My Review/Rant of MLP: FIM season 7 episode 7 Parental Glideance · 5:10pm March 23rd
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)
Hello, my friends. I truly hope you’re having a wonderful day so far unlike me who is having a rainy day from where I live, so it’s not off to a great start. Seeing the episode I am about to review this morning, I realized what I had to do to be ready: re-watch the episode. Let me tell you, it was one of the most painful and frustrating moments I’ve ever had to endure.
Prepare yourselves for one of the angriest reviews/rants I’m about to share with you all: tearing apart this absolute piece of crap called “Parental Glideance”—the moment you’ve all been waiting for.
The dumpster fire begins with Scootaloo launching herself into Cloudsdale with her scooter which ends up with her meeting Rainbow Dash’s parents: Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles. She gets so excited in meeting them that she screams like a fucking banshee.
Because she has to make a report of her favorite hero/role model for her class, Scoots takes pictures of literally everything that has to do with Rainbow—in the kitchen and even in her bedroom. I—does this not seem creepy to you guys?
If I had a fan who took pictures of my bedroom, my family photos, my baby diaper, my baby teeth, or…my private stuff, I’d feel violated to my core. And you wonder why the paparazzi are often scorned for their invasive behavior.
Anyway, she reveals the fact that Rainbow is a Wonderbolt which was something her parents never knew about. When Scoots takes them to the Wonderbolt Academy where their daughter was training with the others, they immediately cheer for her so loudly.
Unhappy and embarrassed to see them, they instantly make her as uncomfortable as possible by hugging her too tightly or baby-talking her. It’s so cringey to watch!! WHY THE HELL ARE THEY SO CRINGEY?!?
Rainbow even tells Scoots why she never told them she’s a Wonderbolt. Folks, if she had a clear reason why she didn’t tell them something important in her life, then that should tell you everything you need to know about their “delicate” relationship. It’s nothing more than toxic positivity, and they should be ashamed for ever making her feel uncomfortable and humiliated in public.
Throughout this entire torture process, they constantly shout, yell, and cheer obnoxiously loud for Rainbow to the point where they were publicly disrupting the peace. And they even shot fireworks in the sky—right where the Wonderbolts were flying. HOW THE FUCK WERE THEY NOT SCOLDED FOR THEIR ACTIONS?!
Even worse, Scoots sincerely saw no problem with that. Is she fucking stupid? Was she seriously blind to the fact her idol was feeling uncomfortable beyond words?
Then when Rainbow was finally fed up with them for their actions and told them off, they wept like a bunch of crybabies and ran off. And…Scoots had the gall to be mad at Rainbow for rightfully scolding them?
YOU AND THOSE BRAINDEAD IMBECILES ARE THE ONES AT FAULT, YOU IDIOT!!! You see, folks? This is pure emotional manipulation and gaslighting at its finest; you cannot convince me otherwise. The writer is telling the audience that Rainbow is the only one at fault while completely ignoring the immature actions her terrible parents had done.
Scoots is just as delusional as Rainbow’s parents. She fails to realize and understand that there are better ways to be supportive of your loved ones without being embarrassing and disrespectful to the peace of others. Yet she’s supposedly right in everything she did?!
Even worse, the episode never addressed the fact she went to Rainbow’s room and took pictures…WHY WAS THIS GREEN-LIT IN THE FIRST PLACE?! THIS EPISODE MAKES ME HATE SCOOTALOO SO FUCKING MUCH!!!!!
Yeah, she’s just a filly, but she should know better. I’m sure even Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom would be embarrassed by this.
Now that I think about it, those two should have been the voice of reason for Scoots and tell her that what she did was wrong. Or at least that’s something they would have done had the writer actually given them an active role in this episode. What a waste.
But at least this episode gave some rather interesting information about Scoots—no one ever told her she would be great at anything unlike Rainbow which highly implies she’s an orphan. There was some potential in making her a somewhat unique character…until MLP: FIM season 9 episode 12 “The Last Crusade” threw that out the window by having her real parents show up.
No one, huh? I guess your aunts aren’t that supportive as they’re supposed to be.
Back on topic, Rainbow’s characters are some of the worst characters I’ve ever seen in this show. They never learned anything about being actual supportive parents without being cringey, idiotic, and embarrassing. At least Starlight and Sunburst’s parents learned something from their chaotic experience.
And Rainbow now feels like it’s okay for them to be so over-the-top and dramatic in supporting her because they made her the egocentric, proud, and “awesome” pony she is. I mean, yeah, that would explain it, but…if this was something that’s been occurring since she was a kid, then I’m shocked she didn’t fly away from home sooner.
This episode is awful in every sense of the word. It teaches kids to allow toxic parents to keep loving them in the most inappropriate and uncomfortable ways possible in public, and they can’t complain at all because then they’ll be seen as “ungrateful” or “disrespectful”.
I’m so happy my parents aren’t like that at all, but it just hurts to see Rainbow being trapped in that hellhole and endless cycle. And I hate Scoots for having an active part in her embarrassment. This is all thanks to Joshua Hamilton’s awful writing and terrible manner of writing these characters.
This episode gets an F—no question, no doubt, case closed. This is both the worst episode of the whole season and the whole show. This is not the magic of friendship; this is the magic of gaslighting.
This shit episode can go straight to HELL!!!!! Dear Primus, I hate this so much….
Don't you think that maybe you could at least "rewrite" this terrible episode and many others that you don't like from your blogs, to something more decent?
I mean, we are in a fanfiction website.
Dang, that was quite a review, yet I do agree with all your point! I've yet to see the episode beside, like usual, a clip or so on YouTube, yet I love how you went into detail in why the episode stinks and how it must have felt for poor Rainbow to suffer from such overwhelming support in a rather toxic manner.
5773491
What point are you trying to make, exactly? Because this sounds like you don’t like the fact I’m making some of these rants in the first place.
I could give some ideas that can fix these episodes in terms of morals and character growth, but I’m not gonna re-write the whole episodes because there are far more important stuff I’m working on.
Maybe you should actually watch the episodes themselves so you can understand where I’m coming from.
Considering the fact that Joshua Hamilton is one of your least favorite MLP writers…something tells me that the next two episodes he wrote for are ones that you’re going to be having a field day with in the ranting department.
5773495
You misread what I said. I didn't say I don't like your rants. In fact, you got very good and highly detailed reviews and critique/criticisms that I ever seen.
And I do watch these episodes, so I know what you're going through.
What I'm trying to say is; have you heard of "fix fic's" stories in this website. That's what I meant.
Other writers and authors in here don't like similar episodes, and decided to make a "fix fic", and input way better "character growths and moral lesson" that you have suggested.
5773512
Fix-fic stories aren’t necessarily my thing, to be honest. Unless they’re episodes that involve action and adventure genres, then I won’t waste time in making “fix-fics” for them.
What you’re suggesting is nice and all but no thanks.
Now let’s get back on topic: what are your thoughts on this particular episode?
5773517
My thoughts;
Not much different of how Rainbow's parents should give her some damn space, and not embarrassed her so much in a public event.
And I have now realized that Scootaloo is also in the wrong too, but sadly. The episode/writer doesn't seem it that way.