S09:E23 The Big Mac Question

[Senko 459]

On 10/10/2019 at 9:01 AM, Music Chart Fan said:

But I don't see any particular value in buying expensive engagement rings or making some complicated plan and "grand gesture" to propose, so I don't think people should be pressured or feel obligated to do things like that. Thus, I can't help feeling some frustration when seeing Big Mac's and Sugar Belle's proposal schemes for that reason, and on top of that, I can see logistical issues with their schemes, and I'm not even sure how much value or enjoyment they would get out of them. 

Just wanted to say in a world where this . . .

Its quite possible the value of gems is significantly different in Ponyville especially considering Spike eats quite a lot of them and he's only one dragon. So its quite possible that Big Mac only paid a small price for the ring/jewelers experience and the gem was only picked for its apperance and doesn't have anywhere near the same value one on earth would. Then again down that path lay's the dreaded Equestrian economics where Rarity can tip a bellpony in mulitple gems each time he helps her yet the crusaders can buy an industrial hair dryer . . .

for one. Then again maybe they have their own especially valuable gems.

[Music Chart Fan 819]

45 minutes ago, Senko said:

So its quite possible that Big Mac only paid a small price for the ring/jewelers experience and the gem was only picked for its apperance and doesn't have anywhere near the same value one on earth would.

I was sort of basing my presumption that the engagement ring is (at least fairly) expensive on Spike's reaction. He seems pretty impressed by it, and I think he would have a pretty good idea of what gems are impressive, considering that, for example, he's been Rarity's regular gem collecting helper, and he was seen with Rarity offering a second opinion on precious gems at the jeweler's shop in "Dragon Dropped". Then again, we may not be able to rule out his hopeless romanticism clouding his judgement, haha.

[CypherHoof 26,483]

2 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

I was sort of basing my presumption that the engagement ring is (at least fairly) expensive on Spike's reaction. He seems pretty impressed by it, and I think he would have a pretty good idea of what gems are impressive, considering that, for example, he's been Rarity's regular gem collecting helper, and he was seen with Rarity offering a second opinion on precious gems at the jeweler's shop in "Dragon Dropped". Then again, we may not be able to rule out his hopeless romanticism clouding his judgement, haha.

I think our opinions may be a bit skewed by how common gems are when you have Rarity and/or Maud about.

besides, the value may come from refining the ore into metal, shaping the metal into a ring with a mount, then choosing and mounting a gem - even if the gem is not the most valuable thing (and of course in the non-pony world, gem prices are artificially maintained; diamonds in particular are not "worth" anything near the price charged for them) the skill and special talent needed to make high quality jewelry may demand a high price for their wares.

[Sepul-Coloratura 762]

What happens is awesome, but how it happens is just bland. The idea of the wedding is good, the episode itself was just meh. I was waiting for a Big Mac/Sugar Belle marriage episode, lots of us did, but besides the fact that it happens and few fandom references in the episode, it just isn't that much interesting. It was not terrible either.

And of course Starlight didn't bother showing up. I thought she made up with Sugar Belle somewhere off screen or it has been implied in the montage, but no wonder that it seems like they are uncomfortable to be in the same place as it is.

[Sh Pie 65]

This was a sweet romantic Big Mac and Sugar Belle focus episode that concludes their story arc with their wedding, the ultimate expression of true love between ponies. Discord's presence is welcome as always. The part where Apple Bloom leaned was a humorous reference to the bar scene in Season 8 Episode 10. I guess Big Mac taught her about that. I appreciated the symbolism of Big Mac's and Sugar Belle's dual proposal under the Apple and Pear family trees. Hopefully, their marriage will be long and happy!

In case further implication of their homosexuality was needed, this episode also features the secondary dual proposal of Lyra and Bonbon. Their relationship has escalated a lot since their platonic friendship portrayed in Episode 100.

Definitely happy for them and especially Big Mac and Sugar Belle. It was a good decision to focus on them for the last non-apocalyptic episode. Which means next episode (and it's a 3-part arc, wow!) is that time.

[Allen 1,387]

This episode turns out to be a mess first in conflicts between Discord and Big MacIntosh; and then we have a marriage of both Big MacIntosh and Sugar Belle together. Therefore, I will say this is a great episode when they got married!  Congratulations to both Big MacIntosh and Sugar Belle for getting married!  That was since PewDiePie got married with Marzia before hitting 100 million subscribers on YouTube on that week. Now that's what I call this an antepenultimate episode of the season and the series with this episode title! 

Also, I like that part when Lyra and Bon Bon (Sweetie Drops) showed up their rings together as a proposal for them! 

Edited October 13, 2019 by Allen
New sentence.

[KatonRyu 1,033]

This episode was just really cute, and the humor was on point. But of course, the best part of the episode was Lyra and Bon Bon proposing to each other

[JCKane 345]

Sadly, had to give it a 'meh' because *sigh* stupid Dish on demand was being a jerk... instead of Downloading it so I could watch it later... it treated it like I was streaming it (all the episodes funny enough) and the buttons were being evil.  as It wouldn't let me pause it to wait until it buffered (as yeah the 'buffer' *aka download thing* would reset each time) because unpausing it always jumped it forward to the point where it was buffered too... and trying to hit the 'back' either A) "Sorry you can't do that with this feature" (worked before and with Duck Tales...) or B ) it'd jump FORWARD instead of backwards...

Anyways, so I missed some gaps, had to reset it a few times and just... ugh.  But it was pretty good from what I seen but otherwise :/ victim of the EVIL Dish On Demand issue!

[Totally Nyx 36,144]

Bad episode. Would not watch. Would not recommend.

[qwerE 96]

Didn't like the episode too much. The whole episode was everypony making mistakes and messing up the plan, which was frustrating to watch. The point of the frustration was at the plot, and not the characters themselves. I doubt everycreature would've messed it up this bad were they in character.

The new interview style, while new (I do recall there being a similar scene somewhere else, but it still came off as pretty new), felt out of place and weird. Looking at the polls, I'm surprised at how almost everyone found this episode to be good. Maybe this episode just wasn't for me. 

Edited October 20, 2019 by qwerE

[FirePuppy 735]

I would've liked this episode more if Applejack had a bigger role in it. But alas, it was just a sequel to Break Up Breakdown, an episode I never really liked.

[Buttonmash1973 1,026]

Some of the best parts was LyraBon

[Truffles 2,033]

On 10/9/2019 at 9:32 AM, Dark Qiviut said:

Since he wasn't alerted of Big Mac's proposal plan, he became giddy and impatient (with a great mariachi reference [taking a page from Star Trek: TNG])

Ha! I totally missed that ref! Here I thought it was a ref to The Three Amigos, but the colors and style of the mariachi suits is unmistakable in retrospect. XD

On 10/9/2019 at 9:32 AM, Dark Qiviut said:

BTW, how apropos for Lyra to propose by dropping on one knee like a human.

Good catch. And its notable she does this since Big Mac and Sugar Belle do it differently just a few scenes later.

On 10/9/2019 at 9:32 AM, Dark Qiviut said:

For the first time all series, they're aware of the consequences. By working with Sugar and helping her to find Big Mac, they feel like they can make up for at least some of it.

It was nice to have the CMC get another important role after some of the issues and regressions exhibited with the CMC in "Growing Up is Hard to Do." Here, they acted how I would have expected them to act post "The Last Crusade" - as mature fillies crossing the threshold of being bright, young women.

On 10/9/2019 at 9:32 AM, Dark Qiviut said:

This time, he (and Granny) returns to the very same site, stands beside the other Apples and Burnt Oak, and gives Big Mac his unconditional blessings, closing another gap that caused a massive, increasingly bitter divide between himself and his mother-in-law.

This, in addition to the music, is the other reason the wedding scene is so emotional for me. It was truly moving to see Grand Pear get to experience the wedding of his grandson-in-law after missing the wedding of his daughter and son-in-law the first time.

On 10/9/2019 at 9:32 AM, Dark Qiviut said:

Fortunately, no pony tasted them

Yes. XD The infamous baked bads incident in S1E4 forever canonized that dragons have stomachs made of steel.

On 10/9/2019 at 9:32 AM, Dark Qiviut said:

Pairing it down the essentials was all they needed, something Discord comprehended well beforehand.

Discord, Voice of Reason. Now that's a switch....

Some of that VoR stems from him being cynical, and I suppose I could go back to "TB-U, B-D" and turn Spike's own words against him: There, Spike first calls out Discord for being cynical. But Spike may be just as cynical for matters not relating to romance since his roles as the VoR over the years could be construed the same way.

 

On 10/9/2019 at 5:01 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

Big Mac says "I don't talk much, so I want to SHOW Sugar Belle how committed I am". But if he doesn't talk much, then wouldn't it be all the more meaningful for him to talk about his commitment to Sugar Belle?

I suspect because his words have gotten him into so much trouble in the past that he'd want to avoid using them at all costs, thinking they could cause problems again no matter how well-intentioned they were. Not that planning a crazy scheme to drop hints to a proposal is any better, mind you. XD

On 10/9/2019 at 5:01 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

Spike says "Sugar Belle's gonna love it!", but I don't know if he can be trusted, since he's probably blinded by hopeless romanticism.

That's for sure, lol. He may have said Sugar Belle, but its likely he was just thinking about what he would have liked himself. I guess if Gabby ever wanted to propose to Spike, setting up a bunch of gems with clues attached to them would be a good way to make it memorable for him - provided she could accomplish such a task any better than Big Mac could. XD

On 10/9/2019 at 5:01 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

Spike has burned books and newspapers before, and it's possible that that was because he had no thought of sending them anywhere. However, this still may not explain how, way back in "Griffon The Brush Off", Spike sends scrolls to Celestia by hiccuping fire on them, when he doesn't seem like he's intending to send them at that time. And I'm not sure if the material needs to be "parchment" specifically in order for Spike to send it. Spike sent and received tickets to the gala way back in "The Ticket Master", and the tickets were shiny and didn't appear to be made of just "parchment". And Spike has sent scrolls that are closed with ribbons and what appear to be metal seals, so those don't seem to be purely paper material.

Hmm. These are all excellent points.

He must do something with his power to determine whether it will burn or send, otherwise there would be a great many objects (including one roc) that would have been teleported away somewhere. That would explain how he burned Twilight's book in "Owl's Well that Ends Well." As for "GtB-O," I suppose perhaps he had been thinking about sending those scrolls to Celestia at some point so their destination was already predetermined during his hiccup barrage? (After hearing some tidbits from the Series Bible while I was on vacation that got out during the leaks, it could be that S1 episode was written with the knowledge contained in that document in mind. Apparently he was supposed to be the only dragon left and he would uncover new hidden abilities as the series went on. But at some point that idea was scrapped.)

As for the ribbons, seals and foil coatings, maybe we can use the 1994 Terminator Time-Displacement Machine logic and like that machine where it can only send biological matter or matter contained in biological material, perhaps because the seals and ribbons are attached to the parchment they also get sent along with it to the destination? I dunno, I'm reaching here, lol. This episode showing Spike consciously planning a destination and specifically mentioning parchment was good enough for me to finally get at least a little bit of canonization as to how that message-sending power works.

On 10/9/2019 at 5:01 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

Is today an important anniversary of Big Mac's and Sugar Belle's first date or something? (That could explain why both of them coincidentally were planning to propose on the same day.)

That's what I'm thinking, and it unfortunately was accidentally edited out of the script during a rewrite for time.

On 10/9/2019 at 5:01 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

Spike says "If you were a hopeless romantic, you'd know that was the only logical choice". Somehow "logical" doesn't seem like the right word to be using there. Are hopeless romantics generally known or considered to be "logical"?

Spike's been around Twilight all his life, so a Twilight-ism like using the word "logical" in an incorrect situation seems plausible.

On 10/9/2019 at 5:01 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

It's an interesting parallel that both Big Mac's and Sugar Belle's proposal schemes involve 21 things - 21 apples on the map to be hidden around Ponyville and found by Sugar Belle, and 21 desserts in which Big Mac will find the words of Sugar Belle's proposal. I don't know if there's any particular significance to that number.

I wondered about that too, though SB does say to the CMC at the end of their talk that it will actually be 22. But it would be neat if the 21 was a significant value, like the number of moons/months the two of them have been together. It would give the audience some sense of the amount of time that has passed since "Hard to Say Anything."

On 10/9/2019 at 5:01 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

Why is Spike even sampling the desserts anyway? They're clearly not his, and being made for somebody else. I can't imagine going to a bakery and sampling a completed baked good that I hadn't bought and was not invited to taste.

It's a bad habit of his, he's been known to do that before. The most blatant example being his crawling up through the middle of Gilda's cake in the aforementioned, "Griffon the Brush-Off." I suppose because he's several years older now, he should know better. But at least it's not as bad as his butt touching the food. XD

On 10/9/2019 at 5:01 PM, Music Chart Fan said:

So Discord, Spike, the CMCs, and Mrs. Cake were telling this whole backstory to...Applejack, at the wedding? Did nobody tell Applejack about all of this earlier? And how much time passed between the proposal day and the wedding day without Applejack's knowing about all of this?

My guess is AJ only found out right before the wedding that there were some shenanigans that went on leading up to her brother proposing. Perhaps Discord spilling the beans right before the ceremony just because that's his nature? So knowing AJ, she would have wanted to hear every detail right then and there. So she lined them up and had them explain their parts in the events that nearly became a fiasco. That's what I think, anyway.

[Music Chart Fan 819]

32 minutes ago, Truffles said:

He must do something with his power to determine whether it will burn or send, otherwise there would be a great many objects (including one roc) that would have been teleported away somewhere.

I laughed at the mental image of Spike's teleporting a giant roc - or, say, the big frozen cloud from "Equestria Games" - somewhere else by breathing fire on it. But that mental image also calls to mind a potentially interesting thought experiment. From what I recall observing on the show, Spike's sending a scroll (or whatever else qualifies) by breathing fire on it doesn't necessarily occur instantaneously; it appears to be sent as it's burned, even if that takes a second or so. But on the receiving end, a cloud of smoke and magic forms until the whole scroll pops into existence instantaneously. So what if, say, a mile-long scroll was unrolled and set up so that Spike would breathe fire on one end to teleport it? Presumably the scroll would "send" as it burned down the very long length of it. But on the receiving end, would an ever-larger swirling cloud of smoke and magic form over the course of many seconds (or more, depending on how long it takes the scroll to burn), with the receiver perhaps looking on in horror, until the mile-long scroll pops into existence all at once? Could people observe a long, continuous trail of smoke and magic from where the scroll is originally located all the way to where it's being sent? I could imagine Twilight and Spike doing that as an experiment, or I could also imagine Rainbow or somebody asking Spike to do that as a prank.

[Truffles 2,033]

15 minutes ago, Music Chart Fan said:

But on the receiving end, would an ever-larger swirling cloud of smoke and magic form over the course of many seconds (or more, depending on how long it takes the scroll to burn), with the receiver perhaps looking on in horror, until the mile-long scroll pops into existence all at once?

After reading that, I now have this image of Spike as a band geek and being pretty useful for doing TP parties. (Equestrian toilet paper counts as parchment, right? )

[Moony the Cat 3,702]

I dislike Discord but the Episode was nice enough that i still liked it.

[Dany pony 6]

Hy, I love that episode.

But I don't think Lyra and Bon bon are confirmed to have a proposal.

We haven't seen exactly what was that, 'cause we could see it blurry, maybe there was a bracelet or a ring that means "eternity" of some relationship.

And Lyra is not completely on knee is like, for a pony is not possible to take a gift in a box with two hoofs, os that was she did to do it.

It's like behind her was the gift she takes it with two hoofs and show it to Bon bon!!

I'm not against the ship, only is a room for interpretation!

But, why not confirmed it by authors, there wasn't problem, or maybe because they haven't done it, to leave interpretation of the sign of that gift!

I mean, sometimes a pure friendship is completely better than a romantic relationship, because even when you fight with your partner, a friend helps you.

So it's they are more than just friend, I know, but it's something so pure so beautiful that will last for eternity!!!!!

#MLPFIM❤🦄

[GloryForShame 26]

Well, the final episode before the show finally ends it, i think it was really a fun episode with many fun characters on it, i always liked the Spike Discord and Big Mac friendship, the episodes with them were just always so fun to watch, i think the last one with them was more good than this one, but it still was a really nice episode to watch, Discord was obvious my favorite in the whole episode

overall, i can't wait to watch the three final episodes, it has been a good time enjoying mlp, i was not here during the peak of the fandom or anything special, but i have been using this website since the time i started watching like season 2 and 1

[Antiyonder 1,198]

YouTube upload of the episode: