Re: S04E20: For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils
PictishBeast wrote:Why didn't I like this one? All the pieces were there: Rarity/Sweetie, continuity, ponies fighting, cute shit... But for whatever reason this never got off the ground for me. The whole thing felt weird and off-model and I can't put my finger on why.
The play felt off. Why is Sweetie putting on a show for adults, and why would they want to see it? The setting seemed off. Why is Sweetie sleeping at Rarity's, and not at her parents' house? The Sapphire Shores mansion felt off. Something about the structure and the earpiece guard at the entrance felt like a weird import. The flashbacks felt off. Too much explanation, not enough emotion. Luna felt off. She didn't have her archaic speech or her melodrama, and came across as stiff and clinical.
None of this stuff is bad, necessarily -- it's a good thing when pony tries something new, right? On paper most of those things sound fine. But man, almost nothing in this episode jelled with me. It was like an out-of-body pony-watching experience. It was like an episode of pony made by aliens using a set of magnetic poetry.
Frosthawk wrote:Finally got to watch this episode when it reran at 3:30 today on the Hub. I would say it's a great episode, but something just felt a teensy-bit off.
I was hoping this would be a lot like Sisterhooves Social, and to an extent it was, but it didn't quite reach that level. Another thing that was interesting was that, in SS, I was strongly sympathizing with Sweetie Bell, whereas in this episode I was totally feeling for Rarity. I actually thought that was an interesting little progression. In Sisterhooves Social, SB causes trouble with child-like innocence overall well-meaning-ness, which is what made me sympathize with her. Here she seems a lot more like an adolescent, which would naturally happen to a kid as they grow up - it's almost character growth, in a way. So while I think Sweetie Bell was waaayyyy ungrateful (I mean, I saw why she was mad, but come on), I think that was overall a good thing for her character and the episode.
I also loved the ending sequences - Sweetie Bell warming back up to Rarity was just so sweet to see, and it cast Rarity in such a good light. I also liked how the ending wasn't one final punchline like it usually is, but ended on a sweet moment. That almost seemed jarring at first, but that's just cause I'm so used to the Scooby Doo endings.
The kind of "off" factor in all of this was basically Luna. I'm still not too big on her "stalking children's dreams" trope, and in this episode it seemed particularly egregious. I guess she has nothing better to do? It just sort of gave the whole episode this Christmas Carol-esque mystical tone which I think distracted from the more slice-of-life sentiments this episode handled really well.
Good to know I wasn't the only one who had this "off" feeling about the episode. I liked it overall, but something about it just didn't feel quite "Pony." And that's strange for me. I think the slow "talkiness" and the unusual lack of humor, which a few others have mentioned, had a lot to do with it. But even the emotional moments didn't hit me like they usually do. Most of the emotional scenes took place in the dream world rather than the real world, and they were all so carefully explained and then neatly resolved that it detracted from them, I think. I just wasn't quite feeling this one.
But I also agree with both of you that Sapphire Shores was great. She was one of the highlights of the episode. Other good parts included the weirder, more far-out sections of the dream sequence, like cloud Rarity and the "future" sequence of Rarity totally losing it. If the rest of the dream had been slightly more abstract like this, leaving Sweetie Belle to interpret things more for herself, I think it would have worked better.
I still haven't re-watched this one, however, and everyone's saying it's better the second time, so I'll have to go try that.

-
HuffyTheMagicDragon
Nature is so fascinating! - Joined: May 01, 2011