S8E13 The Mean Six Review · 4:04pm Jun 9th, 2018
Best bug is back.
So I was prepared for a rather lame episode, where Chryssy creates the Mean Six and uses them to drive apart the others and replace them. But instead the episode gave me quite a few surprises. Chryssy skips that whole nonsense and decides to have the Mean Six retrieve the Elements, since they're clones of the Mane Six she theorizes they can use them. My only complaint with this whole set-up is Chrysalis' infodump talking to herself while she creates the Mean Six, it's unneeded and we could have gotten this info by having her explain it to them.
Anyway, the Mean Six make this episode, they are great. They have no loyalty to Chrysalis and just wanna do their own thing. Mean Twi even goes full Starscream and begins plotting to betray her and take the Elements for herself. I also like how the Mean Six kinda act like they did under Discord, but not exactly the same, so it's familiar but different. They split up mostly because they don't care about Chryssy's plans while the Mane Six split up due to circumstances, and that's when the impersonations begin. Chryssy rounds up the Mean Six whole the Mane Six regroup and make amends. The Mean Six get to the Tree of Harmony, and in a very nightmarish sequence are reduced back to pieces of wood. Chryssy is foiled without the Mane Six even knowing she was here and flies off as they fix the campsite the Mean Six ruined.
So, this episode did a lot of surprising twists in its plot that kept it from being dull. What made it annoying was how contrived it all was. Twilight and her group just happen to be going on an expedition to visit the Tree and just happen to all get split up, and the groups all find each other or get separated from each other in happy convenience with the plot. The other major problem is how STUPID everyone was. The Mean Six all have physical differences from the Mane Six, not just color tone but coloring in total. Rarity doesn't notice Applejack's cutie mark is green? For that matter this is what, the seventh time they've started acting like rude jerks, and none of them think anything of it? And we get what I am gonna start calling "Stupid Infodump Pinkie" where she tells Mean Twi all about the Elements and where to find them because she thinks Twi is quizzing her.
This episode felt like a two-parter squeezed into one part, the plot needed too many contrivances and stupid moments from the cast to keep moving, and the resolution is lame. And it's a pity because there were highlights, particularly the Mean Six, they were great fun to watch, as was Chryssy trying to keep them in line. But they aren't enough to save this dud for me.
I liked the Mean Six but Chrysalis is just plain stupid.
The physical differences are for the benefit of the audience not the characters. While it's made obvious to us who is who the characters themselves don't see these differences and most of them never hang around long enough for the main 6 to realize what is happening. Rainbow and Applejack notice something is wrong with Rarity but nobody would immediately jump to the conclusion of evil clone.
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And why wouldn't they? Off the top of my head there's Discord, the changelings (twice), and various spells and artifacts that can change someone's personality. When their friends who were fine a second ago go off and come back acting strangely, the thought should occur to at least one of them that something is wrong.
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Because most of the mean six don't hang around long enough for anyone to start thinking there is a serious problem and they just write the whole thing off as a series of silly disagreements. They might realize in hindsight at some point something weird was going on but in the heat of the moment it never escalated enough to be considered suspicious.
4879393 Is that like when we saw the red mist from Starlight in "All Bottled Up" but no one else could? If they're trying to use visual cues to show us things, they need to be more subtle about it. Changing a character's color should be an in universe sort of thing, not a "For the sake of the audience" thing.
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It's a kids show this is as subtle as they can afford to be.
4879412 Except this "Kids Show" has demonstrated a remarkable level of not underestimating its audience. Wasn't one of the earliest appeals that it didn't dumb things down for the target audience because it thought they couldn't handle complicated things?
No no, this was great. She's been on her own, without a hive, for who knows how long now, and she's going fucking insane. :D
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Except, perhaps, Spike; seriously, do you know how cornerstone the Evil Clone trope is to comic books? Too bad he wasn't present for the camping trip.
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The show is praised for making stories the audience could follow without dumbing it down too much which is what they did here.
If this is all there is it's an unfortunate flop, but if it's a set up for something later then it could actually be quite good as a prologue. I agree it has a two parter squeezed into one feel about it. Something I've never understood, why doesn't Hasbro ever do a two part "cliff hanger" in the mid season. We could have had something set up (we did just go into the mid season break I do believe), and need to sweat it out until the season resumes for part two.