Every Little Thing She Does Review · 5:05pm Sep 24th, 2016
So, we're getting only our third Starlight focus episode since the premiere and it seems she won't be back again until the finale. Well, I have warmed up to Starlight a little, but I still do feel like reforming her wasn't in the show's best interests because they seemed to have skipped over the crucial phase of Starlight having to earn her redemption (which hopefully the finale will address and fix). Michael Vogel is returning to pen this episode, and while he's been in a ton of colabs this season, this is only his third time writing solo. So, was Mike able to continue his mostly good writing treck, or did he end up burning himself out by trying to tackle too much this season? Well, let's find out. Ready?
We start off with a basic reminder that Starlight's practically OP. Yes, yes, I know Twilight Sparkle was a really powerful unicorn, but she's the main character it's kind of to be expected. Anyway, Starlight is able to match Twilight skill for skill in magical ability, even making use of her crystal prison as protective shield. And when she makes a mess of the library, she's able to clean it up lightning fast and make copies of herself. Starlight's a one pony justice league.
However, since Trixie came to town it seems Starlight's been neglecting her friendship lessons, so Twilight decides her student needs some extra homework while she goes to Canterlot to give a lecture. Starlight quickly (and rather stupidly) decides to just combine five different friendship assignments into one big one, even though Spike points out she's missing the whole point.
Starlight's friends soon let her know just how much she's in over her head, and it seems she can't complete them all in time. Rather than maybe pick one or two problems to solve (like say bake a cake or help Fluttershy with her animals), Starlight dashes into the library to try and find some sort of spell to help her out. She settles on a combination of spells that turn her friends into mindless shells that will obey her every command, quite literally. This part is what had me worried going into the episode, as I was concerned Starlight was going to willingly do this and not seem even remotely worried about it, and would only end up proving she doesn't deserve a second chance. Thankfully, that's mostly averted here, and the episode will rightfully call her out for this later on. Meanwhile, Starlight's unable to leave her friends alone for any period of time because of how the spell has affected them. It gets to the point where Pinkie makes multiple cakes, Fluttershy is tending to every animal at once, Rarity is stealing anything that can be used for fabric, and Applejack is rambling on about several random memories for a scrapbook. To make matters worse, Starlight causes Pinkie to burn one of the cakes and envelop the castle with smoke. So she has to enlist Rainbow Dash's help to dose the flames, in the process soaking the castle with storm clouds.
Upon tempting fate about how things can't get any worse, Starlight is met with a very angry Twilight who's not too thrilled to see what's become of her castle while she was away.
Twilight rightfully chews out Starlight for brainwashing her friends, asking her just what she was thinking and why she thought it was a good idea. Then we get Starlight's "justification" for putting off her friendship assignments, she's afraid she won't be any good at whatever she does and thus won't be able to make friends. I think there are people like that in real life, but that still feels like a flimsy excuse, especially since her plan involved trying to sidetrack the princess of friendship with impressive magical abilities. Twilight and Spike both point out the obvious, you don't have to be an expert at something to make friends while doing it. And so, Starlight goes to apologize to her friends who are still rather out of it after being freed from the combination of spells. Rainbow Dash even outright snaps at Starlight for what she did, no doubt taking the words right out of many a fans' mouths.
So, with help from her friends, Starlight sets to work on cleaning up the castle. And as a result she's able to tackle and solve four of the five problems she tried to combine. Now she just has to complete Rainbow Dash's assignment, chillaxing on the castle roof. And Celestia knows that after what she did, Starlight could certainly learn how to relax, then she asks a pointless question about how long she's supposed to relax for.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, it's good but not great. Starlight's pretty much a one trick horse by this point, depending solely on magic to solve her problems, and it seems this episode is supposed to be her learning that magic isn't the fix for everything. Not bad, but considering a scene from "No Second Prances" you'd think she'd have learned this lesson already (in fact you'd assume that's one of the first things Twilight would teach Starlight). While Starlight did cast the combination of spells that turned her friends into mindless slaves out of desperation, I would've liked to see her show a little more concern instead of briefly wondering what had happened and then deciding to exploit the situation to her benefit. Thankfully, the episode quickly points out what Starlight did wrong and why it was wrong, and she isn't instantly forgiven just because she says she's sorry. She has to actually clean up the mess she made. I think perhaps the set up could've been trimmed to give more time to the resolution, but in spite of these complaints I'd say this is still a good episode, so I give it a solid A, putting it above "The Saddle Row Review" which seemed to admit Rainbow Dash had no real reason to be in the episode and seemed to be so interested in telling a story it forgot to include time for a moral and how to put one in last minute, but below "No Second Prances" which despite some uncomfortable moments that made me fear a "What About Discord?" rehash, managed to do a better job with reformed Starlight. I still can't help but feel like Season 6 Starlight might as well be a different character entirely, despite the nods to her former evil ways (and it probably would've worked better that way). I'll probably hold on re-evaulating my stance on her until after the finale, and hopefully they'll remember Starlight's lesson here.
Next week, we've got an interesting episode entitled "P.P.O.V (Pony Point of View)" in which Twilight has to figure out what happened on a boat trip that caused Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie to get mad with each other. No doubt, this is an episode that's going to try and do the "same story but from different perspectives" plot and considering how much people like "The Saddle Row Review" for its unique story telling mechanic, hopefully this episode will do just as well. I should also mention that the same day that episode airs, the next Equestria Girls movie "Legends of Everfree" will become available on Netflix, so next Saturday will be a big day for ponies.
Okay, I admit I missed this episode because I was sleeping in, but you make this one sound like something I gotta see as soon as I can do so.
For me, this is the new best episode of the season, taking that honor away from No Second Prances.
This is because of a combination of its humor and just how relatable Starlight was here.
4224432 One must wonder... As smart and talented as she is, one would think she would know it. But then again we wouldn't have any episode plotline.
You do not mess with Pinkie Pie's baking.
Honestly Starlight's redemption should have been a continuing arc this season. The rest of the Mane six should have not trusted SG that quickly and would taught people friendship can't be won back that easy.
As my idea for the episode Starlight should have tried to get five to like for quickly just for her screw things up. Starlight can be a good character, but she still has won back any like from me. Maybe the finale win me over.
Just hope the finale is better than last year's. Write better Josh Haber!!!!
Hmm, this is one of those episodes where I do a lot of fence sitting. Yeah, the episode was good and there were some great highlights (With Pinkie basically saying that baking is serious business and I didn't think Applejack would reference that line from Spiderman.), but the set up and the flow could've been improvised on a lot.
As for the finale, I hope so too but considering the DHX staff, we all know how often they forget about continuity.
4224652 Yeah, it seems like they just sort of glanced over the part that was most important about Starlight, working for her redemption. She was likely written in response to Sunset Shimmer's popularity, and I can understand why they didn't want to just drag Sunset in and bring the movies continuity with the show into question. But whereas Sunset wasn't a very compelling villain that then needed little tweaking and a lot of time to become a good hero, Starlight was sort of the opposite. They sold us on her as a villain really well, but they forgot to sell us on her as a hero as a result.