In which TheAccidentalBrony rambles about some episodes or something dumb like that

So, I'm writing this blog post as an extended response to a comment thread I participated in, in which I had the opportunity to think about some things relating to the most recent episode. Warning, the below rambles a lot, and probably doesn't make much sense. If you don't like reading some guy on the internet's random wrong opinion about some episode of a pony show, or nerd rage, or if you're allergic to peanuts, you probably should avoid the rest of this post.

Okay, if you're still here, I guess you want to read the ramble.

Basically, I've noticed a lot of people really enjoyed the most recent episode.

In some cases, those people are the same who felt Slice of Life.

I am pretty much in exactly the opposite position. Let me take a moment to explain.

Slice of Life knew exactly what it was. Thinking about it, my experience with Slice of Life wasn't all that different than when I saw Jurassic World in the theater recently. That movie was filled with various sight and thematic references to its forebears, to the extent that the whole of the plot is essentially a meta-metaphor for the movie itself. I'll still admit that I enjoyed it quite a bit, much like Slice of Life, but I understand that just as many will hate it as not. Yes, this is a fairly loose comparison, but it's the first one that fell out of my mind.

Slice of Life was an orgy, if you will, an indulgence of all the things that we'd never expect, and never really should have, in MLP. It's silly, and if you're looking at it critically, it's certainly no better than average...kind of a Trade Ya! for this season, without that episode's massive moral dilemma. I enjoyed it, I took it as a celebration, an anniversary if you will, and just had fun with it. Here's the thing with Slice of Life, though. If you don't like it, you can pretty much completely ignore it. Nothing that happened there has any bearing on the ongoing continuity of the show. [EDIT: Yes, I this doesn't excuse a poor episode, but...does have some bearing on rage levels from a fandom perspective, I think]

That's not the case for Do Princesses Dream..., though. This episode is quite a bit more substantial than even a standard episode, though not quite as weighty as a season finale. In any case, it's an episode that absolutely can't be ignored, and does some moderately awful things with characters that are actually important in the show. Allow me to sum up the dream sequences for you:

Rarity: Dresses!
Twilight: Books!
Applejack: Apples!
Fluttershy: Shhhh!
Pinkie: Random!
Dash: Tomboy!

I mean, really, aren't we past these one-dimensional characterizations at this point? When you consider the dream sequences we've gotten for the three fillies, the dreamworld has given us the opportunity to expand the scope of what we know about those characters, showing us new sides to their personalities and glimpses into their hopes and fears. But in this episode, we get the exact opposite, returning us to these very limp, outdated characterizations of our protagonists.

And the shared dream....nah, there's just too much, and the episode really doesn't attempt to justify any of it. You compared this to Magic Duel, but at least there, all the absurdities (except, perhaps, for the Yoda reference) served a purpose in the story, and, unlike this episode, didn't end up raising...uncomfortable questions about characters we already know well. Keep in mind, while the sequence does take place in a dreamstate, the characters are essentially lucid dreaming, which means anything that happens is a willing manifestation of their conscious mind, not random creations of the subconscious.

As one example, Fluttershy didn't even know what happened at the end of Bats! She literally had no idea she had turned into a bat after Twilight reversed the spell. Her transformation at-will into that character, therefore, is completely inconsistent with that lack of knowledge, not to mention at odds with the passive-aggressive problem-solving skills we've seen from her literally every time she's had to deal with any sort of existential threat. And I'm talking from the freaking series opener all the way through to how she's consistently dealt with Discord (or Starlight Glimmer, if you don't count him as a real threat anymore). Open violence as a first resort to confront a problem is simply not how she deals with things.

And that's just one of many.

Hell, at least Slice of Life tried to explain its absurdities. Derpy was there...to deliver invitations. Steven Magnet was there because...he met Cranky once. They're silly connections, but at least they're attempts at reasonable explanations, even if clumsily done. This episode, though. When Big Mac is told he can do anything he can think up, why is his best idea to turn himself into a princess (the fact that he subconsciously dreams of being a unicorn is another topic)? Eh, who knows—but look, Twilight's throwing books, because....reasons! She could use giant massive superalicorn laser beams, but....MANSPIKE! (Why wouldn't he just 'dream' transform into an actual adult dragon? That seems far more effect—

Fuck it. Just slap a giant Derpy on the turd. The bronies will eat it right up.

In the end, I'm just really disappointed, because I really wanted to like this episode. Unlike Slice of Life, this episode did have a very compelling concept, and could have made a great episode. Instead, I feel like all the references effectively shoved the plot into the first and last 3 minutes of the episode. And the dreams...well, they just all felt so lazy to me. They could have been creative, shown us another side to these characters, but instead we got recycled concepts, one-dimensional characters, and fanservice. In fact, I'd go so far to say that for me, this episode was this season's Rainbow Falls.

I'm glad so many people still enjoyed this one so immensely. I, obviously wasn't among them—though I do want to reinforce that I didn't hate it, either, regardless of the negativity of this post.

Comments

[Solitair]

Yeah, I forgot that the individual mane six dreams were lame.

I really wish I could find a way to see Jurassic World, because I want to know for sure if all the awful things I hear about it are true.

And I guess you're not completely wrong. I don't buy that the justifications in Slice of Life are any less contrived than in Dream but that doesn't matter. I just find the individual pandering in the dreams more appealing than in Slice of Life, which doesn't matter either.