My Review of MLP:FIM season 8 episode 5 Grannies Gone Wild · 8:27pm Jul 15th, 2023
Grading Scale:
A (fantastic episode)
A- (an excellent episode with at least one flaw)
B+ (a great episode with a couple of flaws)
B (a good episode which still could have been better)
B- (a good episode with numerous flaws but still rewatchable)
C+ (a decent episode)
C (eh... it’s not terrible but not good either)
C- (it’s not worth rewatching although it does have good elements)
D+ (a bad episode with a few good things in it)
D (a really bad episode with wasted potential)
D- (a terrible episode with badly written characters and butchered moral)
F (horrible and unwatchable)
Greetings, everyone! This is Mr. J back with another MLP episode review for today! This afternoon, I will be reviewing the fifth episode of season 8 entitled "Grannies Gone Wild". This is yet another decent episode that is neither ground-breaking, interesting, or anything special. In my opinion, it is a rather boring episode that might as well fit right in either season 7 or 6. It just doesn't fit the theme of this season despite some non-speaking cameos some of the Young Six characters made in the beginning of the episode. Remove those cameos, and absolutely nothing would change the plot at all.
The episode starts with Rainbow Dash as she's minding her business in the Wonderbolts locker room. Then her Wonderbolt buddies show up and brag about their experience in Las Pegasus. It turns out that they admire their fun roller-coaster ride called the Wild Blue Wonder. Rainbow is swayed by awe at this despite the fact she's never been on the ride before, much less even heard of it. They, of course, added that Rainbow can only be a real Wonderbolt if she actually takes that ride.
So she instantly takes their word for it and boasts about it to everyone else who obviously cares less about Wild Blue Wonder (except maybe Pinkie Pie).
She meets up with Applejack and tells her the same story. Not wanting to miss out the one-time event, she asks Applejack to substitute teaching her classes for her so that she can fly off and have fun. Groaning in annoyance, she accepts the favor based on one condition: she has to look after Granny Smith and her other elderly friends. Rainbow hesitates and refuses until Applejack convinces her that she'll miss out on her one chance to get to the ride.
Defeated, Rainbow complies and takes the grannies to the hot-air balloon to get to Las Pegasus. Funny enough, Granny Smith and the others take their extremely slow time in getting from one place to another which frustrates Rainbow. That's basically how young people normally react when elderly people take their time in doing things due to their old age. But as time goes on, once they see and listen to what elderly folks have done and what they're capable of, they learn to appreciate them.
And that's something each of us should learn as well; our grandparents tell us their stories so that we can learn from them and become better in the future. They may seem boring, but later on, once we experience what they faced in their prime, then we realize why they are so important. So Rainbow Dash had a learning experience throughout all this, especially as she noticed there is more to them than meets the eye.
Throughout the episode, Rainbow keeps ruining the fun for the grannies because she tried her best to follow the excessive guidelines Applejack wrote for her on the list: not be too excited, keeping an eye on them, etc. She wanted to get on her roller-coaster ride so badly, but her responsibilities to the gals kept getting in the way, and she even feared she'll never get to WBW in time due to the long wait in line. But lucky for her, they had Las Pegasus VIP connections so they could cut to the front and get on the ride.
At the end, Rainbow admits the gals were actually cool, and they return the same sentiment. They gave her a shirt and hat that made her an official member of the Gold Horseshoe Gals; Rainbow happily accepts it.
Yay! Great bonding moment between the gals and Rainbow Dash! Hooray! 
I know I tend to be sarcastic and annoyed when I watch cliché happy endings like this, but...ugh...come on, this is My Little Pony. The way they do it is so sappy and cringeworthy. Whatever, that random thought out of the way, this was a boring but decent episode to re-watch. Nothing noteworthy or sin-worthy to point out. It's just an episode I think they should've made for season 7 because it has no connections to this season nor to its theme aside from the Young Six cameos and a mention of the School of Friendship. It gets a C+.
Peace out.
I agree. This is one of those episodes that, if you cut out the School of Friendship and Student Six cameos entirely, there really wouldn’t have been much of a difference. It had literally no relevance to the 8th season anyway, which is honestly another reason for why I’ve frequently questioned many of Hasbro’s business decisions.
Beside a few moments, is it bad that I forgot that this episode was even a thing.