MLP Marathon Bonanza S7 E7-9 · 1:41am Dec 5th, 2017
Parental Glideance
Oh my god, that was the sweetest episode. It’s so unbelievably adorable how much Rainbow Dash’s parents care for her. When I saw the thumbnail for this episode, I saw RD’s dad with his 5 o’clock shadow and I was like, “Here we go. We’re gonna find out RD’s dad is a huge dick and she became so awesome to show him she was great or whatever,” and never have I been more glad to be proven wrong. I loved everything about this episode, partially because I’m a big fan of Rainbow Dash myself and I like seeing her more heartfelt moments, like the one at the end of this episode when she holds a private show for her parents and Scootaloo to apologize and say thank you.
They’re just so goddamn cute, RD’s parents.
I think part of what appeals to me in this episode is how Scootaloo is the lens we see it through. It’s not just RD’s parents finding out randomly that their daughter is famous now, but that it’s Scootaloo who tells them and so we get to see her perspective first that her parents are extremely supportive of her. I empathize a lot with Scootaloo. It’s not to say that my parents weren’t supportive of me, but even though I’m the oldest I was always at the bottom. My sister is really talented, as is my brother, and so growing up they were the ones my parents praised the most, especially in terms of school where my sister always got straight A’s. Eventually I just stopped trying hard when I realized I could pass with all B’s and it didn’t really matter one way or the other since I would never beat my sister. Anyway, not to talk too much about myself, but this episode is gonna be one of those ones that sticks with me because it hits really close to home. I envy Rainbow Dash just as much as Scootaloo does. Her parents are the kind of parents that I want to be when I have kids, because I didn’t get to have that growing up. I want my kids to feel as awesome about themselves as Rainbow Dash does, and so I think for me personally, this is a really powerful episode. It definitely ranks high on my list and is probably the best episode so far this season.
God, I love Scootaloo. She’s the best.
Hard to Say Anything
When I was just a filly—Er, wait, no. When I was just a kid, I had a huge crush on this girl in one of my classes and after much convincing, my friends finally pushed me into talking to her. I asked her out on a date (or as much of a date as middle school kids can go on) and she said yes. I was so excited, but when the day came she texted me to cancel. Later on I found out that she basically just liked flirting with guys and had no interest in actually “dating”. It was devastating. But anyway, that’s where I thought this episode was going at first when Bangs McCoy shows up and starts trying to woo Sugar Belle. By the end of the episode however, I was pleasantly surprised by it. I think there’s actually a really good lesson in here about not just “being yourself”, which is always the advice people give, but actually about paying attention to the other person and what they like and doing something for them. I think that’s genuinely really good advice for, not just dating, but friendships in general.
Well there goes my Big Mac x Marble Pie ship. I was warned!
Well, I hate this episode for ruining MarbleMac shipping, but oh well. I guess it’s a good episode about relationships and not trying to get someone’s attention for the sake of getting their attention. And I guess there’s some pretty good stuff from the CMC and I guess the crush between Sugar Belle and Big Mac is really cute. And I suppose that the song battle is pretty amusing and cute in its own way too, but this episode killed the ship I shipped, so I’ll never forgive it. Worst episode, 8/10.
I mean, yeah they’re cute, but goddammit I miss MarbleMac.
Honest Apple
Hoo boy, another episode about Applejack being honest. Poor girl, she often gets pretty weak episodes, but here’s hoping this one beats my expectations.
Um, well, I guess this wasn’t exactly what I expected. Applejack is kind of a butt in this episode, like I thought she already learned the lesson that there’s a difference between honesty and bluntness, hasn’t she? Am I crazy? I swear I remember that being the lesson of an episode before. Anyway, this is a fine episode I suppose. I like that Applejack learns her lesson when Rarity takes her to talk to a really sassy pony who shits on apples right to her face for no reason other than to have a scene where Applejack gets pissed. It’s kinda great.
Apple Bloom’s cute hat and Rarity’s guitar solo are the best parts of an otherwise uneventful episode.
It’s a little unfortunate that most Applejack episodes are just kinda lame because she’s not given too many character traits besides honesty and hard work. I mean, they’re hardly bad traits to have in real life, and definitely not bad character traits in fiction, but when it’s all she has AJ can end up being kinda boring. It’s kind of a shame because she’s such a genuine, and kind hearted pony that it’s hard to dislike her. I just wish she were more interesting. I mean, she’s got a cute hat, and I love that accent. It reminds me of growing up since I had a lot of country-type friends as a kid. Oh well, some day we’ll get a really great Applejack episode and it’ll be amazing. Until that time, at least we have a bunch of half decent ones that add up to a pretty good episode.
Also Strawberry Sunrise is pretty great, and she has a great name. Double great.
I also loved Parental Glideance.
Parental Glideance was definitely a surprise for me, especially since I came in not knowing what to expect. However, Rainbow Dash's parents were sweet and charming for all the reasons you mentioned, Scootaloo was just adorable, and the Wonderbolts helping out Rainbow Dash at the end was cute. Speaking of which, it's those little moments and more that explain why I've always been intrigued by the Wonderbolts as characters, Spitfire in particular.
Anyway, I would agree that Honest Apple isn't the strongest episode, but it has its charm thanks to Rarity's characterization. There are some Applejack episodes I personally enjoyed, but Honest Apple is not among her best. Hard to Say Anything resulted in a similar reaction when I first watched it, and seeing Our Town (Starlight's former village) again was cool. I wasn't expecting Big Macintosh to end up with Sugar Belle before it first aired, which made for quite the surprise.
Strawberry Sunrise is the best.
Part of the rest of the problem is that she kind of misinterpreted why she was there, and that there are settings where outfits are intended to be worn that aren't "at the farm, doin' chores". Seriously, that one dress of Lily Lace's seemed worthy of the GGG, so I expect that one might wear it there, not to slop the pigs. Remove something that makes your hat impede your vision? Very good idea. Start ripping decorations off of somepony's hat when they don't get in the way at all (which is some more of the problem)? Ehhhh...
Ahh, guitarity. As you might guess, there's a cropped picture of that with part of "Through the Fire and Flames" on it.
In my opinion, the best part about Strawberry Sunrise is that she wasn't just created for that episode. She's a background pony who'd gotten zero love from the community until that point. Not that she's gotten much more attention since, but it's still neat that they took one of the less notable living set pieces and made her into Applejack's nemesis.
And yeah, the S. S. SugarMac just emerged out of the fog one day and blew apart an entire armada. And Parental Glideance explains so much.
I honestly couldn't stand Parental Glideance. There was potential for a reasonable episode, but they mangled it so badly. There's supportive parents that cheer you on, there's over-bearing parents that do pretty ridiculous things to "support" their kids (Toddlers & Tiaras, anyone?), and then there's whatever the hell bringing fireworks to a show qualifies as. And Dash was the bad guy for exploding at them after that? Come on.
The other two were fun, though.
While she was, I feel like Rarity could have done a lot better of a job preparing her to be a judge, especially when Applejack laid out the problem so cleanly when she was first asked. Oh well. It was a fun episode.