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  • 303 weeks
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  • 307 weeks
    Season Eight Episode Reviews: Horse Play

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    5 comments · 1,259 views
Jun
18th
2015

Season Five Episode Reviews: Slice of Life · 12:55pm Jun 18th, 2015

I sense...a disturbance. It is as if a thousand headcanons cried out in pain, and then...silence. I fear something terrible has happened...

That's what I would have said before actually watching the episode. Instead, let's look at the 100th EPISODE of Friendship is Magic, simply titled “Slice of Life,” and see what they do with this unworkable premise?


TECHNICAL SPECS:

Season: 5
Episode: 9
Written By: M. A. Larson
First Aired: 6/13/2015


SUMMARY:

After being reunited [strike]three seasons[/strike] less than a year ago, Cranky and Matilda are finally ready to get married. The day before the wedding, Cranky returns from Ponyville with saddlebags full of groceries and a chip on his shoulder about everypony asking him if he's nervous, as if the wedding was today or something. And then the donkeys find out the wedding's today, thanks to a mistake made by the pony Cranky had hired to create the invitations...Derpy. (I'll talk about her “name” later.)

And then...a whole bunch of stuff happens, the donkeys are married, and the Mane 6 defeat a literal Bugbear.

REVIEW:

Well, here it is. The infamous 100th episode of Friendship is Magic. The show became the longest-running single series based on a Hasbro property a short while ago, and has now reached a milestone many other shows, especially animated ones, have not even come close to. So naturally, the best possible episode idea for celebrating one hundred episodes is...to do an episode based entirely around the background ponies the fandom loves, especially that gray pegasus they threatened to murder us over a couple years ago.

It's obvious this is fan pandering right out of the gate. The buildup to the episode was mostly people panicking and screaming about how the show was jumping the shark and going to fall flat on its face. These were characters the fans had spent years communally creating through art, story and song, molding into some agreed-upon form so that they could easily lambast anyone that deviated from that idea. Plus, the last moment of extreme fan pandering was in “The Last Roundup,” and we all know how that turned out. An entire episode where Octavia, Lyra, Bon-Bon, Time Turner, and Derpy have the spotlight? This is going to be a monumental disaster, the kind that is spoken about in hushed whispers for generations to come.

And then it aired. And it was...interesting.

First, the concept of the episode. The idea of focusing on background characters is not a new one. Many books, movies, and television shows have had chapters or segments devoted to people that would normally be disposable fluff compared to the main characters. The example I know best of this is Star Trek: The Next Generation and one of its later episodes, “Lower Decks.” There's a typical Star Trek plot involving intrigue, danger, and possible interstellar war, but nearly all of that plays out in the background. Instead, the focus was on a group of low-ranking crew members who have absolutely no access to the secret meetings and Star Fleet communications the main characters deal with, and instead just try to handle things like getting promoted and earning the respect of their commanding officers. The same principle is largely at play here, with the Mane 6 dealing with the Bugbear while the rest of the town is more interested in getting the wedding settled.

I want to go through each character's little mini-arc individually, but first, let's deal with Cranky and Matilda. It's been a while since we saw them, and the two getting married is wonderful and all...but it's mostly there to provide a plot reason for all the other appearances this episode. Cranky is especially in the background; the most we really get of him is that he's a cheapskate and had some adventures in his youth.

So without further ado...


DERPY – I mean, MUFFIN: First, the name. I'm referring to her as Derpy for the sake of simplicity, but the official name she's stuck with in the end credits is “Muffin.” I think the name's frankly dumb, but let's accept that Hasbro is not going to let one of the characters they are merchandising to death have a slur against the mentally handicapped as their name.

As for the episode itself, Derpy is the instigator of the wedding disaster, thanks to her cutting corners in order to save on printing costs. In fact, most of the episode shows her as a well-meaning but rather light-headed pony who is easily distracted, likes to play around, and makes mistakes and bad calls. That said, she does go out of her way to try and make up for her error, and her decision to replace the flowers with fireworks actually pays off. Shame she locked the Mane 6 out of the Town Hall just before the culmination of her work, but they did have Twilight with her, and she won't tolerate another spotlight stealer to intrude on her territory.

On the whole, this is very much in line with the fandom's portrayal. Derpy is a lot like Sweetie Belle; she's not the brightest bulb in the shed, but she's not malicious and really wants to be friendly and helpful to everypony. She also may have a relationship with our next pony...

DOCTOR HOOVES: Doctor Hooves represents one of the two biggest deviations made for the background ponies this episode. In the early days of fandom, someone decided he looked like David Tennant of Doctor Who fame and decided that he was Doctor Whooves. This has already been something the DHX staff has off-and-on embraced, and there is quite a bit of official merchandise (for the older audience, anyway) that has him with a Sonic Screwdriver in his mouth or peeking out of the TARDIS.

Obviously, him actually being a Time Lord wouldn't fly with the legal department, so instead, he's shown more along the lines of another time-traveling doctor, Doc Brown from Back to the Future. He's a bungling inventor who's come up with fascinating devices and things, and has devoted himself to the ways of science. Unfortunately, he lives in a world where magic is commonplace, so all of his work with time travel turned out to be pointless when there was already a spell that let you do it. Most of the Doctor Who references come from his speech (his accent and some of his lines) and appearance (including throwing on the Fourth Doctor's scarf near the end – they really should have gone with the Sixth Doctor's coat). There's also something about a foalhood trauma that led him to science, and it was supposed to connect with the bowling scene later, but it was cut for time.

As for Doctor Hooves' involvement in the plot, there's not too much to say. He introduces Derpy to the fireworks, which she then uses when the flower ponies are unable to fill Matilda's order. After that, he tries to go bowling in order to get the Dude (more below) to fix his suit, but that's about it before the scarf scene. Still, he's a fun character that works fine, doesn't go overboard on the references (being an actual time traveler would have been going too far), and his role as the town's crazy inventor should be fun to explore. I've always liked characters that tried to apply scientific reasoning to a world of fairies and magic sparkles, and the Doctor seems right up that alley.

THE DUDE: This one kind of hit me out of left field. The Dude and his entourage (we'll call them Walter and Donny for simplicity's sake) originally appeared in “The Cutie Pox” back in Season Two, and are literally nothing more than a shout-out to The Big Lebowski. Being a movie with more swearing per second than a one-eyed carpenter (not to mention everything else in it), it's definitely something the show's target audience will hopefully not be too familiar with, and worked fine as a background parental bonus. Giving the Dude a voice seems a bit forced. That said, he only serves a minor role, and thankfully we don't have to watch Walter's wrath when they lose the game.

Also, look very closely at the last crowd shot. You'll see the Dude and Walter...but no Donny. Instead, Walter is holding some kind of can. If you haven't seen The Big Lebowski, I won't spoil it for you, but suffice to say...the two are kind of connected.

Yeah, they went there.

Dark.

AMETHYST STAR: Appearing for a sadly brief moment is Amethyst Star. She originally appeared back in “Winter Wrap-Up” as one of the organizers, and in this episode comments that nopony's asked her to help organize things since Twilight came to town. While this may seem obvious considering how they kept screwing up Winter Wrap-Up with their bad organization, poor planning, and casual racism, she is shown quickly coordinating the town's escape from the bugbear attack, so she apparently has some chops. Unfortunately, we don't see them past this point, because she's out of the story the minute Matilda recruits her to help organize.

LYRA AND BON-BON: And here we have one of the oldest ships in the book. Lyra and Bon-Bon have been a couple in the fandom ever since we saw them sitting on a bench. Pairing them with anypony else was a brave act only attempted by those with the best protection against angry shippers. Rainbow Rocks teased us with the two getting very close while singing a duet, so this episode...says they're “just friends.” I repeat, “just friends.” Said in the most over-the-top, repetitive, and obviously fake way possible. Mind you, the actual point was to set-up Bon-Bon's dark secret, but the way it's done is definitely a tease at the fandom and everyone manning the ship.

What is unusual is that they invert the way fans usually portray the two. In most stories about the pair, Lyra is the crazy mare obsessed with hands and humans, while Bon-Bon is her long suffering friend/marefriend that reins in her compulsive behavior. Here, Bon-Bon is actually a secret agent named Sweetie Drops, and Lyra is just a normal pony taken aback at everything she knew possibly being a lie. The craziness is ratcheted up so fast, and Bon-Bon's spy background has so little relation to the fandom portrayals, that it becomes one of the funniest moments of the episode. This dichotomy is further reinforced at the end, when Lyra's “dark secret” turns out to be something utterly banal. It's one of the cleverer moments of the episode, all things considered.

OCTAVIA AND DJ PON-3/VINYL SCRATCH: In contrast to the previous pair, these two sit very close to the conventional portrayal. Octavia is snooty and British (with a truly terrible accent), while Vinyl...well, she doesn't talk, which seems to be something enforced by Hasbro now, but she's still cool and casual. Their house is like one of those “You stay on your side of the line” gags blown to full-scale, with each side painted and outfitted to match the tastes of the pony that resides within. The two have a musical duet that is generally cool, but drags a bit too long. And then there's the race through Ponyville, which again goes on far longer than it needs to and is mostly there to shove in as many non-speaking cameos as possible. We have Button Mash spinning on the turntable (and yes, he existed before the fan animations), Berry Punch drunk and holding onto a barrel, and even the jelly pony.

Overall, their moments feel a bit too forced, and Octavia's accent is very grating.

GUMMY: This gag has long been coming. Gummy is normally the detached-from-reality pet of Pinkie, so giving him a manic-depressive internal monologue about the meaning of life in Equestria was a natural fit. It still comes out of nowhere in this episode, though, and is all the funnier for it.

THE PRINCESSES AND PRINCE: They technically aren't background ponies, but they have scenes near the end, so they count for this section. Celestia and Luna show up, but unlike every other appearance they've had in the show, they're bickering with each other over whose fault it was that they forgot their wedding gift. It's a small moment, but seeing the two behave more like actual sisters and not just perfect siblings is a welcome bit of character. It's made even better by the forced smile they put on when Spike draws too close, and how they make up near the end.

Shining Armor...okay, this one was just dumb. Shining crying when Twilight became a princess is acceptable and fun; him crying a waterfall over two donkeys getting married (before the ceremony even started) is ridiculous. I did like Cadance's embarrassed reaction, but otherwise, too forced.


So how does the episode work overall? Things are pretty rushed to start. The episode has a lot of pacing problems brought on by trying to cram so many things into one twenty-two minute space. That's not even getting into the background jokes, like the Changeling that appears near the end. There were apparently even more scenes that got cut, including a moment where Flash Sentry bemoans the fact that everyone hates him. This rushed pace does hurt the episode's story, but that's really not the focus here, either.

What ultimately makes the episode work, outside of the generally good writing for the ascended background ponies, is the ending speech. The whole point of the episode, like any “Lower Decks”-styled episode, is that there is a world outside of the Mane 6. All of the ponies featured in the episode have ambitions, goals, social lives, and daily routines they go through, and they are all just as important to the town as, say, Pinkie Pie or Rarity. In many ways, it's a reflection of what fans do with these characters, using them to expand Equestria and make the world seem much larger than the confines of a glorified toy commercial.

One other thing the episode did well was referencing memes without making the episode completely inaccessible for those outside of the larger fandom. For all of the comments on how kids aren't going to know who Doctor Hooves is or why Lyra and Bon-Bon are a pair, the fact is that they don't need to. The target audience and those with no fandom connection can enjoy the cute ponies, and those that know how the older demographic has portrayed these ponies can get a laugh out of seeing their silly actions.

CONCLUSION:

This episode is perfectly fine fun for a one-time thing. I'd be averse to wanting another, or for the characters to now have regular speaking appearances, but as a celebration of the larger fandom and just a plain fun episode, it was enjoyable.


Next time, Spike becomes a princess. Not really.

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Comments ( 20 )

Oi mate, ya missed the one character who very nearly stole the show!
Steven freaking Magnet. Oh man, that was a most unexpected but welcome feature.

Also the most cringeworthy parts for me were the wild ride through town and Shining crying. Otherwise, Sweetie poking fun at how the M6 will probably be done in a half hour or so and being thoroughly unconcerned set me giggling.

3159817

I know I missed a lot. I actually didn't like the Steven Magnet scene, if only because his first scene goes on too long and features a very bad lesson for kids regarding the importance of weddings.

3159821
Eh, touché. The callback with his moustache was cool though.

More or less my thought exactly, so I'll just add a few more notes of my own.

Unfortunately, we don't see them past this point, because she's out of the story the minute Matilda recruits her to help organize.

This was probably what disappointed me the most. The teaser preview had me sort of psyched with the expectation that Sparkler would get a more prominent role throughout the episode, with her impromptu appointment as backup wedding planner serving as the bridge thought the episode. Instead, she turned out to just be a one-off gag calling back to Winter Wrap-Up (and maybe a reference to Friendship is Tragic if I squint and turn my head sideways).

What is unusual is that they invert the way fans usually portray the two. In most stories about the pair, Lyra is the crazy mare obsessed with hands and humans, while Bon-Bon is her long suffering friend/marefriend that reins in her compulsive behavior.

Even the fans have been inverting the pair since at least as far back as the season-2 finale, after which BonBon one became one of the most poplar subjects of the secretly-always-a-changeling trend. I know a couple other presentations have also made her something of a mad scientist who create alchemical candies with all sorts of crazy effects.

It's a small moment, but seeing the two behave more like actual sisters and not just perfect siblings is a welcome bit of character.

??? ... Since when have they ever been characterized as "perfect"? Other than their initial reunion in the series premier, most any onscreen interaction I can think recall between them has always been rather formal and/or perfunctory . Less so siblings and more so just generic co-regents.

Regardless, much as I can appreciate the two finally getting the chance for some casual banter, I just don't think this episode was the right place for it, especially not with how random them even being at the wedding in the first place is. What those two really deserve is a day-in-the lime light episode of there very own, not being awkwardly shoehorned into an episode about "ordinary" life in Ponyville.


and features a very bad lesson for kids regarding the importance of weddings.

I wonder if that's maybe a symptom of how much this episode apparently got cut down. In terms of pacing it made for a good moment of renewed panic at roughly the half-way marker. Unfortunately since it never gets followed up on, yeah, it does end up as more so just a bad moral.

Honestly, as much fun as it was to see all the various shenanigans of the various background ponies, the episode might have overall been better served if it had focused more on the wedding as it's A-plot.

3159821
FWIW, I think that the whole point of that Steven Magnet scene is to have a glaring bad example give a bad lesson about the meaning of weddings. The target audience were more likely to agree with Matilda than Steven.

I haven't watched season 5 yet, so coming to find out that there's a scene where Gummy goes all out fucking extnential crisis, is just amazing. It was also one of the first times I've seriously laughed watching the show since season 4.

a well-meaning but rather light-headed pony who is easily distracted, likes to play around, and makes mistakes and bad calls.

So, in other words, she is still our fandom avatar.

I've always liked characters that tried to apply scientific reasoning to a world of fairies and magic sparkles, and the Doctor seems right up that alley.

My personal headcanon for Doctor Whooves has always been that he was the Last Doctor, a Doctor that's run out of regenerations and way to cheat additional regenerations out of the universe. But he knew that time was coming so he arranged things to make sure that the universe as a whole and Earth in particular are still protected in some way after he's gone. Then, he left his universe and looked for a world where he could at last have a long-needed retirement.

THE DUDE

This was nice, I guess, but while I've see The Big Lebowski, I never really felt like it was quite as ground-breaking as others have said. Oh well, they're still fun characters. Kind of wish that they had somehow worked in a line to the effect of "this is BOWLING, there are RULES!", though.

Pairing them with anypony else was a brave act only attempted by those with the best protection against angry shippers.

To be honest I'm not even aware of any alternative ships...even in continuities where they're "just friends," no alternatives seem to ever be suggested.

I'm told the entire Lyra/Bon Bon thing is most likely a reference to the movie True Lies, which I can see. I do love that movie.

OCTAVIA AND DJ PON-3/VINYL SCRATCH

No real opinion on this one, though the toy shark was hilarious.

Also, while I feel the need to point out that Octavia's accent is by no means poor - I've been to the British Isles enough to know a good accent when I hear it - it is definitely forced and grating. Upper-class twit at its finest.

I really liked the episode, except for it not featuring my favourite background pony duo, Cloudchaser and Flitter. Cos they're super cute together. Also happy that you aren't jumping on the "omg it was made for fans of the show so it must suck" bandwagon, which has now been proven to have been just a vocal minority by the EQD poll. Yay for reason and just plain-old fun!

There seems to be a lot of stuff that was cut... I wonder if they would mind sharing the full, uncut, script to the fans so we could see all those bonus scenes and stuff?

Oh, and one more thing...

Lyra and Bon-Bon have been a couple in the fandom ever since we saw them sitting on a bench.

Common misconception actually. While the two of them sitting together on a bench is one of the most oft depicted fanarts of the shipping pair, the original bench scene from the show actually featured *Shoeshine*, not BonBon (who was elsewhere at the time hanging out with *Carrot Top*).

3159921

To be honest I'm not even aware of any alternative ships...even in continuities where they're "just friends," no alternatives seem to ever be suggested.

Prior to being shipped with BonBon and Vinyl respective, Lyra/Octavia were sometimes shipped together.

Other than that there's a rather distinct genre of fic where Lyra gets shipped with the Human-In-Equestria. A few times I've also seen it turned into a love triangle with Lyra pining for the human, while the human only has eyes for BonBon, and BonBon herself just thinks they are both crazy.

Lyra's " I cooked them up and ate them" line is a reference to:

I'd like to see Doctor become science buddies with Twilight. Be interesting to see scientists have a discussion in a world of magic.

I would have also liked to see the Flash scene more than the Shining crying. But it was funny.

3160106
Wow, that's an ancient callback. Llamas with hats...

Obviously, him actually being a Time Lord wouldn't fly with the legal department

Actually it would have. I can't find it but BBC is actually cool with it, they've openly acknowledged the character and (I can't find this bit but) have said that they will allow Hasbro to use him with no legal action.

Honestly I wish I could find that second bit.

3159821
What he says is terrible, but that doesn't make it untrue. If something wonderful happens in your life, people are going to judge and criticize if they don't enjoy the part that involves them.

Something that I got from this episode was that the whole invitation fiasco was more Feather Weight's fault than Derpy's, with him printing the wrong date.

Also, one-eyed carpenter? Dilbert reference?

3160918

Also, one-eyed carpenter? Dilbert reference?

Yes. I used to be a big Dilbert fan. Not so much anymore.

and casual racism,

what?....


3160015 here's hoping , and then the fans can animate the rest and make another special pony animation short ^^ .....

Yay, you're back!

3161354 Does the title "Dawn of War" mean anything to you?

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