My Little Devotional #133: “Bending the Rules”

Tags

Applejack, Bible, Big Macintosh, Christian Life, Christianity, conscience, deception, devotional, fandom, God, Granny Smith, honesty, inspirational, integrity, Jesus, justification, lies, motivational, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, New Testament, Old Testament, rationalization, self-deception, tact, truth, Where the Apple Lies

Inspiration for Today’s Devotional: “Where the Apple Lies”

In my college days, when I was more prone to starting arguments over Christianity, one of the big complaints I heard from non-Christians about my faith was the claim that the Bible contradicts itself. And, admittedly, I can see how that would be an issue in certain places. Jesus Himself addressed it in the New Testament when referring to the case in which David and his followers ate the “showbread”, bread that could only be eaten by the priestly class according to the Mosaic Law, and yet that was never counted as a sin against him (Mark 2:25-26). Yet there are a lot of other heavier examples than that one.

The old Mosaic Law clearly stated that killing was prohibited. It was one of the Ten Commandments that all of the Israelite community heard and wasn’t just handed down to Moses, for that matter (Exodus 20:13). And yet, not long after that, the Israelites waged a God-ordered military campaign against the resident tribes in the land of Canaan. The Israelites were also ordered not to intermarry with any of the Moabites, who were not only often regarded as perpetual enemies but also were feared for turning the hearts of Israel away from worship of God toward pagan gods (1 Kings 11:1-2), and yet King David’s great-grandmother was Ruth the Moabite and actually has a book of the Bible devoted to her. The Mosaic Law had prescriptions against defrauding and cheating with an emphasis on being honest in dealing with others (Leviticus 19:11, 13, 35-36), and yet the nation of Israel’s founding started with Jacob cheating his brother out of his father’s blessing (Genesis 27). And there’s no question that the Sacrifice of Lord Jesus Christ seemed to nullify some parts of the old Mosaic Law (we no longer stone people for doing work on the Sabbath, after all) while some parts remained completely intact (you still aren’t allowed to steal; Sacrifice of Lord Jesus or not).

What all of this gives a sense of is, in spite of the claims of objectivity, that morality according to the Bible is nothing more than whatever is relative: whatever gets the “right” party what they want at the time. The rules only apply whenever its convenient. This is certainly the impression that many non-Christians receive, and what those who are against religion in general claim Christianity is guilty of the same as all other major world religions. If nothing else, one can make the claim that there are no “hard rules” when it comes to Christianity. That everything is ultimately based on a standard at the time. And if that’s the case, is what we call “sin” permissible every once in a while? Is sin even something concrete and objective to begin with? Is there really anything that can be considered definitively evil?

The fact of the matter is I don’t know what the answer is to all of this. I struggle with it every once in a while myself, and when other Christians have tried to “explain” the heavier portions I’ve been left either unsatisfied with the answers or even angry with them. I could argue that no system is absolute all the time, and that if people will criticize religion for it then human secular institutions are far more guilty. After all, most countries on Earth forbid murder for any reason yet they definitely have militaries and police forces that can do so whenever they need to. Neither does any country have a totally blameless past even if they laud themselves now. The United States, for example, prides itself in the modern day as being an example of freedom and liberty, and yet it spent decades instituting laws that denied its own citizens full citizenship and freedom, and enacted policies of murder of the native inhabitants of North America and theft of their land. That means that there are two principles that apply to human society and history regardless of which religion (or lack thereof) that you endorse: (1) there are some times people have to do certain things even if they never would normally do so or if they had no other choice; and (2) just because a society or people are where they are today as a result of doing something genuinely evil does not make that past act morally right.

This devotional, however, focuses on the former case in regards to individuals: are there times when it is “ok to sin”? Applying the case of killing to an individual, we can all agree that murder is morally wrong, but we would be excused if we were trying to defend ourselves from someone seeking our own life and had no other choice. Yet what about in smaller situations, like in this episode?

Applejack made a deal that she shouldn’t have as she had no authority to make it, but when it looked like it might hurt her family business she tried telling a “little white lie” to hopefully get out of it. Obviously, Applejack was trying to cover up her own mistake, which might not be too acceptable; but she was also trying to keep from inadvertently hurting her family’s business relationship, which is more of a gray area. When her own mistake could lead (unjustly) to her grandmother’s reputation being hurt by telling the truth, what should she do then?

In the same vein, what about when we want to tell lies to avoid upsetting people, such as telling them the dinner they worked hard making for us tastes horrible or honestly telling them how they look when they’re sick in the hospital? And surely if someone was a government agent who had been captured by a hostile nation and was being interrogated, it would make sense to lie to protect one’s own nation and people. Or think to places like Nazi Germany where a citizen might be hiding a political refugee, perhaps even saving their lives, in their homes, and a corrupt government comes to their house demanding to know if they are hiding someone. Surely we would say it would be idiocy or even immorality to not lie in that situation. Is it acceptable to sometimes deceive via lying if the truth could lead to disastrous consequences?

I’m not going to pretend that I know what to say for all situations. This isn’t something that can be answered with an umbrella statement. Yet to me what everything ultimately boils down to, and what Jesus Himself seemed to indicate, was what’s on the inside. Motive, spirit, and intent. It was keeping with the spirit of the Mosaic Law that Jesus emphasized, as it is impossible for mankind to keep the Law perfectly to begin with anyway. In doing so, in some cases He lowered the standards set by the Law (John 8:7) while in other cases He made them far stricter (Matthew 5:27-28); yet at all times it ultimately came to what was the spirit of man in committing the deeds. If I tell a lie, is it because I don’t want to hurt someone or because I want to protect myself? If I cause another harm, whether mentally or physically, is it because it was pain that was needed to unsettle them from where they were or was it out of spite, anger, vengeance, or a desire to see them suffer? If I’m going to engage in an act of civil disobedience, is it because I want to draw attention to a greater crime that needs to be addressed or is it because I want to use it as an excuse for lawlessness to sate my own personal anger?

Yet even then, it’s important to always note that sin isn’t sin simply because some stone tablets say so. Sin is what it is because it’s destructive and brings death and misery to those who practice it and end up on the receiving end of it. God’s commands and instructions aren’t just to give us special hoops to jump through but because things that are prohibited are almost always genuinely bad. We can probably always find an “exception” to most crimes (i.e. stealing might be wrong; but if you have to either starve to death or steal a piece of food to save yourself it might be possibly overlooked that one time, especially if restitution is made later), but the reason the rule is in place is because in the far majority of cases it’s a genuine crime, and in the small set of cases in which it might not be it’s dangerously easy for a potential transgressor to fool themselves into thinking it’s for a good cause rather than their own selfish desires. As said in earlier devotionals, the key is always to be honest with yourself and strive for a pure heart and a clean conscience. When your primary motivation is to love and to serve God and others wholeheartedly and selflessly, then that motive should help guide you toward making the right choices.

For that reason, devotional life can never be discounted. Reading what God’s Word says about a certain situation and praying over a course of action are both good ways to make sure that we’re always treading the right road and that we do indeed have the best motives. So can being accountable to someone else. As Proverbs says, “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” (14:12). Most translations add “to a man”, and to me that illustrates that it’s very easy to talk ourselves into something that ends up appearing perfectly good, but once we talk about it to someone else the truth becomes clear. It’s yet another reason why the true essence of Christianity lies in the community and not the individual.

Suggested Prayer: “Lord God, thank you for the instruction found in your Word, which guides us in truth even when we are tempted to rationalize or reason away our actions. Help me to always strive to live in harmony with it and to place you and your Kingdom first in all of my actions and deeds, and thereby maintain a clean conscience and keep from sinning against you and others. Please help me to pursue accountability for my own actions as well so that I can keep from deceiving myself into committing transgressions and selfishness. Lastly, as far as I am able, please help me to live an honest and truthful life with you, with others, and with myself. Gratefully in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

My Little Devotional #130: “Trust Me”

Tags

acceptance, Applejack, backstabbing, betrayal, Bible, Christian Life, Christianity, devotional, faith, fandom, Fluttershy, Gladmane, God, inspirational, Jesus, motivational, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, New Testament, Old Testament, secrets, trust, Viva Las Pegasus

Inspiration for Today’s Devotional: “Viva Las Pegasus”

Most of this episode centers around the owner of a resort in Las Pegasus named Gladmane who has some of the most talented performers in Equestria working under him, although each one is talented enough to move onto bigger and better things if they want. On the surface, it seems that they stay purely out of loyalty, as Gladmane prides himself on being everyone’s “friend” and keeping them happy. Yet it turns out as the episode progresses that all is a farce. In truth, he keeps the performers poisoned against each other and constantly fighting so that they won’t ever pair up long enough to leave him for better deals or greater success. Yet because he acts so friendly and concerned all the time, no one ever suspects anything. They assume he has their best interest at heart the entire time, when in reality he was taking their trust and faith in him and violating it.

One of the greatest sins that can be committed, not only in terms of damage it does externally but also internally, emotionally, and spiritually, is betrayal. Taking someone’s complete trust and then purposely and willfully violating it completely. It’s such a terrible crime that when Dante wrote the “Inferno” he made it the worst possible sin in Hell…one Satan himself is guilty of. And as anyone who has ever suffered betrayal in one form or another knows, what it leaves behind is terrible. A more recent example in history is the people who sunk their life savings into Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme and will now never see a fraction of that money back, nor will any amount of time he spends in prison undo it. Debatably, such a crime does far worse damage than theft, burglary, or property damage, even though those crimes usually carry stiffer penalties.

Betrayal is a crime against trust. We all know that we take a chance when we trust people with anything. Some risks are small and some are high, and how much we trust someone with is a measure of faith we put into other people. How badly that trust is violated hurts our faith in others that much worse. It’s likely that those victims of Madoff will never trust anyone with a single dollar of theirs again, even if a different investor has a good chance of recuperating at least some of their losses. Nor are they likely to trust anyone else asking for money, such as a charitable organization that fulfills a genuine need or a church asking for a tithe. In that sense, the wound of betrayal continues to linger on and impacts others downstream.

While many of us may be lucky enough to have not been a victim of a loss of retirement or savings, chances are all of us have had to deal with betrayal before. Some of us have been have had it come from someone we genuinely trusted and perhaps even loved. And it’s likely to have impacted how we regard others in the future and how we treat them. The emotional wound that it leaves behind is terrible, because it doesn’t easily heal. Having exposed ourselves to the chance of being hurt so badly before, it is unlikely after feeling that pain that we’ll ever want to expose ourselves again. It can lead us to locking other people out, keeping them at arm’s length, or simply shunning the company of others. It can also lead to warping our perspective of humanity rather badly.

But the worst impact of all is how it effects us in our relationship with God.

A good part of Christianity is based on faith and trust in God. It’s the ultimate foundation for our faith, right back in the Old Testament with the patriarch Abraham, (“Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” Genesis 15:6) and stemming all the way to the Apostle Paul (“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9). In between, from Moses to Joshua to Samuel to Daniel to Solomon to Mary to Jesus Himself and with everyone else who came before and after them, it was all about acts of faith and trust in God. But if we’ve been betrayed in the past, we’re likely not to have much trust in others; including God. And if we’ve been betrayed by a different religion or even a “Christian” Church, then that much more less so because that’s what we associated God with.

On a personal note, I know someone who’s suffered most of their life with feelings of distrust toward others. They feared that they can never expose the truth about themselves and certain things they’ve done because no one would ever look at them the same way. Yet this dishonesty, both with themselves and others, did nothing to help anything. By thinking they couldn’t expose it to others, they ended up thinking that a part of them was evil and unlovable…both to others and to God. And that came out in a brutal way when they finally did confess, and it almost ended up disastrously. And that’s bad any way you look at it.

As Christians, it’s not only important to recognize God is love (1 John 4:8), but to also accept it. If we fail to do so, if we see God as only a judge and someone “out to get us”, we’ll never fully trust God to forgive us of our sins; much less be with us in difficulty or in whatever he calls us to do. And if we don’t trust God to be with us to lead us and guide us in times of trouble, and we don’t trust that God loves us, then we won’t act from that perspective and do anything for the Kingdom of God, because we feel we’ll be “on our own” everywhere we go.

While it’s important to be careful about whom we choose to trust, we can’t go through life never trusting anyone. As I mentioned in earlier devotionals, humans are social creatures. We need relationships to live: both with God and with others. Anything less is failing to live as a human and sentencing us to a miserable life. But if our trust is violated, or we never had much trust in others to begin with, how do we learn to trust other people?

That’s not an easy answer, especially to someone who has had their trust violated. It might require psychiatric help or counselling, or facing up to a lot of painful things. I have no universal answer because all people are unique. Yet from my perspective, the biggest thing I can encourage is we need to take a chance to at least look for someone to trust. When one is emotionally wounded, the only way to ever be cured is to risk getting hurt again, unfortunately. We have to find someone we are willing to take a chance on trusting. (That’s also why I suggest a professional, because they, at least, are required by law to keep your secrets or they can’t practice.) Once we’ve experienced that we can trust someone with who we are, and all of what we are, we can accept that others, including God, will do the same.

As uneasy, uncomfortable, and fearful as this might be, I strongly urge anyone wrestling with this trust issue to do so. Don’t be like the person I knew and spend years of your life needlessly living in fear of what will happen if people know the “real you”. Remember, God already knows the real you and accepts you completely (Jeremiah 1:5).

Suggested Prayer: “Lord God, thank you that you have promised to never leave me or forsake me, and that this saying is trustworthy even in the darkest of times. If I am having trouble accepting this, or having trouble placing my trust in others, especially if I am still hurting from an earlier betrayal, please help me to open my heart to others once again and to seek the help I need to open up once again. In doing so, I will be better able to minister to others and fulfill the Kingdom of God. Gratefully in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

 

My Little Devotional #128: “Toil and Trouble”

Tags

Applejack, Bible, Buckball Season, Christian Life, Christianity, devotional, doubt, drudgery, fandom, fear, Fluttershy, God, grace, inspirational, Jesus, mercy, merit, motivational, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, New Testament, Old Testament, Pinkie Pie, pressure, Rainbow Dash, salvation, sanctification, toil, works

Inspiration for Today’s Devotional: “Buckball Season”

In this episode, when Applejack and Rainbow Dash find a new sport to get competitive about, they get a rather tall shock on seeing their friends Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy are natural pros at it, and decide to recruit them for the Ponyville team in a game against Appleloosa. Yet though Pinkie and Fluttershy have a natural love of the game, it isn’t long before Applejack and Rainbow are putting them through the wringer on demanding practice sessions and pressuring them to win for Ponyville. The game goes from being fun to nerve-wracking and miserable from pressure to succeed, and causes both to slip up repeatedly before it finally nearly drives them to quit the team all together rather than have to deal with the demands placed on them. It’s not until Applejack and Rainbow ease back on their approach and focus more on getting Pinkie and Fluttershy to enjoy themselves that they’re able to play at their best again.

There’s a folk saying that if you do what you love for a living, you’ll never work a day in your life. I think that’s one of those proverbs that’s more empty wind than anything meaningful. To me, following that advice is a quick way to learn to hate doing what you love.

From academics to performances to hobbies to actual jobs, there are a lot of things in this world that people can have natural talents for and/or have to work at in order to be good or the best at. To some people getting that good is impossible, while to others who are “naturals” comes a love of both the activity and the challenge associated with it, as that’s “part of the fun”. I’m an amateur writer myself. Give me a subject and I can usually write a short story of it lickety-split, and even if I can’t I love the creative process of coming up with something for it. But I can’t draw for the life of me, and I’m astonished at people who can do that at the drop of a hat. There’s also sports, public speaking, leadership roles, cleaning, community organizing, singing…all sorts of things.

For the Christian, probably the biggest one is one’s own ministry or personal way of serving God; how they walk with him and promote the Kingdom in their daily lives. Often this one is a continual challenge, with finding new ways to minister and better ways to connect with people, to say nothing of all the need in the world there is for the Gospel and for other forms of assistance. Yet this sort of work, along with any other aptitude, hobby, or proficiency a person might possess, can still be vastly rewarding even in its challenge when it’s the right personality for the right job.

Yet often a problem that occurs is the same as that presented in this episode: it stops “being fun”; or rewarding, effective, stimulating, or any of a million other things that take something we like and make it a drudgery. Sometimes this is due to being stuck in a rut and becoming stagnated, but it can also be due to too much pressure, either external or internal, applied to a person. It goes from being a pastime to something more serious and pressing. Something that has no real reward or penalty for doing well other than our own satisfaction and enjoyment that now requires ever greater commitment and attention. And with that commitment and attention comes unnecessary and unwanted pressures that take something we are enthusiastic about and make it a chore.

And sadly, Christianity and serving the Kingdom of God is no exception to this, and the problem is made worse in some Churches.

Part of being a Christian is to grow toward being more like Christ, a process that will not (and cannot) ever be completed in mortal life but will only happen after our own death and resurrection. Yet some Churches have started what I tend to view as a potentially dangerous precedent. They talk about the blessings and power of God moving into the lives of Christians right now if they only have faith; leading to material prosperity, excellent health, and continuous miracles in their lives. The idea is you only need sufficient faith, prayer, and devotion to God and you can count on all problems in your life being resolved supernaturally as soon as they arise, and you yourself can be empowered to be a good and wonderful Christian to minister in every situation that comes your way; even ones you aren’t prepared for.

While that all sounds good, the problem is that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes misfortune still strikes. Sometimes Christians still suffer. Sometimes prayer isn’t answered the way we want it. Sometimes you don’t know what to say or do to minister to someone even after you pray about it. Sometimes you still feel awkward and uncertain in a foreign situation even if you’re committed to following Jesus. And that’s where the bad part comes in. This little voice in your head…

“Well, if you had really wanted your prayer answered, it would have happened.” “If you really committed more to your devotional life, you would have been healed.” “If your faith had been stronger, God would have answered you.” “If you call yourself a real Christian, you’ll have the power to succeed in any situation.”

And that’s where fear and despair comes in; the thought that if you did pray more or have more faith or, deep down inside, wanted to serve God better, you’d be a more natural Christian and be able to have all these blessings and do all these things, and the fact that you aren’t means you aren’t a real Christian. So you must do more things and act a certain way to prove you are a real Christian and have really been saved and to prove that you love God. Now you start doubting your own salvation and, even more importantly, the Power of God’s Grace.

This is a dangerous path to follow. As the message of this devotional goes, it’s not long into doing this that Christianity stops being about an outpouring of love and concern for other people and more about trying to earn yourself merit points to feel more comfortable about yourself and your status before God. Christianity loses all semblance of letting God work through you and of honestly sharing the Gospel and becomes all about the self. And that is the most fruitless and exhausting chore of all.

Just as in ancient Biblical times the old religious orders measured their worth before God by the good works they did and earning the titles of “rabbi” and “teacher”, nowadays worth is measured by how many miracles and blessings you have earned through your faith and devotion. I heard one author actually call this the “Gospel of Glory”, but not of God’s glory or the Lord’s glory but rather the individual’s; measuring one’s own spirituality and holiness by how much spiritual power and gifts they possess.

I don’t doubt that spiritual blessings, miracles, prophetic utterances, and straight up healings do happen, but it’s important to note that these things don’t happen as a result of any action on our part or by becoming “holier than thou”. Ultimately, we’re all the same. Through and by our own merits and good works, there is no difference between the faith-healing pastor at a pulpit and the drug-addicted criminal lying in a gutter. “Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.” (Ecclesiastes 7:20) Both will eventually receive the same sentence for their sins, for God shows no partiality. It’s the Power of Christ and the magnitude of His Sacrifice that makes all equal, done without the input of man and without any conscious will or merit on their part. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) It’s all about His Glory and Majesty. Accepting Him as Lord and Savior makes us clean before God, with no remembrance of past sins or wickedness and no tallying of our own works. All done through Christ and not earned at all by any effort. All we can do is accept it when offered to us.

“This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:22-26)

Far from turning the Christian life into one of drudgery, fear, and doubt, this Sacrifice is to set us free from those things. Now that we know that we can’t “earn” any salvation or favor from God but rather we freely have it showered down on us, we should be empowered to be more genuinely loving and thankful. To reach out and minister to people out of care, affection, and thankfulness other than out of a meaningless attempt to gain favor or prove ourselves as Christians. No one can “prove themselves” to be a Christian because becoming a Christian had nothing to do with any meritorious action originating from us. God merely offered us the opportunity and we accepted. He is the one who declares us Christians, not ourselves or anyone else.

If you’re like me and constantly fighting battles with worry, self-doubt, and concern that you’re not doing “good enough” to be a real Christian, perhaps you’re looking to the wrong individual for the source of salvation. Instead, try to focus on the power of the Cross and the One who died upon it, and just how clean you have been made by the power of that Sacrifice. You are now a child of God.

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1: 12-13)

Suggested Prayer: “Lord God, I can never thank you enough for the blessed and holy Sacrifice of your Son, Lord Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty of all of my sins and to make me born again as a child of God. Now that I have this blessed assurance, grant me the power to never cheapen it by succumbing to false worry, self-doubt, and despair but to cling to the Power of Christ and His unbeatable Sacrifice. Gratefully in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Season Six, Episode Twenty-Three: “Where the Apple Lies”

Tags

Apple Bloom, Applejack, Big Macintosh, Filthy Rich, Granny Smith, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, review, Where the Apple Lies

Synopsis:

Apple Bloom accidentally messes up a crate shipment to Filthy Rich of Zap Apple Jam, and when she lies to try and cover it up, it prompts the Apple Family to tell a story about how Applejack wasn’t always so honest…

Before Apple Bloom was born, around the time Filthy Rich first assumed control of his family’s store, Applejack and Big Macintosh argued about who would take over the farm, with Applejack saying she had better ideas and Big Mac saying he was the better worker. To try and show her brother up, Applejack made a deal with Rich to let him sell Sweet Apple Acres Cider at his store without consulting Granny Smith first, and only after the deal was made found out she refused to allow it. When forced to admit she couldn’t deliver on the deal, Rich got angry and threatened to cut off ties to Sweet Apple Acres and, as a result, Applejack quickly made up a lie that Granny was sick and the deal was made out of distress. Unfortunately, this prompted Rich and his fiance (future Spoiled Rich) to pay a goodwill visit to the farm, forcing Applejack to lie again that Granny was in the hospital. Yet when the Riches headed out to see her there, Applejack ended up lying further, first claiming the apple blight was infecting ponies to get Granny out to the hospital, then tried to get Big Mac to masquerade as a sick Granny Smith to fool the two. Unfortunately, this only led to more confusion until Granny Smith was nearly ready to amputate Big Mac’s limb, thinking it was infected with apple blight, which finally prompted Applejack to confess everything to everpony. While she realized her own mistake in lying to try to cover up her fault, Big Mac admitted if he had listened to her more rather than dictated his opinion on everything she wouldn’t have wanted to prove herself to begin with. Granny scolded them both for talking about replacing her when she’s nowhere near death, then scolded Rich for threatening to break off business with Sweet Apple Acres, before she went into a lecture on apple blight.

Back at the farm, Apple Bloom learns that ponies don’t “start out” as the individuals they are but have to grow into them as they mature, and the whole Apple family enjoys a glass of cider before heading back to work.

Review:

This episode is not only a step above the standard Applejack fare, but…heh…to me personally, it, well…

Let’s start with the main plot. Aside from a handful of flashbacks and “The Cutie Mark Chronicles”, the backgrounds of the Mane Six are largely virgin territory for the show. I hope this episode is a sign of devoting more time to episodes focusing on that. While I think it was made a bit convenient for the show, it’s an interesting change to see that not only was Applejack formally not as honest as she is today, but Big Macintosh used to be a chatterbox who, in the words of his sister, spent all his time talking so he never had to listen to anyone else. (Of course, Big Mac takes it to the opposite extreme today…)

The “teenage” Applejack is an interesting design, but it works well. And it’s a nice little change of pace to see the relations she has with her other family members and business associates back in the day. The episode itself may not be laugh-out-loud entertaining, but it is engaging and interesting to watch unfold. I do feel a bit “cheated”, though. Applejack’s lies were more attempts to cover up for her own mistakes rather than anything heavy, and the line about how “the whole Apple family ended up in the hospital” was something of a bait-and-switch, as it was in the same sense of “the whole family ended up at Burger King” or something.

All of that said…the part that really stood out to me in this episode was, well, possibly “reading too much into it” as opposed to reading in-between the lines, but there are fan theories out there…

Until now I had assumed that Apple Bloom and Applejack were much closer in age. That she might have been a foal during the events of “The Cutie Mark Chronicles” flashback. However, now I see Applejack was approaching physical maturity prior to Apple Bloom even being born. Furthermore, although Apple Bloom isn’t “around” in the flashback, neither are the parents of Applejack and Big Macintosh. And the way they talk, it’s clear that one of them will take over the farm when Granny Smith passed on or retired…not their parents. Granny Smith also says “the whole Apple family ended up in the hospital”, although there were only three ponies there: herself, Applejack, and Big Macintosh.

All of this, combined with Applejack’s more “motherly” nature around Apple Bloom, I take as evidence for one possibility: Apple Bloom and Applejack aren’t sisters; Apple Bloom is Applejack’s daughter from a teenage, unmarried pregnancy. She’s pretending to be her older sister to spare her and herself the shame. Yes, I know even if this was true they’d never come out with it on a Y-rated show, but things like this have happened in history before, and so I’m sticking with it.

With that in mind, I personally rate this episode a little higher.

Fun Facts:

A rare episode to only feature a single member of the Mane Six (Applejack). However, as Granny Smith is voiced by Tabitha St. Germain (Rarity), she was in the episode too.

When Apple Bloom says that Applejack has never told a lie in her whole life, she gets her infamous “lying face” from the Season Two premiere.

Granny Smith apparently keeps rocking chairs on standby for stories. 😛

There’s been occasional hints here and there throughout the series of the relative ages of the Mane Six to one another, and it’s widely accepted that Fluttershy is the oldest based on her appearance in “The Cutie Mark Chronicles”, where, while the other members of the Mane Six looked to be the same shape as the CMCs themselves, Fluttershy was taller and “lankier” as if she had just hit a teenage growth spurt. Similarly, in this episode, Applejack looks much the same way, and Granny Smith explicitly says she was older than Apple Bloom at the time.

Spoiled Rich appears in Granny Smith’s story as a younger version of herself, although her surname is “Milk” at the time. This confirms ponies do indeed have surnames. Her nose isn’t quite as upturned in this episode, indicating that was something that developed over time.

One of the trends that MLP:FIM has balked for years is not necessarily having the more upper-class and rich ponies lord their status over others. This episode confirms Filthy Rich is more of a friend of the Apples…he either just didn’t bring up Diamond Tiara to show them respect or he let Spoiled negate it.

One unicorn is in Ponyville General with a severed horn. :O Something tells me that this might end up being a bit more intriguing considering the upcoming feature film has one of its main characters as a unicorn with a broken horn.

As another random “The Shining” allusion, after Applejack says: “…for the big presentation!” and leads the scrubs-wearing Granny Smith on, in the scene are a pair of twin ponies standing at the end of the hall and staring outward. This is a parody of the ghosts of the twins from “The Shining”. Obviously, they don’t intersperse frames of them chopped up here.

In the next scene, teenage Derpy has apparently undergone eye surgery. Before you gasp in horror, remember that Derpy’s eyes were already wall-eyed back in the flashback in “The Cart Before the Ponies”. It’s likely that the attempt to correct her eyesight simply failed. 😛

How was a pony supposed to handle a bone saw made for a human’s grip?

I’m sorry…but when Apple Bloom goes: “I can’t believe you told all those lies!”…her country accent completely evaporates. She starts to sound like a different character.

Rating:

3 Stars out of 5

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Season Six, Episode Twenty-Two: “P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)”

Tags

Applejack, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View), Pinkie Pie, Rarity, review, Spike, Twilight Sparkle

Synopsis:

On seeing Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie return from a Seaward Shoals boat trip, Twillight Sparkle and Spike are stunned to find them angry at each other and refusing to talk to one another. As getting them together to talk it out proves impossible, Twilight visits each one individually and gets a different account of how the boat trip was a disaster: each one claiming their attempts to make the boat trip something new and exciting was frustrated by the others before they sank the boat and ruined the trip all together. After reviewing notes she had Spike take about the experience, Twilight is able to find common elements in spite of how different the accounts were. She invites the girls (still angry at one another) out on a second boat trip and demonstrates how the boat capsizing was none of their faults, but rather was the result of an accidental capsizing by a Tri-Horned Bunyip attracted to food that accidentally went overboard. Furthermore, she points out the reason everyone frustrated their attempts to make the boat trip something new and exciting was because each one tried to make the boat trip something different for the others: a luxury cruise (Rarity), a boat party (Pinkie Pie), and an adventure for buried treasure (Applejack). Realizing how wrong they were, the girls make up and get to have a boating trip combining all three ideas, including Twilight, Spike, and even the Bunyip. Twilight reminds the girls that even long-time friends sometimes have problems communicating to one another.

Review:

There are a number of episodes that get considerably better on the second viewing, and, thus far, this is the biggest one of Season Six to me. The first time I thought it was another “thoroughly average” episode, but on the second go around I’ve seen a lot more.

The biggest thing I noticed was that this episode is essentially a Season One episode transposed. Take away Twilight Sparkle’s wings and relocate her to the Golden Oak Library, and this would easily fit in with Season One or Two. Since I know there’s been some pushback from older fans that the newer episodes have a different feel from the older ones, I would think that would be pleasing to them. It had Twilight using her “nerdiness” to solve a friendship problem and even giving a lesson at the end of it.

Aside from that, while the various antics of the girls aren’t the most outrageous they’ve ever been, they are entertaining in this episode; especially when the girls makes charicatures of one another. There’s a lot of body language sight gags with Spike in this episode as Twilight keeps subtly making him take notes. And, on top of all that, this was an interesting narrative: telling the same incident from three different perspectives. (Which couldn’t have been easy with four different writers…)

So…on the second viewing, I actually think this episode was pretty good for this season. Not the best by any means, but nice.

Fun Facts:

The title is a knockoff of F.P.O.V., or “First Person Point of View”, which can refer to a style of video game play but also is considered one of the four main ways in which a story can be told, of which the others are “Third Person Limited”, “Third Person Narrative”, and “Third Person Omniscient”.

This episode is tied with Season Five’s “Rarity Investigates!” for the most writers for a single episode (four).

No wonder Opalescence warms up to Twilight. After everything Rarity has put her through… :X

The return of Rarity’s drama queen bit of throwing herself on a fainting couch. Looks like she’s gone for a new style since Season Two’s “Lesson Zero”. She’s also gone back to scarfing ice cream.

When Twilight interrupts Pinkie Pie’s story, Spike has somehow gotten popcorn.

In Applejack’s version, Rarity is dressed like Rose from “Titanic”.

Applejack, in an “honest” moment, admits in her version of events she’s the reason the food went overboard.

One of the details that’s never resolved is exactly how much luggage Rarity brought and what she was wearing. None of them seem to agree, but it’s pretty clear Rarity is understating her own baggage and attire. (And based on “majority rule”, she appears to have been stretching the truth the most out of the three for the story overall, as both Pinkie Pie and Applejack agree she had more luggage and wasn’t willing to hit the pinata.)

It’s interesting to me that only Applejack is really angry at both of her friends. Rarity mostly blamed Applejack for the whole thing while Pinkie Pie blamed Rarity.

There are indeed bubbles in every version of the story when the food goes overboard, but I’m surprised that wasn’t just blamed on the food releasing air.

Pinkie Pie, in another show of cartoon physics, doesn’t run up to Twilight on the docks but simply pops up between Rarity and Applejack.

Applejack didn’t believe the story about the Bunyip at first…which is surprising as her map had a picture of one on it. 😛

A bunyip is a monster from Australian Aboriginal mythology. In the 1800s it seemed to share some characteristics of the Loch Ness Monster in people claimed sightings of it, although skeletal remains found were usually those of ancient marsupials. Its description varies, but this particular one is made from a number of shared traits among accounts, including a dog face, walrus tusks, and flippers.

Rating:

3 Stars out of 5

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Season Six, Episode Twenty-One: “Every Little Thing She Does”

Tags

Applejack, Every Little Thing She Does, Fluttershy, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, review, Spike, Starlight Glimmer, Twilight Sparkle

Synopsis:

Starlight Glimmer has been excelling in her magic lessons with Princess Twilight Sparkle, but now is nerve-wracked again when Twilight leaves for a lecture in Canterlot for the day and leaves her behind to have a friendship lesson of her own. In spite of intentionally avoiding these lessons, she decides to show herself off as a pro by handling five of them, one with each of the other members of the Mane Six, at once. However, shortly into trying to organize it, she becomes frustrated with the differences in personalities and requirements, and ends up resorting to using a spell to turn the five into mindless drones obedient to her will. Unfortunately, she ends up not thinking carefully about the directions she’s giving them, which they now mindlessly execute, and soon the entire Castle of Friendship is a disaster area…right as Twilight comes home. After undoing the spell and sending everyone else home, Twilight confronts Starlight and explains how the lesson wasn’t supposed to be about how skillfully she could handle doing tasks with the five of them but about building a relationship with them by doing things they liked to do, and says her next friendship lesson is an “advanced” one: apologizing. Starlight meets with the sore and upset Mane Five and gives a sincere apology; enough to where they agree to lend a hand with the cleanup around the Castle of Friendship. Once done, Twilight congratulates her on accomplishing her friendship lessons, and she realizes that by participating individually with each girl in cleaning up parts of the castle, she’s actually built relationships with them. The episode ends with Starlight, Twilight, and the others “chillax”ing on the roof.

Review:

This is just my opinion…but I think this episode is the ultimate “litmus test” for Starlight Glimmer. If you can get through this episode and still, oddly enough, see some interest and, dare I say it, positive qualities to her character…then you’ll be able to handle her for however long she’s in the series. I never thought I’d say that about an episode like this, but hopefully this will show you why.

If you dislike Starlight Glimmer and you go into this episode intending to continue to dislike her, that’s a shame because you’ll never get past the surface of this episode. Externally, it merely looks like an episode where Starlight Glimmer does something rather (admittedly) bad to almost all of the Mane Six and is able to get away with it at the end. But there’s really a lot more to it than that.

First of all, if you’re able to look past the action itself and toward the humor in it, this episode is one of the funniest this season. The reactions of the brainwashed Mane Five are genuinely amusing, especially with the eyeballs drifting and the mechanical way of responding to everything. On the second viewing, I first realized that Applejack’s scrapbook memories are all knockoffs of movies, and the one with “Predator” was hilarious.

Second of all, and, again, I can’t believe I’m saying this…but…I actually sympathize with Starlight Glimmer in this episode. I’m an Aspie myself. When it comes to social situations, I shy away from them as best I can. When I do go to them, I tend to focus only on the things I know because I don’t know how to react or what to do with things I don’t know about. I rattle on about science, programming, old video games, and even my MLP:FIM fandom because that’s all I know, and if no one else knows about those things it quickly gets awkward. There are times I’ve wished, deep down inside, that I could somehow get everyone to talk about the things I wanted to talk about. And yes, I often “miss the point” in things like this myself.

Third, and even more surprising than my last point, but…this episode is the first in Season Six to finally “nail” Starlight Glimmer. You’ve heard my complaints about other episodes this season; about how Starlight has been turned into Twilight to make her more appealing rather than trying to make a connection between her villainous self in Season Five and the character we see now. This episode treats her character as something I could never see done with her at the end of Season Five: believably.

In the beginning of this episode, Starlight has that residual “smugness” about her when she’s showing off her magic in front of Twilight. It carries over into when she’s doing her lessons; masking her own fears and inadequacies with an air of superiority and false confidence. When she meets with the five girls, she makes her same old mistakes: refuses to listen to them or their individual personality needs and instead tries to handle everything the way she thinks is best, ultimately culminating in the spell. And when all is said and done, where does she think she screwed up? With the spell…not with what she actually did. It’s not until Twilight spells it out to her that she realizes her problem. And even when she does and does “the right thing”, she still doesn’t realize she still fulfilled the friendship goals at the end.

This isn’t perfect and there’s still some gaps, but an episode like this actually serves to make up for some of the deficits of the Season Five finale. No, Starlight isn’t the best character. She isn’t that great of a person. She’s still more flawed than the other characters. But…she’s believably trying. She has a long way to go, but you can now see her walking down the path believably rather than simply already halfway down the road automatically.

People who despise Starlight Glimmer despise this episode, and, admittedly, for good reason. But as for me personally? I dare say, from a certain point of view, it might actually be the best episode of Season Six.

Fun Facts:

The animators had a LOT of fun animating pony pupils moving around in their eye sockets this episode. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them do it this much.

Starlight Glimmer’s room has a framed picture of an equal sign…crossed out. 😛

Similar to the situation in “The Crystalling” (and, actually, in “The Cutie Re-Mark”), this episode solidifies the idea of “spell-combining”, which Starlight uses to create new spells with new effects.

Applejack’s description of family events correspond to lines and scenes in movies, including “Jaws”, “Predator”, “Braveheart”, and “Spider-Man”.

Ah, the one thing Starlight Glimmer can’t do: bake cake. (Remembers “No Second Prances”) …At least, without using magic. On that note, Pinkie Pie might be the only character in the series who ever held a grudge against Starlight Glimmer…even if only for a few minutes of “show time”.

First appearance of the rooftop pavilion of the Castle of Friendship.

Rating:

4 Stars out of 5

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Season Six, Episode Twenty: “Viva Las Pegasus”

Tags

Applejack, Flim-Flam Brothers, Fluttershy, Gladmane, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, review, Viva Las Pegasus

Synopsis:

The Cutie Map has activated again and (much to their mutual displeasure) Applejack and Fluttershy are being called to Las Pegasus, which has an Equestria-wide reputation of being one colossal, loud, “fun zone” for shows, games, and parties. On arrival at one of the bigger resorts, run by a flashy pony named Gladmane, they have a hard time finding any friendship problems as the owner prides himself on being every guest and employee’s friend and keeping them happy. When they do finally find two ponies at each other’s throats, Applejack is infuriated to find that it’s Flim and Flam. While Fluttershy is willing to talk with them, Applejack is determined to find a different friendship problem, and finds ones in between Gladmane’s performers. After hearing all arguments, the two discover all of Gladmane’s performers would be more successful if they worked with each other to strike out solo, but because they’re at each other’s throats they can’t do it; and they realize Gladmane himself is poisoning everyone against each other to keep them working for him. With that in mind, the two manage to get Flim and Flam to reconcile so they can assist them with “hustling the hustler” and get Gladmane to confess to what he’s been doing. However, Gladmane sees right through their deception and ends up not falling for it. When Applejack and Fluttershy go to his office later to confront him personally about his behavior, he takes the opportunity to gloat over his success at manipulating others in the wake of their apparent failure…only to realize too late that was the real hustle: Flim and Flam expected him to boast after seeing through the scam, and when the girls went into his office they held his intercom button down while he bragged about his racket. The performers reconcile and leave Gladmane’s resort, leaving him ruined and getting him replaced by the Flim-Flam Brothers themselves. Applejack and Fluttershy’s flanks glow to show their success, but they soon regret it when they see the Flim-Flam Brothers successfully scamming patrons to see an empty stage for half-price tickets.

Review:

This is another solidly average episode to me this season, with nothing good and nothing bad about it. Not so odd that both of those episodes this season featured Applejack in a prominent role…as you know my opinion on her character from earlier reviews.

It tried to do things that were more interesting. Las Pegasus itself features a lot of background ponies who have never been seen before, but…they weren’t anything too monumental. The very idea of Las Pegasus appearing on the show was an opportunity at a new locale, but…almost the entire episode takes place inside Gladmane’s resort, so aside from the first look at it there’s nothing too big there. Plus, since a Y-rated show really can’t do a pony version of “Sin City”, the place looks like a big arcade or theme park almost rather than a casino. Basically, the citizens of Equestria are left with a rather lame reason to dislike it: it’s loud. There’s a lot of parodies of characters in the ponies in this episode, but…none of them are too incredible.

Last but not least, while the Flim-Flam Brothers had an amazing song in their first appearance back in Season Two, they haven’t had too much appeal to me personally since then. I actually think they’re a bit more interesting in this episode when they’re not running another scam, but as far as the “minor antagonists” go, they’re disliked by a lot of fans.

The dilemma, while alright, is more of a rehash of times it has been done better. Sunset Shimmer did the same thing in “Equestria Girls”, and, as much as people hated her, she did have more personality than being an Elvis impersonator. And there is a rather pointless scene at one point in which Gladmane brings Flam into his office to show off his plan to run every hotel on the strip that never really goes anywhere or ties into the plot. It seems the episode was running short so they had to do something, unless that’s supposed to be where Flam learned about Gladmane’s intercom to tell Fluttershy and Applejack about it later. It’s minor, but…it’s still there.

Once again, there’s nothing “bad” about this episode. It’s just there’s nothing really to write home about either. The curse of Applejack lives. 😦

Fun Facts:

After first being mentioned in “It’s About Time” way back in Season Two, Las Pegasus finally makes an appearance. Although its position on the Equestria Maps indicates that it’s similar to Los Angeles, this episode revealed it has more in common with Las Vegas. Like Cloudsdale, it’s a city in the clouds. Unlike Cloudsdale, it seems to have ponies of all three kinds living there.

“Pone Fantastique” is likely supposed to be a knockoff of “Cirque de Soleil”.

Gladmane is voiced by Jim Byrnes, an individual with not only extensive voice acting experience but also an actor and Blues musician. Between his ducktail mane style, flashy suit, cape, and way of laughing, Gladmane is supposed to be in part a parody of Elvis Presley.

The same tourists from the first Cutie Map episode this season (“Spice Up Your Life”) cameo, walking behind Applejack and Fluttershy when they meet Gladmane.

Is Bernard (the rabbit pulled out of the trapeze artists’s hat) the first talking rabbit the show has ever seen? (Voiced by Andrea Libman, same as Fluttershy.) Anyway, soon after Applejack talks to a pony version of Scooter from “The Muppet Show”.

The prairie dog trainers are parodies of Siegfried and Roy, magicians who were infamous for their shows in Vegas featuring white tigers.

Gordon Ramsey Pony makes another appearance at the buffet.

The pulling-down of Gladmane’s statue is reminiscent of the pulling down of Saddam Hussein’s statue.

Rating:

2.5 Stars out of 5

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Season Six, Episode Eighteen: “Buckball Season”

Tags

Applejack, Buckball Season, Fluttershy, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, review

Synopsis:

Applejack’s cousin Braeburn has formed a team for a relatively unknown sports game called “Buckball” which requires a three-pony team of a unicorn, earth pony, and pegasus to play, but claims its the best; leading Applejack to want to form a Ponyville team to beat them. Believing she and Rainbow Dash are the best choices for the earth pony and pegasus, respectively, they get Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy to form two-thirds of an opposing team so they can hold tryouts for a unicorn to round out their team. While eventually they discover Snails has a natural talent for it, the true surprise comes when they realize Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy are even better at the game than they are, and they decide they want them to take their places. While the two agree at first, the next day Applejack and Rainbow Dash put them through a grueling practice regimen while continuously shouting the importance of winning this game not only for the honor of the Apple Family but for all of Ponyville, making the two so jittery and nervous they start messing up left and right. By the time the next day has come and Applejack and Rainbow have gotten all of Ponyville whipped up for the two to win the game, the pressure is on so much that the two declare themselves unable to win and kick themselves off the team. Realizing they’ve been pushing the two so hard the game is no longer fun for them, and they were only at their best when they were relaxed and having fun, Applejack and Rainbow Dash apologize and offer to take the places of the girls, but ask that they help them with a practice game first. In a much more relaxed and no pressure setting, Pinkie and Fluttershy regain their talent and again excel at the game. Now more mellowed out, they decide to follow Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and (surprisingly) Snips’ advice and not think about the pressure from Ponyville to win and just focus on having a good time again. With that mindset, Ponyville is able to win a 7-6 victory over Appleloosa. When Braeburn starts focusing on a strategy for the future rematch, Pinkie suggests that he just focuses on having fun.

Review:

This episode seemed to be all about “doing the unexpected”.

Not in the plot itself, of course. This one isn’t one of the major ones from the children’s playbook, but it’s a fairly simple storyline. Friend finds out other friend is good at a competitive sport and suggests they play in a big game; friend ends up pressuring other friend way too hard to win and makes the game not fun anymore; friend apologizes to other friend and other friend is able to have fun and play. They even went ahead and let Ponyville win the game once Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy relaxed, so Applejack and Rainbow Dash didn’t have to own up to their claim that they only wanted the two to have a good time at the end.

But, as in many episodes such as this one, it was all about the presentation, and this one I felt was rather nice on not going for the expected route in anything. One might have expected this to have Applejack and Rainbow Dash in the main roles, as both of them have shown they can be neurotic about competing. Instead, it went to Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, neither of whom are well known for being athletes on the show. To help drive the message home, they could have used the example of “tiger moms”, and to that end they could have had Applejack and Rainbow Dash pressuring the CMCs instead. (It would have made sense with an earth pony, unicorn, and pegasus needed for the game.) Instead, again, they used Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie; their peers rather than the younger generation (the fact that Applejack and Rainbow Dash were already abyssmal to the CMCs had already happened once this season already anyway…). One would have expected Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, or even Starlight Glimmer (renown for being able to do anything magic) to fill in for the unicorn. Instead, they used Snails…a character who has literally never appeared in the series when not being played off of Snips. They even go the extra mile and make him a Zen Master of ball catching (who would have thought a snail Cutie Mark would mean that?).

At its heart it’s a rather simplistic episode. There’s nothing terribly monumental about it, and the moral is one that could have easily fit in with earlier seasons. And yet there’s nothing wrong with being simplistic when it’s done well and everyone is in character. And the fact that none of the details were in the “playbook” and what would have been normally expected was a nice touch, and I actually give it kudos for that. Another solid episode in this season.

Fun Facts:

The “chi-chi-chi-chi-chi-chi” sound that is made when Applejack goes in slow motion to kick the apple is based off of a similar effect for TV series “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “The Bionic Woman”. That is one hard apple, by the way.

Rainbow Dash can fly with one wing.

I kind of like the irony that Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy are both voiced by the same actor, and Rainbow Dash and Applejack are voiced by the same actor. Enables everyone of the same mentality to not be confused. 😛

One of the quirks of this episode that was unusual but a nice surprise was making Snails a stand-alone character. Usually he’s the other half of “Snips and”.

Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy get so nervous that Pinkie Pie ends up tongue-tied and Fluttershy ends up shouting.

When Applejack and Rainbow Dash are walking down the train corridor, there’s an interesting modeling effect going on in the background to create the passing rows.

When Snips suggests the way to keep from being stressed is to “not think about anything…ever”, Pinkie Pie immediately takes to that. 🙂

I noticed that all of Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy’s fans weren’t on the train to Appleloosa with them, but were still at the game. Also, no Little Strongheart in this episode…again. 😦

With only four voice actors in the credits, this is one of the least voice-acted episodes in the entire series.

Rating:

3 Stars out of 5

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Season Six, Episode Fourteen: “The Cart Before the Ponies”

Tags

Apple Bloom, Applejack, CMCs, Cutie Mark Crusaders, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, review, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, The Cart Before the Ponies

Synopsis:

The Annual Applewood Derby is upon Ponyville, a time of year in which the younger ponies all build applewood carts to race. Three separate prizes are up for grabs for whatever cart manages to cross the finish line: Fastest, Most Creative, and Most Traditional. However, the youngsters only get a block of applewood and one day in which to build their carts, so they each get to pick one older pony to help them out, but they have to also complete the race in the same cart as the young pony by riding along. Naturally, the CMCs all want their older sister types to help them out, and Apple Bloom would like to go for Fastest, Scootaloo would like to go for Most Creative, and Sweetie Belle would like to go for Most Traditional. Unfortunately, when the CMCs go to their respective “older ponies”, they all become nostalgic for their own Applewood Derbies and their desire to win the prizes they wanted when they were younger: Rainbow Dash wants the cart to be the Fastest, Rarity wants the cart to be the Most Creative, and Applejack wants the cart to be the Most Traditional. In spite of mild suggestions from the CMCs, the older ponies ignore them and build the cart to their own desires, to which the three reluctantly consent when they assume the older ponies know better. When the time of the race finally gets there, the CMCs are even more shocked to discover the older ponies are so intent on reliving their own experiences that they’re taking over driving the carts themselves, reducing the CMCs to roles of passengers. When the three’s over-elaborate carts end up causing a crash that piles up every cart in the race, the CMCs finally blow up and confront Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash with their selfish behavior. The CMCs realize they should have spoken up more loudly, and the older ponies realized they should have done a better job listening. After apologizing to everyone for ruining the race, Ms. Cheerilee agrees to a “do-over”…provided this time the rule be changed so that only the youngsters get to be in the cart. They end up helping the CMCs build the carts the way they all wanted, and then, far more humbly, elect to be spectators only for the race itself.

Review:

This ended up being one of the most hated episodes of Season Six and of the series as a whole. I’m not quite sure it deserves all of that, but…I can see where some people would get that impression.

Episodes that portray a member of the Mane Six in a negative light never seem to go over completely well. There are episodes that draw attention to a character flaw or a personal problem they need to overcome, and then there are episodes in which a character deliberately acts out that flaw for the bulk of the episode. Some would argue those episodes are borderline Flanderization. I personally don’t think the show has gone that far (although it’s come close more than once…), but the bottom line is when an episode comes along in which a character acts out a negative trait nearly to the exclusion of all positive traits, it doesn’t go over well. Hence why episodes like “The Mysterious Mare Do Well” where Rainbow Dash’s ego swells to the size of a hot air balloon and “Keep Calm and Flutter On” where Fluttershy skips over being rough and straight to being cruel are near the bottom of the list of fan favorites.

This episode did it to three characters at once, so that might seem like a recipe for disaster. But I personally didn’t think of it that much.

While I agree Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash teeter close to the edge of repulsive in this one, and might even cross the line a few times, it’s really not that out of character. Applejack is infamous for being stubborn and thinking her way is the best way, so that’s nothing new. In Season Five, Pinkie Pie directly called her pushy, aggressive, and mean after all. Rainbow Dash does tend to get full of herself at times. Keep in mind she’s still relatively new to the whole “big sister” role. Until Season Three’s “Sleepless in Ponyville”, Scootaloo was nothing more than a fangirl to her, after all. Rarity might be the most out of character as she normally cares about suiting things to the style of others, but even then it’s not as bad as it could be. When it comes to Sweetie Belle, she can be self-centered and assume she’ll just like doing the things she’ll like.

That said, the fact is the CMCs did keep telling and showing the three what they wanted, and they were blatantly ignored. And the song for this episode really drew attention to how out-of-control the behavior had become. So for the lesson at the end, it was really the older girls who should have concentrated more on listening rather than making the event all about them. And the fact is that is indeed a problem in many families where parents try to live out dreams through their children and end up pushing them to do things they really don’t want to do, sometimes with humiliating and embarrassing results. (Even worse is this was only the first of two episodes this season to touch on that theme…)

Still, my counter-argument is that just because three of the main characters are showing off their negative side doesn’t necessarily make the episode itself negative. If they were wildly out of character or a pat ending would have taken place, then I might be more upset. But it made logical sense for Ms. Cheerilee to want a redo of the race, especially since she had picked up on how the older girls had made it all about themselves. And the CMCs have such a good relationship with the older girls that it makes sense that they would make up at the end too.

So, while there’s a touch of OOCness, it’s really not enough for me to rate this episode lower, personally. And parts of the episode are still at least visually or conceptually entertaining. (I kept thinking Super Mario Kart during the episode.) So…yeah, I won’t rate this one bad. Maybe not too good, but not bad.

Fun Facts:

The title comes from the expression “putting the cart/wagon before the horse”, which means trying to do something before someone has done something necessary beforehand. In this case, there is a play on words; namely Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack putting their ideas for their carts before the desires of the ponies they are supposed to be making them for.

One day to turn a block of wood into a cart. Yeah…again my theory earlier I made about how days in Equestria aren’t the same length as days on Earth.

I’m not sure if Michelle Creber was sick during this episode or really bogged down, but Apple Bloom REALLY loses both her accent and childish tone in this episode.

The Cloudsdale Derby is more like extreme bobsledding. It seems like that’s what you have to do if you’re racing on clouds rather than ground.

Rarity never verbally answers Sweetie Belle’s question of who she lost to as a filly, so, although listed as “Muffins” in the credits, Derpy’s name goes unsaid again. 😛 It’s a bit cruel that pegasi make it thunderstorm on the runner up.

There’s an interesting progression through the interactions of the CMCs with their sister figures. Scootaloo seems standoffish about Rainbow Dash but assumes she’ll still help her with her idea. Applejack flatly states she’s going to make Apple Bloom a traditional cart, contrary to her idea. And Rarity pretty much comes right out and makes it apparent she’s doing this entirely for herself and not for Sweetie Belle at all.

That is some magic paint Apple Bloom and Applejack are using. Must be made form the multi-color streaked Zap Apple. 😛

Diamond Tiara’s own cart looks like a real automobile, while Snips’ cart is a giant barber pole, just like the Cutie Mark of the pony helping him.

This episode is the only one other than Season Two’s “The Mysterious Mare Do Well” (also not a very well-received episode) that indicates that Ponyville is actually situated in rather uneven landscape.

Ponies walk faster than Applejack’s cart is moving. 😛

How in the world do Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash end up covered with oil stains building the carts? They’re WOOD. Also, oddly enough, Rarity is the only one who wears her cap backward.

I don’t think Applejack at first and later Sweetie Belle really had to worry about not winning “Most Traditional”. They seemed to be the only ones interested.

Rating:

2.5 Stars out of 5

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Season Six, Episode Ten: “Applejack’s ‘Day’ Off”

Tags

Applejack, Applejack's "Day" Off, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, Rarity, review, Spike, Twilight Sparkle

Synopsis:

Rarity has been looking for an opportunity to spend some time with Applejack at the local spa, but due to increasingly finding herself bogged down with more chores Applejack hasn’t found time. While heading out with Rarity to the farm to pick up more pies, Twilight Sparkle and Spike suggest taking over Applejack’s chores for an hour so that she and Rarity can have some time for relaxation. Unfortunately, on arrival at the spa, there’s a line of ponies waiting for the one treatment Applejack wants: the steam room. Doing some investigation, Applejack ends up discovering the backup ultimately stems from a small problem that everyone at the spa was too busy to fix that eventually led them to waste a lot of time and energy accomplishing nothing. Yet in the time it takes to fix it, the hour is up and she and an unhappy Rarity head back to the farm. Once there, they see that Twilight and Spike are still trying to feed the pigs, seemingly through a rather nonsensical and pointless checklist. On interrogating Applejack about it,  they discover that she herself has been caught in a rut with a lot of chores on her farm; wasting time on pointless steps that serve no purpose than to make the work harder. Rarity and Applejack both acknowledge the need for an “outside observer” to make sure you’re not wasting your time every once in a while and, after streamlining Applejack’s work, head out for their spa treatment at last.

Review:

Last week’s episode was kind of meh to me, but this one, unfortunately, seemed even blander. It has the feel of a Season One episode, many of which suffered from the fact that the writers didn’t fully consider that an idea might not fill out 22 minutes and ended up spending a lot of time on padding. This episode is no exception, only in addition to normal padding of having montage scenes that stretch rather long, there’s also a lot of padding where characters are simply taking long times to explain things to one another.

Yet probably the most disappointing part of this episode is that none of the padding or dialogue is that entertaining. It’s just Applejack and Rarity mostly talking about time management, spa treatments, and fixing steam rooms. And in spite of all the padding, there are not one but two joke scenes with Rainbow Dash thrown in just to be humiliated for getting spa treatments as well…neither of which are that amusing and go on too long.

The irony is that this episode itself ends up seeming like it represents the show writers being stuck in a rut. I actually wouldn’t be too terribly surprised if that was how it came to be. There were a number of other episodes this season that seemed to be born from ideas scraped from the bottom of the barrel (“P.P.O.V. Pony Point of View” comes to mind), but most of them managed to inject at least something entertaining in them. This one is just…there. I can’t honestly say it’s a “bad” episode, but with pretty much nothing to write home about…I’m going to go ahead and rate it lower.

Fun Facts:

Is the spa the only thing mares do for fun together? Anyway, we already know Rarity and Fluttershy head to the spa together. Apparently, so does she and Applejack.

Rarity’s horn got “pruny” as well as her skin. :O

An unexpected cameo of the only character possibly more disliked than Svengallop, Spoiled Rich. She actually appeared once already this season, but only in the “story universe” in “A Hearth’s Warming Tail”.

Mr. Cake is getting the deep-tissue massage by Bulk Biceps.

It’s been pointed out in previous seasons how awkward it is for ponies to hold things that normally can only be used by hands in their hooves, but somehow Applejack manages with all of her tools. 😛

Aloe’s accent pronounces Applejack “Appleyak”. :X

When Twilight Sparkle slips on the rope and nearly hits the ground, it resembles the infamous scene with Ethan Hunt in the first “Mission: Impossible” movie. To accent it, the background score plays the first few notes of the infamous theme.

Anyone else ever think it’s odd that herbivorous ponies harvest eggs? And raise pigs, for that matter?

Rating:

2 Stars out of 5