Dangit Dangit Dangit (Spoilers for "Once Upon a Zeppelin") · 12:20pm Oct 8th, 2017
Man, we were so close.
So, so close to establishing a consistent, recognizable character for Cadance. After hints in "Three's a Crowd" and in the comics canon that Cady is a closet adrenaline junkie, we had the chance to show it once and for all, but the script veered off and gave the trait to Velvet instead. Apparently what Cadance wants to do on her vacation cruise is be at playgroup with Flurry. Daring character choice, folks.
The playgroup scene itself was pretty great. I loved the Jenga Foal Tower, and also the implication that poor Flurry was also feeling the baby version of celebrity-stalked. In fact, for all its visceral unpleasantness on several levels simultaneously, I would seriously watch this episode over and over again had they simply reversed it and had Velvet watching Flurry at playgroup while Cady did the Neighagra Falls experience.
Also, Cadance, felling Twilight how beautiful the astronomical event was right after she missed it by mere minutes was kind of a jerk move.
Meh. Rehash of "All Bottled Up"'s lesson done with less pleasant rawness and more cringe. I'd hoped for better from an episode that combines two of my very favorite things (Candybutt and luxury airships). But, my opinion may soften over time. I was torqued pretty hard at "A Canterlot Wedding" when it first arrived, and I very much enjoy watching that one now.
Eh. Still loving the show. Ponies make me happy.
EDIT: Did anyone catch if the airship had a canon name? Seems like she should have a proper one.
Oh well. There's always fanfic Cady. Some of them are pretty good, like Skyw-
Wait.
...Just take this Cady pic instead.
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You hitched your wagon to the wrong pony, my friend. :B
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She's Celestia Two now, the eternal Mom Horse.
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Thank you!
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Shoo-bee-doo-bee-doo~!
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She is, in fact, a helpful-as-can-be pony!
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Or a stoner poner.
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Yeah it was a little stereotyped that the thing Twilight picked out for Cadence to do while on holiday was to look after Flurry Heart while she was having fun. At least Shining seemed to be spending a fair amount of time sharing the parenting responsibilities they could have given Cadence something else to do in addition to being a mom.
I don't think the ship had a canon name.
As for the episode, while it's not bad, it's among the season's weaker episodes.
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The one who's actually a mom!
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I mean, yeah, biologically. Unless you subscribe to the apparently-popular fanon that SunShim is secretly an estranged daughter (I don't, but I have to admit it's a fun idea).
Celestia doesn't need to have actually birthed you to give you all kinds of mommy-issues. That is how powerful a mom she is.
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sunshim had sooo many mommy issues that she had a full on leather jacket wearing rebellious phase!
Just assume that Cady lacking a daring streak is a side effect of being a mother at the moment and will be a passing phase that will end when her nest is empty.
I did think it pretty interesting that the first activity Twilight had planned out for Cadence was something to do with Flurry Heart, while Shining Armor got the Tiny Boat Races. Way to reinforce the patriarchy, Twilight.
I liked the episode. My favorite part? The long activity chart that Twilight developed for the family is known colloquially as a 'horse blanket.'
I haven't seen the movie yet, but I found it interesting when some promotional write-up for the film (from Germany?) defined Cadance as "The Princess of Family" instead of "Love". It made a decent amount of thematic sense, especially with her sister-in-law being the Princess of Friendship, and it fits better with what we've seen in the show as they've totally dodged her love-powers since her first appearance. But if that's the direction that they're going in, I would love to see some exploration about what it means to Cadance herself as an orphan to grow into the Princess of Family, and not just use it as an excuse to paint her as 100% about being a mom.
And I feel like the Apple Family should have a festival built around honoring her...
I think the primary reason Cadence didn't engage in the daring activities would be Flurry, her still baby daughter.
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Yeah, there's logical reasons. It's just that, reasons or not, we had a chance. And it's not like the show hasn't thrown logic out the porthole before.
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Leave it you you, Gardez. Using your superior word-knowledge to glean levels of enjoyment the rest of us can't access.
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Yep. Nail on the head.
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Yeah, I suppose. When Flurry is off ruling her own nation, Cady can get back to that roller derby phase.
Flurry is well in her way to doing so. Being told to play with the other foals and responding by LITERALLY USING THEM AS LINCOLN LOGS means that her Celestia-style alicorn development is right on track.
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If so, it sure wasn't written by a mom. I'll do just about anything for an hour away from the kid.
Obviously because she was looking for some excitement and wanted to see a twiplosion!
I mean, come on. She wouldn't have fit in the barrel.
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Being willing to do just about anything for an hour away might also be more consistent with Cadænce's characterization in A Flurry of Emotions.
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Or the sense of responsibility and care for your child would outweigh your need to get away. That happens too.
The episode was a mixed bag for me. On the plus side, Spike was awesome in the opening scene. And after seven seasons, Twilight finally explicitly calls him family. Huzzah!
On the negative side, the rest of Twilight's family was more than a bit insensitive. Twilight told them that seeing the Northern Stars was the one thing she wanted to do. But, not only did none of them think to stroll to the other end of the ship and say "hey Twilight, the show's about to start", then they rub it in her face afterwards? Ugh.
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Do you know how much time parents spend on a sense of responsibility and care for their child? All of it. All of the time. If a parent doesn't want to get away from their kid for a few hours (or even a few days) on vacation, that's deeply unhealthy and they need someone to step in and loosen their grip.
Which is not to say parents don't like to spend time with their kids on vacation, too. Usually doing something special. But parents are people (or ponies), and people need time to themselves to be healthy as an individual, which they need to be in order to be a good parent.
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Although not a mother myself, I do understand all of that happens as well, as was kind of made clear from the last Flurry Episode, but that doesn't mean it's all that's there, if that makes sense?
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Like I said, I am a mom of a three year old, and as such I know a lot of other moms of small kids. While that might not be all there is for everyone, everywhere, if one of my mom friends posted on facebook that she was looking forward to going on vacation to watch her kid play with other kids, the overwhelming response would be "Girl, let someone else do that and take some time for yourself!"
I mean, maybe Cadance is weird like that, and it's really what she wants to do. But if she is, it's certainly not because of a sense of responsibility or care for her child (which the vast majority of mothers feel) but rather an individual preference for being around kids, or making up for time she otherwise doesn't get to spend with her.
Kinda liked the episode, but it felt like just another example of a bigger problem the second half the season has been going through, which is a surplus of innocuous but inconsequential episodes.
This season basically blew its load with The Perfect Pear and hasn't been able to quite recover since.
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Which makes sense. I'm sorry if I came across as a bit belligerent.
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Thanks, BP, for putting better into words what I was trying to say above.
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We don't see the entire schedule or every activity. It would also make sense for Cadance to have the first turn watching her to ease Flurry into a brand new environment. Once Flurry was comfortable on the airship the rest of the family would take their turns babysitting leaving Cadance free to do her own thing.
Cadance in this episode is actually kind of terrible. When they're planning to either cancel the cruise or have one princess do a bunch of official activities to satisfy the fans, Twilight bravely volunteers for all of them because she loves her family. Does Cadance volunteer for half then, so Twilight can take a break? A quarter? One activity? No, she just expresses a little concern.
At least she didn't get the Spike treatment and get stuck up in the Crystal Empire with paperwork or watching Flurry—could've seen them doing that if they just wanted the OG Sparkle family reunion. But yeah, I still found the episode fun even if Cadance is still woefully underdeveloped in the show canon. I'm just happy to see her get screen time every now and again!
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It might be the latter, if she feels her Princess duties take her away from Flurry too often normally.
Can we take a moment to discuss the monster -- er, minotaur -- in the room?
When I first heard the dulcet tones of Iron Will, I thought, "This will be a fun episode!" While I enjoyed it, it wasn't for Will. In fact, as the eppy went on, I came to a conclusion: Iron Will is the brother from another mother of Flim and Flam. That's not a great thing.
In "Putting Your Hoof Down," Will was certainly a blowhard and a braggart, but he believed in his message. No level was too low to stoop to for this version of Will. He was a grade-A, first-class hustler. Seriously, I thought Flim and Flam would have fit this episode better than Iron Will.
Other observations:
-- They've really nailed down Spike's character these last two seasons. He's got just the right mix of caring and snark to be lovable.
-- I felt so bad for my girl Twilight. All she wanted was to spend some time with her family and see the Northern Stars, and punk Iron Will forced her to do everything but. Did anyone else notice how Twilight's pose at the autograph table mirrored her misery back at the castle as she signed document after document? Poor Twily.
-- I was disappointed Tara Strong didn't reprise her role as Twilight Velvet. She's a busy woman, but couldn't she have recorded a few lines as Twily's mom for continuity?
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Good call on noticing the parallel signing incidents. I missed that! And yes, Iron Will is again a little mishandled, IMO.
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Clearly I need to see this episode, despite being a couple seasons behind... In any case my first though with Flurry was Mary Sue to some degree.
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Flurry is more the "super baby" trope than the Mary Sue. People didn't like her when she was introduced because she was a bit Special Snowflake Destroyer of Worlds, but "Flurry of Emotions" did a lot to humanize her in people's minds.
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I just mean that she's kind of super OP. For example she can fly semi-competently while practically a baby/young filly and Twilight seems to have difficulty despite devoting serious effort to learning and having an excellent example in RBD. Then there's Scootaloo who has had to work really hard to even hover as a much older filly (show writers disability hand wave aside). And on top of that, she can somehow use magic easily despite the implication that learning magic takes time and effort (def. for Twilight and Sweetie).
It also doesn't help that she screams 'I am a toy born character who exists to be cute and break all the basic precedents of reality'.
Allow me to offer an alternative explanation - Cadance is simply too responsible at the moment, because she is seeing that Flurry Heart is (like all babies) Clearly Evil. I mean, seriously, for Flurry, "play with the other babies" means "muahahahaha! They are all my toys!" Which is just hilarious.
...
Actually, I imagine looking after Flurry is WAAAAY more of an adrenaline rush than something as trivial as falling over a big waterfall in a barrel. Let us not forget Flurry - possibly only by accident - nearly destroyed the empire.
That last episode with her earlier this season reminded me so much of my nephew (who is three); who is today out with his Skipper (my Dad), probably down at the playcentre, and when they get back, they will likely be up in Dad's man-cave (in the loft), playing with slot-cars for probably a good hour and a half from prior experienece ('cause he can just about manage to get the car around the track, which is quite impressive for a kid of that age). He never stops and is far too bright.
Now, add that to "can fly" and "has Unfathomable Cosmic Power" and there is little wonder Caddy is getting her adrenaline rush from just keeping an eye on her[1].
(Also, it might well be as suggested that Caddy IS the actual head of state of the Crystal Empire, and doesn't get to see Flurry as much as she'd like - that was even sort of hinted at when she was telling Twilight she'd had to find a work/life balance.)
Also, Spike is a freaking saint. And let us note that Spike is clearly old and competant enough to be left to be the Princess' paperwork unsupervised. Pretty sure either he's older than a child or we have to assume that Equestria's child-care laws are either speciesist or inadequate, neither for me seeming a particularly likely outcome.
[1]One imagines in Heart of the Matter!Cadance might just be waiting for Flurry to open some terrible portal to the nether realms so she can wail on the unfortunate emergant demons or something, while also teaching Flurry some valuable life lessions...
"Now watch mommy, Flurry, this is how you decapitate a naughty demon hydra so his naughty heads don't grow back!"
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Thanks for this!
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Its a fair standpoint and I see how you arrived there.
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Well think about this way. He tried be at good business but when he tried be honest getting nothing for it. So no way to pay the bills. he decided if honestly dose not work might as well scram it out of them.
Honestly if this leads to Trixie helping him you know since she's been there before, it would good.
Besides this is Velvet's fault. You know Velvet if you wanted a free vacation you could ask Celestia to hook you up. I'm sure she'll be more than willing to do that.