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| But what have you done with the real conductor, Fluttershy...? |
Written by Amy Keating Rogers
7 Apr 2012
My original rating: N/A
IMDb score: 7.9
The one with alliteration. Lots of alliteration.
Thoughts: First things first: I find it pretty poor that three of Pinkie Pie's best friends can't be trusted to respect a valuable item Pinkie is responsible for. (Ironic that in "A Friend In Deed" it was Pinkie who disrespected another character's valuable possessions...) I'm not impressed at all, and even being played for laughs doesn't entirely overcome that. It's a real shame, as there's a lot to like in this episode. The whodunit is nicely written, with a fun Poirot tinge, and if you look very carefully you can pick up several clues yourself before Twilight reveals her findings. The Sherlock Holmes costumes are amusing, too. I like that Applejack, the only other baker in the Mane Six, is entirely innocent – though I'm told a deleted scene did have her guilty too. Of course, the Three Bakers do succumb to temptation with the other desserts. And then there are the three little homages to various filmic styles – all of them nicely produced and very amusing. We meet our first non-Gilda griffon, too. This would be quite a highly rated episode if only it weren't for Rainbow, Fluttershy and Rarity behaving so badly. I realise this may seem a bit petty, but it does leave a sour taste in my mouth (yes, I know the cynicism in "Ponyville Confidential" didn't. Go figure) and so I have to penalise it; the best I can do for it is a low-end three. It might even have been a two without so many fun touches.
Choice quote: Pinkie Pie: "Huh? Who turned out the Moon?"
New rating: ★★★ (just)
Next up is "A Canterlot Wedding, part 1", the very first episode I ever watched as it aired! I've always liked the S2 finale very much, so I'm hoping I still will.
This is maybe the most insidious episode to ever come out of MLP:FiM, because it took me years to realize just how shitty it was.
ReplyDeleteYeah, why can't Pinkie Pie's best friends be trusted around an item of great importance to her? Applejack doesn't get out of it just because her scene's deleted. >:B Friendship, my ass.
This is literally the definition of covering up a bad plot with bells and whistles. Because I love that you can see the clues before anyone finds them if you know where to look, and of course the wild accusation sequences are really fun, even if Mulia Mild is some kind of horrifying elder thing.
When it came out, I thought this was fun if forgettable. But anymore? I just hate it.
I may have been a little overly generous with this one. I was expecting to give it a two, but things like the fair whodunit scraped it across the line into three-star territory. As I did with S1, I'll reassess at the end of the season.
DeleteMind you, I'd watch this a thousand times before I voluntarily watched "What About Discord?" once. Actually, maybe that's why I've slowed down so much with these rewatches -- I want to delay the evil moment when I reach that ep for as long as possible...
Oh, there's definitely worse episodes, they just tend more toward being obviously bad, and all at once.
DeleteWhereas "What About Discord?" doesn't even make the bottom quartile of my list of Season Five episodes, listed from good at the top to bad at the bottom. I'll take a dull episode with the nugget of an interesting idea in it over some of the outright vile material that season churned out, to say nothing of the show at large.
DeleteIt's going to be interesting to see whether I do change my mind on "What About Discord?" If I had to rate that episode here and now, it would be a one-star ep for certain, so much do I dislike it. Indeed, it's got a good claim to be my least favourite episode of all 200+ in the series. That, of course, may change!
DeleteI think What About Discord is my least favourite of the whole lot too - I'd have to rewatch that godawful Season 9 cheerleading one to be sure - but it's remarkable how few episodes there were I truly disliked. L
DeleteThis one always felt faintly mean-spirited to me, but the imagine spots and Twilight's expression when Pinkie is doing the "lowly assistant" bit are wholly excellent.
(that rogue L was a phone-based typo, sorry!)
Delete(endlessly replying to myself - the total is either 222, if you count the two-parters as two episodes each and include Best Gift Ever, both of which need to happen to make Slice of Life 100 and Sparkle's Seven 200, or alternatively 206 (or 207 including BGE) if you count the two-parters as single episodes.)
DeleteHonestly last one, I promise!
DeleteSo, here's a thing. I was wondering what the halfway point was, and it turns out Scare Master is the first episode of the second half of the show's run by those numbers, which is later than I'd expected - for context the CMC already have their cutie marks, Princess Twilight lives in her castle, and we've already met Starlight, with exactly half of the existing episodes still to go.
- ...except I forgot about Rainbow Roadtrip, which I haven't seen described as being officially classed as an episode but I can't see why it wouldn't count when the staff say BGE is. So if we make the final total 223, pushing the actual halfway point forwards by half an episode into the middle of Scare Master, guess which one now becomes the first full episode of the second half?
Yup, it's What About Discord!
Has everyone forgotten about Non-compete Clause? 'Cause I'd watch the crappiest Discord episode twice to avoid watching the crappiest AJ and Dash episode!
Delete"Mon-Compete Clause" is terrible, but it does at least have the saving grace (for me) of the students. That probably still places it ahead of "What About Discord?" in my book, but we shall see when I finally get there.
DeleteHuh. I swear I'm not trying to be the resident contrarian, but again, I have practically the inverse reaction to an episode than you have.
ReplyDeleteI thought the caving-in-to-temptation thing was perfectly fine, especially as a storytelling device: the episode makes a point that overselling the deliciousness of the treats is what caused the lapse, almost as if the food is supernaturally good.
It's not as if the episode pretends it's a good thing. At least they do wrangle something workable out of it too. I'm not imagining kids looking at this and drawing the wrong morals out of it.
Frankly, I've seen this show trivialize far, far worse for far less admirable pay-off. Even A. K. Rogers' last effort did far worse by presenting repeated harassment for ulterior motives as ultimately a good thing. Snacking on special food and then apologizing for the gross lapse in temptation is incredibly tame by comparison.
Couple that with my own experiences towards the... irresistability of certain sweet delights, and I'm not feeling too harsh towards the (admittedly still poor) sneaky behaviour.
On another note, I'm a lot more amenable to an episode that teaches the value of deduction and evidence over emotionally biased accusations, and that does so while still having fun with the premise (Pinkie's imagine spots being the obvious highlight). It's a dynamic between Pinkie and Twilight that I much prefer, especially since it manages to poke fun at Pinkie's delusions along the way. (Though her eating the whole cake at the end was... well, that's not funny. Now that unironically "humorous" depiction of greedy behaviour is a sore spot for me).
That said, as far as showcasing the mystery genre goes, it does break some rules (e.g. the evidence for the three-way baker crimes isn't revealed to the audience until the same time as the actual accusations are, which isn't really fair play). Plus, "Rarity Investigates!" came along and blew that particular achievement out of the water. But for a first attempt, it's still a modest and fun enough time that I look forward to revisiting this one.
I'd put it as a high three. A perfectly fine, enjoyable episode with a fun gimmick and some good lessons.
the evidence for the three-way baker crimes isn't revealed to the audience until the same time as the actual accusations are
DeleteThere is a slight hint: when Pinkie is praising Donutopia, the reaction shot shows Mulia licking her lips, and when Pinkie is praising the mousse moose, the reaction shot shows Gustave salivating. The éclair reaction shot doesn't show Joe, but still.
I agree, falling victim to temptation isn't that bad a thing to have happen, and it certainly isn't the first time in the show someone failed to come through in a situation that was very important to someone else. Fluttershy not being able to contribute to the whirlwind even though she knew how important setting the record and impressing Spitfire was to Rainbow Dash? There are degrees, but that type of premise isn't a damning thing on its own.
DeleteI thought it was a fun enough middle-of-the-road episode. Really, the only thing that bugs me about it is how inconsistent they are about the distance between Ponyville and Canterlot. In this episode, it's an overnight train ride. In "A Canterlot Wedding, Part 1," it's a shorter train ride. In "The Best Night Ever," it's a couple hours' walk at most.
"Really, the only thing that bugs me about it is how inconsistent they are about the distance between Ponyville and Canterlot."
DeleteOh gosh, yes. This exactly. It wouldn't even be that hard a problem to fix: just have the destination be another town which could plausibly lie that far away.
Characters behaving badly. Enjoyable or irritating? It depends on how you do it.
ReplyDelete2.5-ish seems about right.
Enjoyable and unenjoyable, at various times.
Delete