's nothing that the CMC can do about it. It's impossible.
     
    As this episode prominently features a new character, it had the important task of making her likeable, and thankfully, Gabby is possibly the most endearing new character this season, even with the tight competition for that title. She's chipper and adorable from the start, good-natured and good-hearted, wanting nothing more than her own cutie mark but never becoming bitter or ill-tempered when it becomes clear she won't get it. She paints a cutie mark on herself, seeming to be unwilling to accept the truth, but even then she doesn't lash out.
     
    In many ways, Gabby is actually similar to Thorax from "The Times They Are A Changeling," in that she's a friendlier member of a generally hostile species who was inspired by an act of friendship from the mane six. In this case, that act was the events of "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone," and Gabby's mere existence as a griffon interested in friendship helps mitigate my biggest issue with that episode. Griffon society might have collapsed under its own greed and selfishness, but that doesn't mean there weren't griffons interested in friendship. It doesn't excuse that episode's implication that griffons need to accept pony values, but it does suggest that those values aren't exclusive to ponies, and that subtext is largely absent from this episode.
     
    What made the abundance of new characters in season 5 so frustrating is that they frequently took the spotlight from the main characters. Thankfully, like many other season 6 episodes, the returning characters are just as important as the new characters, and unlike "Gauntlet of Fire" or "Spice Up Your Life," the CMC are just as interesting as the new character. They have to deal with the hard conversation of telling Gabby she can't get a cutie mark, which they are obviously anxious about. They spend a decent chunk of the episode trying to figure out how to break the news to her, and even after they do, they need to confront the fact that they couldn't help her. Scootaloo, in particular, links Gabby's dream of getting a cutie mark to her own dream of flying, adding a subtle layer of character depth. This is how the show should be deepening its characters at this point.
     
    In its final quarter of running time, "The Fault in Our Cutie Mark" derives emotional power from anticipation and dramatic irony. We know that Gabby can't get a cutie mark, and we simply wait until the CMC have to break her heart. Then, we know that Gabby's cutie mark is fake, and we wait for the CMC to realize that and need to confront her. However, instead of going for the crushing emotional blow, the episode pushes all the cute buttons, subverting the expectations it built up.
     
    As it turns out, Gabby painted a cutie mark on herself not to avoid the truth, but to make the CMC feel better about their failure. Instead of ending on emotional devastation, it ends with adorable uplift. In the end, the CMC fashion Gabby a pair of shield symbols of her own, makeshift cutie marks with which they induct her into the crusaders. They teach her that she doesn't need to have a cutie mark to find her purpose - which is possibly the most important cutie mark-related lesson the show could have offered. We don't need some symbol of merit to pursue our passions, or even to follow our dreams.
     
    Much less important but worth noting is that this is the second episode this season which has prominently featured Twilight's dorky side, something I had long thought to be missing in action. It appears that taking Twilight out of the spotlight for a while is exactly what it took for her to regain some of her sorely missed personality. This is just one of many small touches which make the episode especially fun. Another one is the excellent cold open, featuring two parents concerned about their daughter's cutie mark, which is a skull and two bones. It turns out to be an archaeology cutie mark, and the parents apparently thought she'd be a pirate, but this is still a brilliant bit of subtle dark humour which demonstrates the show's strong ability to balance adult-oriented jokes with humour that appeals to its target audience.
     
    Unfortunately, the episode also boasts a song, and it just might be one of the show's weakest compositions to date. It's not a bad song, necessarily, and the lyrics contain many of the episode's strengths, but the instrumentation and melody are about as familiar as the musical numbers in this show gets. The string-heavy arrangement sounds almost exactly the same as countless other songs from the show, and while the melody thankfully goes for fun energy over the cloying emotion which infested season 5, it still sounds like the songwriters are starting to run out of ideas. I can still go back to many of the songs from earlier seasons, so the continued decline of this aspect of the show is heartbreaking.
     
    But that doesn't change how excellent everything surrounding the song is. I want to hug this episode. "The Fault in Our Cutie Marks" is possibly the most charming episode of the show since season 4, with a cute new character, a heartwarming final scene, and a fantastic message. It boasts great humour but also smart storytelling, subverting its own expectations while still deriving emotional power from them. Aside from the weak song, there's little to complain about here. If "The Fault in Our Cutie Marks" isn't a perfect episode, then it's still as close to the ideal My Little Pony episode as anything's come this season, managing to be cute, funny, and poignant in equal measure. It just might be this season's best.
     
    Score
    Entertainment: 9/10
    Characters: 10/10
    Theme: 10/10
    Story: 10/10
    Overall: 98/100
     
    You can read more reviews on my offsite blog.
  10. Thrond
    In my scoring system, two of the four elements which contribute to the episode's rating are theme and characterization. These are both essential elements of a great episode, but they're meaningless if the episode can't entertain all the way through. "Buckball Season" is a strong example of this, as it boasts fully-formed themes, a relatively strong moral, and some of the strongest characterization we've seen in this show, but none of that can compensate for its eventual descent into tedium which is only slightly mitigated by a strong ending. Add on some particularly weak storytelling, and those stronger elements are only barely enough to save the episode from being outright terrible.
     
    When Applejack enlists Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie to help her form a team to beatAppleoosa in a tournament for a sport called Buckball, she discovers that the latter two take a natural shine to the sport and demonstrate skills beyond the two more athletic ponies. Excited, Applejack and Rainbow Dash ask their friends to compete for them, alongside the surprisingly adept Snails, who just happens to be walking by. However, their approach to training is to place a lot of pressure on Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, which causes them a lot of stress, therefore weakening their abilities.
     
    The first question that crops up is exactly how Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy especially become so adept at the game, especially compared to their more athletic and coordinated friends. Pinkie Pie is always allowed a bit of leniency due to her often inexplicable nature, but Fluttershy is a bit harder to justify, and it feels like the two only display greater capabilities because there wouldn't be a plot otherwise. Except, there's hardly a plot as is, and the entire premise comes across as half-baked. Why does it need to be a three-pony team? Why do Rainbow Dash and Applejack need to be excluded? There's no particular reason why this couldn't work if Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were merely on a team with their more competitive friends, and there's no real reason that they need to be more skilled after barely picking up the sport than ponies who are actually, y'know, sporty. Not only does it make no sense, it's completely pointless.
     
    Applejack and Rainbow Dash want to include a unicorn in order to compete with the unicorn onAppleoosa's team, but why was this component even necessary? It doesn't amount to much other than Snails joining the team to provide brief moments of comic relief, and even this is largely brushed aside. If anything, the early montage of unicorns trying out and failing makes the relative success of Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie even more confounding. Is the episode trying to indicate that a relaxed approach actively works better than a more intense approach? Why isn't there a single unicorn who has the same approach to sports as Applejack and Rainbow Dash? Is all ofPonyville just inept at sports? Why does this episode need to play out this way?
     
    The episode doesn't particularly care about any of these questions, or even about plot cohesion at all. Snips being surprisingly skilled atBuckball comes across as redundant after seeing Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie being the same, it's far from the only thing, as the main interest of "Buckball Season" seems to be endlessly telegraphing its moral. Early on, the episode at least derives energy from the characters' personalities and even a few fun visual gags, but eventually the droning buildup to the moral becomes more and more overwhelming, and when the everything the episode has done for a good five minutes is based around what is so obviously the moral, it becomes a bit of a slog.
     
    The episode might have been a lot easier to swallow if there was anything particularly interesting about the dynamic between Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, but not only does the episode strain to find common ground between the two, it also has them constantly reacting to outside forces rather than bouncing off of each other. Compare this to, say, Rarity's own dynamic with Pinkie Pie in "The Gift of the Maud Pie," where the two expressed interest in each other's pursuits and jovially bounced their personalities off of each other. This might be the first episode focused on the Pinkie/Fluttershy dynamic, but it gives us less idea of how their personalities interact with each other than episodes which star neither of them do.
     
    The episode becomes a whole lot clearer, however, when its actual moral is considered. The episode states that what works for you might not work for others, specifically in the context of working under pressure, and while this is the most obvious approach to a not particularly fresh moral, it's effective nonetheless, especially in the third act, where the episode's fairly strong characterization is shown. Most of the more flavourful character beats are forced, the worst of which being Fluttershy snapping at RD and AJ with an obnoxious sequence of grotesque facial expressions, but the episode often showcases a relative ability to balance character traits, which is only really brought down by the simplicity of the plot and the forced character beats.
     
    This is especially impressive given that the episode has a new writer, as new writers are often prone to flawed or even shoddy character work. The episode never really brings out the best of any of its characters, but it also doesn't compromise any traits, and all four of the main characters present at least feel like they ought to at this point in the show. At the end, the episode really plays on the years of friendship which are now behind these characters, and has the good grace to actually have Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie express themselves to Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and then to have the latter two realize the problem all on their own. The ending, where Rainbow Dash and Applejack realize what they've been doing wrong and show more sensitivity to their friends' feelings, is excellent, not only for how well the characters are able to convey the moral but also for the level of respect and understanding they have for each other. See? There was no need to make the moral so blatantly obvious.
     
    Strong character work and a well-executed moral aren't enough to compensate for the poor storytelling and tedious repetition, but enough of the episode is at least somewhat entertaining to slightly save the episode. "Buckball Season" can't quite rise above its own tedium, and it boasts some of the show's worst storytelling in a while, but it has its moments, and that moral and character work is enough to give it more merit than a lot of the show's weaker elements. It's just unfortunate that this is another simplistic, written-to-moral episode which overemphasizes the eventual friendship lesson at the expense of all else. There might be a great episode somewhere in here, but it's wrapped in too many tiresome elements to properly shine. It starts strong and ends strong, and that lasts just long enough to prevent the episode from being outright bad - but just barely.
     
    Score
    Entertainment: 4/10
    Character: 8/10
    Theme: 7/10
    Story: 3/10
    Overall: 55/100
     
    Additional thoughts:
     
    Fluttershy making weird faces when she shouted at Applejack and Rainbow Dash was the episode's clear nadir for me. Not only was the same idea being repeated yet again, the animators were also shoving these obnoxious, grotesquely exaggerated facial expressions at us which never even come close to being funny. I like the art style because it's cute, goddamit! Why would you ever put so much effort into making it ugly?
     
    I think I find this episode so irritating because a lot of what it does is outright pointless, and the ending saves it somewhat by finally getting to the point and doing so extremely well. I spent two paragraphs on my blog complaining about the premise largely because so many aspects of it are goddamn pointless. Repeating the moral every minute, too, is almost condescendingly pointless. Again, good thing the ending saves it somewhat.
     
    The script's a real garbage fire, and a lot of the dialogue ain't great, but the voice acting and relatively solid characterization goes a long way towards selling it, if just barely. The presentation has to work overtime to save the damn thing, but it just about pulls through in the end.
     
    You can read more reviews [including "Dungeons & Discords," which I forgot to upload here] on my offsite blog.
  11. Thrond
    My Little Pony, as a fantasy setting, is prone to depicting some of its races as consistently evil, or at least consistently unpleasant. While the griffons and dragons aren't necessarily evil, they are stereotyped with negative traits, and the changelings - one of the most fascinating and enigmatic of the show's races - is distinctly shown as almost exclusively villainous. "The Times They Are a Changeling" is the show's third - and, to date, most successful - attempt to give one of its "evil" races a deeper and more human element, and while it retains the main issues of "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" and "Gauntlet of Fire," the episode is so packed with depth and profundity that it rises above those issues as one of the show's most impressive achievements.
     
    In the cold open, Spike, Starlight Glimmer, and Twilight Sparkle are visiting the Crystal Empire, specifically because Twilight wants to see her niece again. When they arrive, they find the city in a state of mass hysteria due to a changeling sighting. Spike offers to join the royal guards while searching for it, but when he finds it, it's revealed that the changeling, named Thorax, has no intention of hurting anyone and simply wishes to overcome his base nature and make friends.
     
    That is a powerful premise on its own, and it becomes even more powerful when Spike befriends Thorax and takes on the heavy task of getting the citizens of the Empire to accept him. He finds, however, that many in the Empire have deep-seated prejudices against the changelings, including Shining Armour, who remembers that changelings were the ones to nearly ruin his wedding. The idea that all changelings are so hostile is mostly ludicrous, and way the episode takes on prejudice is, at least for the most part, impressively bold. Cadance and Shining, often criticized for not being given much in the way of flaws, are shown staying largely closed-minded about Thorax, but this is never allowed to morph into flat antagonism. It's clear that they are worried about their baby being kidnapped, and this tends to weigh heavier in their mind than believing Spike.
     
    Unfortunately, the episode's attempts to address prejudice are also where the main issue lies, as the episode is largely non-functional on an allegorical level. Thorax is consistently an exception from how changelings tend to be, making this the third time that My Little Pony has depicted non-pony races as not understanding friendship and needing to be taught to be nice by a single ponies. I figure that Thorax is meant to be a conduit for accepting those who, say, might have done wrong in the past, but this sits uneasily when Thorax is meant to contrast with every other changeling. This might be attributed to its short running time, but it's hard to apply the Crystal Ponies' prejudice against changelings to real-world prejudice. If we do try to apply it there, then Spike's concluding song about how "a changeling can change" feels uncomfortably misguided, as it doesn't allow for the possibility that those prejudices are entirely unreasonable.
     
    But then, perhaps that's the wrong way to look at it. Thorax can't control the fact that he's born a changeling, but the episode expands upon the changelings in ways that make it easier to see why the Crystal Ponies are distrustful of changelings. Apparently, when love is nearby, changelings are overtaken by the instinct to feed off of it, which is frequently displayed by Thorax wrestling with some instinctual outburst. He's starving, and his changeling physiology keeps compelling him towards a hostile method of feeding, but his values lead him to stick with it. He never understood a way to live aside from attacking ponies in order to feed, but when he saw the mane six fighting off the changelings in Canterlot, he began to think about what it would be like to accept friendship. I'm still not entirely comfortable with how the show aggressively takes down any character who might not subscribe to the form of friendship shown by its main characters, but Thorax being inspired to seek friendship is significantly better than Moondancer having it shoved down her throat in "Amending Fences."
     
    Even as someone who never particularly disliked Spike episodes, I have to say that he's gotten a particularly good deal this season. "Gauntlet of Fire," as unadventurous and plain as it was, depicted him in a positive and charming light, and here he's given a great deal of complexity without making him a jerk or the butt of a joke. I maintain that characters are more interesting when dealing with personal issues than when proactively displaying their best qualities, but "The Times They Are a Changeling" shows that nothing is better than doing both. Spike's status as the hero of the Crystal Empire becomes very important here, as it's that status which he needs to use to convince the Crystal Ponies to accept Thorax. And yet, it's a double-edged sword, as that limelight makes the already risky act of defending a changeling even more dangerous. For him to come through like he did required a great deal of personal strength.
     
    In a way, Spike coming around to using his influence to help someone less fortunate than him is reminiscent of Rarity in "Spice Up Your Life," only with a much more distinctive story. However, Spike's arc here is also reminiscent of "The Cart Before the Ponies" in how Spike is constantly talked over and not believed by ponies older than him. This episode improves on that theme considerably by requiring Spike himself to stand up to the closed-minded ponies around him, as well as by giving the older ponies a more believable - if no less absurd - reason to not listen and hold the perspectives they do.
     
    On a purely technical level, it's lovely to see the Crystal Empire again, and the episode transitions between humour and drama much more effectively than the similarly-set "Equestria Games." When it's funny, it's very funny, and when it's dramatic, it's overwhelmingly poignant, hitting like a sack of bricks with some of its most emotionally intricate scenes. The song near the end, sung by Spike, doesn't have the most inventive melody, and Spike's singing voice is far from the show's strongest. However, between the emotive lyrics, the passionate performance, and the very effective context, it's one of several emotional peaks in the episode itself, and it absolutely works. A little less in the way of expository dialogue would aid the flow, but even as is this is a very minor issue.
     
    The theme of acceptance isn't new, but it's the details which make "The Times They Are a Changeling" stand out so much. Spike's character complexity, the expansion of changeling lore, and the stronger thematic strands make this at least one of the season's high points, if not one for the entire show. As a takedown of real-world prejudice, it doesn't entirely work, in part just because of the place changelings hold in this universe. Its take on the changelings is fascinating, but it also continues the questionable threads in how the series treats its non-pony races. However, it's a powerful, poignant, entertaining and memorable example of the show's optimism on full fire, and the same details which make the episode fail as an allegory make its ultimate message of acceptance all the more powerful.
     
    After all, if even a changeling, conditioned by both nature and nurture to be dangerous and aggressive, can change, then we all can.
     
    Score
    Entertainment: 9/10
    Character: 10/10
    Theme: 9/10
    Story: 10/10
    Overall: 95/100
     
    You can read more reviews on my offsite blog.
  12. Thrond
    "28 Pranks Later" was a particularly worrisome synopsis. It promised to repeat the worst crimes of "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well" and continue to have Rainbow Dash re-learn already-known lessons. Thankfully, the episode itself is surprisingly good-natured and entertaining, even though it still feels like a repetition of earlier character development. It's just too bad that this is the show at its most thuddingly predictable and simplistic, repeating all of the previous episode's mistake with better characterization and humour. For an episode so close to being legitimately solid to simply not go the extra mile suggests that this show is simply not willing to do what it needs to do to reach its former quality, and that's the most disappointing thing this show has done since "Newbie Dash."
     
    In this episode, Rainbow Dash is confronted about her pranking streak, which her friends have not enjoyed very much. Misunderstanding her friends' complaints as a simple accusation of laziness, she goes out of her way to impress them more with pranks. Eventually, she decides to prank the entirety of Ponyville by replacing the CMC's scout cookies with goofy "prank cookies" which coat the eater's mouth with rainbow colours. This prank goes horribly wrong, however, when it turns all of Ponyville into zombies.
     
    The whole cookie-obsessed-zombie premise is really fun on paper, and the show often creates a satisfyingly creepy atmosphere to accompany it. Unfortunately, while this should have been the episodes centrepiece, it's mostly reserved for later on, and even then it's drawn out with repetition and slow pacing. If played entirely straight, this could have made for a fun, tense, spooky episode that might have made up for the episode's other issues, but instead the whole deal is a prank played to teach Dash about the error of her actions. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but the actual execution is repetitive and showcases the vast majority of its ideas right off the bat, only to conclude a few minutes later.
     
    This is compounded by the utter predictability of the episode. Every twist is telegraphed several minutes in advance, and the episode's attempts to build up suspense only feel like drawing out the inevitable when nothing is unexpected and every event is obvious. I've tried to avoid criticizing My Little Pony for being predictable in the past, as there's plenty that can be done with a predictable overarching plot, but just like "The Cart Before the Ponies," the episode provides so little else to latch on to. "28 Pranks Later" at least has a few inventively humorous moments, but as the episode goes on, it increasingly leans on suspense and its cool tone, and unfortunately only the latter holds the final act afloat.
     
    Before the climax, at least, there's a fair few solid jokes, which comfortably demonstrate how they can seem funny to Rainbow Dash but not to the ponies being pranked. One scene has Dash replace Rarity's sewing machine with cake after planting a red herring, which is clever but also seems to damage some of Rarity's fabric. Later, one scene opens with a fairly adult sight gag of Applejack waking up in bed with a pig, only to discover that her bed has been subtly moved to the pig-pen. There's plenty of other fun moments, which only makes it all the more grating that the episode doesn't have a snappier pace to make them even stronger.
     
    A large chunk of the problem is that having Rainbow Dash learn this lesson feels redundant for her as a character, and the episode makes very few attempts to add any more nuance. One scene involves her pulling a rather simple prank on Pinkie, indicating that RD's pranking is done out of a desire to amuse others, but the episode never lets her express this. Rainbow Dash never realizes anything on her own here, and it robs her of depth which would be fairly easy to include. All the writers would need to do is have Rainbow Dash come to more conclusions on her own, and suddenly the episode possesses a lot more nuance.
     
    More frustrating still, that added nuance might make Rainbow feel less like she's regressing here. It's been a very long time since she displayed the sensitivity and maturity that made her great in "Hurricane Fluttershy" and "Wonderbolts Academy," and here her pranking runs directly opposite to her character development. I shouldn't be here telling the writers how to do their job, but all they needed was to do more with Rainbow's intentions. As it stands, Rainbow is simply in the wrong and everyone else is simply in the right, and that doesn't make for an especially compelling conflict when it feels like Rainbow should have learned this already.
     
    With all that said, the episode does boast a great and fairly impressive lesson. What's funny to you might not be funny to someone else, especially if that other person is the butt of the joke. A good prank should be inclusive, and what an individual might find funny would vary. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this would be much better if Rainbow Dash were written with more nuance, but as is it's still a very strong moral that even a lot of adults could stand to learn, and those kinds of morals are the show's best. It's just a shame that it's stated in the very second scene without a whole lot added to it.
     
    "28 Pranks Later" is by no means terrible, although it'd possibly be less frustrating if it were. The episode is so frequently clever and fun that its predictability, slack pacing, and generally simplisitc characterization feel at best like wasted potential and at worst like laziness. Its great moral is offset by Dash once again needing to learn to be sensitive (something she had learned by the end of season 2), and it seems so easy to make the episode more interesting that its refusal to be more than a simple but somewhat funny moral fable is aggravating. This reluctance to go above and beyond the call of duty is something I thought was going to dissipate this season. It's not like My Little Pony has ever been consistent, but six seasons in, it feels like every step forward the show makes ultimately means little. A tighter focus on character depth would go a long way.
     
    But hey, it's not terrible.
     
    Score
    Starting here, I'm going to try out a new rating system where I score episodes based on what I think are the four primary components of a good My Little Pony episode, averaged into a single score out of 100. For "28 Pranks Later," the score is as follows:
     
    Humour: 7/10
    Character: 5/10
    Theme: 8/10
    Story: 5/10
    Overall: 63/100

     

    You can find more reviews on my offsite blog.
  13. Thrond

    A new rating system.

    By Thrond,

    For future episode reviews, I'm considering trying out a new rating system, where I grade what I think are the four most important qualities in a pony episode and then take an average out of 100. I've tried applying it to this season based on memory, and it lined up mostly pretty comfortably with where I'd position episodes and how I'd rank them. The four qualities are entertainment value or humour, or how fun an episode is to watch, characterization, or how well the characters are written, theme, including the main moral and other themes, and story, or the main overarching narrative.
     
    For me, "The Cart Before the Ponies", for instance, is rated like this:
    Humour: 5/10
    Character: 5/10
    Theme: 7/10
    Story: 4/10
    Overall: 53/100
     
    I personally weight them in that order, with humour as most important and story as least important, but others might rank those qualities differently, and it might be interesting to see which qualities are most important to others, and how they'd rate episodes according to them. Do you think I missed anything in my rubric? Would you apply a different one? How would you weigh these qualities? How would you rate "The Cart Before the Ponies?" Let me know in the replies!
  14. Thrond
    Usually, I'm not all that bothered by My Little Pony incorporating predictable plots, as long as it can put some unique spin on it. Take my favourite episode of season 5, "Rarity Investigates!," which by all means offers a deeply predictable detective mystery. That episode stands out for everything around the central mystery. It has a lovely noir style, a previously uncommon character dynamic, relevance to a major character arc, and a modest degree of continuity. However, episodes like "The Cart Before the Ponies" show why predictability is used as a major point of criticism. With only a small degree of hidden depth, and with a message indicated before the halfway point, this episode feels safe, and although not without its moments, wears out its welcome long before the end.
     
    With the Applewood Derby upcoming, the Cutie Mark Crusaders want to try out something new, and enlist their sisters to help them. Unfortunately, for various reasons, the older ponies take charge of the projects, and ultimately prevent the younger ponies from getting the carts they wanted.
     
    What this show, and especially this season, has often done to liven up such basic plots is to bend them to the characters. "The Gift of the Maud Pie," for instance, might not have perfect characterization, but it takes the old "Gift of the Magi" story and makes it relevant in a meaningful way to ponies we already know about. "The Cart Before the Ponies," meanwhile, more or less just plops three characters we're familiar with into this story and makes them act in a thematically-appropriate way rather than making any effort to compellingly explore them. As the antagonistic forces in this episode, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash are painted in a relatively negative light, but it's written so much to theme that any real nuance to their characterizations is little more than flavour.
     
    To be fair, none of the three are necessarily out-of-character, as their reasons at least sound like reasonable motivations for these characters, but for the purposes of this episode they're reduced to their least compelling state. Even the CMC spend more time reacting to their sisters than actually expressing unique traits, and this causes the episode to start losing steam almost as soon as it sets up its main conflict and has little else left to say. There's a serviceable music number, a relatively fast-paced action scene, and a somewhat charming denouement, but as soon as the conflict is set up, the episode doesn't supply anything on top of what nearly any viewer could predict.
     
    Part of the reason for this might be that the episode doesn't spend much time exploring everything it's trying to say. For the most part, it's easy to figure out that the main message is simply not to take the reigns away from someone who's asking for help. However, at the end, there's a few more dimensions given to it. One of which is that kids have a hard time speaking over grown ups, and although this theme is present in much of the episode, it's diminished somewhat because of the sheer exaggerated extent to which the older sisters take over the race. This seems to be for comic effect, but it takes a lot of realism out of the plot and makes it harder to see the real-world messages inside. The episode fails to balance its message of not taking over someone else's project with its idea of how hard it is to speak over adults.
     
    However, it's yet another idea which really gets the short end of the stick. The younger sisters mention expecting the older sisters to know best, which at the end the older sisters deny. This theme, arguably the episode's most interesting, has absolutely zero presence until the very end. It does, at least, explain why the CMC don't make any effort to go against their sisters' plans, but it's not mentioned at least once, and by preventing the CMC from finding their own solution, it makes the episode much more simple and, frankly, dull.
     
    "The Cart Before the Ponies" isn't without its moments, though, especially in the earlier parts. The cold open, where Cheerilee gets a speaking role and her students express disdain for learning, is the funniest part of the whole episode, and seeing the CMC organically interested in doing new things is great even if its potential is entirely wasted. Although RD, Applejack, and Rarity are characterized relatively flatly, their reasons for taking over building the carts is at least initially interesting, and seeing Applejack's resistance to anything nontraditional is funny in its own right. Until it becomes clear the episode isn't going anywhere interesting, these moments - and the slight implications of depth, where they appear - keep the episode afloat.
     
    My Little Pony isn't a show that's ever been consistent in quality, but it's hard not to be disappointed when it reverts to stories this basic. The setting of this derby could have been great for sisterly bonding and friendly cameraderie, and having the CMC explore new things has a lot of potential, so putting all of that to the wayside for an overly simplistic moral-driven story like this feels like a waste. This is the show at its least interesting, failing to offer a whole lot beyond its moral and the show's most basic charms, and after season 6 so frequently managed to be both fresh and entertaining, something this safe and unadventurous is a major letdown.
     
    You can find more episode reviews at my offsite blog.
  15. Thrond
    "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" is yet another example of season 6's endless deluge of good ideas, featuring an analytical fan taken from a Daring Do convention into a literal Daring Do adventure. The setting of a convention had been a popular idea in the fandom for a while, especially given the prominence of conventions in the MLP fandom, and it's a great fit for a new Daring Do episode, considering how the Daring Do books have been revealed to be autobiographical. With season 6, the episode premises have never been the issue so much as execution, and thankfully, "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" isn't just a particularly strong example of an episode following through on its promise, but it's also the great Rainbow Dash showcase that the show has sorely needed.
     
    As the above paragraph suggests, this episode revolves around Rainbow Dash attending a Daring Do convention. While there, she gets into an argument with a pony named Quibble Pants, an analytical fan who has the good luck of possessing the same coat and mane colours as Daring Do herself. Dash, never one for subtlety, immediately takes issue with his claims that later entries in the series are unrealistic, a conceit which is challenged when Quibble Pants and Rainbow Dash get caught up in one of Daring's own adventures.
     
    As the premise might suggest, the combination of Quibble Pants's analytical personality and the "real-life" adventures of Daring Do is nothing short of comedic gold. He doubts it even as it's unfolding around him, slowly realising that what he initially thinks is some kind of role-play event is way too dangerous and realistic to be staged. Quibble's criticisms are surprisingly detailed, belying a delightfully dorky script which indicates a clear love for the adventure genre. Some of the episode's best moments come when Quibble's awareness of Daring Do tropes and affinity for logic puzzles renders him an asset to Daring Do in beating villain Dr. Caballeron to the treasure.
     
    At points, it's indicated that Quibble is a more three-dimensional than a mere stereotype of a nitpicky fan. He's ostensibly a fan of analysis and puzzle-solving, and at the end of the episode, he states that he enjoys the earlier Daring Do books' focus on puzzles more than the focus on action in later instalments. Not only can I identify with this, but it gives his character a little more depth and appeal and provides some legitimacy to his character development. He's not the strawman I'd feared he might be. Season 6 has yet to introduce a new character who I haven't loved.
     
    Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, isn't quite at her most mature here, but this is still a near-perfect character showcase, featuring many of the characteristics that make her entertaining while also showcasing some of the more subtle aspects of her growth. She's finally regained some of her humility here, still showcasing her naturally showboat-y personality without ever devolving into self-aggrandising. Initially, I wished she had shown more self-awareness, but her irritation at Quibble's criticisms of later books reflects on her passionate nature. When she cares about something, as she ostensibly does the Daring Do series, she strives to defend it, something only intensified by knowing Daring personally. To an extent, defending the later Daring Do books as "realistic" comes down to defending her friend. I have to question why Rainbow didn't try to shake Quibble Pants off when she was looking out for Callaberon, but once they had been captured, bringing him along was arguably easier.
     
    Of course, aside from the solid comedy, what really brings this together is the downright fun adventure on the episode's surface. "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" is too comedic to perfectly affect the tone of a classic adventure story, but it's a loving parody of those tropes which is occasionally not only funny but even a little exciting. This kind of story complements Rainbow Dash perfectly, and Quibble Pants is very effective as a foil for her even as her excitement wears off. Josh Haber, whose more action-driven episodes have often been criticised, displays a much better sense of balance here, and shows promise for future two-parters if he can find that balance in more plot-intensive episodes. It's a shame that we still don't get to see Twilight expressing her inner nerd, but she has her own diplomatic summit to attend - something which, if I'm allowed a tangent, I'm sad we may never get to see.
     
    Then, as if this episode wasn't solid enough, it concludes with easily one of the season's best morals. You see, knowing the later Daring Do books are non-fiction doesn't make Quibble Pants enjoy them all that much more, and he comes to the conclusion that he simply enjoys different things about the series from Rainbow Dash. The real conflict of this story, more than the need to stop Dr. Callaberon, is the tension between Rainbow's and Quibble's perspectives on Daring Do books, and the climax comes when Quibble and Rainbow decide that they like different things about the series - and that's okay. Arguably, this is the best possible moral lesson to impart with this story, as it remains respectful towards both attitudes while still promoting good behaviour.
     
    There was a part of me which feared season 6 might begin to slump in its second half, and while it's only just begun, "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" goes a ways towards putting those fears to rest. Season 6, while imperfect, has been surprisingly satisfying for a show way past its prime, and if it continues like this, it could easily be in the upper half when I rank the seasons. This episode is a delightful action-comedy with great characterization and a great lesson, and from this show, I don't know how much else you could ask for.
     

    A few extra thoughts:
     
    What strikes me most about Quibble is that, while he's generally depicted as kinda obnoxious and overbearing, he's also depicted surprisingly sympathetically. I feared a fan-critic strawman; I got an actual character.
     
    I would say that I'm in Quibble's camp regarding this show, thinking that later seasons have not had as much of what I like about the show, but season 6 has been doing a pretty good job so far of bringing it back. Am I really the only person here who thinks that sesaon 6 is way better than seasons 4 and 5?
     
    Did not think about Quibble as the "obnoxious dude fan" archetype until reading this thread, but I can definitely see it - more so than a lot of other things read into recent MLP episodes, at the very least. Still, the thing that makes Quibble (and Zephyr Breeze, for that matter) stand out is that he has not only obvious room to grow but clear momentum in growing as well. There is potential for future appearances in a way that I feel, say, Coloratura doesn't really have.
  16. Thrond
    After this week's episode, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic will go on hiatus. When the show went on mid-season hiatus last year, I published my thoughts on the season so far. For season 5, these thoughts were mixed, but I largely felt frustrated and disappointed by the season, which continued right to the season finale. Thankfully, season 6 is a marked improvement, and while it's still far from perfect, it's the first time since at least early season 4 that I have been happy with this show's direction.
     
    For all of its experimentation, season 5 consistently hesitated to take risks, and any changes to the status quo were things that wouldn't take effect until the next season. It frequently hobbled its ideas for a variety of reasons, most commonly either time constraints or an unwillingness to push into full-on drama. Season 6, meanwhile, has done a much better job of moving past the status quo, not only absorbing the major changes of season 5 but also fully exploring its ideas and frequently straying from the show's formulas. The season premiere neglected even having an overwhelming threat until the very end of its first half, and the vast majority of subsequent episodes have taken on fresh new structures.
     
    At first, this was largely in service of a renewed focus on character development. The season premiere was a slice-of-life episode that attempted to develop Starlight Glimmer and other side characters, while subsequent episodes like "The Gift of the Maud Pie," "On Your Marks," "No Second Prances," "Newbie Dash,' and "Flutter Brutter" all serve to either develop a main character or showcase their development. Compared to season 5, new character introductions are relatively infrequent, and in only two out of eleven episodes have they taken the focus away from the main characters. There's still a handful of lightweight episodes, but the more weighty episodes always emphasize characterization and character development. The last time this has been the case was season 3.
     
    Meanwhile, episodes with less focus on character development like "A Hearth's Warming Tale" and "The Saddle Row Review" still explore alternate structures to the show's usual formulas, and in addition, they play on changes to the status quo. If season 5 can be praised for one thing, it's finally introducing several genuinely meaningful changes to the status quo. While Starlight Glimmer hasn't appeared as often as expected, her presence still changes Twilight's role in the show, for better and for worse. Meanwhile, Rarity and Rainbow Dash have both achieved their dreams and reached celebrity status, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders are exploring post-cutie mark life. This changing status quo is often a basis for episode plots, and even just having it in the background makes the show feel more alive than it has in a long time.
     
    Even those characters who have remained complacent are being explored in clearer detail. Pinkie's connection to her family is explored further, Applejack gets a fairly comprehensive character showcase, and Fluttershy is finally showing off her character development. Yes, season 6 even made Fluttershy interesting again. On top of this, season 6 continues season 5's trend of showcasing underused character team-ups, most significantly the pairing of Rarity and Pinkie Pie which has occurred twice now. The recent re-introduction of the cutie map may actually be something of a mixed blessing in this regard, and if it's the only way that the writers can use fresh new pairings, then I might be willing to accept it. Still, it's disappointing that such a lazy plot device is still necessary, and even more so that the writers are completely unwilling to explore it in more detail. If it was given a little bit of backstory, it might seem less like a crutch.
     
    Especially exciting after the wildly uneven season 5 is that the worst season 6 has been so far is somewhat dull and uninteresting. Only two of these eleven episodes haven't been at least enjoyable, and even they have had their strengths. Unfortunately, the season still lacks a strong sense of direction, even in spite of more focus on continuing plotlines. While Starlight Glimmer, the CMC, and Rainbow Dash all have clear room to move forward, the show hasn't honed in on these subplots, and there's no guarantee they'll even go anywhere interesting. The season's biggest attempt at complexity in "No Second Prances" ultimately struggled under its own weight, and staunchly refused to take its more compelling ideas anywhere interesting, and the earlier episode "On Your Marks" similarly struggled to hold itself together and take its ideas somewhere worthwhile. Neither episode is irredeemable, and the season hasn't gone anywhere as complex since, but having hoped for a bit more complexity going in, seeing the show struggle so much with it is disappointing.
     
    This lack of focus is probably inherent to shows like this, and as much as I'd like to see more plot continuity, it's doubtful that My Little Pony will ever try this out, especially given that the network wants to be able to air episodes in any order. Unfortunately, this isn't the only flaw from season 5 that has carried over. While the trend of introducing new characters at the existing characters' expense has slowed significantly, it is still present, and the show still sometimes still makes the mistake of thinking that worldbuilding can compensate for a lightweight main plot. There are far fewer problematic elements than there were in season 5, but the show still occasionally stumbles in ways that lead to unfortunate implications. I've actually perceived these far less often than some other people, but neglecting the idea of hazing in "Newbie Dash" and casting white voice actors for Indian-inspired characters in "Spice Up Your Life" are problematic in ways that are hard to deny.
     
    And yet, this is still the most satisfying the show has been in years. In season 6, My Little Pony feels rejuvenated, thanks in no small part to an altered status quo, a greater focus on main character development, and a greater willingness to take risks. The alleged "exploring Equestria" theme feels misguided, but this far into season 6, the show has mostly kept its priorities straight, and the result is a legitimately enjoyable season with only a couple of subpar episodes. After sticking with the show even through its most tedious and frustrating seasons, it's exciting that, finally, the show is pulling itself together and daring to be satisfying again. This isn't my ideal MLP season, but it's a huge return to form, and that's good enough for me.
  17. Thrond
    As early as season 5, news abounded about an episode where we learn about Fluttershy's layabout brother. Considering the increased prominence of Pinkie Pie's family since then, curiosity has been high about the families of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, the only members of the mane six whose families we haven't seen. Now "Flutter Brutter" has finally arrived, months after news of it first surfaced, and it turned out about how I expected it to: a solid Fluttershy showcase with an entertainingly loathsome new character and a solid moral. Perhaps next we can see Rainbow Dash's family!
     
    Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are having lunch with Fluttershy's parents when they learn that her brother, Zephyr Breeze, is once again freeloading off of them. Zephyr is lazy and conceited, carelessly damages his mother's garden and clears out his father's cloud collection, and flirts obnoxiously with Rainbow Dash. However, due in part to his distinctive personality and to the episode's fast pace, his bad behaviour is entertaining, which is good, because he's present for a good deal of the episode. That he's tolerable does rest more on the pacing and humour of the episode than on his personality, because he's generally unlikable, but later events in the episode demonstrate that the character has some deceptive depth. I might actually like him.
     
    Fluttershy knows that her folks mean well, she's frustrated that they're allowing him to push them around. This leads her to stand up to Zephyr, which helps her parents ask him to leave and find somewhere else to live, which turns out to be Fluttershy's cabin, much to her dismay. Fluttershy allows him to stay on the condition that he finds a job, a task that Fluttershy chooses to help him out with by having him work with her friends. Unfortunately, Zephyr dodges all of the work that Fluttershy's friends put him to, leading to Fluttershy kicking him out. However, Fluttershy regrets her decision when she sees Zephyr struggling to live out in the woods, unable to find anywhere else to live.
     
    It's here that Zephyr has a change of heart, and it's also here that he becomes more than a mere hate sink. As it turns out, his bad attitude was borne from a fear of failure. If you never try, you can never fail, so he simply chose not to try. This doesn't really account for his gross flirting or his lack of consideration for others, but it does go quite a way towards making him more sympathetic, especially since he has a genuinely relatable plight and a believable reaction to such. His time in the woods gives him a change of heart, and he finally commits to working hard and accomplishing something. I think that being robbed of his support network and forced to face his insecurities really woke him up to his challenges and to the necessity of overcoming them. This hidden depth and character development turns an initially easy to hate character into one that I genuinely wouldn't mind seeing again.
     
    Meanwhile, Fluttershy is in top form here. One of season 6's biggest strengths, Rainbow Dash aside, is putting characters back on even ground. Fluttershy especially has struggled from flanderization and stagnation, but "Flutter Brutter" emphasizes her increase in assertiveness without detracting from her caring nature. She wants to help Zephyr, but she's not willing to let him walk all over her like he does her parents. This makes for a really strong character showcase, as Fluttershy's responses to Zephyr demonstrate both her growth and the core traits that make her so likeable. Similarly, the contrast between Fluttershy and her parents is a great way to emphasize her character development, because it underlines her assertiveness and thus emphasizes her character development. Fluttershy's parents are even bigger doormats than she once was, and as a result, she comes across as stronger by comparison. After the weakness of Rainbow Dash's character showcase and the tedium of Applejack's, it's nice to see Fluttershy's work out so well.
     
    Much like "Applejack's 'Day' Off," "Flutter Brutter" is built like an episode from an earlier season. Whereas the former ultimately failed to pack enough laughs or depth to carry its lighter tone, the latter takes advantage of this simplicity to provide a fast-paced, character-driven, humorous episode that is very reminiscent of season 2. It doesn't reach the heights of season 2's best episodes, but it does resemble the mid-quality episodes that kept S2 afloat between its peaks. After a season which has largely consisted of either more complex episodes or overly lightweight episodes, this basic character showcase is a delightful change of pace as well as the strongest episode of its type this season.
     
    There's also a song here, but although it reinforces the main theme about Zephyr needing to try even though he's afraid of failure, it's ultimately fairly bland. The harmonies are as lovely as ever, but it's not especially catchy, and the melodies, while charming, feel very squarely within the show's comfort zone. For all of the show's improvements in season 6, the music is one thing which hasn't bounced back. It needs to move further out of its comfort zone in order to be interesting again.
     
    "Flutter Brutter" isn't the season's best episode, but it's easily the most satisfying Fluttershy episode since at least "Keep Clam and Flutter On," if not even since the excellent "Hurricane Fluttershy." Zephyr is an interesting and entertaining character, the lesson is worthwhile, seeing Fluttershy's parents is neat, and most importantly, the entire episode is a phenomenal character showcase for Fluttershy. Zephyr still has room to grow, but he has the potential to be a legitimately great character, and Fluttershy's better here than she has been in years. It's yet another great entry in what's shaping up to be a legitimately good season, and I could not be happier for it.
     
    Now, can we get a solid Rainbow Dash episode up in here?
     
    Additional thoughts:
     
    The moral doesn't really feel like it connects to all of Zephyr's bad actions, and I think that's the main issue here. That could easily be solved through further character development, but "Flutter Brutter" could have done a better job of leaving room for Zephyr to be sympathetic and grow in the future. His laziness is addressed, but what about the slimy flirting? What about the inconsiderate behaviour towards his parents? Those are unresolved and make him a little less sympathetic.
     
    I picked up on zero unfortunate implications from this. Does the show have to consider every possible interpretation? Clearly it's not an overwhelming problem if that didn't even register to me. Besides, Zephyr's bad attitude is meant to emphasize that he's not just any pony living with their parents, he's also one who consistently avoids responsibility.
     
    That said, his shirking of responsibility could have been handled in a way that connects to the message a little more, in order to make the ending feel a little more congruent with the rest of the episode. As is it makes sense but doesn't flow perfectly.
     
    Source: S06:E11 - Flutter Brutter
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