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| AJ seems a bit oblivious here, but I suppose business is business... |
Written by Meghan McCarthy
18 Mar 2011
My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 8.2
The one with Rarity's pruney hooves.
Thoughts: Another episode popular with IMDb users, but this time I agree with them. I like Fluttershy and Rarity together, and the way they're written here really does work. Rarity is jealous of Fluttershy's success, but in the end can't stand to see her friend ridiculed and so unintentionally ruins Twilight's attempt to help. Fluttershy is desperate to avoid making her friend unhappy that she ('Shy) isn't making the most of her unexpected opportunity. I find this very satisfying characterisation on both counts, and it leads to an equally satisfying moral. Running through the ep is comic relief involving Pinkie at her Pinkie-est: the first Pinkie Promise, "Foreverrr!", that ridiculous mime, a truly scary bit of apple-eating. Meanwhile, Sparity is more to the fore than usual (that pincushion scene!), with a nice payoff late on when Spike quite reasonably gripes at Twilight about the latter revealing his (admittedly absurdly obvious) secret. Add in Photo Finish, who's not a character I'd want as a regular but who plays her part really well here. I suppose if I really wanted to quibble, I'd feel Flutters and Rarity might pick up on each other's less than convincing insistence that all was well – but that would have cut off the episode almost before it started, so I think it's a price worth paying. Barring that and one or two other tiny things, this episode is a delight all through. As such, it's getting my first five-star rating of the series!
Choice quote: Photo Finish: "We have the thing at the place."
New rating: ★★★★★
Next up is "Over a Barrel", which is going to be... interesting. Fandom opinions on this one range very widely indeed, so I can't satisfy all of you! Boringly enough, I don't recall either adoring or despising it. Again, though, it's been a long, long time.
You're right this is a really great episode. It's of a sort that I've appreciated more the more I've seen it. :)
ReplyDeleteSame here -- even if I liked it this time even more than I'd expected. I was truly staggered a while back when I read one of those "Every episode ranked" lists somewhere on Fimfiction and saw this ep well down in the bottom half. Tastes differ, of course, but even so...
DeleteI won't contest the rating, this is truly a top-tier Season 1 episode, even if it's not my fav (I do wonder to what degree it being a top-tier Fluttershy episode that did wonderfully by her inched the rating over the threshold, though :P)
ReplyDeleteIt has one of my favourite opening of the series too, and I can be frank and admit even in these early golden years, that a fair share of them could be fine but bland. But seeing the different ways the duo approach a day at the spa all while Rarity exposits the episode setup is pure joy. Past that, Photo Finish makes for a really fun character in her limited role (and who kind of makes some sense given her career and depending on finding the right talent to make a star and all that). Twilight and Pinkie are an absolute hoot, and even Spike gets treated well and ties into the rest of the episode really nicely (though I think the next episode 'Over a Barrel' uses him even better, the best to this point).
So yes, pretty stellar episode, and it's episodes like these that make me sad that by the time I arrived in the fandom even the gems of Season 1 weren't discussed much (on the understandable grounds of having being discussed and mined for fan work for years to that point, of course).
Unless something surprising happens on the rewatch, this won't be the last five-star episode of S1. There's one still to come that I think is a masterpiece. You can probably guess which one. :)
DeleteThe Fluttershy thing? It's a fair cop! It won't be the last episode that gets nudged one way or another by how it treats Best Pony. :D
It's not often that we get a Rarity and Fluttershy episode, but when we do the results are, for the most part, satisfying. It's funny when I see Rarity acting jealous of Fluttershy getting all the fame and attention, when it was 'her' idea in the first place for Fluttershy to model her outfits to begin with even though Fluttershy wasn't used to this sort of thing. Granted, Rarity didn't think Photo Finish would want to make Fluttershy a star and not Rarity per say, but that is beside the point. And Fluttershy, as per usual during this time, tries so hard to make her friend happy even though this goes way beyond her comfort zone and cannot find it in her heart to say 'no' without hurting any pony. Overall, this is a fun episode with plenty of moments the two share.
ReplyDeleteAs for the side plots, I admit the parts where Pinkie Pie makes sure Twilight keeps her promises to not reveal her friends' secrets gets a chuckle now and then. But, here's the thing about secrets: Nothing stays out of the loop forever and sooner or later folks are bound to figure things out. Whether it's how Fluttershy and Rarity feel about this 'Photo Finish' predicament or Spike's feelings towards Rarity, folks are bound to know. Although this episode is one of those moments where I feel Rarity's obliviousness over how Spike feels about her, that he's willing to be her personal pin cushion, is where some of my doubts about this 'Sparity' ordeal begin.
I'm not a massive fan of the fact that Sparity continues for 200+ episodes; I would have liked Spike to have grown out of it at some point. But here in S1, I think his immaturity is well in character.
DeleteThis is one I really like, and I don't know why it would be so unpopular as to appear way down that FiMFic list. It's full of nice character moments, too many to cite them all. This was the first episode I ever watched, and we didn't get Hub at the time, so I had to sneak off to another room and watch it while visiting my in-laws some time just before season 2. I'd seen enough about the show to convince me it was worth a try. Pinkie with her promise enforcement was a good introduction to her, and... well, pretty much everyone who appears in it plays so well to their character that it's a nice entry point to the series.
ReplyDeleteGiven how Spike reacted to his reverie in "Dog and Pony Show" (nearly accidentally kissing Applejack, which mostly amused her, but not being embarrassed by it at all), it was a strange about-face to have him self-conscious over it now.
I don't believe the person in question gave a reason for their low rating. I can't really think of why someone might outright dislike this one, unless perhaps they found Photo Finish unbearably irritating.
DeleteThis was also the first episode of Pony I ever watched, and it is probably in my top-10 of all time. For me, the main appeal of Pony always been the characters, and few other episodes represent this aspect of the show better. Everything comes from their characterization, including the conflict, the resolution, and the perfectly timed comedy. It makes for something that you can't really find on any other show, not exactly like this.
ReplyDeleteI still love it when pony goes big, with complex musical numbers, big action set pieces, or more broadly comedic episodes. But the essence of the show will always be a group of horses going to a spa, and the introvert accidentally poking her eye when imitating the way her friend makes promises.
Absolutely; this is a great character episode, which is probably a large part of why I like it so much.
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