AR-WR: S7- "Forever Filly" & "Parental Glideance" · 5:29am May 9th, 2017
This isn't going to be a thoughtful, full-on review, but there are a few things I'd like to say on the two new episodes. 
For "Forever Filly", I get what they were going for, but I have some issue with their concept of execution. Firstly, I finally noticed how much taller Sassy Saddles is than Rarity. It's almost like she's a different race of unicorn, which would actually be very interesting.
So, in the opening gag, we see that Rarity is impressively competent in her job, thinking ahead on supply and planning to the point that she quells every one of her manager's fears. Then she realizes that she's been ignoring Sweetie Belle (Or she thinks she has anyway). This strikes me as incongruent. Not because we can't think of a reasonable example or personal anecdote of someone being observant in one area, while being negligent in another, but because it just seems so contrite in this instance.
Rarity is evidently raising her little sister on her own, something I actually find endearing, so I have to think that she's in daily contact with Sweetie. And I'm to believe that she hasn't noticed the developing maturity of her sibling right under her nose in all this time? I mean... I guess I can consider the idea that Rarity still looks at Sweetie as the same filly she took to puppet shows and ice cream parlors, and much like a parent, will always see her as that same child. But at some point you'd think Rarity would notice some of these changes.
I also feel like they poured on the Rarity a bit too much in this episode. Not in regards to her screen time, but the exaggeration of her titillated expressions. Especially with the squeaky laughter.
Then they draw the deliberate parallel with the other filly and her puppy. You know, the puppy with a deep throated bark, and a FUCKING MUSTACHE? What is that girl's father teaching her about growing up that she misses the very obvious fact that her puppy has grown into an adult?
Anyway, I actually liked the plot of Rarity trying a little too hard to reconnect with Sweetie, we don't see too much of them bonding in the series. So complaints on the execution aside, the episode was decent. Not a great episode, but it had it's moments.
I think I like the very ending a lot, with the final shot being the picture of Rarity and Sweetie in the new picture. In it, we actually see that Sweetie is literally almost as big as her older sister. Showing us the literal growth of Sweetie into a young adult. 
"Parental Glideance":
This episode actually got me kinda mad.
The first bit of it, with Scootaloo metting Rainbow's parents go on well enough, even if the parents area bit grating (more on them in a bit).
Then they get to the Wonderbolt compound, where we get a few minutes of genuinely funny moments of Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles embarrassing their daughter in front of her cohorts in the corps.
...my problem... came when Rainbow finally snapped and told her parents to back off. Up till now, we saw that her parents were literally worshiping the cloud she walks on, giving her trophies for brushing her teeth and LITERALLY BEING UNCONSCIOUS!
It is a god-damn miracle that Rainbow Dash isn't more of a malignant narcissist than just the brash-if-overconfident pony she is. There is no way, that raising a child like that should result in a healthy perception of self, when your parents, the ponies who help to build your perception of the world, tell you that you are the best at everything.
There's encouraging, there's being proud, and then there's this borderline abusive treatment of your daughter.
As far as I'm concerned, Rainbow had every right to snap at her parents, and tell them to chill the fuck out. Her lashing out at them, was the result of years of pent up frustration, and was an attempt to establish some healthy boundaries between an adult mare, and her overbearing parents. The parents offer some two-faced praises of their child's ability to make them feel worthless, before storming off in tears.
Not to mention the reckless endangerment stunt they pulled, by firing explosive fireworks into an airshow! I can't imagine the horrible imagery one could conjure of a tragedy resulting from their astonishing carelessness.
The part that actually got me mad, was when Scootaloo gets upset with Rainbow for what she did, and basically chewed her out for pushing back against this unhealthy relationship with her parents.
Then Rainbow feels sad about it, to the point where she thinks she was in the wrong! What I saw, was the parents and Scootaloo, gaslighting Rainbow Dash into apologizing for not wanting to subject herself to the obsessive adulation of her parents.
And that made me mad. That the show creators would do that, not just to one of the main characters of the show, but to a character like Rainbow Dash, who for all her own faults, still has an air of innocence around her. This was like watching a decent young girl being forced to go back to people who mistreat her, and portray her desire to be free from them as selfishness. I was fucking stunned.
As for Bow and Windy, [sigh] I have to say that I was disappointed. For all the potential they had in creating parents for arguably the star of the show, they went with some absurd, and ultimately forgettable cliches.
In my mind, (I've gone to Carolina), I always imagined Rainbow's father as a strong figure. A very positive role model for a tomboy like her to look up to. Maybe a former aspiring Wonderbolt himself, a dream his daughter picked up because he made her see it as something special. I was really looking forward to an endearing, positive example of a male figure in a young girls life. Instead I got Bow Hothoof. He can't even have a name that's not ridiculous.
Mother, while clearly a body copy of her daughter, (fine in this circumstance), was just irksome.
Visually, I thought Bow looked good. I would have made him leaner. Windy, I would have gone with a different hair style/color.
I usually really like Rainbow Dash centered episodes. I thought "Newbie Dash" was one of the best episodes of season 6, "Stranger than Fan-Fiction" was hilarious, and she generally has compelling interactions.
This, "Parental Glideance", this I just shake my head.
I hope the episode with Applejack's parents goes better. And don't do something like reveal that they've been alive this whole time after faking their deaths, only to come back because they need to get bits from their daughter to pay off an irate criminal.
For your opinions on "Parental Glideance", i completely agree almost word for word.
I was honestly confused that they treated Rainbow like she was the bad guy when i saw her reaction as perfectly justified albeit for slightly different reasons(i viewed it as distracting and hindering Dash's personal life and job as a Wonderbolt) and the worst thing about it is that Tarb's incorporating her Canon father, but then again that is his decision to make even if we disagree with it.
The good news is that he won't completely replace Rainbow Senior.
4525860 (regards Tarb), Is he now? Interesting. Wonder what his interpretation will turn out.
4525872 Knowing Canon and Tarb's track record, he'll probably be just as hammy as RD Sr. and be happily married(Tarb did state that Rainbow's parents were a happy if busy couple, of course this was long before the episode) as for the mane? He probably dyed it as a symbol of affection.
When Tarb said they were a busy couple, I wonder if he meant to imply that they were biz-zay!
Except she isn't. Sweetie Belle is being raised by her parents most of the time, with Rarity just looking after her when their parents go off for a vacation or something. We see this in Sisterhooves Social and we see Sweetie living in her parents house, with their dad, in Babs Seed's episode as well as another one or two episodes with them in the background. So Rarity hasn't been raising her sister, just taking care of her on occasion so it's actually understandable that she wouldn't fully notice her growing up so much as to be 'That' grown up.
As for Parental Glideance, I have to disagree. While I did go about a little more in my own blog, I have to say aside from the fireworks, which were very dangerous, I found them to be very lovable and while they are overbearing, I don't think overly so. I thought they were swell and I think they at least won't be so overbearing now that RD actually blew up on them about it. Scootaloo getting some love and attention was good as well.
4525894
Hmmm...... After reviewing "One Bad Seed" and "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Tolls", I'll have to concede to point to you. SB had two distinctly different rooms, and we see Hondo fishing on the docks in front of the house.
I usually like to be stubborn about the points of my arguments, but you appear to have me in check.
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Still, I think Rarity's obliviousness was a little ham-fisted. And I do still like the idea of Rarity as the surrogate single mother as a matter of head-canon.
As for "Parental Glideance", I made sure to read your blog beforehand, see what others made of the issue. And while I'll agree, Bow and Windy genuinely love their daughter very much, this is a case of taking something way too far. And while I could have dealt with their obnoxious adoration just fine, it being a kids show, it was the reaction to Rainbow's blow-up that really put a shrimp on my bar-be. She was clearly justified in her frustration, and the show creators spun her as the problem. I was mad that they put that in a show for little girls. Had I a daughter who watched the show, I'm sure I'd be even more furious.
4525906 She was justified in her frustration, but the show didn't say putting your hoof down is wrong. It is how she did it that's wrong. It's understandable, but blowing up at them like that wasn't the right thing to do. Had Rainbow calmly expressed her frustrations, there wouldn't have been a problem.