Here's a scene that didn't work for me, which also is emblematic of why I found this episode kind of bleh.
So Sweetie sez to Rarity, "It's my fifth birthday party all over again!" That's perfect. That sums it all up right there. Everybody has some incident from their past that they can't get over; everybody has something that they've forgotten about which is a big deal to other people. And Rarity and Sweetie are believable as the characters to have long, vindictive memories like that. It works, and I was thinking "Hail Polsky -- using one line of dialogue to convey what other shows would handle with a flashback scene."
Then, flashback scene. But wait, it's not that bad, it's actually fairly nuanced. Rarity's not being mean, but she is kind of hogging the spotlight. And no, she doesn't know Sweetie is hanging out on the stairs, but she probably shouldn't be showing off the party favors anyway, not without Sweetie around. But it's hardly a hanging offense, and I can see how Rarity's center-of-attention instincts would lead her to show off her work at the wrong time even though there's zero malice attached. And I can see how Sweetie would ascribe malice to Rarity's center-of-attention instincts anyway, because it's her fucking birthday. Hail Polsky -- crafting a complex scene in which both parties' readings of the situation are "right." That's like,
life, man.
Then, flashback scene redux. We get the same dialogue delivered twice (which was also annoying in It's About Time) and haha of course there's no nuance. Rarity was trying to save Sweetie from mean fillies all along! That's how you can tell she loves Sweetie! She couldn't have loved Sweetie just as much under a scenario in which she wasn't painted as a saint, because that would be like, complicated and shit. And all of this is delivered by Luna as a charisma-free Jacob Marley.
Listen, this episode wasn't bad, I'm just being an asshole because I do that. But for me this episode was like being excited to go over to your friend's house because his family is cool and funny, and then when you get there his mom makes you all sit around the table and play Bible Trivia.
