Looking On The Bright Side (Looooong) · 6:01pm May 13th, 2014
Now that the season is over, I thought I’d take some time to reflect on the positive. That’s actually difficult for me because I expect positive from this show. Quality should be the norm, not an exception, so I rarely point out when the show is succeeding. However, I could be better about it. It does leave people with the impression that I just hate the heck out of each episode.
So I thought I’d go through the episodes and note what I appreciated about them. Let’s begin.
Princess Twilight Sparkle, Parts One and Two
A strong return after the mess that was Magical Mystery Cure. The rest of the cast might have been sidelined, but it did give us some good time with Twilight. However, Discord is really the star here, as he is pretty much anytime he shows up. I was very excited that he seemed much more bitter in this episode than the puppy-doggish Discord that we were left with after Keep Calm and Flutter On. It was much more interesting to me to have him in a place where he realized that the gang wasn’t doing a whole lot to make him their friend and that he might be putting on an act. We also had some good visual humor in this, mostly thanks to Discord. No one will forget that shot with Twilight and her twilicane.
Castle-Mane-ia
I think I actually like this episode slightly more than most people. That still isn’t saying a whole lot because I think it’s rather “meh”, but let’s keep positive.
Rarity is hilarious in this. Her struggle to beautify a castle that doesn’t want to be prettied up is comedy gold to me. I regularly find frustrated ponies to be the funniest thing in the show, and Rarity is plenty frustrated here.
I also really like the animation when Pinkie is playing the organ at the end of the episode. It’s not the most breathtaking or anything, but she has a sense of delight when she’s banging away on those keys that makes me smile.
However, my favorite thing from that episode is when Twilight has finally gotten them to stop freaking out and running around the castle. They have to go looking for whoever is playing the organ and everyone is scared. So Twilight walks off screen right and they are all just clustered around her, literally hanging off of her. The visual of that and her expression just busts me up every time! Frustrated, irritated ponies! Nothing is funnier!
Daring Don’t
Hmmm. Toughie… Well, I like the third act. We finally get to Ahuizotl (man, I really did not know how to spell that name), and I like the action sequence that happens there. It’s crisp and exciting, with each pony doing their part.
Flight to the Finish
Ah, here we go! I love this episode. I would have liked a stronger resolution, but the path was nice. First up is Hearts As Strong As Horses. Initially, I didn’t think this song was particularly great. It was serviceable, but not a major earworm. However, it has really grown on me. I find it endearing, and I often pull it up on YouTube just to hear it.
Now, I think the setup for Scoots here is a little simplistic. I mean, I would have figured Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon would have teased her about this by now, but whatever. It gets us where we need to be and that with Scootaloo focused on what she can’t achieve and why. I love Scoots here. She tries and tries and tries, and the show had the bravery to have her fail over and over. She never succeeds, and for a children’s show, that’s pretty remarkable. She’s trying so hard that she’s driving away her friends, and we saw that, too.
Apple Bloom and Scoots are in a grey area in their argument. Both are right in one light and wrong in another. Sweetie Belle is off on the sidelines as the friend that just doesn’t want to make waves by taking a side, and we see that she’s in the wrong and at the same time kind of right just like they are.
In the end, Rainbow comes in with some sisterly advice, and that advice spurred me to writing Awaken, Scootaloo. It’s practical advice that people should take to heart, but frustrating in its truth. That leaves Scoots with interesting paths ahead of her.
Power Ponies
Fili-Second and Radiance. Pinkie and Rarity make this episode for me. Overall, I think this is one of the weaker episodes in season four, but Pinkie using her super speed to play tag and Rarity’s sheer delight at her creation powers are adorable and fun. And no one can forget that elite level prancing Rarity displays upon her escape.
Bats!
There is nothing good about Bats!
Moving on…
Okay, okay. I’ll make an attempt. Pinkie is somewhat funny in this episode. Her little Fruit Bat Round-Up song is cute and her prehensile hair is amusing. My favorite moment is when she gets suspicious and yells “Whatcha doin’?!” at Fluttershy.
Also, Rarity is cute in her haz-mat suit.
And… that’s it.
Rarity Takes Manehatten
Another one that I like a lot. I’m a sucker for songs, but this one is just okay. However, it was important to me because of Spike’s stolen carrot dog. I used that for a story that loved writing. Those birds were incredibly fun to characterize.
What I do love in this episode is the focus on how Rarity’s generosity can be a detriment as well as an asset. People are going to take advantage of someone who is unguardedly generous, and Rarity has to figure out how to work with that. It’s pretty weighty stuff for ages four to eight. Actually, is that true anymore? After that finale, are we even pretending that bronies aren’t the demographic they are targeting these days?
This episode gave us several good new characters. We had Suri, who I loved. Coco Pommel, who is super cute. Most importantly, that receptionist pony who I like to call Janine Marenitz. I loved her.
But what we had is a frustrated pony, and I love my frustrated ponies. “Congratu-pony-lations, fillies” was a great moment. And to me, Hotel Chic is very Rarity. Not the designs, which I thought were atrocious, but the ability to think on her hooves and make something spectacular out of almost nothing. Rarity is a can-do kind of mare, and it was on display.
Pinkie Apple Pie
There is simply too much about this episode that I love to really list it out. It’s one of my favorites from this season. I could go on forever about how great this episode is.
Apples to the Core is a fantastic song with great visuals. I’d have liked a Big Mac verse, but they were running with the “Big Mac can’t talk” joke, so whatever. It’s still an awesome song.
The Apples are all great here. They are both loving and sniping, easily encapsulating that thing with families were you both love each other and can’t stand to see each other all at the same time. Granny Smith is especially great here. I love when she says “Gad-Snickity!” and her flat refusal to acknowledge that the bonnet on her head is, in fact, her traveling bonnet. Applejack’s control issues are underscored here, which I also love. It helps tone down the Applejack we see in Somepony To Watch Over Me.
But the real star here to me is Pinkie. She’s really a sideline character compared to the Apple family in the episode, but whenever she’s onscreen, she’s hilarious. I think Andrea Libman really threw herself into the voice work in that episode. From her “Who knew?” deliver to the sheer joy that there is a note on Goldie Delicious’s door, I can’t get enough of how enthusiastic she is about every little thing. And those huge eyes when she says “And I knew it was true!” God, I love Pinkie Pie.
This episode also had one of the most relatable lessons.
Rainbow Falls
To me, this episode is about the little things. I think the overall is kind of “meh”, but certain details are great.
No surprise that I love cheerleader Pinkie. The “P is for…” gag makes me laugh whenever I see it. I like Bulk’s affable dunderheadedness, even if I’m not sold on that name. I love where Fluttershy accidentally hits Bulk in the face and he trots off in a huff, leaving her to fly after him. Quite a bit of the training sequences were fun to watch.
The real standout here for me was Fleetfoot. I love her overall look and cool voice. I’d much rather see Fleetfoot in the future than Spitfire. I mean, I don’t dislke Spitfire or anything, but she doesn’t capture my imagination. And Soarin’ is Soarin’. He’s okay.
Three’s a Crowd
Oh, good ol’ uneven Three’s a Crowd. What to say about this…
Well, Discord, I guess. I mean, it’s pretty much The Discord Show whenever he shows up. He’s such a great character. The visual gags that surround him are always fabulous. I love where he rids himself of the hugging Pinkie Pie by flowing out of her embrace and then hanging her on that tree.
It was also interesting for my own headcanon that none of the ponies really wanted to see him. I was hoping to build a sequel to Diary of a Pliant Tyrant off of that dynamic. So much for that…
So we get into the musical number. This seems to be quite controversial among bronies, and I’m not sure why. It’s a perfectly good song. It’s not amazing, but it works and the video is very amusing. I definitely enjoy the number.
Also nice was Cadence, you know, doing something. She’s been dull as dishwater since they introduced her, so it was nice to see her show some grit and a bit of a wild side. She’s still got a long way to go before I look forward to her appearances, but it’s a start.
Pinkie Pride
As close to perfect as they get. It would be a lot easier for me to list the one minor problem I have with the episode than all the great things, really.
As always, Weird Al gave his role one hundred and ten percent of his attention, and it shows. Cheese Sandwich is an awesome character and Pinkie is totally adorable in this. I love anything that gives her range and shows that underneath all that silliness is a lonely pony who just wants others to love her the way that she loves them.
I love each song in this episode. There isn’t a clunker among them. I can listen to the whole soundtrack back to front without wanting to skip at all. The animation to pair with the music was stellar, and The Goof Off and Make A Wish are instant classics in my book. That little dance routine the girls are doing at the end just delights me to no end.
In the end, this is just simply the best. I’ve watched it over and over again. I was really afraid when they announced a guest voice that it would be half-assed, but they blew me out of the water.
Simple Ways
Ugh. And then this. I hate this episode.
Okay, what’s good? Gotta find something good. Well, Applejack is on point in this episode. Well, until the end. I don’t care for her fashion solution, but until then, I love her in this episode.
Spike as also pretty great here. He seems to shine when it comes to Rarity episodes because they let him have a role, rather than use him as an accessory. He was enjoyable to watch here.
Filli Vanilli
And to clear way the taste of that bad episode is a great episode! I seriously can’t get enough of this one.
So we have some Fluttershy growth, which I appreciate. The gang tries to pressure her into singing at the beginning and she stands up for herself. I like that. It’s been frustrating to watch her backslide into doormattishness every time. She really seemed to have grown this season.
We also had Rarity whapping Pinkie on the head with a rolled up magazine. That amused me. However, the less said about Pinkie in this episode, the better. Best Pony was not on her Best Behavior.
So an episode like this depends on the song because you are going to hear it over and over. To me, Find the Music In You really delivers. I’m fully into that song every time it comes on, and for each iteration it goes through.
Fluttershy is at her most adorable in this episode. I love that she’s doing what she loves and getting so much joy out of singing because she feels safe. Her happy boogieing is too heartmeltingly wonderful to deal with, and who doesn’t love when she’s literally shaking her ass in the window?
Speaking of Fluttershy’s reaction, I feel like this episode has the clearest expression of love seen anywhere in the series. When the first show is over, there is a moment when Fluttershy is just so happy. They give her a close up and she kind of snuggles down with her eyes closed and a smile on her face. That expression of love for the moment, the sheer joy of what she’s finally been able to do, is more evocative of love than anything with the Cakes or Shining Armor/Cadence. It’s not romantic love, obviously, but it’s strong. I feel like Fluttershy loves singing more than Shining Armor loves Cadence. I’m not kidding about that at all.
We also got some Cheerilee in this episode, which we need more of. Much, much more.
But the real star here is Torch Song. I could write volumes about how much I love Torch Song. We need more of her, and more immediately!
It Ain’t Easy Being Breezies
Hmmm. Another toughie.
It’s not a bad episode, but it’s uninspired to me. Uh, I like the reinforcement of Fluttershy getting a backbone. She was amusing in her bee suit. That’s… really all that’s coming to mind. Maybe I need to rewatch that one. I can barely remember anything I particularly like about it.
Somepony To Watch Over Me
Ah, the Apple family. They never disappoint unless the episode is called Apple Family Reunion, and even that one isn’t awful. It just has a really bad song.
Apple Bloom is just great in this one, and that’s really what is remarkable about MLP. Child characters are generally something to dread in cartoons, but these children are ones that I look forward to. I love that Apple Bloom is so excited to be home by herself at last, and it makes me smile when she says, “If I want to read a book… I can!” The look on her face is priceless.
I feel like Applejack is somewhat OOC compared to what we’ve seen in the past, but we have been given some threads that make her have some control issues. In the end, I just shrug and roll with it. It’s what you get with different writers. And while it may leave me scratching my head a little, it also has me laughing. Applejack is funny in this, with her safety helmets and child-proofing the farm. Her over-mothering cracks me up.
The chimaera was also a welcome addition. Chimaeras are one of my favorites, so it’s great to see them introduced. I didn’t think Applejack’s freak out in front of Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo was anything other than just lines for her to say, so when they actually factored in to the plot, I was pleased.
Maud Pie
Another controversial episode. It seems you either found Maud funny or you didn’t, and if you didn’t, there wasn’t a lot here for you.
However, I did find Maud funny, so I loved this one. It’s not the strongest, story-wise, but I thought Maud herself was entertaining enough to make up for it. Much like Discord, it was really the Maud Show when she appeared.
Not much else to say, I guess. I liked the Maud gags, and the whole thing was Maud gags.
Oh, I guess I should mention that moment when they have to disappoint Pinkie. Pinkie’s reaction is perfect. She’s hurt, but she cares too much about them to make a big deal out of it. That’s Pinkie Pie.
For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils
I was panicking when this episode was coming out because I was just finishing up Awaken, Scootaloo, and I was afraid it was going to blow up my story before I even got a chance to publish it. I hustled to get it out ahead of that Saturday, but in the end, it actually ended up reinforcing my story, rather than tearing it to shreds.
So we have focus on Sweetie Belle and Rarity, and that’s always good in my book. Sweetie Belle is Best Filly, so whenever she’s around, I’m happy.
The meat of this is Luna’s dreamscape, and I liked the animation and the story it told.
Additionally, I was happy to see Sapphire Shores again. We could do with a bit more of her.
Leap of Faith
FLIM AND FLAM! I love those guys. Nothing spectacular. Just two charismatic hucksters who are always working an angle. I’m happy when the show has low-level villainy like that.
This episode really gets good to me when Applejack confronts Flim and Flim. They surprised me by telling her the truth and basically daring her to break Granny Smith’s heart with it. That was really interesting to me. A lot of shows would run with some level of increasingly ridiculous scam, but MLP just handed Applejack a real dilemma.
Testing Testing, 1, 2, 3
Another uneven episode.
To me, the first third is total gold. I get my frustrated, nerdy Twilight back and Rainbow’s refusal to learn brought me back to why I wrote Checkmates in the first place. I love their character interaction here.
Rainbow’s realization that she’s learned all the needed information by the end, along with Twilight’s explanation of how it was done, is heart-warming to me. I like the positivity in that sequence.
Applejack’s “help” also cracks me up. “You are up a creek.”
Trade Ya!
Ummm. Another episode that I’m going to struggle with. It’s not a bad episode, but it’s just unremarkable.
Well, I guess Pinkie is pretty amusing to me in it. I like her carny persona.
That rooster salespony sounds like Paul Lynde, which made me laugh.
Rarity and Applejack made me laugh with their competitive niceness. In fact, they are really the best thing about this episode. I really liked when Applejack put herself in a corner because she couldn’t tell one broach from the other after she switched them around.
Inspiration Manifestation
Rarity eating ice cream! Oh, man. I love the little “Om nom nom” sounds she makes when she’s shoveling it into her face. I’m a sucker for despairing Rarity, so that just tickled me.
Spike was good here, and I guess MLP needs to explore why he’s so good at finding secret books. He inexplicably found the book in Magical Mystery Cure. He found this book. He finds the books Twilight can’t find in her collection. He had a magical comic book, which wasn’t secret, but no one else knew about them. He’s just good with books.
But Spike has had terrible episodes, by and large. This season really let him shine. He’s pretty good here, trapped between wanting to be appreciated by his crush and doing the right thing. I always like that doing the right thing is sort of the last thing on Spike’s list, but he always get around to it after he’s done trying to do something weasel-y.
Expanded roles for the pets is something I’ve wanted for a while, so I like that Owlowicious is actually featured.
Oh, and Twilight was annoyed. Always good.
Equestria Games
A rather strange episode, but it continues the Spike dynamic from above. He’s looking for approval and is dealing with being in that transitionary tweener state. He’s still a kid in a lot of ways, but he wants to be seen as an adult. This causes him to bite off more than he can chew, and they did a pretty decent, if cringe-worthy, job of it.
Pinkie was funny in her little moments. Nice to see her standing on some crystal pony’s head when she’s talking to Twilight.
Cadence was also nice to see here as the intermediate princess. She’s not quite as regal as Celestia and Luna. She’s still excited enough to wave at Twilight.
Twilight’s Kingdom, Parts One and Two
I’ve written those episodes up pretty exhaustively recently, so I’m not really going to go into it again. I loved a lot about Part one, and not very much about Part Two. I’ll paste this in from the Part Two write up:
EDIT - Jack is taking me to task for not finding anything good in this episode at all. I deserve that. This episode did piss me off a great deal, but it's not to say that nothing good happened. He's right that the moment with Shining Armor confronting Discord was well done. I love that Twilight took the time to rescue Owlowicious from the library. Spike was included in the group of captured friends. I liked the way Twilight's power was leaking out all out of control, and I was entertained when she was trying to raise the sun.
And yes, I did like that battle sequence on a visceral level. It was neat to watch, since we don't get all that much out and out fighting in this series. I'd like to see Twilight get a little more creative than Eldritch Beams of Pure Power, but as knock down, drag out sequences go, it was pretty badass.
So all in all, I think this was a pretty strong season. More enjoyable for me than season three, though I think people forget that season three had a pretty strong beginning half. I only actively dislike three of the twenty-six episodes, so I’m happy with it. Many of the others are mediocre, but I’ll take that when I have some strong ones to go with it. I’d certainly love back to back Pinkie Apple Pie’s and Pinkie Pride but none of the seasons have that. We generally have a few standouts and a bunch of serviceable episodes. It would have been nice to leave this season with a better taste in my mouth, but this does remind me that there was a lot of fun that I had along the way. Hopefully season five will address some of what I didn’t like in Twilight’s Kingdom.
One can only hope.
This is the sort of thing everyone should do. If I could, I'd assign "list what you enjoyed about each episode this season" as a writing assignment. For all the unpleasable complaining, I think it would do most bronies good to focus on why they're still here, still watching, and still reading. And for those about to jump ship, it's even more important.
In short, thank you for this.
2108380 You're very welcome. It is something that I need to remind myself of. I love this show, but you wouldn't know it by some of the things that I post sometimes. I don't want to be a creampuff who just blindly accepts subpar work, but I also need to remember to celebrate the successes.
Agreed! Okay, actually, I just didn't like the complete lack of logical thinking presented in this episode. Much like Super Cider Squeezy 6000. (the song in SSS was amazing though.)
I'm going to pretend I actually did more than skim past that.
The highlight of 'Simple Ways' for me was Rarity's awful fake accent. And not just because of how ridiculous it is; it's some pretty impressive VAing from Tabitha.
2108507 I think Tabitha St. Germain is the top voice actor on that show. Her range always amazes me. She really shines in every role they give her.
2108420 Hey, don't you be comin' 'round these parts spouting your negativity about Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000! I love that episode.
Yeah, it's not the most logical episode, but it's based off of emotional reaction, not a logical decision. It works for me. Is Granny Smith an idiot for getting the Apple family into that mess? Yes, but they never said she isn't. The Apples were driven by pride and they nearly paid for it. It's not supposed to be logical.
If you love Torch Song so much, why don't you marry her?
2108650 I'm already married!
But if I was single, I'd ask for her hoof!
2108665
Ponies do move in herds....
Just saying.
2108507
Agreed. I can understand disliking the episode, as Rarity did have a death grip on the idiot ball the whole time. I can forgive that issue, though, because it managed to be as funny as it was. Rarity's accent was possibly my favorite comedic moment of the season. Well... after the eagle from Pinkie Apple Pie, that is.
I just realized this today and it made me so happy. :D
You know what? I haven't started marathonning this season yet, and I'd been looking for a better review format than my Good, Bad and Ugly thing from when I had a Livejournal. (It worked a lot better with that site's formatting capabilities.) I think I'll copy this, maybe throw in a star rating since my goal is to rank everything from most to least favorite. But I think forcing myself to focus on the good of each episode will be a fun exercise in not snarking too much. :V
2110345 I'm planning on trying to do a good/bad/I don't get it style review system on the upcoming season, and doing one of these positive reviews at the end again. It was a fun exercise and no one noticed that I skipped Twilight Time. I don't have much to say about that one...