S8E6 Surf And/Or Turf Episode Review · 4:06pm Apr 21st, 2018
So this episode is far more interesting and entertaining than the movie. Though as a friend pointed out that's true of most episodes in this show.
I liked the first two parts of the episode. The divorce allegory is pretty obvious with mom as a seapony and dad as a hippogriff, and I also picked up on some social divide forming between the two factions with the "proud to be a hippogriff" celebration. So we're seeing a race and a marriage divided and how it plays out, through the eyes of a single hippogriff who is torn between land and sea, dad and mom.
At least, we were, until the ending, where it turns out the two sides get along just fine, change between forms no big deal, and mom and dad are still friends. Suddenly Taramar's dilemna is totally irrelevant and wangsty, he's torn between two sides and trying to choose where to stay where neither side thinks he needs to pick and themselves switch back and forth all the time. Any allegories for social divide and families split over a divorce are suddenly 90% weaker.
Also, the CMC got buttdialed by the map to say their mission was complete, when it was the parents who consoled Taramar and delivered the episode aesop. Really, the CMC weren't needed for this, the guy just had to tell both his parents how he felt and we can skip to the ending scene.
But there was fun along the way. I like how the CMC became divided themselves and in a logical way (though Scootaloo's "swimming is like flying!" line was a bit on the nose, we were all already reading that into things on our own), Twilight was tacked on but gave some fun bits, and it was cool to see more of the hippogriff and seapony culture than the five minutes and song number we got in the movie.
Overall, good worldbuilding, good character beats, very weak spotlight character and story arc.
Boy, when you actually pay attention to the plot, this episode gets even worse. <.< But is it about divorce, bisexuality or being biracial? Talk about getting your
beauty sleepallegories muddled!I just want to make sure everyone knows Twilight kept the permission slip in her butt. :B
After 3 episodes of utter hate and disappointment, finally we get an episode that was very enjoyable! Though I do agree that the reason for this plot was completely irrelevant. The map didn't need to call the CMC to have them be here to solve the problem. The problem literally solved itself.
But hey, I'm fully willing to forgive that with what we saw. I was really hoping to see more Seapony Culture, and I got it. The Hippogriffs are rapidly becoming my absolute favorite race excluding the Earth Pony, Pegasi, Unicorn, and Alicorn races. For a time, the changelings were my favorite, but then they 'changed'.