S04:E13 - Simple Ways

[BrilliantVenture 334]

This one was pretty fun!

 

While I found the climax at the end to be a little...eh...anticlimatic. (The whole mud on the dress thing snapping rarity out of her crazy phase) It did its job, and in the end...it was an okay resolution...it just felt kinda fast to me. Other than that though, I felt this was a classic applejack vs. rarity episode, and it's something I've wanted to see again for a while now! There were some really great laughs in this episode, and the concept I believe was very well done. And it's a great concept at that! I really am glad Josh Haber (The writer of this episode) decided to join the team...I like his style! Very season 1-ish...I also found it pretty awesome that basically EVERY background pony was in this episode...we had derpy, carrot top, lyra and bon bon, doctor whooves, and of course Vinyl Scratch, were all there which felt very awesome to witness. So yeah, story wise, it was a simple concept, which I thought was handled pretty well...I hope the whole trenderhoof thing doesn't go anywhere further at this point. (Romantically) because I still feel that (with the exception of spike and rarity) romance shouldn't be a big thing in the show. But in this case, it was done pretty well...

 

I find it interesting that most people felt the same way I did about this episode according to the poll. We "liked it"...but...I think that's kind of a good thing. with last weeks MONSTER of an episode, we needed something to wind back down with, that would set up the mood for some more "slice of life" stuff. This episode wasn't amazing, but it was very enjoyable and worth a re-watch.

 

For the score, I give it a healthy 7.8/10

Probably about the same as I would have given the slumber party episode back in season 1.

 

So yeah, good episode!

Edited February 8, 2014 by BrilliantVenture

[zev_zev The outcast 415]

Applejack once again proved that she has much more deep character. Rariry was great as a usualk in S4 but AJ was more... clever I guess.

 

P.S. Didn't get something: Is Rarity giving a f**k about Tenderhoof in the end? Hope so.

[Discovery Dream 592]

I really liked this episode. It focused on Rarity's impulsiveness and susceptibility to her own emotions, which made her identifiable while still managing to be herself. Poor, poor Applejack, I felt so bad for her over the course of the episode. She really didn't get a break; Trenderhoof being a creep and Rarity not communicating with her. It contrasted the two friends and it was a fun dynamic to watch. It escalated into something of a one-up competition which was both hilarious and cringe-worthy.

[Flutter's lover <3 8,205]

Just watched it. Freaking loved it. Rarity made me laugh for most of the episode.

 

Though I'm surprised Spike didn't feel jealous when  he found out that Rarity had a huge crush on  Trenderhoof. But he seemed to understand what was going on. The rivalry between Rarity and AJ was interesting. high class vs  country living...and having them reverse roles for a bit...I laughed my ass off when I heard Rarity talking like a Southerner. She makes a pretty good fake redneck.

 

Also those "modelling" pics of AJ in her dress. <3

 

 

 

 

 

Over all it was a great episode. I love seeing Rarity get dirty and being all dramatic.

 

8/10

[VeroxVitrus 70]

The episode was quite interesting. The conflict between applejack and rarity was well executed and it also connects to the viewer's by stepping into there shoes when they had the same situation (where one like's someone but they like someone else and that influences the person to become someone there not).

 

There was a few laugh's throughout the episode. Probably one of the best in the episode and the series in total was when rarity said to spike something along the lines of "Do you get the feeling of liking someone but they like someone else?" and then spike looks to the viewers because of the irony in that one joke. That was very clever IMO.

 

The episode was a bit dull compared to others though but what saves it was the ending which was a beautifully added on message which the episode was trying to teach.

[FatPat 77]

 

Alright, serious time, though, since I guess people would want to see some of my feelings on this guy for the lolz:

 

I found him to be creepy with his thing with AJ (even wanting to move in with her!), completely rude and harsh with the way he handled my best pony's obvious affections by being completely apathetic to my poor waifu and her star-crossed celeb crush and he was horribly arrogant ("I set trends all over Equestria!") on top of just looking like a douche, and the fact he didn't learn his lesson in the end was a bad choice by the writers, because at least Blueblood caught hell for it at the end; this guy didn't.

 

Also, it would've been a better ending had Rarity gone off on him like she did Blueblood for being a total douche to her and not caring about her affections, and AJ just nodding her head telling him to mosy on out of town. I love seeing Rarity be a drama queen like that.

 

So, he is my legit worst pony now Yay.

 

He was a good plot device, though, I give him that much.

 

 

I don't know, Tenderhoof didn't seem all that bad to me. Rarity was actually acting even worse, I mean she had a stalker shrine to the guy and I noticed a bit of his hair was part of it . It's interesting how he and Rarity mirrored each other. He did learn his lesson at the end btw. There were some parts, like when he was eating the apple, which felt kind of forced in an attempt to make him seem like a jerk, but I didn't really get that kind of vibe from him.

 

One thing that actually intrigues me about Trenderhoof...You think maybe he was forced into the fashion industry by his parents and peers? because let's be rational here. Trend is into fashion and pretty much controls the fashion world. Why do you think he said ' call em trend." ? Trend actually loved Apple Jack for her work ethic, Rarity has the same work ethic as Apple Jack does. So it's obvious Trend really loves Apple Jack for her southern beauty. I really think Trend was forced into something he never wanted to do.

I like that, it's an interesting idea. Being surrounded by Unicorns and their obsessions with trying to doll everything up to conform with tacky fashion trends could wear one down after a while. Then he would want to be free and embrace the opposite of Unicorns, Earth ponies.

[ghostfacekiller39 23,860]

I don't know, Tenderhoof didn't seem all that bad to me. Rarity was actually acting even worse, I mean she had a stalker shrine to the guy and I noticed a bit of his hair was part of it . It's interesting how he and Rarity mirrored each other. He did learn his lesson at the end btw. There were some parts, like when he was eating the apple, which felt kind of forced in an attempt to make him seem like a jerk, but I didn't really get that kind of vibe from him.

You can say they mirror each other, yes.

 

Rarity was NOT acting worse, though. She was legitimately hurt, and, furthermore, it seemed to be more of a celebrity crush in her case; star-struck, if you will, like a little girl and Justin Bieber or whoever you want to insert there. With her, it's more understandable, because it wasn't necessarily realistic. Celeb crush, man. She was star struck.

 

His crush was legitimate; he followed AJ around endlessly and tried moving in with her, even though she showed no interest. He seemed to try to use his fame to allure her several times, completely neglected giving Rarity even the benefit of the doubt like Rarity gave Spike, and his self-bragging made Rainbow Dash look like Fluttershy, from what I saw.

 

Comparing those two as ponies and saying Rarity acted worse shows a desire to point out negativity in her character, anyway.

Edited February 8, 2014 by ghostfacekiller39

[Scootaloodle 1,622]

I really liked it: I thought it was hillarious when Rairty tried to act like AJ and vice versa etc

[Castle Bleck 19,325]

 

"What's so FUNNAY?!"

 

"WAIL, maybe you don't know me as well as you THANK!"

[spezzzzzhdafuigb 49]

What I learned today is that applejack has no sex drive, sparity still has a chance, and hipsters have emotions.

 

But seriously, a lot of people I know hated this episode. They said that rarity was way too OOC and that applejack was really bland, and that it really didn't have any good purpose outside of comedy. I honestly disagree with all of that. I think it was pretty well written, and love can make someone do really crazy things. Applejack wasn't necessarily bland, she was just uninterested in trenderdouche. And it had a pretty good moral which a lot of people, myself included, could apply to ourselves. I thought the whole hipster thing was pretty funny And Spike's deadpan face when Rarity is crying was priceless! I think I'm one of the few people who would give this a 10/10. I just really enjoyed it. I don't see why so many of my friends were hating on it though. Also Rarity's southerner impression was hilarious! And I loved watching trenderdouche get rejected again and again by applejack. Jeez that guys a douche!

Edited February 8, 2014 by Cheesythumbs

[Carbon Maestro 1,003]

 

"What's so FUNNAY?!"

 

"WAIL, maybe you don't know me as well as you THANK!"

 

Rarity wearing applebottom jeans before AJ. That's all I have to say.

I loved this episode. It's got a really nice message to it.

 

And the fact that she fangirled harder than Twilight with Flash. Hah. What a nerd

Edited February 8, 2014 by Carbon Maestro

[MatrixChicken 879]

Wow. That was good.

 

First episode of season 4 that I rated as "Loved it! <3". Which is kinda odd, as I noticed numerous problems, mostly just me disliking romance in ponies... But this episode was just SO FUN(ny). Tabitha St. Germain did such a good job as Rarity. I just loved her pseudo-southern accent. xD

 

So yeah, this is probably my favorite episode of season 4 so far. I hope they can keep up this quality...

 

There were just so many "FUNNAY" parts. xD

Edited February 8, 2014 by MatrixChicken

[OtakuBrony 349]

Howdy all!

 

Saw the episode and man it was a riot

 

Give Tabitha St.Germain Credit for Rarity

She gave it her all with her voice.

Meghan McCarthy wasnt kiddng when she mentioned about it before the episode aired.

 

At least Spike was there to help Rarity out and he didnt get jealous.

Woulda been neat if Rarity kisses her Spikey Wikey again but that didnt happen

 

Good to see another Rarity/AJ episode again.

 

I enjoyed the last one from season 1.

 

Havent heard Ashleigh Ball using her fancy AJ voice since her cutie mark flashback (Cutie Mark Chronicles)

It was pretty cute.

 

And the scenes where Rarity goes gaga was hillarious.

 

Great episode!

 

See ya!

[Riddle 102]

I liked this ep in truth

and it was a good back

and forth play with AJ

and Rare and such which

we have not had to much

minus the First and Secend

seasons.   Also no singing

was a good one in a point...

 

The humor was good

and Rare trying to act

like a hick did get a real

laugh from me in the real

world and AJ also proves

she can dress up!

[FatPat 77]

You can say they mirror each other, yes.

 

Rarity was NOT acting worse, though. She was legitimately hurt, and, furthermore, it seemed to be more of a celebrity crush in her case; star-struck, if you will, like a little girl and Justin Bieber or whoever you want to insert there. With her, it's more understandable, because it wasn't necessarily realistic. Celeb crush, man. She was star struck.

 

His crush was legitimate; he followed AJ around endlessly and tried moving in with her, even though she showed no interest. He seemed to try to use his fame to allure her several times, completely neglected giving Rarity even the benefit of the doubt like Rarity gave Spike, and his self-bragging made Rainbow Dash look like Fluttershy, from what I saw.

 

Comparing those two as ponies and saying Rarity acted worse shows a desire to point out negativity in her character, anyway.

Don't get me wrong, Rarity's my second favorite after Twilight, I guess there's too many ways to look at the various factors to decide who was worse, plus we don't know enough about Trenderfoot. Personally I think Rarity putting him over setting up the ceremonies was pretty bad, but in the end it's mostly about the fact that they were guilty of the same crime, both trying to act country in order to impress somepony.

[ghostfacekiller39 23,860]

Don't get me wrong, Rarity's my second favorite after Twilight, I guess there's too many ways to look at the various factors to decide who was worse, plus we don't know enough about Trenderfoot. Personally I think Rarity putting him over setting up the ceremonies was pretty bad, but in the end it's mostly about the fact that they were guilty of the same crime, both trying to act country in order to impress somepony.

That's pretty much saying she should've been flawless, though.

 

Seriously, tell me what would've made a better episode: Her giving more attention to the Ceremony and doing what is right, or the way it actually was? 

 

Smells like a G3 storyline to me, if you want the former.

 

Furthermore, she was not in the right state of mind; the sort of feelings she was feeling for that piece of blonde-haired doo-doo is enough to drive even the strongest pony into be irrational and illogical; it was only justified in her case because it was a celebrity crush, which seem to garner that sort of response she gave to Trenderhoof quite often (Justin Bieber, One Direction, that crap.), rather than what Trenderhoof did to AJ, which was overall just creepy because it was realistic and AJ isn't a celebrity.

 

Edited February 8, 2014 by ghostfacekiller39

[M'aiq the Liar 5,804]

Tenderhoof walked right past an alicorn princess. 

[Lagom 204]

I'll just wait for someone to upload it.. UNTIL THEN.

[Scootaloo Is Best Filly 578]

Okay, I just gave this episode a second watch. It's not as bad as I thought. But, It's still not one of my favorites. BTW is it just me who thinks this name is a Parody of the Care Bears who is also a Hub Show? His name is Trender/Tender Hoof. And there is a Care Bear named Tender Heart. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but it might be something more than that. Especially since both count as Hub Shows.

Edited February 8, 2014 by Scootaloo Is Best Filly

[ShadOBabe 18,997]

Hahahahaha!!

Oh, maaaan... I'll be honest, I have a low tolerance for awkwardness in media, and this episode was FULL of it. BUT it was so FUNNY and just barely toed that line where I'm like, "Oh, I'm so embarrassed for these characters, I can't watch!!"

 

I'm serious, I think I laughed more at this episode than most others.

And Tabitha is OFFICIALLY the best voice actor in the whole show. She puts EVERYTHING into her performance, and she's HYSTERICAL!! <3

 

And dear, sweet lord, all those facial expressions!!

I think that was maybe my favorite part!! XD

Edited February 8, 2014 by ShadOBabe

[Galen 1,354]

Here are my condensed thought on this episode:

 

 

 

 

This is actually the first episode that I didn't really like......at all. The awkwardness was too much for me to handle, not to mention how many things Rarity seemed to have forgotten from her previous episodes. I mean yeah, I do like episodes where the characters mix up their priorities sometimes, like in Lesson Zero when Twilight literally went insane, but this was just too ridiculous. The moral at the end was admittedly more understandable than some of the other episodes in this season, which is its sole redeeming factor on top of AJ being reasonable and getting to Rarity in a way only she would understand. Other than that, I wasn't the slightest bit impressed with this episode.

Edited February 8, 2014 by Freedan

[BinaryPony 120]

When I saw Rarity on the plow, I immediately recalled this old meme:

[Techno-chan 41]

oh my god it was sooooo good! Trenderhoof was a douche tho, Rarity deserves better

Rarity trying to do a country accent killed me xD

[JanisJopleyBird 22]

Now that the episode has had some time to digest, I've softened on it.

 

I think watching my favorite pony make such a fool of herself was a bit much for me at times.

 

I generally consider Tabitha St. Germain to be the show's most reliable VA, but I really think she missed on this one. That fake southern drawl was too much.

 

As for positives, Spikey-Wikey being so resigned to the friendzone is kind of heartbreaking. He is always there to help his friends when they need it and he never gets any praise for all he does. You gotta respect the little guy.

 

The lesson is a very good one. As the epsisode unfolded I was afraid we were going to be getting love-triangle dreck, but no, Trenderhoof is just a completely clueless hipster. Rarity may have not been at her best here, but even at her worst she's worth 1000 of that stallion.

 

All in all about a 6/10

[rjrgmc28 130]

Now before I begin the usual weekend write-up on the episode, I know from the previous posts in a thread on another forum that I frequently visit that most of the content that I'm going to mention in this post may end up with a few disagreeing.
 
So while there might not be a long post, with that said from my tweet this morning.....
 
"What can I say? They said that this was the episode that they tried to break @StTabitha, and they were right! Outstanding ep!"
 
While I don't normally watch episodes featuring around elements such as love, crushes and romance, this episode was actually pretty good once you got the jest of the story down packed. According to Meghan McCarthy on her Twitter this was the episode where they tried to break Tabitha St. Germain and as you can guess from the tweet above, they sure did!
 
Speaking of voice actors/actresses, I particularly enjoyed Rarity's antics in this episode especially towards the second part of the episode where she cried her eyes out in front of Spike after Trenderhoof ripped and broke her heart into two.
 
The main part of the episode for me was towards the end when Applejack and Rarity squared off in their role reversal. Seeing Applejack reliving her fillyhood years in Manehattan and Rarity dressed differently and them throwing every point in the book was very entertaining to watch!
 
Apart from that, while this episode might rank as a "so-so" or competely disagreeable in some people's books, this episode for me provided a bit of comic relief from the usual storyline.

I also have written my full thoughts on the episode itself on my blog, which can be viewed here.

Also I thought I put together a post episode reaction art piece which took place after the event (spoilered for large file size):

Full Size Version: http://rjrgmc28.devi...rmath-432601268