AR-WR: Season 7, E04-05

Welcome to the AR-WR, (pronounced like 'hour') where I go on a Mountain Dew fueled rant about things Pony, and some'tings not pony.

This first Angry Right-Wing-Rant started out as a response to Temnizziv, asking me what I thought about this weekend's new episodes (Thanks a lot CANADA!) . But it kinda went on, so I figured I'd just make it a blog.

Fair warning: SPOILERS!
>>2435682 Uhhh......

Rock Solid Friendship- I thought it was ok, in totality. I genuinely laughed at a lot of the Pinkie stuff early on, before it got to being cringe. There was a lot of subtle humor in this that I always appreciate, especially with the rock stuff. I like Maude in measured doses, and I kinda feel like we got a little too much in this one. To mean, we saw too much of her character develop for my liking as opposed to keeping her character somewhat static, like we saw in "Heartbreakers" (S5E20). For me, the comedy of Maude comes from her parts basically being a punchline. If you were to run a show, that had only quips and one-liners, it'd get old real fast.
I was slightly chagrined(slightly) that we went with Starlight (yet again) as one of the characters in this. I don't hate her, but I just want her to break off and go do her own thing for a while, especially since we saw her all throughout season 6.
Though, I suppose as a concept of not focusing an episode, or at least not the a-plot of the show on the Mane-6, is perfectly fine. One of the biggest advantages South Park took was taking on the rest of the town as characters that could play significant parts in the show, while not being relegated to the trash bin afterwards. To mean, the scope expanded beyond the four boys. If MLP is going to explore more characters, I'd like them to do it with longer running characters, like Lyra, Derpy, Trixie, Vinyl...

Fluttershy Leans In- One of the things about this episode that really struck me, was how nopony told Fluttershy how... vague she was being. If I was telling someone my plans for a hospital, but I was doing so while high on DMT, I don't expect I would get my message across very well. She basically gave the ponies who had generously come around to help her, apparently pro-bono, and gave them horrible direction for what she wanted. Everypony involved was just apparently too nice to tell her: "look lady, you're going to need to give us some clearer instructions on what you're asking for. I don't know what kind of hippie-animal commune you're trying to build here, but we're going to need better than 'open & free & cozy" to work with".

"I'm looking for something less like a cage, and more like a nice hug."

Fluttershy, what on Odin's green Midgard does that even mean?!?!?! There's a lot of room for interpretation between steel enclosure and "a hug". Could you dial it in just a bit more?
And then! AJ, Pinkie, and Rarity throw them under the bus! No faith. Sad. Granted, the 'expert ponies' wound up taking some liberties, which, they probably should have just backed away from. But I find it hard to blame them, given the description Fluttershy gave them, it's hard to find fault with: "Well, she sounded like she was on her Valium again, so since I don't know how to build a "warm hug" out of timber, I'll just make her an actual building."
In the end, what she wanted was something that she didn't even need the expert ponies for in the first-fucking-place! She basically built an open-air retreat, which is great for animals, but kinda pointless to bring a construction worker, a home decorator, and an animal wrangler around for. They built like, a bridge, and a worryingly unstable tire swing. Why they even have rubber tires around for, beats the hell outta me.
The longer this episode went on, the more frustrated I got. Though I will say, that Wrangler, voiced by the multi-super-talented Kazumi Evans, was pretty cute. Oh, and Big Daddy McColt looks like the pony version of Harold Covington.

Thanks for coming around for this first episode of AR-WR, remember, if you're not doing it Right, you're doing it wrong.
Here to take you out, is Sabaton!

Comments

[Temnizziv]

Thank god something finally happened, i was getting bored.

You have a point about the episodes(especially 5), episode 5 kinda felt rather pointless to me.

[Evowizard25]

I honestly thought Rock Solid Friendship was one of the best episode of the entire series. While I do go more in depth here, I have to disagree. Maud actually did do a good job of counterbalancing the other characters while giving her own witty and actually hilarious dialogue throughout. Her relationship with Starlight was interesting and did a good job of expanding both of their characters.

I was slightly chagrined(slightly) that we went with Starlight (yet again) as one of the characters in this. I don't hate her, but I just want her to break off and go do her own thing for a while, especially since we saw her all throughout season 6.

I will never decide whether I should laugh or continuously sight over the negative reactions Starlight seems to have in this fandom. That said, she was in four leading roles, one minor role (that had no bearing on the plot) and two none speaking, less then two minute appearances in season 6 out of 24. That's about a third, three of which she had no real bearing on the plot and wasn't the main focus. So no, she wasn't really seen throughout season six. Heck, a lot of people were joking about her missing through a lot of that season.
{Also, hope she stays. Mostly cause she's my favorite character.}