S01:E09 - Bridle Gossip

[NavelColt 22,880]

https://mlpforums.com/calendar/event/114-%7B%3F%7D/?module=events

Title: Bridle Gossip
Air Date: December 10, 2010
Synopsis: When the ponies are afflicted with bizarre and humorous sicknesses they accuse a mysterious zebra named Zecora of placing a curse on them.

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Watch young fillies, and you shall soon see, the mysterious tale of a zebra lady, and the ponies she did cause to flee.

Zecora's premiere, and one of the earlier episodes focusing on Apple Bloom :3 Edited May 28, 2014 by DashForever

[Batbrony 16,054]

This episode stands out for a couple of reasons: (1) it's the first episode where Apple Bloom both makes a prominent appearance and plays a very big role, and (2) Flutterguy. Oh how I do love Flutterguy!!!
 

Edited November 1, 2013 by Batbrony

[aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 55]

a

Edited April 16, 2022 by throw

[HomuraBL 851]

This episode was amazing. The humor in this was perfect. Flutterguy, Pinkie, Zecora's rhyming. Just everything.

 

Also, recently, I've been thinking about how cool Zecora is. I actually want to see more episodes involve her.

[AegisReflector 886]

I like how the episode sort of deals with the concepts of racism and stereotypes. Not only do they imply that the Mane 6 (even spreading propaganda to Twilight that makes her turn too) have very negative feelings about Zecora, but ALL of Ponyville seems to have that feeling, showing that Ponyville, whose ideals is to be as polite and welcoming as possible, has that "human" feeling of chastising everything that is different from them.

 

I liked the whole Apple Bloom/Applejack banter going on in this episode, as it can clearly be relatable to an ignorant parent spreading filthy lies to a young innocent child. The children, in a sense, are actually more human and smarter than adults, as they see everything for what they are and they are very open. They really portrayed that here with Apple Bloom. Applejack, I thought, resembled an angry parent, a corrupted/fascist government head, or a leader of a hate group in this one, because she tried to get AB to stay away from someone harmless despite not knowing any better. A very, very human trait.

 

Race, obviously, comes in with the zebra stripes Zecora has and also due to the fact that she has many artifacts foreign to any pony. Although, I could swear that the writers were just trying to make her into a stereotypical African race or something, just because of the whole style of her masks and the fact that she has kind of an Ethiopian accent. Well, Africa has a ton of zebras too, so maybe this was a blessing in disguise for the moral of the episode lol.

 

Overall, great episode. One of the greatest MLP ones in my opinion. I mean, yeah, a lot of shows aimed towards kids tries to spread this kind of message too, but I thought the writers did a very good job of hammering that message in effectively.

[Rocket_Rainboom6 8]

I knew that Zecora was not that bad she looked nice and when Applejack turned tiny that was hilarious. Who is the big pony now?

[iselin 2]

flutterguy is amazing. I have tried to get my boyfriend to love MLP and showed him this episode. the whole subject about Zecora being different is okay but I hate the fact that she is a stereotype and that you automaticlly think about Africa. she's not representing anything different, just representing some kind of African culture which is a joke, African culture is much more than potions and witchcraft. :/

flutterguy, applejack and pinkie pie is awesome in this episode!

Edited December 19, 2012 by iselin

[Scootalove 10,689]

 

These really made me laugh, the deep voice singing of Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie's roleplaying of the song to go along with it.

[TheGreatandPowerfulZecora 16]

Notice how the posion joke took the Mane 6's characteristics and turned them upside down?

Rainbow Dash- Fastest flyer in Equestria crashed into something every ten seconds (flat)

Rarity- Her beautiful mane was tangled up and strung out!

Applejack- No more strength or powerful hooves when shes that tiny...

Pinky pie- Couldn't talk to make people laugh or tell jokes

Fluttershy- Her soothing voice was made deeper, proably scaring her animal friends too

Twlight- Duh1 Element of magic, no horn?

[Buttonmash1973 1,026]

This episode had aired around my Birthday long before I had found out about the show.

 

I hope that Season four will have more Zecora.

[True Rarity 1,240]

This. Was. Just. HILARIOUS!!!! I loved the close attention to Apple Bloom, and "Flutterguy" was amazing! I especially loved the song part!

 

"Sorry, Applejack, but I'm the BIG sister now!"

~Apple Bloom 

[Starlight Song 43]

Ah. Flutterguy. you will be beloved and missed. Rest in Piece.

Love how Zecora can only rhyme when she talks, makes the dialogue even more challenging to write.

[thebobmaster 31]

This was another very fun episode, but at the same time, serious. Yes, most of the "curses" were entertaining. Gotta love Flutterguy. However, the overall racism undertones were pretty well-done, and definitely not played for humor, and as later episodes reveal...yeah, you'll cringe when you hear "Rainbow Crash".

[Davoo 8]

Many may feel bothered that the mane six--omitting Twilight--were being too obnoxiously xenophobic, but you know at some point we have to get used to the reality that having characters with flaws will necessarily include them all doing flawed things, sometimes without even much justification or excuse.

 

I notice how it's kind of funny that, right from the beginning, Twilight is being almost as ignorant as the other five, in her offhanded rejection of the concept of 'curses' and her dismissal of the 'natural remedy' book and any other source of information that she had preemptively banned from consideration.

 

The idea that 'curses' are fake and 'magic' is real is a weirdly fascinating concept for this mythology to tackle, and I completely forgot about it. Maybe it's something that could be explored more thoroughly in Equestrian worldbuilding  Hey, "Friendship is magic"... "magic is real, curses are trickery"... could 'curses' theoretically be embodied by insincere niceness and inauthentic relationships?

 

Speaking of Equestrian fantasy concepts I'd forgotten about; they speak of 'another land' or wherever where the foliage grows and the weather changes by itself. So... our world, in other words? The realistic, earth-like world? ...with talking Zebras whatever shut up.

Regardless that's a pretty massive, potentially delicious can of beans that the writers started to open up there, and as far as I remember it hasn't been referenced since.

I started writing a fanfic, once, where Twilight is being flown far away from Equestrian borders on a royal mission, further out than anypony had been able to map out before, and then her flyers were attacked with machine guns and she is put in a little prison cell. Turns out Equestria is all just one tiny remote inner-region of Cuba.

 

And so then, like, Twilight escapes, gets to the coastline, uses her magic to befriend the sea life and speed-dolphins her way to Florida, where she then meets Rush Limbaugh. They talk for a little while, and Twiley pulls off a hearing spell to cure Rush's deafness, making him very much grateful for her.

 

And so then what would happen would be like, he has Twilight on his show the next day. He has her sitting on his lap behind the microphone, and says,

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen. I know we don't have guests on this show very often, and that when we do, it's with an incredible guest. I have sitting in my lap this moment a small unicorn. That's a horse with a horn and magical capabilities, for those of you in Rio Linda."

 

And so then they have lengthy discussions about society and the organization of intelligence, and the balance of free will and safety, and many other important matters. Eventually reporters and scientists would start going to Equestria to learn about it, and within a few years millions would start campaigning that Princess Celestia become the supreme leader of the human race as well--her being the angelically pure, noble and caring executive that the USSR and every other communist society so badly needed, and James Madison said couldn't exist among man.

 

And so then, like, a few decades go by and everypony (we'd start referring to other humans as 'everypony', given the dominance of pony culture by this time) would start to get uncontent with Celestial command and start a revolution for no good reason.

 

...okay so what was I talking about?

 

Oh yeah Bridle Gossip and the mane six acting weird about it. All I can say now is I need to go watch the "Cherokee Hair" episode of South Park to balance out this episode's take on how to react to the unknown.

 

I mean, how could any of them have been certain Zecora's stew was actually going to help them? Or that she had their interests in mind? Would you take medicine from and overall trust someone you just met just because they're not going to kill you and eat you?

 

I think Disney's Tarzan gets it more-or-less right: don't be a closed-off, closed-minded rejector of everything unknown, but also don't just trust anyone without knowing who they are, especially if they draw red X's of your location on a map and chuckle.

[Brony182 48]

MLP definitely needs more of Zecora in the future! Her rhymes are very well put and funny! I enjoyed this episode a lot especially Pinkie's song about the Evil enchantress who is doing evil dances and puts you in trances! Of course Flutterguy was hilarious! Pinkie's song + Flutterguy's voice = Doubles the fun !

 

 

[BlueEyedPegasus 59]

A generally fine episode with a good moral, I agree, but the only setback I have here is when Applebloom leaves her shrunken older sister on a branch, above thorns no less, before going to settle things with Zecora. I honestly can't decide: was Applebloom in the wrong by ditching Applejack like that, or did she have good enough reason to do so?

 

If she did have good reason, then is it possible that Applebloom saved Applejack somehow, considering how she still worried for her at the end? If so, then what good did Applebloom do for her shrunken sister by leaving her on that branch? I'd really like to know.

[BabsSeed 8]

I thought this episode was great and really funny with Flutterguy and "Apple Teeny" as Spike said. Plus, Zecora!

[spacestorm 183]

This episode was a nice introduction of Applebloom and Zecora.

Like many said above, Flutterguy was the most hilarious, especially her singing with dancing Pinkie Pie.

The second one was microApplejack, hilarious role reversal from being a "big" sister.

[BlueEyedPegasus 59]

I'm probably gonna hate myself for asking this, but why couldn't Applejack join the other ponies in the bigger tub while getting the treatment for Poison Joke? Can somebody please explain?

[BullPony 9]

Hey everypony,

 

Within this episode the concept of the Everfree Forest is brought up again, and I realized something, the Everfree Forest is considered sooo scary and spooky because of the fact that everything takes care of itself... "the plants grow, the animals take care of themselves and the clouds move all on their own!!!" 

 

Overall I find this topic very interesting.  I wonder what you ponies think.

 

Signing off

-BP

[jeremiahsparkle 12]

did you guys know trixie appers in this episode? you just gotta loook real hard tword the end. at least i think its her. hmmmmm.

Edited September 7, 2013 by jeremiahsparkle

[Moonlight 7,286]

This is honestly one of my least favorite episodes...simply because it was so dull to me. The jokes all missed for me (of course, I have never laughed, let alone giggled at the show, so...).

 

Zecora is a great character however, and I hope to see more of her in Season 4. 

[Lunatic Cake 1,618]

Fluttershy (Flutterguy) really made this episode extremely fun to watch. Aside from that this episode showed that you really shouldn't judge a book by it's cover as the ponies feared Zecora for no good reason really.

[Sunny Fox 5,950]

One of my favorite moments in that episode is where Twilight says "Maybe she's making Apple Bloom soup!" and they all start screaming... except Fluttershy, who has more of a resonant baritone than a scream.

 

Everypony else: EEEEEEEEEE!

Flutterguy: AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!

 

Makes me laugh every time.

 

Another classic is Applejack: "Apple Bloom! You come back here, right this instant! I'M GONNA TELL BIG MACINTOSH ON YOU! ... Oh, pony feathers..."

Edited September 8, 2013 by Full Spectrum

[Radiance64 7,053]

This episode is so hilarious with the Poison Joke effects, probably the funniest episode of the series by far really. Zecora was introduced well too, they did well with making her imposing at first but in the end you find out she's just like anypony else, just a little different in some ways. Plus, the 'don't judge a book by its cover' message of the episode is pretty meta considering the show, I think anyway.