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MariusIoannesP


Lifelong Nerd. Lifelong practical Catholic and firm believer that an egg is an egg. Amateur fanfiction auteur elsewhere and maker of YouTube videos.

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Sep
8th
2016

SPOILERS? Mariusioannesp Reviews: "Buckball Season" · 5:25am Sep 8th, 2016

WARNING!!! The following contains SPOILERS for the latest MLP episode “Buckball Season”.

Now, without further a-take-me-out-to-the-buckball-game-do, here is my review of “Buckball Season”.

Applejack recruits Rainbow Dash to participate with her against her cousin Braeburn in Appleloosa in a game of buckball, an Apple family tradition. In the process of holding tryouts to find a Unicorn for their team, they discover that Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy are surprisingly skilled at buckball. It’s a lot of fun, they say! Applejack and Rainbow then decide to have Fluttershy and Pinkie play instead of them. However, Applejack and Rainbow then start putting too much pressure on Pinkie and Fluttershy to win, which makes it no fun. Will Rainbow and Applejack realize what they’ve been doing and how to correct it?

So, what’s the verdict?

This episode just came out of nowhere for me. I wasn’t expecting most of this, but I very much enjoyed what I got.

So yeah, I liked it! I liked it quite a bit.

Let us begin where these things tend to begin at the beginning. Applejack is practicing her distance bucking when she’s interrupted by Rainbow Dash.

Applejack is practicing because good ole’ cousin Braeburn in Appleloosa is convinced that their team can beat Ponyville at buckball. Rainbow takes offense at this, insisting she can beat the whole town of Appleloosa at buckball with one wing tied behind her back.

How is she even doing that?!

Rainbow agrees to join Applejack’s buckball team. There’s just one thing though. Rainbow doesn’t actually know what buckball is! Later, Rainbow and Applejack are escorting Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy to Sweet Apple Acres, explaining to them the finer points of buckball. It seems that Braeburn now has a Pegasus and Unicorn to serve on his team, and he’s convinced they’ll beat Ponyville’s team. Of course, Ponyville doesn’t exactly have a team, only Applejack and Rainbow. They need a Unicorn, and that’s where Pinkie and Fluttershy come in.

Well, no. They don’t need them because of that. Pinkie will be playing on a team with Rainbow and Fluttershy will be playing on a team with Applejack so they can have tryouts for the Unicorn spot on the team. Soon enough, they’re holding their tryouts with this collection of Unicorns.

She explains to them, as well as us, how buckball works. Each team consists of an Earth pony, a Pegasus, and a Unicorn. The Earth ponies are on offense and each tries to be the first to buck the ball initially. The Pegasuses….

Pegasi.

Right, the Pegasi are on defense and prevent the ball from going into the opposing team’s basket. The Unicorns stand behind the opposing team apparently, levitate the baskets, and try to catch the balls bucked to them. They begin tryouts with all the assembled Unicorns, but it soon becomes apparent none of them are up to snuff for buckball.





In the process of these tryouts though, Rainbow and Applejack notice something. It seems that Pinkie and Fluttershy have an unexpected amount of skill when it comes to buckball.


Rainbow and Applejack are lamenting their failure to find a proper Unicorn for their team, while Pinkie and Fluttershy continue to joyously play with their balls.

Pinkie ends up kicking a bunch of balls into the air just as Snails walks by carrying his water on his shoulder pole.

Pinkie cries out in warning, but Snails manages to catch all the balls hurtling toward him in his water buckets, leaving everypony aghast.

After testing him out with the buckball basket, they find that indeed Snails is quite savvy when it comes to catching balls. He pretty much accepts a place on the team given that he has nothing else to do once he delivers his water. Wait a minute. Delivering water? Does that make Snails like Adam Sandler in The Waterboy. You know, Snails is kind of a…. Let’s just say Snails has never been the sharpest bulb nor the brightest knife.

Anyway, now that they’ve found a Unicorn for their team, Rainbow and Applejack make a rather surprising announcement. They’d like Pinkie and Fluttershy to compete on the buckball team in their stead. Pinkie thinks this is uncredible! Unbelievable and incredible. Like “nervicited” in Equestria Girls was nervous and excited. As much as Rainbow and Applejack would like to compete themselves, they can see that Pinkie and Fluttershy are much better than they are and have a better chance at beating Braeburn and his team. Pinkie and Fluttershy just thought the game was fun, but they accept their offer to play in their stead. However, in order to make sure that they do win the next day, Rainbow and Applejack are going to spend the rest of the day practicing with Fluttershy and Pinkie as hard as they would themselves. The operative term “as hard as they would themselves.” Snails already seems to have a head start.

Seems that Snails is a bit of a savant when it comes to levitating baskets.

First off, Rainbow demonstrates an obstacle course that she insists Fluttershy has to run in order to have better control over her balls. Fluttershy doesn’t seem to happy about it.

Rainbow impresses upon Fluttershy that she wouldn’t want Ponyville to lose because she could get into high gear.

Next up, Applejack has Pinkie practice bucking balls from every direction. Pinkie does fine until Applejack brings up that missing a ball and losing the game would ruin the Apple Family’s buckball reputation forever.



After an epic training montage of Fluttershy and Pinkie epic fails, Applejack and Rainbow can’t understand what’s up with Fluttershy and Pinkie. They were a lot better before and practice is supposed to make you better.

Could it perhaps be because you’re putting too much pressure on them? Either way, Applejack decides to call it a day and reminds Fluttershy and Pinkie that all of Ponyville is counting on them to win tomorrow. So, Pinkie and Fluttershy are walking home not feeling confident at all about their chances the next day. However, they realize that all that stuff Rainbow and Applejack were saying about the whole town counting on them is silly. Most of the ponies in town have never even heard of buckball. You ask anypony, they’re likely to guess that it’s some kind of sex game.

They don’t even know that they have a team or that they’re playing Appleloosa tomorrow. So, Pinkie and Fluttershy assure themselves that have nothing to worry about.

However, the next day they arrive at the train station to find a whole host of townsponies cheering them on. As Snails says, turns out the whole town really does care about this game.

Oh look! It’s Derpy! And Bon Bon and Lyra.

Fluttershy and Pinkie react accordingly.


There’s Bon Bon and Derpy cheering as the train leaves the station.

It turns out Rainbow and Applejack went around talking up the team to everypony so Pinkie and Fluttershy would know that the whole town of Ponyville was behind them. Wow, that’s just great. They figure that knowing that and that there will be much celebration of their win when they get back will be the best way to get them in the zone for the game. Once they trot off, Fluttershy makes known that she’s not sure we wants to be in this zone Rainbow was talking about. Not much later, Fluttershy and Pinkie go to Rainbow and Applejack to make known their misgivings about all this.

And Fluttershy completely flips out about the possibility of losing and letting everypony down and how they don’t want to play anymore before she and Pinkie just run off.

It’s a good ole’ fashioned Fluttershy freak out! I love it.

Rainbow and Applejack are utterly floored at this outburst.

Then, Snails pops in out of nowhere to assure them that he’s still interested in playing.

Later on, Rainbow and Applejack are wondering just mystified what it was that set Pinkie and Fluttershy off like that.

Bon Bon? How did you get on the train?

Anyway, Applejack and Rainbow realize that while knowing that everypony is counting on them is a great motivation for them, it’s not at all how Pinkie and Fluttershy operate. They got so wrapped up in what was important to them that they took away what was fun about it for Pinkie and Fluttershy. They wonder what to do about it and apparently come up with a plan. Applejack and Rainbow search for Fluttershy and Pinkie in the baggage car. They know they’re in there because they’ve already checked everywhere else. Fluttershy and Pinkie then insist that they are not in there. Applejack and Rainbow find them there huddled behind some suitcases.

They tell Fluttershy and Pinkie that they don’t need them to play. They’ll play instead, but they’ll still need their help for one last round of practice before the game with Appleloosa. They do so once they arrive in Appleloosa. However this time, Applejack and Rainbow have Fluttershy and Pinkie play together against them. During the process of practicing with Applejack and Rainbow, Pinkie and Fluttershy start getting back into the swing of things and play as great as they were initially. After a while, Snails is asleep because they haven’t given him a chance to catch a ball, Fluttershy and Pinkie have barely broken a sweat, and Rainbow and Applejack have been thoroughly bucked.

And they certainly look like they’ve been thoroughly bucked if you know what I mean.

Anywho, Rainbow and Applejack confess that whole exercise was to show Pinkie and Fluttershy how good they still are at buckball in the right conditions. They confess that some ponies like them thrive under pressure, and so they treated Pinkie and Fluttershy like them even though they weren’t even the ones competing. All that did was stress Pinkie and Fluttershy out and suck all the fun out of the game, which is what made them good in the first place. That’s a lesson I can stand behind! Still Pinkie and Fluttershy are worried about letting down everypony in Ponyville hoping for a win. Applejack assures her that as much as they’d them to win, she’s sure they wouldn’t want it at the cost of making Pinkie and Fluttershy miserable. They’re still not sure how not to worry, but Snails gives his two cents.

So then it’s time for the big buckball game with Appleloosa! Everypony is out in force.

There’s Lyra and Bon Bon again. And Derpy!

Hey! Wait a minute…!

Appleloosa has quite a formidable team playing against them.


I wonder if this is one of Bulk Biceps’ Appleloosa relations.



Look at my butt!

In the end, Ponyville wins! Braeburn vows to get real serious about strategizing for the the next time they play. Pinkie and Fluttershy point out though that the secret to being good at buckball is just having fun. See, they used the lesson they just learned against them.

This episode was written by Jennifer Skelly, a new writer on the show. Interestingly enough, Ms. Skelly doesn’t have many significant writing credits elsewhere. Still though, she did a very good job with this episode, especially it being her first time around with MLP. This episode is a good example of the new ideas new writers can bring to the show. Either way, I look forward to see anymore episodes Ms. Skelly may write for MLP.

I expected this episode to focus mostly on Fluttershy and Pinkie, but it ended up being more of an ensemble with Rainbow and Applejack. Still, the pairing of Fluttershy and Pinkie has never really been done before. (“Filli Vanilli” in Season 4 was close.) Seeing them interact with each other like this was certainly interesting. It’s also fun to see Fluttershy enjoy something so outside her usual comfort zone of animals and singing in private. I also appreciated how Fluttershy and Pinkie’s problem perfectly reflects their personalities. In this case, Fluttershy isn’t suffering from her usual performance anxiety. It is still somewhat reflected in her fear of letting everypony down by losing this buckball game; she fears not being able to perform effectively. As for Pinkie, we all know how deeply she cares for her friends as well as all of Ponyville. So, she definitely doesn’t want to let them down by losing either.

Also, Applejack and Rainbow’s competitiveness is back on display. We haven’t seen much of that really since “Castle-Mane-Ia” in Season 4. Although in this case it’s more of a surrogate competitiveness through Pinkie and Fluttershy. Still, it’s fun to see this aspect of Applejack and Rainbow back out there.

Snails we haven’t seen much of since about Season 3. Here we see him as a bit of a savant when it comes to levitating baskets. It was pretty unexpected that he’d be good at something like that.

I could see buckball being a fictional game that becomes real among fans, much like quidditch has for Harry Potter fans. It wouldn’t even take that much to adapt buckball for play by Bronies rather than ponies.

As for what I didn’t like, even though this episode is set partially in Appleloosa, Braeburn is criminally underused. We could always use some more Braeburn. This, though, is pretty much a nitpick. This was a pretty solid episode throughout.

Overall, “Buckball Season” was a lot of unexpected fun! There’s some old stuff; there’s some new stuff. It was a nice blend.

What did y’all think of “Buckball Season”?

God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless Equestria.

Comments ( 1 )

Yeah, I agree. Buckball is definitely more MLP's answer to Quidditch. As a Harry Potter fan, I'm ashamed it took me this long to notice that. :facehoof:

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