The Parent Map Review · 4:31pm May 5th, 2018
We've got our second map mission of the season, and still no episodes since the premiere that directly tie into that school theme. I'm starting to think this is like Season 4, where they hinted at an overarching narrative in the first three episodes, then backed out and tied a few loose episodes together for the finale. If they didn't want to do an overarching theme, that's fine, they just shouldn't have advertised it as such. It generates false hype, like you're afraid the season won't work on its own. Anyway, the writer for this episode is David Rapp, you may remember him from such episodes as "Newbie Dash", "Flutter Brutter", and "Where The Apple Lies". Of the bunch, "Newbie Dash" was his worst and "Flutter Brutter" his episode, though that isn't really saying much since all three times he was in a collab with someone else. With this being his first time writing solo, did he manage to somehow get better, or just prove that he shouldn't have come back? Well, let's find out.
The episode opens up with Sunburst getting a letter to add onto a pile of letters from his hometown. Then all of a sudden, he starts glowing and after he trips over his cape, he realizes he's being called by the map. But the episode never explains how it's possible for someone outside of Ponyville to be called by the map. The CMC and Spike were stretches to begin with, but at least they were indirectly tied to Twilight and the castle. The closest connection Sunburst has is through Starlight, and we've seen him so infrequently that it doesn't make sense. I mean, if the map can call anyone, what's to stop say Trixie or Discord from being called? It feels like the writers don't have a clue what to do with the map anymore, but they want to use it again after Season 7 and even Season 6 stopped making it relevant. But all they're really doing with this is turning the map into a plot device, cheapening its impact.
Starlight is also called by the map, and she and Sunburst are being called to the old village in which they used to live. However, this episode doesn't reveal the detail Josh Haber intended to use in "The Cutie Re-Mark" and "The Crystalling" about Starlight being a latch-key kid (a kid whose parents are away so often, they leave their child a key to get into the house, and have a neighbor check up on them). We do get to see that both Starlight and Sunburst are apparently single parent children, because we see Starlight's dad and Sunburst's mom. At first, you might think they're the friendship problem, and the episode is going to focus on them not getting along.
Despite Starlight's dad wanting to preserve the town's history, and Sunburst's mom wanting to modernize the town, the conflict doesn't involve them, at least not directly. However, we see that both of them are overbearing and smothering, Starlight's dad in particular treats her like she's a little kid. There's even a scene where he's preserved Starlight's old bedroom, and it's all dark and skulls. And I thought Tempest Shadow was the edgy edgelord archetype.
Sunburst and Starlight both try to solve the friendship problem without their parents' interference, especially once Sunburst's mom starts making up friendship problems (and demonstrating a lack of awareness about how the map missions work), and Starlight's dad wraps Starlight in her old blanket and offers her milk and cookies. Eventually, both have enough and call out their parents for their behavior. And it's then that they come to the conclusion that the friendship problem is between them and their parents. The only thing is, because it's taken so long to get to this point, the resulting resolution is very rushed and underwhelming, especially considering all the repressed physchological trauma Starlight and Sunburst have been repressing.
Still, it solves the friendship problem, and Starlight and Sunburst prepare to head home. But after the parents promise to mend their ways a bit, they decide to visit Starlight and Sunburst at their new homes. And Starlight frantically tries to wave the train in faster.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, I suppose it's not bad, there's nothing outright majorily wrong with it. But much like "Surf and Turf", I fail to see why this was a map mission. The only reason they provide, is that Starlight and Sunburst would otherwise never go back home. But when the friendship problem is something that only they have to worry about, there's no justification for them to have to go back. Nopony else was really suffering, and all it took was a little bit talking for the parents to settle their initial dispute about the town. They also never explain how Sunburst, a pony completely removed from Ponyville, can be called by the map. Instead, they go for unfunny jokes about Spike only being on one map mission. Starlight and Sunburst do play off each other well, but I feel like the only reason they're together in this episode is because of fanservice. Imagine how cool it would've been to have a map mission between Spike and Starlight, now that we know both can be called by the map. The parents are interesting in design, especially if they're implying single parents (either through death or divorce, I imagine a line would've popped up about the other parents working if that was the case). In the end, I give this episode a B-, putting it above "Grannies Gone Wild" which never amounted to anything, but below "School Daze" since it's clear the writers took their time to try and address the potential criticisms they might have faced, and made the most of having the movie suddenly be canonized.
Next week, we have "Non-Compete Clause", in which Applejack and Rainbow Dash take the friendship students on a teamwork field trip, but end up demonstrating how to NOT work together. Sounds like a very week entry, and a disappointing one considering it's our first true AppleDash episode since "Fall Weather Friends".
This is my personal second favorite episode of the entire series. And it took a rewatch of Crusaders of the Lost Mark for it to drop into that place.
The moment I saw David Rapp as the writer, I instantly thought "this is gonna be a disaster". Well it didn't turn out to be exactly that and it wasn't too bad, but this isn't good enough for Rapp to stay on the writing team. The next episode doesn't sound promising either.