S02:E23 - Ponyville Confidential

[Yellow Diamond 7,569]

"Et tu, Gabby Gums" made me nerdgasm, being a fan of the Roman Empire. This is proof that this isn't a kid's show anymore. What 7 year old little girl would know what that's from?

 

It also suggests that Latin exists as a language in Equestria. Well, Equestria itself would suggest that, but now it's canon!

[pinkie pie agent of random 8]

the applejack and Big Macintosh role reversal was the absolute highlight of the episode for me, something that made me absolutely laugh out loud.

 

Honestly, I usually see the CMC episodes like this.

1. episode starts up and its a fairly tired trope that has the potential to be really boring

2. good humor carries the episode for a while

3. trope starts to get old

4. clever writing saves it and makes it actually a good episode that sticks in my head.

 

Every time I see the CMC I think I'm not going to like the episode, and every time mlp proves me wrong. so points for that

[Radiance64 7,053]

You know, this episode raised quite a few questions: 1. How can Featherwing be editor in chief for the paper when he never says a word?; 2. Why does Mayor Mare care about having pink hair when there are hundreds of other ponies who also have pink hair?; 3. Will Big Mac ever give Twilight her Smarty Pants doll back? Too bad these questions will probably never be answered...

[River Song 9]

You know, this episode raised quite a few questions: 1. How can Featherwing be editor in chief for the paper when he never says a word?; 2. Why does Mayor Mare care about having pink hair when there are hundreds of other ponies who also have pink hair?; 3. Will Big Mac ever give Twilight her Smarty Pants doll back? Too bad these questions will probably be awnsered on the next exciting episode of dragon ball Z

 

maybe she cares because she wants to be unique

anyways aside from parody of posts, i thought this episode was awesome, featherweight for the win!

and i also loved the big mac and applejack switch.

This episode also made me hate diamond tiara even more

[Sunny Fox 5,950]

I understood it to be that she dyes her mane gray so as to seem older and more distinguished, in line with her station, and who can blame her? Since Twilight has a direct connection to Celestia herself, she probably feels a bit insecure about her position as mayor. It fooled most people, but I always had my suspicions about her being young despite the gray mane. Even more so after she managed to keep Smartypants away from everyone for quite a while in Lesson Zero. I actually like the pink-haired version of Mayor Mare, so it's a pity that we'll probably never see her like that again.

[Vannu 1]

"Fluttershy uses mane extensions!"

 

 

That shocked me so much I needed a paper bag to breathe in,

 

The best CMC episode so far.

[Queen Cassie 3,057]

Hey look, it's three days late, but here's an analysis of the episode. It rambles like crazy without any real structure, but that's me in a nutshell.

 

This episode was far more comedic than Hurricane Fluttershy. In fact I'd go so far as to say this is one of the funniest episodes in the entire series! From start to finish it's a barrell of laughs, fantastic with its humor in numerous ways I can't do justice to with my analysis. The start of the episode in particular has some subtle things to it that others might not have noticed, such as how Sweetie Belle sounds like she's rapping on something metallic when she taps herself for emphasis. After the gypsy Pinkie Pie from It's About Time I can't help but wonder if this is some sort of subtle Friendship is Witchcraft reference. I also like that it starts straight out the gate with the CMC's actually doing the thing that made them characters in the first place: desiring to do something for their Cutie Marks. I do like them as characters besides for this quest but it's strange how the past several episodes they've featured in didn't focus on this issue at all. So, opening with them complaining about Featherweight--who, I must say, has a rather ugly design all things considered, almost as bad as Snips and Snails--was a good decision. Fortunately they also cut down on too much excessive weird talent searching. We had enough of that in The Show Stoppers, so while it did extend the teaser, it only did so for about as much as was necessary. What stuck out during that sequence to me, though, was the bird nest. It looked as though Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were just helping the bird, so the birds usually do build their own nests. This seems to contradict Winter Wrap-Up, or at least suggest that the wildlife of Equestria manages itself a bit more than we were previously led to believe.

 

As the episode progresses through the CMCs creating a gossip column, I can't help but wonder about a few things. First, why the heck did Cheerilee choose Diamond Tiara of all ponies as the new editor-in-chief? Second, why does it seem as though Diamond Tiara runs the paper, rather than it being run with the help of some faculty? I can't think of any school paper in reality that is run purely by the students--there's always a faculty member involved in one aspect or another, approving the stories written, ensuring things don't go overboard. For that matter...why does the school have a paper to begin with? Everything up until now suggested it was something like a country school house, with one teacher, one class. And yet we see them creating a newspaper in this episode that would be more suited to massive, 3000 student high school! Why? All of this makes it harder for me to swallow the plausibility of the episode's events, especially as the newspaper goes on to somehow become popular throughout the rest of Ponyville...it's enough to make me think they might've been better off having the CMCs start working freelance for an actual newspaper, such as the Ponyville Express mentioned during the episode, rather than having it be a school paper. I mean, Cheerilee doesn't appear to step in to stop what's going on until well after the CMCs are found out as Gabby Gums, which is bizarre to me. It seems more like she should have stopped everything as soon as she saw it was being sold outside of the school. Then there's Sweetie Belle once again staying at the Carousel Boutique. Why is she there? Sisterhoove Social made it clear that she doesn't live there, that she actually lives with their parents somewhere else, so...why was she at the Boutique at all when Rarity was snooping through her bag, and then again later when Rarity was confronting her?

 

But honestly those are mostly minor quibbles. The episode is more about just how badly the CMCs end up screwing up, and it takes a different approach to how they learn their lesson. I really like the fact that they understood early on what they were doing was wrong and why, but still had enough legitimate reasons to keep doing it anyway. They REALLY wanted to earn their Cutie Marks, and so they kept at it, even as they started ruining ponies lives.

 

Speaking of ruining ponies lives, the secrets we learn, while not quite as revealing as I would have hoped, still revealed some interesting things. For example, Rainbow Dash appears to have issues with ponies touching her hooves. What's up with that? Does it mean she has intimacy issues? Is it just her hooves she doesn't like touched, or is there more to it? Or am I overthinking it and seeing more to it than there really is? Then there's Big Mac holding onto the Smarty Pants doll...he has tears in his voice when he shouts at the CMCs, which says to me that he held onto the doll for a particularly special reason. Of course we can't forget Fluttershy's tail extensions, which is a joke I'm amazed made it onto the show, given that I can't interpret it as anything other than a parody of breast implants. I have no idea why she decided to get those extensions either, unless there's something going on behind the scenes we're not seeing. The mayor's mane-dyeing, as others have pointed out, doesn't make much sense unless she really is trying to look older and more sophisticated. Other things we saw in the column were mostly libel, so I won't touch on them. (Though I must admit I'm curious to know just what those secrets of Trixie's were...)

 

Besides the obvious we also had some other interesting revelations during the episode, blink and you'll miss events. For example, when Snips and Snails are shaved, we can see that the Cutie Marks are only present on their fur--they're not tattooed onto the skin, as I think most of us, including myself, had previously assumed. Scootaloo's inability to fly is made the clearest it's been yet, to the point that it makes me wonder if her wings are crippled or disabled in some way and that she'll never be able to fly no matter what. Then there was Twilight's remarkable forcefield spell...it's especially impressive because it appears to only react to the CMCs. I'm not sure if the forcefield is something she has to actively maintain, or if it's a cast-and-it's-set kind of spell, but either way it's yet another example of Twilight's continously increasing magical power, power that is starting to scare me. Spells can also apparently be interrupted by smacking the horn of the unicorn casting the spell, or at the very least such smacking disrupts their focus. It's hard to tell if this is because touching the horn disrupts the spell itself, or if the horn is just so sensitive that the pain of it being flicked breaks one's concentration, but either way it's an interesting revelation. I don't think, though, that we can say it applies to every unicorn...Rarity may simply be more susceptible to having her spells interrupted than, say, Twilight might. The weirdest part is the way the horn wiggles...although personally I'm inclined to take that as just a bit of cartoon humor rather than as a suggestion that the horn is made of a super flexible substance, which frankly doesn't make much sense. Also, there was the way the newspaper reacted to Spike's flames...if you watch it in slow motion it almost appears as though his fire started to send the newspaper to Celestia but then stopped. Makes me wonder if there are limitations to what he can send. And then, as others have pointed out, the way Rarity uses Latin, an outright Shakespearean reference that I actually missed during my first watching of the episode.

 

As I said previously, I did initially feel like Rarity acted somewhat out of character in the episode. Not her overacting drama--that's perfectly in character--but the way she acts without any regard for other ponies feelings, seeming far too focused on her own desires and being openly hypocritical about the gossip being spread. I had thought that Rarity was a bit more in tune with the feelings of her friends and she wouldn't be so callous. Sure, her "I'll destroy her!" line was probably the second funniest thing in the entire episode, second only to Big Mac's speech, but I've never been much of a fan of humor that sacrifices character development. I'm going to stand by what I said previously and declare this to be Rarity's nasty behavior being exaggerated unnecessarily. It's something that admittedly does happen to her rather often in M.A. Larson episodes, but unlike in the past where there was usually some sort of justification, such as the spell weaved to create her wings in Sonic Rainboom, or Discord's mind warping, there is no justification here. I prefer to think Rarity is better than the way she acted in this episode.

 

On the whole, this episode is definitely a good one. Like with just about any FIM episode, it's technically predictable from a plot standpoint, but it takes what might've been an otherwise boring idea and gives it new life through a quality execution. While it did leave me with some questions and had a few plot elements that strained plausibility, I can set those aside in order to enjoy the humor.

[Eenohay 318]

I understood it to be that she dyes her mane gray so as to seem older and more distinguished, in line with her station, and who can blame her? Since Twilight has a direct connection to Celestia herself, she probably feels a bit insecure about her position as mayor. It fooled most people, but I always had my suspicions about her being young despite the gray mane. Even more so after she managed to keep Smartypants away from everyone for quite a while in Lesson Zero. I actually like the pink-haired version of Mayor Mare, so it's a pity that we'll probably never see her like that again.

 

That my exact same conclusion. I believe we might see her natural hair gain, the show is beggining to make a lot of continuity nods

 

texty

 

I also thought it didn't make sense for Sweetie Belle to be with Rarity, but to be honest, she has stayed there before and she could be doing it now. I think Sisterhooves Social stated pretty clearly that she lived with her parents.

Edited April 4, 2012 by Eenohay

[chiara dash 22 0]

I LOVE THIS EPISODE!!!

[Rainbow Dirk 1]

What would a cutie mark in gossip look like?

 

A grapevine with faces on it? Is it possible to have a Cutie mark in something so..... odd?

[HunterTSN 1,444]

A grapevine with faces on it? Is it possible to have a Cutie mark in something so..... odd?

 

exactly

[Rainbow Dirk 1]

Speaking of ruining ponies lives, the secrets we learn, while not quite as revealing as I would have hoped, still revealed some interesting things. For example, Rainbow Dash appears to have issues with ponies touching her hooves. What's up with that? Does it mean she has intimacy issues? Is it just her hooves she doesn't like touched, or is there more to it? Or am I overthinking it and seeing more to it than there really is? Then there's Big Mac holding onto the Smarty Pants doll...he has tears in his voice when he shouts at the CMCs, which says to me that he held onto the doll for a particularly special reason. Of course we can't forget Fluttershy's tail extensions, which is a joke I'm amazed made it onto the show, given that I can't interpret it as anything other than a parody of breast implants. I have no idea why she decided to get those extensions either, unless there's something going on behind the scenes we're not seeing. The mayor's mane-dyeing, as others have pointed out, doesn't make much sense unless she really is trying to look older and more sophisticated. Other things we saw in the column were mostly libel, so I won't touch on them. (Though I must admit I'm curious to know just what those secrets of Trixie's were...)

 

I think for rainbow Dash she had someone sabotage a race by doing something to her hooves? My point being, i hadn't thought of any of it to have much meaning but now that you mention it, it's pretty interesting they threw all that in there.

And what with the extensions being similar to breast implants, that makes sense too, but what i dont get is the Fluttershy is FlutterSHY. Why would she want extensions if they could draw attention?

[NavelColt 22,880]

Probably my least favorite episode honestly. CMC-focused isn't a 'bad' thing, but the over the top amount of Diamond Tiara and the plot that didn't interest me as much as I think it could have made it a meh on my list of episodes.

[Twilicious 150]

I thought the mayor looked better with the pink mane. Why do you think she dies it grey? Credibility? Kind of odd, don't most politicains try to look youthful? Especially female politicians since the whole Margaret Thatcher "looks tired" issue?

 

Totally hilarious episode. I was a big fan. Needs more Silver Spoon though.

[Tom 891]

I just re-watched this yesterday. I didn't notice Smarty Pants before. Edited May 25, 2012 by Tom

[BetaWolf 97]

Probably my least favorite episode honestly. CMC-focused isn't a 'bad' thing, but the over the top amount of Diamond Tiara and the plot that didn't interest me as much as I think it could have made it a meh on my list of episodes.

 

While I agree on CMC focus not necessarily being bad, it felt like a mixed bag. The CMC and their classmates do not appear as well animated or developed as the mane six. The stallion foals in the class specifically seem to be drawn intentionally ugly. The high points in the episodes are the appearances of the mane six. While not a bad thing, if My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic were an anime, the CMC episodes would be considered filler.

 

I feel that one of the characters should have called Rarity and Applejack out on their double standards though. They quite obviously thought that ponies shouldn't mind being gossiped about, up until their own secrets were spilled. The moral would have had a greater effect if everypony had learned from it, and not just the CMC.

[Master Chief 183]

When I heard them say "Gabby Gums" for the first time I immediately thought of Edd Ed 'N Eddy's "Bobby Blabby".

 

[pinkiefan1287 610]

This was my least favorite episode of season 2.

[XUNUSEDXXX 3,459]

People need to give Diamond Tiara some slack, she could grow up to be a righteous mare. And btw, her voice sounded like a full grown woman's in this episode.

[TheLionPaladin 164]

Defiently my favorite episdoe so far...It is just too hilarious. When i heard "Princess Celestia just like us" and the picture of her scoffing cake like no tomorrow i couldn't stop laughing. I dont even know why it was so funny. It was just a hilrious episode over all.

However when was this episode written and aired because, i may be over seeing this but was the plot inspired by the recent News of the World Rupert murdoch thing......I know its sounds silly with Diamond Tiara representing Rupert Murdoch but it could easily be true. I mean could you see Diamond Tiara at a trail hearing? When Diamond Tiara says she wants to know what ponys do when they think they're alone the first thought which was a bit of guilty humour was Tiara was going to get some phones hacked!

 

Defiently my favorite episdoe so far...It is just too hilarious. When i heard "Princess Celestia just like us" and the picture of her scoffing cake like no tomorrow i couldn't stop laughing. I dont even know why it was so funny. It was just a hilrious episode over all.

However when was this episode written and aired because, i may be over seeing this but was the plot inspired by the recent News of the World Rupert murdoch thing......I know its sounds silly with Diamond Tiara representing Rupert Murdoch but it could easily be true. I mean could you see Diamond Tiara at a trail hearing? When Diamond Tiara says she wants to know what ponys do when they think they're alone the first thought which was a bit of guilty humour was Tiara was going to get some phones hacked!

[Virulence 254]

I liked this episode but Diamond Tiara just got me to the danger zone. She was so uptight. It's not that hard to be nice, seriously..

 

She was so bossy and rude, well that is her personality.

 

Although I wouldn't want anyone to gossip about me, and sure put it in the newspaper!!!

[TheGreatandPowerfulZecora 16]

Xoxoxo Gabby Gums? Heehee whenever I watch that I always think of Gossip Girl, please tell me another Pegasister saw that to, I always feel so werid watching it.

[BlueEyedPegasus 59]

I would never consider this episode the worst, but I still find that montage of the CMC being shunned by the entire town heartbreaking, ESPECIALLY Applejack and Big Macintosh's somewhat odd character reversal. Now don't get me wrong, I do like Big Mac, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who felt the need to punch him in the face for the way he executed his anger towards the CMC!

[Buttonmash1973 1,026]

One of my all time favorites of Season 2 from way back then and I hope for a CMC TV show.

 

Diamond Tiara had stole the show in this episode.

[FatPat 77]

I like to think there was something shady going on behind the scenes. Cheerilee knew what was going on, and when the Gabby Gums articles got popular she started selling the paper. Made a ton of money, shut it down once the CMC quit, and blames everything on Diamond T.