My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Season 8 Episode 6: "Surf and/or Turf" (SPOILERS) · 4:04pm Apr 21st, 2018
In which the Cutie Mark Crusaders answer a booty call.
The Cutie Map FINALLY summons the Crusaders! Their mission takes them all the way out to Mt. Aris, home of the Hippogriffs. Twilight goes along to chaperone since it's their first time.
Apple Bloom recaps the events of the MLP Movie for a train of interested ponies, only with a more apple-oriented spin on things.
Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom scoot a mixed-race family gag under the radar as we meet our target, Terramar, who lives UNDA DA SEA! UNDA DA SEEEEEA! but has family who live both on land and unda de wata. (Hence the name 'Terramar', get it?)
So basically, Terramar is Silverstream's brother. While Silverstream and their dad live primarily as hippogriffs on Mt. Aris, Terramar seems to spend more of his time in Seaquestria with his mother. Separated family? The Crusaders quickly discover that Terramar is torn between his two separate lives--on land and unda da sea, even do' it's betta down where it's wetta, take it from me!
...okay I'll stop now.
Twilight and the CMCs go with Terramar down to Seaquestria. We get to see the CMCs as seaponies! Scootaloo has a squee attack at swimming, which she decides is what flying must feel like. D'aww. Such a cute scene.
Anyway, the CMCs compare life on land versus life underwater, with different opinions on what's cool and what sucks about both places. Scootaloo loves Seaquestria, Sweetie Belle HATES it but loves Mt. Aris. Apple Bloom is neutral, seeing good things about both, and leads off The Song, where Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo each prosecute their case for the place they personally liked better. Unfortunately, their argument escalates to the point where their friendship practically collapses, leaving Terramar confused, frustrated, and upset.
Twilight, meanwhile, is basically on vacation--and her antics are adorkable as hell in this episode. She only gets involved in the friendship problem when the Crusaders are sulking and Terramar has gone off to brood--and right when she gets involved, she realizes why Terramar has such a hard time living in two worlds, while at the same time chiding the Crusaders for thinking Terramar has to choose one world or the other.
The final act, where the Crusaders set up a beach picnic for the hippogriffs AND seaponies, confirms that Terramar's parents are separated if not divorced, as it's flat out, unabashedly an allegory about a child of separated parents bouncing between homes.
I'm giving this one a 7/10. Props for the ballsiness of the uncomfortable aesop which no doubt speaks to a LOT of kids in this situation. My personal favorite parts of the episode were Aqualoo and Vacation Twilight.
The entire rest of the episode pales in comparison to Scootaloo's squee attack. Best Crusader.
If it was a divorce it was a very amiable divorce.
My aunt and cousin's dad live separately.
This is easily not just the second best episode of the season, but the eighth best episode of the entire series.
An additional thought, I'm pretty sure that the hippogriffs are on their honeymoon with hippogriffdom.
4844561 They seemed pretty comfortable around each other for divorced parents. I think the divorce angle is reading too deeply into things.
Two minor things about this episode that got me thinking....
One: How much time has passed since the events of the movie? Because the train from Ponyville goes all the way to the kingdom of the hippogryphs. It had to have taken a large amount of time to get it built... also does the railway system just go pass Klugetown or is there a station there too? (Speaking of which, whatever happened to Capper after the movie?)
Two: If there's one thing that I can complain about in this episode, it's the fact that we never even SEE Queen Novo or Princess Skystar! I get that it would be too expensive to get their voice actors back for a single episode, but couldn't they at least give them a non-speaking cameo or something? Or maybe hire someone who could imitate their movie voices is pretty well? We're revisiting their home and yet we don't get to see them. I know this is a small nitpick but it just bugs me...
4844603
It must've been a while. A school isn't just made over night. At the very least it opened a few weeks after the Friendship Festival happened. At most? Several months. So I don't find it too unbelievable that the train can reach Mt Ariz now.
4844587
That does happen.
Not all divorces are met with tears, anger and yelling.
Plus keep in mind it is still a kids show, I doubt they could get away with showing two parents trying to emotionally manipulate their kid to abandoning one parent in favor of the other.
Is it a lesson that counts for ALL divorce situations? Nope. Not even close, but it can count for those few where a kid is confused of which parent to stay with.
Aqualoo was absolutely adorable.
am I the only one who finds it somewhat weird how happy the hippogryphs are about being hippogryphs. also I saw princess skystar's two escaped clones
4844744
No, I don't think it's weird at all. For a lot of them (the adults, at least) the last time they were hippogriffs was when the Storm King was marching on Mt. Aris. Sure, seapony living wasn't too shabby--and beat the Storm King's employment offer of lifetime slavery in his name by a considerable margin--but it wasn't anything they chose to experience.
Now, though, they have their ancestral home, their "proper" forms, and the knowledge that the Storm King won't be around to piss on the good times. So excessive happy is understandable.
And they even get to keep the seapony thing, obviously. So everyone wins
.
4844790
fair point hopefully they don't start thinking that they're superior to other species that would be a fanfiction all right
Funny with AB's twist on events. Twilight says she's there on research, but she just wants to have fun. Aqualoo really was cute, so was Sweetie Belle field twirling. I liked the moral of this episode where even though people live in different areas, they don't let that stop them.