Catching Up On Episode Blogs · 2:50am Oct 15th, 2017
It’s been a long time since I did an episode reaction blog, and since I’ve just finished season seven, I figured I’d just roll them all up into one big post. I’ve only seen the episodes once, and some of them quite a while ago, so please forgive me if I have some details wrong. This is as I remember them.
Spoilers ahead as I will be talking about the leaked episodes.
Discordant Harmony
You know, this is one of the things that hurts me about MLP. Discord is at his most interesting when he’s being a shit, but he’s not going to be a shit around Fluttershy. Well, not at the same level, anyway. So by pairing him with Fluttershy more often than not, he’s made more bland than he ought to be. And that’s what I think of this episode. It has a few good gags, but mostly I just find it mediocre. It’s firmly okay.
Judgement: Mediocre
The Perfect Pear
Whew! I was seriously afraid that the Apple parents would return after being abroad for several years or something equally stupid. I was relieved that they are still dead and that this episode in general was good. I could do without Shatner being Grand Pear, though. He’s voice really adds nothing to the role. However, the romance was sweet and I appreciated more backstory with the Apple family. The dance on opposite sides of the dance floor was adorable.
Judgement: Good
Fame and Misfortune
The reaction to this episode seems overblown to me. It was okay, and I didn’t feel personally insulted by the story. If people hadn’t have brought up the controversy, it honestly probably wouldn’t have occurred to me that it was meant as meta commentary on fans of the show. There were some good jokes found within, and I loved Applejack being unable to stop helping “family” even when they weren’t family in the least. Pinkie and Rarity also had good moments. I absolutely loved that the girls didn’t even solve this in the end. They broke out into song and then were promptly ignored.
Judgement: Good
Triple Threat
I'm going to leave the review for Campfire Tales down below. I'd forgotten that this episode existed, so when I saw the name Triple Threat, it instantly reminded me of the three yarns in Campfire Tales.
Okay, this is one of those I Love Lucy-style plots, and I hate those. Anything that requires a screwball comedy-esque character running back and forth trying to make the inevitable not happen is just not interesting to me. We all know that Spike is going to fail at this. It's eighteen minutes of waiting while it finally happens. Not my thing.
Also, it has Thorax. Bleh.
On the plus side, it has Ember, who I like. Her presence in the episode makes it bearable. Also, I like that Thorax and Ember just deal with the problem themselves. Poor Spike. I like the guy, but they do go out of their way to make him useless in his own episodes.
When it's all said and done, I didn't care for this one. It's just too cringy and predictable.
Judgement: Bad
Campfire Tales
Ugh. This was a dull episode with a seriously irritating Scootaloo. This is the kind of thing that makes me wonder what the editors do on these shows. Like, did no one think to themselves, “Does Scootaloo ever act like this?” Do they not care? I dunno, but it always seems like episodes get by in any series where a character suddenly starts acting really weird. I get that Scootaloo was scared of nightmares before, but that doesn’t translate over into scared of all aspects of camping. Anyway, the rest of the episode was just kinda boring. The tales themselves would have been nice with more time to develop, but the first one just sorta ends because Applejack says, “Then Rockhoof did a magical thing and saved everyone!” Mistmane was fairly nice, and Flash Magnus was eh. Overall, not a favorite.
Judgement: Kinda Bad
To Change a Changeling
Look, let’s just get this out of the way: Trixie is comedy gold. Any episode with this new Trixie is one that I’m going to be a fan of. The Starlight/Trixie dynamic is amazing, and Pharynx strikes me as a believable character. I’d actually like to see more of the changelings reject this way of life and go back to Chrysalis. However, I love villains in general, so I always want that. Anyway, Pharynx being a jerk was amusing to me, and the rest of the changelings moving immediately to hippie culture was also funny in its own way.
The bad thing about all of this is Thorax. I don’t care for him, and that’s a big problem in an episode like this. He’s a big part of it. Maybe they’ll pair him up with something that I do like one day, like they did with Starlight. She’s a thousand times better with Trixie. In the end, this is a middling episode. I didn’t hate it or love it.
Judgement: Mediocre
Daring Done?
Bleh. I’ve hated the actual addition of Daring Do to the character lineup since it happened, and I still do. It’s stupid. The whole point of the Daring Do character model is that Rainbow Dash was inserting herself into the story. Every episode with her his dull, in my opinion. Even Pinkie can’t save this one. I’m honestly trying to remember the details of this. I watched it when it came out, but I can’t remember a gag that was good or a piece of dialogue that I liked. I do remember that the disguised Caballeron was idiotic. I didn’t enjoy this one.
Judgement: Bad
It Isn’t the Mane Thing About You
It’s alright. Not a fav, but solidly okay. The unmarked bottles were dumb, and Pinkie isn’t really her best self here. I did absolutely love every time despairing Rarity made a little loaf out of herself by curling up on the floor in her cloak. And as someone who had a mohawk for about fifteen years, I’m a big fan of Rarity’s punk look. I was also pleased with the return of some of the townsponies that we don’t get to see very often.
Judgement: Mediocre
A Health of Information
A bland episode with a seriously bad title. I’m not sure if I just wasn’t used to her after not really seeing her for a while, but Zecora was really getting on my nerves at the beginning of this episode. Were her rhymes worse than they usually are? It calmed down after she contracted the disease, but it’s probably the first time that I’ve wished Zecora would go away.
The main issue here is that this is a Fluttershy episode, and I’m just not very into Fluttershy. She’s fine, especially when paired with other ponies, but Twilight didn’t add a whole lot to dilute the Fluttershy-ness of this, and I wasn’t all that into the OC. Just overall not a very interesting episode to me, even with the world-building.
Judgement: Kinda Bad
Marks and Recreation
I actually really liked this one! I love that the girls just didn’t know how to deal with a pony that wasn’t into cutie marks, and that Rumble actually calls them on some of their shit. I’ll never be a fan of Pipsqueak, though. On the other hand, we did get some new foals who were fun. I love the obsession with painting circles, but I kinda wish that the filly (can’t remember her name) hadn’t gotten a cutie mark so quickly.
It was great when Rumble shattered their plans, only to have all the foals eventually just laying around being bored. I loved that the episode didn’t give Rumble any concrete plans. He was just being disruptive and figuring things out as he went along. I did feel like the ending was a little abrupt, but whatever. I enjoyed most of this one!
Judgement: Good
Once Upon a Zeppelin
Always happy to see characters return in logical ways. I can totally buy Iron Will as an opportunist entrepreneur. He’s like the guy who jump into the get-rich-quick schemes with both hooves, then jumps to the next one when the grass looks a little greener over there.
This is a role that I like for Twilight. She’s responsible, but not so great at drawing lines or speaking up for herself because she’s so worried about letting others down. I like to see her get a little testy every so often.
Twilight’s parents were great, but I’ll never be able to get around her dad being named Night Light. Bleh.
AND CAN WE PLEASE PUT THE PONY LAST NAMES THING TO REST?!
It just hurts me inside to read these thread where people are trying to figure out the pony families’ last names. Ponies don’t have last names. Some of them have two words in their names, but not last names. Rarity isn’t really named Rarity Belle. Applejack’s full name isn’t Applejack Apple. Flim and Flam aren’t Flim Flimflam and Flam Flimflam. Yes, I know that Pinkie is from the Pie family, but she, and they, are weird Even her parents don't have last names that match up. Twilight Velvet isn’t Twilight Velvet Sparkle, married to Night Light Sparkle.
Okay, now that that’s out of the way, I did like most of what was going on in this episode. Things were paced well, and I like it when Twilight gets put through the wringer. I’d have liked something more interesting for Shining Armor, though. I like my Shining Armor somewhat doofy. Airsick Shining isn’t every interesting, and Cadence somehow escapes another episode without getting much in the way of expanded characterization.
Are those goats still on the airship? Iron Will is a terrible employeer.
Judgement: Good
Secrets and Pies
This is an episode that’s tailor made for me. It’s got increasingly crazy Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash being a jerk. I loved this one. It was funny and didn’t drag or feel rushed. I was definitely looking forward to whatever explanation Rainbow had for herself by the end of it, and I wasn’t disappointed. Pinkie absolutely refusing to hear that she hugs too hard made me crack up! I’m sure that this was too slice-of-life-y and low stakes for a lot of people, but it’s right up my alley.
Judgement: Great!
Uncommon Bond
Another episode that I really liked! Unhappy Starlight getting her dreams crushed! Fun Trixie! A Maud appearance! Twilight horning in on Starlight’s action! Great stuff.
The drawback is Sunburst, who I don’t really care for. I don’t hate the guy, but he’s just not my type of character. His personality is just too vanilla.
I did find it weird that the general thrust of the episode was that Starlight and Sunburst have grown apart, and that that’s okay. I mean, sure, that’s fine, but growing apart is generally the time when people stop being friends. It doesn’t have to be acrimonious. It happens all the time. You go to highschool with a bunch of dudes who are your pals. Then you go to college for a few years, and meet up again down the road. Sure you get along still, but now three of the guys are just into different stuff. You keep hanging out with the one dude who’s still like you, and they other guys are people you see at parties every now and again. You’re still friends, but not like you were before. Maybe that’s a little too complex for the show, but it would have felt more real to me if they’d just been able to accept downgrading their friendship from best friends to just regular friends. Nothing wrong with that.
Judgement: Good
Shadow Play
Oh boy. Here we go.
Now, it’s no secret that I generally don’t like the big episodes. I feel like MLP drops the ball with them a lot. That’s where we get the badly written characters and terrible pacing, and they mess up the dynamic with their villains.
I’m happy to say that I didn’t hate this one. In fact, I enjoyed it. I was pretty afraid at the beginning, though. When the ponies all found their relics in under a minute, I was fearing for the episode, but it was fine to burn though that. We had more important things happening later.
I’m of two minds when it comes to Twilight. She’s always had some idol worship going on, so that explains some things, but it’s just so unTwilight to just have no plan and no inkling that the obvious outcome of this would be to release the thing that they were sealing away in the first place. For once, I was on Team Starlight.
I was seriously let down that the Pony of Shadows wasn’t King Sombra, though. I was really hoping for his return. The Pony of Shadows was fine, but I just kept thinking that he just looked a little silly. It had something to do with the way that his fanged mouth flexed in and out when he talked. It just looked too comical to take seriously.
Rainbow and Magnus instantly getting along was great! I loved that. The rest of the newcomers just didn’t really appeal to me. They were just sorta there.
Starswirl was a good addition, though. I liked his casual arrogance. I mean, he’s one of the most learned and respected ponies of all time. Why should he give the time of day to this moron pony that just broke his super-important spell?
In the end, we get another villain redemption. Not sure a huge fan of that at this point. At the very least, I’d like for a few attempts before success, a la Chrysalis (I assume). At least this pony was trying to be good in the first place, so easy redemption makes some sense.
But most importantly… THE FUCKING DAZZLINGS WERE THERE! That made the whole episode!
Judgement: Good
Overall, I'd rank season seven as one of the more enjoyable ones. I'd have to see them all again to really rank seasons four through seven, but I feel like I enjoyed this one more than I did some of the last few.
You missed Triple Threat. :B Your review there is for Campfire Tales.
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Whoops! Man, I don't even remember which episode Triple Threat is then...
Fixed now.
Yeah, pretty much. It's like I said on my blog: If you're insulted by this episode, you probably deserve it.
Unfortunately no, because the show won't.
Spoiled Milk became Spoiled Rich.
Chiffon Swirl became Cup Cake. Shit, she changed her ENTIRE name.
So since they're inconsistent the arguments shall last forever!
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That's the frustrating thing. I mean, I get that there are examples, but they are the exception rather than the norm!
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Maybe. But the show is being inconsistent, and not explaining itself.
So the arguments. They go. Forever.
I've been avoiding season 7 since I felt that most episodes in season 6 were pretty bad. Also, the whole self-awareness of season 7's "lessons" really breaks the genuineness of the show to me.
Anyways, I really aligned with your criticism of Simple Ways and Twilight's Kingdom from way back when, so at least in my mind I see us valuing the same things (consistency in character and plot, characters working out differences) in the show and shaking our heads at certain others (plots revolving around idiot ball, solutions involving violence or macguffins).
On your recommendation, I just saw Shadow Play and enjoyed it all the way! No doubt Twilight had the idiot ball there, but at least it made some sense as you pointed out. My main issue is that Twilight and Starlight could have detained the Pony of Shadows when they first overpowered him. Another issue is that the mane 6 and all their associates (Discord, the sisters, Starlight) are all too strong to really be challenged without inconsistencies. Even with Twilight acting irresponsibly, I didn't feel much suspense since I know what all those associates can do to save her and/or Equestria, and if the writers decide to forget all that, then I don't buy it.
It's a real balancing act to fit it all in those 42 minutes and keep it TV-Y and I think the showmakers did a phenomenal job this time. Reginault had a really interesting take on how the old pillars relate to the elements that may interest you.
I'm grateful you took one for the team and watched S7 and had the time and effort to type this up. Thanks! I'm off to watch the episodes you've labeled "Good" or better.
Maybe I can return the favor... I like animes that are thought-provoking, consistent, have emotional depth, strong themes and awesome fights when warranted. I also avoid fan service, high school drama nonsense and insulting the audience with repetition like the plague. Ever see Fate/Zero, Psycho-Pass, Your name., Koe no Katachi or Made in Abyss? You may like them.
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Keep in mind that the episode that I labeled as "Great!" is probably mediocre to good, really. it's just great for me since it's right up my alley. Of course, if you have similar tastes, I guess it could be great for you as well, but I have a super-soft spot for Pinkie. All of her episodes are better, in my opinion.
I have seen any of those anime series, but I'll take a look. Thanks!