The Perfect Pear S7E13 Review · 12:09pm Jun 21st, 2017
“Well, we have Sunset returning to Equestria, and the Princesses episode. What’s next on our bucket list of episodes the fans have been asking for years but we vowed to never do until we run out of other ideas?”
“Apple parents.”
“Sounds about right.”
“It’s right above ‘Scootaloo’s parents’.”
“We’ll see about that one later.”
So, let’s get what you’re all curious about if you haven’t seen the episode yet - the Apple parents are indeed dead. They don’t directly state it but it’s pretty obvious, everyone talks about them in the past tense, no one says anything to imply they’re still alive, and Applejack at the end of the episode says they “left [them] something to remember them by.” At this point if they come out later and show the two are still alive, it’ll be a complete cop-out. This isn’t like Scootaloo’s wings where they back off of confirming her as handicapped, any reasonable reading of the script for the episode will come to the conclusion the Apple parents are no longer living.
Parents aside, this was a perfectly fine episode in its own right. It was a noticeably different episode than those that had come before, it was a love story and was framed as such, including the song which is a rather unique one. The backstory itself was all fine too, except for the obvious continuity problem of how the heck the Pear family has never been mentioned when they’re apparently been farming in Sweet Apple Acres since Granny was a youth, not to mention several established characters like the Mayor and Mrs. Cake knowing the Apple parents but never bringing it up to the family now.
But that aside, everyone else is fine. The very idea of the Pears and the Apples being rivals is cute, the Mayor has pink hair in the flashback, haha. The episode tries a bit too hard to fit in jokes to the effect of “hey, our parents did [insert thing], just like [insert Apple kid] does, heh heh.” We also get Big Mac talking a bit more in this episode.
Overall, the episode wasn’t amazing, but then I don’t think it was supposed to be. As I said it has a very different tone from other episodes, and it isn’t in-your-face with humor or epic story or action. It’s the love story of Pear “Buttercup” Butter and Bright Macintosh, and it tells the story very well.
EDIT - I didn’t even notice William Shatner was Grand Pear! A reminder he’s a serious actor in between the self-parodying. Great work, Billy.
it was very sweet and heartfelt!
also: the mare in the moon!
I felt Mrs. Cake provided a workable fig leaf over not mentioning any of this until now. When's the right time to walk up to a bunch of orphans and say "By the way, your mom and I used to hang out"? After a while, it gets really awkward to bring up.
The apparently still-extant pear orchard, on the other hand, is a tad ridiculous. But still, great episode.
Even if I don't like Romeo and Juliet (the episode borrows a lot of elements from said story), this episode was fine.
Applejacks mom is too cute! Buttercup is best mane 6 mom...BUT WAIT...we have starlight... What's up with her folks?
4578162
She ate them.
4578217
You making an One Piece reference?
4578504
...no?
4578541
Oh, there was a really recent chapter that revealed that a character ate their parent and so I first thought it was that you were referencing.
4578661
I don't read the manga and I haven't even gotten to the timeskip in the anime yet.
4579059
Well good thing I didn't go into more detail then, or I might have spoiled a dark surprise for you when you get there.
4578060 I think everyone in town assumed Granny Smith had told them all about their parents (when clearly she hadn't), and they assumed it would be rude to bring up someone's dead parents without being asked.
4578162 Gonna have to wait for the next season to find out. Season 5 showed us Pinkie's family, Season 6 gave us Fluttershy's family, Season 7 revealed Rainbow Dash and Applejack's families and later on we're gonna get a family episode for Twilight. Oh, and Season 4 had "Pinkie Apple Pie", and Season 3 "Sleepless in Ponyville", which had a sort of family undertone. I'm guessing the pattern's gonna hold. I'm actually curious about what sort of family (if any) Spike has. Starlight has to have had parents at some point, but Spike was given to Twilight as an egg to hatch, so where he did come from?
4579481
Something tells me there is a lot of drama and pain connected to Starlight and her parents. Your probably right her parents to me seem like they were neglectful and not proud of their daughter for whatever reason or they made her feel not special thus leading her to make others all the same. That to me sounds like a fantastic character development episode for her character and show that not all the mane characters had such picture perfect parents like Applejack or Twilights
Plus what about Celestia and Luna... There is a royal family now especially with the addition of Flurry Heart but I imagine Celestia and Luna had parents once upon a time