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| Pinkie is just wonderful in this sequence |
Written by Amy Keating Rogers
11 Mar 2011
My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 8.2
The one with Spike riding Twilight into battle.
Thoughts: This isn't going to be the most popular rating, I suspect, but there it is. There's certainly quite a bit to enjoy here: Rarity's gem-finding spell, for a start; it's a shame magical horizons became so limited later in the show's run. Sapphire Shores' cameo and Rarity's starstruck reaction to her. This is one of Spike's best showings in any early-season episode. And of course, there's the legendary whining/complaining sequence and the scenes associated with that, even if showing Rarity being annoying does itself get annoying after a while. So why only an (admittedly top-end) two stars? Mainly because the Diamond Dogs just aren't very interesting antagonists; I don't much care about them and I'm not terribly surprised they never returned. Also, Rarity's phobia of dirt is a bit much even for S1, plus Twilight just happening to know Rarity's spell is not only much too convenient but is explained in a bit of exposition that is surprisingly clunky – especially considering who wrote this episode. This is not one I choose to go back to very often at all.
Choice quote: Applejack: "...but Rarity won't even touch mud unless it's imported."
New rating: ★★
Next up is "Green Isn't Your Color", another episode I haven't watched for a long time, but one I remember having a high regard for.
No, no, you've got it all wrong! :O
ReplyDeleteThis is the episode that taught me all of Rarity's prissiness and vanity, all of her "standard pretty girl" traits were entirely under her control. They were choices she made, and that she could use to her advantage when the situation called for it. If not for the whining scene, I would not hold her in the esteem I do today.
That said, it still bugs me that we never again saw the Diamond Dogs outside of a (bizarre) cameo in the Rainbow Rocks shorts, which doesn't count, because they were just ugly humans. Like, that was a whole civilization based on a weird pun that they just threw away, never to be seen again. I don't know why; they aren't embarrassing like the buffalo, another season one race we never saw again. But no, somehow they are equally unworthy of studying friendship at Twilight Sparkle's Big Damn Mistake, I mean School of Friendship. :B
I always figured the spell thing came from Twilight's magic talent allowing her to figure out spells just by seeing them cast. It is kind of a "freaky knowledge of sewing" moment, though.
Twilight knowing the spell in itself doesn't bug me as much as how clunky the dialogue is. Verbatim:
DeleteSpike: No, Twilight. You can! You can copy Rarity's gem-finding spell.
Twilight Sparkle: Oh my gosh! You're right! Rarity showed me how she did it a while back. If I can just remember...
As for the rest, all fair comment. But it just doesn't click with me the way it does with many others. I'd rather watch "The Show Stoppers" than this, and I doubt many hands would say that! :P
I have not the slightest idea where "hands" came from at the end there!
DeleteTrue that bits and pieces of the episode are a bit flawed (Like it's a coincidence Twilight knows the spell Rarity uses), but the episode was meant to do one thing. For the longest time, we always assumed Rarity was the stereotypical fashionista, with that prissy attitude, complaining about being dirty and being a girly-girl. BUT... She does take those traits and put them to good use to outwit her capturers, that being the 'Diamond Dogs' (Who are barely acknowledged after this episode). True, Twilight and her friends go to great lengths to rescue a friend who they assume to be helpless but Rarity proves that a character like her can be more than just the 'damsel in distress'. Plus, there are a few takeaways from this episode that make up for some of it's flaws:
ReplyDeleteSpike imagining himself as a dashing knight to rescue his 'lady' fair
Teasing the 'AppleSpike' ship that would partly inspire a moment for 'Bride of Discord'
Rarity's whining (Which is funny when it happens to the bad guys)
Plus that one appearance of Sapphire Shores (Even though we never really hear a song from the 'Pony of Pop')
Frankly, as far as the Diamond Dogs are concerned, I prefer their 'Three Stooges' portrayal in one of ToucanLDM's videos when they try to take a necklace from Rapunzel and all the crazy shenanigans that follow. Otherwise... I can see why they are barely used in the series after this.
As with PP, all fair points (though I personally don't care much for Bride of Discord) and a top-end two-star rating is not a bad one. It's a tad above average the way I skew them. But I just wasn't as often glued to the screen here as I was in some other episodes.
DeleteWhat is "Bride of Discord"? Did I miss an episode somewhere?
DeleteA fanfic, and later audio drama, that's basically MLP crossed with Beauty and the Beast: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/125269/bride-of-discord
DeleteGotta agree with Perfect Present on this one; I like this episode a good deal more then you, finding it to be another hilariously silly one that just gels with me. Spike does get one of his best early season showings, Rarity shows how layered and in control of herself she really is, and I do find the Diamond Dogs fascinating. I think a lot of the things I find great about this episode aren't what most people necessarily look for in a MLP episode, is all (of all of Amy Keating Rogers' episodes, this is the one where her Cartoon Network roots are the most obvious).
ReplyDeleteHeck, it even avoids the otherwise-standard cutting-between-the-two-plotlines, to instead have the feeling of what Rarity must be enduring build up... only for her control of the situation to present itself to us as quite the treat. It's a structural gamble that I find pays off.
This was one of the few Season 1 episodes that stuck with me very vividly throughout my initial binge of FiM two years ago. Something about it's mixture of Cartoon Network-style energy and tone, and the way it seemed to redeem Rarity for those of us who hadn't yet warmed up to her, just did it for me. I acknowledge it's flaws this days but I still find it to be a pretty great episode, if a bit of a taste one that isn't going to be for all Pony fans.
And the Diamond Dogs did appear again in a Friends Forever comic, where it's revealed that the group here is a rarer kind of scavenger and most of them are more organised and civilised, though still very much gem seekers and hoarders. I remember it being a good one.
It nearly got a three, but I found my attention wandering just that little bit too often. I don't like all of AKR's episodes -- there's one that I outright dislike -- but she has a pretty good hit rate with me. This one just didn't click as much as it did for you and for most other fans.
DeleteAnd I'd completely forgotten about that comic! I have the full set of Friends Forever, so I'll have to refresh my memory some time. :)
And it not clicking with you is cool. You're never not mature in stating your opinions on episodes, Logan, and in a fanbase that does have it's fair share of young people, who are by their nature quick to judge and quick to type, that's not to be taken for granted.
DeleteI suppose the fact of there being few episodes with quite the same kind of energy as this one help to endear it to me more. I like my genre experiments, and while this isn't that, per say, it has a similar vibe of being different without being so to the point of feeling alien. In a series of 221 episodes (227 with the shorts and specials, 231 of you include the Movie; and all that doesn't count EqG), anything that marks episodes out as unique is a good thing.
I'm looking forward to revisiting Friends Forever sometime in the future. Like the series, I binged the comics to the point of early 2018 after doing so on the show, so I never quite got the chance to bask in them and enjoy them as their release pace the way I have been able to for the one released from that point since. I think Friends Forever might hold up better then much of the main series, given a lot of it has been retconned; certainly better if we omit the first 16 issues which were largely excellent (it all started to spiral downwards from Reflections, though it didn't truly start to lose favour until The Good, the Bad and the Ponies, from what I hear.
Some time in the far distant future, I may have to do some My Little Repeats posts for the comics as well! After all, I reviewed pretty much all of them (main series, micro series, Friends Forever and FIENDship) for several years, so I can compare pretty easily...
DeleteI didn't like this one, even though I was already a Rarity fan beforehand. I appreciated that how annoying she was ended up being something she was employing out of her own cleverness rather than something that just happened to work. Like you, I found the diamond dogs to be uninteresting and wasn't surprised they never made another appearance. They were just so flat, and the episode quickly ran out of anything to do with them. If there's one thing that stands out about this one, it's sheer repetition.
ReplyDeleteThe whack-a-mole scene of them trying to find the right burrow to go down ran on too long; the cycle of Rarity whining, the diamond dogs giving in, then steeling themselves against her again; the cookie-cutter graphics of them battling nameless lower-level soldiers. Half this episode was filler.
Twilight using Rarity's spell didn't bother me, insofar as I think it's reasonable Twilight would be capable of it, but I was surprised she hadn't researched it on her own and had Rarity teach it to her.
One thing i did like is the way Spike fashioned a bridle, and Twilight reacted mildly negatively to it. The show kind of lost the horse aspect to it as the seasons went on. Not that it always made sense. Like in "Winter Wrap Up," why was a saddle part of Twilight's planned outfit? Even in the pilot ep, wasn't a saddle part of one of the outfits Rarity wanted her to try? I have no idea what they expect to use a saddle for, but it's still cute. So this hit that nice "they still act like horses" button.
And the other thing I really liked was the way Spike got lost in his imaginings and nearly kissed Applejack, but when she broke him out of his reverie and called him Casanova, every one of them took it good-naturedly. Spike wasn't embarrassed by it at all.
Yeah, I've always been a little sad that the equinity got diluted almost out of existence after a few seasons. It was a nice extra touch and was a refreshing change from "humans in pony suits" as we mostly got later on. As with weather control and the like, though, fanfic tends to run with it a little more even now, which pleases me.
Delete