SPOILERS! Mariusioannesp Reviews: "The Hooffields and McColts" · 7:38am Nov 15th, 2015

WARNING!!! The following contains SPOILERS for today’s MLP episode “The Hooffields and McColts.”

Now, without further askiddly-bopty-doo, here is my review of “The Hooffields and McColts.”

Fluttershy is interrupted during her book club with her animals when she is butt-dialed by the Cutie Map! Twilight Sparkle has also been called finally and is quite excited about it! They have been called to the Smokey Mountains where two pony families, the titular Hooffields and the McColts, are in the midst of a blood feud! (Well, not so much blood as there were tomatoes.) The only problem is these families have been feuding for so long, they’re not quite sure why they started in the first place. Their animosity is so deep, Twilight isn’t sure any of her prepared solutions will bring a resolution to this friendship problem. Will Twilight and Fluttershy be able to find the root of the problem and finally put an end to these ponies’ feud?

So, what’s the verdict?

This was an episode that was unexpected in a number of ways. When it’s title first appeared on the leaked episode list, I thought it’d be an Applejack episode. Turns out, It’s Twilight and Fluttershy’s Cutie Map episode. Then, I figured this was the episode that would introduce us to Fluttershy’s brother, but then it was revealed we won’t see him until Season 6. I figured there might be a Romeo and Juliet angle along with the Hatfield-McCoy thing, but that didn’t happen. But it was still alluded to that Disney did just that a long time ago in their short “The Martins and the Coys.”

End of the day though, this was a really good episode. We got some quality Fluttershy here. Oh, and Twilight was great too.

So yeah, I liked it!

We begin with Fluttershy having a Furry Friends Book Club with all her furry friends. They’re reading… Wuthering Hooves. Yeah, that’s right. They’ve ponified Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights. It even has an apparent protagonist named “Hoofcliff”. This is the season where they will ponify just about anything isn’t it. Wait, how can Fluttershy’s furry friends even read? As a matter of fact, how can the pets on Littlest Pet Shop read? (I’ve gotten a little more into Littlest Pet Shop these days.) However, Fluttershy is interrupted when she realizes her cutie mark is a-buzzing, and she is being called by the Cutie Map! She arrives at Twilight’s castle to see that Twilight has been excitedly doing research for she also has been called by the Cutie Map! Finally, though not unexpected.

LOOK AT MY BUTT!!!

She’s already been testing out potential friendship problems and diversifying her solution portfolio, and it’s only been five minutes! She wants to be prepared because what would it look like if the Princess of Friendship couldn’t solve a friendship problem. Anyway, the Map has sent Twilight and Fluttershy to the Smokey Mountains. Twilight doesn’t have many resources about it.

Hi, Spike. Bye, Spike. You have no further purpose in this episode, so we will not be seeing you again.

Wait, aren’t the Smokey Mountains a real place in this world? They’re like on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina.

Moving on, all Twilight knows about Equestria’s Smokey Mountains is that it’s the most beautiful valley in all of Equestria situated between the peaks of two mountains. Fluttershy takes this to mean that there are a lot of animal friends there. Twilight though is concerned because she likes to be a bit more prepared than this for these kinds of things, but Fluttershy assures her that she seems pretty prepared. Twilight already has bags packed for them with everything they’ll need like blankets, books, snacks, and books. Twilight packed a lot of books. Twilight excitedly wonders aloud about all the possibilities of the friendship problem they will encounter as she and Fluttershy take her balloon a ways and then fly the rest of the way there. Hold on a second. Even though Twilight and Fluttershy both have wings, they take a balloon, but then land and then fly the rest of way there anyway. Something doesn’t make sense here.

Anywho, Twilight and Fluttershy arrive at the Smokey Mountains, finding that everything is a bit more raggedy than they expected. They are also almost struck by a flying pumpkin.

PUMPKIN CHUNKIN’!

Turns out the pumpkins are being launched from a dilapidated farm on one mountain peak at the well-constructed fortification on the other. Twilight and Fluttershy go down the investigate. Upon the mountain, chunkin’ the pumpkins with a pumpkin chunkin’ cannon, they find Ma Hooffield, the apparent matriarch of the Hooffield clan. They’re chunkin’ pumpkins at their arch-nemeses the McColts. After accusing them of being spies for the McColts, Twilight explains that she is the Princess of Friendship, and she’s here to solve their friendship problem. The Hooffields are currently upset that the McColts launched pebbles at their farmhouse causing it to collapse because it was not very well constructed. Twilight wants to get to the root of the problem and so goes to the McColts to get their side of the story, just as her book suggests. She gets Ma Hooffield to agree to a temporary ceasefire as well. Fluttershy also manages to save a family of mice in a pumpkin about to be chunked.

Twilight and Fluttershy arrive at the McColt fort, where the guards on the wall subsequently accuse them of being spies for the Hooffields. Then, one of them realizes Twilight is an alicorn and is confused because he thought only the three princesses were alicorns. Oh my gosh. Somepony just acknowledged Twilight’s princess status. It took almost two seasons, but it finally happened. Well, Twilight explains that now’s there’s four alicorn princess, though the gentlecolt is still confused as to how the Hooffields got a princess spy. Anyway, after the nonsense, Fluttershy and Twilight meet with Big Daddy McColt, the dimunitive patriarch of the McColt clan.

It’s Tyrion Lannister!

I too have a tender spot in my heart for cripples and bastards and broken things.

Anyway, Twilight announces her intentions to solve their problem with their Hooffields, but it’s not helping the McColts get rid of them like they think.

To that Big Daddy McColt declares, “Well, if you ain't fer us, you're agin us.”

Why does that sound familiar?

No, that’s not it.

That’s not it either.

Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
(Matthew 12:30)

Oh yeah, that’s it. Oh.

Moving on! Twilight insists she is not on anypony’s side; she just wants them to be friends again. The Hooffields are just upset the McColts destroyed their farmhouse. The McColts, however, only did that because the Hooffields pulled the pin from their wagon causing a week’s worth of food to go rolling down the mountain. The McColts are skilled builders, but they’re not good at farming. They have to send away for their food. Now, they’ll be reduced to eating the food that the Hooffields chuck at them. Fluttershy saves some the pumpkin refuse for a hungry squirrel.

I’m sensing a theme here.

Twilight flies up to the sky between the peaks and magically amplifies her voice a la Harry Potter. She rebukes the Hooffields and McColts for wasting their time and resources by being mean to each other when ponies should be kind and help each other. Twilight is satisfied that her little speech will do the trick and awaits her and Fluttershy’s cutie mark going off to indicate their mission is complete. That’s when the Hooffields start launching tomatoes at them.

It’s the Hooffields! They’ve got tomatoes!

Wow, that sounds brutal! But it is just tomatoes.

Twilight and Fluttershy return to the Hooffields to get them to stop with the tomatoes. The McColts then start launch bales of hay at them. So much for another of Twilight’s book solutions. They’re going to need another plan, and Fluttershy is concerned that the fighting is affecting the local wildlife. Twilight and Fluttershy try finding out the root of the feud. However, it appears neither Ma Hooffield nor Big Daddy McColt are aware of why the feud started. It’s just “They know what they did” and that they were done an injustice by them for some reason a long time ago. Despite that, they’re both desperate to win. Fluttershy suggests that perhaps one of the feuding parties should apologize. Twilight is able to convince Ma Hooffield to bake a giant apology cake for the McColts. The McColts are quite overjoyed at the prospect of cake and gladly accept it. However, they are in for quite the surprise.

The Hooffields hid themselves in the cake, and they attack!

It’s a Trojan Horse cake! Never have I been more betrayed by cake.

Turns out, Ma Hooffield didn’t realize Twilight was serious about apologizing. According to her, the Hooffields didn’t do anything wrong. The Hooffields and the McColts proceed to do battle in the valley. Twilight becomes quite dejected and starts losing hope that a solution to this conflict is possible. It’s at that moment that Fluttershy finds all the valley’s wildlife, all cold and hungry.

Twilight doesn’t understand because this is supposed to be the most beautiful valley in Equestria. Fortunately, Fluttershy learns from a squirrel exactly what happened.

Twilight tries to silence the Hooffields and McColts after they’ve continued to war in the valley. Finally, she unleashes an epic freeze spell upon them!

Yep. She was about to beat her brains out with a shovel. How child friendly.

Fluttershy has to say what they want to say because it’s a lot more difficult for Twilight to freeze an army of ponies than six. Oh, I get it! That’s exactly what she did in “Castle Mane-ia” last season.

With my Freeze Ray I will stop the world!

Fluttershy tells them all the story of two best friends named Grubs Hooffield and Piles McColt. That’s right, the progenitors of the feuding clans. They wanted to preserve the valley for the sake the creatures that lived there, but they couldn’t agree as to how to go about. Grubs wanted to start a farm so they could all have food, but Piles wanted to build shelter to protect them from inclement weather. Piles ended up building a shelter where Grubs wanted to start his farm, and so he tore it down. The fighting continued back and forth until it escalated into a full on feud. The valley suffered from the constant destruction until they eventually moved onto separate mountains. Still, the valley and it’s animal life continued to suffer due to the feud. The valley that brought them here in the first place is being destroyed by this feud of theirs. Ma Hooffield and Bid Daddy McColt are genuinely sorry their feud was causing harm to the valley’s wildlife. They apologize to the animals and finally agree to a truce.

The McColts agree to build new homes for the Hooffields, and the Hooffields are going to help the McColts grow some crops. They thank Twilight and Fluttershy for showing them that friendship is so much better than winning a fight. That’s a lesson I can stand behind. Twilight and Fluttershy’s cutie marks go off, indicating another job well done. Twilight also learned something too. She didn’t need her friendship portfolio to solve the problem; they just needed each other. That’s the great thing about this episode. Twilight gets to learn something too.

This episode continues a trend used throughout this season of focusing on rarely used pairings of characters. “Rarity Investigates!” had Rarity and Rainbow Dash. “Hearthbreakers” had Pinkie Pie and Applejack. And now, “The Hooffields and McColts” puts Twilight and Fluttershy together for the first time since pretty much Season 1. I liked how bringing the resolution in the end required both Twilight and Fluttershy’s unique skills. Fluttershy found out what happened from the animals through her innate ability to understand all living creatures. Twilight used her magic to make them listen to that story. And the way she did it was quite spectacular. Also, this was quite a great outing for Fluttershy. As you may know by now, I wasn’t a fan of “Scare Master” a couple of weeks ago. Fluttershy is a lot better here. Not only did it play to her strengths, but her soft-spoken nature wasn’t much of a detriment.

I found it quite interesting the implications of this episode that personal conflict can be detrimental to the environment, and that building a community can be beneficial to it. I think that Pope Francis speaks to this very same issue in his recent encyclical Laudato Si. It’s quite interesting to do that here.

This episode appears to bring to a close the Cutie Map arc we’ve been seeing this season with “The Cutie Map,” “The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone,” and “Made in Manehattan.” Details on the finale remain scarce, so I’m not sure yet if that will complete the arc. Either way, this episode brings it to a soft and sweet conclusion. Kind of like how Fluttershy is. It’s almost as epic as “The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone” but certainly more epic than “Made in Manehattan.” Plus, we also get to add the Smokey Mountains to the wide, wide list of places we’ve gotten to see of the wide, wide world that is Equestria.

As for what’s wrong with this episode… I got nothing. Again. It was yet another solid episode. It’s a good way to bring the season to a close. It’s just next week and then the season finale is here.

Overall, “The Hooffields and McColts” was a delightful little episode. We got a great Fluttershy episode, and Twilight gets to learn something too. It was a great (possible) end to this season’s Cutie Map arc.

What did you all think of “The Hooffields and McColts”?

Let us take a moment to remember the people of Paris, and how they’ve suffered at the hands of Islamic extremism.

Prenons un moment pour se souvenir du peuple de Paris, et comment ils ont souffert aux mains de l'extrémisme islamique.