My Review of MLP: FIM season 7 episode 9 Honest Apple · 1:16am April 8th
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 tonight. This evening, I’m gonna review the ninth episode of season 7 entitled “Honest Apple”. After re-watching this episode earlier today, I thought it was pretty good. I think it not only conveys a good lesson we all should learn but it also is a lot more relevant now than it was back when it first aired.
The episode begins with Rarity passing out flyers for the upcoming fashion contest taking place at her Carousel Boutique with Spike assisting her. She shares with Pinkie the details of this event, including picking out some ponies to be the judges for this contest—one of them being Applejack.
The latter is surprised by this as she isn’t one who has any experience or knowledge about fashion. But Rarity asks her to think about it because she knows her as the most honest and practical pony there is in all Ponyville.
So after Applejack debates about it back in the Apple Barn, she decides to take on the job as one of the judges for Rarity’s contest. And this is where we see the conflict of this episode unfold before us:
When the contestants arrive at the Boutique, they present their fashionable appearances and tastes in front of Rarity and the judges. When it was Applejack’s turn to give her judgment, she gives a rather negative assessment of their presentation after having a look at what they were showing.
As expected, I get that Applejack saw nothing appealing about those fashion choices, but I also understand she got too carried away with her harsh criticisms. Throughout this episode, there wasn’t a single thing she remotely liked or found interesting about their fashion choices.
But she went too far when she outright said that fashion is ridiculous; umm, yeah, Applejack, you do realize that Rarity adores and admires fashion, right? That’s literally her whole thing, and you’ve known her for many years. And…you have the audacity to say something like that to both those contestants and your friend?
If she doesn’t like fashion, that’s fine, but I take issues with the way she said it and the fact she admitted it right in front of her friend—who has built her whole career around it.
I can excuse all her other faults in this episode, but I feel like she would never say something like that. Saying that line makes her out-of-character and mean for absolutely no reason. I’m not sure if writer Kevin Lappin is aware of this, but Applejack would never say anything that would ruin the reputation or passionate work of one of her best friends.
Outside of this issue, I think it was very appropriate of Rarity to give AJ a painful but warranted taste of her own medicine so she would feel what those ponies felt when she cast heavily negative judgment on their fashion choices.
And this is something we can all learn from as well. It’s so easy for us to tear something down for whatever reason we do, but when criticisms are thrown at us, we get offended. That’s why we must realize that everyone is human, and we should never be unreasonably cruel or disrespectful to other people for their hard work or subjective opinions.
However, that doesn’t mean we should excuse poorly-made decisions on certain projects simply because “Oh, people work hard on this stuff!” That’s where this leads to my next point: I would’ve liked it if this episode had more time to explain the importance of criticism where criticism is needed.
In other words, if there is something that does warrant a critique, we should offer constructive criticismthat will help the individual to learn from their mistakes and do better. They aren’t meant to discourage or discredit their hard work but to help them improve.
This episode implies that criticism isn’t necessary at all, and you cannot say anything negative (big or small) about someone’s work at all. No, that little joke at the end between Rarity and Applejack doesn’t count because that’s where nopony else was around to hear them.
Speaking of which, I thought it was a bit of a cop-out for Applejack to vote for all the contestants to be winners. I get she tried to be nice to them in an attempt to rectify her mistakes, but kids need to learn that not everyone is a winner. That’s just life, and whenever people say “Hey, look, we’re all winners!”, they only say that just to make others feel less like losers.
It would’ve been nice if AJ said, “Well, this fashion choice looks nice, but it would’ve been nicer if this was XYZ. But otherwise, it’s a good look.” Something like that. But no, if you don’t praise them entirely, then you’re just a hater. I guess we can’t criticize anything, huh?
Overall, this was a rather good episode despite the issues I have with its questionable execution of the moral. I give it a solid B-. But hey, at least it’s better than the last couple episodes we had in this season.
Peace.
Guess the writer of this episode decided to amp up AJ's honesty to a brutal degree in this one, based on your synopsis, like damn!
Ironically, even though most consider "Honest Apple" to be one of the worst episodes, I actually found myself having a rollicking great time with this one.
Plus, Applejack's situation and problems when it came to her honesty in this episode is something that I consider to be relatable. It's mainly because, as many comments on this site indicate, I have trouble being honest about something without coming across as too hurtful or mean. I'd also get so carried away by it that I wouldn't realize the damage I'm causing, and sadly...it's a problem that I still struggle with.