Thoughts on Trade Ya · 2:42am Oct 24th, 2022
This episode is mostly filler, but it was heartwarming to see, and it's something that overall came out pretty well. So this episode is broken into three subplots between the mane six as they go through the Rainbow Falls Traders Exchange and resolving their drama.
First, you have Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy: this subplot is the best and the most fleshed out, as Rainbow Dash is making a bunch of trades to get a first copy of a Daring Do book. But the pony that has the book wants an Orthros ( a two-headed, serpent-tailed dog that guarded Geryon's great, red cattle on the island of Erytheia. Herakles was sent to fetch these as one of his twelve labors and, in the process, slew both Orthros and his master) but this one is much cuter than its greek counterpart. And overall, it shows that Rainbow Dash's obsession with the book drives her to forget about Fluttershy and use her to get what she wants. But near the end of the episode, when they finally get the two-headed dog to the mare. She takes it on one condition Fluttershy comes with her to Manehattan to train it. So Rainbow Dash realizes what she did and has Twilight help her reverse the trade, and then in an act of humility, trades the dog for a bird whistle since Fluttershy had to exchange her bear whistle to help Rainbow Dash earlier. Overall this part of the episode was well-written and paced, with Rainbow Dash learning a good lesson, and I give Fluttershy some brownie points for how willing she is to help Rainbow Dash. Although it may look like she's being a pushover, keep in mind Fluttershy has a lot of respect for Rainbow Dash as she stood up for her when she was bullied as a filly. Also, Rainbow Dash basiclly helped her find her destiny in being an animal caretaker. So doing whatever it takes to help Rainbow is much in line with her character, and seeing Rainbow Dash giving up the book to rectify her actions was a big moment for her and deserves a lot of respect. I think this plot should've been the entire episode, as the two other subplots were ok, but they were much weaker in comparison.
Applejack and Rarity: This is the second-best subplot in my opinion, even though I have issues with it: the two decide to pool the items they had to trade but want different things. Rarity wants a brooch (that looks exactly like the one she has), and Applejack wants an old pie tin. Eventually, they settled on trading what they had for things that weren't exactly what they wanted but were basiclly the same. The only good part about this subplot was the end, where I felt Applejack burns Rarity after giving her a more miniature brooch and telling her it's exactly like a bunch of similar-looking ones she already probably ever wears lol.
Twilight and Pinkie Pie: literally, Pinkie Pie tries to help advertise the books Twilight has to trade, but she goes overboard; Twilight then convinces Pinkie Pie to be more truthful about the books realizes she wants to keep the books because of the good times they remind her of. This part doesn't seem to go anywhere, but overall decent moral lesson here. But I would say keep stuff you treasure but don't become a hoarder.
Overall I think this episode was enjoyable, and I much enjoyed Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash's story the most. I think the issue is that this is 20 min per-episode show, and trying to shove three subplots together doesn't work. But overall, I feel that it's a fun watch, and there isn't much to say other than that,
Random Thought
There's a cameo of Robert Lutece, and Rosalind Lutece from Bioshock Infinite in pony form are walking around the Rainbow Falls Traders Exchange.
Random Head-scracther: Wouldn't this have been a good FlimFlam brothers episode?
5694130
I feel that if they kept it to just Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, sure, or maybe tying the three subplots with them being the main villains of the episode would've worked as well.
5694131
I agree.