The Mean Six · 6:00pm Jun 9th, 2018
Friendship is Magic first impressions review: The Mean Six (s08e13)
by Obake
(SPOILERS!)
While the Mane Six and Starlight head to a friendship retreat, Queen Chrysalis makes clones of our heroes, vowing to find and steal the Elements of Harmony.
Instead of anything new, The Mean Six redoes what Return of Harmony did with the Discorded six; the clones Chrysalis makes are opposites of the actual Mane Six, i.e. clone Applejack is a liar, clone Pinkie hates fun, etc. Where it made sense in Harmony, it does not make sense here. Why would a Changeling Queen, of a race known for imitating others to a marvelous degree, make clones that are so simple-minded, and opposite of their real counterparts? The only explanation is that the episode demands bad comedy, which the clones provide plenty of.
I am not against Chrysalis having to deal with buffoons, but make it something different, or more subtle. It is not like the Queen herself has been the smartest infiltrator (look at her plans in Canterlot Wedding.) It should not be out of the question.
Perhaps the biggest problem is that Chrysalis does not need the clones in the first place. Even though she says she cannot defeat the Mane 6 alone, her first and foremost goal is finding the Elements. The clones only drag her down.
The rest of the episode is the Mane 6 splitting up on their way towards the retreat and meeting the clones, mistaking them for the real thing, and getting into fights when they meet their real counterparts again. They eventually apologize, and make it to the retreat, not realizing how peculiar the day was. The Tree destroys the clones, and Chrysalis flies off.
The Mean Six fails in nearly every regard, especially the humor. The episode is often frustrating, and simply bad.
Extras:
- I have little good to say here, but I can at least say the scenery was nice, and it was interesting having an episode take place almost exclusively in the Everfree Forest. I also like that Rarity takes only a small bag of makeup on the expedition, which is different for her, and shows some character growth. It is also fun to see Chrysalis return, if only it were in a better episode.
- The episode has weird references, both I think trying to be jokes. Fluttershy echoes Rodney King's famous “Can't we all just get along?”, as Pinkie and Twilight fight. Clone Applejack says she survived in the wilderness for “100...and 27 hours.” Not really a punchline, but oh, well. (I like 30 Rock's reference to 127 Hours better, where Jack claims he survived under a boulder for 128 hours.)
- Are there any good jokes? I smiled at Rainbow's question of whether the retreat would be real fun or learning pretending to be fun.
- Clone Twilight nearly overpowers Chrysalis before being melted by the Tree of Harmony. Okay.
- A much better episode idea would have been Chrysalis disguising herself as a reformed changeling, and trying to convince others to follow her again.
- There is a moment where a bird tells Fluttershy that he and his brother fell down a tree, and need help. I assumed this was Chrysalis or one of the clones trying to split the group up, but nope, it is an actual bird. Chrysalis does not even realize the Mane Six are in the forest, so it all feels disjointed. Oh, and animals using unintelligible bad language returns...for a third time.
I first heard about this episode in a story, at least from the description but I'm not that far yet with the episodes. I think the next one I need to watch is it. If I'm honest since season 6 or since Tirek I mostly enjoy half of the seasons, maybe 3/4 of them.
I don't like every change they made of how the seasons where used in stories.
Well however back to this episode.
I wanted to look for Villains because I didn't remembered the exactly chronology of them from Nightmare Moon to the recycled Power Man and beyond that one.
I think the way the mean six where discribed was nearly good enough so that I don't exactly would have to watch the episode itself and from the part of your description I already had read, it seems to be rather bad.
I watched the end of the episode because of the melting that was mentioned and even if I could discuss about the tree and what he should be able to do or whatever after I thought a bit more about it, I somehow dislike it that the tree just killed them.
You can think of it as you like, but somehow I got the idea of them actually living since they existed and it sounded as if the evil Twilight made a plan that would make me say, "hey you are your own being", then the tree happens and just kills them.
Maybe it was also a bit weird because I saw them and imaged them feeling how they were melting and maybe the fear they had in the end.
It could also be that I was a bit sympatic because of the other mean six, elements of chaos or something like that which existed before the episode in the fandom already.
Like I said I haven't thought to deep into it yet and use mostly my first thoughts and reactions to it, but sometimes I wish the characters would be a bit more intelligent than maybe doing rather similar mistakes again and again. Like in some stories or episodes I don't remember that good right now, where someone is accused of doing something bad and they suddenly believe their friends are a evil genius or something like that.
I mean as if someone would come and say, Spike killed my baby and then everyone just treats him like an asshole (since here is no tag that can be used, I'm not sure how freely I can talk here) and isn't even thinking about asking him or not believing it to be the truth.