Retrospective Review: Sweet and Elite and Secret of My Excess · 5:31am Apr 29th, 2021
S2E9 Sweet and Elite
I groaned when I saw this title was next in my rewatch list, because I remember not liking it. And rewatching it confirms my original assessment.
So this is another episode which uses moral lessons common to children's shows. Don't forget where you come from, don't forget who your real friends are, don't lie and pretend to be something you're not. And the episode uses a common sitcom trope, trying to attend two parties/be in two places at once.
But, and I'll say it once again, the plot does not work with what's happened in the series. Rarity wants to make herself seem more important than she is, when she's literally saved Equestria twice. And the ponies of Canterlot somehow don't know her name. I know there's no television or social media, but there are newspapers, court gossip, and stained glass windows. I mean, Rarity knows who Fancy Pants is, but Fancy Pants doesn't know who Rarity is?
For example, when Rarity lies about Rainbow Dash being the Wonderbolts trainer, she could have simply told the truth. Imagine this exchange: "Rainbow Dash? I trust her judgment on the Wonderbolts because she's an elite flyer herself. No, not a Wonderbolt--she's a bit young for that-- but she did win last year's Best Young Flier competition, while performing the legendary Sonic Rainboom, and saving several members of the Wonderbolts at the same time.
"She also freed Princess Luna from the madness of Nightmare Moon, and not too long ago saved Equestria from Discord's tyranny. I heard that stained glass window was recently finished. Have you seen it yet?"
(Of course, talking about the details from that event would also reveal her own failures, so maybe she wouldn't want to discuss it.)
So the episode is just forcing a children's show story square peg into the My Little Pony round hole, and it doesn't work.
Rarity sure brought a lot of bags for what's supposed to be a shopping trip. And treats the help like crap. So much for generosity!
So there's only a couple of good things coming out of this episode. There's Pinkie Pie's party cannon, and Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis, who are the only good nobles outside the princesses (and thus are the go-to characters for fanfic writers).
S2E10 Secret of My Excess
And then we have a Spike episode. Great.
If Equestria doesn't have a Dewey Decimal System, Twilight Sparkle should invent it. Unless she secretly likes reshelving books in different manners each time.
I really wonder how you age gems.
You know, Mrs. Cake doesn't look pregnant here. The twins are only three episodes away, you know!
Seven minutes in, and Spike is being a jerk. It's not drama, it's cringe.
The scenes with Twilight Sparkle and Spike getting medical care made me think of having an exotic pet. If you have a cat or dog, you can go anywhere and expect to find a veterinarian to care for your pet. IF you have a tiger, your options are limited. But if you don't know how to get care for your sick tiger, you're not fit to have a tiger.
So when it comes to the situation in this episode, Twilight Sparkle should be communicating with experts in Canterlot who she knows from, you know, having to care for Spike for a decade. But at least the scenes are mildly amusing.
The Wonderbolts are ineffective again. They really are the Worf of My Little Pony. (And why the heck are they in Ponyville, anyway?)
I can't fault the world-building here. Greed growth is as good an explanation as any for how dragons change from Spike-sized to monstrous. But it's a Spike episode. While watching, I didn't remember specifically how the greed growth was fixed, but really, I just didn't care.
Both of these episodes are eminently skippable.
Why are they in Ponyville? Maybe Celestia saw the damage and though the Wonderbolts were the closest team that could help. Also, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no nobles in MLP since except for Blueblood all we’ve seen is high-class (trust fund) ponies. As far as we can tell none of them have titles that and the Princesses holding court are fandom not canon ideas.
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Yes, nothing is confirmed, but that there are barons and counts and dukes is a reasonable supposition. I could certainly see Jet Set and Upper Crust (aside: the term Jet Set makes no sense in Equestria, where Jet would be a name used by pegasi) being just prominent upper class citizens. but I like to think of Fancy Pants having some kind of noble title (especially with having crowns in his cutie mark).
FanOfMostEverything will let me know if more details are revealed in the comics.
Yeah, the Bearers' lack of notoriety raises a lot of questions, and this is far from the only episode that will raise them. My guess is a concerted effort to minimize news about them so they can lead something resembling a normal life. And how many ponies both have a chance to see those stained-glass windows and actually look at them? (Granted, the massive post-Discord medal ceremony strains this theory, but no one said this episode had to take place after that.)
Regarding Fancy's nobility: Issue #60 of the main comics focuses on the Crusaders trying to help Fancy's niece, Gilded Lily, get a cutie mark. However, Fancy is only described as "one of the most important ponies in Canterlot," and Lily herself says they're part of "an elite Canterlot family." Much importance is put on her getting a mark in "being important and influential," which even the Crusaders note is vague to the point of meaninglessness.
There's no explicit mention of codified layers of nobility or holding assorted demesnes throughout Equestria. Fancy Pants is clearly an important part of the Canterlot social strata, but for all we know, he's the face of one of several competing crime families... which would actually be fascinating.
Secretly?
What experts? As we see in "Dragon Quest," Equestria's knowledge of dragons is slim to nil. Twilight is one of the foremost experts by default. The only question here is why she didn't write to Celestia, and I pin that on a combination of worry and not wanting to bother the princess for every little thing. (Not that it stayed a little thing.) Also, that would've required Spike's cooperation, and at that point, he was about as likely to either hoard or incinerate the letter.
Proactive disaster relief. Presumably they're not just a demonstration team. (And to be fair, it's not like they're any less effective than the rest of the Guard.)
... His genuine love for Rarity, which was enough for a dragon to voluntarily give away something he greatly valued? Generosity and civility overcoming base hoarding instinct? One of the first steps in dragging all of dragonkind kicking and screaming into something resembling civilization? i think your Spike episode bias may be showing here.
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Rather, people have tried to claim a linear timeline but it simply doesn't work even if you DO let the episodes be aired out of order.
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Sorry, but I don't think this Spike episode was done well. In particular, this episode shows Spike devolving into a mindless beast, which may fit what they did in Dragonshy, but not with events later in the series. (I'm doing these reviews from the perspective of knowing the whole animated series). They did Dragon Quest later that season, which was a much better portrayal of dragons, and both it and Gauntlet of Fire were better Spike episodes.
I will never forgive s4 for having PRINCESS twilight fail to hail a cab in Manehattan. It could even been a joke if they had thought about it
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The background alicorn stallion begs to differ (I think I've seen him called "Neon Lights"?)
I've always assumed the Wonderbolts were in Canterlot and flew to Ponyville in response to the monster raid siren we saw several minutes earlier.