The Mane Attraction Episode Review · 11:26pm Nov 23rd, 2015
I think it’s only fitting that we all take a moment of silence in remembrance of Amy Keating Rogers. This was the last episode she wrote for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. We all know what a powerhouse “Crusaders of the Lost Mark” was, so I think it’s safe to say that many of us were skeptical as to whether she could top herself with this episode or not. Did she succeed? Did she fail? Let’s find out.
We start off the episode with Applejack and the rest of the gang getting ready for a festival known as the Helping Hooves Festival. When Twilight comments on how nice everything looks, Applejack tells her that putting together a benefit concert is about the same as putting together a rodeo, so she kind of has experience with these sorts of things.
Pinkie Pie shows up and calls out each of her friends, including Spike and herself. This is the only cameo Spike will have throughout the entire episode. He doesn’t even have any speaking lines. Poor guy. Anyway, Pinkie tells her friends that she managed to book one of the greatest pop stars in all of Equestria. Naturally, Applejack assumes she’s talking about Sapphire Shores, but, no. Pinkie Pie is talking about Countess Coloratura. Not surprisingly, Applejack, like the audience, is confused as to who the hay Pinkie is talking about.
Once the bland theme song is done, we cut back to the others. Once Pinkie shows Applejack Countess’ cutie mark, the latter says that it looks exactly like the cutie mark of a friend of hers she knew back when she was a filly. We then get an adorable montage of Applejack at Camp Friendship playing with her friend, whom she called Ra-Ra since Coloratura was too complicated for her to say. For brevity’s sake, I’m just going to call her Ra-Ra. We get a nice musical number from Ra-Ra. Like a lot of songs in this series, this song is too short for its own good, and I would love to hear a full version of it.
Applejack says that the two used to write to each other, but Ra-Ra stopped returning her letters after a while. Pinkie tells Applejack that Ra-Ra was very demanding, which Applejack doesn’t believe since the Ra-Ra she knew was very loving and caring. Rarity agrees with Pinkie, saying that artists such as herself can be quite demanding at times.
Shortly after this, Ra-Ra arrives and Pinkie has a Rarity moment where she freaks out and proceeds to fall over, which got a laugh out of me. With her manager Sun Gallop, Ra-Ra steps from her carriage. One thing that you will immediately notice about Sun Gallop is that he is obviously gay. (Man, these writers sure do love making their male characters gay, don’t they?) A cautious Applejack approaches Ra-Ra, asking Ra-Ra if she remembers her. To her delight, Ra-Ra does and proceeds to give what she calls a hoofie, where she plants her hoof against the receiver’s cheek, leaving behind a kissy mark). She proceeds to give hoofies to Lyra and other ponies, no doubt once again fueling the cloppers who will no doubt write clopfics involving Ra-Ra and Applejack or Lyra, or all three.
Sun Gallop asks Ra-Ra if she really does know Applejack and Ra-Ra reassures him that she does, stating that the two of them were friends back when they were fillies. Pinkie shows up and Sun Gallop starts asking her if she fulfilled all of Ra-Ra’s requests. If you ask me, I think he made these requests on Ra-Ra’s behalf so that he could help himself to whatever Pinkie brought. He inspects each and every item that Pinkie brought, saying that she managed to get everything Ra-Ra ordered.
Speaking of Ra-Ra, we get a nice performance from her during her rehearsal that is reminiscent of modern pop stars and pop stars of old. They’ve got the fog, the flashing lights, the cool dance move, the voice distortion, everything. She gets praise from not only the audience, but also Sun Gallop. Applejack doesn’t take this too well, saying that Sun Gallop is merely complimenting all of the visual effects and lighting rather than Ra-Ra herself. Rarity disagrees, saying that the lighting and visual effects take a lot of hard work. Not surprisingly, Applejack disagrees, saying that it maybe wouldn’t be such a bad thing if those things weren’t included.
Ra-Ra says that she’d like to go rest for a while, but Pinkie tells her that she’s scheduled for a meet and greet with the school fillies. Sun Gallop seems disinterested in this and tries to convince Ra-Ra to not go through with it, but she disagrees. She says that the meet and greet with the school fillies is her favorite part of charity concerts.
At said meet and greet, we see the Cutie Mark Crusaders with Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, and a collection of other fillies meeting Ra-Ra. She tells them that a couple of them will have the special honor of joining her onstage to sing with her if they win a contest. With her, we get a shot of Sweetie Belle smiling at a light yellow filly with a dark green mane and tail. Hmm, looks like Spike and Button Mash have some competition. Unfortunately, this is the only cameo that the kids get. It would have been nice if we’d seen the contest that they were talking part in, but I guess I’ll have to leave it to the fanfic writers to fill in that gap.
While this is going on, Applejack sees Sun Gallop harassing Pinkie Pie, saying that he wants a large amount of apples peeled. Understandably, Applejack is pissed off about this. Thankfully, she waits until Sun Gallop walks off before she talks to Pinkie. Applejack says that she doesn’t think Sun Gallop has Ra-Ra’s best interests at heart, saying that he’s basically using Ra-Ra to get what he wants.
She goes to voice her complaints about Sun Gallop to Ra-Ra. Not surprisingly, Ra-Ra doesn’t take it well. She says that if Sun Gallop needs anything while they’re on the road, she doesn’t see a problem with it. Applejack says that Ra-Ra’s veil is so thick that she can’t plainly see when somepony is using her. Pissed, Ra-Ra tells Applejack off and walks off.
One of Applejack’s character traits is that she’s stubborn as a mule, at least according to Twilight Sparkle, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that not long after this, she once again attempts to convince Ra-Ra that what she’s saying is true. In order to do this, she says that all Ra-Ra needs to do is exactly what Applejack says. So, Ra-Ra proceeds to do just that, telling Sun Gallop that she thinks it’d be a good idea to simply cancel the contest between the fillies. Sun Gallop is elated by this and takes Pinkie aside. We then get a line from him that actually kind of shocked and offended me. He says that he’s glad that he won’t have to go through the trouble of overseeing a rehearsal with “those brats” and tells Pinkie that if he doesn’t give in to his demands, he will pull Ra-Ra from the benefit concert. I imagine that having Sun Gallop use this term to refer to kids is going to open up another can of worms for Hasbro, very much like the Derpy incident back in season two. I’m just surprised that Hasbro didn’t have a problem with this term being used in an episode, especially since kids are their demographic. So, don’t be surprised if you hear soccer moms griping about this in the next couple of weeks.
Anyway, rant over. Somehow, Twilight managed to capture this footage and projects it so that Ra-Ra can see that Applejack was telling the truth. Again, I have to ask, is there any limit to what unicorns can do what they can do with magic, or can they do anything with their magic as long as it’s convenient for the plot? I know I’m being nitpicky here, but this is just so annoying to me.
Seeing that she was being played for a fool, Ra-Ra immediately fires Sun Gallop, who says that he’s entitled to anything he wants since he does all of the work, but Ra-Ra will hear none of it. He leaves in a huff, leaving Applejack to wonder if Ra-Ra will be able to do the show without him. Ra-Ra reassures her that everything will be fine.
We get a funny moment with Ra-Ra and Rarity. While Rarity is trying to put on Ra-Ra, the latter is pacing back and forth stressing about the upcoming concert. Applejack requests a moment with Ra-Ra from Rarity, who agrees. Ra-Ra informs Applejack that Sun Gallop was in charge of everything, from the lighting, the sound, and the visual effects. Applejack reassures Ra-Ra that things will go as planned, saying that Ra-Ra just needs to go out there and be herself.
That evening, Twilight greets everypony to the festival, introducing the artist known as Countess Coloratura. Ra-Ra comes out onstage and introduces herself as Ra-Ra and begins playing the signature song of this episode, the same one that was leaked onto Equestria Daily back during the summer. Seeing this song in all its animated glory was easily the highlight of the episode. Though, I have to question the shot with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. You can clearly see their cutie marks, but in the storyboard of this scene, I don’t recall ever seeing their cutie marks. Maybe they were added in during the animation process, or maybe the storyboard artists cleverly hid them to not give off the idea that the CMC would get their cutie marks this season.
After this song, Ra-Ra tells the crowd how Applejack helped her remember who she truly was. To thank her for that, she invites Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo to sing onstage with her. This was another great highlight of the episode. The four of them sing the same song that Ra-Ra sang at Camp Friendship with the Equestrian flag behind them. Once again, this is just a testament to how much these little fillies have grown over the years. Remember back in “The Show Stoppers” how Sweetie Belle was terrified of singing in front of other ponies. Well, since “For Whom the Sweetie Belle Tolls” it seems as if those fears have been put to rest.
In the middle of the song, Ra-Ra invites Applejack on stage. At the very end of the song, Applejack proceeds to gently hit the triangle like she did all those years ago.
Seeing as this was Roger’s last episode, how did it hold up? Honestly, I was cautious when I sat down to watch this episode. I read the synopsis and automatically thought that it was going to be a repeat of “Canterlot Boutique,” and that would be fitting seeing as how Rogers wrote that episode as well. However, I think the conflict was done better here. In “Canterlot Boutique” we get a montage of Rarity sewing the same dress over and over. Yes, the song that accompanies it is very good (no surprise there), but Rarity’s progression didn’t feel natural to me. Yes, you can clearly see that she’s exhausted, but I think the conflict would have worked better had we gone into Rarity’s mind to really explore how she was feeling being exploited like this.
In “The Mane Attraction,” I think the conflict was handled better because Ra-Ra was clearly in denial over what Sun Gallop was doing. Like Rarity, she was being overworked and never given a moment’s rest. Either she wasn’t aware of what Sun Gallop was doing (that is, exploiting her) or she was aware of it, but put up with it because she might have been naïve about how the business world works and thought that was what managers were supposed to do. While Rarity was miserable, Ra-Ra seemed perfectly content with her how her life was going. It wasn’t until later on that she recalled the pony that she really was that she realized that the pop star lifestyle wasn’t for her, hence the piano piece she played at the end.
One thing that I would have liked was had the fillies been used more in this episode. Aside from the song at the end, the CMC don’t get any lines, nor do any of the other kids. I would have really liked to see the contest that they participated in. What kind of contest was it? What did they have to do to win? How were the winners decided? Like “The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows”, this could have been a golden opportunity to see Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon interacting with the Cutie Mark Crusaders in a positive light.
Another thing I would have liked would have been an appearance from Sapphire Shores. Seeing as she is the second biggest pop star in Equestria, I imagine that she and Ra-Ra are either in competition with each other, or they’re friends. I like to think that Rarity is the one who designed the costumes for Ra-Ra and her background dancers thanks to Sapphire Shores, who would have highly recommended her. It would have also been nice to see some interaction between Sapphire Shores and Sweetie Belle, or Sweetie Belle with Ra-Ra. Maybe one of them could take Sweetie under their wing and be her mentor in the fine arts of singing and performing? That would make a really interesting story. Ugh! See, this is what I really don’t like about being a writer. You get all of these ideas in your head, you want to write them all, but you can only write one at a time. So annoying.
Next week is the season finale and from what previews I’ve seen of it, it looks like it’s going to be really good. I imagine that this is going to be a lot like Back to the Future, where the main character (Twilight Sparkle in the role of Marty McFly) has to go back in time to set things right after the villain (Starlight Glimmer in the role of Biff Tannen) went back in time to make the world the way she wants it. And I guess Spike could fill the role of Doc Brown, I guess. My only problem with the season finale is that it’s called “The Cutie Re-Mark.” I hope to God that this isn’t going to be a repeat of “Magical Mystery Cure,” where the main character has to remind her friends who they are and what they mean to her in order to take down the bad guy. Also, I hope to God that Celestia and the other Princesses actually get to do something in this finale. They haven’t done crap for the past couple of seasons, and it would be nice to see Celestia and Luna fighting side by side together. If anything else, it would hopefully give Cadence some character development.
Oh, God, I totally just revealed what a complete geek I am with that whole Back to the Future reference, didn’t I?
I'm uncertain what to think of Pinkie Pie because she seemed much too serious.
3564560 Well, she does help run a business very much like Rarity and Applejack.
3564637 And Pinkie said it herself that parties are serious.
3564637
I just hope she doesn't completely lose her randomness.
3564724 That's true. Pinkie does tend to take her parties very seriously. She even has a secret party-planning cave. She uses this as a means of doing research on her friends to personify a party she throws for them, catering to their specific likes and avoiding their dislikes.
3564778 That's actually one of the things that I really don't like about her. I find her randomness to be extremely annoying. I liked episodes like "Baby Cakes" because episodes like that one actually tried to give her some character development. Too bad none of it has stuck.
3564833
also I'm very concerned that the writers are destroying the rules of magic with Starlight Glimmer.
3564863 I don't think the rules of magic were ever clearly defined to begin with. It seems to be "Magic does as the plot demands".
3564891
but there should be limits. Starlight seems far too powerful for a normal unicorn.