Live blogging Leap of Faith · 3:36am Mar 30th, 2014
Well, not quite live because it's recorded, but these are still my real time reactions. Here we go!
Big Mac in the lake is instant win. Actually, this entire opening scene is instant win. Apple Bloom's joy is infectuous.
Hmm... little skeptical over this 'it sucks getting old' bit. I mean, it's well done and I like the sepia tone, but it feels a little bit heavy, especially after the fun of the first few seconds.
And there comes Big Mac to make everything fun again. :-D He's got some great scenes this episode.
Is high diving really that dangerous? We've seen Pinkie fall from great heights and look pretty much okay afterwards, and that wasn't even with a water landing. Also, didn't AJ learn the appropriate lesson here a couple episodes ago?
High diving was the riskiest thing Granny did? Didn't she wander into the Everfree and almost get eaten by wolves?
Uh oh. MLP has a bad track record with shows relating to things like social justice (see: Bridle Gossip and Over a Barrel). I'm getting a little nervous that this is going to be a very badly done episode about disabilities. This massive crowd of injured and disabled ponies is worrying me.
Hey, the circus came to town!
HAH! I'm really glad FlimFlam were brought back. These guys are fun. (Although, to be fair, shouldn't the town know these guys can't be trusted by now?)
I love how they are now literal snake oil salesmen.
Everyone in Ponyville is dumb for going along with this. Lyra, your marefriend drank their crappy cider last time! Crutch guy could be a plant!
Fishing with apples? I like the idea.
Okay, so the obvious way this could go is that the tonic really works, but only for a short while, so ponies have to buy more and more. I'm hoping for the other way this could go, that it's a placebo. Which still has some problems relating to ponies who have, like, crooked teeth or something (placebos can't really work on that), but I think it'd still be more interesting than the standard 'addict' plotline.
Granny Smith dancing is really fun. As is her swimming.
Is this a 24-hour circus or somesuch?
Heh. Yep, called it. Crutch guy is a plant.
Silver Shill apparently is a Fillmore! fan. I'm pretty sure every villain on that show tried to escape in exactly that way.
AJ's not very good at arguing. "You sold my granny a tonic, and it does everything you said it would! How dare you!"
Silver Shill isn't dressing up differently every night. He looks the same as he did the previous night. AJ, you're a silly pony.
Ooh, nice move on FlimFlam's part here. I like the moral conflict.
AJ's switch in motivation here is a bit rapid. If she was worried about Granny hurting herself, why is she pushing her to do more sports?
I like this episode a lot, but I don't find AJ believable here. I can believe she might not tell Granny something to avoid hurting her. I don't think she'd lie to the town. (That said, I'm liking how FlimFlam are playing it smart this time. Getting AJ on their side is a pretty big coup.)
Apple Bloom, you said this was a swimming competition. This is diving. Swimming involves lateral motion in the water at some point.
Lyra is a swim judge! My headcanon is that Bonbon is competing.
AJ, you need to pick a side and stick with it. However, I really like how this is showing that AJ's dishonesty is affecting other ponies and not just her grandmother. This is some smart writing.
And now FlimFlam has picked up the idiot ball. Come on, guys, if Granny Smith fails this thing--you know, because she hasn't competed in fifty years--you'll look like idiots.
Then again, Bonbon--who drank the crappy cider last time--is buying some. So maybe FlimFlam are just betting on Ponyville being a bit thick.
This is more synchronized swimming than the race I had envisioned, but I like it.
Okay, how does that last move work? Is Granny standing on the pool's bottom or something?
Lyra steals the scene!
Well, Shill's in a new costume now, at least.
Oh, sorry. Uniform. (Hee. I liked that bit.)
Hey, uh, Shill, maybe don't confess the evil scheme in broad daylight? I liked FlimFlam so far this episode, but they need better helpers.
This moral's about as sublte as a brick to the head, but hey, it's a show for kids.
"DID WE MENTION THIS IS ALL APPLEJACK'S FAULT YET? YES? WELL, WE'RE MENTIONING IT AGAIN!"
AJ is really, really bad at speeches. "Who knows what'll happen?" Yes, truly those are horrible consequences.
Why is she diving into a pizza dish? There's a pool literally five feet to her left. I feel there's a safer way to do this, is what I'm saying.
That was the most foolish thing you've ever seen anyone do, AJ? Did you forget how your sister gave herself pony pox? Or cast a love spell on her teacher? Apple Bloom's got Granny beat when it coms to foolish things.
Hey, um, FlimFlam, maybe now's the time to leave. When your mascot's mutinying, that's not a good sign.
AJ: "I lied." Crowd: "So how do we know you aren't lying now?" AJ: "...damn. I should let Big Mac do the speeches."
So... AJ is saying that FlimFlam are selling a confidence booster? (HAH. FlimFlam seem to agree.)
So now we have a caonical pony whose name is a synonym for 'unethical huckster.' Wonder what Shill will do now that he won't be, uh, shilling anymore.
FlimFlam got out of town with their money this time. They're getting smarter.
Nice ending. Very well done all around.
***
Overall, I loved this episode. It was really, really, really good. My only complaints were that I felt AJ was a bit inconsistent (again, not so much with deceiving Granny--we know she gets a bit wacky about family--but with going along with deceiving the town for so long), that AJ really should be smarter than she made herself appear in her dialogue, and that the moral wasn't very subtle. But the dialogue was funny, and FlimFlam were great villains, there was also a lot of cute humor--Big Mac in the water, Apple Bloom goofing around, Lyra being Lyra--and the episode overall was quite well written. Definitely one of my favorite episodes this season. And I'm really glad my fears weren't realized, though I do have to wonder where all the disabled/injured ponies came from, since we've never seen them at any other time.
Top notch episode!
I really liked today's episode. I kinda have to scratch my head at how Trixie and flippin' Discord got redeemed in their second appearances but not Flim and Flam. Anyway, they're really enjoyable antagonists. I thought their song was a bit mediocre compared to their last one, but that's a nitpick.
I loved all the little Big Mac moments. Seeing him with out a harness or floaty made him seem a whole lot less...big. I liked it though.
The Apple Family have been very prominent this season. They're really fun and full of personality. I do notice that Apple Family eps are just about the only episodes this season that don't have all six of the mane cast in them--even when the Mane Six don't have anything to do with the episode itself.
If I have one complaint it would be that the moral didn't quite match the episode and that it didn't fit the pattern of the other 'rainbow realization' episodes of the other Mane characters.
With Rarity she went through an experience where she was too generous to Siri and then overreacted in the opposite direction with her friends before finding the right balance. Pinkie got so wrapped up in being the one to make everypony (especially Rainbow Dash) laugh that she didn't notice when it stopped being fun for her. Fluttershy was too kind to the breezies and Rainbow Dash....okay, that episode didn't fit either, but it was a pretty lousy episode by my reckoning.
I think it would've really clever and really mature for the characters to learn limits to or problems with their strongest virtue (i.e. their element) and not just learn that "it's good to be honest/loyal/kind, etc."
So I wish the moral had been more nuanced, like, "Even the truth can be twisted to a lie" or "when you can pick and choose the truths you want to tell, it's as bad as lying"--because technically AJ didn't out-and-out LIE, she hedged/dissembled/was circumspect with the truth, but not flat out lying. I don't think so anyway. So I wish the moral had been of a piece with the ones we'd seen in the other Realization episodes. But this was a really good, really fun and really enjoyable episode.
...but seriously though, why was EVERYPONY apparently injured? What the heck happened? Another bunny stampede?
It's not an inconstancy, it's a dilemma. She'd already lied about the tonic because the placebo effect gave Granny the confidence to swim again. After that she couldn't just tell everypony else without admitting she'd lied in the first place, and as such risk taking away Granny's newfound confidence. It's the classic situation where one little white lie snowballs out of control.
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You pretty much answered your own question. Flim & Flam are enjoyable ANTAGONISTS, but if they had learned their lesson and found redemption than they couldn't really continue on in that role anymore. I for one am happy that unlike Trixie, who's character became a dead-end after Magic Duel, Flim & Flam can still come back to be further nuisances in future episodes.