An Analysis of The Mane Attraction

Hello, Everybrony!

I’m not going to make excuses for any episodes I missed. Right now, I’m only reviewing the ones that matter to me.

LIKE THIS ONE!

Part 1: Plot
Oh look, another festival. Didn’t Firebrand have Silver Quill make festivals into a drinking game once? I mean seriously, I’m starting to believe that these events are actually nationally funded.

But what do we have here? An important character that we have never heard of before! How dare you break continuity!

Not really. As we know from the real world, there are so many celebs out there it’s impossible to keep track of them all.

And now we got the nice but manipulated pop star with the evil manager! So… cliché!

But yet, it’s not. You see, Countess Color RaRa is actually using logic. She’s taking the side of the pony that has worked with her for years over a childhood friend, but gives said childhood friend a chance to prove herself. I’ve seen so many tropes of “I’m not even going to let you explain because I’m so idiotically blind.” I’m glad these stereotype was broken.

BUT MORE ON THESE TWO LATER!

AJ proves that Svengallop is nothing but a pompous jerk, so the guy quits to let RaRa crash and burn without his help. Luckily, AJ is there to remind RaRa of her roots.

And then… the music.

The last few minutes of the episode are primarily music, which worked with the episode. This wasn’t advancing the plot or speeding through a montage, this was continuing the story in a natural (MLP-wise) way.

Part 2: Characters:
There are five “major” players in this episode. Let’s go from least to greatest.

Rarity: As I’ve said in previous posts, I don’t like Rarity. Like, at all. However, I think she served her purpose her. She was oblivious to the strangeness of RaRa and Svengallop’s cooperation, but she gave good insight. It is hard to work to manage the life of a pop star. Svengallop just happened to be a typical—and realistic—jerk.

Pinkie: I felt so sorry for Pinkie this entire episode. This wasn’t slapstick, this was our favorite party pony being beaten to a pulp through verbal abuse of unattainable demands. I like how we’re continuing this Nervous Pinkie trend. This side of her is very heart wrenching, especially when you consider her usual perky nature.

Svengallop: Our antagonist. He doesn’t have much of a backstory or personality, which makes him look pretty stereotypical, but I think he’s more than that. For one, I could imagine a person like him being real. He has a double faced attitude and keeps a careful vocabulary around RaRa. He wormed his way close to her by making her a star, and from there he spread his poison.

He may not have had much to his character, but I think he was a better villain than Principle Cinch or Sunset Shimmer were during their respective movies.
Not that what I just said has anything to do with one of my latest projects… he he

(Countess Col) RaRa: As if I’m going by her fancy stage name. RaRa rolls of the tongue better.

I like RaRa, I really do. Just like Coco Pommel, she’s a nice character with her own set of weaknesses involving being used by others. I had managed to avoid all spoilers of this episode so I had no idea that a famous Broadway actress would be voicing this character. So when AJ’s flashback came to the musical number my jaw went…

RaRa is a believable character. She got caught up in the whirlwind of fame, but instead of having a sudden case of amnesia she blinded herself to the one that brought her to fame. A mistake, but a rational and believable mistake. Plus, she gave AJ a chance to prove herself.

Ya, so as you can tell, I love this character and I can’t wait to see more of her.

Applejack: This is an AJ episode, duh.

Even though AJ didn’t really grow much, I still liked her actions in the episode. She wasn’t unreasonably and OOC overbearing *cough* Hearthbreakers *cough* but she still stood against the tide. She was the voice of reason, which is why she’s one of my favorite characters. I relate to her a lot, and even though I don’t have much to comment about her for this episode, I still think she was awesome.

Part 3: Overall
The characters were awesome, both new and returning. The music was fun! The songs meant to be heartwarming were heartwarming, and the song meant to be there was… there.

Lena Hall did an awesome job!

And a special thanks to Amy Keating Rogers! I will admit, she isn’t one of my favorite writers because her work quality had a large and inconsistent variety over the seasons, but her two finally episodes were among her best. In fact, this episode might be her best to date! WHY DID SHE HAVE TO LEAVE JUST AS SHE REACHED MY FAVORITE WRITERS LIST?

Bye bye, Amy. We’ll miss you!

Pros:
Characters, new and old
Music
Avoided clichés
Visual effects

Cons:
Boring and underdeveloped antagonist
Less than original plotline

Episode rating: A- (rating subject to change)
The problem with most MLP episodes is that they have to follow unoriginal plot line to teach a lesson in a better way than most other kids’ shows. While they do a good job with this, I don’t like giving a full A/A+ to anything that lacks an original storyline. The only episode that comes to my mind that I would give an automatic A to is The Return of Harmony Parts 1&2. Still, this episode was very moving, so it deserved more than a B.

Here’s to hoping that the season finale lives up the hype. And has Starlight Glimmer.
There’s an important blog post coming up—

‘Till next time!
-RainEStar