Canterlot Boutique Review · 12:54am Sep 13th, 2015
MLP is at its dullest when you can call the ending less than halfway through the episode, and at its worst when the plot hinges on a character acting like an idiot... this is one of those episodes. So I guess it's a testament to skill that this episode avoids being awful. It's just bland and boring, yet not forgettable.
Sassy Saddles is obviously the antagonist of the episode, it's immediately clear as soon as you see her. Yet, despite the episode trying to portray her as a villain... I was on her side through it all. She helped manage things much better than Rarity and had a better sense of business than her. During the opening of the boutique, sure she was a glory hound, but she also genuinely aided in wowing the visiting ponies.
Rarity is a fool for not foreseeing the massive workload increase she'll have to deal with, and then insisting on doing it herself only to complain about it. Yet in this is the grace of the episode - the moral for Rarity was a good one. It's become increasingly clear over five seasons that Rarity is a designer and an artist first. She wants fame and success, but more than that, she wants to create. This episode takes her to the realization that she isn't suited for the business side of things and is best put on the creative side. Come up with exciting new dresses and then let the team mass produce them while you move on to the next project.
I am also relieved they didn't simply keep to the status quo by closing the boutique in the end. Let's remember that, writers, and bring back Sassy for cameos or make reference to the Canterlot branch in future episodes. When a character's circumstances and character arc advance, let's not throw it away next season.
By the way, it occurs to me; between the Wonderbolts Academy and the Wonderbolts Reserve, how is Rainbow doing on either front? That the writers did forget.
Or maybe they've just been waiting for the right moment if next episode is any indication.
3388653 Oh? What's the next episode?
3388655 "Rarity Investigates" in which Rarity must clear Rainbow Dash's name when the latter is accused of a crime she didn't commit. Images from the episode show The Wonderbolts, and the coliseum stands.
3388658 Hm, intriguing.
at first i though sassy was a villan but then she just a regular and normal pony who wanted business in canterlot botique to run well that was untill rarity had enough and discontinued the princess dress and decide to just do what she always wanted do, two of them have great run though. in other word she just regular pony, and isnt me or sassy sounded like luna?
well, you got that Rarity is an artist first, but you missed the major point of the episode. Rarity didn't care about the work increase, she was bothered by the assembly line nature of producing the Princess Dress, and not designing new or customizing for the individual customer
3388964 Except she ultimately didn't. All the dresses she ended up selling in the ending sequence were pre-made.
3388974 Well I sorta agree. I guess the main point of this season is to be original and unique. And that sucess comes from that. I think it was a good episode but not an interesting one.
This is a great point. This episode partially adressed, but didn't fully cover, Rarity's contradicting desires:
Desire #1: Rarity wants to be the biggest fashion name in Equestria, with everyone who's anyone wearing her dresses.
Desire #2: Rarity only wants to sell dresses to ponies she can individually sew and customize them for.
Sure, in this episode it seems like Rarity is less exhausted from the sheer volume of work, than from the repetitive nature of it. But does that mean if those 300 orders for Princess Dresses had been 300 customized, individualized orders, Rarity would have enough time and energy to keep up such a pace forever? Ultimately, Rarity is going to either have to get a large team of seamstresses making her designs, or sell only as many dresses as she can design and customize at a given time, to an elite clientele. The latter seems pretty similar to what she's actually doing right now, but she won't be more than a niche player in the fashion industry, albeit a high-end one, like that.