S07:E19 - It Isn't the Mane Thing About You

[Oleks 1,983]

I think it was a great episode. The little details made it work for me: all the background ponies, continuity, a little bit of the universe expansion (now we know that they have something called Vanity Mare). And they finally brought Zecora back. Yay! The milking scene made me feel a bit uncomfortable though. I don’t even know why.

Tabitha did an awesome job as always - she is the kind of VA that never disappoints. As for Rarity’s new style… Just wow! It’s a pity they fast forwarded the time, I’d very, very much like to see her with that mane for a couple of episodes.

Also, a new quote for the Golden Fund:
She's not a lemon, she's our friend. - Twilight Sparkle, 2017.

Spoiler

 

Is it me, or does this cloud mane kinda look like a nod to Snowdrop?

 

 

[Drunkfrank 1,125]

Certainly a good episode, not one of my favorites of the season though.

[Ganondorf8 11,118]

Not much to say about this episode other than it turned out better than I expected. It's always nice seeing an old favourite like Zecora appear--Brenda Crinchlow's still got it after all this time--and that mane style Rarity showcases within the final few minutes was to die for. I didn't notice her using any hair dye during the process but knowing her, she has her little secrets.

[DJ_Bonebraker 182]

Like many others, I wasn't expecting much from this episode, but was very pleasantly surprised.  Overall good message,  not to mention all the neat little background details (going to have to watch this one a few times to catch them all) plus all the call-backs to earlier episodes.  I also wasn't really expecting Starlight to show up in this episode, but really liked how they had her interact with the rest of the Mane 6 and Rarity in a more natural fashion (not to mention the way the show seems to be developing her friendship with Twilight and how they play off one another), which of course gives this lovely little gem that really cracked me up: 

Zecora:  "There's no magical cure to hasten us through it, unless you went backward in time to undo it."
*Everyone in the room immediately looks at Starlight*

Starlight:  "Uh-uh! I think we can both say that's not a good option!"

Anyways, I LOVED Rarity's punk look, and once I get back in the groove of drawing, I might have to do a pic of About Time Twilight, Apocalypse Dash from the Sombra Timeline & Punk Rarity from this episode all together.

 

[Babyyoshi309 1,829]

That Punk version of Rarity made me cringe so much. Like I could barely watch it. It was that bad. That and the absence of Pinkie completely ruined the episode. Like seriously, why were they acting like that looked good?!!!!!! 

[Thrond 3,257]

This isn't very funny, but it's kinda pleasant, and does a lot of things right which I think the show has been doing wrong for a while, especially with regards to tone and characterization. It's refreshing to see such a laid-back, low-stakes story, and the moral here is pretty solid without being too forced. There's only as much plot here as there needs to be, and everything else is left to... not a whole lot, honestly, but the story has some time to breathe, and some of the jokes do land. Overall I like thinking of this as a whole more than I actually enjoyed watching it, but everything from when Rainbow, Applejack, and Fluttershy show up forward is rock solid, and every scene is a little better than the one before. Feels more than anything like the show starting to remember what made it so great, so I hope this isn't an anomaly. 

Full review at my blog.

Gotta say, between this and "Daring Done?," I wouldn't have expected this to be the one I enjoyed. 

[Bricks_Ahoy 860]

50% of people liked this episode!? Wow, you guys must be seeing something I don't. I think it was a very mediocre episode at best.

Zecora is back! Alright, it is good to see her again, but it doesn't change to much my opinion on the episode.

It had some solid jokes, though. My favourite would be the Rarity/Creepy Eyes scene.

This is a Josh Haber episode, this guy has been writing from season 4 and I am still waiting for a good episode by him. Yet he has written Simple Ways, The Cutie Re-Mark, Stranger Than FanFiction, etc. Generally episodes, I am not a fan of. His best episode was Bloom & Gloom., which still isn't that good of an episode (the constant dreams get repetitive). 

The problem with the episode (or at least what bugged me) comes from the plot. We all have seen an episode that has something to do with physical appearance (mostly hair) destroying someone's social life. I expect better from this show, I know it can do better than this. 

Score: 1.5/5

[MalekPony 36]

8 hours ago, Dark Qiviut said:

Don't know what to say about the episode right now, but one thing I will say is good on the episode to not fix Rarity's mane. Magic can't solve every problem in Equestrian life, y'know.

Does this mean that this will be the last ever episode to feature the normal mane style that has been with Rarity since the show's premiere in 2010?

[Brainstorm 4,092]

I'm glad that Zecora appeared in season 7.

[Dark Qiviut 22,160]

24 minutes ago, MalekPony said:

Does this mean that this will be the last ever episode to feature the normal mane style that has been with Rarity since the show's premiere in 2010?

The end of the episode skipped several months ahead to conclude. Her mane and tail eventually grew back to normal.

[PacificGreen 1,163]

I gotta say, I really liked this one. I liked that we had all of the mane characters in it (seriously, I've noticed a glaring lack of Fluttershy this season), and I feel like it was a creative way to work with an often-cliched moral.

I might post my thoughts on this ep later, but I'm kinda busy now. So the important thing is that...I thought it was great.

[ShadowPhoenix 153]

Holy fuck, this was clever. Everything, absolutely everything, fit lock-and-key. A very subtle response to a hackneyed switcheroo plot and the secondary and primary characters were utilized absolutely expertly all with their moments to shine and fantastic emotional and moral resolution. This is a prime example of storytelling rich in detail and depth with a simple premise.

Rarity's responses throughout were somehow dramatic and measured at the same time, showing how far she's developed. The Mane Six came up with some truly ingenious ideas and support along the way, including the metaphor about being squeezed by a lemon and the subtle call back to Steven Magnet. The episode defied expectations when Zecora came in at the close of the second act to dismiss the magical solution of another potion, forcing the story in another direction while the photo shoot plotline remained in the background. There were a lot of gems throughout, including Bon Bon buying flowers, Rarity and Pinkie being unaffected by the creepy eyes in the Everfree, Zecora's regaling of mane disasters, Rarity's expressive movements while she was shrouded in the black cloak, the daring move to have a time-jump of a few months and the general usage of the background characters

Storywise, this is undoubtedly the winner of the season. As a whole, It Isn't The Mane Thing About You is up there with Fame and Misfortune and The Perfect Pair as contenders for the best this season. Episodes like these only serve to prove that Season 7 is distinctly different from prior seasons and is successfully getting even bolder and better. This show keeps getting better and better.

[MalekPony 36]

34 minutes ago, Dark Qiviut said:

The end of the episode skipped several months ahead to conclude. Her mane and tail eventually grew back to normal.

Oh, so Rarity's normal mane style since 2010 is here to stay?

[Tilgoreth 1,915]

So Rarity's new style is cool. Can we see ore of it? No? Dang.

 

This episode felt weird to me. There wasn't much of a resolution to the conflict. It was just like:Oh yeah I know how to style manes and add hair extensions! If they wanted a "beauty on the inside" moral Rarity should have left her mane the way it was. Also when Rarity asked if her mane was okay at the end that dialogue felt strange. At that point it probably has been close to half a year since she lost her mane. It would have been normal for awhile.

 

also welcome to the Starlight Glimmer show! It's definitely a deliberate move to include Starlight more. 

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

There is one line of Starlight that intriguing me: 

Rarity: This won't do! I need an actual mane!

Starlight Glimmer: But it has to come from somewhere.

 

They cant just create Rarity mane from nowhere? So when you materialize something by magics, it just "borrow" from somewhere else? Twilight magic to grow mustang (Boast Buster) actually "steal" some random dude's mustang. REALLY INTERESTING, Starlight always has some great comment about magics.

 

 

 

[bwrosas 252]

Only thing fans may not like, is even if this may be revisited in the future, this is a one-off occurrence for Rarity.  Shows (animated/live-action) have been known to do this. Heck "Family Matters" did a similar situation in an episode with Laura, her Mom and Aunt. But by the next week, it was like nothing happened. 

Basically this is done to get fans talking and possibly hint at a future Rarity or Overall NEW MLP Toy line in the future.

[Dark Qiviut 22,160]

22 minutes ago, MalekPony said:

Oh, so Rarity's normal mane style since 2010 is here to stay?

Yep.

[bwrosas 252]

One thing I will say I did like, was how her friends got PhotoFinish to still do the "photoshoot" to show her that it didn't matter what her mane style was, she was still the same Rarity they knew and loved and that nothing was going to change that.

 

 

Edited September 17, 2017 by bwrosas

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

The one keep this ep from being great is how contrived it is, i guess pony mane cant be materialized by magic or something but they could just made fake mane easily just for the today shooting, Pinkie did that for Cranky, right!? And he still had that fake hair until Slice of Life, its not that hard to make fake hair out of somebody hair. The story could have ended sooner if Rarity realized how to do something with her mane like the end of the episode, she is a designer, right, she is the one can make anything pretty really fast, i dont know why its take so long for that solution (rock punk mane), Photo Finish didnt demand real mane anyway (they could just add one scene to make the plot work like Photo Finish demand the real mane not artificial). I still enjoy silly stuffs but they need some better explainations to make the plot moving no matter how ridiculous it is.

[PacificGreen 1,163]

4 hours ago, SpiBaz said:

50% of people liked this episode!? Wow, you guys must be seeing something I don't. I think it was a very mediocre episode at best.

Yeah, I admit the whole premise may be a tad cliche, but I guess I kinda liked the fact that they took a cliched premise and made something interesting out of it. For instance, it wasn't just about Rarity accepting that it's what's on the inside that counts (which is true, but, again, would have been a pretty cliched resolution to the plot), but actually about turning her bad situation into something useful and using her new look (I really liked Raripunk/Punkity's look here XD) to help others' businesses. I also liked that they included all of the main characters in a way that their interactions felt very "not-forced". 

I think what I also liked about it was that it almost felt like a season 1-2 episode in terms of how slice-of-life it was, so it was almost like a refreshing touch of nostalgia for a season pretty heavy on introducing new characters and progressing characters' roles and development. Don't get me wrong, it's necessary for a show to advance its plot and characters (or else we'd just be complaining about how the show is always stuck in the same old characterization and stuff), but sometimes it's a good idea to go back to basics and have characters learn lessons in both creative and familiar ways.

Yeah, I feel like I'm just rambling here, but to be honest, I replied to your post mostly because I probably feel the same way about popular episodes that I didn't really like (Parental Glideance, Fame and Misfortune), so I just wanted to articulate why I liked this particular episode. Just to shed some light on what I enjoyed about it.

16 minutes ago, Lambdadelta said:

The one keep this ep from being great is how contrived it is, i guess pony mane cant be materialized by magic or something but they could just made fake mane easily just for the today shooting, Pinkie did that for Cranky, right!? And he still had that fake hair until Slice of Life, its not that hard to make fake hair out of somebody hair. The story could have ended sooner if Rarity realized how to do something with her mane like the end of the episode, she is a designer, right, she is the one can make anything pretty really fast, i dont know why its take so long for that solution (rock punk mane), Photo Finish didnt demand real mane anyway (they could just add one scene to make the plot work like Photo Finish demand the real mane not artificial). I still enjoy silly stuffs but they need some better explainations to make the plot moving no matter how ridiculous it is.

 

2 hours ago, Lambdadelta said:

There is one line of Starlight that intriguing me: 

Rarity: This won't do! I need an actual mane!

Starlight Glimmer: But it has to come from somewhere.

 

They cant just create Rarity mane from nowhere? So when you materialize something by magics, it just "borrow" from somewhere else? Twilight magic to grow mustang (Boast Buster) actually "steal" some random dude's mustang. REALLY INTERESTING, Starlight always has some great comment about magics.

 

 

 

Yeah, I thought the same thing actually. Weird how they say they can't create stuff out of thin air, even though they've practically been doing it throughout the series with super unicorn magic :P. 

And did nopony seriously think about buying Rarity a wig or something?  

[BlueStreak98 828]

I have my qualms with the episode as a whole, but my goodness I didn't know how badly I needed punk Rarity in my life.

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

14 minutes ago, PacificGreen said:

And did nopony seriously think about buying Rarity a wig or something?  

If there is one scene like Photo Finish's dramatic demand about Natural Mane, then this ep works perfectly.

[King of Snake 54]

That was a wonderful comedy episode. There was a distinct early season vibe to it with its manic style, the slice of life storyline and the fast-paced gags. It was full of wonderful humour, which surprised me as I don't consider Josh Haber a good comedy writer after having had a look at what he's previously written. My highlights were Rarity's "Why don't you take a picture?!", Twilight and Starlight's attempts to create a new mane for her with magic, and Pinkie's surreal neck-twisting moment at Zecora's. It was all just lovely stuff.

Also, it was nice to see Mr Breezy in only his second episode since season 1 - and this time in a speaking role. I never expected that. I was just disappointed that Photo Finish didn't make a proper appearance. If any pony has been underused over the years, it's her.

[Theknightofdraconia 31]

Funny episode. Also happy to see Spike(barley used and for good reason) not try to act like a love struck idiot and try to help Rarity. In some slimer of hope, I hope this means he's getting over his crush. Spike became ambassador for the dragon lands(Celestia appointed him, it wasn't self entitled) he doesn't need to deal Rarity's problems for attention anymore. And he most likely learned his lesson from "Inspiration Manifestation".

 

Anyways, I think the punk look works for Rarity, too bad she did not keep it.

Edited September 17, 2017 by Theknightofdraconia

[heavens-champion 1,893]

4 hours ago, MalekPony said:

Oh, so Rarity's normal mane style since 2010 is here to stay?

You say that like it's a bad thing.