Welcome to another Episode Post, where I work feverishly to give you the best screenshots with the Discovery Family logo cropped out of them.
The reasoning for the lack of an Episode Post for A Hearth's Warming Tail is because I don't think I really have enough material for a post there. Maybe at Christmas I'll cover it, but until then, I need to give it time to get the best opinion out of it.
I thought today's episode was Flutter Brutter, which I was looking forward to simply out of curiosity, but I guess I forgot we have a Rarity episode. There was once a time where all Rarity episodes were universally good. While I guess you could say this episode had a bit of everybody in it, this is Rarity's dream being expanded upon here.
Whether or not this one is good is really up to the type of person watching it. Some people may not like this one, and I myself- along with quite a few others- enjoyed it. Sure, the plot wasn't the best in the world, but sometimes a busy day with stuff happening somewhere makes for a nice watch.
Let's get into this.
The episode begins by trying to set up some suspense.
We see the ponies all running to Rarity's place in a hurry.
In case you want to know why, they exposition it out for you. Here are some quotes I have-
"C'mon! If we hurry, we can get there before the paper is even delivered to Rarity's house!"
"I'm pretty sure Rarity is going to read her review of her new boutique in Manehattan."
"I just hope it doesn't end up being an article about how her friends almost ruined the opening."
What they say here and how they act in this opening scene are to be remembered for later. Not the worst exposition rush in this show, though. I can say that much.
When they get to Rarity, she has a mean, stern face. Seems she wasn't all that pleased with her article. That gets my attention! I wonder what possibly happened that was so ba----
No wait never mind. They're doing the joke where she looks upset but she's actually eager. Eager to read the article with her friends.
Her friends try to interject but Rarity strictly request for no spoilers in a clip that will surely be spammed all across the internet.
Ignoring the fact that the target audience probably doesn't even know what a newspaper is anymore, Rarity begins the article as her friends are all freaking out.
Fluttershy hides herself behind some clothes in an "Oh god, I can't watch this! We fucked up so hard!" type of response.
All of this intended buildup must be toward something....
You may also notice that two character are conveniently not there. There's Spike, which Confalone forgot to include in his previous episode, No Second Prances, and Starlight. Maybe this episode was worked on before the decision to incorporate Starlight was a thing.
Still, the help from Starlight and Spike would be things Rarity would appreciate. I get that it would be boring for Spike but... it's for Rarity....
Rarity reads the newspaper article out loud and from there it essentially flashes back and begins the story.
The interview is presented in scenes recorded in a random diner.
A reviewer or a... critic... or... some guy on deviantART called Cuddlepug, (who makes great overviews of the show's recent episodes from Season 4 to now), has pointed out that an actual journalist would physically go to the boutique and check it out instead of just picking stuff up from interviews.
I guess that's common sense, but since it's a cartoon, details like that can just be skipped over. There are plenty of other things that would attract your attention a bit more, like the reporter's chin- or the reporter's hair- or the reporter's mustache.
Maybe pony society works a little differently is all.
From there you'll see how the episode will flow. It's jumps from the actual story to Rarity and her friends commentating their thoughts on each moment during this interview. It's a new thing for this show, that's for sure. I sure liked it. It's not unique, but it was a nice addition to the episode.
These little jump cuts are also the source of most of the episode's jokes. They are scattered all throughout the episode, so I won't put too many pictures of these types of scenes all around. For this first one, though, her friends keep talking about how they feel like they messed up. Just not being confident overall.
So the real stuff begins as soon as they enter the location of Rarity for You. It seems Rarity wants to get the place worked on the exact same day she wants to open it.
Why?
I don't know, I'm not a business person.
However, it may be a good idea to follow up on this kind of stuff before the day you open. It's very dusty there. Dust can have some dead skin it, but more so- it has dirt, animal dander- (pony dander, I guess), sand, and some other indoor particles.
There's a lot of all of that to be cleaned up. Just look at Twilight and Fluttershy.
The other thing is that Rarity for You is to be opened up on a street called Saddle Row. Saddle Row is known for having all of the most fashionable boutiques in the city. It seems all of the ponies there messed up, because that means there's potentially more business competition. Or maybe it's good because of the reputation benefits.
I'm not a business person.
This is Mr. Stripes. He's really big. He's also Russian. Well, TV Tropes says he's Russian.
I'm just some white guy with no cultural knowledge at all.
He really likes his daughter... and miniature doll furniture. But he loves his daughter even more than the latter, saying he'd sell his entire collection to make his daughter happy.
Mr. Stripes wants his daughter to be able to work for Rarity. His daughter isn't unlikable, she's just annoying and a bit misinformed. Aside from her appearance in the ending (which made me cringe for some reason), she's well meaning but just really awful.
Rarity foresees that hiring the owner's daughter isn't a good idea, but he threatens to jack up the rent until she can no longer afford it.
Welcome aboard, Daughter Stripes!
Again, she can be initially annoying, but she doesn't get too much focus and you can tell she isn't mean. She's just not good at what she's trying. Not despicable in any way.
Rarity encounters more problems aside from being forced to higher somebody with no experience. Apparently, on a street known for the most fashionable boutiques in Manehattan, there is also a party palace upstairs.
She tries to negotiate to make it less loud but security doesn't really care. Rarity is really desperate, but nothing's working.
There is also a family of raccoons that happens to be living in the building.
That can't be good.
So with many problems surfacing, Rarity is beginning to face some stress.
The most stressful part about it is the sweeping remix joke thrown in.
Twilight tries to make like a little tune consisting of saying the word "sweep" over and over while brushing away at the dust to make it more fun. Absolutely adorable and I'm waiting for the dubsteps of it.
To make matters worse, Coco Pommel, who was supposed to be a big contributor to the business, ends up having a terminal case of the common cold. In a cruel twist of fate, I myself actually got one right after episode.
This appearance is a brief cameo and she spends most of the time sneezing right on Rarity. Kinda gross, I guess. I wouldn't say Coco is popular enough for her inclusion here to count as fan service, but I am glad to see her here. Besides, Rarity and Coco have been in contact and the show has established they're good friends professionally.
So far, most of the episode consists of dunking Rarity with several obstacles that prevent her from opening the exact night of the day she wants to use setting up the place.
And remember when I said about most of the episode's jokes coming from these interview scenes? Well this one is by far the best.
It tries to go for some meta humor and basically expositions the ending of one season three's best episodes, Too Many Pinkie Pies. After Rarity wishes she could make copies of herself, it cuts to this interview scene. The best part is that as Pinkie finishes explaining about her clones, she eats the entire top half of her stack of pancakes and reveals a poorly disguised clone of herself that presumably was not rounded up in the aforementioned earlier episode.
Interestingly, one humorous joke can also leave open a lot of questions when dealing with continuity. Is this the only Pinkie copy that escaped? Were some not rounded up? Were they all rounded up but ended up not being transported back to the lake? Nobody can tell.
Rarity's friends promise to help by solving the issues that have come up in the light of recent events. Pictured here is Vinyl Scratch, who is the disc jockey of the previously mentioned party palace on the floor above Rarity's soon-to-be-opened shop.
In another funny joke, Pinkie is confronted by two mental images of angel and devil Rarity. Pinkie asks herself what Rarity would want and devil Rarity tell Pinkie to party like there's no tomorrow. Angel Rarity agrees, but it turns out that at least devil Rarity was being completely sarcastic.
I will act like that previous paragraph was a completely normal event. Pinkie tries to ruin the club's beats by suggesting Vinyl Scratch to play a record that she brought with her. Turns out that Pinkie's record is just some "technical difficulties" music.
Every other one of Rarity's friends try to solve the problem the way they think Rarity would want them to. Applejack is suggested the idea of spoon clothes by Mr. Stripes's daughter. Although Applejack thinks it's a good idea, she feels Rarity would want her to say no. She breaks it to Mr. Stripes's daughter in a very mature manner, though. She doesn't take it too well and we later see Applejack getting confronted by Mr. Stripes as a result later on.
Rainbow Dash is having trouble hiring other ponies. You're usually supposed to give the hiring time to make sure you don't hire quacks and to give the applicants time to prepare and follow up. It doesn't help Rainbow Dash doesn't know a thing about fashion, but she finds a trio of ponies who not only all happen to know about clothes, but they also seem to be looking for a job.
Twilight's got the least amount of problems. She's just kinda having fun organizing stuff. The more organizing jokes they play, the less funny it starts getting. These days, without many episodes focusing on Twilight, she's used more often than not to tell jokes. Her character seems to slowly be devolving in recent times. She wasn't perfect in season one, as she was shoehorned into every episode because she was apparently the only one who could write to Celestia. This problem has been addressed for a longer time now, but it's only at this point that I'm really starting to see it.
Of course, Fluttershy is also having some troubles with the raccoons living in the building. Although Fluttershy doesn't want to, she decides that what Rarity would want the most is to ask the raccoons to move out.
I'm impressed that she is doing this for Rarity. Despite showing clear remorse, the raccoons are still pissed about being asked to move out and act like actual animals as they chase Fluttershy all around the place. Were they trying to maul her? Trying to bite her? Beat her up? I don't know!
And here we have an admittedly undersized pic of all of the problems coming together. While not completely chaotic (there aren't any holes in the wall or sofas crushed in half), there are still a lot of things going on.
Mr. Stripes is insisting that spoon clothes will be a thing in the boutique, the raccoons are still angry at Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash has no idea what to do with these ponies she wants to hire for help around the place, and the music is back on upstairs in the party palace.
Rarity is about to come out, but Twilight doesn't want her to be anymore stressed than she already is, so she blocks the door. This basically keeps Rarity locked in for the bulk of the episode. It's pinned on the door getting stuck, allowing Twilight's friends to have more time to sort things out.
Now, if I were Rarity and I was locked in a room knowing about all the cleaning up and work that had to be done, I'd be even more stressed out. But Rarity thankfully keeps her cool and works on the outside display instead.
And I guess what I had to say about Twilight's character is laid to rest in this scene where she comes in with some good advice. When her friends tell her that they all did what they thought Rarity would want, she reminds them that Rarity would want them to solve the problem the way they would- and that Rarity trusts them to do so.
Nice.
Of course, letting them solve things their own way get a little odd as Applejack gives the spoon clothes the green light, Fluttershy lets the raccoons live in the boutique, and Rainbow Dash has the three ponies she is thinking about hiring race for the job. Pinkie also apologizes to Vinyl about killing the club and suggests a way to make the party even better.
Now if I were Rarity, I would be pissed.
But it's a kid's show where everything ends up working out in the end. So what do I know?
And so the ponies get the boutique ready the way they see fit. Never mind that Rarity is still locked behind the door, there's work to be done. Twilight's organization makes for a very colorful display of clothes and it seems everything is working out.
Rarity is kind of just cast to the side because that's where she's locked in. I feel that the negatives are that without the boutique's owner's direction, you can't just assume whatever you do will be okay with her. I mean, it ends up being so, but imagine if that weren't the case.
What if Rarity was upset that Pinkie let the interrupting party music continue playing, or that Applejack okayed the spoon clothes, or that Rainbow Dash has absolutely no idea what she's doing trying to hire ponies, or that Fluttershy let some raccoons stay in her fashion store? Things could get ugly there.
But it obviously works out in the end.
So again, what do I know?
They finally unlock Rarity when they miraculously end up putting the entire boutique together. And it actually looks really good. Like, really good. Visuals like this, as well as some of the more recent visuals general such as in Gauntlet of Fire and A Hearth's Warming Tail show how far the show has come animation-wise.
Rarity is completely thankful that her friends got all of this done for her, and it's respectable that she has kept her cool given the way things have turned out.
At this point, considering that the biggest issue in this problem was only a minor inconvenience consisting of Rarity's friends trying to solve little problems that kinda-sorta held back the opening of the boutique, you have to wonder what was with all of the worry at the start of the episode.
Pretend I'm a new audience member still watching the episode for the first time.
Do they still have time left in the episode to introduce a big problem that shows the reasoning behind Rarity's friends' anxiousness? What could it be? Is it just a case of them overreacting at the start of the episode in an attempt to try to create suspense???
It was a case of them overreacting at the start of the episode in an attempt to try and create suspense.
Everything's just fine, albeit completely different than the generic boutique Rarity had in mind. Most people in Manehattan are jerks, so I'm surprised of how supportive they are of a fashion boutique that's fused with a dance club while raccoons serve people food to be eaten with spoon clothes.
But as long as the compromises have worked, well...
What do I know?
Rarity is thankful for all of the things that her friends have done for her and it looks like that's the end of it.
So the review on the boutique ended up being completely positive. It was written by a guy who presumably never even physically went there himself, but I guess that doesn't seem to really matter here.
It ends off with a really corn fluffy scene of them hugging. As sweet as all of you people find it, I think there's a limit to how unbearable this type of ending can be. I didn't like it in The Cutie Mark Chronicles, I didn't like it here.
But if there's anything that can top how irritating that was, it would be the last three seconds of the episode that just has Daughter Stripes make some stupid face.
These things just bother me is all.
And that's Saddle Row and Rec.
This one was delayed because I had other things I wanted to do on Saturday. This was on the works for two and a half days.
Not that you guys care.
Whoever reads all of this stuff.
Overall, an episode I found myself liking. It isn't perfect, but I can look past all of that. The format they tried out, while not new to media, is new to the show. It makes this episode more unique and gives one a reason to go back to it.
Confalone's a pretty good writer, though I wouldn't say this episode was his strongest. If he has even more episodes made this season, I can only hope they are on par with his two contributions this season. Both of which are pretty good.
That's it for closing thoughts.
I don't know what episode is next week, I'll have to check.
I guess I should be more responsible and do research, but this is just an impromptu opinion on the episode, as are all Episode Posts.
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