Mar
8th
2014
Somepony To Watch Over Me · 6:58pm Mar 8th, 2014
I feel I've been getting lazy with these blog posts.
That said, I think I can sum up this episode pretty easily: Good idea, terrible execution.
It was just overdone and unsubtle. Big Mac should have argued with AJ. AJ's protectiveness could have been toned down a hell of a lot with the same end result. While the Chimaera and Fire Swamps were cool, those setpieces were pretty much independent of the rest of it. I would say it was more badly written than just flat out bad.
Never happy!
I loved it
It felt like the author wanted to throw every baby-proofing gag he could think of into the story. I'm surprised we didn't see a kitchen sink.
The beginning and the ending, though, I found quite solid. Specially the ending.
It was silly until the last 5-10 minutes.
Genius Bonus: one of the reasons it turned out to be so dangerous was that Applejack originally meant to be hauling that cart through the Fire Swamp much earlier in the day (she was leaving in the morning and is much stronger than Apple Bloom hence would have been pulling it faster). Even had she encountered the Chimera earlier, she could have just run right past it; even more so with the unladen wagon on the return trip. Instead, Apple Bloom left several hours later and thus ran into it at twilight with a laden wagon, and none of Applejack's Fire Swamp supplies. As proof of how slowly Apple Bloom must have been going at points, consider this -- Applejack caught up to her even though Apple Bloom had several hours' lead.
1908255
BTW, unless Applejack ran to the town and back - which, given how concerned she was, I doubt - it means she had a way to talk to Rarity from the farm. Long distance communication either by design or by plot hole.
Also, AJ found out about the deception 6:15. Just after Apple Bloom left the clock was showing 9:00. I believe more in a continuity error than in a 9 hours lead for Apple Bloom, though.