What I Thought About "Look Before You Sleep" · 2:12pm Jul 16th, 2015
Episode Review
Man, as soon as I opened up my "Watching Ponies" folder (yeah, I have that) and saw that this episode was next on my list, I smiled. I really enjoyed this one when I first saw it. Yeah, it's derivative and predictable, but I thought it was well done. I wonder how well it holds up after two years, for me.
Say, wait a minute. If Rarity can just magically reattach broken tree branches, why aren't they doing that instead of ripping them down? I'm sure the trees would appreciate it. Maybe it's just not feasible or workable in the long term.
On a related note, Rarity shows an interesting breadth of spells in this episode. She's got the classic levitation, sure, but she also does the tree branch fixing thing. Then she not only trims and rearranges leaves into little topiaries, she also magically trims and shifts the sticks and stuff. I wonder just how much magical power she really has. We don't get to see much aside from levitating stuff, but when we do, it's always something fairly impressive, like turning some chunks of fabric into a dress in a flash. I wonder why she sews at all. Maybe the magic dress shaping is temporary, or something.
Wow, Rarity is kinda, well, unpleasant. I'm glad she got more development as the show wore on. Same with Rainbow. I can see why they both got a lot of hate early on. Luckily, they both got better (mostly). At least Rarity was still adorable, all the way back then.
This episode kinda makes me wonder why Rarity and Applejack were ever friends to begin with. They likely don't run in the same social circles, the have wildly different jobs, and they certainly don't get along initially. Maybe they both know each other through mutual friends like Pinkie or Fluttershy. I could see them both attending a Pinkie party and growing close to her, and just having to tolerate one another. Rarity and Flutters seem to have been close friends for a while, and Fluttershy lives on the edge of the Everfree Forest. Sweet Apple Acres is right next to the forest too, so it's reasonable to guess they probably see a lot of each other.
Hmm. A magical lightning rod, eh, Twilight? How exactly is that different from a regular lightning rod? Does it magically channel the lightning's power into something? Does it... whoa, what if there are, like, literal lightning bugs? She has a lamp with lightning bugs (AKA fireflies) in it, and they glow really bright. Maybe they're powered by actual electricity, which is how they're so luminous, and she recharges them every time there's a storm. That's kinda cool. I'm gonna integrate that into my future works.
... I kinda miss the more magitek approach. We've seen so much more modern technology in the show, as of late. Now, I'm a science fiction dude, but the magically-powered tech is interesting and cool. Helped set it apart from our own world a bit more.
You know, asking somebody to clean the mud from their feet before tracking it into someone's home isn't an unreasonable thing to do, hardwood floor or no. Just sayin'.
Huh, I'd forgotten why Spike was away. Royal business in Canterlot. Alone. Does he do that a lot? Whoa, hey, this exact event is perfect for something I'm working on. Most excellent.
"We have to do it. It says so in the book."
I wonder how many clopfics contain those very lines...
I can't really explain why, but Applejack getting her face mudded is one of my all-time favorite little moments from the show. Just the visuals, the sounds, the little vocalizations that AJ makes... Perfect. More generally, this episode has some really awesome expressions, especially from Rarity. Rarity is just so expressive in general, though. She rarely feels flat. Excellent character, she is.
Applejack: "That's not a real story, you made it up!"
Rarity: "It is a ghost story, they're all made up."
Just wanna say that this is one of my favorite dialogue exchanges from the show, or from anything ever.
Y'know, I just noticed something. When AJ gets Rarity all wet, she looks really pleased with it. Like, sadistically so. However, when Rarity makes Applejack dress up all fancy, Rarity doesn't look nearly as cruel. She actually looks more like she genuinely likes seeing AJ play dress-up. Maybe that's just her fashionista instincts overriding her spite. Or maybe I'm just reading too deeply into this minor thing because it's hard to find anything new to say about these old episodes.
Uh, AJ? Taking down loose branches would so not have prevented lightning from blasting a tree trunk in two. Just sayin'.
And it ends with a nice moral, as most episodes do. After all this time, I still enjoyed it. Yeah, it's nothing new or all that special. In fact, it's pretty generic, as far as plots go. Frankly, the show felt a lot more derivative in general, back in Season 1. Still, I had fun with this, and I thought it was done pretty well. I'd give it a 7/10. Not original, but pretty good.
Rarijack ✓
Impromptu sleepover ✓
Entire episode in library ✓
Twilight being adorable ✓
SCIENTIFICALLY BEST EPISODE
Context is for the weak
Btw, now I feel like watching this episode. Also, is it weird that I thought that Twilight's magical lightning rod is connected to a sewn-up corpse in the basement, guarded by a lisping hunchback named Igor? (hmm, maybe his pony version is a camel?)
This episode was always sort of a "guilty pleasure" for me. I watched it more times than most Season 1 episodes, and it's because of the nice exchanges and characterizations.
On Rarity's magic, she actually uses it a lot. She also has a gem-locator spell she taught to Twilight in the Diamond Dogs episode, Yes, let that sink in, Rarity taught Twilight Sparkle a spell. I think she just doesn't typically need to do things like this for any reason.
Also my impression of the first season was that none of the mane 6 were friends before Twilight appeared, aside from maybe Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Twilight met each of them individually, and then they came to Twilight for answers at the same time after Celestia's disappearance, since they knew who she was and what she was there for. They sort of all met at the same time. Season 1 is full of episodes of these ponies getting to know each other, after all. "Griffon the Brush Off" also gives the impression that Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash don't know each other all that well beforehand, if they didn't even know they shared a love of pranking, and even more telling, that Rainbow Dash really didn't want to hang out with Pinkie at all until she learned this. And of course, Rarity and Applejack simply HATED each other throughout this episode until they finally found a common ground.
I'm sure there are other examples that slip my mind, but yeah, that was my impression of the first season.
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Only seems natural. Or perhaps it's wired up to a big jar of jelly where she grows lab experiments.
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I think "guilty pleasure" is a great way to put it. Like, I really like originality, and this episode has very little in that respect. But there are just so many little things that I like about it. I found myself rewatching this more than most other episodes as well. It's just fun.
I'm not one of those guys who thinks Rarity was actually more magically powerful than pre-alicorn Twilight, but the marshmallow unicorn seems to have a lot more magical capability than most give her credit for. Yeah, she totally taught Twilight something. That shows enough understanding of her own talents to be able to translate it to words and teach it to another. It occurs to me that Rarity may well know herself better than some other cast members. Probably where she gets her confidence.
Hmm. It could be that they never met before, yeah. We do see them learn about each other and butt heads over minor things a lot. Though, there's also some evidence that at least some of them knew one another. Like in Feeling Pinkie Keen, where Applejack knew about Pinkie Sense. Though, in a small settlement, it's probably hard to not hear about a mare like Pinkie. Dash and Flutters at least met once before, but not a lot else is all that clear. Then there are Fluttershy and Rarity's weekly get-togethers. I can't be sure. Hmm. I'll be paying more attention to this subject as I continue looking at episodes. I shall figure this out.
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Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash definitely knew each other, but that in itself doesn't make them besties. Wasn't Rainbow Dash the one who warned Twilight not to bring Fluttershy in "DragonShy"? In a way that was pretty rude and brutal, but not entirely inaccurate? Also sort of rolling her eyes at Fluttershy and being generally irritated by her presence the entire episode. Knowing one-another doesn't make two people friends. Most people in a small town like Ponyville will know of one-another, that doesn't mean they're close to everybody they know. I guess that means I chose my words poorly, not that they just MET, but rather that they're not very good friends yet.
I'm not sure how to explain Rarity and Fluttershy's get-togethers in this context, granted, but that episode was pretty far into the season, after the "ponies getting to know each other" phase had mostly passed.
... Does Rainbow Dash even technically live in Ponyville? Her house just seems to float out in the middle of B-F-Nowhere.
On Rarity's confidence, yeah, she is definitely a mare who knows exactly who she is and what she wants. She even acknowledges how shallow and superficial she appears to others on occasion, but she doesn't mind because she really doesn't give a flying feather about their judgments. She even has a song about this now.
Also it occurs to me, amusingly, that what Pinkie does to Rainbow Dash at the beginning of "Griffon the Brush Off" is a short-form of exactly what she does to Cranky Doodle in season 2. The "ferociously attack with friendship until friend-status is attained" thought process.
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Doctor Twi grows funny creatures,
Lets them run into the night.
They become great rock musicians,
and their time is right!
Hmm, so Hugh Jelly ran away from the lab?