Carts as Strong as Horses [episode spoilers!] · 4:13pm Aug 6th, 2016
That bit at the end of Stranger Than Fan Fiction, with Quibble talking over the credits, is one of the best jokes to ever come out of this show. And apparently it was improv! :D That opening scene has so much TwiDash potential (best horse girlfriends!) I'm just so very glad this episode ended up being nowhere near as cringey as I'd been anticipating. It gives me a tiny, feeble flame of hope to burn yet again. (Also, I never noticed it previously, but Daring kinda sounds super-sexy in this episode, is that just me c.c)
Today, we get another CMC episode that's not bad, just okay.
So yeah, I'd classify this one as slightly dull -- mostly due to taking the first third of the episode to establish why the Derby is at all important (if it's an annual tradition, why have we never heard of it before?) -- but not bad, and even entertaining in places. The best part would be the reveal that Derpy beat little Rarity once upon a time. Most disappointing is probably the song: very average as show songs go -- par for the course for songs starring the CMCs, really -- and just meant to fill time.
Still, a lot of neat stuff happened here. Snips Dad. Just... Snips Dad. (So much for my headcanon that his parents are Teddy and Sweetheart from MLPT. ;_;) There's also Derpy Son, and I cannot wait to see the fandom uproar over him.
What else? Cheerileeder being a considerably more reasonable adult than the three 'sisters'. The fact that Scoot didn't want to win-win because she's so used to going fast. (Great character building for a CMC!) That we never get to see who wins. Also, "Bless my hooves" being a definite stand-in for classic Southern epithet "bless your soul heart".
I think there was one other thing I was going to point out, but I forget what it was. :B This one's kinda forgettable, but not offensive in any real way.
A Hearth's Warming Tail
Gauntlet of Fire
No Second Prances
Spice Up Your Life
Stranger Than Fan Fiction
Flutter Brutter
The Crystalling
The Cart Before the Ponies
Applejack's "Day" Off
The Saddle Row Review
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
It's Gonna Work
Pinkie's Present
Can I Do It on My Own
Derby Racers
Out on My Own
Cheerilee is so done with everypony's crap and I'm totally here for it.
Snips and his dad drove a barber pole cart that was easily the cutest cart in the whole darn race. Since we don't find out who won, I'm just going to assume he won Most Creative because that kid deserves to win at something for once.
Good job Snips and Snips' dad!
If we assume that that's Derpy's son, then Randolph has some explaining to do. I'm leaning towards cousin until further notice.
(What? No, I'm not desperate. I'm just doing yoga.
)
And here's the good lesson from today. Adults, don't ignore the kids' ideas. Kids, sometimes, the adults ARE wrong. Speak up.
I still can't believe you rank the crystalling over the saddle row review.
then again, what should I expect from a pleb who hates FluttercordI did like Cheerilee as a cheer leader; she filled the role nicely, and really didn't put up with AJ, Dashie, and Rarity's antics. And I thought Dinky was Derpy's kid. I thought AB won.
It's "bless your heart," you pleb! :P
Speaking of dads. Did you guys notice that it was the butler who helped Diamond Tiara with her cart and sat with her? Neither of her parents could bother to show up apparently.
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Yeah, FIlthy seems like he'd be too busy and I can't imagine Spoiled getting miles within a boxcar derby. Though with Di's experience with micro-managing parents I'm not sure she'd even want her folks involved. Randolph also will do exactly what she tells him to do.
She also seemed worried about him after the crash and really pissed after the CMC called out their sisters' shenanigans,
4135360 Well, yeah. Her mom's a bitch, and her dad's currently curled up in a ball because Diamond Tiara is finally aware of all his bad parenting and she's been using her special talent to make sure he can't plug his ears while she reminds him of everything he's done wrong.
I'm just glad Randolph is finally doing something with a below-average risk of permanently crippling him.
I thought the song was the high point of the episode, although it didn't move the episode forward so pacing was a mess.
My favorite part:
Was the implicit message aimed at us older folks who enjoy the show we're all here talking about. The show's not for us, so we really shouldn't be expecting to be driving it...
Mike
The term "Bless your soul" Is really a more polite way of old Southern ladies to tell those younger than themselves, that your screwed in the head.
(notes being made as I watch)
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I noticed that, too. Either Di doesn't want her dad involved, or visa-versa.
Other observation from me is the Snipsmobile was a barber pole. Which I guess shouldn't be surprising, but it's still a fun note.
Other other observation from me is Cheerilee giving an annoyed eye-roll twice in one episode. 3 seasons of being ignored has made her bitter and cynical.
-Wow, that song was pointless.
-Rarity has a Celestia-themed cart.
A forgettable episode, but not a cringey one.
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Well, Dinky's been seen in the classroom with the CMC, so unless Derpy rather do the race with someone other than her own daughter then I think that whole idea is pretty much dead now in canon.
Also, have we even seen Dinky interact with Derpy once other than just standing next to her? Cause she's gotta be the filly with the most potential parents in the entire show except for Derpy.
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On the other hand, Dinky doesn't seem to exist this episode, along with many of the other background foals. Even ones who've spoken in the past, like Pipsqueak and Featherweight, are nowhere to be seen. Presumably, they're all in the same interstitial void as Starlight.
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There's a real bad case of hoof and mouth disease going around the class.
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4135456 I could totally see Diamond Tiara wanting to do the entire thing on her own, and then realizing at the last minute that adding an adult gives significant weight to your car in a gravity-based race.
4135719 Eh, Starlight could easily just be following Twi around. Or she isn't willing to admit she has no idea how to reach the front door of the castle, but can find the kitchen and the food hasn't run out yet. Pinkie is probably either moping because she offered but no one wanted her help, or she has to stay 100 yards from the derby and it's participants ever since the incident a few years ago. Fluttershy avoiding a social situation is not remotely odd even if she is getting better. The missing kids though is odd sure, but even stranger was everyone in class being so excited about the derby and how many showed up. Arrow (or whatever the blue colts actual name is) and his fellow assistant cheerleader had a reason beyond racing to be excited, but what about Snails, Silver Spoon, and the rest?
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Can she stay there, please and thank you?
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Saddle Row was about on par with this episode in terms of being boring. This one just didn't disappoint me at all. :B
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Fuck, whatever, it was right in my head D:
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Yeah, that didn't pass me by, but I can't take two aimed-at-me messages in a row. (You think the writers want the adult fans to go away?)
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Rarity's cart actually made me think of that weird Pinkie Pie's Swan Boat toy.
I liked that the CMC went against what we might expect them to do. A great way of helping differentiate them from their older siblings/role model. Also, Scootaloo embraced her inner-fowl and make the chickenmobile. Maybe this is the writer's way of saying that she's embracing her flightlessness.
Yeah, pretty much.
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As Meghan McCarthy said:
A couple weeks back to a full auditorium at the San Diego Comic-Con, "We wouldn't be up here if all of you weren't out there." So they don't want us to go away--they recognize that it's the Brony phenomenon that's kept them all working for several years longer than any of them had any right to expect when Pony started.
The episode struck me more as a gentle reminder that the show is always gonna be aimed primarily at the sort of people none of us around here have been for decades. We can watch it and enjoy it--and they hope that we do--but it's designed for the kids when you get right down to it. The stories over here are for us...
Mike Again
In a desperate effort to maintain the completely unsupported fancanon that Derpy the mailmare[1] is the mother of Dinky, I've constructed the outline of a torturous 200k word story that explains how "Popper" is the illegitimate son of Pokey Pierce and Flim's sister Film, and Derpy is being blackmailed by Carrot Top into pretending he's her son. It ought to hit the feature box any time now.
--------------------
[1] And yeah, we've never seen her doing that job and we have seen three or four mail ponies, none of which were her, but you can't prove she isn't a mailmare, and therefore she is.
So there!
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>Film
Don't quit your day job :B
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She's a photographer! Better than their cousin Flan, who's a custard chef. Listen, I don't make the rules about pony names!
This is one of those episodes that make me admire the animation/story boarding team work. The story was trite, a generic cartoon plot that reduces the mane 6 to their most base characteristics, and the pacing was pretty abysmal.
However, in comes the animation team to save the day, with all those little character touches on the background. They are the reason why, even on the most generic of episodes, I can still find things to enjoy.
Since nobody else has said it, very nice job on the blog title pun.
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I didn't think my friend's suggestion of "Top Gear for Success" had quite the right ring to it. :B
The CMC got off too light for their shitty choice in adults.
"I want to make the fastest cart possible, should I go ask the speed-obsessed, professional athlete and derby winner, or should I ask my sister who wants to make a point of coming in last?"
I know making bad choices is kind of their thing, but really? They could have avoided 50% of the problem by just going to the appropriate pony.
And, yes, I am just bitter at not seeing Scootaloo and Rarity interact, or more Sweetie Belle and Applejack. Applebloom and Dash might have been entertaining, too, and the same moral could have been delivered with the older team members trying to grind their younger sisters into the dirt.
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I don't know what was powering those cars, but it wasn't gravity.