My Review of MLP: FIM season 7 episode 2 All Bottled Up · 10:13pm February 10th
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, folks! This is Mr. J back with another MLP episode review for today. This afternoon, I will be reviewing MLP: FIM season 7 episode 2 “All Bottled Up”. Just like last episode, this one was equally as interesting to get this seventh season in the right track. Unfortunately, Starlight isn’t the only protagonist in this episode; we have her so-called “best friend” sharing the same amount of screen time. Oh boy, what can possibly go wrong whenever Trixie is involved?
The episode begins with Trixie failing to turn an inanimate object into a teacup while Starlight is focused on making her tea cakes for the Mane Six’s train ride. When the latter shows the blue narcissist how to actually perform the spell, Trixie manages to successfully turn anything into pink teacups.
She gets so caught up in the moment she hugs Starlight, making her put too much icing on the cupcakes. And then she made a dancing teapot where it ruined all the tea cakes, much to Starlight’s displeasure.
The more Trixie keeps rambling on and on about her accomplishments, the more Starlight gets frustrated and angry. When she does get angry, a dark red cloud of magic emerges from her horn.
Trying to not let her emotions take control of her, she bottles up her anger…literally. In that way, she also won’t have to use her magic to express her feelings to Trixie for fear that she might hurt her feelings and not be friends anymore.
This is why bottling up our emotions does more harm than good; it causes us to be dishonest about how we feel in favor of toxic positivity or trying to keep things positive for the sake of not hurting anyone’s feelings. But not only that, it can also do great harm to our health. It can make us feel depressed and drain us of our energy.
As for Trixie, as much as I was annoyed by her antics, this was during the early stage of their friendship before it would get worse in seasons 8 & 9. Because she was still learning about how to be a good friend at this time, I’ll let this slide. It’s unfortunate that whatever mistakes she made in this episode were later repeated towards the end of the show--proving how bad of a friend she is overall.
This is why I said before that these two are unfit to be friends together. Trixie brings out the worst in Starlight as proven by this episode, and her toxic behavior would later influence Starlight to be just as toxic in season 8. If you apologize for your mistakes, you have to learn from them and do better. In that way, your relationships become much healthier and stronger. The fact that Trixie continues to be a pain in the ass is just baffling to me. Hmm, that reminds me of a certain draconequus I know...
Meanwhile, the Mane Six have a friendship retreat in Manehattan to take part of an activity called “Manehattan Escapes”. They have a great time together in learning how to solve a series of puzzles in a maze in order to escape. Honestly, this subplot was a cold contrast to the current situation Starlight was in—rubbing it in that their friendship was much happier than Starlight and Trixie’s.
When Trixie accidentally teleported the Friendship Map out of the castle, the duo scramble in search for it. However, Trixie didn’t seem to give two horse apples about it and acted so casual throughout the whole situation. This continually irritates Starlight and forces her to bottle up more of her anger.
They asked the jeweler pony, Granny Smith, and Bulk Biceps about the whereabouts of the table, but of course, they have no idea. Then they conveniently all come together at Bulk’s cinnamon nut stand in Ponyville where Starlight could no longer bear Trixie’s selfishness and disregard for Starlight’s concerns.
Her bottle flies in the air and smashes on the ground, causing the anger-filled magic to possess all three ponies. Thus, they directed their wrath against Trixie and said every single word Starlight wanted to say to her harshly. That was incredibly satisfying to watch.
In-between this chaotic scene, Twilight and her friends have a musical number about being best friends until the end of time. Having each other’s backs, sticking together, and all that crap. Blah, blah, blah, their friendship is so special! 
I do admit their song was very catchy to listen to, but its comedic timing was so off. It is neither clever nor funny whenever characters say the opposite of what they’re expressing during different situations such as:
Character 1 at a beach: This is the best!
Character 2 in a thunderstorm: This is the worst!
At the end, after Starlight finally pours out her anger at Trixie, the latter understands what she did wrong and apologizes. Starlight also apologizes for not being open about her feelings, and they hug it out together. Gosh, this is so corny and sappy. Corn doesn’t taste good with sap, I bet.
So overall, this was yet another fun episode written by the same people as last episode: Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco. Their choice of storytelling is very straightforward and engaging which makes these episodes fun to watch. Therefore, I give this a B+.
Peace!
I did like the lesson of don't bottle up your feelings/emotions on stuff since it can end up consuming you.
But gotta need a good outlet without causing harm though.
Though I didn't like how the writers had Spike choose to not go with the Mane 6 there.
It felt a little OOC somehow and felt forced. Like couldn't he enjoy his comics while on the trip?
It just felt like the show rubs it in on how he's not part of the girls' bond, hard. Thats one major issue I have with the show regarding how Spike is treated.
In all honesty, I kinda thought that you were gonna be giving quite a rant on this episode because of it being another Trixie-Starlight episode. I was rather surprised it turned out to be nearly the opposite.
That being said, I too consider “All Bottled Up” to be well-done and fun to watch in its own way, regardless of the flaws.
This is pretty much another reason for why I’ve questioned the majority of Season 8 & 9’s places in the overall continuity. They basically repeated the same kind of plot scenarios and situations with certain characters like they never learned anything before, especially when you compare it to their later appearances after said plots. All the growth they underwent before the two seasons came appeared to be thrown out the window.