S07E02: All Bottled Up

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S07E02: All Bottled Up

Postby Wayoshi (?) » Wed Apr 12, 2017 3:10 pm

Starlight Glimmer and Trixie lose Twilight's friendship map during a retreat; Starlight uses a spell to contain her anger until the map can be found.


This thread is for discussion of the episode. This episode airs at 12:00 AM Eastern / 9:00 AM Pacific on Saturday, April 15!

Official preview clips and images are okay to post, as is speculation about the episode.
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Postby Mechanical Ape (?) » Wed Apr 12, 2017 3:25 pm

Oh Starlight, never give up being a wonderful control freak. :allears:

I'm confused, is there a friendship map besides the enormous thing in the castle? I'm not certain how you could lose that. Though we are talking about ponies, I'm sure they'll find a way. :v:
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To be continued, though!
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Postby Aramek (?) » Wed Apr 12, 2017 3:37 pm

Yay Trixie!

Yay spells to help control emotions!

Starlight can do no wrong!
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Postby Durandal (?) » Wed Apr 12, 2017 10:24 pm

*looks at episode title*



e: Also, wait, "lose the friendship map"???? You mean the map from Twilight's castle? How do you accidentally lose a 1000-pound granite slab?
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Postby RudeCyrus (?) » Thu Apr 13, 2017 3:49 am

Oh good, Trixie shows up again.
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Postby RudeCyrus (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:04 pm

Already this ep is good. Trixie is good.
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Postby Mr. Big (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:04 pm

Trixie annoying Starlight. Yesss :lol:

So Trixie will be a recurring character from now on?
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Postby The Doctor (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:07 pm

We take you live to the friendship retreat...

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Postby RudeCyrus (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:10 pm

Ta-daaaah
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Postby Mr. Big (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:11 pm

Wow, so we're really having a season premiere that's NOT a two-parter.

This is already great. Ta daah.
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Postby Wayoshi (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:11 pm

Trixie's the new fresh source of humor, it looks like.
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Postby Marimo (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:12 pm

Oh cool, it's one of those escape games. I tried it once, it was fun.
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Postby drunkill (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:12 pm

Mechanical Ape wrote:I'm confused, is there a friendship map besides the enormous thing in the castle? I'm not certain how you could lose that.


Well there ya go...
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Postby RudeCyrus (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:13 pm

Trixie gives no fucks.
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Postby Octavia (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:14 pm

Literally bottling up her anger :fluttershock:
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Postby Wayoshi (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:15 pm

The anger is getting literally bottled up, lol.
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Postby Mr. Big (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:21 pm

Whoa, anyone saw Rarity's Fashion Tips bumper? That's new
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Postby drunkill (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:22 pm

Yeah that was a well made and cool and good segment.
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Postby VGAddict (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:24 pm

Is it just me, or is Trixie completely oblivious in this episode?

She's never been this bad before. It's like she's this way just for the sake of the episode
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Postby Wayoshi (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:30 pm

I didn't see much point in the friendship retreat at all, but the rest of the episode was strong.
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Postby Mr. Big (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:31 pm

So that big guy has multiple jobs. Niice :lol:

That was a fun episode. Starlight and Trixie make a good team.
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Postby Octavia (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:32 pm

Fun episode. So glad ponies are back. :-)

Also, you know it's a Daniel Ingram song because of the excessive use of mandolin.
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Postby RudeCyrus (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:35 pm

Trixie is new best horse.
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:35 pm

Octavia wrote:Literally bottling up her anger :fluttershock:

This was actually a great visual analogy, and a good lesson too.

The whole part with the Mane Six in the puzzle room seemed mostly like an excuse to get them out of Ponyville while Trixie and Starlight were causing trouble, as otherwise it would've been decently likely for any one of them to notice what those two were doing. But eh, I don't think it was terribly distracting or anything, and that song was way cool.
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Postby Wayoshi (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:43 pm

VGAddict wrote:Is it just me, or is Trixie completely oblivious in this episode?

She's never been this bad before. It's like she's this way just for the sake of the episode

Maybe a little bit but she's still been as :smug: as ever. Heighten that with doing actual unicorn magic for the first time and she was too preoccupied with her ego to notice
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Postby The Doctor (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 4:44 pm

Surprisingly good episode. I guess the key to making Starlight tolerable, is to team her up with Trixie. Their episode last season was the only Starlight episode I liked there too.


Would have liked to see more of the B-Plot with the girls in the Escape room though.


:wingsright: Good start to the Bingo Card for the season.

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Postby Aramek (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 5:54 pm

This was so good, I'm still really high from it.

Trixie is perfect.
Starlight is perfect.

Holy shit.

Also Trixie dropped the L Bomb. Straight up at the end.

Holy shit.
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Postby PonyHag714 (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 6:27 pm

I can draw a line between "You didn't even say you're sorry!" and "I created harmony!" Starlight even has a similar expression. But that's a good thing, because I like spirited, firey Starlight. Image

It was cool to have the infected townsponies speak in Starlight's thoughts about Trixie. Image
:party: A pony, a plan, a canal...Panamare!
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Postby SlateSlabrock (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 6:33 pm

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Two episodes written by Lady Writers. A good showing for a season starter, even if they're not big flashy two-parters.

The pony running the escape room is a new voice credit, Riley Murdock.

:trixyay: Yaaay! Trixie! You're so great at magic and having good hair!

:smug: We can do this because we're amazing! 'n'magic is friendship 'n'stuff.

:smug: Teach away, mini-Twilight!

I should've put "Manehattan, Again" on my bingo card like I was considering.

Image Are you okay, Starlight? Because you seem a little... what's the word...? L'ch-bleh-behhh.
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Postby Sidotsy (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 6:34 pm

I was really surprised by Trixie actually saying love. I doubt it means anything, but it's still really cool. Also, it was neat to have some semblance of a b-story but while it had a few cute gags, you can't really have a side story in 30 minutes.

Also, I'm really glad we're seeing Starlight deal with more advanced friendship problems and not just 'I was evil let me mind control everyone'. This time her effect on others wasn't her fault directly, it was just her not knowing how to deal with her annoying and inconvenient friend. She's trying to be a better person pony and the writers are finally showing that.
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Postby Captain Rufus (?) » Sat Apr 15, 2017 7:41 pm

Starlight Glimmer: The Khorne Berserker of Ponyville.
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Postby Highbrow Dash (?) » Sun Apr 16, 2017 12:37 am

I just wanna point out this was Inconvenient Trixie: The Episode.
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but why would you post such a thing??
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Postby Discord (?) » Sun Apr 16, 2017 1:17 am

I have to admit, the friends-but-jerks dynamic of Starlight-Trixie is pretty great.

The B-plot was cute and an amusing contrast at times, although a weird choice for a full song, since it didn't really add much to the juxtaposition compared to the regular scene (maybe if Trixie/Starlight got a few bars).
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Postby Mr. Big (?) » Sun Apr 16, 2017 1:38 am

It feels like the song thing was a self-parody, poking fun at how the show do songs. Earlier in the episode, Starlight brought up that they sometimes break into songs.
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Postby PaulloDEC (?) » Sun Apr 16, 2017 1:49 am

Best part:

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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Sun Apr 16, 2017 2:29 am

Highbrow Dash wrote:I just wanna point out this was Inconvenient Trixie: The Episode.

Inconvenient Trixie didn't have quite nearly this much smuggery.
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Postby Headless Horse (?) » Sun Apr 16, 2017 4:48 am

Hahaha it's a swear jar episode



But yeah, I'm really impressed with how they've managed to retain Trixie's character post-redemption. She's still thoughtless and egotistical, but there's more to it than that now. Same with Starlight, and really same with Discord for that matter. They all could have become bland carbon copies of each other, but the writing team has been able to keep their distinctive voices while changing the roles they play in the show.

You can tell they're thinking hard about that because the meat of the episode is explicitly about what makes Starlight Starlight and Trixie Trixie, and both of them different from the Mane 6. The whole final chat between the two of them is about how Starlight isn't who she is if she's bottling up her feelings, which means the writers are thinking carefully about what makes her distinctive as a character. It's not just that one-note gag about bringing up her dark past that kind of wore out its welcome in S6; they referenced that here too so we could tell they're well aware of how pervasive it had become as a thing about her, and that they were consciously trying to draw attention to other aspects of her personality, namely her insecurity and willingness to compromise herself out of fear of losing her friendships. And Trixie... well, she's developing into a pretty great comic foil, and frankly I got a lot more laughs out of her mannerisms than Pinkie Pie's tired cheerleader shenanigans.

I'm pretty stoked for the writing from what I've seen thus far of S7. Seems like it's much more explicitly character-driven and personality-focused than has been the case in the recent past, and I think it's something I've missed since the show has been focusing on wide-ranging adventures and such rather than the self-help and friendship lessons that the show originally had as its mission. Feels like they're trying once again to think of episode themes by starting from a lesson in social graces and building out a story from there, rather than "let's see X location" or "let's see so-and-so do Y" and trying to make a moral happen from within it.


I'm also pretty impressed with the counterpoint trickery they did during the climactic scenes, and even in the middle of the song, having dialogue get echoed back and forth between the two locations and the two groups of ponies. That kind of showoffy flourish is something I haven't seen in the show in a really long time, maybe even since the first few just-finding-its-feet episodes of S1.

Also the song itself was clearly a deliberately corny bit of self-parody, but I loved the trotting animation in the chorus. :awesomedash: Reminded me of this somehow:

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Postby PaulloDEC (?) » Sun Apr 16, 2017 5:01 am

Headless Horse wrote:I'm also pretty impressed with the counterpoint trickery they did during the climactic scenes, and even in the middle of the song, having dialogue get echoed back and forth between the two locations and the two groups of ponies. That kind of showoffy flourish is something I haven't seen in the show in a really long time, maybe even since the first few just-finding-its-feet episodes of S1.

Also the song itself was clearly a deliberately corny bit of self-parody, but I loved the trotting animation in the chorus. :awesomedash:


I didn't immediately get the point of the song, but looking again I think it's just a big (deliberately) over-the-top "Our friendship is so awesome and we're so in-sync with one another!" to contrast with Starlight and Trixie being completely at odds with one another. In fact, that's probably true of the entire Mane 6 segment of the episode; to show one group of friends in perfect harmony versus another that isn't exactly working yet.

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Postby Headless Horse (?) » Sun Apr 16, 2017 5:12 am

Detail I appreciated: Spike washing the giant pile of teacups :amazing:
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Postby Mr. Big (?) » Sun Apr 16, 2017 5:16 am

I was kinda disappointed that Trixie didn't turn a teacup into a teacup :v:
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