Episode Re-Review: Winter Wrap Up · 6:42pm Jan 30th, 2021
So the writing team had been assembled and every writer had written at least one episode by now. But after ten episodes the show was all over the place, quality was impossible to pin down and the show still didn't seem to know what it wanted to do. For the last episode to air in 2010 the show decided to do an episode involving winter, or rather cleaning up after winter. Cindy Morrow returned to the writer's chair here, but all anyone ever talks about is the song of the same name? Is there a reason for that? Well, let's find out.
We open up with Twilight excited for Winter Wrap Up day, and she exposits that since Ponyville was founded by earth ponies they haven't used magic to clean up winter in over a hundred years. Strangely enough though, Twilight finds the ground outside the library already cleared for some reason. Then, she (and Spike) rush to town hall where Mayor Mare is assigning ponies to one of three groups: Weather, crops or animals (and contrary to popular belief Fluttershy isn't leading the animal team even though Rainbow Dash leads the weather team and Applejack the crops team). Each has a vest corresponding to their respective assignments, and Twilight is eager to find which group she'll belong to (why wouldn't she have done research into that ahead of time if she was so eager to join in?). And then we get to the song "Winter Wrap Up" which stood out for being the first song not to be sung by Pinkie Pie. Yes, it's exposition, but it's darn good at being that. It keeps the story flowing. However, this also highlights what the big problem with the episode is. Unicorns are apparently forbidden from using their natural magic to help out in any way, they must work entirely with their hooves.
Yeah, this basically opens up a lot of "unfortunate implications" about how certain groups within certain civilizations are forced to conform to what the majority wants and if they don't comply they are ostricized and shunned. Anyway, Twilight goes to the weather team only to realize that she can't help because she doesn't have wings (but since we know Fluttershy at least is on the animal team we know that not all pegasi must be on the weather team even though that's the only way they're allowed to use their natural abilities). And yes, this joke is hilarious now that we know Twilight will eventually get wings.
So Twilight decides to help out Rarity on the animal team by making birds nests. There is however a glaring continuity issue that just gets ignored. It is kind of a blink and you'll miss it moment, but Rarity does use her magic and no one notices or calls her out for it. Yes, Rarity isn't as magically gifted as Twilight, but the fact that she can use her magic should be a sign that the "no unicorn magic rule" is arbitrary and forced and that it would be better to set limits on what it could be used for rather than force unicorns to not do what they're naturally good at. Anyway, Twilight is able to get all the different kinds of straw and twigs sorted out, but she is terribly uncoordinated with her hooves and makes a rather sloppy bird's nest that Spike suggests would only be good as "an outhouse". And this isn't the last time Spike is going to be grumpy and unhelpful throughout the episode. Yes, they do appear to handwave it as him being cranky from being woken up early, but it also makes it hard to enjoy the scenes he's in.
Twilight then decides to try something else, and finds Pinkie Pie on a frozen lake. She's apparently part of the weather team in that she helps rip up the ice with her skates so that it'll be easier to melt. It feels kind of weird that she seems to be the only non pegasus member of the weather team, though. Anyway, Pinkie offers to let Twilight help her carve up the ice. But Twilight is just as uncoordinated on skates and ends up colliding with Pinkie Pie and knocking them both off the ice. Then Twilight tries her luck on the animal team as Fluttershy gives some clunky exposition about what hibernation is. Twilight tries to wake up some critters with a bell but is startled when she wakes up a group of snakes, and after getting a beehive stuck on her head she runs into a den of skunks and gets squirted. While being bathed in tomato juice (which doesn't actually get rid of the stink by the way), Twilight is told by Spike that she should use her magic. After she's been cleaned up she goes to help Applejack with the plowing so that seeds can be planted. It isn't long before Twilight decides to use her magic since she can't move the plow on her own power. It works a little too well, causing a huge snowfall that negates the work of all the other plowers. Applejack chews Twilight out for this, and Spike heckles her too even though it was his idea for Twilight to use her magic.
Twilight runs off in tears, upset that she can't find anywhere where she's actually good. But then we overhear a bunch of arguments from the three teams as Mayor Mare reveals that the town has never managed to get winter wrapped up on time because of this. So I must ask, what's the point of maintaining a tradition when it can't get the job done on time? I can't imagine it's much help to the farmers if they have to put off growing their crops because winter isn't wrapped up properly, and it's probably not good for a lot of the animals to have their sleeping habits interrupted because of the inconsistent schedule. So why is Ponyville needlessly handicapping itself over the sake of tradition?
Well, this gives Twilight the idea to become the organizer for the entire thing. And somehow just having one pony who isn't good at anything else telling others what to do is enough to get the job done on time and properly. And Twilight gets to be made all team organizer because of this. There is a moral about being proud of your natural abilities, and in what I'm guessing is supposed to be karma Spike is left out on a frozen lake and catches a cold. But all it does is make you feel sorry for him because it happened to him through no fault of his own, much like how everything bad kept happening to Twilight through no fault of her own throughout the whole episode.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Really, it's just a bore. It seems to think that the same joke is enough to carry the episode (the joke being that Twilight is a walking disaster without her magic). Except Twilight is just trying to fit in, she's not trying to change anyone's way of doing things or asserting that her way is superior. If it was that might make what happens to her funny. But just watching someone get dumped on through no fault of their own and with no sense that things are going to get better isn't funny, why else do you think people got tired of watching Spongebob Squarepants repeatedly torture Squidward in every episode just for the sake of it? And again I must ask, what's the point of doing it the way you've always done it if it can't get the job done on time? Isn't it better to swallow your pride and let the unicorns help clean winter up if it means winter gets wrapped up on time? But no, tradition is always more important than anything else. And the thing is, Twilight already had pride in her abilities before this episode. She wasn't neglecting them because she thought she wasn't very good, she was intentionally not using her magic because she thought it would help her fit in in accordance with Ponyville tradition. The song is literally the only thing good about this episode, everything else is completely forgettable. The song is probably the only reason this episode gets a C, a really good song almost singlehandedly makes up for how boring and unfunny the actual plot is.
Well, thankfully this little dry spell is going to come to an end in the next episode. So come back tomorrow when we'll look at what was supposed to be the pilot for a Cutie Mark Crusaders spin-off show that was rejected, "Call of the Cutie".
Yeah. Definitely have to agree with this. Especially the stuff about the "no unicorn magic" rule (which, I think, was only worked in because it was literally the only way the writers could think of to keep Twilight from wrapping this up in three minutes, but still makes Ponyville look WAY too tribalist).
Personally, I think the episode would have worked much better if there were just a trio of short flashbacks reflecting on previous Winter Wrap-Up disasters, with Twilight making the realization about organization MUCH sooner. And, of course, no rule against unicorns using their magic (it's just that, until Twilight came to town, there wasn't any unicorns powerful enough for their magic to make much of a difference.)
This is definitely a kind of boring episode that's somewhat elevated by the song being really good
Much like Rainbow Dash in Dragonshy, this episode clearly wanted to make Spike look as unsympathetic as possible so that we don't end up feeling bad for him when he gets his comeuppance at the end.