MLP episode review: Swarm of the Century · 12:12am May 26th, 2014
Anyway, time for the Trouble with... tiny terrors? Meh, alliteration can be overrated. So...
Swarm of the Century
Any relation to Sale of the Century? Old game show. :p
We open with Fluttershy... good lord, she's about 85% Disney Princess in these episodes so far. Has she sung an 'I Want' Song yet? I kid for the most part. ;) She's gathering flowers while humming. A squirrel comes up with a dandelion and she exposits these are for Celestia. A convenient wind comes up and blows it away. Aww. I kinda feel bad for him, now. She goes up to a barrel of apples and a rock... trills? It sends her panicking, natch. And from behind the rock emerges a little bal of blue, with wings, stick-legs and huge eyes. It's a parasprite! And it's so... I don't think I found it cute when I first saw this episode, actually. Fluttershy is smitten and crushes an apple for it to eat. And it consumes the entire barrel. "I guess you were hungry!" Oh, god. *Headdesk* It nestles into her hair. She walks off while we get ominous stinger and close-up of the empty barrel.
After the credits we see Twilight freaking out. She chews out Spike for not cleaning up her mess fast enough. Twilight, use your head and the horn attached to it! Celestia's visiting tomorrow. Spike wonders about all this since it's an unofficial casual visit. "There's nothing casual about a visit from royalty!" Twilight, it's called decaf or tranquilizers. Use one or the other. NOW! Spike is actually working while Twilight chews him out. Again, she's starting to tick me off here. It's her mess and for me this isn't too funny. Again, four season's worth of this, but it's still irritating. He suggests one person clean, so she leaves him to it. She'll go and supervise. Spike, I share your pain/urge to kill.
Out in Ponyville we see everyone getting ready. A banner is raised. "Welcome Princess Celest." Okay, this time I'm on Twilight's side here. Berry Punch, Carrot Top, that really is bad form. Bonbon's watering flowers. She goes to Sugar Cube Corner and finds the cakes' making a banquet. They're hard at work and Pinkie is... eating half of it. Bad form, Pinkie! BAD FORM! she tries to justify it as 'taste-testing', but she's simply gorging herself. No excuse, here.
Fluttershy interrupts before Twilight can let Pinkie have it. She shows them the parasprite. S. There's two more. She doesn't know where they came from. The first one... gave birth in her mane. By spitting the other two out. How in the-never mind. Twilight's smitten, but tries to pass it off as more for Spike so he doesn't bother her while studying. Fluttershy asks if Pinkie wants one, but she's disgusted. She names them, too. Parasprite. Fluttershy and Twilight act out-of-character concerning her attitude to them.
What? they do! They really, really do! The second Pinkie showed such behavior Flutter 'red tooth and claw' and Twilight 'need more information' Sparkle should've corralled her and asked her the 411! And I know some of you are gonna say, 'then we wouldn't have an episode', but it's still wrong. It's still out-of-character for the both of them.
Anyway, Pinkie goes in search of a trombone and we have our first-second maybe-miscommunication. "Typical Pinkie." Ah... no? She knows their NAME! She shows utter disgust at them. That's not typical Pinkie!
We cut to carousel Boutique and Rarity putting Dash into an absolutely hideous outfit. Seriously, it really looks like something out of 17th or 18th century court life. Dash finds it to be so boring. I find it to be so eyesoring! They hear the parasprite's trill and it's reproduced. Again. Twilight's stumped, while Rarity and Dash take one each. Good lord Twilight, Pinkie's got info on them! And just in time Pinkie comes by for an accordion. She's going on a date with Cheese Sandwich, methinks. They're ignoring her, and runs off. Why am I siding with Pinkie Pie here...
Back at Golden Oaks it's sparkling. Literally. Twilight worries a bit, then sees Spike napping with... Buggy, I guess, and seals their doom. ""What's there to worry about?" Oh, ho. Don't worry, Twilight. The list is coming! *Evil grin* She turns in, and we fade to morning. And she wakes up to see a small swarm of the buggers. Spike wakes up, briefly thinking he's blind. Twilight wonders where they came from, and he says he gave them a snack in the night. And they begins trashing the library. Twilight attacks them with feather duster! It's so pathetic I don't even have words! :D We pan over to Spike, who has a pile of them in a basket. Okay, that's a good gag. :D Spike takes her line away and we cut to Dash's house/mansion.
She wakes up and the parasprites all emerge, latching onto her. She flies off, but they follow. First lining the underside of her arms, then on top of her head, then a bikini, and I laugh. :D Then they form a mighty beard! Or one long booger. :p We cut to Carousel Boutique and Rarity has charmed them into being her little helpers! She scritches one under its... body? Kinda/sorta chin? But it scrunches up, and hocks up another one, right into her eye! Okay, that's pretty gross. Funny, but gross. And it turns into another parasprite. And more begin hocking up. Outside, Pinkie's got a harmonica from Applejack. She notes the saddlebags stuffed with the buggers and Rarity tells her she's busy. Pinkie is, too. She needs instruments! She tries to recruit Rarity for her little quest, but she pushes her off. She's got a real problem! Pinkie's response? "And a banjo is the only answer!"
Twilight is galloping along, her own saddlebags stuffed with the living hoover vacuums. She encounters Rarity along the way, and Dash flies by. Twilight says they should go see Fluttershy, since she knows everything about animals. No... she doesn't. She didn't know what their names were, Twilight! Pinkie Pie does, though! They go to her cottage but we're entering biblical plague territory merely inside. She's tried everything she knows, begging, pleading beseeching and even asking politely! And then Twilight has an imagine spot of Celestia flying in on her chariot and a swarm carrying her way.
I... am kinda speechless, there. It's funny, but shows Twilight has some... issues. Applejack rolls into the episode with a wagon of apples for Fluttershy. By request! The parasprites make quick work of them, and Twilight has an idea! Applejack's the best herder of them all! She'll need help, though. They all work together, and it's a great scene. They all work together to a great little country tune, forming them into a big ball that's rolled right into the Everfree. But Pinkie shows up, asking for help getting maracas. Twilight is a bit shocked, since Pinkie's ignoring the giant ball of bugs. And Pinkie realizes they need a tuba! She runs off, then runs back backwards. Dash flies down for an epic, "You are SO random" burn, but Pinkie says they're stubborn! Anyway, Applejack pulls a Gil Favor from Rawhide and they get them there!
The five go back to clean up the mess. They open Fluttershy's door and another swarm flies out. Fluttershy... kept one. They give her death glares. I give her a death glare. That's just... dumb. And ignoring what was happening five minutes ago! "They're just so cute." I... have no words. Dash flies down with goggles and 'takes out the adorable trash.' she flies around, forming a small tornado that sucks them all up. But Pinkie comes along with a pair of cymbals tied around her neck. They snap off the tether and nearly slice Dash to ribbons! She's flung out of the tornado and the parasprites fly to Ponyville. Twilight chews out Pinkie, but I... gotta stick up for her, this time. She didn't do anything on purpose. It was an accident the cymbals flew off. The two argue about trying to save Ponyville and it's just... TALK TO EACH OTHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They run off to Ponyville as the adorable plague of locusts descend and begin eating all the food in sight. Twilight decides to... cast a spell to make them stop eating the food. She casts a hastily-devised spell on a creature she has NO knowledge of with little/no preparation. In the background, Pinkie gets frustrated and runs off. The bugs stop eating the food, but instead eat everything else!
TWO!
Dash turns the sarcasm to twelve and I feel like slapping Twilight upside the head with an Oldsmobile. Rarity runs for her store and we see it's a disaster. She tries, but quickly hops onto a stool and begins crying. Poor dear. But Pinkie Pie comes in, backlit and with a heroic theme! She runs over and gets a flute. And Rarity screams.
We cut to Sweet Apple Acres and they're ready for action! The swarm flies right by them and... eats the barn. "Didn't see that coming." At the library Spike is cowering while the bugs are... eating the words of the books. Or the ink. Twilight runs to Zecora's hut and interrupts her... balancing head-first on a pole. Methinks Zecora needs locks for her hut. Zecora IDs it immediately and tells Twilight they eat up crops. If they're in Ponyville, they're doomed. Twilight rushes out and spots Celestia on her chariot, descending. It's an utter disaster in Ponyville. There's a snapping sound effect and Twilight loses it. She tells Rainbow Dash to distract them, which she does by flying for her life! "We need to build an exact copy of Ponyville right over there. We've got less than a minute!"
They're doomed. But suddenly we hear the Parasprite theme and see Pinkie doing her best Piped Piper of Hamlin, leading the buggers away. It's a good scene. The others follow her as Celestia lands. Twilight and the others race ahead to try and... make small talk, but Pinkie and her parade prance by. Celestia's single eye follows the action while Twilight asks if she hit much traffic. *Snort* Okay, good one. A bug lands on her wing and Celestia apparently has never seen one before. She calls it 'adorable', and Dash disagrees. Celestia's 'honored' that a parade was organized, much to Twilight's shock. But an 'emergency' has sprung up in Fillydelphia. There's been some sort of infestation.
Okay, my take on this? Celestia's trying to help Twilight save face. Body language and tone of voice, here. There's no infestation in Fillydelphia. She's just trying to not have Twilight be embarrassed. Legit good on her, here. Before she goes, she asks for a friendship lesson. It's about listening to others, natch. Eh... it kinda works. Not fully,but kinda. I'll get to it. And she rides off while Pinkie finishes.
Applejack figures out that Pinkie knew what they were, and yup. So did the audience when she named them! She tried to tell them... but she didn't really. Twilight apologizes and the others chime in. They don't always understand her. But she doesn't always understand herself. But hey, she saved Ponyville! Or what's left of it as we survey the disaster. And we end on a sad trombone, the first instrument she asked for! Hah...
Thoughts
I know. I didn't get it. This is supposed to be a wacky, zany episode full of insane stuff and a Trouble with Tribbles/Gremlins homage/parody/satire/insert appropriate word here. And... I laughed. I did find it zany, with good buildup and insanity and all that. But... I just have problems with it.
Pinkie names the damned things right in front of Fluttershy and Twilight. Their response is confusion and dismissal. The confusion, alright. But 'typical Pinkie'? No. It really wasn't. At the same time, Pinkie going around getting the musical instruments, while funny, still just leaves me a bit cold. "It's just Pinkie Pie" barely flies for me, here. And I mean barely. Her not saying anything really useful was starting to bug me towards the end.
And there was no infestation in Fillydelphia. It was Celestia trying to spare Twilight embarrassment.
So... while I like this one, it's not by much. Good scenes, but it just doesn't hold together hugely well for me.
By the by, those are tribbles around Twilight. They're the closest parasprite analogue I've got before breaking out my Insecticon hordes. 
Yeah, this is a bit of a mess. Twilight and Fluttershy don't listen to Pinkie, but she doesn't do a very good job of convincing them that this time she's worth listening to. It's not like they necessarily needed her expertise, though; both Rainbow's and Applejack's plans might have worked if they'd tried them a second time, instead of just giving up.
On another hand, though, here we see that Fluttershy is maybe a little too comfortable with fuzzy critters, to the point where she ignores the very real danger some of them can present, which is a side of her that doesn't get explored that much.
I wish.
The Problem with Parasprites.
2145111
Oh it got explored plenty recently. Ah might jus' have ta write a post a' mah own about Bats.
Of course you've got tribbles. Is there anything you don't have? I am skeptical.
2145111
Agreed. Communication issues were present on both ends. "I've seen these before, and polka is the only way to stop them" would have helped just as much as "Why do you hate these things so much?"
2145633
Ravenous creatures, Fluttershy's affection outweighing her common sense, Twilight's hasty spell making everything worse...
The more things change...
2145633 I'd love to read that.