P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic first impressions

S06e23 P. P. O. V. (Pony Point of View)

by Obake

(SPOILERS!)
Season 6 feels experimental. Consistency has been lost in favor of borrowing storytelling techniques from other genres and general parodying. This could be great, especially for helping a show with 100+ episodes remain fresh. But in FiM's case, the quality is all over the map. For every success like Saddle Row and Rec, there is a 28 Pranks Later.

P. P. O. V. is no hit, but it does things well enough. This time the show uses the Rashomon method of storytelling. Applejack, Pinkie, and Rarity return from a boat trip, enraged with each other. Twilight and Spike ask them what happened, but each friend gives a different account. All end with the boat getting capsized.

Rarity accuses Applejack of being a jerk who threw their food overboard and purposely sailed the boat into a storm. Pinkie says Rarity is at fault, having been persnickety and high-minded the whole trip, and taking over the helm. Logic would say Applejack would accuse Pinkie of the accident, but the show throws a twist and has her accuse both her friends.

Each story is exaggerated and filled with nods to seafaring movies. It is nice seeing a new setting. I don't remember any instances of the characters being on boats before this, but I may have forgotten something.

While the ire Pinkie, Rarity, and Applejack hold toward each other is heated, it is never too mean. This is no Carts Before the Ponies, where it feels like the point is to prove the characters are awful. P. P. O. V. gives reasons for their anger.

Each wanted to bring parts of their personalities on the trip in order to help make it more fun for their friends. Applejack brought a treasure map, Rarity brought refinement, and Pinkie brought games. They misinterpreted each other's intentions, and that is what led to their feud.

As nice as this episode's strengths are, it is not perfect. The revelation that the boat was capsized by a giant sea serpent called a Tri-Horned Bunyip, that the same serpent apologizes to the friends, and that Twilight figured this out because she knew that Tri-Horned Bunyips love cucumbers (which were on sandwiches thrown overboard), is out of nowhere. But then again, the whole episode is silly, so I don't mind too much. That Applejack did not realize the games Pinkie brought were for all of them to play, though, is dumb.

Sorry this review is short. I have to get to watching General Conference. Thank you for reading, and God bless!

Extras:
-There is a similarly structured Garfield and Friends episode, where Garfield and Jon both give vastly different accounts of why their house exploded in yogurt.
-Another country analogy from AJ: "Just as (un)helpful as a weasel in a henhouse." She also uses the phrase "hornswoggled."
-According to Pinkie and AJ's accounts, Rarity brought a bunch of sailors along on the trip. The porter ponies are dressed like they walked straight out of the Mane-iacs hideout. What I do not understand is why none of them are on the ship when it actually sails. Were they just there to carry luggage onto the boat?
-As out of nowhere as the resolution is, the ending shot is extremely pretty.