MLP Episode review: Family Appreciation Day · 10:37pm Apr 8th, 2015
Okay, folks! Set your timers! We have possible good actions by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, here! This is not a drill! Also, it's time for...
Family Appreciation Day
It's early morning at Sweet Apple Acres. Suddenly, there's howling! Applebloom, Applejack and Big Mac are woken up by Granny Smith yelling that the timber-wolves are howling! The zap-apples are coming, and if you've never seen this episode, you have no idea of the context of that. :D Also, good to hear Big Mac saying something other than 'yup' or 'nope' then. After commercial and baskets are placed under trees. Inside, Applebloom is helping Granny to make zap-apple jam, but Granny is a bit... out of it. There's a number of steps, as always with secret recipes. Think of the bibi-babka's from that one episode of Perfect Strangers. She hands Applebloom a broom while she reboots. Outside, ominous wind and clouds! We even get a cool shot of Big Mac looking all serious-like. Suddenly, the trees start sparking. Apparently they paid too muchm on their electic bill and are getting extra voltage. :p Leaves spring from the bare branches and the clouds part. How... interesting? We pan over and we have our first sighting of Filthy Rich, and his daughter, Diamond 'two-dimensional' Tiara.
We cut to... Granny and Applebloom in bunny outfits, hopping over watering cans while singing the alphabet song. Makes just as much sense watching it folks. Filthy's heard a zap-apple harvest is coming, and has come to make sure he gets 100 jars. While they negotiate the purchase, Diamond Tiara is 1. an asshole and 2. an asshole. She puts down Granny Smith and mocks Applebloom. We cut to the pair of Apple's in Ponyville, getting supplies. Granny's... enthusiastic and Applebloom's embarrassed. Also, Granny is apparently a bee-whisperer. And on cue Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon walk by. Applebloom's mortified, and I can... kinda see why.
We cut to the schoolhouse and Filthy rich explaining how he built his Barnyard Bargains empire and... holy. No. NO. NO! Diamond Tiara is... watching. Attentively. She's paying attention to her father with a loving expression on her face.
HOLY SHIT SHE'S NOT A JERKASS HERE!!!!!!!!!
I... I need to stop for a moment. This is big, folks. I mean really big, here. It's her first decent act... in the show. I mean, my god! Admittedly it is literally 'blink and you'll miss it', but for her this is massive improvement, especially when every other student looks like they got tranquilized! We also learn he prefers Mister Rich. No relation to Richie. Next week is Applebloom's turn. Applejack and Big Mac can't come, and she realizes it'd be too embarrassing for Granny to come, but Diamond Tiara shows her true colors and says Granny can come. Ah, a tiny spark of decency, snuffed by your enormous assholishness. I am looking forward to this episode's picture. *Evil smile* After commercial, we see Applebloom failing to get Applejack to help. Also, ominous clouds again! Also, a large murder of crows. I think they're crows, not sure. Anyway, the third sign! Stop, caution, men at work? Maybe Equestria is the land down under? Flowers bloom on all the trees, star-shaped and it looks very cool.
At the CMC clubhouse, Applebloom is taking Sweetie Belle's spot as the dictionary as she frets worse than a stratocaster. They'll help her, but Applebloom is sick from worry! But the CMC gets an idea! In the kitchen, Granny has flashed back to her days as a drill sergeant, apparently. She smacks one, and it cracks under pressure. Court-martialed! Upstairs, the CMC work to make Applebloom appear ill. Granny comes upstairs, but sees through it. Applebloom is getting antsy, but the fourth sign appears! The flowers burst into silver-colored apples. Paris breathes a sigh of relief. They get the idea to pick the zap-apples early, and Applebloom says the zap-apples aren't normal. Really?! Sweetie Belle tries to buck them down, but gets friggin' electrocuted! Applebloom tries picking them, but they're stuck tighter than that guy in the super glue commercials over the Grand Canyon.
The next day, Cheerilee comes over because Applebloom said she wanted to speak with her. I sense shenanigans afoot. Inside, Granny has been turned into a marionette. Good lord how deeply does she sleep?! Cheerilee... buys it. Okay, to be semi-fair it's through a window. But the pulley system breaks and Granny wakes up. And the plan's foiled. And then she's hauled into the air. Okay. Sweetie Belle gets the idea to get Granny out of town, and suddenly the thunder rolls, and the lightning strikes! The clouds part, natch. We get a rainbow and the zap-apples change from silver to rainbow-colored. And they do it by shooting out laser beams. Scootaloo comes over, dressed as a telegram delivery filly, then gets shot. :p Uncle Apple Strudel wants her to visit, and Applebloom conveniently shows up to tell her about the 8 AM train. And gets her the saddlebags, too.
At the schoolhouse, Granny is obviously a no-show. And Applebloom is so sad. But suddenly Granny Smith outta nowhere! And with obligatory 'Diamond Tiara is a smug asshole' glance from her. She didn't miss the train, Apple Strudel was on it! Wait, what? He's there, with magnificent mustache and beard. Anyway, Granny starts, with a rather simplified map...
When she was a filly, there was no Ponyville. The Apple's were pilgrim ponies, collecting new seeds and selling old. Then one day the 'Smith' family was in Canterlot. Back then, lots of tents. Then Celestia on chariot! She looked at her father's seed collection, but saw the haggard condition of the family. So she gave them land of their own. Pa gave her a mighty kiss on the hoof, to his wife's irritation. :p They built their first home and planted an orchard. But food was short. One night, Granny went into the Everfree to search for food. And she found the zap-apples! She picked them, but timber-wolves make their first physical appearance! savor this, folks. It's all downhill from here for them. Granny got out of there, banged some pots and pans and scared them off! They planted the zap-apple seeds, and trees outta nowhere! Granny paid attention to the signs, making notes of them. She was mixing up the jam, and got the jam-making right. "Magic is as magic does." Stinking Rich, Diamond Tiara's great-grandfather, bought the jam and sold them> And before they knew it, Ponyville was born.
Back in the present, the foals are all astonished, as they should be. A damned fine story. And... Silver Spoon exhibits independent thought by clapping first! Holy crap, two acts of decency in one episode by them?! Has Gozer the Gozerian returned?! Scootaloo realizes Granny Smith founded Ponyville, and Applebloom rubs that into Diamond Tiara's face. Diamond Tiara calls her a kooky old lady, and you know what I'll say here. :p
Later on we see the zap-apple jam being sold. It's rather nice. :) Also good to see Applebloom making nice with Granny. Later on, all the kids want to help Granny sing to the water. Filthy Rich gets Diamond Tiara to sing to the water, too, in a belated attempt to get some sense into her. And we fade on Applejack and Applebloom.
Thoughts.
I love this episode. It's a great look at the Apple's, and at Granny Smith. And, well, aging too. Respecting your elders, which is something kids do need reminding of. ;) She's not getting any younger and has been around a long time. The episode touches on that, with her bad memory and the flashback.
Zap-apples are... really cool. Like, really cool. Interesting the signs, there. Earth pony magic? Could unicorns or pegasi raise them? I think so. It's more keeping an eye out for them and getting the stuff right. Very interesting and intriguing process, there. I really do like it.
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon both show one decent act this episode. With the former, like I said, it's damned quick and damned small, but still there. So I'll give her that. But Diamond Tiara still shows what a massive asshole she is. The apple fell far from the proverbial tree between her and Filthy. Nice to see Silver Spoon isn't some semi-autonomous construct of Diamond Tiara, though. :p
Lemme put it to you this way. In chapter twenty-eight of The Elements of Harmony and the Savior of Worlds, I had those two brats get verbally owned by Danielle and Michelle Richards, human OCs. The general consensus? Good on them! Think about that for a second...
Headcanon
In the Hasbroverse, Applejack's the direct descendant of G1 Applejack. G1 Applejack founded 'Applejack Acres', but during the 'Nightmare War', the Apple clan was forced to flee. When Celestia saw them in Canterlot, she realized who they were and gave them their ancestral land back. Big Mac was a member of the Royal Tank Corps, but got a hardship discharge when his parents were killed in a flood.
So, get ready for tomorrow, folks. It's a double-dose of D'AWWWW as the Cake Twins are introduced in... Baby Cakes.
Yeah, Diamond Tiara may be the physical incarnation of everything terrible about childhood, but even she loves her daddy. Heck, he probably told her those tales of cutthroat business tactics as bedtime stories.
Saw the pic with all the sci fi toys.
Saw the toy of Cherno Alpha, kind of jealous.
I liked the episode as well... strange enought hough I have thoughts to rewriting it to fit in my headcanon of Granny Smith being a retired professional badass
A singing and dancing telegram, I suppose? :)
The whole zap apple ritual is, in my mind, what Earth Pony Magic is (or at least one expression of it). It's not direct spellcasting like the unicorns do, but intricate rituals to manipulate nature through mundane means, similar to feng shui. Applejack probably has dozens of little rituals for doing everyday work she's learned from her family and friends, and that's why she can manage the farm so well.
And I realize now that this may be a legitimate justification for her being obstinate about how things are done during Winter Wrap Up and the like.
Another reference to the movie Clue.
2962022
It's interesting, comparing her and her dad. Filthy Rich comes off as a pretty decent guy, especially for someone whose special talent is making money.
I like the fan theory that Screwball, the crazy pink pony seen during Discord's short reign, is actually Diamond Tiara's mother, and she's being raised by her father (who's too busy to spend enough time with his daughter, and exacerbates things by spoiling her in his attempts to compensate for that), and family retainers (that Diamond Tiara bosses around).
One what?
Prior to Bats, Baby Cakes was mah "unforgivable" episode. Ah might have ta weigh in on this after yer done.