The Parent Map, or, The Only Really Good Season 8 Episode So Far · 9:16pm May 5th, 2018
Sunburst's mom has got it going on. Just look, she comes with socks pre-installed.
I came out of this with a positive feeling usually only matched by those episodes that make me think of the first couple seasons. Getting something that's low-key while still managing to stir up familiar sensations, that makes me think of times I went through what the characters are going through, is no easy feat.
It also says something about the recent quality of writing that a Starlight Glimmer episode is the best of the season I've seen so far, and also contains none of the other mane six. Usually I hate Starlight and anything to do with her that isn't Cutie Map Part 1 and 2. See, Starlight only ever manages to do something interesting when she actually has to do something for herself. When she isn't bugging Twilight or Twilight's bugging her, when she isn't screwing around with ponies who aren't really her friends like Maud and Trixie and never will be, when the story isn't constantly flipping between Starlight being the hero, the villain, the student, the teacher, the replacement Spike, or the passive sponge, then she finally gets room to grow.
The episode begins with Sunburst and Starlight being summoned by the map back to their hometown to deal with a friendship problem, which they hate because they dislike their parents: Starlight's father is overbearing and protective and treats Starlight like a child, while Sunburst's mother is condescending, shrewd, and acts like an affable CEO instead of a mother. I would like to point out that this absolutely destroys the notion that Starlight was a "latchkey kid" jokingly described by one of the show staff and apparently became headcanon for a lot of people. This episode is a good backstory for her, but it also means her original backstory is even more awful and bad. She doesn't talk about her father in such a way that makes you believe she willingly abandoned him because he was so smothering she needed the freedom to mind-rape others at will. She just sees him with the kind of semi-affectionate embarrassment most children treat their parents with. Sorry guys, her reasons for going insane and starting a cult are still absolute bullshit.
When they arrive they find their parents arguing over whether the town should be modernized or its history preserved. Obviously they're at loggerheads and go to extremes to protect their visions, but funnily enough, the episode subverts what you might have thought was the initial issue. After showing how absolutely annoying and unnecessary their attempts to drag the town one way or the other are, their parents abruptly become friends again, but the friendship map still hasn't called them home: the problem isn't between their parents, it's between themselves and their parents. The rest of the episode deals with them hashing out how to deal with the fact that the ponies that raised them won't let them go... and that they're partly at fault for trying too hard to get away.
I loved this episode specifically because the lesson is so damn important. In fact, I went and rewatched a few scenes of The Goofy Movie after it was done! I wish more episodes in later seasons tackled issues that people actually have in real life, instead of things like, uh, "Twilight said to get chores done so I literally mind-raped everyone into doing them for me," or that godawful Surf and Turf fiasco we had a couple weeks ago. The Parent Map's conflict something I can believe Starlight had; an overbearing parent is something almost anyone would have, after all. And the way they go about handling it is actually really neat! When they snap at their parents for being too pushy, they come back later with sound minds and rational thinking, have a calm but charming conversation, and the problems for all parties are now over. It's like the time Rainbow yelled at her parents, but done slightly better.
A lot of the humor in this episode comes from Starlight and Sunburst mostly being the straight ponies to a town full of weirdos who won't let ponies touch books in the interest of "preserving them," a guy who bakes bread hard as rock because that's how they did it in the old days, and Sunburst's mom (Stellar Flare, AWESOME NAME BY THE WAY) being commercial and crass. They won't break the mould in humor, but the mould they're cast in is funny enough anyway.
It works. It all just works. It's a fine episode with a fine message and everyone is cute and lovely and I felt okay watching it.
And no, I will not accept that Starlight didn't turn to brainwashing this time because she "learned" it was wrong. That was never amusing or organic or imaginative; it was an awful gimmick for when she was a horrible character all through seasons 6 and 7, and I'm glad it wasn't even brought up at all this time. That's not Starlight learning, that's her writers learning.
That was a nice reprieve. Oh well, back to our regularly scheduled little girl's cartoon.
Point: The actions of the townsponies are *reflections* of the character issues of Starlight's dad and Sunburst's mom, because they're being pushed into doing these things, not because that's the way they want to do things. So all of the character interactions Starlight/Sunburst have are literally child/parent interactions.
Oh, and I liked Surf and Turf as a 'kid caught in a divorce' episode, dumbed down and simplified with a happy ending. Far too many divorces with kids are fought 'to the hilt' with both parents more or less going crazy to control the only aspect of their lives together they still have: their kids.
Oh wow, we're in agreement then! :D
I think the only things that could improve it, I think, would have been a stronger acknowledgment of the parents' acting out against the town stemming from their issues with their children, and Sunburst berating his mother for never listening to him. Because, like, that's literally what she does, all the time. She discounts what he says, she talks over him; forget the plans, she's got no respect for him! I was just surprised he never pointed it out. :B
>mfw skwerl liked an episode
>mfw skwerl more than just liked the episode
Better go watch it then
O god, I wanna do his mom. Those adorable sock hooves without the gross facial hair...
IMeanAnyway, this was a good time. Didn't have to pause the episode for cringe-recovery once.
Side note, the background ponies were a nice touch. All visually enjoyable, and that they played a real part in the story made it feel much more alive.