Episode Review - S7E6 Forever Filly · 8:43pm May 6th, 2017
Aka, "Rarity is Getting Old: The Episode"
So, this was an okay episode. The conflict and subsequent resolution become apparent from the first activity Rarity and Sweetie Belle did, and even then you could tell what was coming with Rarity's memories in the opening. Also, nice Sassy cameo.
Here's where the episode fell flat for me, aside from how utterly predictable it was. First; Rarity and Sweetie Belle growing apart is not apt. Even if we go by the absence of episodes of them together as evidence of this, it isn't apt. Season 6 had Cart Before The Ponies where they teamed up in the cart race (and to a similar moral now that I think it over), season 5 had the Sisterhooves Social though the episode was focused on Apple Bloom and Big Mac, and in Season 4 we had For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils. In fact it's kinda a thing on reflection for Rarity and Sweetie Belle to have an episode a season where they spend time together. So I don't buy that out of the blue Rarity can't remember the last time they spent time together.
Second, for a plot centered on Rarity accepting that Sweetie Belle has grown up and isn't the filly she remembers... none of the things they do together are things that Sweetie Belle has ever been shown to have ever been interested in. What if Rarity offered to get something down a shelf for her since she knows Sweetie's magic isn't too good, "no worries, I got it." "Oh, your magic is improved. How nice." It would have been nice retrospective to have them try and bond over things Sweetie Belle had going for her in the early seasons that she's grown out of, show us that she has grown up and isn't that same filly she was six seasons ago. By creating conflict in the way it does, the episode is literally creating conflict, manufacturing interests for Sweetie Belle that she can be disinterested in and thus Rarity is put out. But we don't share her feelings because we never knew Sweetie Belle had ever liked these things.
Also, I didn't get the joke with the comically undersized sundae. I think it would have been funnier if they delivered two sundaes, one filly-sized and one for an adult, and Rarity watches as Sweetie Belle gobbles it in two or three bites and asks for a bigger one. Because that is the episode's central theme - Sweetie Belle is growing up and Rarity has to accept that. But instead of focusing on how Sweetie Belle has matured or even physically grown, it focuses on how her interests have shifted. Except, again, they're interests this episode made up for her, both the old and the new ones.
Not a bad episode, but it took the wrong approach to what could have been a good idea.
It was a meh episode to be honest. Least we are giving other characters some spotlight. I like Starlight but damn
The thing with the sundae reminded me of a SpongeBob episode
It wasn't so much that they are growing apart (which they are), but that Rarity was worried they were growing apart, and blew everything up in exaggerated comedic fashion. :B Heh, fashion.