Sorry about the delay in getting here, folks! Last time, I was very much at the top end of the pack in my outright adoration of "TT123" – which I absolutely do not recant, by the way! This time, an episode I expect to like rather than love, despite its considerable quantity of Fluttershy. Let's see...
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| Me when I realise I've set this post's publish time completely wrong |
Written by Scott Sonneborn
19 Apr 2014
My original rating: 8/10 (=★★★★)
IMDb score: 7.5
Thoughts: Here we have another episode with a big dollop of "going along in a predictable fashion", ie the trading. However, the ep as a whole, while I like it a good deal, doesn't work as well for me as "TT123" did. I love the Applejack/Rarity stuff (though for me it's not shipping!) and I enjoy a fair bit of the Rainbow/Fluttershy subplot as well. The ending is nice, there's a fun mythological creature in the Orthros, the Traders Exchange looks great and Sylvain LeVasseur Portelance (the voice of Stellar Eclipse, who appeared via the Make-a-Wish Foundation) acts surprisingly well for a non-professional. Nice to see full-on Crystal Ponies in the background, too; those were apparently toned down in later seasons owing to the level of work required. On the downside, there's way too much acceptance (not least from Twilight!) of Fluttershy coming close to months of indentured servitude. That just doesn't seem very Equestrian. I also don't think this was one of Pinkie's greatest S4 moments, eg her terrorising of the foal with the broken quill. This is much better than Sonneborn's debut ("Somepony to Watch Over Me") but it has enough rough patches that I can't quite justify its four any more. As such, a top-end three it gets now. Still entertaining, no question. Just not a great.
Choice quote: Rarity: "How dare you let me get what I want? What kind of friend do you think I am?"
New rating: ★★★
Next up is "Inspiration Manifestation", which as I've mentioned before I can rarely remember anything much about. I therefore have no clue how I'll react now.
“Trade Ya!” - Production Changes
ReplyDeleteScott Sonneborn wrote this one. It is well-known publicly that this was produced as episode 418, not 422; Jim Miller clarified it got held back due to production difficulties. As the production numbers weren’t changed, this has led to many sources, websites and episode listings retaining its original placement, to the confusion of many viewers!
PREMISE
Outside of the Premise telling each subplot in its own chunk for clarity rather than chronologically, the only real difference is that Rainbow Dash trades away Fluttershy to a pony who needs her to watch their critters for six weeks while on holiday. Dash thus sacrifices the novel to get her back, and they go and trade onscreen for what Fluttershy wanted. Similarly, Rarity and Applejack's Gift of the Magi style realisation happens onscreen. Just unspecified details otherwise, though many are already specified (Applejack and Rarity's subplot is fully formed already). And the Rainbow Falls Traders Exchange, initially called the Equestrian Antiquities Exchange, wasn't specified to have never had a dispute - just that not many ponies, if any, would need a ruling.
Given the only real change here is still functionally similar, this episode certainly hit the ground running. No small feat for a story with this many moving parts!
OUTLINE
The outline is scarily accurate already. There's a couple of instances of scenes split in two, compared to the final episode, and the order of some scenes is shuffled around slightly as a result. Past that? Most notable thing is Fluttershy losing her bear call instead being her passing the vendor with the bird whistle she wants, but deciding to let Dash keep dragging her, saying she matters more (it was likely changed to losing it for better drama and to give a legit reason for getting rid of the Orthros). When that's your biggest difference, you know you've knocked it out of the park.
SCRIPT
For the most part, the changes throughout the script are just the usual assortment of tweaks to different-but-functionally identical lines. One of the few actual cuts is a brief bit of Twilight getting Pinkie to be quiet during the ruling scene at the end, and then letting her cheer once it's all over. The beast vendor's first lamp was discord-shaped in the first draft - only when it was switched to a normal one did we get Dash's reaction to the Discord-shaped lamps later on.
Finally, hilariously, the Daring Do collector and chalice vendor ponies were stallions until the final locked script. True story!
ANIMATIC & OTHER CHANGES
Because the episode is so fast-paced, with all the fast cuts, scene transitions and speedy dialogue (Pinkie’s buildup and Dash rattling off what they need especially), not as many time cuts were needed for a 35.1 page script as one might expect, though still a decent bunch. They were largely either filler lines, or extra context for moments that weren’t needed once animation was added.
* The main trim came from three Spike scenes at the comic book vendor being almost totally axed, reducing his subplot to a background detail as opposed to a proper D-plot. The first, of him and the vendor pony not letting the other examine their comic to verify its quality for fear of damaging it, started a standoff until one of them broke. The second scene had the two breaking to shield their comics from slobber from the passing Orthros - this was cut to a background detail of the two still staring each other down. The final scene of Spike saying they should just trust each other and go for it, and the vendor pony acting all dark and moody before agreeing nicely, only for both to rip the bag off to read their new comic - this got cut down to a few focused seconds of the two finally exchanging comics.
[continued below]
[continued from above]
Delete* As is normal for many Season 4 episodes, the actual journal entry - narrated by Rainbow Dash in her house as she writes while we see the Mane 7 all enjoying their new/rediscovered items (Pinkie reading with Twilight) - got cut for time.
* Rarity and Applejack had a few more direct lines of apology for their behaviour on the train before exchanging their items. The final episode cut this down to starting with the exchange - thankfully it’s still implied through subtext and the actors’ performance.
* The beast vendor’s lamp was originally broken by shadowed beasts inside his stall, plunging it into darkness, explaining why he needed another lamp.
* At some point between final script and recording, Rainbow Dash’s initial item - a pin she valued for getting from her friends one birthday, hence explaining the Daring Do collector’s “that’s not valuable to me” line - got swapped for the rusty horseshoe. Thereby turning a legit valuable choice on Dash’s part into a silly joke, for better or for worse.
Feedback was rather minimal on this one - just the usual handful of “can you plus this animation to make it clearer” requests, which are by and large perfectly reasonable (like Rainbow Dash seeing Fluttershy leaving with the Daring Do Collector). Spike’s subplot had been cut back to almost nothing but a few background shots for time, but it was emphasised a little more following some feedback, but without losing time. The Orthros design in the animatic was an early design that didn’t match the approved design (which lost the snake tail), but some clarification cleared that up.
The voice work of the Make-A-Wish child was generally approved, though the Hub felt one line was a little lacklustre - since no pickups could be gotten, they had to settle with it, though DHX promised to try and have the sound engineers tweak it a little. And Standards and Practises only had two real points to make - making sure Fluttershy used oven mitts in the food truck, and that the glasses at the chalice booth were not wine glasses or for alcoholic beverages.
Both Hasbro and The Hub thought this episode was magnificently storyboarded, especially balancing all the subplots and using visual signifiers to keep all the info clear for kids (additions like Rainbow Dash’s visual checklist of the items she needed to trade for, that sort of thing).
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Only the standard "journal entry scrapped for time" cut, and Spike's comic stare-down subplot getting trimmed to a background detail, keep this from being the least changed episode throughout production. It's very frustrating to see Spike get the short end of the stick again, given that could have been resolved had more cuts been made at the writing stage (only small ones are possible when boarding after dialogue has been recorded) - compared to the main Rainbow and Fluttershy plot, the Twilight/Pinkie and Rarity/Applejack subplots feel far less dense proportional to their screen time.
Still, it's a magnificently crafted episode all the same - for one of the few that could have honestly been an 11-minute episode (just the Fluttershy and Dash plot), and is just "The Mane 7 hang out and have their own low-key sitcom-style subplots”, it's endlessly pleasurable . Praise is deserved for achieving that, especially out of the gate as they did. If the issues with "Somepony to Watch Over Me" were the fault of Scott Sonneborn (and given the Story Editor is always an episode’s author as much as the credited writer, we can't be sure), he's redeemed himself with this episode.
Kind of a shame about the Spike plot, though I sort of get it. The payoff is totally worth it, but that buildup sounds like it would have been a bit much.
Delete"Trade Ya!" is really solid halftime entertainment. If you tend to gloss over my comments here normally, well, there's an abridged version for you.
ReplyDeleteFriendship Is Magic is a low-key slice-of-life show. Only about 20% of all episodes (estimating, don't hold me to that figure) can plausibly be defended as high stakes, status quo-shifting, intense adventure, or anything similar (Season Premieres and Finales, and the odd episode here and there). But even by those normal standards, this episode is insignificant and disposable. No new insight is given into any characters. No one does something unexpected or powerful. There isn't even off-kilter periphery pleasures, like genre subversions/mashing, or worldbuilding. This episode starts at "hangout episode" and stays there. Thus, it lives and dies on the entertainment factor - and this is its great triumph. Perhaps being freed of all those other concerns allowed them to craft something really fun, in a low-key amused grin sort of way.
More specifically, there is probably not an episode in the whole show that feels like a sitcom more then this, of giving all the characters individual stories (or grouping them up into different plots) and cutting between them all episode, with very little direction interaction or relationship between them past the setup. Happily, because this is a mode FiM never dabbled in again (kids' cartoons aimed this young tend to not, too much for young audiences to keep track of), this feels fresh here in a way it doesn't in actual sitcoms. There are some growing pains - the balance is skewed towards the Dash/Fluttershy plot so much that it's one of the few episodes that could actually work in 11 mins, just keeping that plot. The primary culprit is the AJ/Rarity plot - though the comedic chemistry between the two remains exquisite, it lacks a structural skeleton, setting itself up, then showing two small scenes through to remind us the plot exists before it's concluded in recap form on the train. The Twilight/Pinkie plot may be less enjoyable - Pinkie's behaviour is a bit too shrill - but it's structured fine. And the less said about Spike getting regulated to a background detail in yet another Season 4 episode, the better.
Really, since the Fluttershy/Dash plot takes half the screen time, and has actual meat to what happens (understandably, the rest are light on incident, there's not much fun for it once you set aside time for gags), it's the main takeaway. I find it really satisfying - the pace is quick and it taps into the viewer's fascination with solving a puzzle, with all the different items to be traded, and their bizarre nature. The chemistry is good too - Fluttershy is at ease with Dash due to their history, so the plot doesn't have to slow down to accommodate her normal attitude. There's not much else to say with the plot or indeed the episode, as will happen with an episode of virtually no stakes or consequences - you just enjoy it.
That it is a low-key hangout sitcom-structured episode does put a ceiling on how brilliant this can be, and it does fall short of that, due to small but noticeable problems in the two smaller subplots. Yet it's just really fun and comfy, and unsurprising, like a pair of well-worn slippers.
Perhaps I'm rating this higher then it deserves, but it's one I always look forward to returning to. When characters have been established and fleshed out as well as these have, you enjoy time spent in their company. Doing so stripped of most elements of the show's formula is a rare treat, and worth enjoying.
I hadn't really thought about it in concrete terms, but the idea of spending time in the Mane 6's company in non-formulaic scenes, really is one of the unexpected joys of the show.
DeleteThis one is an overall solid four for me.
It is, isn't it? It tends to produce many of its best episodes, at any rate. There's no denying that many a time, the show's formulaic nature does work against it somewhat, even if it is just as often adept as working around those flaws.
DeleteI never stated how I'd score "Trade Ya!", but about the same as you, a sturdy 4 out of 5, inching into greatness. At least on a personal level. Which is what matters, after all! Though I'll still concede the episode is properly "objectively" a little weaker then I'm ranking it.
I rather liked this one in the moment, but how readily Dash is willing to obligate Fluttershy for significant and time-consuming labor, and how it elicits little more than a shrug to anyone else, never sits right with me in hindsight. It's a fun episode that turns sour at the end, and unfortunately, the end is what will often leave the lasting impression. Without that, this would be a higher-end episode for me, but it offsets the good stuff for me to come out as a mid to high three stars.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how good the various set pieces are. Dividing up the story into multiple, self-contained scenes works a lot better than, say, each character telling their part of the story in Saddle Row and Rec.
ReplyDeleteBut what a seriously dumb moral at the end. Like, none of that makes any sense at all, it was a stupid way to finish things off and drags the episode down to middling territory for me, no more than a three.
I rewatched this one just now and it's much better than I remembered. All the setpieces work well and there's lots of fun throughout. I think I was a little disappointed by it at first because there's no terribly deep character work, but going in stripped of that expectation and just enjoying it for what it is, it's good fun.
ReplyDelete