Retrospective Review: The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 and Read It and Weep · 5:59am May 30th, 2021
S2E15 The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000
Let me start by saying how much I hate long lines like what's shown in this episode (the Black Friday model). If 100 ponies spent 10 hours waiting in line, that is 1000 wasted hours. There's a clear alternative to this, and it's a lottery system. Everypony at the gates of Sweet Apple Acres at 9:00 draws a number, and lines up in that order to get cider. The same number of ponies get served, but no one has to wait a long time.
(I once did that to get concert tickets, rolled up to the store just before the drawing, pulled number 4, and got awesome floor level seats.)
The Apples are also creating artificial demand through restricting supply, a tactic I hate. There's at least the chance they're not actually able to increase supply. In our world, they would use temporary employees or, dare I say it, automation.
Fluttershy is strangely embarrassed about being seen exactly as she looks every day.
Pinkie Pie is a terrible friend. And Rainbow Dash is ready to be a terrible friend in response. How did these ponies ever become the Elements of Harmony? And let's not forget Fluttershy getting the last cup, and not sharing it.
I'm a fan of the Flim Flam Cider song, and wonder if it's a pastiche or a more direct reference to something I haven't watched. (If I had to guess, I'd say The Music Man.) Of course, I immediately think of The Simpsons and the Monorail song.
Is it cider season that keeps Sweet Apple Acres afloat? Because a few episodes ago, it was Zap Apple jam.
In this episode, everyone acts stupid. I like the episode overall, but hate how stupid everyone acts. (Okay, the Mane Six using their talents to help in the cider making process is actually well thought out.)
If everyone acted smart, Flim and Flam would have a patent on their machine, sell it for a fair price (perhaps in installments), and plow the proceeds into improving their machine. Meanwhile, the Apples would use the machine as a force multiplier, allowing them to produce enough cider to meet demand (and perhaps enough to sell at the grocery store later). They could then hoof-make cider, call it Sweet Apple Acres Reserve, and sell it at a higher price point.
But no one tunes in to watch that.
Flim and Flam are villains who I doubt the show's writers expected to bring back.
By the way, Applejack? You were supposed to learn something this episode--how to be a better businessmare.
S2E16 Read It and Weep
I wish this episode had kept the title Reading Rainbow.
So this is an episode with a great moral for kids. Don't dismiss something until you've tried it, and especially don't dismiss something because it's not what someone like you is supposed to like. It's a lesson a lot of adults could learn, too. Too many people will never discover something that they would enjoy, and similarly, spend too much time on things they don't enjoy. (Hipsters, I'm looking at you.)
Fortunately, bronies are people who are willing to try at least one thing people say they're not supposed to enjoy.
I'm of two minds when it comes to this episode. The Daring Do scenes are awesome, chock full of Indiana Jones references. And the Rainbow Dash scenes make me cringe.
D&D players know that low level adventurers can't have the ability to fly, since the ability would obviate most dungeons. And the writers recognized that fact in creating the Daring Do story.
I wonder at what point the writers decided to bring back Daring Do, and at what point they decided Daring Do was a real pony in-universe.
This episode is another good example to show to someone wondering why a bunch of adult men enjoyed My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
Bonus picture for FanOfMostEverything:
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Yeah, it's Music Man. To be honest, whenever I think of that episode, all I remember is the song, and really, that's all I needed. :)
Pony modesty is, if anything, even more maddening than figuring out the timeline.
Look, there's friendship, and then there's cider. (Also, Applejack may want to think about a "limit one per customer" policy.)
Here's the ancestor of both the Flimflams' song and the monorail pitch.
See, this is why I have Big Mac handle the farm's finances. Applejack can do the work of a dozen ponies in the orchard, but she doesn't know net from gross and doesn't especially care to.
Given their later exploits, I suspect the Flimflams stole the Squeezy and were using it to sucker a quick buck out of anypony they could find. After all, if they were really smart, they'd market horseless carriages and the other breakthrough innovations built into the device.
And yeah, Daring Do works great as in-universe fiction, though it got really weird when she turned out to be real.
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I do appreciate Flam holding a Sensei's Divining Top. "And you, good sir, what would you pay for this wondrous little bauble?"
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Because what else is your Trinket Mage going to fetch?
Y’know I know their names are Flim and Flam but I wish Has to didn’t give them such a name. The first time they came to Ponyville they had a legitimate product that I could see them selling to apple farmers or going into business on there own (get a loan purchase apple trees and while their growing buy lots of apples and make cider to sell it) it’s every other time they were seen that they were conmen
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It's possible that there isn't an Equestrian term flim-flam, but there is certainly an issue in a world where names are tied to special talents, and some ponies have names that suggest a talent in illicit or immoral activities. (It's even worse if your headcanon is that mothers know these names for their foals when they're born.)