S05:E06 - Appleoosa's Most Wanted

[Sig Hoovestrong 838]

I like the episode. And did like new character. But kind of reminded me of egor. Beside that feel Braeburn head his moments too. And so did the CMC. 

[NavelColt 22,881]

Also, kind of disappointed they didn't really do anything with Braeburn besides make him watch the CMC for a couple mintues, and then throw some slapstick at him.

 

Are we really going to devolve into complaining about things like this? Braeburn had a pretty noticeable role, actually. For a character that isn't a Mane Six member or secondary character like Spike or Celestia, he got a fair amount of screentime and dialogue.

 

I hate to take the 'ranty mom' approach, but you didn't have to get Braeburn having any kind of role, at all. We might have seen him talking with Noteworthy: Cowpony Edition in the intro with his little foreleg injury, and then never seen him again the entire episode. That's what his role has been since Over A Barrel, classic background pony. We're lucky enough the writers decided to use him as much as they did. He was all over the first five minutes of the episode, had a few great scenes with the CMC afterwards, and then had a few slapsticks. Had as much screentime as he did in Over a Barrel.

 

I for one can officially say I enjoy Braeburn more after this ep, placing him with my other favorite stallions. I never got the hype with him after Over a Barrel, but now that he's had more cute scenes and character display, I can enjoy him a more than I did before.

[Rainboom Dash 1,056]

Thought it was good, though not particularly memorable. Great humor though.

[Luffyiscool 397]

Are we really going to devolve into complaining about things like this?

THANK YOU.

 

I feel the same way, the ridiculous level of complaining in this fandom these days is... well, ridiculous.

It's like we've forgotten how to relax and just enjoy watching an above average kids show,

and now we nitpick everything to high heaven and heavily critique it like it's game of thrones or walking dead.

[Bhending the Rules 697]

It wasn't the greatest episode ever but this season so far except for the premier has been full of meh episodes and one really horrible episode that everyone likes for some reason (Tanks for the Memories). I did like it though, Troubleshoes actually being a world class klutz instead of a dangerous criminal was a rather interesting twist. The CMC convincing him to be a rodeo clown was well intended enough though the question is what is he going to do when he is off the clock?

 

I doubt the townspeople are going to find it so funny when he ends up accidentally destroying things then. The more I think about it though the more I think that him and Derpy would be adorable together, and of course there maybe should be another episode down the line where he learns to control his inner klutz a bit better to where he is able to keep it on stage.Also one other purpose that rodeo clowns serve that this episode forgot to mention was to distract out of control animals such as bulls for example when they got out of control so that injured or incapacitated rodeo cowboys could be safely taken out of the situation and get any needed medical attention. Troubleshoes rescuing a performer in trouble would have been a great way for to him to earn the respect of the town and would make a great fanfic or possibly episode actually.

 

I'm as confused as you are about the reaction to Tanks for the Memories. And I probably always will be. XD

 

Appleoosa's Most Wanted isn't going to go down as one of the best episodes by any means, but it was a welcome return to form. 

[Luffyiscool 397]

I feel the total opposite, this was a slight dip after a run of excellent episodes

[Grumpy Enchantress 586]

"Remember kids, if you suck at everything and everyone hates you and laughs at you, be sure to join the freakshow. That way people can continue to laugh and ridicule you every second of your life, but you'll make some money off of them. Don't ever desire anything like respect or love, though, you're doomed to never get it, because you suck at everything." What a great lesson.

 

Seriously, what were they thinking? Just don't attempt to write lessons if you literally have the most negative lessons to teach kids that anyone could ever conceive of.

Edited May 3, 2015 by Grumpy Enchantress

[Pastel 7,630]

"Remember kids, if you suck at everything and everyone hates you and laughs at you, be sure to join the freakshow. That way people can continue to laugh and ridicule you every second of your life, but you'll make some money off of them. Don't ever desire anything like respect or love, though, you're doomed to never get it, because you suck at everything." What a great lesson.

 

Seriously, what were they thinking?

I don't think this episode has a lesson that applies in real life.

Not every episode has one.

[Grumpy Enchantress 586]

I don't think this episode has a lesson that applies in real life.

Not every episode has one.

I think it's supposed to, but the attempt was super embarrassing for everyone involved.

 

Even if it doesn't, it still portrays a resolution to a character's problem that isn't even remotely positive for him.

Edited May 3, 2015 by Grumpy Enchantress

[Argumedies 1,748]

The more I think about this episode, the more it reminds me of a bad fanfiction come true

[Luffyiscool 397]

 

Yeah, I know that no one knew about Rainbow causing the explosion except for her friends,
but it still made me chuckle to think back on it when I saw this scene. XD

[Kiwi Sunnywishes 2]

I really, really enjoyed this episode. I really liked seeing what looked to be an actual horse have a significant role in an episode. I really liked Troubleshoes as a character. Clumsy, but mellow and good-hearted. Characters like that just warm my heart.

 

I liked seeing Braeburn come back. We've seen him at the Apple family reunion in season 3, and briefly at the end of the season 4 finale, but it's nice to see his character in full action, with speaking lines and humor and such. Surprised the "AAAAAA-PPLEOOSA" thing wasn't incorporated into this episode (or maybe it was, I watched the episode 3 hours ago and I may not have remembered). But I think his appearance was a win.

 

The CMC obviously haven't learned much about listening to reason or doing what the adults tell them to. But I do think they're on the road to becoming less reckless, and more exploratory in a productive & mature way that may actually lead to their cutie marks.

 

The only thing I think could have made the episode better is if Little Strongheart appeared. Overall, this was a very good episode, in my opinion.

[Steve Piranha 29,428]

Anyone noticed we finally got a non-earth pony country pony? 

[Radiance64 7,053]

Nice episode. We finally get another episode in Appleoosa, so that was cool. I liked Troubleshoes too(a real horse? or pretty close to one?), and the CMC were real good in this episode too- for fillies that don't have cutie marks yet they can sure work out a problem with them well! So yeah, liked it.

8.5/10

[UnknownFry 169]

This was an alright episode for what it was. I enjoyed Troubleshoes and the idea of an episode addressing the idea of a pony living  and playing out his life misunderstanding what his Cutie Mark while possibly fighting against it.

 

Plus the Cutie Mark Crusaders paid for their disobedience in the end so that was nice.

 

What I did like  the most was how the episode shifted from the CMC's focusing on earning their marks early on into forgetting about it while helping someone else instead so this episode managed to avoid some of the pitfalls other Cutie Mark Crusading episodes have fallen into.

 

7.3/10

Edited May 3, 2015 by UnknownFry

[Music Chart Fan 819]

THANK YOU.

 

I feel the same way, the ridiculous level of complaining in this fandom these days is... well, ridiculous. It's like we've forgotten how to relax and just enjoy watching an above average kids show, and now we nitpick everything to high heaven and heavily critique it like it's game of thrones or walking dead.

 

I don't feel like there's been "a ridiculous level of complaining in this fandom these days", at least from what I've seen. To my recollection, thinking back over Season 4 and this season so far, it has nearly always been the case that the majority, and often more than that, of the comments in the episode threads have been neutral-to-positive. And the polls in the episode threads have nearly always been very lopsided in favor of "liking" or "loving" the episode. In those regards, this episode topic would be more like an exception to the rule, if anything.

 

I don't really recall there being many more critical comments in the episode topics in general than there have been otherwise (again, this episode topic possibly being an exception), and I've seen many, and often prominent, "counter-criticizing" posts (i.e. posts criticizing/complaining about other people critiquing/criticizing episodes) to go along with whichever posts are negative or critical.

 

Basically, I don't feel like I've seen a significant general "ramping up" trend of criticizing/complaining about episodes, as compared to the level it's been at for a while; and I think one or two data points (i.e., the most recent one or two episodes) would be inconclusive to indicate such a trend. I think that the amount of outright negative comments in the episode topics of Season 4 and this season has mostly been such that one could gloss over or ignore them, if so desired.

[Jeric 46,852]

A relatively simple and innocuous episode. Neither bad nor extremely memorable. In a way I am glad we had this episode after five consecutive high impact ones. Troubleshoes is a welcome additional to the overall show legacy, and the concept that one can actually be lost after getting their cutie mark does add world building surrounding the cutie marks themselves. The only sin I can attribute to this is that the dialog felt phoned in at times. Sweetie Belle's aside as the CMC embarked on their hunt was the only item that stood out a day later.

 

7/10. Not great but not bad.  

[Phoenix Flair 332]

Good episode, but the dialogue was stiff, vague, and unstructured.  I love me some Braeburn, though, so I'm pretty satisfied with this episode.

Oh, and I thought it was pretty funny that the town sheriff had a cutie mark exactly like his sheriff's badge.

[Sazama Ichida 2,367]

Poor Troubleshoes. His parents must have hated him considering he went through all that and they did nothing about it...

[Miles 2,512]

I entirely agree with the whole "keep your kids on some kinda leash" angle, as well as the "when life gives you lemons" bit. Really, I don't disagree at all with you. What gets my goat is all the strange fridge logic that comes from the fact that the writers never addressed what happened when a kid, fresh off getting his cutie mark, just wanders off, presumably never to be seen again. That seems like a pretty important thing to not address. Like yeah, its important for the plot and all that it happens that way, but that's got some unfortunate implications when I think about it too hard. And yes, I fully acknowledge that this is just me thinking too hard. I'm not actually gunna hold it against the episode.

 

Overall though, I felt the episode was pretty meh. Sure there were a few good bits, but over all, I just wasn't grabbed by this one. Now I'm not calling bad on this one. Not really, that would require it to actually mess something up. It just didn't stick for me.

 

You have a point in that the moral that was given might have adverse side effects - it shows that the CMC got away with what they did in going into the woods.  

 

But, let's be real.  This is MLP.  They aren't going to make a little filly go missing and never come back.  

 

Besides, if you changed perspective, you could view in a sort of "badass" manner.  The CMC are pretty badass, being able to get as far as they did.  Sure they were a little frightened in the thunderstorm, but they went really far into the woods on their own.

 

"But Miles, that's not a good moral!  Lol!"

 

Well, true, but look at the Season 4 Finale.  Is it a good moral to teach children to shoot laser beams of magic at people they don't like?  That could be easily interpreted as something that teaches violence.  And yet, as far as I could tell, bronies seemed to like that.  It was badass!

 

So, I give Appleloosa's Most Wanted the benefit of the doubt in the aspect of the CMC being able to go into the woods.  

 

---

 

Plus, sometimes when you straight up tell kids "don't do [this]," what happens?  Mhm... They do it.

 

So, "don't go out into the woods, little kids, you could get hurt."  Kids: *Nothing bad happened to the CMC, they think* --> "lol watch me."

 

---

 

Personally, I think the bit with Braeburn falling asleep was ... just too easy.  Sort of cliche.  Needs something more interesting.

 

So, anything that I might not have liked with this episode, I blame Braeburn.  

 

~ Miles

 

P.S.  I'm joking, guys n' gals, I don't actually blame Braeburn.

[NavelColt 22,881]

THANK YOU.

 

I feel the same way, the ridiculous level of complaining in this fandom these days is... well, ridiculous.

It's like we've forgotten how to relax and just enjoy watching an above average kids show,

and now we nitpick everything to high heaven and heavily critique it like it's game of thrones or walking dead.

 

 

First of all, I really enjoy your reacts, Luffy. Been watching you since you began doing MLP reacts, and I've always particularly enjoyed your positive face-value approach to the show, because not only do I have the same approach, but like you've hit upon, it's sadly a diamond in the rough in this fandom.

 

More on point, what you've explained here is precisely why I don't watch or interact with any part of the analysis community on Youtube, and instead watch react videos of bronies like yourself watching episodes in a blind fashion. Blind reacts are always genuine and people always have interesting comments and ideas as they go. But for the most part, the analysis crowd focuses more on nitpicking apart things than they do praise the things the show did well, and while it's important to always look for improvements, blind criticism is just as bad as blind praise.

 

Why is constructive criticism so hard? Tell it like it is, point out what can be improved, but praise the things the show did good as well. And for pete's sake, don't forget to enjoy this at face value as well. It's an effing family-oriented kids program.

 

I think MLP-Silver-Quill is the only Youtube pony analyst I've seen thus far who does a good job with the constructive criticism front. But sadly in 2/3rds of his videos he has a guest star analyst with him, and quite often they nitpick everything, which ruins the whole thing for me.

 

The fandom's been this way since S3 began, from what I can tell. I joined in 2012, shortly before S2 ended, and I never saw the forms of blatant drama and nitpicking that we've seen ever since the Sombra premiere. I'm sure it was there, but it's just gotten worse and worse. This is why I tend to stick to message boards rather than discussing pony on Youtube. Forum bronies aren't usually as moronic as Youtube comment bonies, and on message boards it isn't just about 'what the latest episode did good or wrong', it's about expanding headcanons, discussing theories, hypothesis, characters, etc. Which are all things I love to do, as a different sort of pony analyst, myself.

[roptiriolg 49]

I liked it but that's to give it the higher thumb. It was nothing that great but with having nice episodes lately, I am neither expecting to be excited about every single episode, nor do I find it wrong to have 'calm episodes'. E.g 'Tanks for the memories' was strong for me. The part with Troubleshoes' chasing over the clowns on the rodeo was funny. Besides, he looks like a typical breed of horses (was he a pony?) that are for rodeo. And as some pointed out, he must ve been double the size of Big Mac!

[The Boulder 121]

I kept relating Troubleshoes to eeyore from winnie the pooh. His voice, his attitude and sad outlook on life, I couldn't not make the comparison. I wonder if that was a reference...

 

EDIT: Also, it was nice to see the CMC help someone understand their cutie mark. That could be an interesting thing for them to do after they FINALLY get their cutie marks. Maybe instead of Cutie Mark crusading to GET a cutie mark, they could help ponies UNDERSTAND their marks. But then again, they are still a bunch of kids technically.

Edited May 3, 2015 by The Boulder

[Music Chart Fan 819]

My initial impression of the episode as I was watching it was kind of "eh", but as the episode went on, and as it's sunken in afterward, that impression has slid downward a bit from there. I'll probably be repeating what others have already posted to some extent.

 

The formula for CMC episodes on display here has grown rather tiresome. Even as the CMC have supposedly learned more about what a cutie mark means (e.g. the episode two weeks ago), and not to worry so much about getting one, in episodes like this, they still hold essentially the same simplistic attitude that they can get their cutie marks by trying an endless variety of activities which they've never done before and hence wouldn't be likely to represent who they are and what special talents they have.

 

The whole thing with Braeburn incompetently not being able to watch the CMC, and them subsequently escaping, was something that I didn't even find funny when I was a kid (e.g. in Rugrats). What happened to the plan to send the CMC home? Wouldn't it have been possible to send them home without Applejack going home too? It would seem that way, considering that Applejack said "Maybe I oughta call it quits and go home too". Why does Braeburn seemingly do nothing but sit in front of the door until he falls asleep on the floor? If he was feeling that tired, why didn't he do something to stave off sleep, if it's that important to watch the CMC?

 

But the CMC deserve plenty of blame, also. The idea that the CMC should sneak out into the forest, at night, without telling anyone where they've gone, in search of a (supposed) criminal was extremely stupid; Sweetie Belle's "Worst idea ever." may not have been hyperbole. Then the CMC continue to wander deeper into the forest, even as it's storming very hard and they have no idea where they're going. All of this seems like a much bigger deal than it's made out to be in the episode. If they hadn't just happened to stumble across Trouble Shoes's trailer, they would have been out in the forest in the rain for at least several hours. Really, once they were lost, they shouldn't have kept wandering around in the dark; they could have gotten injured by plants or animals, slipped and fell and broken some bones, gotten sick (including getting hypothermia) from getting soaked out in the rain, etc. And all of that is not to mention that wandering around makes it more difficult for search parties to find them. I think they should have found some shelter and stayed put. And also, once they did find Trouble Shoes's trailer, the CMC were again very lucky that he wasn't the type who would harm them or hold them hostage or anything, and that he knew the way back to Appleoosa and was willing to accompany them there. 

 

About Trouble Shoes, I agree that his getting injured and laughed at because of his clumsiness played out at his expense too quickly and too often. Once again, it's lucky for him and the CMC that the sheriff took such a lackadaisical approach to law enforcement, to the point of leaving the jail unattended and not even taking his keys with him. As Trouble Shoes went out in the arena with the rodeo clowns, they and the event organizers should have instantly recognized that he was not one of the scheduled performers, and I would think that they might call security to remove him, rather than just going with letting him try to participate and make a mess. And Trouble Shoes going from having a lifelong dream of competing in the rodeo, only to realize that his "calling" is for rodeo audiences to laugh at his unintentional clumsiness, seems more like a tragic ending than a good one.

 

Finally, I was rather baffled at how, on at least three occasions, tall precarious stacks of hay bales were just left around, liable to fall over (which happened on two of those occasions) and injure someone or damage something. The episode is inconsistent, though, in how it treats this prospect. Near the beginning of the episode, when the stack of hay bales falls over, it's treated as being dangerous; everyone gets out of the way, Applejack dives to push the CMC out of the way, and the CMC are asked if they're all right. But when Trouble Shoes knocks over the stack of hay bales in the arena near the end of the episode, it's played for laughs - hay bales land on top of ponies, and ponies' bodies get stuck through the hay bales (which shouldn't happen if the bales are tied together tightly, as they would be), and no apparent harm is done. The other puzzling thing is how, when the stack of hay bales falls over at the beginning of the episode, Applejack doesn't know what happened, and the sheriff says there "ain't no doubt" that Trouble Shoes knocked it over. But that wouldn't be my first conclusion - the stack was so high and precarious that I would expect it to be unstable and fall over on its own, or with a slight breeze.

 

Now for my miscellaneous observations, in order as they appeared in the episode:

 

What's with Apple Bloom's pronunciation of "lasso", with the emphasis on the second syllable?

 

We see Applejack high up on the stack of hay bales, then, about 5 seconds later, she's walking up to Braeburn - how did she get down and over to him that fast?

 

The Initial stack has (roughly) 119 visible hay bales, but after the stack is knocked over, we only see (roughly) 45 hay bales. Where did all the rest of them go? Did they all supposedly go flying somewhere off screen?

 

How does a pony play a harmonica (or play it competently, in any case) without fingers?

 

It's a little strange that there's a seemingly deciduous forest directly adjacent to a stereotypical desert with cacti, tumbleweeds, etc.

 

What prompted the CMC to go into the forest in the first place? Had they previously seen a trail of Trouble Shoes's hoof prints into the forest?

 

What card game are the sheriff and two deputies playing? It looks like "go fish", and if so, that seems like a rather simple card game to be playing, one that's more appropriate for kids.

 

The sheriff says "Let's ride!" to go look for the CMC, but what are they riding?

 

Trouble Shoes asks if the CMC like stories, and is disappointed when they indicate that they do; if he didn't want to tell a story, he didn't have to ask if they like them.

 

Why did the Sheriff continue to allow Trouble Shoes to stand on the mattress if he's already ripped through 5 of them?

 

When judging the height of the stacks of hay bales in the competition, are they using a single measuring stick? Just how long would that thing have to be?

[pony.colin 156]

I originally made a topic about this in Show Discussion about this week's episode specifically about the lesson/resolution for this one in particular, since I think this is the one most will criticize and focus about the most with the episode. Though now I think I should've posted it here.  The rest of the episode was okay for me in my opinion, but I'm not going to go over any other particulars about the show.  Other than that, (giant wall of text incoming). 

 

So I was going over the episode and thinking about the solution/lesson/resolution of S05E06 'Appleoosa's Most Wanted'. I thought it was an average okay episode, but I think one of the biggest problems that most people (including myself) had with this episode was the resolution over Trouble Shoes' personal conflict. So I spent some time thinking to myself about this episodes' lesson and I think I've come to some sort of conclusion. Feel free to call me crackpot or overthinking but I went on some train of thought that made claim that this was a sort of brutal honesty type of episode without the brutal honest bit (or at least a much softer touch). Actually what I mean by brutally honest doesn't sound what it means, but sort of the reaction and situation that is addressed by one character to the other in the situation of telling them to let go of their former idealistic dream/aspiration. Probably better put, I think I should just refer to Mick Jagger for this lesson as the “you can't always get what you want, but sometimes, you get what you need” (and the House MD bit is also coming up too).

 

Let me explain what I mean. If you've ever watched House MD, you've seen this type of situation before (variations of it at least). House's team saves their patient's life at the end of the episode, but at a great cost. The end result is that the patient has to let go of their former dream/desire/occupation/aspiration because in their current medical state, it is no longer realistically possible to pursue that dream anymore, and then must learn to let go and move on with their life. I can't remember a particular House MD episode, but its a reoccurring trope that plays itself often into House MD and in a number of different variations as well. A more smaller scale example from House MD would be like in House MD episode S04E02: The Right Stuff – in the situation of Henry Dobson (aka number 26, aka 'the old guy'). In this episode, House is looking to hire new doctors to re-create his team. Henry Dobson is 64 years old and is nicknamed the old guy, (in his case, it's surprising to see a senior medical doctor looking to apply at a hospital at his age, and not be assigned at one already.) Near the end of the episode House confronts Henry and its revealed as to what Henry (aka 26) has been secretly withholding from the rest applicants: (transcript below)

 

• 26: Buddy Ebsen actually was allergic to...

• HOUSE: Yeah, I know. How old are you?

• 26: 21.

• HOUSE: You don't think it's relevant?

• 26: I'll likely have less time to use the skills you teach us, but I don't think that's significant to you.

• HOUSE: How about the fact that you never went to medical school? Which is why you let the unlucky number do the trans echo. At least you're ethically unethical.

• 26: Thirty years I worked in the Columbia med school admissions office. Audited all the classes. Most of them more than once. I just never got a diploma.

• HOUSE: You had to know I'd find out sooner or later.

• 26: I know you break rules. I thought maybe you'd break one for me.

• HOUSE: I can't hire you as a doctor. But you can still tell me what you think. You can also fetch me coffee, pick up my dry-cleaning, until I can decide whether or not to keep you.

• 26: So I'm playing this whole game to be like... Your secretary?

• HOUSE: Assistant sounds marginally less demeaning.

• 26: It's not my dream job.

• HOUSE: Actually it is. It's just not your dream title

 

Henry (aka 26), never graduated with a medical degree and so it would be completely illegal for House to hire him as a doctor (not that he hasn't done anything outrageously illegal in the show before). But anyways, House can't hire him as a doctor. So Henry must accept that his dream job to work as a 'legally certified' doctor on House's team is not possible. But House explains that continuing on in this “game” is actually as close as Henry gets to working as a real doctor (alongside one of the most brilliant asshole doctor), since he's allowed to stay on House's temporary diagnostic team to solve real patient cases and obtain a lot more knowledge, theory and practice. Which still fulfils some of Henry's desires, if only for a short while.

 

Sorry, long example side, this is the situation that I'm referring to with Trouble Shoe's resolution over his own personal conflict, although, his was resolved with more happiness and less bitter-sweet. IMO, Trouble Shoes seems like he was really written to be a simple character, which will be important later on with what I have to say about many who criticized his end resolution. We know about mid-way through the episode, that when Trouble Shoes was a young colt, he had always watched and enjoyed the rodeo shows and dreamed to one day becomes a rodeo star, even given his poor balance coordination. But he practised long and hard to try and work his nerve up and skills to try out for the test for entry into rodeo school (yes he says its 'rodeo school' in the episode, ~12:42). Of course we know his cutie-mark appears and that Trouble Shoes ends up messing up by mistake infront of the judges who end up laughing from his performance. Trouble Shoes becomes so depressed at his performance that he ends up not finishing and leaves early. However, Trouble Shoes still had a love and passion for rodeo shows so he still continues to go to Appleloosa to visit the shows, it's just his unfortunate clumsiness usually causes a mess. Anyways, later on the CMC want to help Trouble Shoes by trying to get him to dress up as a rodeo clown and perform in the rodeo show as a clown (now this is the real bit I'm sure everyone, including me, criticized as being poorly executed and I would say, was really under-emphasized). While Trouble Shoes messes up the rodeo clowns' routine (seriously, they were more like acrobatic performers rather than clowns), he entertains the audience who react with great laughter (yes I know many of you pointed out, this crowd is not 'laughing with him' – 'they're laughing at him' for being a foolish clown – let me get to that). Remember how I said that Trouble Shoes seemed like he was written to be a 'simple character'? This is where I believe it was made on purpose where 'Trouble Shoes' doesn't necessarily consider his situation fully, but also, learns to accept it, but also importantly, is encouraged by the CMC to try and continue with the clown act. He knows that he's been laughed at before for his clumsiness, but he looks towards the CMC for encouragement in trying to gain legitimacy and belief that his clown performance is still very good as entertainment. Again, consider that for Trouble Shoes that it was his dream to perform in rodeo shows (initially as a rodeo star). But over the years, due to his clumsiness, he's become depressed and believes that is forever doomed to be a walking disaster that will never be able to entertain and be a part of the rodeo show. He had to let go of that dream, but he never let go of his passion for the rodeo show. Its here, where Trouble Shoes finally gains something he never thought he'd get back, being a performer in the rodeo show. It's not his dream job, but it's also something he was still passionate about and cared for, its sort of like therapy for him at this point to deal with his depressing state. Again, the 'laughing at him' part, I think that Trouble Shoes is a simple character and is one of two things. Either he knows that the audience is 'laughing at him' and he just learns to accept it, but also understands that its part the aspect of being a clown performer or that he doesn't think critically enough about his situation because resurrecting his desire to being an entertainer in the rodeo show overrrides this thought. And yes, I think the episode, extremely under-emphasized this, and was somewhat executed haphazardly. It probably would have been great if it tried to make point more obvious in the episode, and helped it along.

 

 

TL/DR: - the resolution of this episode seemed like (to me at least) it was about, “you can't always get what you want, but sometimes, you get what you need” type of aseop. But I do feel it was extremely under-emphasized in this episode and that's something to be critical about. Also, this was a much more sweeter, less bitter-sweet way of sort invoking this trope (I'm sure there's a trope that this is called on tvtropes, I just can't find it. Somepony else feel free to look and say). There are other problems about this episode as well, but that's enough for this thread. So, your thoughts, views and other things you thought about this episode's resolution? What else did you think? Am I reading too much into it? Responses please? Other thoughts about the lesson/resolution about this episode?  Other criticisms about the resolution? Or did you like the resolution?