My Pony Scrooge Analysis · 7:41pm May 15th, 2016
It was chilly enough yesterday that I had to turn on my heater, so this episode was accidentally timely!
I'm a fan of the original "A Christmas Carol" and many of its retellings. There's a reason there are so many versions of this story: it has a powerful emotional core, a dynamic main character, and a great lesson that it's never too late to change for the better and start putting the needs of others before yourself. So unlike some others, I don't begrudge the MLP writers for making a pony version.
The first half of the episode was very enjoyable, and I found myself excited to see what twists they would add. But after I finished watching and digesting it, I realized that the charity aspect was missing from this version, and that weakens the story somewhat. Scrooge paid for Tiny Tim's healthcare and literally saved his life. Snowfall merely decided not to use magic to erase Hearth's Warming and gave presents to her new friends (which she put a lot less thought into than Scrooge did with the turkey). There was no mention of giving Snowdash a raise or making her her new partner or anything like that, even though Dash was dressed shabbily and obviously would have appreciated a pay raise. The ending especially was too rushed to have an emotional impact. I suppose "don't use a potentially dangerous, world-altering spell to fix your problem" is a good lesson for Starlight to learn, but the target audience isn't going to get much out of it.
I understand that it's necessary to condense the story to fit the time slot, but maybe they could've shortened some of the songs in order to show Snowfall giving more of herself to Dash and putting more thought into her acts of kindness. Or at the very least they could have Snowfall donate to charity like Scrooge did.
Rainbow was an odd choice for mild-mannered Bob Cratchet. The more obvious casting would have been Fluttershy. As the episode led up to the Ghost of Hearth's Warming Presents (I did like that pun), I was convinced that the writers had cast RD as Bob Cratchet just so Scootaloo could play Tiny Tim. But no, they didn't go there at all. I feel like the first draft of this script did have Scootaloo as Tiny Tim, but then Michael Vogel ran it by someone else on the staff, and they said, “Wait, we haven't addressed the real Scootaloo's disability since Season 4 – I'm not sure if this is the way we should re-introduce it.” So that idea was cut, but Dash remained in the Bob Cratchet role. Or maybe I'm totally off base and Vogel merely thought it would be amusing to cast RD against type.
But my biggest gripe with this episode is the missed opportunity for the "real" Starlight to bond with the Element Bearers other than Twilight. She did talk with them briefly in “No Second Prances,” but ended up bonding a lot more with Trixie. IIRC, Starlight's only scene with Applejack ended with Apple Pone giving her a “you're on my s*** list again” glare – understandably so. Presumably AJ decided to give Starlight a third chance, but I would've preferred to actually see that. Instead, we just see Starlight posing with all of the other Element Bearers at the end of yesterday's episode. It's hard for me to believe that they're more than "friends of friends."
I'm still glad I watched the episode, though, if only for the songs. I'll probably listen to all of them at least a few times. Yay for Luna getting her first full song! And Applejack's singing sounded as lovely as it did for “Days Gone By.” I also appreciated the beautiful animation, the costumes, and Rarity's parents, Cranky, and Derpy. This episode had some nice Easter eggs for the fans without being too in-your-face about it.
I found it interesting that the ponies referred to the Windigoes as mythical and the original Hearth's Warming story as just a story. The most plausible explanation is that the three founding tribes almost destroyed each other at some point in history, but eventually united in peace, possibly when power-hungry rulers were supplanted by more diplomatic and lenient ones. The Windigos were added to the story years later as an allegory.
Finally, I seem to be the only one who noticed that a full year has past since last season. The next time we see the Cake twins, they'd better have pupils and speak in full sentences.
Edit: I just rewatched the first song and they do, in fact, show the Cake twins with button eyes. They are out of diapers, but they don't seem to have grown since last season. I guess the animators didn't think it was necessary to alter their design, but what would be the in-universe explanation? Do ponies mature more slowly than humans? Or do they decide to have some short years since they control the seasons (although that would go against Snowfall's "calendar shorter by a day" line)? Or am I way overthinking this?
You don't want to go down the "How much time has passed since X?" rabbithole. That way lies madness.
3946437 I just hope this show's timeline doesn't become as impossible as the timeline in "Once Upon a Time."