The Point of No Return S9E5 · 4:04pm Apr 27th, 2019
Twilight is about to go full bookhorse. You never go full bookhorse!
Remember when Derpy talking was something to be excited about? Moondancer was far more unexpected and enjoyable, good to see the bookhorse back. I love how the library system takes books just as seriously as Twilight does, if not more, it makes the episode even funnier when her bookhorsing is actually called for. This episode was overall very funny, lots of cute and funny faces from Twilight and a lot of good jokes.
My critique would be the story seemed a bit scattershot, Twilight abruptly forgets the book itself and goes to get Dusty Pages her job back, seemingly not taking the hint that she's retired and moved away and lives in an old folks home and is having an active and happy life there. Then the moral at the end is "not being perfect is okay", wha? Like, there's a lot of morals you could spin out of this premise, but the reveal that Twilight not returning the book was some sort of life-changing experience that opened Dusty's eyes to the possibilities of life is... dumb.
Other notes:
G1 Starswirl, hah.
Spike is mistaken for a waiter and goes with it without missing a beat. Amazing.
Who was that blond pony who kept appearing in the background? Someone said it was Tara Strong's OC?
A guy in the chat of the stream I watched kept saying he worked in a library and the late fees shouldn't be too bad, they usually cap at a month and let someone keep the book if the book is out of date or no longer wanted. Which made the resolution of the episode where exactly this happened all the funnier.
Overall an amusing episode with a lot of nice little bits. Just don't think about the plot too hard.
Mm, yeah, that sounds about right. Definitely an episode that slots into the show's "wacky cartoon antics" vibe of the later seasons, but pretty well at that. Even if the plot was just a means to an end, as far as the comedy goes, it was a GOOD means to an end - even Twilight's freak-outs throughout felt largely justified.
I would argue the pacing was also a bit scattershot alongside the story. There were two silent montages along the way, but both passed quick enough, you'd think they were put in to pad out a tiny chunk of the episode, but by my money that 60 or so seconds could have been used for a more nuanced ending. Maybe.
Anyway, it by and large avoided being an Amending Fences clone despite lots of similarities on the setup, so there's that! A reasonable episode. And hey, that's 4 out of 5 so far this season (yes, I count the Premiere as two, the production codes do, after all).
I hated this one. Just another episode about a pony being dumb for no reason, that also had major callbacks to Amending Fences, thus reminding me how much better things could be. So much dead air!
I did have to laugh at Spike's natural servility. But Moondancer was a very "Hey, kids, it's everyone's favorite pony, Moondancer!" moment.
5050237
Eh, bookhorses gonna book, and Twilights gonna Twilight.
5050256
I haven't liked that about her since season two. D:
5050301
You poor soul.
5050301
Feelin' yer pain.