Season 6, Episode 6 Thoughts and Review · 1:37am May 7th, 2016
Spoilers below the cut... Even though I'm a week late, heh.
Oh. Mah. Gosh. I really enjoyed this episode. It was really good to see Starlight and her adjustment to Ponyville, as well as her adjstment to society overall, what with her being cut off for a time. Also, to see Trixie again, even though sometimes she can be a bit much. Now, onto the episode!
At the Castle of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle tries to give Starlight Glimmer another friendship lesson that involves setting a dinner table without using magic. However, Starlight swiftly sets the table using magic, to Twilight's mild disappointment. The two are expecting a visit from Princess Celestia to update her on the progress of Starlight's lessons.
I was just as startled as Twi, no lie.
When Starlight notices that an extra place has been set at the table, Twilight explains that she must bring a new friend to the dinner to demonstrate her progress. Starlight, unsure about making new friends, jokingly suggests "forcing friendships by magically enslaving the entire population of Ponyville".
Twilight Sparkle: Starlight!
Starlight Glimmer: Kidding!
Starlight goes around town to try and make a new friend. Pinkie Pie introduces her to Mrs. Cake, but her attempt to impress with a magically whipped-up cake sends the wrong message.
Starlight, stop bein' such a show-off
Applejack introduces Starlight to the laconic Big McIntosh, but her use of magic to make him more talkative angers Applejack.
Poor Big Mac.
...You should start runnin', Starlight.
Rarity tries to help Starlight meet ponies by making her an elaborate dress, but it wouldn't be ready in time for Twilight's dinner the next evening.
At least she looks fab, but what else is new with Rares?
Rainbow Dash suggests that Starlight meet Spitfire of the Wonderbolts, but Starlight doesn't know who the Wonderbolts are.
DASH, CALM DOWN, YOU GET YOUR OWN EPISODE NEXT WEEK.
She briefly gets along well with Fluttershy's animal friends, but she doesn't think they are what Twilight had in mind.
Aw, this was super cute...
To get her mind off her growing stress, Starlight gets a spa treatment at the Ponyville Spa. There, she meets a pony who is also from out of town and burdened by a dark past, and she is happy to finally meet someone she can relate to.
Back at the castle, Twilight finishes setting the dinner table. Starlight suddenly enters, thrilled to inform Twilight that she made a new friend. Twilight shares in Starlight's excitement until she reveals who her new friend is: Trixie.
Bro, I don't care what anyone says, I am so dang happy to see her.
After a tense reunion with Twilight, Trixie explains that she is giving a magic show in Ponyville as part of her "apology tour" across Equestria. Twilight pulls Starlight aside and expresses uncertainty in her and Trixie's friendship given their respective pasts. Starlight argues that Twilight should place trust in her student just as Celestia placed trust in hers, and Twilight hesitantly agrees.
DID SHE MAKE A STATUE OF HERSELF OUT OF A FORK AND A NAPKIN, OMFG, TRIXIE
While Trixie sets up her stage, bypassing ponies give her distrustful looks, giving her doubts about the value of second chances. Having overheard what Twilight said about her at the castle, Trixie says she understands if Starlight doesn't want to be her friend. When Starlight proves her feelings to be genuine, Trixie confesses that her past actions were out of jealousy toward Twilight, and she wanted to beat her at something.
It makes me happy to see more depth from Trixie.
As Trixie shows Starlight to her wagon, Twilight appears to give Starlight friend alternatives, including DJ Pon-3, Derpy, and Cranky Doodle Donkey. Offended by Twilight's lack of trust, Starlight says she wants to make friends on her own.
I was rather annoyed by Twilight in this episode; this is not a trope I am fond of.
A short while later, Starlight and Trixie discuss Trixie's upcoming show, and Trixie seeks to perform the "Moonshot Manticore Mouth Dive", a dangerous magic trick previously only pulled off by pony magician Hoofdini.
God, I don't know why, but I really loved this.
She is nervous about attempting the trick by herself, but Starlight offers to be her stage assistant, giving her more confidence. Unfortunately, Trixie's show falls on the same evening as Twilight's dinner party with Princess Celestia.
At the Castle of Friendship, Celestia arrives for Twilight's dinner party, but Starlight Glimmer has yet to arrive. Twilight tries to pass off DJ Pon-3, Derpy, and Cranky Doodle Donkey as Starlight's new friends, but Celestia appears unconvinced. Desperate to salvage the evening, Twilight goes looking for Starlight, eventually finding her about to go onstage with Trixie.
This looks way worse than it actually is.
Twilight finally voices her displeasure about Starlight being friends with Trixie, revealing that she doesn't completely trust her. However, Trixie also reveals that she partly became friends with Starlight just to beat Twilight at something.
Aw, poor Starlight...
In response to this, Starlight is convinced that no one wants to be her friend, and she runs off in tears. Despite Trixie's equal hurt over the situation, she tries to play it off in front of Twilight.
Damn, this actually kinda hurt to watch...
Trixie puts on her show as planned, but her delivery is flat and unimpassioned as a result of her falling-out with Starlight Glimmer. Regardless, she intends to go through with her performance of the Moonshot Manticore Mouth Dive. On a nearby hill, Twilight approaches the heartbroken Starlight and apologizes for trying to pick and choose her friends for her. She realizes she was wrong about Trixie and encourages Starlight to make her own decisions.
At the very climax of Trixie's magic trick, Starlight returns to make it a success, and the audience loudly cheers. As the two take a bow, Trixie introduces Starlight as her "great and powerful assistant and best friend".
MY HEART CAN'T TAKE ALL THIS CUTENESS.
Backstage, Trixie and Starlight reconcile with a hug. Twilight enters to apologize for not trusting her and to commend her for her performance. Trixie humbly accepts Twilight's apology and praise, and she closes out her show with a fireworks display.
These two cuties are ruining me, help.
The episode closes on the dinner party with Celestia, DJ Pon-3, Derpy, and Cranky still awaiting Twilight and Starlight's return. Cranky casually asks Celestia about her mane, much to her annoyance.
I am somehow all three of them.
OK, so onto what I thought of the episode... I liked it. Sure, some can argue that this was pandering, but I don't really care for that argument, since I don't think it's true. Sure, maybe the staff could have done a different character for Starlight to interact with, but c'mon, it's Trixie. She's too dang fun to work with to not do an episode with her. Besides, it's really interesting to think about how these two could relate on their pasts together.
Anyway... Let's talk about Starlight in this episode. Yes, she's been reformed, but she's still... working through some stuff, heh. I mean, she's good and she knows what she did was wrong, but she still has some issues with adjusting into "hero" lifestyle. She's not used to having to make compromises, and decides that instead of accommodating, she just molds everything around her to fit her needs. It's nice that Starlight is working to overcome her tendencies she used to have, all while having that snarky attitude of hers.
I do have some issues with this episode, though... Like, why did Twilight just drop this dinner on Starlight like that? She basically told her that she had a day to make a new friend, and I know that I personally wouldn't be too comfortable inviting someone I've only known for less than a day to a dinner with royalty...
Speaking of Twilight... Well, I can't say I wasn't bothered by how she acted in this episode. It's very typical of Twilight to act like a control freak, but this seemed almost too controlling... Then, I had to remind myself of how Twilight really is. Twilight was secluded as a filly (of her own volition) and didn't make any (genuine) friends until her formative years were well behind her. She has a small circle of friends, and has trouble including others without coming off as pushy or oblivious to the other pony. She's polite to acquaintances and all-around nice, but sometimes it's hard to get through her introverted, awkward self.
Then, comes Trixie, who was not only rude to her, but to her friends. She humiliated the lot of them and even challenged Twilight publicly. Twice. Twilight absolutely freezes up when it comes to public stuff, especially when she's unprepared and things don't go how she planned. She has to have her speeches go down to a T, or else it feels like everything is going up in smoke. This is exactly what happened in Trixie and Twilight's second encounter during "Magic Duel."
Now, a lot of you are wondering what this really has to do with Trixie's reformation, since it was shown in "Magic Duel" that she was apologetic and that Twilight forgave her for what she did. But, remember how Twilight is super meticulous about everything and how she really wants everything to go right to plan? What I'm getting at is that Twilight had plans for Starlight to make friends with somepony in Ponyville, someone she figured wouldn't put a dent into her plans. Someone pedestrian, someone normal, someone who Starlight could model after and that Twilight wouldn't have to worry about throwing a wrench into her plans.
Then, Starlight makes friends with Trixie, one of the only ponies that has managed to throw Twilight off her game. Twilight wasn't concerned with Starlight's decision to be friends with Trixie so much as she was worried about how Trixie being her usual wild card self and pulling a trick that could ruin the plans she had for Starlight. Besides, time had passed since Twilight since last saw Trixie, so perhaps she thought that Trixie was gonna pull something out of her hat and intentionally sabotage what she was doing with Starlight. Ahem... I'll stop making magic trick jokes.
So, basically, I didn't like how Twi acted in this episode, but I can understand why she did it, now that I've given it some thought. Still, I do not appreciate how she showed mistrust towards Starlight. Then again, Starlight wasn't too sterling herself in this episode, considering she opted out of telling Twilight about Trixie's show. In fact, I feel like the main conflict in the second act would have been totally fixed had Starlight just told Twilight what was going on. They could have had Celestia come to the show and see how Starlight was doing, all while being entertained.
Seriously, she seemed so bored this episode. Why can't she have something more exciting happen for her?
Another detriment to this episode was that... well, the main focus of the episode was Trixie, Starlight, and Twilight, but a lot of their interactions were more plot related and not nearly as humorous. This show is supposed to be lighthearted and fun, but it got kinda heavy this episode... Which, is why I'm glad that there was still humor in this episode brought forth by the background cavalry!
DERPY, AAAAAAAAAAAAAH.
So, while our main heroines went through some heavy stuff, there was some humor to lighten it up. Still, I'm surprised we didn't get more out of the Mane Six save for the opening run-through of Starlight's first (and failed) attempts at making friends. Oh, well, it was still nice to see some more of the background ponies we only just got to know last season.
Now, let's see what we got going on for next week's tomorrow's episode!
Season 6, Episode 7: Newbie Dash
Rainbow Dash finally achieves her dream of becoming a Wonderbolt, but makes a disastrous first impression with the team and gets saddled with a mortifying nickname she is determined to change.
OH, HO, HO, A RAINBOW DASH EPISODE! And she's finally a Wonderbolt! Hell yeah! Man, I wonder how this episode is gonna go... I hope she isn't written badly. Otherwise, I might have to use my new Trixie sassy head roll as I make sarcastic comments.
Don't make me use this, David Rapp.
Anyone have anything they wanna discuss about this episode or the upcoming one? If so, comment below and let's talk!
Probably because she got so excited about it that she forgot to tell Starlight until the day before. That can happen.
As for Starlight not telling Twilight, I feel that it was intentional. She probably felt that had she told Twilight, there would have been no chance of the show happening. Whereas by not telling her created a small possibility that Twilight would be distracted enough so that the trick could occur, and then Starlight could head towards the dinner for an appearance. Am I saying it was the right thing to do? No, but I feel that was kind of the point.
As for the episode as a whole, not only is it the best episode of the season so far, but it also gave the new best face of the entire series.
And for tomorrow's episode, I'm sure it'll be great. RD's solo episodes tend to be great. (Though she keeps ending up having her focus episodes be my third favorite of their season, despite her being my favorite of the mane cast)
Even if you bring up some good points, there's still one glaring problem with Twilight's behavior in this episode. She learned at the end of "The Crystalling" to give Starlight space to be herself, and here she kind of forgets that. This episode also kind of seems to cement that Starlight is already friends with the mane six and we're probably not going to get any episodes showing her having to really work to prove she's changed. Seems like they were so focused on making her a villan, they forgot that they had to make us like her as a hero, and they just hastily skipped over the crucial transition phase because they weren't ready. Hope I'm proven wrong on that.
Dashies episode is gonna show how the Wonderbolts can be assholes again. I just know it is.
I think this episode was the first time the show actually brought up death in Equestria. Trixie said she'd be a goner if the trick didn't go right, and considering it involved getting swallowed by a manticore, I didn't feel she was talking in metaphors. The manticore took a bow with Trixie and Starlight afterward, so maybe he was in on the trick the whole time, but I couldn't quite get the idea that Trixie was literally about to die while Twilight consoled Starlight out of mind.
Heavy as that moment was, I still consider this episode one of the best they've ever done. It had everything I love about the show to begin with: clever writing, silly humor, fun characters with depth to them and growth as we watch them, good animation (all the facial expressions from the entire cast made this episode fun to watch all on their own), and the heavy stuff was handled gracefully.
And yes, Angel Bunny finding somepony just as crafty and manipulative on the inside as he is was adorable.
SO MANY GIFS ON ONE SCREEN, THE LAG IS REAL.
My laptop sucks...
3926258
Sorry. I need to start putting gif warnings in the tags so people with lag issues can change their settings to put gifs to a still or to prevent issues for those with epilepsy.
If my hypothesis is correct, then the final season will be season 7. Being more than a quarter into this season and only 1 tease of ButtonBelle makes me nervous that it won't become a thing.
C'mon Hasbro, don't make me march on Wall Street!
I did like the episode, save for Twilight trying to control who Starlight was friends with and forgetting that she had to let her make her own decisions like Celestia allowed her to.
3926315
It's alright.
3926169
The facial expressions since Season 5 have been amazing,