Mini Re-Reviews: "Sisterhooves Social" - Season 2 Episode 5 · 12:05am Feb 9th, 2020
SWEETIE BELLE: "Wow. You just had to pause on that frame, didn't you? Look at my face! I look like you're creeping me out!"
RARITY: "You? What about me?!? Need I remind you that I ran an obstacle course covered in mud for you, my little sister?"
SWEETIE BELLE: "Yeah. That was pretty cool of you. And next year, we can do the whole race together from the start, right?"
RARITY: "Oh, I wouldn't miss it for the world, Sweetie Belle! Though, um, I will take extra care to miss that mud pit."
[Rarity and Sweetie Belle laugh]
Can I be honest? This has always been one of my favourite episodes, and it's one I've rewatched enough in the past two years that I knew that wasn't going to change today. The only question going in here, was: where would this episode land on the top end of the scale, once I judged it objectively alongside its neighbours? Read on to find out!
Right off the bat, "Sisterhooves Social" has an absolutely wonderful scene that is perfectly constructed with surface-level comedy whilst setting up the plot, but which also reveals a lot about one of our main characters' upbringing and choices without even looking like it's trying. Normally such things fly past me in a cartoon, because, well, it's a cartoon and trying to analyse real-life upbringings is often pointless, but the reveal that Rarity's parents aren't that much like her at all, but are far closer to being country bumpkins makes for such a delightful, uncommented-upon twist. Instead of the usual story of a free-spirited individual fleeing from the eloquent stuck-up upper class, we have instead a case of a character fleeing her family's free-spiritedness for a life of high class eloquence. From this, it could be inferred that even her Trans-Atlantic accent is something she learned and adopted intentionally (only if you want to take such things literally: in cartoon land close relatives sound totally different all the time), and that perhaps her striving for high-society status is something of an attempt to break away from her beginning rather then live up to expectations. I'll stop before I go too far with that. Aside from all those nuggets of backstory, what I find most fascinating is the precise tone with which Rarity interacts with her parents. There's a little awkwardness present, but as all the tension is due to the situation of Sweetie Belle being dumped on her for a week, you get the feeling Rarity doesn't have a bad relationship with her parents, but she does have a (slightly) distant one, mostly due to being so, well, different from there. It teeters on the edge of not speaking well about her character but holds back just enough from that, so instead the takeaway is just how many more layers there are under her marshmallow exterior.
There's an episode past that brief scene, truth be told, and it's still a keeper; much of the rest of the episode's first half consists of Rarity trying to do some work-related task, telling Sweetie Belle to stay out of the way, Sweetie Belle doing something she thinks will be helpful but turns out not to be some some reason that is perfectly balanced between reasonable and arbitrary, Rarity calmly telling Sweetie Belle off and why she screwed up, but making great meme faces while she holds her anger and frustration in. This cycle repeats a few times until Sweetie Belle wanders off through town. This may sound like a structure for a repetitive kids' cartoon, but Cindy Morrow, under the guidance of Lauren Faust and Rob Renzetti, and all the staff at DHX and Top Draw, make magic with it, producing not only iconic, lovely, and hilarious moments one after the other, but also making that seemingly obvious and artificial structure feel like the most organic and character-based thing in the world. Nicely enough, both sides of the conflict are fully relatable; even if the viewer gravitates towards one over the other due to personal experience, it cannot be denied that much as Rarity's building frustration at Sweetie Belle being a walking disaster is fair, so too is the fact that everything Sweetie Belle does comes out of a heartfelt desire to be helpful to her big sister that she idolises so much. No malice present, they're just on different wavelengths, and that's a very nuanced portrayal of how siblings dynamics often work.
Even from this alone, the episode is a madly strong character showcase without being showy about it - truth be told, when I think of this episode, the shenanigans are what leaps to mind, not all the character layering; I mean that in a good way - but the rest of the episode continues just that, having one of the best portrayal of the dynamic between the two Apple siblings. After Apple Bloom's suggestion for Sweetie Belle to ask Rarity to compete in the Sisterhooves Social later is rejected outright, the tension between the two builds to the point that Sweetie Belle rejects Rarity as a sister (in a manner that reads as a kid overreacting rather then the episode doing so, so it's not hackneyed). Bear in mind she's rejecting the same sister she's often tried to emulate in the past. While Rarity continues her work alone and discovers, to her surprise, that there's unintended positives to all the messes that Sweetie Belle made (the shrunk sweater fits Opal perfectly; the cleaned study gives her inspiration for a new line; the gems used for a portrait of the two sisters touches her heart), Sweetie Belle watches and observes how well Applejack and Apple Bloom get along with making fun games out of all the farm chores they have to do.
The dynamic set up here is brilliant: Sweetie Belle sees the two and uses them as a example of how sisters should be despite their family situations being entirely different, what with Applejack being half a mother figure to Apple Bloom and the apples being defined as a family unit. Their relationship is largely different then one where the younger sister lives with her parents and the older is an independent adult working in a profession separate from the rest of the family. We've seen the Apple siblings having conflicts already, and will do so again, but all Sweetie Belle can see is Apple Bloom getting from Applejack what she wants from Rarity, to the point that when Rarity shows up to apologise, Apple Bloom declares Applejack as her new big sister (humorously, it's perhaps best this doesn't pan out - the two share so little in common it wouldn't have taken long for Sweetie Belle to get somewhat disillusioned). The dynamics of the two Apples throughout all this are just as great as those of Rarity and Sweetie Belle, with Apple Bloom getting all manner of great asides (even if none top the "One. Day." bit from later) and Applejack being a patient explainer as she wrestles with the two sides of the argument. Her own differences with Rarity means she very much understands Sweetie Belle's frustrations, but being Rarity's friends and knowing Sweetie Belle's circumstantial frustrations are clouding her judgement, she keeps backpedaling to try and get Sweetie Belle to see the other side of things.
Do remember, all this character layering is all under the surface, easily ignorable but essential nonetheless for the immense enrichment it provides to the episodes and the characters. This continues as Sweetie Belle doesn't fully forgive Rarity (who knew: sibling bickering doesn't always mend itself in a flash!), partly due to Rarity not quite fully getting it (her suggestions for things to do all involve things Rarity would pick out). I don't feel the need to say much about the Sisterhooves Social itself, as it's a segment everyone loves and the race itself a blast with some killer country music as instrumentation. I will add only that the layout and animation does a great job of drawing one attention on first-viewing away from the fact that "mud-covered Applejack" still has the rough shape of Rarity's mane, tail and her eye colour (and it's never done as a "gotcha!" moment either, revealed only when Sweetie Belle sees it). The end result of the race itself is perfect, first for the two not winning but coming close, second for them being on such good wavelengths during he race despite no planning, but obviously for everything after the reveal that it was Rarity all along. When Sweetie Belle forgives quickly this time, it's earned; Sweetie Belle mocked earlier this very episode how much Rarity hates getting muddy, so the fact that she ran a whole course covered in the stuff is a testament to how much she wanted to make amends, as is her doing something Sweetie Belle really wanted them to do together too. All that is enough for Sweetie Belle to forgive her sister, and their relationship improves in the the right way going forward; they've learned to give-and-take in equal measure but also to mesh in places where they can, but their personalities and preferences as still largely as they were.
After all that, the episode is still one of the show's highlights in my eyes. Just about the only part that dips below perfect status are some segments of the Apples' chores, and even then, they pass quickly enough that they barely call attention to themselves. "Sisterhooves Social" is a fantastic character showcase for all four main players - Granny Smith has several hilarious one-liners, and even Spike gets a stellar moment in the letter-writing denouement. None of it is obtrusive or showy, instead being remarkably intelligent and well-thought out. It is not, perhaps, the most obviously brilliant episode you'll find, but everything it does in its simple, familial story is executed so flawlessly that is shines as bright as you could want all the same. It's sweetly touching with ever being cloying about it, from Rarity's true sisterly love revealing itself and overcoming her other eccentricities, down to everything else. This warm, inspiring hilarious episode is without a doubt the best Sweetie Belle episode ever produced (not much competition, granted, due to how few there truly are), probably the best episode focused on siblings dynamics of any kind (more competition there, but still one I think most viewers will agree with), and it remains my favourite Rarity episode (a lot of competition there, yeah). Personal preference be darned, this episode managed to earn its way into the 10/10 club, just as I hoped it would.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS
- Five episodes in and Season 2 has already given us two perfect-scored episodes, and not a single one below 9/10 - hard to imagine a stronger start then this! One that doesn't sound like hyperbole, anyway. The run of late Season 1 and early Season 2 remains simply unparalleled.
- Ironically, given Spike's suggestion of "just right" at the end, the episode is remarkably effective as using comedy to keep the emotional and comedic edge "just right" too, rather then teetering over into sappy. In case you thought from any of the review that the episode did, for it remarkably doesn't.
- The animation in this episode was remarkable and so key to balancing the comedy and emotional feels (even if much of the credit does go to Cindy Morrow, the MLP writer that I've always felt best handles emotional-feely episodes). Space forbids a full breakdown, but everything from the amount of frames on the tweens of the shrinking sweater, to character pauses for just long enough for either comedic or dramatic impact (a pause after Rarity falls on the floor but before she dashes down the stairs to the smoke at the start works much better then it sounds), to dramatic angles with lighting where appropriate (that red-background shot of a shadow-lit Rarity leering over Sweetie Belle though), to layout, composition, and especially some mannerisms of Rarity showing while she's covered in mud in a non-obtrusive way - many of these are simply unreasonable to expect in a Flash-based tv-cartoon produced as quickly as this, and it could only come from professional who love their job and feel a real desire to go above and beyond. Both at DHX, and at Top Draw in the Philippines. Bravo.
- This is both the first episode without Twilight, and the one to feature the fewest of the Mane 6, thus far, at just two (due to Spike's brief appearance during the denouement, it ties for three of the Mane 7 with "Look Before You Sleep"). It's an interesting step for the show towards an ensemble piece that can use whichever lead characters best suit the story, and while the cast got two scattershot by the later seasons, for the next four and scraps of Seasons 6-9, it proves to be a very wise and rich decision.
- This script is still just slightly too early for this to be an intentional fan reaction, but it's interesting how the reveal of Rarity's parents is held back until after the title song. I gather there was some mild (well, mild compared to the amount of Luna fanboying, anyway) deduction that Sweetie Belle lived with Rarity, with her parents' whereabouts or fates unknown as they were. It makes or an abrupt but effective "what the...!" reveal that they're there, as the previous scene plays it like Sweetie Belle normally lives there and Rarity is just sighing at her ruined cooking, not just her being present too. Effective writing strikes again!
I forgot how good this episode is. :D There are so many great moments in the first Rarity/Sweetie scene alone.
5199738
I know, right? So many great standout moments between Fashion Horse and Squeaky Belle one after the other, all perfectly interwoven around each other and the plot and character arcs. Hence why, despite the character perfection here, I still things of the hilarious shenanigans first when I remember this wonderful episode... followed very closely by everything else, of course.