Deconstruction is Magic: A My Little Pony Retrospective (S1E4) · 11:21pm Oct 14th, 2020
Grrrrrrrrrrrrretings friends, and welcome once again, to Deconstruction is Magic, a retrospective, review, and analysis series looking at every episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is magic in order, seeing how well the show has aged and developed over the course of its nine-season run!
Without wasting anymore time, let's get into today's analysis. I am the Mage of Mind, reminding you, as always, that even a cheeseburger can be deconstructed to its source.
Today, we are looking at duck Applebuck season! With Big Mac out of commission due to an unspecified injury (henceforth referred to as stickittotheman-initis), Applejack insists on taking on the job of harvesting the season's apples all by herself, with tiring consequences!
The key theme in this episode is personal responsibility. Applejack is a largely selfless, independent mare who takes on the bulk of farmwork herself. With her parents out of the picture and her family all doing their own business, she clearly feels like she has the greatest responsibility, both to her family and friends, to get everything done. This, of course, isn't a problem. However, to illustrate what is the problem, I would like to bring up a common phrase you may have heard before. "Pulling yourself up by your boostraps".
Despite the common usage of the phrase, nowerdays, to mean "making your own success", the origin of the term dates back all the way to the 1830s, where it meant "to try and achieve" an impossible task! You won't get over a fence by pulling at your bootstraps, unless you conveniently fall over said fence in the process.
(Everybody do the flop!)
In other words, it's one thing to take on responsibilities, but self care is just as important. This does lead me into one potential criticism I've heard lobbed at this episode: That it's Applejack's friends constantly asking favours from her that make her exhausted. Anyone who pays attention to how Applejack is feeling at, well, any point in the episode, will know that this is complete mule manure - no offence to any mules out there.
(Re-using jokes from the episode. Ain't I a stinker? 83)
Applejack is clearly at the end of her tether long before she even begins to consider helping her friends. While it is largely for plot convenience that all of her friends (besides Rarity) ask for her help, at this point in time, the friends aren't nearly as close as they would be in later seasons. It isn't unreasonable to think that, given the relative simplicity of the tasks they ask Applejack to do, that they wouldn't think twice about asking for her help.
However, it's these sections which show one of the core problems of this episode. The pacing is slooooooooooow! This is emblematic of early episodes, as the writers and animation team didn't quite have the scope to pack an episode full of background gags and plot twists that they did with later seasons. But this episode shows how much the plot drags its hooves. The diving board joke is repeated several times for emphasis, and while Rainbow's eventual catapult is funny, it could have been much tighter with the lead in, especially with usage of the rule of three..
(Looks like Rainbow Dash is blasting off agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain! *ding*)
It doesn't qualify for an overly-long gag, either, since the pacing isn't used to generate laughs; the slapstick is. The rule of three is used with Pinkie Pie's cupcake baking session, but even for Pinkie, you'd think she'd notice the very obviously wrong ingredients Applejack is adding. Even at this early stage, we know Pinkie to at least spot the obvious when it's right under her nose. I will say that the pacing doesn't make the humour completely unfunny, as we still get alot of fantastic character interaction toward the middle, particularly with Twilight getting her speech interrupted.
Conclusion
It's clear that Amy Keating Rodgers absolutely has a fantastic grasp on dialogue and character humour. It just comes at the expense of the overall plot, making the whole process hit-and-miss on an entertainment level. But as with the case of many "meh" MLP episodes, the morals and heart still shines through, making the episode weaker in the story department. While it would've been nice to see Applejack's friends start to notice her tiredness more and offer to check on her, Twilight's persistence in recognising Applejack's unhealthy work ethic shows that, even at this early stage, she is getting wise to this whole friendship business!
(Be honest, we've all done this at some point.)
What saves the episode from mediocrity, more than anything else, is how much the moral is applicable to adults as it is to kids. Even for hobbies we love (like writing fimfiction, hint hint!), we can get carried away when our stubbornness pushes us into self-inflicted crunch periods. Adult responsibilities, at any age, can often be demanding, and this episode reminds us that it's never a bad time to ask for help. Through mutual aid and cooperation, we can share our burdens to reduce our workloads to a more manageable chunk.
I give "Applebuck Season" an overall score of 6.5/10. Not terrible, but not amazing either. What did you think of this episode? Did you notice any issues with pacing? Feel free to let me know in the comments section of this blog! Until next time, take care all :).
