S04:E13 - Simple Ways

[Shawn Parks 1,798]

Has any pony else noticed that all the mane six, have had at least one colt involved with them as friends such as, cheese sandwich for pinkie, flash sentry for twilight, Sorin for rainbow (we all knew that was coming), amd trenderhoof for apple jack or rarity not really sure there and all we need is fluttershy, which I hope comes soon go Hasbro though keep up the good work there

 

 

What about Fluttershy and Bulk Biceps?  Or Discord?

[Wingnut 6,987]

 

 

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.

 

The more I read about your grievances with Trend, the more I find myself agreeing with them. 

 

1.  Wanting to move in with AJ.  Some farms have extra housing for employees.  AJ could have played dumb and said, "Sorry sugarcube but Sweet Apple Acres doesn't have accommodations for guest workers."   

2.  The "I set trends all over Equestria" rubbed me the wrong way too.  He could've ameliorated that by clarifying that's what others say about him and not what he thinks about himself. 

3.  His harsh treatment of Rarity.  I think a some people are giving him a pass here because he was so infatuated with Applejack it clouded his thoughts and actions.  Blueblood was, as far as we could tell, of clear mind when he mistreated Rarity.  Trend's behavior was no doubt off from normal.  But at the end of the day, we're all still responsible for our words and deeds.  He should have been called out more for his poor handling of things than he was.  But the kind of dressing down that Rarity gave Blueblood probably isn't necessary here. 

[ghostfacekiller39 23,860]

The more I read about your grievances with Trend, the more I find myself agreeing with them. 

 

1.  Wanting to move in with AJ.  Some farms have extra housing for employees.  AJ could have played dumb and said, "Sorry sugarcube but Sweet Apple Acres doesn't have accommodations for guest workers." 

2.  The "I set trends all over Equestria" rubbed me the wrong way too.  He could've ameliorated that by clarifying that's what others say about him and not what he thinks about himself. 

3.  His harsh treatment of Rarity.  I think a some people are giving him a pass here because he was so infatuated with Applejack it clouded his thoughts and actions.  Blueblood was, as far as we could tell, of clear mind when he mistreated Rarity.  Trend's behavior was no doubt off from normal.  But at the end of the day, we're all still responsible for our words and deeds.  He should have been called out more for his poor handling of things than he was.  But the kind of dressing down that Rarity gave Blueblood probably isn't necessary here. 

 

He has basic social skills, which is all that was needed to pick up on Rarity's affections towards him, and she was falling all over herself for him before he even knew about AJ in his first scene, when he got off of the train at the station.

 

His general apathy and coldness to her not only hurt her, but pushed her into acting like she did.

 

All the arguments being made for him are contradictory of themselves, from what I see; if you're gonna defend Trenderhoof for acting that way, then you must defend Rarity, but not vice-versa, given all he was to her was a celebrity crush, it seems. Girls do that for people like Justin Bieber and One Direction all of the time; when a celebrity has a crush on a commoner, it's different.

 

Yeahh, I fuckin' hate that guy, and I don't see why people are so eager to defend him from me, but whatevs

[zev_zev The outcast 415]

 

After that, I started to doubt that this cartoon can be calling "kids cartoon"

 

No, I just can't resist to put it here: 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AymDGLkyaHo

 

P.S. I always thought that Applejack has hidden potential, but it exceeded my expectations!

 

 

 

 

Edited February 9, 2014 by zev_zev

[pinkamenasdelight 17]

Although I loved the role reversal we saw out of Rarity and Applejack, I felt like this was the first time we say a boy pony come between two of the mane six, and I guess this could be argued as a natural progression of the show, but one of the reasons I love this show is that has not dealt with a romance that continuously interrupts the story line (i.e. as in Cadence and Shining Armor, which is a remote case). Its a show about the friendship of these six ponies, and although we see Apple Jack and Rarity reconcile at the end of the episode, I still couldn't help but feel like, "UGH, let's get back to the real world." But then again, I see how denying the ponies possibilities for romance is pretty limiting story wise, I guess I just hate to see them get all in a bind over A BOY PONY. 

 

But that is just my bias. XD

img-2289315-1-tumblr_n0p36g4wGy1rd23b5o1_400.gif

 

After that, I started to doubt that this cartoon can be calling "kids cartoon"

 

No, I just can't resist to put it here: 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AymDGLkyaHo

 

P.S. I always thought that Applejack has hidden potential, but it exceeded my expectations!

ROFL. I will never be able to watch that sequence again in the same light. Thanks! XD

[Tigerpop198 696]

Some of the scenes were kinda saucy. All in all it was a fairly well done episode.

Edited February 10, 2014 by pony12343

[Singe 2,111]

It did a good job giving Applejack some fanservice. 

 

I would have liked to see some Applebloom and Sweetie Belle perspective on this.

[Hell Patrol 41]

Although I loved the role reversal we saw out of Rarity and Applejack, I felt like this was the first time we say a boy pony come between two of the mane six, and I guess this could be argued as a natural progression of the show, but one of the reasons I love this show is that has not dealt with a romance that continuously interrupts the story line (i.e. as in Cadence and Shining Armor, which is a remote case). Its a show about the friendship of these six ponies, and although we see Apple Jack and Rarity reconcile at the end of the episode, I still couldn't help but feel like, "UGH, let's get back to the real world." But then again, I see how denying the ponies possibilities for romance is pretty limiting story wise, I guess I just hate to see them get all in a bind over A BOY PONY. 

 

But that is just my bias. XD

ROFL. I will never be able to watch that sequence again in the same light. Thanks! XD

 

The fact that this show has rarely touched romance is one of its greatest strengths. This is a strength being undermined by lazy writing and a very large focus on marketing.

 

I assure you, no venues are closed in a children's show by excluding romance that should not remain closed. Honestly, it's sad really. Whenever I think of the show over the past year, especially since the Sanic Fast debacle, I can't help but think of it. There is no greater danger to the state of this show than romance, because romance cannot be ignored, it cannot be undone. Introduce romance into the structure of this show and the whole thing comes apart like the matrix. You can ignore the fact that Twilight Sparkle is now royalty, and the show will go on. You can ignore that a movie with a cliched, boring, and idiotic concept happened, and the show will go on.

 

But you cannot ignore a romantic plot point, for its very nature prohibits it from being outside of view at any time so long as either character involved is within view. On a children's show, with the already limited capabilities, especially a show with this structure, opening the floodgates to romance within show canon is an abhorrent thought. Romance, which I might also add, is clearly usually between characters who have no place being in any romantic situations together.

Edited February 16, 2014 by Aquila

[Singe 2,111]

It seems like the writers were trying to do some getting under the radar.

 

Trend's first envision of AJ with the bedroom eyes and face covered in apple juice.

 

Trend biting into an apple covering AJ with the juice.

 

AJ model, shake her flank, and pose.

 

Rarity talking about her droopy drawers.

[DryGuy84 (Inactive) 927]

I didn't know where else to put this, but my "Interpreting MLP: Simple Ways" thread has been reposted in blog form. Feel free to check it out!......Or don't, that's ok too! 

Edited February 10, 2014 by DryColt84

[Music Chart Fan 819]

Overall, I don't think this is an episode I'll be watching again any time soon. As one would expect, it was painful to watch Rarity's increasingly pathetic and desperate attempts to win over Trenderhoof (including her fake accent, which grew annoying very quickly), not to mention Trenderhoof's sudden and total obsession with Applejack. I know that was kind of the point of the episode, but that doesn't make it any more enjoyable to watch. Also, the episode seems to spend too much time establishing Rarity's desperate attempts to woo Trenderhoof, while rushing through Rarity's realization of her foolishness and return to normal, making that seem less realistic.

 

Rarity's crush on Trenderhoof seems, at best, a little premature and unrealistic, given that she apparently has never met him in person, let alone gotten to know much of anything about his personality, day-to-day lifestyle, personal likes and dislikes, etc. She might know a little bit about him from third-party sources, but of course, those don't shed much, if any, light on how he is outside of his media-established persona. But Trenderhoof's crush on Applejack is even worse; he falls for her simply by looking at her, despite not knowing a thing about her. I feel like I wouldn't develop a crush on someone whom I haven't seen on a regular basis and whom I don't know anything about their everyday life, personality, etc. 

 

Another thing I don't understand is that Rarity continues to believe that Trend is about to admit heretofore unseen romantic feelings for her, even when it's well established that he has feelings for Applejack. In particular, Rarity thinks that Trend's (painful) impromptu song is about her, and right after Applejack goes into the chicken coop, she thinks that Trend is about to ask her to be his date or profess his love to her or some such thing. Does Rarity have any reason to believe that Trend has such feelings for her? Rarity also comes up with the completely unwarranted idea that Applejack is "stealing" Trend away from her, even as Rarity has seen Applejack show no interest in him and even act exasperated and annoyed by him.

 

Furthermore, Trend's announcement that he's going to move to Ponyville and live on "a farm", a.k.a. Sweet Apple Acres, seems particularly extreme and over the line, given that he never asked Applejack if it would be okay to move onto the Apple family's property, not to mention that she has repeatedly brushed him off and shown no interest in him.

 

Of course, maybe I'm thinking far too logically about all of this. While I would like to think that I would, and should, be different both in how I would develop feelings for someone and how I would act toward that person, I will admit that I've rarely, if ever, felt as strong of emotions as Rarity or Trenderhoof feel in this episode, so it's hard for me to understand those emotions from my perspective.

 

Spike's meta, fourth-wall-breaking exasperated look was funny, and that, along with a couple of other things in the episode, would seem to indicate that Spike has some awareness of the futility of having a crush on someone and trying to win them over despite them showing no romantic interest back. But it does seem like Spike could well be taking advantage of Rarity's emotional distress to ingratiate himself with her, and he still spends the rest of the episode following her around, doing things for her, and even blushing and acting grateful at Rarity's compliments, all of which would indicate that Spike is still nurturing his crush on her and even still trying to bring her around.

 

Rarity says to Applejack that she's "a true friend who probably knows me better than I know myself". I know I've heard that phrase elsewhere, and I find it odd and don't really see how it's true. Maybe it would be better to say that sometimes you need a friend to help you get out of your own head, bring new knowledge and/or perspective to a situation, and help you make a decision that will be good for you. The moral about not excessively changing yourself to impress someone else is pretty good, though. Maybe another lesson that could be learned from the episode (that might be related to the stated moral) is that one should fall in love with an actual person, not solely their looks, a handful of (assumed) traits, and/or the constructed image of that person in your mind.

 

Now a few more incidental observations:

 

What was the purpose of Rarity's presentations to the rest of the Mane Six? Were those presentations just for the Mane Six, or were they practice for actual presentations elsewhere? If the former, why bother making a (somewhat elaborate) stage presentation of it? If the latter, to whom is the actual presentation being given?

 

It's rather funny that the second sketch of the events which Rarity planned for the festival had a dancing pony with a bored/"I'm-too-good-for-this" look on her face, while the third sketch had a couple of the model ponies with a snooty frown and angry look on their faces. Then the juxtaposed actual images of the festival don't have any of those ponies.

 

So Rarity's shrine to Trenderhoof is on the first floor of the boutique, just behind a curtain where curious visitors might discover it? That seems pretty risky, especially since it's so secret Rarity hasn't even told her best friends about it. Speaking of them, I guess we're to suppose that none of them have ever accidentally or purposefully found her shrine before.

 

When Twilight and Rarity are at the train station, why are all of these well-known background ponies (e.g. Berry Punch, Colgate, Lyra, Bonbon, Hayseed Turnip Truck, etc.) riding on the same train as Trenderhoof? Where were they all coming from?

 

Has Rarity never seen anyone plowing a field before? Even if not, how does she expect the plow to move when she's just sitting on top of it? What did she imagine would be providing the force?

 

Apparently Spike can play banjo too, not just Applejack, although Spike playing banjo is at least a little more realistic, since Spike has individual claws to pluck the strings and press down on the frets for each separate string.

 

Something about Applejack's "dressed up" look was off-putting to me, though it's hard to say what exactly. Maybe part of it is that while she's dressed up, she often also has a kind of mean look on her face, and the juxtaposition of that with modeling is unappealing to me. Maybe part of it is that her look is a caricature of a fashion that's impractical and that I've never seen other than in Southern stereotypes in the media (e.g. country singers like Dolly Parton).

 

Finally, Rarity's droopy drawers don't droop at any other time other than when she refers to them as such.

[Blossomshy 39]

Great episode really enjoyed it. Unfortunately didn't get to stream it as I didn't have internet at the time but I watched it as soon as I could. IMO season 4 has been a bit up and down so far but this was one of the better episodes that I would love to watch again along with pinkie pride, rainbow falls, flight to the finish and daring don't. I enjoyed the conflict between rarity and applejack and even though I am not a massive fan of rarity I thought she was great throughout the episode. Applejack though was always a pony that I liked and was annoyed that in the past she didn't get much screen time but I think that this episode has made her my favourite pony. I know, I know changing my mind about my favourite pony but that's just me. I also liked raritys southern accent and I laughed at it. Anyway great episode, already watched it a few times.

[Nerdy Luigi 2,065]

Okay episode.

+/- Rarity went crazy, but in a semi-stupid way.

- Trenderhooves is a heart breaker. That fiend.

++ Applejack's mockery of Rarity's love. That was funny.

 

Overall, a 7/10.

[Ianpiersonjdavis 512]

The episode felt about average...nothing fantastic, but not really terrible either.

 

I didn't care too much for Trenderhoof...he just seemed kind of boring to me as a character and that quickly made him annoying.

 

Spike was shown to be a great friend to Rarity in the episode and the fact that he cares more about her happiness than his own shows a lot of maturity for his character.

[Blossomshy 39]

Ok the only thing that I can really see wrong with this episode is the idea of crushes as after all it is still a show that is meant for 5 year old girls even though most of the audience is a lot older than that I just think it is odd.

[crysal 30]

I must say that this episode was one of the season 4 episodes that I liked. The main thing that I really liked was the new look that Apple-jack got.

The episode was a great way to tell people that you don't need to change who you are or what you do. You just need to keep doing what you do and that very special some-pony comes to you

 

That said I thought that the ending was a bit quick, but the episode played well in what time it had to offer.

also saying this episode was by far the hardest for me to watch

due to I don't have the hub where I live, so I have to see them online, and I could not see this until the monday after the episode came out
 

[Jangocoolguy 433]

It finally happened...the first episode of the season I didn't like

 

Trendy was a dullard of a living plot device (once again, we see why the Mane 6 shouldn't have love interests) that made me wonder what in the world Rarity saw in him. Heck, I find her relationship with Tom more believable.

 

To be fair, I liked AJ here. But it's not enough to save the episode in my eyes.

 

Also, Rarity trying to use a southern/western accent--and AJ a mid-Atlantic one--probably sounded funny on paper, but in execution it was pretty annoying.

[pinkamenasdelight 17]

 

 

I assure you, no venues are closed in a children's show by excluding romance that should not remain closed. Honestly, it's sad really. Whenever I think of the show over the past year, especially since the Sanic Fast debacle, I can't help but think of it. There is no greater danger to the state of this show than romance, because romance cannot be ignored, it cannot be undone. Introduce romance into the structure of this show and the whole thing comes apart like the matrix. You can ignore the fact that Twilight Sparkle is now royalty, and the show will go on. You can ignore that a movie with a cliched, boring, and idiotic concept happened, and the show will go on.

 

But you cannot ignore a romantic plot point, for its very nature prohibits it from being outside of view at any time so long as either character involved is within view. On a children's show, with the already limited capabilities, especially a show with this structure, opening the floodgates to romance within show canon is an abhorrent thought. Romance, which I might also add, is clearly usually between characters who have no place being in any romantic situations together.

Very well put! I am going to cross my fingers that we still will never see one of the mane six in a romance (long term, that is) - Its not an idea I necessarily supported, it was just one that I felt like I had to accept as possibly inevitability as the show progresses. And I agree whole heartedly, a romance as a plot point probably would unravel this world that we all have come to appreciate so much for how little it mirrors other shows targeted towards young girls in which romance ends up being what it is all about.  

 

:here is to the rest of the season about friendship rather than romantic love: 

 

Kudo's to your elaboration on this subject  - it made me consider the whole scenario from a new angle. 

Edited February 10, 2014 by pinkamenasdelight

[Castle Bleck 19,325]

 

AJ: "Are ya serious?"

 

Rarity: "WAH wouldn't AH BAY?"

[Princess Periwinkle 3,775]

As an avid Sparity fan... I actually don't have anything to say. Damn it.
 
But hey, the episode wasn't a total loss! It was actually quite good! Not the most in-depth plot we've ever seen, but it was markedly cute - I'll admit. Rarity's accent.
 
What's bad about this episode? Another reason for Rarity haters to hate Rarity. Sparity fans get left hanging. Apple Jewel. Rarity doesn't make any babies.
 
What's good about this accent? Rarity's accent. The moral. Smexy AJ. Spike.
 
The good and the bad should cancel each other out, but instead of feeling neutral about this episode I have a love/hate relationship with it.
 
Also TenderGoof could give Mr. Sandwich a run for cheesiest pony.  

[Singe 2,111]

Rarity: I don't understand why you weren't attracted to Trenderhoof?
Applejack: He's just not my type.
Rarity: Well then, I guess some pony (Points to a male pony) like that one over there is more of your type.
Applejack: Uh... That's my cousin.
Rarity: Oh, really.
Applejack: Just to be clear, I'm a country pony not a hill pony.
Rarity: What I meant was that pony over there... *Points to some bushes where Bic Mac rears his head up.* Oops.
Applejack: Now you're just ticking me off.

[NotInUse 64]

It was a great episode though in my opinion it wasn't the best

 

I'd say a 7.5/10 is a fair rating for it

[MatrixChicken 879]

Haha, this is funny... It seems some of the reasons some of us hate the episode are the very reasons others of us love it!

 

I can see that the pacing was bad and Trenderhoof wasn't all that interesting... I can see all those bad things about it, but I guess it was just "FUNNAY" enough to overcome that for me.

[roptiriolg 49]

As not being much of a fan of Rarity or Pinkie, thus not usually impressed with their episodes, this one I liked! Not loved but liked, I would say probably from the best episodes featuring Rarity. The previous one with her 'Rarity takes Manehattan' was nothing special for me but maybe because I like AJ more, the new episode was heck of a funny! In fact, I don't remember seeing such a rivalry between any of the Mane 6 (though I may remember AJ and RD in Season 2), so at least there was no rivalry episode any time soon. They were totally funny and made me laugh like no other with them, I am sure AJ participating in this whole situation is what made the episode entertaining.

 

I never expected to see the love/crush theme used in MLP but I think it goes well here, it's a difference and just like seeing these two argue with each other is bringing a new taste to the same kind of episodes. More episodes like that one, I think it was a nice episode.

[Singe 2,111]

Pinkie Pie still is strongly absorbed in her pride/ego the way she was spouting on about they should choose her.