"Point of No Return" reaction · 10:17pm Apr 28th, 2019
Is it just me or is this season off to a really awesome start?
It's been goofy, sentimental, sweet, off the wall, and really thoughtful in the most recent one. Below the break!
This episode opens with Derpy flying towards the School of Friendship, dropping letters in such large quantities it could make you wonder how she keeps the job. She crashes into one of the light posts just outside of the school, Spike sees her and calls Twilight out.
Twilight's first concern is Derpy's well being... after all she did just sort of face-plant in Twilight's property, though she's fine, and... Derpy speaks, yet again. The voice is really starting to grow on me since the Xmas special.
I like how Spike asks if the package is a surprise present just for him, and Derpy's quick to just say "well... it's for Twilight." Poor Spike. That doesn't necessarily mean it's not for you, though... it isn't. It's all the stuff from Twilight's old room in the castle. Hope you don't mind burping up the letter Celestia sends with it, which... seems a little bit of an afterthought. Poor Spike, burping up mail must be uncomfortable, but I suppose it's easier to keep it separate if it's sent as its own thing ^^
There are plenty of sentimental things inside the box. DHX takes a moment to be self-referential when Twilight pulls out her "G1 Starswirl figure!", but everything stops when Twilight comes by a book borrowed from the library... one she never returned, and cue the beginning of Twilight's freakout, as well as the opening.
This freakout... wowzers, it lasts throughout the whole episode. It's been a while since she's had this type of freakout, and I kind of like it when Twilight's sense of security in doing things right is questioned or threatened. It feels right for her do things by the books, and I think this particular type of freakout is quite relatable. She works herself up, as always, and Tara Strong's voice-acting is very much top-knotch.
After the opening Twilight talks of her perfect library book return record... gone by this oversight. This is the plot of the episode, for the most part, she tries to return the book.... a few interesting things happen along the way to evolve this idea further. However, first a flashback.
We see Twilight as a unicorn checking out the book, with the librarian checking her out. The librarian is older, but adorable, name of Dusty Pages. She winks when Twiggles assures her she'll get the book back on time. It's just a very sentimental scene and they show us Twilight's starry-eyed image on the wall as their "Best Book Borrower" title holder. They then segue into showing Twilight at the beginning of the series looking for a different book as Celestia's getting ready to send her out, casting this one aside underneath her furniture where it was forgotten as she left for Ponyville. That's two things Twilight messed up in her haste to leave Canterlot.
The Librarian's record of perfect book returning and condition is sullied by Twilight not returning the book. When a problem like this involves another that's when people can sometimes get even more antsy... Twilight's anxiety feeds itself as a result. Twilight didn't just fail Dusty with this, she failed herself. Twilight sets of, and slowly Spike follows.
Logically the first place they go is the library, but... there's the chance of negative publicity for the late book. Twilight is a princess and all. They hide in the bushes a bit, which doesn't help Twilight remain inconspicuous as a passerby sees them talking about the neuances of smelling books. Some of the greatest moments are in the dialogue here, which for this episode is on pretty much fire. Spike, naturally, plays Twilight's anchor, telling her everything's going to be okay, as they prepare to go inside, with Twilight continuing to get spooked by the odd passerby.
Twilight's attempts to be subtle while entering the library, teleporting about, would just get her more attention. It doesn't help that, even when trying to disguise her voice and hide behind a vase... the Librarian shill knows who she is. Even though Twilight's a Princess, we quickly learn that even she can't get a hold of every new releases... the library has them, though, but she has to remain focused. Turning down the librian's offer it quickly becomes apparent that everypony does in fact know she's in there, they were just letting her go about her business in peace. Rocking. It's too bad, now that almost everything's out in the open, the Librarian doesn't know who Dusty Pages is, even with a photo that looks like it was taken out of the 70s... that is strange, but maybe she just started. Regardless Dusty is gone, but Twilight can take care of her fine... in the basement via a pony named First Folio, because that's where the ponies who should know better go, and the office's name bares a strikingly resemblance to its description XD
The basement looks like more of a dungeon, complete with spider webs.... just perfect for those who break the library's rules (and their faithful companions, Spike adds). It's too bad First Folio isn't there, but she left a note... gone out to eat. Twilight decides to find her... how she's figuring how much she owes for the book, as incentive to find her, I don't know, but out they go in search.
Restaurant row... that's all they know. Heh, rhymes.
First place they try is The Tasty Treat, which is a nice callback, but oddly... there's no service. Saffron is nowhere to be found, nor is her father (except maybe in spice form on the food). Spke is roped into serving a table, which is... adorable. He's a natural at it. Twilight runs into Moon Dancer, who's hair... still looks kind of ridiclous IMO, but she's able to point Twilight in the right direction -- her table. The two are having lunch, actually, as friends. Moon Dancer is able to tell her Dusty Pages no longer works at the library... something about a pony not returning a book getting her canned. Twilight runs off, and Spike, naturally, follows ^^
Twilight's plan is to go to Dusty's house to set things straight... makes sense, especially since Twilight used to get invited over for tea. Hearing the Soundtrack of this scene as Twilight runs through the castle's outlying city with Spike in toe behind her I can't help thinking of the game Mike Tyson's Punchout. All it needed was to be set in Manehattan, Twilight in pink and Spike on a bike XD
Unfourtnately Dusty doesn't live there anymore. There, instead, lives an anti-social roid-rager without the appeal of Bulk Biceps. He welcomes nopony, but... Twilight's magic proves stronger than him, keeping him from slamming the door in her face. All he can impart is that Dusty Pages no longer lives there, as well as a bag of her mail. She moved to Silver Shoals... or Silver Surfer, he can't be sure. Montage!
Twilight and Spike fly from Canterlot to various places. First cabins, then a lake, then mines, she even tries her newly established School of Friendship (why?), but... no creature of pony knows anything. Finally, the most logical place, a retirement home. Is she there? Ee-yup.
Spike thinks it looks awesome, ponies able to just relax and not worry about anything, taking on as much or as little activity as they want... most of them are sleeping in chairs, though, but that's okay. Twilight thinks it's awful. Why? No books, of course ^^
I saw a couple days ago the character model for the clerk at the retirement center is the same as the one with the Daring Doo novel who wanted the Orthros back in Season 4. It is a dead ringer, though the voice is a bit different. She's able to point Twilight in the direction of Dusty Pages, and they pass a small garden outside of her complex, likely made by the residents, before finding her door (indicated by her picture, noice ^^). When she knocks, no answer... but they're not going to stand around to wait, so off they go, yet again.
The dialogue comedic and timing here is pretty amazing... Twilight walks up to some old painting ponies on the docks asks if they've seen Dusty, and one of them replies "Sure have!" . . . she waits for more, smiling, until finally she asks... "And....?" Turns out she is a busy pony, doing so many awesome things, from wind surfing to band practice, but Twilight can only gather after leaving is it's all a distraction to keep from thinking about having lost her job. She will set things straight.
We see some older ponies practicing what looks like Tai Chi (that is awesome) during the montage, but... Twilight just missed Dusty. She's not in the woodworking shop either, always having just left. She's not even windsurfing, which the elder ponies can do just fine yet Twilight can't, falling in. Dusty's not acting on stage... but the pony under the pointy mask answering Twilight's question along with the rest reveals he has an equally pointy face (disturbing myself as well as Twilight) ^^
Twilight finally finds Dusty playing Jazz rock on stage with a small band of elderly ponies... after being interrupted by Twilight's magic, Dusty recognizes her and the band takes a break so they can talk. Twilight tells her what's going on, and she's surprised, but when Twilight offers to set things straight... Dusty gets mad and walks off, leaving Twilight perplexed. It's pretty apparent what's going on, but it's Twilight's growth that had me invested at this point. She is looking at things from only her angle, using only her narrative.
So Twilight doesn't get it... it's going to be impossible for Dusty to get her job back if she doesn't want to go back. Her record will remain imperfect, and so will Twilight's... as Twilight response to Spike, that's so not the issue... well, maybe it is a little bit. Such denial XD
Per Spike's advice Twilight tries to talk to Dusty... at a pony equivilant of a paintball tournenment (just with food). Gotta say teleporting yourself minus whatever's gotten on you must come in pretty handy from time to time. Twilight finally is able to speak to her, and... because it means so much Dusty tells her the truth. Twilight says she's do anything to make it up to her, but the best thing she can do is... nothing. Dusty's not mad, getting fired was liberating for her, because she was taken out of the routine, and her asperations for perfection. She was shown that there are other ways to live life and have it be full. She is free because of Twilight's kerfuffle. She was still fired, naturally, but, to quote Martha Stewart, it's a good thing. There are no accidents. Twilight still offers the book to Dusty, only for it to get hit by a random projectile. Dusty points out it's cleanable, but then realizes something while talking about it with Twilght... that the Princess never actually read the book. Its title:
"Perfection: impossible pursuit"
How ironic.
Twilight returns the book without Dusty, to find out it's nowhere near as expensive as the thought. The fine caps out after a month, so as to not break the bank of the forgetful pony. The only consequence? Twilight is no longer best book borrower. Never again. However, she's able to let that go, and ask if she can reshelve the book... only to be told it's not the newest edition the library has. Spike randomly asks -- "can we keep it?" as reminder of Twilight's imperfection. The stain on it is what makes it perfect, afterall, which Twilight only recently added to it, so... with Twilight embracing the book, cue credits.
I'm getting the feeling, now that MLP's winding down, Hasbro is giving DHX's writers more wiggleroom for creativity and fun. This episode shows that a convincing, relatable freakout for everypony's favorite purple unicorn can still be written quite magnificently. Twilight's desire to make things right was a good thing, but it started going too far when she made assumptions about Dusty's frame of mind over being fired, though they were logical assumptions to make. It also shows us that, sometimes, something bad happening can lead to good things. The whole retirement home, with ponies being active or sedentary, is kind of awesome... they're trying new things and pushing themselves, which might be pretty unrealistic to expect a grandmother or grandfather to be able to do, but it still shows us at an older age you can still try and learn new things. That's invaluable.
All in all... this might be one of the best episodes MLPs had in years. Twilight Snarkle returns, it's funny, thoughtful, lots of gags and good pacing. Plus when the characters speak at length it isn't to explain or setup part of the plot, but to share their thoughts, feelings, and anxieties. Not all MLP episodes use unnatural exposition, but those that do... it tends to hurt them. I felt invested in Twilight's conundrum and that she grew a bit in the end of the episode.
Amazing episode, totally worth a rewatch.
Hope everyone's well.
Peace!
Peace!
Yeah season 9 really is starting to have G4 of yesterdays from way back from season 1 through 4, with showing off the silly side of MLP when the morals were a lot less spoon-feed like the later season and more on the emotional side of the moral of the story. I was rather critical of the season opening being a big villain plot and the M6 going by the numbers in resolving to save the day for everyone, but I might be too critical of it. Still, I think you show all the high points of the episode well, hope to see more.
Well, the hint she was given was Silver [something], so she asked Silverstream
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Hehe. Can't believe I missed that connection. Thanks!
I always delight in these descriptions. They fill in so many visual 'holes' I get when limited to just listening.
This makes me think on how, after having 'Descriptive Audio' on "Equestria Girls: Legend Of Everfree" how Hasbro wouldn't want DHX to continue using descriptive audio? You could largely develop the outline for the descriptive audio track during the story-boarding phase. Plus the girl they got to do "Legend Of Everfree" was just so fun!
I liked how the episode had a flashback to put additional context to the time before the series got started. It gave Twilight far more depth beyond the pony who had a fairly simple back story by bringing her past more into life by showing how she was in her younger years.
I do enjoy how Spike has, for almost his entire existance, been the one to keep Twilight from "Twilighting" and going "Twilinanas". Seeing how he now can be considered a 'Little Brother' means he must of got so used to it, knew Twilight was a big part of her life, and likely observed how her family tried to keep that aspect of her personality in check. So this episode served as more of an example of how 'little brother' looks out for his big sister. :)
I truly believe the biggest lesson from this episode was Twilight getting an additional lesson in why she should embrace mistakes over getting worked up over everything going 'to plan'. Perhaps she could benefit from watching "Bob Ross"? No mistakes, just happy accidents? :)
It can also hurt a lot to feel like you've lost a prestigious position. Having her picture taken down at the library was a VERY hard pill to swallow for Twilight. Though it will make her more capable of knowing she doesn't have to live up to standards that are too high she sets for herself.
It reminds me of how, before my eyesight left me, I was known as the player to beat in so many games. I had kids want to come to my house when I was younger to just see how it was humanly possible to finish super hard games, like "Ninja gaiden".
Now, well, I can best play either "Mortal Kombat" or "Pokémon: Go!". I've played Smash Ultimate and, over 50+ matches, have not won a single battle. Considering how I crushed people in the original and in Melee is definitely a disappointing feeling.
However it is what it is and I at least still try. I may never be what I once was, but I can still be the best I can be while knowing there are other ways to be relevant.