My Review of MLP: FIM season 7 episode 8 Hard to Say Anything · 10:18pm March 30th
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 the eighth episode of season 7 entitled “Hard to Say Anything”. In my opinion, this should be retitled as Hard to Sit Through because this was absolutely cringe from start to finish. While it isn’t as horrible as the previous episode, this was still not good.
The episode begins with Big Mac preparing for departure to Starlight’s village with all the apples in the wagon. The Cutie Mark Crusaders notice that he has a lot of them in storage and has gone to the town more often than usual, so they ask him what’s the occasion.
He blushes in response and prepares to leave due to his infatuating excitement to see his special somepony there. The fillies make wild guesses as to why he’s heading there so often, and then they disguise themselves as “spies” and get inside the wagon so they can find out the true reason.
As they finally arrive, they see Big Mac falling in love with Sugar Belle. Now, what do I think of their overall relationship? I think it’s cute and sweet; however, this was a bad start of their relationship because of the amount of red flags we will later see.
Apple Bloom is thrilled to discover her brother has a crush and brags about it. But when they learn that Sugar Belle doesn’t know how he feels about her, they encourage him to confess his feelings to her. But before he could have a chance, he is interrupted by another stallion called Feather Bangs.
Alright, two things about this guy: 1), he looks like Justin Bieber turned into a pony; 2), he means well, but he’s nothing special. Oh, and is it just me or do those three mares behind him resemble like the three girls from “Beauty and the Beast” too much?
Anyway, the CMCs come up with a plan to have Sugar Belle fall head over hooves for Big Mac: orchestrating a series of schemes to have the girl fall for the hero fairytale-style. But unsurprisingly, Feather Bangs outshines him in all his failed attempts to woo her.
One of the cringiest moments in this whole episode was the scene where Big Mac (while reasonably uncomfortable) tried to kiss Sugar Belle in her sleep…and the CMCs were eager to help him do that. I get that he felt nervous doing that, but he should have strictly refused to be a part of that.
But that’s not the main issue here; I’m struggling to understand why these underaged children are getting themselves involved in Big Mac’s love life? They themselves have no experience in romantic relationships (they’re too young for that anyway), and it’s just honestly uncomfortable to see them act like this.
They said they learned their lesson about not using love potions to coerce romance, but…they’re basically repeating the same mistake by staging these activities to make Sugar Belle fall for Big Mac—especially trying to make him kiss her in her sleep. Seriously, what was Becky Wangberg thinking when she wrote this episode?
It’s so creepy and unwatchable. Even worse, there was an entire musical battle over Sugar Belle’s affection which made her annoyed and uncomfortable beyond words. It got so out-of-hand they accidentally broke her whole bakery set; angered, she kicked them out and told them to leave her alone.
I was happy to see her finally fed up with their horseshit because up until this point, this was nothing but sexual harassment. If I were Sugar Belle and both stallions were stalking and harassing me, I would’ve either whooped their asses and/or called the authorities. I can tell she’s a nice pony, but that doesn’t mean she’s a pushover. I like that about her.
But here’s the worst part of this episode: Big Mac repairs the whole bakery while she was distracted by Scootaloo. When she saw what he did, she completely forgets all the wrongs he did and instantly accepts his affections.
I—I…I have no words for this. Big Mac, what part of “Leave me alone” did you not understand? If she asked you to leave her alone, then leave her alone! No amount of material repairs is gonna make her forget what you and Feather Bangs did!
What’s even shocking is the fact that he never apologized for his actions and for the part he played in accidentally destroying her workplace. Instead, Apple Bloom apologized for him and for the role they also played in ruining everything.
Look, I get that the CMCs were the masterminds behind Big Mac’s failed attempts, but I wanted to hear from him too. He needs to take accountability for his mistakes and say something like, “Sugar Belle, I’m genuinely sorry for the trouble I caused you. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, but if you still want me to leave you alone, I’ll do that.” Something along those lines, you know?
But I get it, he’s too much of an infatuated lover boy to say anything intelligent, so he gets off scot-free.
To me, it feels like the episode is teaching us that we should do something nice for our spouses/girlfriends in hopes that they’ll forgive us and forget what we’ve done or said to them but without actually being sincere about it. Some may view this as an apology gift…but I don’t see it that way.
A lot of “nice guys” try to do exactly what Big Mac and Feather Bangs did, and unfortunately, if they ever were told no…they resort to…extremely undesirable measures. I think you guys are smart enough to know what I’m talking about.
I don’t even want to talk about the ending. Again, the CMCs should not agree to give romantic advice to someone with social issues given they’ve never been in that situation themselves. They’re too young and inexperienced which makes it weird to watch.
Overall, this episode was unnecessarily weird and cringeworthy. I am so glad Becky Wangberg—whoever she is—only wrote this one episode for this show and never wrote more. Shame on her for writing this into existence. I give it a solid D-.
Sugar Belle was the only character I liked in this episode. Everybody else sucks.
Peace out.
I thought this episode was pretty good. Granted, it’s been years since I last saw it, but I remembered it being very enjoyable.
Plus, I personally approved of the SugarMac (Sugar Belle x Big Mac) pairing way more than the CheeriMac (Cheerilee x Big Mac) and MarbleMac (Marble Pie x Big Mac) pairings. It’s mainly because it’s not as ironic compared to the other two pairings.