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| "Hay, do you think leaving AJ out of the picture for an AJ episode is really okay, Logan?" |
Written by Amy Keating Rogers
21 Jan 2012
My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 8.5
The one with the stagecoach chase.
Thoughts: It's so hard for me to watch this episode without thinking of: a) this Friendship is Witchcraft ep, and b) Derpygate. And indeed, Derpy's appearance, speech and (temporary) naming were big deals, especially at the time. But "The Last Roundup" is, at heart, about none of that. It's a solid Applejack episode, and those are worth having. Mayor Mare doesn't cover herself in glory with her money obsession, but AJ's struggles to avoid questioning without actually lying are gold. No other character would have worked here. Cherry Jubilee is a nice guest character, and it allows that fun I Love Lucy homage in the cherry-sorting shed. There's quite a lot of actual action in this one, from the fence-jumping in the cold open to the train leap by Fluttershy and Rainbow much later on. We finally get to see what happens when somepony (apparently) breaks a Pinkie Promise – and it ain't pretty. It's not hard to work out why Applejack has run away, and I still wonder whether it's really in character for her to do that and to be so insistently stubborn – that was okay in "Applebuck Season" but I think we expected a bit more by mid-S2. I tend to come down on the "not really, AJ" side, which hurts the ep just a bit. Another minus point is Fluttershy's hideously sappy "hole in our hearts" line late on – indeed, so sappy that FiW didn't even bother to parody it but just included it verbatim. Still, "The Last Roundup" never gets boring, there's some fun humour and the moral is quite nice. So a three-star rating here, solid and decent but a notch short of being an actual champeen. Rather appropriate.
Choice quote: Pinkie Pie: "Raritycatchme!"
New rating: ★★★
Next up is "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", bringing us more AJ, the debut of Flim and Flam – and that song. I've always rather liked the ep, even though the FlimFlams aren't my favourites overall. Let's see.
Only three? This is still a five-star episode for me, the best Applejack ever was, I think. I mean, question whether it's in character for her to do what she did, they actually gave her nuance. Instead of being a flat stick in the mud whose only character traits were "works hard" and "can't lie", they let her maybe just maybe try to bend the rules to save face.
ReplyDeleteAnd then they spend the next eight years forgetting she was capable of doing things other than talking about how great Princess Twilight Sparkle is. <.<
Yes, only three -- although certainly nearer four than two. I know a lot of people adore this episode as you do, but it's never been more than "entertaining shading to very entertaining" for me. You've known me long enough not to expect common sense! :P
DeleteAJ being out of character? Not even a concern when I watch this. She's easily the best part for me, and that's coming up against some stiff competition ("Derpygate" aside, I love this characterization of Derpy as simultaneously super-sweet and super-clumsy).
ReplyDeleteNo, I'm more concerned with the behaviour of the rest of them, specifically in the second half.
Once they find AJ and it becomes clear AJ doesn't want to talk to them about some touchy issue, they show no respect for her decision at all. If anything, they simply bug the hell out of her until she coughs up an answer. Pinkie's "kumquat" scene was easily the lowest point.
There's a lot I like about the episode, especially AJ's understandable discomfort and bruised pride, but it's a textbook case of these friends being written as weirdly manipulative and pushy. Admittedly, it's nowhere near as bad as what Pinkie does to Cranky later on, but it's still not a good look for them.
I was fairly sure you wouldn't agree with me on this one! Not changing my rating, though. Stubborn, you see. :P
DeleteI do like Derpy here, but so many reviews of this episode take up half their space on her and I didn't think that was fair to AJ.
Actually, our ratings would be similar in this case, though we get there by different reasoning.
DeleteEverything else about this episode I like tremendously - such as the action, the comedy, AJ's behaviour and her rodeo connections, Derpy, Cherry Jubilee, and the returning western genre tropes.
That's enough to call it a good episode whenever I revisit Season Two.
I'm in a very similar boat to Impossible Numbers here; I remember it bugging me on first viewing that the rest of the Mane Six wouldn't take no for an answer.
DeleteI think this never bothered me because they were shown to be in the right in the end, to have drug the truth out into the open like the did. But I suppose, in the moment, it seems like foul behavior. Probably gonna say the same thing for A Friend in Need, because that's another I've always loved that I know Logan has always (relatively) hated. :B
DeleteYes, to a degree. In a sense, I suppose you could compare it to a similar episode like Green Isn't Your Color in that respect: if someone had just been honest from the beginning, a lot of unpleasantness would've been avoided.
DeleteFor me, though, the big difference is that there, Rarity and Fluttershy decided on their own to trust each other and come clean, so Twilight's near-violation of their private thoughts was explicitly treated as the wrong thing to do. Both sides have a point, and the issue of trust is taken seriously.
Whereas here, there's no point where AJ's secrecy is respected. Through methods like nagging her in roundabout ways (the factory), being harassed into agreeing to a confession (the "kumquat" scene), and chasing her out of town like a wanted criminal (the two carts scene), she ends up being forced to confess when Rainbow's tackle exposes the medals she can't now hide anymore.
And as someone who thinks a person's right to privacy is a serious matter, it flat-out didn't sit well with me.
It's odd now I think about it, because I do really dislike people pushing me to reveal things I'd rather keep private. Yet the Manes' behaviour in this episode still didn't rub me up the wrong way nearly as much as it did you. I can't say I have a particularly coherent explanation, but even thinking about it now I don't think I'd change the tone of my review as a result.
Delete@Present Perfect: As for "A Friend In Deed", that's an odd episode, and you're right that I dislike it -- but I'll get there soon enough so we'll see if I've softened towards it.
Maybe it's a difference between a theory and its practice? I sound like I hate this episode, but when I'm watching it, I do enjoy all the shenanigans as silly comedy entertainment (Pinkie's demonic "YOU PINKIE PROMISED!" is a highlight). It's just stopping to think about their behaviour where it mainly bugs the hell out of me.
DeleteBesides, an episode can do lots of other things well enough to compensate (or, if I'm being cynical, to distract).
I loved Derpy finally getting to speak, but I've always had some issue with how oblivious she seems to it. Endearingly accident-prone, sure, but a walking/flying disaster area is taking things a bit far. Part of the original controversy, with how she was voiced, was completely unintentional. I remember being uncomfortable with it and saying so, then having a RL developmentally disabled person say he was not in the least uncomfortable with it. That was the first time I ever found myself in the position of feeling offended on behalf of people who were not themselves offended. I never took her portrayal as an intentional slight, as it would be nuts to think they would do that, so I never got angry about it.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it was the first time (and unfortunately, the last tie for a while) that she got significant screen time, which was great. I do like this take on AJ, where she's uncomfortable lying but can convince herself that what she's saying isn't technically a lie, and I've written her that way a couple times. Though I didn't take this episode's conflict as AJ not willing to return because she couldn't lie about it. It's a fine shade of meaning, I suppose. She was too ashamed to admit she hadn't won, but she couldn't lie about it either, so she took herself out of the position of having to lie. At lest that's the way the usual analysis goes. I think it's even simpler: she was ashamed to admit she lost, before considering whether to lie even comes into the picture. She couldn't face them in her failure.
Mayor Mare was pretty presumptuous here, and yes, I liked the I Love Lucy nod.
Hm. I might need to reflect on this episode a bit - I could see it being one where I actually raise my score from what it originally was a few months back. For ages, I considered it one of the greats from the early seasons. When I re-reviewed it a bit back, I had largely similar sentiments to yourself, Logan, with an identical score, once we adjust for our different rating scales. The key point being slightly unsure as to whether Applejack went too far.
ReplyDeleteBut all the others bringing up whether her friends were too needlessly pushy, now I think about it, framed in a different context, it could very well have been horribly off-putting, and I'm half wondering if it isn't here now. Food for thought. But in the end, it doesn't put me off much. Basically I'm far more in your camp then Impossible Numbers', despite being one of the biggest Applejack advocates around. Also, you know, the Mane 5 were totally right in the end.
And Perfect Present does (as he often does) have a point: this is one of those occasions where Applejack is pushed outside her usual areas that gives nuance we all know is there, regarding the expectations she sets for herself in any manner of life and living up to them, given how much others depend on her. Yet very rarely does the show ever utilise that again. As stupid as the Background Pony meme is, I can understand why it came into being.
Props to the comment section for barely touching on Derpy; I'm so used to discussion of this episode being overwhelmed by that, that you all deserve kudos for giving it as much attention as its screentime within the episode deserved (I perhaps went too far, and didn't mention Derpy at all in my review).
Also... Logan finds a Fluttershy line too sappy?!? Giga gasp!
This is the last episode I watched before discovering bronies were a thing - at the time, the next one was never shown on UK television, and so I had to venture online to find a copy, and fell down the best rabbit hole ever.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I didn't notice Derpy in S1 at all, and her appearance here - I *think* it was the redone version without her name - made nary a ripple, beyond the novelty of a pony being an impulsive idiot and Rainbow Dash having to be the voice of reason rather than the culprit.
I was going to make a Green Isn't Your Color comparison here, but it's apparently already been done. Eh, I'm going to do it again anyway.
ReplyDeleteThe very S1 setup of one of our ponies being taken out of the regular environment and into another new world, plus the farcical (in a good way) situtaion from that episode that if everypony just fronted up and told the truth, things could have been resolved, is worth revisiting just because it gives so many opportunities for both comedy and worldbuilding. The twist from GIYC is great, though, with Twilight's increasing frustration at trying to keep a secret replaced with AJ's slightly desperate, self-cheating loopholes to convince herself she's managing to remain "honest", without having to admit she broke her initial promise to bring the cash home.
I can see the argument that the others could have just respected her enough to stay the heck out of it instead of pestering her to the brink, but I think it's more interesting to see it as an escalation of the central premise. Like, AJ is wrong to just run off and - as far as they know - abandon her family, which for anypony who knows her even remotely, is as big a red flag as you'll ever find. To right that wrong, the others need to put the niceties aside - not just to satisfy their curiosity or their urge to be right, but for AJ's sake and for the rest of the Apples (and the entire town, on a more pragmatic level), concerns which outweigh the still-valid but not as important need not to bully her or pry into her affairs when she's made it clear she wants to be left alone. I think everypony comes out of this well at the end, and I like how they got there. Also I want some fics about Rarity and Pinkie on the handcart (hoofcart?) on the long way home.
Plus, excellent action sequence. Plus plus, entirely baffling outhouse sequence. If I gave out stars this would be a high-scoring S2 episode for sure, and not just because it's about best pony (for one thing she's missing for a chunk of it).
Now hold on a minute! Just because AJ's clearly going about this the wrong way, that doesn't excuse the others' prying behaviour. If someone behaved this suddenly and dramatically in real life, there are far more mature, honest, and emotionally understandable (even drama-preserving) ways to handle it. Definitely not by aggressively confronting their defensiveness and annoying them with childish prattle until they do what you want.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, what is all this? Am I literally the only person who has a problem with this depicted attitude?
Am I literally the only person who has a problem with this depicted attitude?
DeleteNope. See CuldeeFell's comment.
I fully agree with Impossible Numbers that the Mane Six could have handled the situation a whole lot better. They never just straight up say to her "Applejack, you're not acting like yourself, and we're seriously worried about you", when clearly that would have been the right thing to do. It's shades of nuance rather than the whole episode being broken, and I do like the episode, but the kumquat scene is a particular lowlight for how not to behave around someone. (And the show never calls the Mane Six out for it or suggested they did anything wrong).
DeleteI feel I should say I do like the episode though. "How did you know it was my birthday?" and "Rarity catch me!" are both brilliant.
Darn, did I write like that yesterday? That's simply not on. Sorry about my outburst, Loganberry. It was an inexcusable slip of my standards.
DeleteHad a bad-tempered moment yesterday due to something else, and I went and vented where I shouldn't have. I certainly don't want to have a go at people over a simple difference of opinion.
So I'd like to retract my comment here. It was needlessly aggressive on my part. Next time, I'll put a lid on my temper, or at least not vent at people who didn't deserve it. I apologize for doing it on your blog too. That's not fair on you.
I wasn't in the least offended, so you certainly don't need to apologise. If you feel happier do so, then I certainly accept -- but I won't have any hard feelings either way. :)
DeleteI'd just like to point out that the conveyor belt gag went one better on the I Love Lucy version: It provided a reason for the belt to speed up!
ReplyDeleteFor me, 'The Last Roundup' is anything but a boring episode as there's plenty to go around. Whether it's that brief scene of Derpy causing havoc in this construction deal (And the controversy surrounding her voice) or the 'I Love Lucy' reference (Though before I even knew about that, I thought of 'Drake & Josh' which deployed the same act but with sushi) or even the 'Broken Pinkie Promise' bit... It's all fun and great. Though I think for me, while I wanted to understand how Applejack felt about staying in that one town trying to make up for not getting the blue ribbons or the money needed to help the Mayor, it seemed the actions Applejack took seemed a bit out of character. Like it seemed she would just abandon her own family just because she couldn't keep a promise and that stubbornness of hers is why sometimes it's almost hard to understand a lass who refuses to listen. Not to say this was a 'bad' episode by any means, quite the opposite.
ReplyDeleteFor me it was one of those 'fairly decent' episodes that are still memorable for moments that either fit with the plot or not at all but are still fun, at least for me.