My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Season 6 Episode 18: "Buckball Season" (SPOILERS) · 4:00pm Sep 3rd, 2016
Are you ready for some BUCKBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLL?
So the Ponyville vs. Appleoosa buckball game is coming up, and AJ is fired up to win. She conscripts Rainbow Dash onto her team because of Rainbow's athleticism and hyper-competitiveness. However, Rainbow Dash has no idea what buckball is.
Braeburn's team has a pegasus and a unicorn. Ponyville doesn't really have a team yet. Also, apparently buckball is a new sport--or at least something only Apples do. AJ and RD rope Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy into joining the team, then they start trying to get a unicorn on the team.
Buckball is apparently part soccer and part basketball, with a little Quidditch thrown in. Earth ponies kick the ball, pegasi guard the goals, and unicorns try to catch all the flying balls in buckets.
Pinkie's afro puffs in this episode, man. I tell ya.
Anyway, Pinkie and Fluttershy turn out to be natural buckball stars. Unfortunately, Ponyville's unicorns are...not very good. (Why wasn't Rarity at the tryouts?) Then, by chance, Snails comes by carrying buckets of water...and turns out to be another natural buckball player!
Pinkie and Fluttershy are a bit taken aback at being picked to be Ponyville's players over AJ and RD, who are in agreement at bowing out to let their friends take their place. Pinkie and Fluttershy are fine with this at first because the game is fun--but then AJ and RD ruin it by putting them through Training Hell.
You know, totally ignoring how awesome they were when they were just having fun and that's why they put them on the team in the first place. 
Snails being totally Zen is hilarious.
AJ and RD can't figure out why Pinkie and Fluttershy are so much worse during training than they were during the practice match. They don't realize that it's their training methods and high pressure "motivation" that have ruined two excellent buckball players.
Adding to the pressure: Pinkie and Fluttershy try to psyche themselves up by telling themselves the "whole town" isn't really counting on them because almost nopony knows this game exists. Then game day arrives, and the whole town is waiting to cheer them on.
The extremely high pressure makes Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie both even more nervous, and AJ and RD just...keep piling it on to the point where neither of them even want to play anymore. Eventually, they snap and Fluttershy yells at AJ and RD before the two of them run off.
AJ and RD finally realize their mistakes and feel like appropriate jerks. They track down Pinkie and Fluttershy and tell them they don't need to play if they don't want to, but they want to play "one more practice game" before the big match. With the pressure off and it just being a friendly game between friends, Pinkie and Fluttershy go back to being awesome.
After the practice game, Pinkie and Fluttershy realize they're back to playing well, and AJ and RD explain how they messed the two of them up, then more or less apologize for all the stress and pressure. They tell them to just not worry about letting ponies down and have fun with the game.
Pinkie and Fluttershy win a close game.
Solid episode, I'll give it an 8/10.
I would give a 5.5/10.
It wasn't a bad episode, but it wasn't a good episode either.
And am I the only one who sees parallels to "Green Isn't Your Color"(S1E20)?
Because the two figured that she wouldn't want to get all sweaty and be a athlete? The real question is why wasn't Starlight at the tryouts?
That was a lot like Testing Testing. Not that that's a bad thing, in fact I feel this episode pulled it off much better.
It was also nice seeing Snails in his element, having more to do than being an incompetent minion.
Definitely one of the best episodes of the season imo.
Loved Fluttershy's expessions during her train rant.
And I think Braeburn's pegasus buckballer is in some way related to Bulk Biceps. That is one big and buff pegasus, especially for a mare, but with teeny little wings. Hmm, maybe somepony needs a post-game piss check...
Dang it, Moth, I was going to make that joke. Oh well, I guess it was kind of obvious.
In any case, this was certainly a decent episode. It just felt weirdly... shallow, in the sense of not being that deep. Like it took less time than it actually did. Still enjoyable, though, and I'm glad they got through the retraining before facing the opposing team. And Snails was easily the best part of the episode.
That said, this really does highlight how little tonal space there is between Pinkie and Fluttershy. When Andrea Libman's shouting or giggling, it can be hard to tell which one she's supposed to be if you're not looking.
I liked the ep. You're right; those afro puffs were something. It was awesomeness with Pinkie and Fluttershy being naturals at the game and just wrecking it when it was just for fun and they didn't have all that pressure on them from the whole town or AJ and RD; it's a good moral. Have fun while playing a game, but don't take it too seriously. Snails is a ditz, but he's also a natural, which is one of my favorite moments in this episode. I found it hilarious when Flutters just snapped from all of the pressure.
Bulk has a long lost Twin sister, maybe?
If Rarity and Twilight had been there, I think we'd have heard something like this:
Rarity: This is going to be one of those things, isn't it?
Twilight: What do you mean?
Rarity: You get two ponies who are really competitive pointed at two who just want to have fun and the next thing you know, the competitive ponies' refusal to listen winds up causing a huge tantrum.
Twilight: Yeah.....I guess.....
Rarity: When you're not in the middle of it, it all becomes so obvious.
Twilight: Welcome to my life.
4189299 Lyra wasn't at the tryouts either, and neither was Sweetie Belle. It seems like a lot of the best candidates for the job were conviently absent.
So prehensile pony hair - tails and Pinkie's hair- have rarely been this blatant. Fluttershy was going full-on Mane-iac with her ball handling. I think I'll have to upgrade my headcanon from "something that exceptional earth ponies like Applejack and her lasso and Pinkie and her reality denial field can do" to "totally a tribe-neutral replacement for fingers with skill and dexterity if not strength" that any pony can do if they put their no-minds to it.
And speaking of no-mind, check out the Dalai Snails and his lotus katas.
Good episode.
Love the interaction between Pinkie and Flutters (I don't know if they've been paired before), Snails had is fifteen minutes of fame and I think the Pegasus on Appleloosa's team is Bulk's mother.
Rainbow and AJ at first have their character back on track and with an improvement be letting off respectively their competitiveness and pride by letting Pinkie and Flutters play instead, just to mess up right after urgh
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Fortunately, it was just a faux pas and neither Pinkie and Flutters (love the latter's break out) didn't let things deteriorate like in episode 14 The Cart Before the Ponies and Rainbow and AJ put things back on track.
In all a nice episode for sure. I'm not a big sports fan, but I appreciate the morale and notion of playing sport for fun.
is it just me or has snails gotten bigger / older in this? i mean isnt he a colt?
4189500 He's always been tall for a colt. But is it a bad thing that foals are growing up? I think the CMC have grown a bit bigger since the early seasons, too. Also it would have been odd if they had a half pint playing an adult team sport, even if it wasn't really a full contact sort of deal.
4189500 I noticed that too. He was noticeably older. Growth spurt?
Honestly, I'm just glad male characters are starting to get more of a spotlight without unbalancing the show. That made this episode really good, as it showed the male and female characters working together on something as equals without any tension...and it was done so smoothly probably no one even noticed.
Snails is the Goofy of MLP.
Average episode for the season (so another 9/10).
I always kind of liked Snails,and I'm glad this episode is helping others to warm up to him