Season 5, Episode 16 Thoughts and Review · 6:59pm Sep 26th, 2015
Spoilers! You've been warned! Also, expect some talk of Friendship Games, so yeah, bewaaare.
Wow, I liked this episode! The moral was a great one to hear, and I'm excited to see how this episode ties in with next week's... It's another one of those two-sides of the same story thing!
The episode begins with our princess, the lovely Twilight Sparkle, reading some of her books. She keeps looking at different ones and sighs loudly each time she closes a book. Spike finally asks her what's wrong and she tells him that she's already read all of the books in the library and that she's bored now.
Maybe you could write a letter to your girlfriend in Canterlot...
As she wishes for something to cure her boredom, she hears Rarity shriek from the conference room and she rushes in to see her friend acting frantically. Before Rarity can explain her problem, Applejack rushes in as well and reveals her cutie mark has called her to the map, as did Rarity's. Twilight, excited for a mission from the map, is disappointed to see that she herself hasn't been called to the mission.
Which... I kinda feel bad for her? Twilight hasn't had a mission from the map ever since they visited the Town, and I bet she feels a little left out, is all. But, I do understand why she wasn't included on this mission. Which, I'll get into that later.
Poor book horse just wants to go on a mission.
Rarity and AJ see that they've been called to Manehatten, or, more particularly, a specific neighborhood. Rarity is extremely excited for it as she adores Manehatten for its' fashion district, but AJ shows apprehension as she reveals that the last time they were there kind of overwhelmed her. Twilight assures her that despite her origins, the map called her there for a reason, showing her disappointment once more as she herself wasn't chosen. After being assured about her talents, Twilight tells the girls that she'll be fine in the meantime.
Then, when the girls suddenly remember the Sisterhooves Social, they decide that they'll have to disappoint the girls and go on the mission. And, fun fact, next episode is called "Brotherhooves Social". Make what you will of that information.
Cute little callback. Nice work, writers.
The girls make it to Manehatten and AJ once again shows her nervousness, but treads on when she sees Rarity going on about her way normally. I think it was really neat to see AJ's struggle with being in big, bustling cities. Being from Texas, I can I'm definitely not used to how fast and crowded cities like New York are.
In which AJ represents the poor tourist trying to get out of the city dweller's way.
Rarity sees a mare about to buy a hat and she interrupts the purchase and gives her one of her own hats. AJ calmly explains to her that the friendship problem couldn't possibly have been that mare buying an ugly hat, and, after being chased away by the hat's salespony, they take up a journey to find the problem.
"Good grief!"
Well, that's one reference I wasn't expecting to see... Wait a minute...
What the heck is Charlie Brown doing here?
Finally, Rarity is smacked in the face by a flier that details a community project to restore a theatre in the park and finds that it's being hosted by Coco Pommel. The mares rush over to her apartment and she tells them about the community project, something that was around when she was a filly.
SHE. HAS. PIGTAILS. I AM GOING TO DIE, OH MY GOD.
Coco tells about how the project used to bring ponies together, but after Charity, the mare who started the project, moved away, the tradition stopped being practiced and ponies no longer were kind to each other. Coco says she wants to help, but she has to do the costumes for a Bridleway play she's a part of, so Rarity and AJ take up the job of recruiting ponies. Which, of course, doesn't go well. Coco begins to panic about how the project will fall through and how she's never gonna get everything done in time.
Poor panicky Coco...
After failure to get the project going since ponies were too busy or apathetic to help, Rarity helps Coco with the costumes and AJ takes on the task of cleaning up the park. Unfortunately, the park is an overgrown mess and the stage is falling apart, so she has a lot of work ahead of her. She only manages to get some of the work done on her own and nearly drives herself to exhaustion working alone.
Also, her poor hat got torn up... Good thing she has a closet full of them back home, huh?
Rarity and Coco return with the costumes, and the cast show up to do a dry-run of the show. However, AJ didn't get the chance to reinforce the stage and it falls apart as soon as one of the actresses steps hoof on it. AJ gets her out of the way, but now the stage is destroyed and they don't have anywhere to perform.
Coco laments on how the project's fallen apart and Rarity begins to question why she and AJ were brought to the city instead of Twilight, who could easily fix the problem.
Every RariJack shipper in the world just exploded at this, I swear.
Finally, AJ comes up with a plan to fix the problem, but she admits that it won't be the best. Rarity agrees to help to the best of her abilities and vows to keep the show going. Coco agrees to it and they decide to go through with the project.
AJ rebuilds the stage, although it's not as grand as it was in the past, and the show takes place on the sidewalk so that passing ponies could stop and watch. The show is about Charity being a part of the community and helping to make the theatre revival in the first place. Ponies remember the project and express guilt for not being able to help this time around.
Finally, after the show, Rarity and AJ are approached by ponies who had turned down their request for help, and they tell about how they wish they could have helped with the show. AJ points to the park and explains that even though some ponies could only offer a little of their talents and time, it would still have made a big difference in the long run. Rarity also adds that some ponies don't need to change things in a big way, but that sometimes, even small things can make the world a better place.
Then, Rarity buys AJ a new hat from the hat salespony and their marks blink a couple times to show that their work is done. The episode concludes with Rarity rushing off to stop a mare from making a bad purchase at a shop while AJ smiles and shakes her head knowingly.
Now, a lot of you guys are probably wondering why the writers have been excluding Twilight from the episodes. And I think I can tell you why. The girls always seem to depend on Twilight to fix a problem, especially now that she's a princess and has strong magic. I think the map KNOWS that Twilight has already done so much for the group and for Equestria as a whole, so the map is like, "You know what, maybe the others can do some stuff, too."
To quote Alchemystudent in Knighty's discussion for the episode:
"It is both helping the girls realize (as well as the audience,) that they don't need Twilight for everything. That they have their own skills and abilities that allow them to be awesome mars. From Pinkie's hopefulness to Applejack's simple way of thinking, each has a point and something to offer the team. Even in the premire we see that it was more Fluttershy who was the hero, not Twilight. And it makes sense, after all, how many times has there been a yell of "Twilight is too OP! This makes the mane six useless." the map is basically saying, "Oh sure, she could solve any BIG problem in a second, but there are somethings that magic can't/. There are some tasks that only Rarity and Applejack can solve." Heck, this applies to the same thing. I like how Twilight realizes this, that there are some tasks that ionly need to two of them. I mean, you wouldn't send a whole team out for one mission now would you."
So, this was a really good episode. Not the best, but I definitely liked it, and I'm a bit sad to see the trilogy end, but oh well. And, Im wondering how things are gonna next week...
Season 5, Episode 17: Brotherhooves Social
"When Applejack is called away and has to miss participating in the Sisterhooves Social with Apple Bloom, Big Mac decides to fill in for her."
...For some weird reason, I just thought Kestrel and his story "Secret Sisters"... Well, I wonder how this is gonna go.
Oh, and do you know what ELSE happens today?
HOLD ONTO YOUR BUTTS.
Hopefully, I'll get to watch the movie tonight and give some of my impressions on it. I might be screaming incoherently for some time, but oh well, I'll live.
Let's get ready to go all the way to the Friendship Games!
Well, it was funny to see the book worm be bored of books. Also, The Friendship Games will be awesomeness.
I found this episode enjoyable, but nothing incredibly special for a map-episode.
I found Griffonstone-episode more entertaining with a better 'lesson' as well as much better world-building.
Again, not a bad episode, just not that overwhelming or epic for what I hoped from a map-episode.
Also why are people ranting about that hat? She literally has a closet full of those damn things, so it isn't anything special at all.
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Well, Rarity did get for her, so I guess she'll have fond memories about this hat as well as the others. I think maybe they have all those hats and bows from other family members as gifts over the years.
My biggest pet peeves of the episode:
Why did Applejack not think about the Oranges?
Why did Rarity's Dad keep showing up without comment?
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Exactly! Or the Seeds? This drove me nuts.
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...Huh. You know, I thought about whether or not Babs was gonna show up in this episode, but I never really thought about it that much after. Good points.
Well, Dallas is pretty big... I get why AJ didn't visit with family since she was busy fussing on a mission and all, but she spent some time in Manehattan as a filly - did it traumatize her somehow? She didn't seem to have any trouble last time she was there
I thought this was a really interesting episode to air on the same day as Friendship Games; I found a lot of similar feelings during the two. Rarity spluttering with exasperation, and the strange pacing definitely stood out not to mention the characters openly admitting to an overdependence on Twilight when the answer was inside them the whole time
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AJ/Rarity spent an entire day trying to recruit ponies to help instead of even knowing what needed help? Then play took up an awkward amount of time and detail, since it was a biography of a character that doesn't actually show up, or ultimately matter, when the point was really that it slowly drew a crowd. I hoped that instead of awkward, over-the-top acting, it would focus on one of the three who put it all together saying 'omg I can't believe this is working' or 'good team effort, look at what we did when we thought we could do so little'. Worse yet, the writers kind of just slap the moral in and beat it into us at the last minute.
Don't get me wrong. I really liked the episode, it just felt kind of weird to me. Maybe I was too excited for FG to watch it properly.
And this is doubly true for the movie.