Episode Review: "Uprooted" - Season 9 Episode 3 · 2:07pm Apr 14th, 2019
It's the return of the Student 6 - I'm sorry, the YOUNG 6, as they are named in the mobile Pocket Ponies game (which is actually really solid). Eh, think I'll stick with Student 6, at least for this post. That's what the fandom mostly uses anyway, so it fits for this post.
I'll preface this by saying I, by and large, have never really warmed to the Student 6. Just bear that in mind.
This may very well be one of the show's most bland, neutral, nothings of an episode. For the most part, it neither gives nor takes, merely exists, and the tiny positives and negatives cancel each other out. It's right around the bottom of episodes I'd feel inclined to rewatch; even if events here are made relevant in later episodes. Couple that with the majority of it being an uninspired rehash of Castle Sweet Castle, and it's already slipping from the mind. Let's dig into this before it's gone.
For a brief moment, it seems like this shall not be the case. The episode starts off with Silverstream doing some dope flying manoeuvres with Rainbow Dash, the latter proclaiming Silverstream will become the first non-pegasus Wonderbolt. It turns out to just be a dream, which is a pity, as that was a cool and interesting premise. More so, it speaks to one reason, for me, the Student 6 have yet to make much of an impression; none have had a starring or co-starring role that would properly flesh out their personalities. The segment in What Lies Beneath were great. But an episode focusing mostly on one of two of them would help greatly to alleviate that (yes, Smolder got chunks in Molt Down and Father Knows Beast, but they ultimately don't do anything for her character we couldn't have guessed based on her being a dragon spending a lot of time around ponies that didn't grow up with them). Maybe the upcoming She's All Yak might be a decent stab at that, though if they can get anything out of Sandbar, colour me surprised.
So yeah, the Tree assumed the spectral form of Twilight from What Lies Beneath and summons the 6 through their dreams. Apparently the writer forgot the Cutie Map buttdialing was a thing. Once they hear of the Tree's fate, they decide to build a memorial to it, after getting permissions from their respective kingdoms. Now I've reflected on it, this montage just seems like a way to fill up screentime - had the writer forgone them needing permission at all, I'm sure we'd have all assumed they got it or didn't need it. Despite silent cameos from Terramar and his parents and a amusing arm-wrestling moment courtsey of Smolder, this montage is embryonic of the whole episode - plain and bland and personality-less as they come.
Like many, I've slagged on Sandbar's lack of personality, but here he has one - he's a berk (a stupid person, for you non-Brits out there), getting rid of the tree's remnants so they can make the memorial. Only serves as a springboard for them all to commit to their own ideas. Despite Yona trying to play peacekeeper and unite them, they refuse because... the episode as written demanded it. This is where the episode is a rehash of Castle Sweet Castle, except worse. That episode had established traits of the Mane 5 to use in how they'd decorate it, a really fun song, and they didn't disagree for no reason. Not only do the group bar Yona segregate themselves here, their ideas rarely feel organic because of how sketched-in their personalities are. Smolder's idea for a tree and Ocellus' idea for an altar with the Elements of Harmony's symbols to meditate around are good (and the latter at least plays off of reformed Changeling culture), but Gallus' hack museum is... well, a hack, and Sandbar's plant is a joke even within the episode, but it's not anything to us. Silverstream's art is quite beautiful, but irrelevant to the tree and the episode. As you've probably guessed even if you haven't seen the episode (good, now you don't have to!), their fighting ruins every idea.
To judge from the posts I've read, it's this middle third of the episode that was the most mixed for people. It's the chunk that's most negative for me, as even what little we know of the Young 6 has established they shouldn't have argued like that. Great for Yona she saw sense (and maybe there's some irony given she's the, well, Yak).
Anyway, after Yona gets them to agree to work together properly, turns out Sandbar just put the tree's pieces in the corner. If I had my way, I'd engrave his tombstone with "Here lies Sandbar, a true berk". So they build a treehouse while singing a song, a first both for the season and for them. I'd like to be happy about that, but episode has not really earned that. Maybe that's for the best, as the song's a bland, forgettable one, with the ghost of Make This Castle a Home lurking right behind it. Maybe it and I can get together for ghost tea and biscuits sometime? The episode wraps up with the tree's spirit making their treehouse spurt through the roof of the cavern, into the Castle of the Two Sisters, into a large clubhouse. The Spirit lets them know it'll always be there, as will this place as a save haven. Twilight and Spike shows up and the episode just as they venture inside to explore the new toy that more then likely won't even actually get made.
The jokes about Twilight's Castle being made to sell a toy are old hat, but the show's more then justified it since then, not counting that it was a relevant point to her arc at the time anyway. I do not see this being relevant in future episodes, and if it is, not well. I'd say that my main stickling point with the episode, but by now, I've just accepted that character and story arcs as far as the Student 6 are concerned will be weak at best. Whether or not this is the Tree or another entity altogether doesn't really matter, storytelling potential with it being destroyed is wasted quick. The Elements are still gone, but at this point them being revived and given to the Student 6 looks quite likely. Please no, thanks.
I won't deny Hearth's Warming Club and What Lies Beneath were among the two best episodes of Season 8, but this can't compare to them by a long shot - the characters are like idiots because the plot says so, they turn around from one copy-and-paste speech and then get a playset they did not deserve. I was hoping a real connection between them and the Tree would be coming, but no, apparently that one test back in Season 8 was all that was needed. Honestly, the Mane 6 have far more of a connection to it - I suspect the only reason this episode was done with the Student 6 rather then them was to fill some arbitrary "Student 6 quota" the show now requires. Guess it's not that different then getting 2 or 3 CMC episodes a season, except... well, those has actual characters to work with.
This episode is boring, it's pointless even if it's setting up stuff for later, and the few fun or amusing moments it has don't linger in the mind at all. There are worse episodes, even during the show's stronger seasons, but few I'd be less likely to rewatch on a whim. Thankfully, this doesn't bring the momentum down after the two-parter Premiere for me; my expectations were already lowered based on the synopsis and the characters it chose to star, so I fully expected it to be weak, though I hoped it wouldn't be. Long as the momentum continues on next episode, it'll all be good.
Speaking of which, it's the show's 200th episode next week (Best Gift Ever apparently counts as just one, alright then). And the Mane 7's actresses contributed story ideas to this one, getting a Story By credit that they'll share with the episode's actual writers, Josh Haber and Nicole Duboc. If nothing else, it'll be a fitting tribute to characters who's voices and vocal acting have done a lot to define them and endear them to us.
Fair to say you were less happy with this one than I was! Even allowing for the fact that I like the students more than you do, that's quite a damning review by your generally positive standards, I think. It's interesting: I've just finished writing up Text Review Roundup for this episode (it'll go up in the morning) and there's a huge amount of disagreement. It's not often I find that an episode has some reviewers loving it, some hating it and some in the middle, but that's the case this week.
Very much looking forward to E200. Beyond a one-line synopsis, I really have no idea what to expect, and I'm enjoying that.
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Well, now, do bear in mind I’ve only been doing these reviews proper since Best Gift Ever (and okay we corresponded in EQD threads after episodes aired in the back half of Season 8 too), so you don’t have a large sample size to base this off of. Already I might (I say MIGHT) have been a wee bit harsh with the above (whereas I suspect I was a wee bit generous with the Premiere). However, I do absolutely stand by my statement of the episode being largely boring and the Student 6 continuing to be malleable blobs as the episode demands as long as a few very basic personality traits are adhered to. If this episode is not Non-Compete Clause or Yakity-Sax level, it belongs in a similar camp to The End In Friend, though lower by a bit. And this is still, out of almost 200 episodes, one of the least likely ones for me to watch. Again, it’s a bland, boring nothing of an episode.
As for how reviews in general are turning out for this one (and I always know when your TRR is coming; your comment here’s a good giveaway, ha), I’ve found you get two types of “mixed reviews.” The kind where everyone just feels “eh” about the whole thing, or the kind where opinions run the gauntlet from love to hate. What you’re saying seems like a mixture of both of those. Interesting for sure!
Yes, roll on E200! Isn’t it nice being basically leak-free again?
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I try to post them on Thursdays every week, so that's also a bit of a giveaway! (Might be a day late this week owing to Easter, but we'll see.)
Yep. There are certainly episodes where most people find them as bland as you found "Uprooted". "The Maud Couple" comes into that category, though as ever some people did have strong feelings. And "Fame and Misfortune" is probably the most obvious recent example of the second type.
Yes! Though you did jinx it slightly, as Hasbro themselves put out a short "Behind the Scenes" video on Friday which gave away quite a bit. I managed to avoid it, thankfully.
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Promotion by the company making, or at least financing, the episodes isn't the same as leaks, my friend.
Actually, you lived through Slice of Life coming out. Tell me - was the nature of that episode (being a big fandom tribute) hyped up by Hasbro and the staff for ages? Because here, we only found out about EP200 being a tribute to the VA a week before. Up to then, all we knew was the one-line episode synopsis (and I think they may have said they had something special in store for the episode, though nothing on what that would be). Point I'm making is, this episode only had to live up to a week's worth of hype, really. Did Slice of Life have to deal with that much more when it finally aired? I can only really know this from someone who experienced it firsthand, and you certainly did that, my friend.
I ask this because already a small, but notable, plurality of viewers felt EP200 couldn't live up to even that week's worth of hype (I don't count myself among them, though I'll say no more till my review tomorrow). Got me curious about what the situation was life with SoL, you see.