#horseworldproblems [episode spoilers!] · 7:24pm May 28th, 2016
Why I didn't like The Saddle Row Review that much? I think it comes down to expectations. And I'm not talking about the preexisting sort, either. I mean that the whole first act of this episode is the characters freaking out about how terrible everything was, how much they fucked it up, how bad Rarity's ideas were. So the episode barrels onward towards this inevitable disastrous ending... Which never comes. So I spent all that time worrying, anticipating "oh, it's another episode where everyone fucks everything up instead of being a good friend, the ending is going to suck", and then somehow everything turns out right? It put me in this weird position of wishing everything had turned out terrible instead of ending on a mature note of actual friendship. So I just kind of felt stupid, like the show was telling me I had no idea what I wanted. Really, this episode ends up jerking the audience around. Like Newbie Dash, it advances the characters' stories in unsatisfying ways, and there was very little about it that was really memorable or entertaining, either.
Well, that's not true. The interview format was a great idea, but it was wasted on this episode. First, because I didn't like the episode all that much, second because it wasn't used to its fullest potential. Imagine, if you would, the story of the boutique opening unfolding as each of the mane six told it in their own way. (See also the X-Files episode "Bad Blood", where Mulder and Scully do exactly this. It's one of the best things ever.) It would leave little time for each segment, sure, but they could have done all kinds of things with it, and that would have at least been entertaining.
Oddly, the other memorable bit about this episode is new cringe character Plaid Stripes. I already did a thing with her, and I just keep on thinking about her. I mean, what's her special talent? Creative thinking. That she has a penchant for taking disparate things and slamming them together doesn't preclude the fact that she's had enough success to get a cutie mark out of it. She just needs someone to tell her 'no', to help guide and mold her ideas, so that she gets less "spoon clothes" and more "hoof spoon thingy". (She had, what, four separate ideas like this and only one worked out? She needs friends.) Tons of potential for that character.
But everything else? The sweep 'remix', the Pinkie clone, the not-Jonah-Jameson-for-some-reason pony? Dullsville. I can see why people would like this episode (I'd hardly call it 'bad'), but I cannot for the life of me figure out why anyone, let alone everyone, would call it "the best episode ever". But then, everyone hated A Hearth's Warming Tail for dumb reasons, so I guess we all suck. :B This week: Rarity and Applejack struggle to find time for their date. :V
There are literally two reasons for this episode to exist:
- Rarity and Applejack are dating.
- The Fox brothers can't write these characters.
These reasons are not mutually exclusive.
Of course, with the usual quote marks they have around the episode titles in-show, this is actually "Applejack's" Day "Off". That might also explain why Applejack doesn't seem to be very Applejack; maybe she's been replaced by Kevin?
But really, when was the last time she wanted to spend a considerable amount of time relaxing in the spa? (I mean, she's gone there, that happened in Ponyville Confidential, but more on that later.) When was the last time she wanted to take time off so she could relax? To let other people do her work for her? This was not Applejack.
...Unless Rarity's got her whipped and/or has shown her the pleasures of the frillier side of life.
Lending credence to "Fox brothers ain't shit" is Rainbow Dash's appearance. Remember Ponyville Confidential? No, of course you don't, that episode was dull. But it did teach us that Rainbow doesn't like her hooves being touched. Something that is explicitly gone against in this episode! Not the worst thing in the world, but seriously, I think they could have done a "Rainbow Dash secretly goes to the spa" gag a little better. The 'sports massage' thing works, after all. (And hey, Wonderbolt continuity.)
If there's one thing I'll give this episode credit for, it's the clever way the message comes about. It wasn't until they were back on the farm at the end that realized, oh yeah, AJ doesn't have enough time to hang out with her girlfriend because she's not working efficiently! (My reaction to the scene where the characters figure this out: "Hey, why're both of y'all givin' me the Marefriend Look when only one o' y'all's my marefriend?") And it was fun seeing a short adventure featuring Aloe or Lotus or whoever the fuck that was. Props to Towel Guy.
And then Applejack learned that unicorn magic is always superior to earth pony hard work. :V
But yeah, after this one, my friend said, "Well, that was an episode," and I couldn't agree more.
>tfw Appleyack. That's gonna become a Thing, isn't it?
A Hearth's Warming Tail
Gauntlet of Fire
No Second Prances
The Crystalling
The Saddle Row Review
Applejack's "Day" Off
On Your Marks
The Gift of the Maud Pie
Newbie Dash
Luna's Future
Say Goodbye to the Holiday
Seeds of the Past
Hearth's Warming Eve Is Here Once Again
Pinkie's Present
Out on My Own
Of course not, point one extends logically from point two.
Though in all seriousness, I tend to agree on the Fox brothers. I get the feeling the hiring criteria was "Like Polsky, but less funny."
3979305
At least this was better than the godawful slog of Gift of Maud Pie. Just not by much.
3979338
I feel the opposite, but we can at least agree we're just arguing degrees of mediocrity.
I personally had no problems with The Gift of the Maud Pie, but maybe that's because I'm a sucker for Maud. I honestly felt this episode was the weakest of the bunch so far, until the moral at the end. But yeah, it amused me how the moral was basically "unicorns are superior." It reminds me of a segment from the Mentally Advanced Series.
Rarity: "You're stupid! You're an earth pony!"
Applejack: "Well somepony's sure got their racism up to eleven today!"
Rarity: *laughs* "You know it's not racist if it's true."
I am left wondering why AJ took this long to do things in a dumb way. As a character she's more observant than that. If the pigs weren't scared by her gate trick or the chicken dance, or whatever, she's smart enough to notice that kind of thing and adjust her work accordingly. She did when he noticed those things were a problem. And all of her chores aren't being done to their maximum efficiency? Give me a break.
But yes, this episode gave RariJack shippers enough to work with for years.
Pretty much the first Rarijack episode that wasn't excellent. Apparently Applejack's bad at farming? And regularly visits the spa? And is definitely dating Rarity? Okay, that last one's alright, but everyone was depressingly generic in this ep. Very disappointing, especially since the premise (Rarity tries to drag Applejack to the spa) promised comedic gold and delivered chickenfeed.
For the first time in my life, I completely zoned out when watching this episode. I was that bored by it...
It's weird how everything that you criticize about The Saddle Row Review is basically a laundry list of reasons why we all like it.
I kind of liked how Rarity of all ponies got to be the reasonable one in this episode (and a bit of Spike too, but he gets to straight man pretty often when in a supporting role). But I'm not sure Applejack was the right choice for this one, since the message, especially as applied to the pigs, clashes with what you got from "Family Appreciation Day." So I guess dumb BS is bad except when it isn't because the writer says so/because magic? Moving it to another character would help paper that over. Also, none of the other three members of her family ever picked up on this, or has she just trained them not to give her constructive criticism (or will listen to her friends but not her family)?
3979771
You're all dumb! DUMB, YOU HEAR?
3979971
Ah geez, another episode this clashes with. These guys suck. :|
3979992 Don't worry, you misguided little plum. One of these days you'll remember to take your happy pills on the same day that the fandom likes an episode.
For me I found the episode Saddle Row Review okay. Not great but not bad either due to the introduced system of "flashbacks through the interviews"
If you like or don't like an episode that''s your choice and I shall reason your opinion
3979361
Are you saying you liked Made in Manehattan?
I'm not just saying this as a RariJack hater, Look Before you Sleep and Simple Ways are among my favorite episodes, but these past two outings with Rarity and AJ have been boring and unfunny as all get out. I'm willing to accept that maybe different writers could get another episode of out them, but as is I'm starting to wonder if the match up is played out in terms of what the show can do with it.
3980105
I actually blame Manehattan for producing bad episodes. I'm not even sure Rarity Takes Manehattan was all that great, in hindsight.
Also, I didn't realize you hate Rarijack, what is the world coming to D:
3980111
I thought just about everyone knew that I hate RariJack and FlutterDash with passion only true shippers can muster. But I guess it has been too long since I blogged about why they suck.
3980125 Preach it!
3980105
No, I forgot about it.
Didn't dislike it, though.
Here, here!
It's the writers, not the matchup. I believe the pair are the most interesting of the cast, both packaged with real-world problems and personalities that allow them to be defined by more than their eccentricities. Those personalities are clashing ones, making for the amazing slice-of-life episodes that this one should have joined.
This episode annoys me in particular because it feels like a delightful season 1 concept that never got used. I can see it in my head: Rarity spends 18 minutes trying to drag the workaholic AJ to a spa, and the last four get spent with AJ either admitting spas are cool, or Rarity admitting they're not for everyone. It should have been easy and Look before you Sleep excellent. Instead we got this oily tangle of contrived problems, contrived solutions, and dull dialogue. While other eps have rustled my jimmies in different ways, this one just felt phoned in.
I think that it was believable that Aj wouldn't really pick on her own inefficiencies – mostly because I have seen enough of those blind spots in my work life. For instance, I used to have a manager (otherwise a really intelligent person) who would access websites by:
1-) Typing in www.google.com on the address bar
2-) Typing in the website name on google
3-) Copying the website address from the search results
4-) Opening a new tab
5-) Pasting the address on the new tab and pressing enter.
People tend to develop these workarounds for problems that they don't really have really easily, specially when they feel that they already know the best way (like somepony as stubborn as AJ )would. Who knows, maybe even Granny Smith's zap jam making could actually be improved, but they don't because she is old, it works, and it only happens once in a while.
3980111
Since you brought it up and gave me an excuse to say this: Rarity Takes Manehattan was debatably the worst episode in the entire series and is the majority-share reason why I still hate Rarity to this day.
Following different authors who do these reviews is so interesting. Ever since the Spike episode, at least one person I follow has said each week "finally the first good episode of season 6!".
3980387
AJ doing things the way she was doing does make sense, for the reasons you list. Granted, I just saw someone complaining about the irrigation pipes in a world with manually managed weather, so maybe they don't all make equal sense.
3980519
No. Just no. The sequel was far worse, for one.
3980616
Crazy, right?
3980900 So I wasn't going to bring it up, but since you cover the managed weather angle, why not? Doing the irrigation pipes sections at a time actually does make sense, for the exact same reason they were having problems at the spa: opening all the outlets at once would hugely reduce the water pressure and you'd basically get a trickle everywhere instead of the spray that was actually getting water to areas not touching the pipes. What she needed instead was controls all in one place so she could just open one, close it, open the next, etc., or even just so she could open the main valve, then go to each branch in sequence and open then close them without coming back to the main one in between. Unfortunately, with the infrastructure in place that doesn't work because each valve other than the master one doesn't just open the branch, but opens the next section of the trunk as well. So to water the most remote section, she'd need the irrigation system to be watering everything in the first place.
3981067
Rather, why is irrigation necessary when you can ask a friendly pegasus to drop a raincloud over whichever field needs watered today?
(And quite honestly, where the pigs were at least explained, I cannot figure out an explanation for the irrigation. Why not just leave all the valves open and control it from the top? It's not like she's opening one to water down the line, then turning it to water down the next; literally the crops at the top of the line are being watered two, three, possibly dozens of times before the ones at the end get watered once.)
3981092 Oh, I get that irrigation at all is weird what with the managed weather, but I was fine taking that as a given. I assumed the "why not all at once" was for water pressure issues (which the bad design causes not to make sense and doesn't even happen for the reasons we pointed out), but clearly not.
People think Saddle Row Review is the best ever?
They have short memories.
Honestly, I got kinda tired of how we've been jerked around by the lack of development, (or worse, the cyclical development as they relearn old lessons) the tepid metaplots, and the defanged conflicts.
3981092 Well, they do need to bring all that water up top cloudsdale before raining it on the crops. Since agriculture is rather water-intensive, it still makes sense in Equestria to have an irrigation system.
The real question is: What the hell was AJ irrigating in that scene? My best bet is cabbages, but to be honest they just look like some random bushes.
I think the whole episode was a metaphor for writers needing editors. Everybody has a hard time seeing their own mistakes, right?
The idiocy of the pig-feeding ritual is quite well supported by the nonsense the Apples go through to make zap-apple jam. I blame superstitious old Granny Smith for it all. It's about time they put her out to pasture.
Now that Twi's gotten the obvious stuff straightened out, she needs to do a time-and-motion study of the whole farm and make it really efficient.
All that said, this episode committed the most egregious sin possible for entertainment: it was boring.
3979305
Ouch. Pretty darned on the mark, but... ouch!
3981369
Cabbush randomus, obviously. :V It's an earth pony thing, you wouldn't understand.
I'm kinda down that the Fox brothers get one more episode this season. We somehow got a February fic for an episode. .-.
3981714
gyecch
3980125 Well
I share your hatred of Flutterdash, but I quite like Rarijack. Huh.
3980111 I agree; for some reason most of the Manehattan-based episodes haven't been that good, with the exception of Saddle Row.