Episode review: S9E16: "A Trivial Pursuit"

Question 26: Is Twilight's expression a meme face or an animation transition?

Oh look, now Hasbro has taken to advertising its products in the actual episode names. (Yep, they own Trivial Pursuit.) I couldn't decide whether that was annoying or amusing — which as it happened made it good preparation for the ep itself. But I'm getting ahead of myself. "A Trivial Pursuit" was written by Brittany Jo Flores, which I took as a good sign since her only previous FiM outing was the very solid "Once Upon a Zeppelin" in S7. Let's have a look at whether she could match it this time around.

Well, no, though this was considerably better than last week's mess. It was a lot more entertaining, for a start. The first two acts of "2, 4, 6, Greaaat" were 15 minutes of my life I won't get back. This time, there was plenty going on, much of it genuinely funny. Not all of it stuck: for example, the meme faces had been turned up so high that they actively distracted from the jokes beneath. Maybe this was just the animators having some fun before the (total guess) more serious episodes leading up to the finale.

So yes, this was a step up from the last episode. Unfortunately, it was a considerable step down from this writer's previous effort, and in fact it had a very similar problem to "2, 4, 6, Greaaat". Namely, that of the focus character being a total prat. I can easily believe Twilight being a huge trivia/pub quiz buff, and I can also easily believe her doing things like charting out which partner she'd have the best chance with. But I do have trouble believing she'd go off the rails like this in S9. This was "Lesson Zero" Twilight, and "Lesson Zero" was seven seasons ago.

Roseluck realises that she's entirely missed the only question about roses in the last six months

The absurdly complicated rules of the Trivia Trot caught my attention, and not just because of the way Twilight was (in one of the episode's most satisfying scenes) eventually caught out on them by Sunburst. I do actually wonder whether this was Hasbro having a sly dig at how the collectible card game, originally aimed at kids, has become so full of extensions and esoteric rules "clarifications" that it's now more or less impossible to play seriously unless you're an adult and have enormous amounts of time. And very deep pockets.

Anyway, back to the episode. Pairing Twilight up with Pinkie seemed like a promising turn for the ep, though I'm not sure I really buy Pinkie never having entered before. I'd have thought she'd be right up for a fun pub quiz. (Declaration of possible bias: the Pub Quiz at UK PonyCon each year is one of my absolute must-do events.) Pinks was a bit of a pain in the early rounds, if I'm honest, but later on she came into her own as a fun team-mate and, more importantly, friend. It's a shame Twilight didn't see that until the very end.

As I said earlier, there was a lot of fun to be had this time round, and frankly I found the bits that didn't directly involve Twilight to be the most involving. Fluttershy and Bulk's hoof-bump, for example, or Mudbriar's surprising sassiness. Applejack and Rainbow Dash's feud was hilarious, though I'm not sure I buy "Team AppleDash" being basically unstoppable. Why would they be? They're both intelligent mares who like their books from time to time, but I'd have thought their ultra-competitiveness would get in the way even within the same team.

"Now, how do I do this here 'Objection!' thingummygig?"

The rules of Trivia Trot were pretty strange. Only two ponies (or donkeys) to a team, chosen randomly, and minus points for getting questions wrong. Granny Smith was a pretty good choice as MC, though it strikes me that in an environment like that her hearing would need to be rather better than it's sometimes portrayed. I was disappointed that all the rounds took the same format – no music or picture rounds? Also, how come Twi wasn't disqualified for not having a partner when she sent Pinkie to look at the "confetti parade"?

Let's go back to that "Team AppleDash" thing. Oh look, after "20% cooler" last week we get ship names this week. It's not the first time – we had "FlutterDash" in the S5 finale – but it was really played up this time, especially by Pinkie Pie. Frankly, I'm not really that interested in watching My Little Meme, so I hope they've got it out of their system now. On the plus side, there was a nice little callback to "Slice of Life" at the very end. In episode 100, Derpy locked the Mane Six out of Cranky's wedding. Here, she was herself unable to gain entry – though maybe she should have tried pushing!

So... yeah. "A Trivial Pursuit" was a long way from being a classic episode, unless you're very forgiving about Twilight's characterisation, but it was often an entertaining one. I definitely give it props for that, and so while it's another two-star effort, it's a very different one from "2, 4, 6, Greaaat". That one missed a one-star rating by the skin of Smolder's teeth. This one could have been a three if only the memery and Twilighting hadn't been turned up to 12. So, not the best episode, but maybe one to stick on when you're after something that requires no mental effort at all.

"I... I just looked up Rule 63"

Best line: Mudbriar: "Technically, it's a kind of category where we know the answers and you don't."
Best moment: Granny Smith's reaction to Applejack failing an apple question
Worst moment: Twilight trying to get Pinkie disqualified. Twice

Yays

• Lots of funny stuff around the sides of the main plot
• Sunburst and – eventually – Pinkie Pie as the voice of reason
• Twilight's DJ-Pon3 pyjamas at the start
• Spike's forlorn attempts to keep Twily in check

Neighs

• Twilight's Twilighting was so over the top as to feel like flanderisation
• Way, way too many meme faces, even by S9 standards
• One ship-name tease would have been fun. They went too far
• Where in the absolute hay has Mr Cake got to these days?

★★