Episode Re-Review: Fame and Misfortune · 7:28pm Jun 14th, 2021
Season 7 finally found some consistency (and good consistency at that) right at the end of its first half with the back to back successes of "Discordant Harmony" and "The Perfect Pear", the latter of which became everyone's new favorite episode. It also cemented Season 7 as a season of fanservice. Think about it, we had: A Princess Celestia episode, Starlight and Trixie hanging out, Twilight foalsitting her niece, Maud Pie returning and getting a day in the limelight, finally acknowledging the characters getting older, meeting Rainbow Dash's parents, a royal sisters episode, getting to finally see Yakyakistan properly, a Fluttercord episode and finally getting to know about Applejack's parents (and confirming that they're more or less dead). Granted, not all that fanservice was necessarily well received and there were arguably just as many missteps as there were successes. But it looked like Season 7 might finally be going somewhere! So what happened? Well, Hasbro happened. You see, M. A. Larson who is credited with this episode, actually hated it! He originally came up with a one page story pitch to Hasbro (presumably for Season 5) for a Pinkie Pie episode. She would write a story, and the moral was going to be that you should be careful with your criticism since there's always a real person behind the work of fiction you're going after. And what did Hasbro do? They rejected it! Why, you ask? Because they told Larson they wanted to do an "Attack the critics" episode like you'd see in Teen Titans Go or Family Guy, something audiences have gotten sick and tired of!
But Larson went ahead and did it anyway. He wrote this episode presumably for Season 5, but he didn't like what he'd wrote and shelfed it. He hasn't said whether it was this particular incident that made him leave the show, it could also be because he absolutely hated being story editor in Season 5 which forced Meghan McCarthy to come back to it and then hand over the reigns to Josh Haber so she could work on the movie. Or it could even be that Larson just wanted to move on to other things. Whatever the case may be, he left the show with this more or less "lost episode" script that he hated and no doubt didn't want to ever see published. At some point though, Hasbro discovered it and reworked it (it's not known who did) to fit into Season 7. Larson found out about this and pleaded with Hasbro repeatedly not to air it, especially since they were giving him full credit even though his original script had been altered. And when this episode originally aired, it backfired big time on Hasbro! The DHX staff had to take to social media in its aftermath to do damage control within the fandom. And this was just a few months before the big movie was coming to theaters, when you most certainly wouldn't want to piss people off. So needless to say, this doesn't look like a good move on Hasbro's part. But all that controversy aside, is this episode really as bad as people make it out to be? Well, let's find out.
Right off the bat we don't have a good first impression here since Twilight is getting pelted with ice cream from two fillies named Toola Roola and Coconut Cream. Toola Roola at least is a reused pony from G3, in fact she was part of that generation's "mane seven" (at least within the theme song). So already the episode is not putting its best foot forward, because why reuse G3 ponies when you could easily use literally any established characters or even just make entirely new ones and nothing of substance would be lost? Yes, I know most of the mane six are reworked from G3, but that was because Hasbro had lost the naming rights to the G1 ponies Lauren Faust wanted to use. This is not the same, you're comparing apples to oranges. Anyway, Twilight sets the two G3 fillies straight by more or less reiterating what she learned from "The Return of Harmony", which as far as we know is not something she wrote about in the journal. Yet it's because of this instance that she feels the desire to want to publish the old friendship journal that was only used for Season 4, and not even for an entire season. The last time we know a lesson was written into it was "Equestria Games", Season 4's penultimate episode.
And we get a lot of really questionable details as a substitute for the standard mane six introductions: Applejack apparently put an actual apple into the journal's pages, Fluttershy wrote her passages in very small lettering for some reason and Pinkie Pie snuck confetti into her passages. Yet at no point do they mention Spike ever writing any entries. Heck, Spike isn't even mentioned in this episode but Starlight Glimmer is despite the fact that she was not around during the journal's days. There is a kind of clever joke about her copying the journal using a spell she once used to make copies of a "manifesto" which doubles as a reference to communism.
So, out of the blue Twilight decides to publish the journal and send it all over Equestria, and her friends decide they're all onboard as it's a chance to pass on their lessons to the next generation. So the journal is published and becomes a mega hit. And here's where the episode starts to really take a turn for the worse. Twilight happens to find the Cutie Mark Crusaders using the journal and the fact that they wrote an entry into it (it was never stated for sure if Sweetie Belle did after "For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils") to become celebrities. Apple Bloom also mentions wanting to start a day camp for blank flanks, a call forward to "Marks and Recreation" which was in development for Season 7 at the same time. But when that episode rolls around this episode's events will never be acknowledged, which means that this episode's script was finished later and was retroactively tied to an episode they knew was coming out. Anyway, Twilight scolds the CMC for this and complains that the journal isn't supposed to be "for marketing", which actually is the show's way of trying to say it's not a toy commercial even though it's clearly based on a toyline.
Soon afterward, Twilight is approached by fans who regard the journals as keepsakes that must be kept in mint condition at all times.
From there, we see a whole bunch of ponies acting as if they've never heard of Rarity before even though she is arguably the most well known of all the mane six given that she runs a successful business. Anyway, these two ponies think that because of the passage from "Simple Ways" they think Rarity is vain and selfish. They even wonder why she's taking credit for the Ponyville Days Festival being a success, even though Rarity was chosen to host and organize it at a public ceremony attended by the entire town! Yes, maybe that journal entry is her taking a bit too much credit, but it's not like she had no role at all in the festival! Plus, much like "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well", even if someone is being kind of arrogant and vain, if they're doing a public service you really can't complain that much about it. That's like being mad at a doctor for saving your life just because he or she turned around and boasted about it.
Also, that's only one journal entry out of all the ones Rarity wrote. You mean to tell me that just one entry is supposed to represent Rarity's entire world view and character? You can't judge someone based solely on one written passage, no matter how well detailed it is. All this does is make the episode take on a mean spirited tone and make these ponies look like idiots. I mean, if they were Canterlot snobs like Jet Set and Upper Crust that might make a bit more sense. But they're from Ponyville for all we know, these ponies should know Rarity enough to know that that one passage is not an accurate reflection of her. Anyway, Rarity runs away in tears and Twilight goes to console her while Starlight takes it upon herself to "correct" the two ponies. You know, because the pony who's always using magic as a shortcut to solve her problems and has admitted that her emotions power her magic can totally be trusted not to take things too far.
Along the way, Twilight finds ponies harassing Fluttershy. Why? Because they wanna know why she keeps learning the same lesson over and over again about learning to stand up for yourself. You know, something that fans actually complained about for the first four or five seasons! Of course, Fluttershy shuts them down by claiming that she isn't perfect but neither are the hecklers, which would be fine if Fluttershy was in real life. But she isn't. And the thing is, I don't expect perfection but I do expect consistency! Never sacrifice entertainment on the alter of realism! People watch stuff like this to escape reality, not be reminded of it! There is such a thing as trying too hard to be realistic! I mean, that's become a problem with modern superhero works, they're so focused on realism that they lose the sense of wonder that superheroes were supposed to bring.
There's also a scene of ponies thinking that Pinkie Pie is just comedic relief, she's just there to be funny and to be laughed at! An absolute insult to Pinkie Pie's character because we know she can be serious! Treating her as if she's only ever in one mood: "Lol, random!" is what leads to flanderization, or worse. And Season 3 alone can attest to the fact that just sticking Pinkie into scenes does not magically make them funny! Quite honestly, these criticisms feel outdated. Even by the time of Season 5 I don't think these criticisms would hold much water. Again, though, these are not characters they are actual members of society! You can't suddenly treat this as if we've been watching a play but you never told us it was one! Anyway, Twilight (and Starlight too since she's apparently done teaching those ponies a lesson) finds Rarity at her boutique. Rarity is suffering a mental breakdown, this time unaided by dark magic.
However, this breakdown leads to the revelation that ponies are boycotting Rarity over what I can only assume is that one passage from the journal. Meanwhile, Applejack is apparently popular because ponies took the passage about how friends can be family too literally. And Rainbow Dash is being pursued by children who only care about the adventures she's been on, including the ones with Daring Do. And this brings up another problem, did Twilight not know that Rainbow Dash wrote about going on an adventure with Daring Do? You know, the one where they all learned Daring Do lived a double life as an author and that she had been keeping it a secret? She even told Rainbow Dash that her work specifically involved secrets, and that was why she could never trust anyone. Way to betray that trust after you spent so much time convincing Daring Do that others can be trusted.
But if anyone was the "kid appeal character" it was Pinkie Pie! And Applejack, while she has her fans, was never really popular. Maybe early on in the fandom when Rarity wasn't well defined, she and Applejack had their popularity swapped. But that had to be no later than mid Season 1 at most, because that's when Rarity became the show's breakout character. And Season 4 is when Rarity started winning fans old and new alike while Applejack began to slowly receed into the background, paired up more and more with other characters. The point I'm trying to make is, these apparent "criticisms" we're seeing now are way out of place in Season 7, which reflects a problem with taking a Season 5 script and only slightly reworking it to fit into Season 7. Heck, for Season 5 a lot of these criticisms feel outdated, but if they were written with the view of the fandom in late 2013/early 2014 maybe they would make a little bit more sense in some aspects. Still doesn't change the fact that the mane six should be well known in Ponyville, there is no reason at all why ponies in Ponyville should suddenly start to think differently of them. If this were happening in a place they were not well known, maybe that would make more sense. Anyway, the criticism is getting so bad that the rest of the mane six have to hide out in Twilight's castle. And Rainbow Dash mentions that she now apparently "can't even go to the bathroom without somepony telling me how awesome I am.", and while it's worth praising the fact that this is only the second toilet joke in the entire show (showing great restraint in the use of toilet humor) it just feels so out of place and disturbing.
If it's that bad, Rainbow Dash should be getting a restraining order. But aside from that and a joke about Rarity wearing her emotions, this scene just serves to highlight how much of a living nightmare the mane six's lives have become because of the journal. At no point is there any mention of Spike writing journal entries even though he wrote more than the CMC. Instead, it's Starlight who gives Twilight the pep talk about how things may not be as bad as they seem. Yet as soon as Twilight goes outside she's confronted by a reporter who asks her to respond to the claim that her "character" was better off if she stayed in Canterlot, on top of outdated criticisms that might have fit into Season 5 (Twilight was better without wings, and are Pinkie Pie and Applejack related or not). This leads into the song "Flawless", which I get the intention behind it: It's trying to claim that no one is perfect and you shouldn't be getting on their case because of their mistakes. But the way they go about is a very in your face kind of attitude that seems to convey "The show isn't perfect but it never will be, so stop whining and just accept it for what it is!", an absolute insult to anyone who dared to take the show seriously! The show got to where it was specifically because it was so mature about handling criticism, it was willing to listen to what others had to say about previous generations and was willing to actually dedicate itself to consistency. We took it seriously because it took itself seriously, and the fandom grew not because Hasbro bullied it but because it wisely stayed out of the fandom's way and let it flourish. In fact, a lot of the show staff happily interacted with the fandom on many projects and gave out their support. This feels like a knee jerk reaction that I can only assume was done because of incidents such as Amy Keating Rogers getting death threats over "Filli Vanilli". But this is not the way to address that, it only emboldens the haters and shields them from the consequences of their actions! The fandom's motto specifically was "Don't feed the parasprites" because they knew that toxic people often enjoy provoking reactions, and the best thing to do is not to give them what they want.
Plus, the moral of the song gets disregarded when all the ponies outside start shouting and arguing, and yet Starlight finds two ponies not from the crowd who did: Toola Roola and Coconut Cream. This means that apparently only these G3 kids matter, not anyone else. Yes, the show was a kids show. But just because something is "For Kids" doesn't mean it has to be dumbed down. Again, this is just spitting the face of and being ignorant of the show's legacy, ignoring everything that helped it get to where it was. If the show hadn't bothered to listen to critics it would've turned out just like G3 in that it would've been forgotten and dismissed as cheap little kids entertainment. Or heck, it would've turned out like "Pony Life" where comedy is all that matters and everything else is irrelevant because it's not meant to be taken even the slightest bit seriously. And need I remind you that this was only months before a movie that Hasbro almost certainly knew it would need to encourage fans to see? Why would you wanna piss off your fans so close to that point? Maybe they though the movie would be done and ready to come out by the time of this episode? But that's a big if to gamble on.
And the episode just ends there, showing no sign that anything that's happened in this episode will wear off anytime soon. The mane six are going to have to live with their lives being utterly ruined by the journal because apparently they can't have nice things.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, quite honestly, this might just be the worst thing Hasbro ever did! Forget the many missteps of Seasons 8 and 9, forget the troubled production of the movie, forget the constant dumping of characters from the toyline because they'd served their purpose. THIS is the worst thing they've ever done during the show's run! They rejected an episode with a mature message about criticism that would be right up their alley, and then turned around and told the writer who proposed it to make an episode attacking critics while completely being ignorant of how this never works (name one time where calling out your critics has ever been beneficial). When said writer left the show and shelfed the script he'd written because he didn't like it, Hasbro disrespected his wishes, took his script and turned it over to someone else to rework without Larson's permission. Then they hid behind Larson's name to try to shield themselves from the controversy, even while Larson pleaded with them not to air the episode as it was written and was ignored. And all of this backfired horribly on Hasbro, forcing members of the DHX staff to take to social media just to try and keep the fandom from going ballistic! My mind is boggled at how anyone at Hasbro could think that this wouldn't reflect badly on them!
Putting aside the "intent" behind this episode, it opts to suddenly treat the mane six as if they were just characters in a play instead of living in a world of their own with other characters that should know them better than a bunch of journal entries. Then the episode turns around and claims that the criticism doesn't matter because it's "a work in progress" and that it's only meant for kids. Yet none of the mane six or even Starlight learn anything from this, except maybe that all of Ponyville is ungrateful and isn't worth doing anything nice for because they'll never reciprocate. But if I gave this episode an F it would win, Hasbro would think they were right because they got under my skin and provoked me, and that somehow that proves that they can just disregard the fandom in its enterity. And I won't give them that satisfaction. This episode gets an E! M. A. Larson deserved better than to be treated like this, and I sincerely hope that whoever it was at Hasbro who signed off on this was fired and blacklisted! This deserves to be shown off in writing class as an example of what NOT to do!
Well, now it's on to what Season 7 would ultimately put its focus into: The Pillars. Since I've nothing new to say on "Triple Threat", the next episode in the re-review order is "Campfire Tales" which may exist because of what Hasbro insisted on having the show do with the pillars.
This is currently the only post-Season 4 episode Mr. Enter's reviewed.
I don't think giving it an E over an F really matters since they're not gonna read this anyways. If you think it's an F, it deserves an F. And it's not meant to provoke fans, so you wouldn't be satisfying them that way anyways. It's meant to be a comedic friendly poke at the audience, even if the end result botched that up.
5535228 The whole thing was botched from the beginning. Besides, the show had already taken potshots at fans before in much more mature and much more subtle ways than this.
I honestly really enjoy this episode, and I adore the song.
Another example on why I loathe episodes like this in all of cartoons, simply just insulting and shaming people for watching something and thinking we're idiots or something. And for some reason, I liked this episode when it came out and the song, I don't know why...
5535229
Doesn't change the fact that giving an E doesn't help anything.
5535439 Yes it does. If I gave it an F, Hasbro would think that somehow that proves their point even though they were the ones who chose to make this into a fandom call-out for reasons I can't fathom, and hid behind an author they'd forced into writing this script.
5535597
As I said, it's cause they thought it'd be funny, which it was, even if it failed in other areas. They didn't make the episode with the intention of upsetting bronies, so no, an E doesn't help, and they're not gonna stumble across this website.