First FimPressions: Secrets and Pies · 2:52pm Oct 26th, 2017
This episode gives me quite a few mixed feelings in a similar way to how "Fame and Misfortune" did; just on a smaller scale. The primary issue I have is that it drags out the gags of Pinkie denying the reality that Rainbow Dash doesn't like pies--which despite being funny the first couple of times, gets repetitive fast--making it unclear who is supposed to be in the wrong here.
I know that there can be stories where neither character is absolutely doing the wrong thing. I love those stories, as it goes beyond the black and white morality of kids shows from the 80s. Yet the writing seems to be noticeably vague in that respect,. More often than not, the story seems to frame Rainbow Dash as being in the wrong for lying to Pinkie, yet this leaves a big question as to why she never just told Pinkie that she doesn't like Pies?
The implication is that it's a bad thing that Rainbow Dash doesn't like pies at all. I know that she pretends to eat them to make Pinkie happy, but since when has Pinkie been so insistent on ponies enjoying things her way? Haven't we shown through episodes like Party Pooped that being single minded never works out well?
And that's my big problem here. Pinkie Pie is being single minded, and that's not entirely being framed as a bad thing. The last line of the episode really bugged me the most. Pinkie Pie agrees with Rainbow Dash that she will listen to her when she says she doesn't like something; but when Dash say's Pinkie's hug is too tight? Pinkie replies with "No they're not", showing that she hasn't actually learned anything.
Maybe I'm over thinking this. I just find that when episodes prior to this have been pretty clear in the moral direction, episodes like this fall short.
Grade: C-.
