S04:E08 - Rarity Takes Manehattan

[Senko 459]

I always wonder if Suri really had won and then been asked for more clothing with that amazing fabric where did she expect to get more of it considering she tricked the inventor into giving what she'd already used?

[bigbertha 414]

There are some serious pacing problems that keep me from enjoying this episode. The episode doesn't really start until 5 minutes in. All that's before that is exposition and a pointless song that hammers into your head how generous Rarity is. Because of this, a lot of things feel rushed. The first act goes into the second act to make up for lost time which then effects how much time the third has to play out. When Rarity goes crazy in her hotel room, the story is only given 6 minutes to play out because the first 5 minutes were wasted on the song. Other things also feel underdeveloped too like everything about Coco Pommel's character. I like what the episode was trying to do, but I don't it was handled well.

Score: 4/10

[Meushell 52]

This is the sort of plot I don’t normally like, but I did.

Suri is basically done for if she doesn’t change. She’s not famous enough to get away with what she’s doing. While Rarity would not complain, others would. Others are going to quickly see a pattern with her. I wonder though, does she have any talent in this? She took Rarity’s work and had Coco do the sewing. I think she needs to find another line of work.

[BlinkZ 1,151]

On 7/14/2018 at 5:25 PM, Senko said:

I always wonder if Suri really had won and then been asked for more clothing with that amazing fabric where did she expect to get more of it considering she tricked the inventor into giving what she'd already used?

I was thinking the exact same thing really. She can't duplicate the fabric and Rarity got the only knolauge of it so yeah Suri would be so busted

[starrymiss 114]

I related to this episode pretty hard. My thoughts:

-There's such a deep guttural feeling of anger and hatred when someone steals your ideas and claims them as your own. 

-Rarity feels bad for taking her friends for granted and working them all night. She's way too hard on herself. I mean, no one is perfect. Even if she's the spirit of Generosity, she can't exude it 100% of the time.

-I love the setting of Manehatten. 

-Rarity's "Hotel Chic" was cringey and ugly. That lampshade hat.......

I wanted to "LOVE" this episode, but honestly, I hate Suri Polomare SO MUCH, it brings my rating down to a "like" status. That character just hits too close to home.

Edited September 18, 2018 by starrymiss

[qwerE 96]

One of the best episodes until now! I loved the story, the moral, and the music. The music Rarity sings after losing the mane 6 was really sad, and touching. Seeing moments of friendship and joy from the mane 6 was really wonderful.

Edited October 22, 2018 by qwerE

[bigbertha 414]

Another bad episode. The pacing kills the episode since the entire first half is set up. This makes the entire thing rushed with no time to linger on any emotional moments, just like Flight to the Finish. But unlike Flight to the Finish, the conflict here isn't interesting. The conflict feels like an outline for something more interesting.

There are less than two minutes spent in the sweatshop portion meaning there can't be any transition from Rarity treating the rest of the mane six fairly and becoming jaded. And there's no time after that for an internal conflict of getting praised for her outfits made through her "everyone for themselves" attitude vs losing her friends, so she immediately becomes guilty and the episode pulls the Magical Mystery Cure approach for sad scenes, that being having a song telling the audience that the situation is sad instead of showing Rarity trying to talk to her friends and them not talking to her. And of course the rest of the mane six forgive Rarity immediately because there's not time for any kind of internal conflict with them. And the episode tries to shove in Coco Pommel for no reason and that's even more underdeveloped than the rest of the episode. All of this combines to make a story that feels so underdeveloped and unfinished. 

It's not like there are other aspects to bring the episode up anyways. This season has has pretty weak comedy in every episode except Castle-Mania and this episode is no exception, except this time Spikeabuse is added. Nice.

In the end, this episode sucks. Too much time is spent setting up the story making it shallow and ultimately meaningless. 

Score: 1/10

[Rushing cash 836]

Great episode, the story was interesting and showed raritys best(some of her worst too, however), coco was very likable, we got to see more of equestria and raritys song was pretty good. It was nice to see an earth pony antagonist for a change with a very intriguing accent(I love the way she speaks, especially her m'kay, I don't know why) even through her plan was pretty stupid, they would ask her eventually to make more of that fabric and she would be screwed. One of raritys best episodes in the show.

[FalconBrony 290]

I was just thinking about this episode recently. Great character development. Probably one of my favorite Rarity episodes.

[dashie2020 86]

This episode was objectively one of the best I have ever seen. Just really well done, and the message was good. 

Honestly, I'm not really that interested in fashion, but the good thing about this episode is that what it's truly about is generosity, and the way they executed it was great. This episode teaches some important messages.

 

The song... It's good, but not the very best I've heard. You know, it needs just... more. More to it. But that's not gonna affect the overall score too much.

 

The story here is great. I honestly hated Suri so much, she was like Diamond Tiara in a way. But the thing is, she's part of what made the episode good. Rarity going insane and losing her generosity was all part of the story. I don't know much about fashion, but I can just imagine how common stealing designs would be. The way they made the story so believable was part of what made the episode so easy to keep watching for me, no matter how badly it went. Once again, really well executed. I also loved how Rarity was good for the most part this episode, while still having her "moments". Instead, they just made her relatable the entire episode.

 

Rarity going insane was just... So Rarity. Really funny stuff.

 

Music: 8/10 (+8)

Humour: 7/10 (+14)

Storyline: 10/10 (+30)

Execution: 10/10 (+40)

 

Score: 92/100

[North Star 5,227]

forgot how good this ep was :3 was trying to have it on in the background while rping and couldn't stop watching it  

Suri, Coco and Prim are great fashiony characters.

[Rosy Moonlight 369]

I liked this episode. It showed an issue Rarity really needs to work on, probably with the help of Applejack. That issue is that Rarity sometimes overshares her ideas, causing them to be easily stolen.

Edited August 10, 2022 by Rosy Moonlight

[azbat 305]

Janine Manewitz is the real star of this episode. Two years later, Annie Potts, the original Janine Melnitz, appeared in Ghostbusters (2016) as a hotel desk clerk. Big white collar, necktie, glasses, hair swoops out in front and to the left, they are both in New York. Who is copying who.

 

Edited April 11, 2023 by azbat

[Hadrien 950]

Finally we're going somewhere with the overarching plot of this season ! Weird that Rarity would be the first one at the bat, but this is a pretty good episode, even though I always thought it was a bit redundant for her. It's like her main thing is being taking advantages of, and then learning not to take advantage of others. But since this episode introduced Coco Pommel, I'll let it slide.

It's also the first time we saw Manehattan, being a subsitute for Manhattan in Equestria. So if they have a New York, does that mean they have a Wall Street too ? That brings in a lot of horrible question about the way Equestria works...

So Rarity gives her competition the way to beat her, and doesn'T think that anyone would abuse this, because generosity ? Rarity ain't very bright, But hey, everything turns out fine because why have our heroes actually fail at anything. It would've been better for her to actually lose, but then gets a new friend in Coco, which gives her the rainbow spool of mystery.

Not the worst Rarity episode, 6.5+0.5/10, bonus point for cute pony friend.

[Antiyonder 1,110]

YouTube upload of the episode: