Season Four Episode Review: For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils · 8:44pm Mar 23rd, 2014
It's time to take a look into Sweetie Belle's inner psyche and appreciate her amazing talents...while also talking about how much greater her sister is. I mean, isn't it astounding that almost all of Rarity's episodes stand as the best the show has to offer? What a pony! And she can turn a drinking straw into a fashionable hat!
…
Oh....yeah, this is a Sweetie Belle episode. So let's see “For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils.”
TECHNICAL SPECS:
Season: 4
Episode: 20*
Written By: Dave Polsky
First Aired: March 22, 2014
SUMMARY:
Rarity has once again been entrusted with a huge order for Sapphire Shores, and as always is falling behind on getting it done. Sweetie is on hoof to help in her own usual way, but has another agenda as well. She's putting on a play with the CMC – one that she wrote, directed, and stars in – and she wants Rarity's help touching up the dresses she designed. It's not hard to guilt trip Rarity into signing up. And true to Sweetie Belle's talents, the outfits are hideous to behold...and she was supposed to ask her sister for help weeks ago, but kept putting it off...
The next day, Rarity just barely manages to rush the dresses, now completely redesigned to be stunning and beautiful, backstage in time for the play. Sweetie is initially apprehensive about the changes, but they still put on the performance. The dialogue is stilted, Sweetie's acting is wooden, and the whole thing looks like something a child would write and put on, but it still receives a standing ovation. When Sweetie goes out to soak in the fame, however, she discovers two horrible truths:
1) None of their sisters were there, as Rarity has enlisted them and the rest of the Mane 6 to help make Sapphire Shore's outfits.
2) The only reason they got that ovation to begin with was the amazing dresses.
The last revelation hits Sweetie like a truck, and she angrily storms off to Carousel Boutique, where Rarity has just finished sewing in a load-bearing stitch in Sapphire Shore's headpiece. The others take the opportunity to run, having had plenty of experience in what is about to occur. For you see, Sweetie Belle's mind has now warped reality so that Rarity designed the dresses too good on purpose so she could steal the spotlight, just like she did at Sweetie's fifth birthday party. Rarity is incredulous, as she just did what she was told to do, but Sweetie continues to be a pissed-off brat even while trying to sleep.
After a drink of water, however, she notices that Rarity is asleep...and sees the box holding the headpiece. Finally giving in to the dark side, she opens the box, removes the all-important stitch, and closes it like nothing happened. Satisfied that she's gotten revenge, she goes to sleep...and then wakes to find herself about to receive an award for her play. Before she can give her acceptance speech and say that everypony really likes her, Rarity comes by in the form of a cloud, dispensing acid rain that drives everypony off and melts the award before targeting a lightning bolt at Sweetie Belle. But even for Equestria, this kind of stuff is pretty nuts, so that can only mean she's dreaming...which means Luna gets to show up and save the day.
Luna tells Sweetie how she also has a sister who often steals the spotlight more, and how she needs to avoid letting her hatred and jealousy take over like...well, what happened a thousand years ago. They first go back to Sweetie's fifth birthday party. Little Sweetie wanted to make a huge entrance like her sister often does, so she put on her best Joker lipstick and stumbled down in an ill-fitting outfit. When she finally emerged, however, Rarity was already entertaining the other foals with party favors and cake, who flat-out said they didn't need Sweetie when her big sister was so much cooler. This led to many hurt feelings and counseling sessions...but Luna shows her that it wasn't the whole story. Her guests were about to leave because Sweetie was taking so long, and Rarity was using the favors and cake to save the party.
Next is a stop to the present, where Rarity was worried that Sapphire Shores wouldn't like the outfits. And then we have the future, where Sweetie watches helplessly as the headpiece falls apart and Rarity loses her position as Sapphire Shores' designer. This leads to Rarity falling into Twilight-levels of OCD, Sapphire launching a smear campaign that destroys her career, and the former fashionista living in a decaying Carousel Boutique with only the spiders and dust bunnies to keep her company. Sweetie awakens screaming...and screams louder as she realizes Rarity's already left for Canterlot with the outfits and sabotaged headpiece.
Sweetie recruits Apple Bloom and Scootaloo (who are both big Sapphire Shores fans) in her quest to recover and repair the headpiece, but Rarity has already reached Sapphire's rehearsals, and the bodyguard is not going to let them through. Fortunately, Sweetie Belle took that correspondence course in ziplining and cartoon physics (still no Cutie Mark) and manages to get inside (with the other two...getting in somehow), snatch the box containing the headpiece at the last minute, and escape to a back room...where Luna awaits with some thread and an idea.
Sweetie walks out of the room to an enraged Rarity, and apologizes for nearly ruining her life because of something that wasn't her fault to begin with. Sapphire is still ready to fire her anyway because of Sweetie's antics, but then she sees the headdress – now sporting a stitching of a dolphin, Sapphire's lucky animal. With Rarity's career still going forward, Sweetie admits that the costumes were the only good thing about the play. And backstage, Luna summons a doctor to take a look at her vocal chords.
REVIEW:
The first thing that stands out about this episode is the premise. Back in the mist of ages that was Season Two, there was an episode called “Sisterhooves Social” that had Rarity and Sweetie Belle bickering and making up. It was a great episode and people liked it. Cut to the present, and we have “The Sweetie Belle Toils,” which is about Rarity and Sweetie Belle bickering and making up, only with the argument now even more one-sided and Luna thrown into the mix.
The chief irony of the first half is that, for all the derision Sweetie Belle heaps at Rarity over hogging the spotlight, she's the one craving love and attention. The play they put on is one she wrote, directed, and is starring in, and it feels like she would have gone with her crappy original costumes if the other CMC hadn't stepped in and told her to use that big sister she has for this very reason. And when she discovers the attention is all because of Rarity's contribution, she proceeds to act like an evil little hellspawn and nearly ruin her sister's livelihood in a calculated fit of rage. I would say that this is balanced by her being a little kid and not having a full grip on maturity and all that...but then we have Rarity this episode, who is practically a saint.
Compare that to “Sisterhooves Social.” There, Rarity realizes how horrible she's treated Sweetie Belle and finds her contributions helpful...but it's balanced out by Sweetie's antics actually being mistakes, just ones that weren't as horrible as Rarity initially believed them to be. Here, Rarity is responsible for saving Sweetie Belle's social life twice, and the fact that she has no idea what's wrong just makes Sweetie look even worse. I hate plots that are built around “You know what you did,” which is why I hate every sitcom ever written since Everybody Loves Raymond ruined it for everyone.
But that's not the only episode this pulls from. Luna's ability to enter dreams returns, and...I still like it. I wasn't bothered by it showing up in “Sleepless in Ponyville,” as it just feels like a natural extension of Luna's abilities. And given that we're able to see Rarity's POV of the birthday party and that she knew Sapphire Shores loved dolphins, it seems that she can freely enter anypony's dreams and know exactly what they're up to. She's basically the NSA of Equestria, only less evil. Besides that one time, anyway.
The dream sequence is obviously based on A Christmas Carol, with Luna filling in the role of all three ghosts. The visuals were trippy and, to be honest, kind of reminded me of some nightmares I've had in the past. At the very least, it sticks to familiar trends and common tropes when it comes to discussing that crap our brain does when we're recharging. And the vision of the future is pretty damn creepy, echoing seeing Carousel Boutique boarded up and almost abandoned in “Magical Mystery Cure.”
By the way, the fifth birthday party was just depressing for me. I know that's kind of the point, but I just find failed parties sad on principle, and doubly so if it's a birthday or anniversary. So yes, that scene did get feels out of me, even as I wondered why nopony bothered to just go up and check to see how she was doing if she was that late.
And then we get to the third act, which is mostly standard episode stuff. I did like Sweetie being out-of-touch with Sapphire Shore's music; I can definitely peg her being into showtunes more than pop. The bodyguard scene was nice, the start of the chase was a good callback to Sweetie's earlier complaints about Rarity having fifty different names for red, and even the episode's coda is fine. But then you have Luna coming back again. Her just happening to be there feels forced enough, even if it does set her up to be a grand chessmaster, but then there's her voice...which just feels off. She sounded perfectly fine in the dream, but here she sounds way too quiet and without the right tone. Perhaps it's because it's day and she's not in somepony's dream, but still, it feels wrong.
And while we're on the subject, I know Luna said that Celestia can hog the spotlight...but would it be so wrong to show that? It doesn't have to end in a cosmic brawl or anything. You can just have the two bickering over the last piece of cake, or who gets to read the comics first, or whether or not they should give that democracy thing another chance and have a couple months off before coming back to fix everything. Just something that shows them as sisters in the show, not just saying that they're sisters over and over again.
CONCLUSION:
I may have overstated how this episode upset me before. I think it's just okay, with a weak first act buoyed up by a very strong second and average third. It would have been nice if Rarity's actions weren't presented as being so pure, but I can't say I hated it, either.
So, sorry to get all of you riled up. That offer to toss a molotov at me is still open.
Next time, Applejack versus the Flim-Flam Brothers and their snake oil all-curing tonic.
It wasn't as good as Sleepless in Ponyville, but as that's my favorite episode, that's hardly a damning statement from me. It's also the worst thing I can personally really say about it.
I got a lot of Loony Tunes vibes from it, actually. I liked that.
Actually, we just said that we disagree. Nothing more than that.
Didn't we?
Oh and I actually loved that episode. I kind of found 5-year-old Sweetie Belle cute.
But... shouldn't Rarity also look younger in the flashback? At least a teenager?
And possibly the Key of Honesty!
Dang it, one second I'm ready to strangle you and the next I feel terrible about it. You might as well throw one of those cocktails at me for having the same pattern almost every Sunday.
As for Sweetie Belle's brattiness, I would like to assume the idea that she's hitting puberty and is now a moody pre-teen... but that would mean that Sweetie Belle is GROWING UP. So in weighing the pros and cons of losing our adorable little squeaker to her just being plain OOC... I pick her being OOC.
1949602, that's exactly what I think is gonna happen!
Admittedly, you're probably right. The episode isn't particularly balance in regards to the presentation of its conflict, as opposed to previous episodes like the aforementioned Sister Hooves or alternatively Green Isn't Your Color. Sweetie is clearly wholly in the wrong the whole time and Rarity is just misunderstood. Given the type of pony we know Rarity to be, it actually would be perfectly sensible for there to be at least some small measure of truth to Sweetie's accusations. Not that Rarity would ever intentionally sabotage her sister, but being who she is, she sort of can't help but always turn herself into the center of attention in any social setting.
I sort of blame the way Luna was shoehorned into delivering the exposition and moral. The dream sequence was still very well choreographed and trippy, but it might have overly detracted from time that could perhaps have been better spent actually having the Sweetie and Rarity interact and come to terms more directly.
Still, all that said, I have a hard time holding any grudge against this episode for one simple fact -- it's a Polsky episode. I have a tendency to not pay attention to who writes which episodes unless someone else calls attention to it. In this case, it wasn't until I was later watching DrWolf's review, and to be perfectly honest I was shocked to no small extent upon confirming that fact. So maybe by the standard set by the series as a whole, this episode was only average, but for a Polsky episode... I think it might just be one of his best ever. Perhaps more shocking still, with Twilight Time that now makes two genuinely GOOD and seemingly non-controversial episodes from him in row -- what madness is this?
Really? Cool! I mean, I was never really as enamored by the FlimFlam brothers the way most of the rest of the fandom seemed to be, but I'm still always eager to see old characters return for a second go around.
...except Trender Hoof, I've zero desire to ever see him again. Not for anything silly like steeling the affections of my fair lady Rarity, but rather just because he was a generally boring and unappealing character with nothing much to offer beyond his role as part of a contrived love triangle.
1949588
It's a little hard to tell because the all the foals in that scene where smaller than the typical models, but I think that was indeed a "teenaged" Rarity, and so likewise somewhat shorter than her adult self, even if she did still already have her adult mane-style.
Puberty. No fun for anyone (or pony) involved.
I'm a classical theatre director by trade (and playwright, sort of), so this episode felt like it was custom-designed just for me.
I felt for what both Sweetie Belle and Rarity were going through. Sweetie Belle wasn't portrayed as entirely in the wrong, at least not from the POV of someone who knows what it's like to work on a play for weeks or months and then, on performance night, have most of their family and friends suddenly have "something come up" that precludes their attending. And even if the play wasn't that good (and even if you know it), to have the audience rave over something completely unrelated to what you put into it, well, that causes emotions to run high.
I don't know if they intended the theatre imagery to tie in to the whole episode or if the theatre stuff was just intended to be an instigating excuse for the hijinks, but it certainly seemed to.
Hmmmm...ah, what the hell.
*hurls Molotov Cocktail
That's for being upset about Luna's voice.
Yeah, you're pretty much spot on with the rest.
Well I kind of already spilled my guts on this episode earlier but I still stand by my opinions. And hey, nobody reasonable is gonna give you shit or throw explosives at you for that matter, for not liking an episode as much as some. Plus Rarity episodes tend to be kind of divisive anyway and Polsky's involved so it's like a smorgasbord of butthurts who are gonna be difficult regardless of an episode's real quality.
So, umm... both here and in a comment on your last blog, I said some stuff that I feel bares some kind of clarification.
The truth of the matter is that I also very much like the basic idea of Luna having DREAM magic. In fact between both SIP and MMC (plus TCHS), it has become my head-canon that if Twilight's alicorn ascension was through mastering friendship, and Cadance's was through mastering love, then Luna's would have most likely been through mastering dreams (I even hypothesize that Sombra might have been a proto-alicorn on the verge of ascending through mastery over fear). The only problem with this head-canon is that I still haven't figured out what kind of special magic Celestia mastered, largely because her character is just so ill-defined beyond being a fairly generic nurturing mentor/maternal figure.
Anyway, back to Luna; my problem isn't that she has dream powers, but more so with the way those powers have been used in the show thus far. That they really only seem to exist as a cheep excuse to write her into the plots of episodes in which she'd otherwise not really have any good reason to be involved in the first place. As such, well... it just makes here appearances feel less meaningful in and of themselves, but rather instead more like just pandering to her popularity within the fandom.
god danmit , i hate how much of my life i waisted on that shit before i was intelligent enough to realize that that garbage isn't what constitutes for humor of even entertainment , oh that things i could have been learning or games i could have been mastering.....