A Trade Ya Review for you to read and comment! · 11:02pm Apr 21st, 2014
Oh, right, I do episode reviews of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Funny, I had actually completely forgotten about that. I'm busy with a few things, getting distracted by many, and forgetting even more, but here I am to present you with an episode review.
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Episode Review of Trade Ya
Should we be worried that slavery seems to be legal in Equestria? Say it how you will, but this episode involves trading a pony into work. This is also an episode that I imagine many of you have already watched by now so I have no need to hold back on spoilers. Let’s begin with this review of Trade Ya.
So the episode begins with the Mane 6 arriving at Rainbow Falls, attending a trade show. Twilight is there on official business, as each trading show requires a princess in attendance to settle any disputes and ensure each trade is fair. The others are there to trade various things for various things, except Pinkie who is simply tagging along for fun. Rainbow Dash wants to get a signed copy of the one Daring Do book she has not got in her signed copy collection, to which Fluttershy aids her in. Rarity and Applejack both want to purchase something vintage and so pool all of their goods together to get a vintage item. Spike goes off to try and trade his mint condition Power Ponies comic, while Twilight tries to trade off several books that she can’t keep in her library to which Pinkie Pie tries to help with… against Twilight’s wishes of course.
This episode is a bit of an odd one. It started off, to me at least, rushed and uninteresting. That was how I found the opening scene; it gave me a poor first impression. As the episode progressed though my opinion of the episode went from poor, to average, to good, to fantastic – the episode just gets better and better as it progresses. I was listing down so few pro’s to this episode at first but then, then it suddenly rained with positive moments. The first one I can tell you is the one part of the opening I liked, or rather the first thing about the premise that I really liked, Twilight performing royal duties. When you think about it, outside of the season opening you haven’t had the chance to see Twilight do much in terms of being a princess, at least in regards to interacting with her citizens. This episode delivers, not much at first as it goes onto focus on the others first, but it gets to Twilight eventually.
Summing up everything that is good within this episode is its humour and its character interactions, both often intertwining. Good things to note before I go into detail about these humour moments and character interactions are how it’s nice to see more of Rainbow Falls, and how the setting seems to overall be used for all manner of events. The episode just seems to look brighter than usual, with animation being top notch. Another good factor is that with how the story is split between four groups (I’m counting Spike here, even if he does not get much focus), it shifts between the groups with perfect timing, but also showcases them going about their activities within the background of other narrative focuses. For example, Rarity and Applejack are having an argument, and you can see Fluttershy flying past, it’s a neat touch overall.
Back to the biggest reasons this episode is so good, interactions provide much entertainment but they are not instantaneous nor are they perfect which actually is it’s strength. Rarity and Applejack’s arguing over which antique they should buy is a little bit funny, but seeing them then arguing over being the better friend and trying to trade the antique for one another is just hilarious. It also displays the two’s relationship well, Applejack and Rarity argue but at the same are being friends within their argument, they’re even arguing over trying to do a nice thing for one another which is a scenario I imagine many have encountered (you have to be sneaky in paying something for a friend/relative before they’ve got the chance to notice).
For an example of a joke that builds up, Rainbow Dash’s first attempts to acquire the signed Daring Do book is through trading her lucky rusty horseshoe. Of course the trader doesn’t want it, and instead wants a pet Orthrus. The breeder of mythical creatures wants a lamp in exchange for his Orthrus, and so Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy go onto the lamp trader. This goes on for a while, building up and building up, with Rainbow Dash constantly repeating the chain of things that she needs to trade. The best part is towards the end, when she assumes a trader wants something ridiculous, the traders asks for a rusty horseshoe, and Rainbow Dash laments on where she’ll find a rusty horseshoe. Such humour just works out brilliantly and from there on the humour is just a blast.
Negatives are a part of this episode, the first one being something you can tell already, things take a while to get good. The episode opening feels rushed and has Pinkie explain the basic premise in a very blatant manner, it’s really in your face and just feels forced. It then takes a while to pick up, at least getting to the stage where you’re smiling consistently.
The one other negative then would be in wasted potential. We never get to have any proper focus on Spike’s activities, aside from a bit near the start where he mentions wanting to trade his mint condition Power Ponies comic book. Another group that feels a little short on the potential side of things are Rarity and Applejack. Once they decide to work together to get an antique they get three key focused moments of interactions; one where they argue over what to get, one where they argue that the other should get what they want, and one where they argue that the other should get what they want… again. It feels like they could have done something more with this, perhaps show more of the development to their solution which we see at the end of the episode.
This episode caught me by surprise; it set me up for horrible expectations and disappointment only to then wow me with sheer amazement. There are many funny and adorable scenes, my favourite of which involves Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash working at a burger van. Furthermore, this episode is chock a block full of FlutterDash shipping. There hasn’t been much FlutterDash interaction or shipping this season, and while this is no Hurricane Fluttershy, it serves up a large dosage of FlutterDash to satisfy my appetite. Even if I wasn’t such a fan of the ship though, it still embodies my number one favourite thing in all stories, character interactions. It is filled with in depth character interactions which are never presented perfectly, giving them a realistic edge to them, while being light-hearted to ensure laughs about, and even teach lessons through each of them. I’ve got to say, Trade Ya, I’m not sure where I’m going to place you but I can say this, you’re a ten out of ten in my eyes; Fantastic episode!
I could not describe how I feel about this episode better than this quote
Yeah, this is my favorite S4 episode for now, I'm waiting for the Equestria Games and the finale though, because it sounds reaaally good
You know, you forgot to mention your fanfic progress.
For that matter, there was a bit of TwiPie in this episode too, and I thought that was your second favorite pairing.
I'm getting sick of people mentioning the slavery so I'm basically posting this everywhere.
THIS WAS NOT SLAVERY!
Fluttershy was trading a service in exchange for a product. You see that literally all of the time in modern society. In a formal setting the product is generally money. But sometimes it can be as simple as I'll buy you lunch if you drive me to the mall.
She decided it of her own free will, and had she decided to ditch the deal, well she might face some sort of penalty, but she wasn't that pony's property or anything.