Retrospective Review: Stare Master and The Show Stoppers

S1E17 Stare Master

By this point, I'm feeling the show's writers are getting the characters and are building a consistent world. We have Rarity busy with her fashion work, Twilight Sparkle going to see Zecora, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders together, ready to do the crusading they promised in their first meeting.

Opalescence is as evil as normal, but her evil is just so much more appropriate than Angel's. And speaking of Angel, it's interesting he's not in this episode, nor are any of the other animals that presumably live in the cottage. I agree with not including them, as the story is best focused on Fluttershy and the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

An interesting mix-up: the writers have Rarity using the word handful, and later Twilight Sparkle using hooves full. I do think the series would have been ever so slightly improved by the consistent use of appropriate horse words.

Overall, this episode works. You have Fluttershy imagining caring for fillies would be like her animal friends, and the fillies acting like human kids of that age at a sleepover. Once the episode changes into a search and rescue, we see a familiar dynamic from Dragonshy, where Fluttershy isn't very effective, until her friends are in danger.

The Stare is weaponized kindness. Fluttershy makes the cockatrice think of the hurt it is causing others.

S1E18 The Show Stoppers

A second Cutie Mark Crusaders episode in a row!

I observed in a blog post a long time ago that a cartoon focused on girls, with action to appeal to boys, and written by a woman who had previous experience in cartoons for boys was also a description of the 80's cartoon Jem and the Holograms. And I love that in this episode, we see the Cute Mark Crusaders wearing costumes and makeup that would have fit in perfectly with Jem.

In this episode, we see the Cutie Mark Crusaders not recognize their own talents. Before they got their cutie marks, there were a lot of fanfictions revolving around this subject, and personally, I would have been just fine with Apple Bloom having a carpentry cutie mark, Sweetie Belle a singing cutie mark, and Scootaloo a scootering/daredevil cutie mark. (I just wish we didn't have future episodes where Sweetie Belle sang horribly.)

A classic montage: the Cutie Mark Crusaders trying a bunch of random things to get their cutie marks. It's very common for a fanfiction involving them (pre-Cutie Marks) to start with the CMC failing to get their cutie marks in some random talent.

Even with Applejack and Twilight Sparkle weighing in, we don't see the Cutie Mark Crusaders taking the hint that they're going about their performance all wrong. But given what their cutie marks eventually turned out to be, it looks like Applejack and Twilight Sparkle were both wrong. (But Twilight Sparkle would say that the CMC are "the exceptions that prove the rule".)

I wonder if Scootaloo's VA was singing in her normal voice, or if it was a deliberate effort to sing off-key. A different voice actor sings in two much later episodes.

Of course, when the CMC get their comedy award, they totally misinterpret it as well.

I think both of these episodes work.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

And speaking of Angel, it's interesting he's not in this episode, nor are any of the other animals that presumably live in the cottage. I agree with not including them, as the story is best focused on Fluttershy and the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

You know how animals will flee the area before people are even aware of the approaching disaster? Literally that.

An interesting mix-up: the writers have Rarity using the word handful, and later Twilight Sparkle using hooves full.

And when we consider Rainbow Dash's later "What are hands?"... Pity the localizer.

(I just wish we didn't have future episodes where Sweetie Belle sang horribly.)

Wholeheartedly agreed.

I feel that the foreshadowed talents would've been what the Crusaders got marks in if they hadn't met. And the individual components of their marks still convey those talents... except for Apple Bloom. But part of getting those marks in metadestiny was trying enough things that they have the breadth of experience necessary to help anypony find their talent. The bumbling about was an essential part of the process.

[Herald of Opera]

building a consistent world

*laughs in Oliver*
(I really need to actually bookmark that page at some point instead of just relying on the fact that he was one of my earliest follows)

It's very common for a fanfiction involving them (pre-Cutie Marks) to start with the CMC failing to get their cutie marks in some random talent.

In stories that import Sweetie Bot to the canon world, they fail hard enough that she was only kept from dying by the reveal that she was never alive in the first place.

[Hawkx1]

I wonder if Scootaloo's VA was singing in her normal voice, or if it was a deliberate effort to sing off-key. A different voice actor sings in two much later episodes.

I believe I heard that they had to go through SO. MANY. TAKES because the VA sung so good that it took a lot of takes to make them sing badly.

[ponygrad]

It was so refreshing having a cartoon where the main characters were "young adults" BUT with episodes around their little sisters where they could have their own fun or explore sisterly/adult relationships with the rest of the cast. I'm sure these episodes were some of the "target demo"s favorite, and they did it without pandering

[garfan]

5466949
I was surprised when in Twilight Time they had Scootaloo building stuff. I think they tried to show Bloom's being the heart of the group by having her consistently checking on how others were doing during their crusades

I swear I barely remember Sweetie belle singing badly