MLP EPISODE REVIEW #2: Boast Busters · 11:18am Nov 19th, 2020
Yet another example of an episode that sucks ass despite all the signs indicating that it should be a really good one. Hell, the title itself is a reference to one of the all-time best comedy films that came out in the 80s. Unfortunately, while it doesn't exactly fail in being funny, it does fail at being a good story in general. I suppose shouldn't be all that surprised since the writer of the episode also wrote Stare Master before leaving the show. Even though he went on to developing an actually good piece of children's media called, The Loud House, it doesn't change the fact that his overall impact on MLP was very disappointing. Don't get me wrong, I commend him for the progress he has made as a writer, but both of the episodes he has written for this show are still bad.
Wanna know why? Well, let's take a look at the first one, shall we?
The town of Ponyville is visited by a traveling magician named, The Great and Powerful Trixie (voiced by the one and only Kathleen Barr). She performs several dazzling magic tricks while boasting about being the most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria. Twilight's friends (specifically; Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash) do not take kindly to these boasts and proceed to show off their own abilities, only to be humiliated by Trixie in front of the whole town. When Trixie challenges Twilight, however, she refuses to demonstrate her magic skills and runs away to her library, afraid that her friends would hate her if she shows off her skills as Trixie did earlier.
Later, two unicorn foals named Snips and Snails (voiced by Lee Tockar and Richard Ian Cox, respectively) become so impressed by Trixie's story about her defeating a monster named Ursa Major, that they travel into the Everfree Forest to find one so that they could see Trixie performing the same feat she had told in the story. Instead, they find a huge blue bear covered in stars (later revealed to be an Ursa Minor) and it chases them all the way to Ponyville where it starts wreaking havoc. Trixie is forced to admit that she only told the story to make herself look better and Twilight proceeds to cast a spell that makes the bear fall asleep before sending it back to Everfree.
Twilight's friends congratulate her for performing such an outstanding magical feat, Trixie runs away while still boasting about her own feats, and the foals receive the punishment of cleaning up the town and... moustaches on their faces, which they like?
How is this a punishment if they get something they like? 
Okay, okay, before I talk about the bad stuff, let's talk about the few good things in the episode first:
1. I actually really like Trixie. While she is not exactly a compelling antagonist, she does serve as a good foil for Twilight. Also, she has some actually impressive skills in both magic and manipulation, and she can be pretty hilarious at times. On top of that, Kathleen Barr does a very good job with her performance and really highlights the comedy in the character's speech pattern. In fact, this performance reminds me of the late Chris Latta's voice work as Starscream in G1 Transformers. It's that funny.
If there is not a single fanfiction where Trixie and Starscream keep throwing shade at each other or if IDW has no plans to have these two interact in the upcoming issues of the Transformers/MLP crossover comic, I will be extremely disappointed. THIS IS COMEDY GOLD MINE, PEOPLE!
2. The design of both the Ursa Minor and Ursa Major are pretty cool, and the reveal of the actual size of the Ursa Major is a nice visual gag. It pretty much confirms the existence of at least one Kaiju species in Equestria. A shame we didn't get to see much more in the later seasons.
3. The episode did address one of the main problems I had with the previous one. We finally have another pony who is not as friendly as the majority of her species. It makes the world they live in feel a bit more realistic and diverse, in my opinion.
Unfortunately, this is pretty much the end of the good stuff in the episode. Everything else is either underwhelming or downright terrible.
Let's first examine problem that many people have pointed out over the years:
TWILIGHT'S FRIENDS ARE COMPLETE HYPOCRITES! 
They complain about Trixie being a show-off, but then they end up showing off their own talents just to one-up Trixie. This makes it look like they were in fact jealous of her talents and could not stand the idea that she was better than them. In other words, they were portrayed as selfish jerks! Also, it's not Trixie's fault that she is demonstrating her skills and boasting about her accomplishments.
IT'S A MAGIC SHOW! SHE IS SUPPOSED TO DO THAT TO MAKE A LIVING! IF YOU'RE OFFENDED BY HER PERFORMANCE, JUST STOP WATCHING AND LEAVE! THERE IS NO LAW THAT PREVENTS YOU FROM DOING SO!
Seriously, even if Trixie was just a regular attention hog, the only way for those people to have any power over us is if we continue taking them seriously. The best way to handle them is to just ignore them and go about our daily lives. Every responsible adult knows this and yet, these ponies are portrayed as nothing more than children. I know this is a cartoon intended for children, but don't you think the audience will have an easier time learning the lesson if the main characters who are adults actually act like adults while also being funny and charming?
Another major problem is the fact that Snips and Snails are some of the most annoying characters I have ever encountered in an animated series. Not only do the way they talk causes my ears to bleed every time I hear them, but they also make extremely idiotic things throughout the episode. I don't care that they're kids.
VENTURING INTO A MONSTER-FILLED FOREST AT NIGHT WITHOUT ANY ADULT SUPERVISION WHATSOEVER JUST TO BRING A GIGANTIC BEAR TO TOWN IS STUPID IN EVERY MEANING OF THE WORD! 
On top of all that, the overall message does not make a whole lot of sense. It talks about appreciating your own talents without being a show off, but to quote the famous brony analyst Joshscorcher; "It's too specific. The pieces were set perfectly to learn a lesson about handling people like Trixie, which I think is a much more universal and meaningful message". Even if you don't like him as an analyst, you gotta admit that he makes some interesting arguments about psychology and interactions between people during his reviews.
Even the comedy is much weaker compared to the previous episodes. The only jokes I actually laughed at were the ones involving Trixie, while the others (especially the ones made by Snips and Snails) were really awkward. Also, while I find most of Trixie's lines funny, the joke about NEIGHSAYERS has not aged well. In fact...
Bottom line; poor characterization, confusing moral, and uneven humor makes this one of the worst episodes of the entire season. It's not among the top 10 worst episodes of the series, but it's still very disappointing. If you want a story that puts a different twist on the events that happened in the episode, feel free to read a certain fanfiction I am currently writing.
FINAL SCORE: 3 out of 10
Well, maybe I should stop writing reviews for a few weeks. I mean, what if the next episode is even worse than this one and-
What is this amazing score I'm hearing?
Yeah, this episode didn’t hold up for me either. Not to mention that Trixie is one of my least favorite characters in this show. Don’t get me started with Snips and Snails. Also...
If no one else is up to it, I shall humbly grant your wish.
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Thank you so much! Really appreciate it
5400850
My pleasure!
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