Episode Re-Review: Gift of the Maud Pie · 4:23pm May 14th, 2021
So after a not entirely stellar premiere, Season 6 really needed something to keep the faith alive. To fill the gap left by old writers departing, new ones were brought in again starting with Michael P. and Will Fox who were brothers. However, Josh Haber was helping them out on the story. And we were going to Manehattan and would be seeing Maud Pie, both of which had been overplayed. But maybe we'd get a chance to see something new from both? Well, let's find out.
The episode begins with Pinkie Pie being her normal excited self as she's accompanying Rarity on a train trip out to Manehattan, apparently because Rarity is planning to look for a suitable location for a Manehattan boutique (even though she opened her dream one in Canterlot not too long ago, and the presence of Starlight Glimmer in the title sequence would suggest this is taking place sometime after she joined). Upon seeing the big city, Rarity is all excited. And meanwhile, Pinkie Pie happens to see Maud waiting at the train station. It turns out that every year, the Pie Sisters have their own little day where they buy gifts and exchange them at sunset, entitled P.S.S.D. for "Pie Sisters Swap Day". Maud then gets distracted looking for a post card for Boulder's cousin, allowing Pinkie Pie to plead with Rarity for help in getting a gift for Maud that will put anything Maud gets to shame. Rarity agrees, opting to use her boutique search as a distraction so Maud will suspect nothing.
So the episode spends a bit of time just exploring generic locations within Manehattan, including the ponyfied Statue of Liberty, all the while Pinkie Pie keeps bragging about the gift she's gonna get and fires off her party cannon. In fact, her party cannon is given a lot more significance than it might normally have, so you know it's going to be important to the plot. Anyway, Maud proves to be difficult to get a gift for and Rarity even acts as if she's somehow never met Maud before when she complains about Maud being interested in a fissure in the soil.
Eventually, Pinkie happens to get the idea to get Maud a pouch for Boulder since he apparently tends to run off. But the store that sells it is closed, and a police officer who responds to Pinkie making a commotion informs her that the store owner is on vacation. So Pinkie Pie goes back to Rarity and sulks as Rarity orders a giant sundae. However, Rarity's inclusion in this episode ends up becoming a major plot hole from here on out because of one detail. She could easily sew the pouch to Pinkie's specifications and would be happy to do it free of charge. But since Haber apparently regarded Rarity as his favorite pony, it would seem that he wanted to throw her into this episode anyway even when it might have been better to write her out. So instead, Rarity tries to convince Maud on something else but nothing will change her mind. Then Pinkie Pie is informed by Rarity of a pony who happens to have the pouch. And he agrees to part with it in exchange for Pinkie's party cannon.
Rarity soon learns (after doing a surprisingly good Pinkie Pie impression) that Pinkie traded away her party cannon (it's weird that she's suddenly so attached to it, but Lillypeet proposed the headcanon that it was a previous P.S.S.D present from Maud which would make sense), but Pinkie Pie insists that as long as Maud's happy that's all that matters. Then, disregarding what was said earlier, the gift exchange takes place even though it's nowhere close to sunset (after an attempted joke about a song that just exists to play up Maud being stotic). And despite this episode's title being based on the famous story Gift of the Magi, which usually involves two people giving up their most prized possessions to get a gift for the other, Maud didn't have to give up anything to get Pinkie confetti for her party cannon. So if they weren't going to follow that plot all the way through, why title their episode after it? It makes it look like they didn't do their research. It's not like other episodes didn't have working titles, because they did.
Rarity then ends up blabbing to Maud unintentionally because the episode says so, revealing that Pinkie traded her party cannon to get the rock pouch. Maud tracks down the stallion to whom Pinkie traded her party cannon, revealing that it's part of her "Maud Sense" that Pinkie Pie claims "runs in the family".
Maud more or less insists on trading back the pouch for the cannon, and Rarity plays up Maud's seriousness to make the stallion agree to undo the trade. Then Maud tells Pinkie the obvious moral, it's not about getting the best gifts because it's not supposed to be a competition. She and Pinkie then offer to let Rarity be a part of their little hang out and trade days, before Rarity happens to find what she believes will be a suitable location for her Manehattan boutique: Rarity For You. Odd that we got to see her hunting for a boutique for Manehattan and not Canterlot even though Canterlot was supposed to be her dream boutique.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Quite honestly, this episode is the ultimate example of playing it safe. It just reuses Manehattan and Maud Pie without bothering to add anything new. Manehattan is just a generic big city environment, we see nothing new from it. And Maud Pie is once again just reduced to "The Stotic", her previous subtle emotional fluctuations from her debut are all but gone. And as previously mentioned, Rarity being in this episode creates a huge plot hole that the episode itself doesn't consider: She could sew the pouch for Pinkie Pie free of charge. And of course, if she did that there wouldn't be a conflict, meaning the episode would've been better off writing her out. Heck, it feels like they just threw Rarity in because for some reason they think it's weird if Pinkie has to hold an episode on her own. But assuming that had to be the case, why not use Starlight Glimmer? If this was ever a time to try to integrate her into the main cast more, this was it. As for Maud Pie, why use her instead of either Limestone or Marble Pie? Either one of them could do just as good as Maud, and probably could've benefitted from being fleshed out. Yes, Rarity's Manehattan boutique will come into play later this season. But we could've been told at any point that she was looking for a location. In fact, why use Manehattan and not a new city other than because they couldn't think of anything original? It really does indicate what's in store for Season 6, not as much risk taking compared to Season 5 or even Season 4 (which at least had some interesting ideas and concepts, even if it rarely changed up the status quo). So ultimately, this episode gets a C-.
Well, next episode showed a lot more potential and promise in "On Your Marks", raising the question of what the CMC were going to do now that they'd gotten their cutie marks.
I thought the Maud and Rarity interactions itself made the episode great. They're an amazing duo. And her not sewing the pouch, while kind of a plot hole, is made up for by the amazing Maud intimidation scene. Also I don't think not using a new location or adding to it is a flaw. It's not really a necessity.
Of the Manehatten episodes up to this, this is probably my favorite.
Yeah, what do you say we get one of the problems with Starlight out of the way now? For most of Season 6, she'll only appear in episodes where she is the focus. There are three non-focus episodes she appears in, but two of them are just non-speaking cameos in the prologue. Apparently, the reason for Starlight's limited appearances has something to do with a deal involving her voice actress, Kelly Sheridan.
5518662 That may also explain why Sassy Saddles inexplicably became a mute after Season 7.
Does anyone feel like Rarity ignored Suri Polomare for no reason in this episode? :/
Here's an example of what I mean:
static.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/7/73/Maud_Pie_requesting_a_return_trade_again_S6E3.png/revision/latest?cb=20160403131208
SHE WAS ACROSS THE FREAKING STREET RARITY!!! >:/
5519545 I don't think Rarity is in any rush to talk to Suri again after what happened during fashion week.
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I guess, but a little revenge wouldn't hurt though.... right? ^^'
5520050 Rarity doesn't strike me as the kind of pony to pursue revenge, at least not willingly.
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Anyways.... don't forget my comment on your Gauntlet of Fire re-review blog post. ;3