Fillies, gentlecolts, and foals of all ages, welcome once again to another edition of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Recap/Review. Well, it’s happened again. My lack of haste has caused me to lag on getting these reviews done on time. And so once again I’m going to recap and review the previous two episodes. Starting off with an Applejack/Apple Bloom episode by the name of “Somepony to Watch Over Me”.
Applejack goes crazy trying to keep Apple Bloom safe
We open the episode with Apple Bloom awaiting a big change to her life. And it doesn’t take long as we learn that the rest of the Apple family have decided that she’s old enough now to be home alone and take care of the farm while the rest of the family are gone. This is good timing since both Applejack and Big Macintosh have pie deliveries to go to, and Granny Smith is off to see great aunt Pineapple. Apple Bloom is, as you’d expect, ecstatic about being home alone and being treated as responsible.
However, Applejack isn’t too fond of the idea of Apple Bloom being home by herself. Fearing the worst, Applejack returns to the farm to check on her little sister. This causes Apple Bloom to accidentally cause a mess in the kitchen, worrying Applejack. She then vows to never let Apple Bloom out of her sight, and as a responsible big sister will make sure she’s safe. This upsets Apple Bloom, especially when Applejack goes to more and more extremes to keep the young filly safe from harm.
From pillowed rakes, to training wheels on a wagon,even baby proofing the entire house, Applejack spares no expense to keep her safe. However, Apple Bloom gets tired of Applejack’s helicopter parenting, so she decides the only way to prove her responsibility is to make the pie delivery. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle’s plans to trick Applejack into believing Apple Bloom never left work for a while until they’re eventually found out, and when she learns about Apple Bloom making the pie delivery, she worries she may never see her sister again.
A chimera encounter
Apple Bloom eventually ends up in a fire swamp, coming face to face to face to face with a chimera with the heads of a tiger, a goat, and a snake. The creature is hungry not only for the pies, but a side of filly fillet. Apple Bloom manages to avoid them for a while, as well as hide the pie cart. She eventually gets cornered by the chimera. But before she can become a meal, Applejack comes to the rescue, using a snake charming flute, a lion tamer’s chair, and a hunk of ricotta to put the beast at bay.
Applejack gets upset at Apple Bloom for losing the pies, but when she realizes that the pies are safe, and Apple Bloom made it this far, she begins to realize that maybe she doesn’t need to watch over her little sister. The sisters make the delivery to a bayou area of Equestria, and Applejack tells Apple Bloom that she now knows that she can be responsible on her own if the family has to leave town.
Time to bust down some pros and cons to this week’s apple flavored episode.
PRO
The chimera was another amazing new creature. What I love about MLP is how much it seems to reference Greek mythology. From manticores to minotaurs, hydras to Cerberus. And now we have the mythical chimera to add to the group. It works not only as another awesome beast, but it also feels like a great way to present the conflict Apple Bloom has with her sister as something that can be all too common among siblings. How the three heads argue, and even mention how annoying it is to have a sister literally watching over your shoulder. It’s very well handled, and adds another great creature to the bestiary of Equestria.
I also like that we get a new area of Equestria in the fire swamp. Possible Princess Bride reference?
The brief bit with the Cajun ponies was also quite entertaining.
And the show breaking the fourth wall by having Scootaloo stop Apple Bloom from singing was an amazing poke at the show’s formula.
CON
While I wasn’t up in arms as much with Applejack’s overprotective nature towards Apple Bloom, I will admit it does feel like it gets turned up way too much, making her come off as annoying and not as endearing. Perhaps that was the intention as we’re not really supposed to rally behind this mindset, but it does get a bit overbearing and it’s easy to see why it turned so many people off.
“Somepony to Watch Over Me” won’t please a lot of fans with how they portray Applejack. But for an Apple Bloom adventure, it’s adorable, exciting, and has a great creature addition. The moral handling was a bit wonky, and Applejack’s helicopter parenting gets old fast, but if you can forgive those, you’ll love this episode.
RATING: 8.5 out of 10
Next up, it’s time to serve up some “Maud Pie”
The Mane Six Meet Maud
We open the episode as the mane six arrive at sugar cube corner early in the morning to meet with Pinkie Pie. Pinkie is excited, as usual, but this is a special kind of excited, as her sister Maud is coming to visit Ponyville for the week. And to celebrate, Pinkie wants her friends to join in on a special tradition that Pinkie and Maud have shared over the years. And that tradition is making rock candy necklaces. Pinkie is convinced that Maud will easily get along with her friends due to them sharing similar interests.
The rest of the mane six are optimistic as well, believing they should try their best to get along with Maud for Pinkie’s sake. They finally meet Maud, and surprisingly, she’s very monotone, and more focused on rocks than making friends with the other ponies. She even has a pet rock she named Boulder. After playing a game of camouflage (It’s like hide and seek, but way more intense) Pinkie leaves with her sister to continue her rock candy plans. The others are still not too comfortable considering Maud a friend yet, but Twilight suggests they all try to have time with Maud on their own to see if they can get along with her.
But that backfires. Maud is more interested in a dirty dishtowel than Rarity’s dresses. More interested in rocks than Fluttershy’s animal friends. Her rock-themed poetry bores Twilight. She’s not much of an apple fan, to the chagrin of Applejack. And most damning of all, she’s better at rock throwing than Rainbow Dash, but isn’t fond of winning. The mane six uneasily tell Pinkie Pie that they don’t feel comfortable making rock candy necklaces since they don’t consider themselves friends with Maud. Pinkie is depressed, and ponders what to do with 200 pounds of rock candy.
The Pie Sisters
The mane six feel bad for hurting Pinkie’s feelings, but Pinkie comes up with something that can combine all their interests. She creates an obstacle course race called Pinkie-Rainbow-Rara-Twi-Apple-Flutter-Maud fun time, consisting of the interests of all of the ponies. This includes a rock slide for Maud, which Pinkie gets her hoof caught on, as a giant boulder comes crashing down on her. Before she can be crushed, Maud springs into action, destroying the boulder and saving her sister. Maud tells Pinkie that she doesn’t think that she’ll be able to befriend Pinkie’s friends and decides to go home to the rock farm. Pinkie comes with her, as Twilight finally realizes what they all have in common with Maud.
When the Pie sisters return to the rock farm, they’re greeted by Twilight and the others, who tell Maud that they realize that the one thing they all have in common is their love for Pinkie Pie. Maud gives an unenthusiastic sure, and finally tells them that she doesn’t express herself similar to how Pinkie does, which the mane six have become cool with. The episode ends with the ponies exchanging rock candy with Maud. However, we see that Maud keeps the rock candy Pinkie gives her instead of eating it, because she doesn’t really like candy, but she loves Pinkie Pie.
This was quite a rockin’ episode, but how does it fare with pros and cons?
PRO
Maud is easily one of the best new characters in the series. A very sharp contrast from how the rest of the characters on the show act. Where we have such energetic protagonists, in Maud we have a monotone, dull pony, who is seemingly uninterested in anything other than rocks and Pinkie pie. There has been speculation that a lot of Maud’s traits may represent autism, notably Asperger’s. The lack of social skills, the trouble expressing herself, and her fixation on rocks and rock alone, seem to make that speculation hold true. However, I doubt that was the intention of new writer Noelle Benvenuti. Still, it isn’t impossible to buy either.
What is it about Pinkie Pie episodes that have her actually written with some sense of competence? This episode gave us a multi-dimensional Pinkie Pie who tries to remain optimistic despite her friends lack of interest in Maud, shows actual emotion and sadness when her friends don’t get along with Maud, and is downright lovable in how she is blind to the situation initially. This is the kind of not reading the room that works for Pinkie, instead of, you know, making her best friend cry by bluntly playing up her worst fears.
The mane six all get moments in this episode, and don’t feel like they’ve just been lumped into the episode to make it a pointless ensemble episode. Rainbow Dash especially gets some funny lines, including the great “mystery wrapped in a riddle, inside an igneous” quote.
Again, the show has a fantastic moral about friendship. How just because you can’t find a lot in common with someone doesn’t mean you can’t find something that connects you as friends. I know some would rather the episode end with the mane six and Maud just not clicking, but this works far better, and sticks with the general plot of the show surrounding friendship.
CON
I can’t really find any issues with the episode to give it a con. I would say the mane six just standing there as Pinkie nearly gets crushed by the boulder says a lot about them, but it was important to show just how strong Maud is, and how important her bond with Pinkie Pie truly is.
“Maud Pie” is another “knock it out of the park” episode for season 4. It gives us a great new character, a strong moral, some funny moments, some somber moments, and even an epic moment for a character who seems to be the very antithesis of epic. Season 4 remains constant in quality. And this is yet another perfect episode in my eyes. In fact, it’s the third episode this season I’m giving a perfect 10 rating to. Just goes to show how solid season 4 is, and there’s still 8 more episodes to go to see how much better (or worse it can get)
RATING: 10 out of 10
Next week, the focus goes to Sweetie Belle, as we find out For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils. When Sweetie Belle gets annoyed by her sister Rarity hogging the spotlight, the young filly sabotages one of her sister’s outfits for a very important client. But will a dream visit from Luna change Sweetie Belle’s ways? Find out next week.
Until next time everypony.