Just a Thought: MLP S5 E6

Spoilers ahead!

Dear Princess Celestia,

Southern Ponies are mean, and stupid, and have funny accents... but then again I could probably say the same about Canterlot and Manehatten ponies.

Also, Cutiemarks, how do they work?

Sincerely,
Your faithful yet horribly confused brony, Xain Russell

~~~~~

Well, it had to happen sooner or later, I was just hoping it would have happened later rather than sooner. This is a bad episode, on the same sort of level of "Feeling Pinkie Keen" or "Somepony to Watch Over Me," where the majority of the episode is perfectly fine on its own and even has a few good moments here and there, but the ending makes it into something rather deplorable.

First off, I can't help but think this entire episode is a huge step backward for the CMC, as if all the lessons they've learned over the last four seasons have just fallen right out of their heads. They try doing every little thing under the sun to get their cutie marks when they've learned time and time again that that doesn't work. They go wandering off into spooky dark woods at night even though the last time they did that they nearly got stoned by a cockatrice. And then there's the experience they had two freaking episodes prior to this one, where they learned that a cutie mark is made to fit you, not the other way around.

And that's the big crux of this entire episode and why I don't like it: it seems to be saying the exact opposite of what "Bloom and Gloom" was trying to say! Hey kids, if you're special talent is being a complete and total klutz, don't worry, just join a circus and let people laugh at you all day! It just doesn't feel right, it feels like it's trying to be what cutie mark detractors THINK cutie marks are. What's more, Trouble Shoes got his cutie mark BEFORE he found out what his calling in life was, which goes completely against everything we've been told so far. A cutie mark should appear after a moment of self realization, when a pony looks inside and sees exactly what it is that makes them the most happiest. But no, Trouble Shoes gets his cutie mark by being laughed at and becoming a social pariah. I don't like the connotations this brings up, anymore than I like the ones brought up by Twilight choosing to just accept Pinkie Sense just because she get's the crap beat out of her if she does. Yes, in the end, Trouble Shoes did find his life's true calling, but he shouldn't have spent most of his life wondering what he wanted to be just because his cutie mark decided that it needed to appear at a moment when he WASN'T having fun.

Okay, so, anything good about the episode? Well, I will admit that it was nice seeing everyone's favourite imprint of their repressed homosexual desires again... really though, where did this joke about Braeburn being gay come from, and why does everyone just roll with it? I actually kept waiting for Little Strongheart to be there and just troll the fans by saying "Hey me and Braeburn are dating now so you can stop with all the supposed gayness you keep assuming he has." Not that I'm saying there's anything wrong with him being gay if that were the case, but the fandom has this really weird fascination with making every male character in this show that isn't canonically attached to someone already into the equivalent of Jack Harkness.

Anything else good? ...Anything? ...No? ...huh, ummm, I liked some of the expressions Braeburn made when he was the victim of slapstick... yeaaahh, now that I think about it, this episode didn't have a lot going for it...

All in All, a very meh episode with a lesson that is contradictory as all get out, and the only upside being more Gaybur-BRAEburn... Braeburn... totally meant to say "Braeburn."

Comments

[Evilworld]

You want to know I learn from that episode