Uncommon Bond Review (Spoilers Abound, Beware!) · 9:35pm Oct 9th, 2017
After "Secrets and Pies" was a disappointment in every way despite my low expectations, no way was I going to wait around to find out if the season picked itself back up again before the finale. I should mention that apparently Hasbro did get hacked, so not only did the remaining episodes of Season 7 get leaked, but so did a whole lot of stuff related to the show including the show bible (details of it were made public from various interviews given by Lauren Faust and the show staff long before this). So more than likely the episodes won't be available on Daily Motion and YouTube for long, so if you're not willing to wait for official releases, better get 'em while they're out but don't go passing out the links or you could end up in legal trouble. And of course, you ARE waiting for the official release of this episode, which will apparently air early in Canada just like "Fluttershy Leans In" through "Not Asking for Trouble", then it probably goes without saying but:
So first and foremost, Josh Haber is back in the editor's seat for the rest of the season now, because no way is this a hold over from Season 6. I know some of you will be upset, but I've said it over and over again that Lewis and Songco just weren't doing their job, four out of thirteen episodes in the first half of the season bore their name and only one or two new writers hit it out of the park, the rest of the success came from Lewis and Songco themselves, or veteran writers. And in the second half they failed numerous times to edit their stories, and I don't think it's any coincidence that the season's return to quality came about only AFTER Josh Haber stepped back into the fray. I guess it depends on what you like more though, Haber doesn't push the envelope as much for his stories, but under his tenure the show seemed to have a more consistent quality of good but maybe not outright spectacular, whereas Lewis and Songco were a roller coaster of highs and lows at first, then settled into a valley of mediocrcy until Haber came back. Speaking of Josh Haber, he wrote this episode in a collab with Kevin Lappin, the mastermind behind "Honest Apple" and "To Change A Changeling" which were both duds now eclipsed by "Secrets and Pies". Seeing as Haber's only other entry so far this season was "It Isn't The Mane Thing About You" which succeeded where "Secrets and Pies" failed, was this episode able to make up for the disaster that was "Secrets and Pies", or did it somehow fail even when the bar was all but buried underground? Well, let's find out.
We start off the episode on an adorable note, Starlight Glimmer waiting at the train station in Ponyville for Sunburst, and looking forward to just spending time with him. Sunburst shows up with several bags in tow, but he's more interested in antiquing or antique shopping, much to Starlight's unhappiness. She feigns interest at the shop, as Sunburst meets Twilight and the two hit it off almost instantly. I'm actually kind of surprised it's taken this long for them to spend time together, especially since they both share a passionate affection for knowledge and magic.
Sunburst takes notice of Starlight not really being interested and tells her she doesn't have to pretend to be interested if she's not, but Starlight shrugs it off, thinking that they're done. However, Twilight finds a whole another section of the shop that's full of antiques to examine, and Starlight quips about how the place seemed smaller from the outside. In other words, it's bigger on the inside.
In a case of "Chekhov's Gun", Sunburst buys a bundle barrel in which shops randomly sell off stuff they don't bother to inventory in a box or a barrel, and you could find anything in them.
Fortunately, Starlight finds something she and Sunburst still enjoy, an old board game from their childhood that seems to be the pony equivalent of Chutes and Ladders and possibly Candy Land given the board layout. Twilight gets so excited at seeing Sunburt's little dragon piece get captured, that she flips the board with her magic. That night, Sunburst is thrilled to have hit it off with Twilight, and Starlight feels a bit left out. Next morning, she wakes up Sunburst before sunrise to do things with him on her own, and we get to see what Sunburst looks like first thing in the morning and without that cape around his body (he actually tells Starlight to leave so he can get changed, kind of weird considering ponies don't normally wear clothes and what not). She takes him to Sweet Apple Acres, hoping to remind him of how they used to drink apple juice all the time, and she bucks a tree which has the added effect of waking up Trixie.
Surprisingly, unlike her performances in her last two focus episodes, Trixie is actually kind of enjoyable and sympathetic here. She's still not that great a performer, as she can't do a basic escape trick with chains (why you can't just use a key to undo the locks I don't know, but maybe the sound would give you away?). But Sunburst seems to know a thing or two about magic, and he and Trixie spend time together working on tricks, including obvious stuff like "Is this your card?" and "Find the ball/shiny object in the cup/shell" (though Trixie rigs it so each cup is a winner). Starlight drags Sunburst away to see the mirror pool, admitting that she destroyed the rock sealing off the entrance, and later she worries about an escaped Pinkie. So Starlight knows about the mirror pool and what happened when Pinkie used it, but she's going to show it to Sunburst anyway to clone herself with him? Sounds like another recipe for disaster to me.
Fortunately, the sound of chipping rocks lure the two away, and guess who they find? Maud Pie of course, apparently her the cave leading to her home is connected to the cave leading to the mirror pool. You can probably guess what happens from here, Sunburst and Maud hit it off together, leaving Starlight to feel left out, and admittedly this one feels like a bit of a stretch. But hey, if Starlight and Maud could bond over just getting to understand each other, I think Sunburst can do the same, especially since Starlight actually unwittingly used Maud once.
Starlight tries to take advantage of the one thing she and Sunburst have in common, magic. And she whips up a spell that not only recreates their childhood home, but also turns them into their blank flank selves again. Yes, that's right, age regression spells are now canon, at least in terms of regressing adults to children. And no, Starlight doesn't want to play that book stacking game again.
But Sunburst says he doesn't want to be a kid again to play their game, and Starlight undoes the spell and wanders off. Sunburst feels guilty and wants to make it up to Starlight, but he struggles to find out what they still have in common, even while talking to Twilight, Trixe, and Maud in order. We get a very poor line from Trixie about how she and Starlight resent being judged for their past. Maybe if Trixie had been handled better in her past episodes I would sincerely believe her, but here it just feels like her refusing to accept that she is responsible for her own actions and thus her own problems. I suspect Kevin Lappin had a hand in writing that part. We also get a kind of unfunny joke from Maud when she remarks Sunburst's situation isn't serious, and says that was a joke. Maud is deadpan and relatively emotionless, but she's not sarcastic, even when she was dissing Discord.
Twilight, meanwhile, admits Starlight has a tendency to overreact and go a bit extreme. Anyway, Sunburst comes up with the answer when he enlists the help of Trixie and Maud to recreate a life sized version of the game he and Starlight played earlier, Maud creating the dice with her knowledge of rocks, and Trixie creating the special effects. Starlight joins them all for a group roleplaying session, even coming up with a variation of having your dragon trapped. And in a sweet ending scene, Starlight, along with Twilight, Trixie, and Maud (Trixie even helps Twilight with levitating Sunburst's bags, so hopefully this is a sign that now she's looking to finally bury the hatchet and end the silly rivalry that she can't hope to win). We also get a bit of foreshadowing to the finale with an ominous looking book that was shown in the most recent Legends of Magic (which ended with Sunburst needing to get the information to Twilight, so I'm gonna assume this is taking place before any of the issues, the events all take place within a few weeks, and then he comes back to see Twilight for the finale, but I could be wrong and the shows and comics timelines are still contradictory despite supposedly collabing together).
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, it's pretty sweet. In fact, you could be forgiven for assuming this was taking place much sooner in Season 7. It's actually a surprise to see a Starlight focus episode where she's not unlikeable or crossing some kind of ethical boundry, and this episode pretty much adds fuel to the ship that is StarBurst. It is kind of a rehash of "Amending Fences" and "What About Discord?", but I think it succeeds where the latter failed. Rather than Twilight feeling excluded because the plot dictated a conflict and tried to explain jokes that didn't make sense (on top of trying to justify Twilight's jealousy which is NEVER a good thing), it actually shows why Starlight feels jealous and cut off from her friend, and like Twilight in the former we get a feel for how much Starlight is hurt over this. Everyone's more or less in character, though it does feel like a slight stretch for Sunburst and Maud to befriend so easily, it just makes it seem like the only reason the mane six couldn't connect with Maud right away was because the plot said so, and I feel like that's not a good thing when "Maud Pie" was among Season 4's stronger episodes. I sincerely believe Kevin Lapin started out writing this episode alone, then Josh Haber stepped in to help him out and basically kept Kevin in check and prevented him from going off the rails. The Trixie bit about her resenting being judged is more the fault of what's predated this episode than anything this episode does, and I sincerely hope it's not a one off thing because I used to be more friendly towards Trixie but Season 7 has really soured me on her as a character. For his first big outing since "The Crystalling" it's wonderful to see Sunburst as his own character. The only big complaint I have is that none of the mane six or Spike are involved here, but then again we haven't really seen Starlight interact with them for extended periods of time so I can understand why they weren't part of this episode. In the end, I give this episode an A+, putting it above "Hard to Say Anything" since I don't quite approve of them saying Cheerilee wasn't Big Mac's first crush (why tease us for so long with it if that was the case), but below "Forever Filly" as the plot for this episode feels kind of like a rehash of the conflict of this episode, just the focus on friends instead of family.
Now, the only episodes left are the two part finale "Shadow Play" which will tie in with the "Legends of Magic" comic series I mentioned above. But I'm content to wait for them to come out at the end of October now, I would've spoiled myself if this episode hadn't been good, but it was a marvelous episode and I have no major complaints. I just hope that when the finale drops, there'll be some time devoted to Starswirl the Bearded, particularly him reuniting with Celestia and Luna since he was their mentor and quite possibly a father figure towards them. Until it drops though, if you see it early online or through Canada broadcasts, please remember my policy unless I say otherwise is:
Honestly, you should just watch the finale now, that way you don't have to worry about dodging spoilers.
As for this episode, it's easily among the top 6 of the season, which also puts it in the top 10 of the entire series.
So just counting this episode and not the finale, season 7 had a total of SEVEN episodes in the top 10, a number that had never been seen before.
If I hadn't already been convinced that season 7 was the best one yet, this easily confirmed it.
4692749 I think Season 7's just barely gonna squeek out a win over Season 6, largely because the second half was so rocky up until "Daring Done?". I suspect Lewis and Songco were expecting just a half season with the movie and the Equestria Girls spin-off franchise, and were ill prepared for a full season ordered while Season 6 was still in production.
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For me, personally, the second half of season 7 was even better than the first half, and continued to deliver on the hits.
Here's why:
NINE of the episodes from the second half beat out the episodes with the same number from the previous seasons for me, compared to seven from the first half
I won't reveal them until you do your comparisons, though.
In addition to that my 4 least favorite episodes of the season are all from the first half.
4692806 I might watch the finale tomorrow, just to avoid spoilers. But I won't review it properly til it comes out officially on October 28.
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All right then.
I look forward to seeing it at that point.
Well, I was able to watch this one since I couldn't wait any longer either, just to see if the downward spiral would continue yet again. I personally enjoyed this episode a lot, it's easily my second favorite episode of Season 7. The StarBurst ship is another one I'm proud to support.
I really did like this episode, even if Starlight was trying too hard to bring the nostalgia back.
If there's one thing that made me happy about this episode, is that Starlight was miserable.