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| Big Princess is watching you |
S4E05: "Flight to the Finish"
Written by Ed Valentine
14 Dec 2013
My original rating: 7.5/10 (=★★★)
IMDb score: 8.5
Thoughts:
Like Corey Powell, Ed Valentine never did better than a Scootaloo-tastic debut episode. This one really is great. The framing device is fun, though at this point much of the fandom thought the Equestria Games arc was going to be S4's big deal. Whoops. Anyway, the CMC and particularly Scoot are superb in this, and I especially like the little character touches in their interactions (eg Sweetie is less stubborn than AB in the station confrontation scene). Rainbow Dash makes an amusing "professional" coach and even Ms Harshwhinny is less irritating than I once thought her. But this is Scootaloo's episode, albeit partly due to Diamond Tiara at her very worst. We don't quite get an answer to "Will Scoot fly?" though Dash's look away when she says, "Maybe you'll fly some day" does suggest she doesn't think it likely. But this was as close as the series ever got to directly addressing her possible disability, and I think it did it in a satisfying way. On top of that, we get a very good song, probably high in the second rank. Point of interest: my old review notes that this was where Claire Corlett started singing for Sweetie Belle (Michelle Creber had done so early on). Anyway, I need to right a wrong from 2013. Last MLR I bumped an episode down a star. This time I'm going the other way. This is a really good episode and a very clear four.
Choice quote: Scootaloo: "Of course I need you! Without you two, who's gonna hold up the hoop?" [Ouch.]
New rating: ★★★★
Next up is "Power Ponies". I was not a big fan of that one first time round, but I've wondered for a while whether I might be willing to reassess. Only one way to find out!
I remember at the time thinking: this is the episode where they're finally going to address whether or not Scootaloo will fly. And the answer at the end was "we still don't really know". Even if it's subtly implied one way or another, I still found that conclusion unsatisfying. The episode is otherwise very good. The song is one of the highlights.
ReplyDeleteIn hindsight, it set expectations for reveals of literally every major plot and character consideration the fandom ever had about this dumb show. "We refuse to provide an answer" unless it's randomly giving Scootaloo shitty parents. :B
Delete@Oilyvalves: I've gone back and forth on the issue a number of times from 2013 onwards, and there's certainly a good case for your side of the argument. Now that we know we never did get a definite answer, though, I've made my peace with it.
DeleteIt struck me just now that one interesting way of doing a reveal without making a whole episode about it would have been to have Scootaloo in the background of a hospital scene, the way they did with Derpy in "Where the Apple Lies". Whether that would have worked, I don't know.
@Present Perfect: That's what fanfic is for!
This isn't among my favorites, but it is one I rather liked. Maybe i was just out of touch with the fandom at large, but I never felt like the Equestria Games were going to be the huge thing of the season, and I liked the episodes that revolved around it more than most people seemed to. I kind of like Ms. Harshwhinny, but hen my headcanon of her is someone who's got a gruff exterior and gets annoyed easily, but who has a heart of gold underneath it all. I think her exuberation at seeing the CMCs' final performance speaks to that, and the one time I used her as a major character, I wrote her that way.
ReplyDeleteI too would have liked a more definitive statement of whether Scootaloo was disabled, and in this case, outright saying so wouldn't be something too dark for the target audience, but I do think they subtly answered the question by not having her fly either time she was shown older (both artificially and naturally).
Not sure whether I'd give this one a high three or a low four, but I'm pretty close to your rating.
Yeah, I'd inferred by the end that she really wasn't ever going to fly. I think I'm very slightly more positive than you (I now reckon this is a middling four) but there's not a huge amount in it, as you say.
Delete[Going with script changes for this one before the usual "what do I think of the episode?" comment. This is arguably more fun to post!]
ReplyDeleteEven compared to last week, the changes in this one are minimal. Most notable in a different original focus - in the Premise, Rainbow Dash was not a coach for everypony, but instead volunteers to specifically coach the CMC (at this point, their routine is clumsy, though Scoots thinks it's a winner). But Dash instills an "tough love" approach towards Scootaloo that's much harsher than that on the CMC, which only leads to more friction as the young pegasus tries to curry up to her, only to be chided for slacking off. This leads to her staying behind, and Dash flying back (without the rest of the CMC) to explain she was pushing Scootaloo because she knows the filly can do it.
So, very different thematic focus there, being an 'tough love' approach that seems kind of sketchy, so I'm glad they changed it.
By the outline and scripts, it was much closer to the final episode. Unlike, say, Castle Mane-ia, dialogue actually did change notably with each script, but the point was always the same. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were shown watching everything the CMC did, and popping by for extra probing remarks not in the final episode. There was also a lot more emphasis on Dash once carrying the flag for Cloudsdale (it has an actual flashback, and was alluded to many times throughout, including DT mentioning it as a 'reason' why Dash wanted the CMC to go back to the first routine, as without Scoots flying her record would be safe: Diamond Tiara's words, not mine). The professionalism gag also played out somewhat differently, with a lot more inner VO for Dash. Other fun differences - like Scoots training to fly by being suspended on rope held by the other two - aren't worth recounting. Though additional scenes like a chat in a locker room were also cut and hand-waved by just cutting to the CMC training more too. And even by the locked script, it still had plenty of little bits that probably got trimmed for time at the animatic stage, given it was 36 pages long.
Oh, and the song's specific lyrics and depicted scenes remained somewhat different through to locked script, but it's perfectly normal for these to get reworked once Daniel Ingram does his magic. Though the reprise included Dash alongside the CMC at one point.
A pretty positive script production, all in all! After the shaky focus of the premise, the rest of the changes are mostly streamlining and focusing - I'd wager the de-emphasis of the Mean Girls after planting the first seeds of doubt was not just to keep the focus on Scootaloo, but also because her self-doubt would seem thematically weaker if we get constant reminders of the source of said doubt. Ditto for not overdoing the "living up to Dash" aspect that while a fundamental point of Scootaloo's character, shouldn't be overemphasised. The professionalism gag certainly got stronger with the late-game payoff in Ms. Harshwhinny letting it all out, for starters.
But all the little changes with each draft certainly speak to a conscious effort by Ed Valentine and Meghan McCarthy to get it right, or as right as they could, and for that, I applaud them. Though the song remains the episode's best part, so fair play to Daniel Ingram too.
Okay, I'm gonna start looking forward to these comments. :D You're right, they're great!
DeleteI wonder if that "Dash's record would stay in place" thing was kept around to become Wind Rider's motive in Rarity Investigates. Which, y'know, good on them for not turning Rainbow Dash into a villain there. :B
I gotta ask, how do you know about all these script changes, production changes, etc? I've seen you provide this fascinating info for several episodes, and I just wonder what your source is.
DeleteStraight from the pony's (heh) mouth - it's the raw Premise, Outline and script documents per episode that originated from the 2019 leaks right around the time the show finished. Someone I know passed onto me a condensed version that only includes the text documents (the actual leak is gigantic due to various animation assets and video/audio files). It also has feedback emails on the animatics (from Hasbro, the Hub and Standards & Practises to DHX), which are another great asset of info for cuts and changes, as well as on what people actually think about the episode and aspects - they invariably open with praise and sometimes pause to acclaim specific moments they adored. So the people involved, at least through S4 (I've largely only looked at S2 and S4 animatic notes), knew they had something special. Compared to the other shows Hasbro was producing at the time, no context!
DeleteAh, Perfect Present, sorry these posts can be a bit of a ramble and unfocused. Changes are not an easy thing to summarise here, as it involves me going through the docs and writing them down myself, and then condensing them to blogger's character count here. To clarify: the "Dash wants her brilliant old routine to remain uncontested" thing was just the reverse psychology knives Diamond Tiara threw out in passing after Dash had encouraged the CMC to go back to their first routine. There's no indication there's any record of it anyway - it's the sort of logic only kids of the CMC's age would believe.
Some time back I went through all the Premises, Outlines and Scripts for S5, and… they paint a picture of a chaotic season to produce, as several there change vastly through production!
"Brotherhooves Social" went through 4 different drafts of Big Mac being Twilight's new guard/one of Twilight's new guard, before becoming a "Big Mac and Apple Bloom train for the Social race, bu sadly lose to the other sister duos that practised extra hard as AJ's absence gave them a chance" episode, and THEN gaining the drag aspect.
"Make New Friends But Keep Discord" was far more sincere in its Premise, being about Discord's attempts to find a +1 (going through characters wanting it for selfish reasons, like Diamond Tiara and a Diamond Dog), before he decided not to go at all, not wanting to look a fool alone, only for the Mane 6 o convince him that making more friends sometimes means putting yourself out here. Then it became the episode we know, albeit with Treehugger being a laidback Martha Stewart soccer mom type at first.
"Party Pooped"'s Premise had no yaks at first, and was about Pinkie trying to make the best party for an anniversary of them becoming friends or something. Still had her arc from the final episode.
"Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?"'s Premise had no self-guilt aspect, and was more about Luna admitting she needed the Mane 6's help to defeat the dream monster, which was a Baku here and unrelated to Luna.
"The Cutie Re-Mark" - This one was clearly a nightmare, as the sequence of events changes with every draft - some involve Twilight trying to right things in the past as the time spell de-ages her back to a unicorn and beyond while Starlight and the Mane 5 buy time against resurrected villain threats in the present - others had the characters constantly in the present trying to source the time scroll from the shuffling resurrected villains… the episode never settled on a direction, and Starlight's 'backstory' was a very late addition.
Those are the most severe examples (well, Slice of Life, but we know all about that one), and they largely became the episode we know by the Outline (the Premises are mostly the minutes from the Season retreat meetings). They point to at least some people getting cold feet about earnest stories and retreating to more comedy, more often then not.
Finally, a great episode again!
ReplyDeleteWhile not as brilliant as "Sleepless in Ponyville", the obvious forbearer to this episode, this is the best episode since then, a while year and six days later (or 53 weeks). The back half of Season Three was very shaky, and Season 4 had quite a rocky start too. There were some really good episodes in there - "Wonderbolts Academy", obviously and "Just for Sidekicks" ages quite well - but otherwise they ranged from good, to decent, to weak, to controversial status quo changers whose negative effects on the show cannot be overstated.
Erm, yes. Anyway, I was overjoyed to get to this one, and by and large my take didn't change (though it hasn't been that long since I'd last seen it). "Flight to the Finish" remains the best part, of course, and probably the thing that inches the episode into great territory, because otherwise the script is very solid, quality workmanship that doesn't have a lot to push it over the top. I won't compare it to "Sleepless in Ponyville", as it's marginally lesser in most ways so that would be just unfair. After 4 decent-to-bad-episode, best to not look a great gift pony in the mouth.
Good luck showing me the door, it's hard to make someghost you can't physically touch leave.
The episode takes a little time to get going, what with a protracted first act setup, though that's part of the fun. One could also argue that it feels regressive for Diamond Tiara to stoop to such low-handed manipulation, given in Season 2 she was shown to have quite a business-savvy side in "Family Appreciation Day" and "Ponyville Confidential". But the specific levels of her character had fluctuated back-and-forth across her four prior starring roles enough that I can buy it (though it's easy to read Silver Spoon's "But we already called them Blank Flanks!" as an open admission by Meghan McCarthy, who wrote "Call of the Cutie", that the characters were very limited in their use without diverging).
Contrary to other people, I never thought this episode was setting up or proposing some big Equestria Games seasonal arc - between its setup episode last season and this one that further alludes to it coming, it always struck me as the Grand Galloping Gala 2.0 in terms of the show's focus on it. Of course, the actual episode proved to have little interest in the event itself, but that's another story. But I suppose I'm similar to Pascoite here on the matter.
Oh, and I don't particularly mind the show not having a definitive answer of whether Scootaloo will ever fly, here at least.
As mentioned in my other post, a lot of those little character touches - Dash's professionalism gag, the layers of how the rest of the CMC act - do elevate this script greatly. But that's really all I have to say - it's a lower-tier great episode, but a great episode nonetheless. Doubtless it feels more so given it had to pull Season 4 up from such a stumble of a start. But it gets this ghost's thumb of approval!
[Technically Claire Corlett sung for Sweetie Belle's "Bucket of Oats" song in "Sleepless in Ponyville", but that wasn't a proper song, so the official statements on her taking over singing duties here remain correct.
For me this is only the best since "Magical Mystery Cure", but I'm well aware we're not going to see eye to eye on that one! ;D
DeleteBut you know, I don't actually have much else where I differ from you. "Lower-tier great" is a pretty nice way of putting it. Happily it won't (though I suppose I shouldn't anticipate myself!) be the best episode S4 has to offer.