S05E16: Made in Manehattan

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Re: S05E16: Made in Manehattan

Postby die Fledermaus (?) » Sat Sep 26, 2015 11:02 pm

So babs is an orange who's cutie mark is scissors?

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Postby The Doctor (?) » Sat Sep 26, 2015 11:09 pm

:v: Duh. I guess it could be her mom.
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Postby Daring Do (?) » Sat Sep 26, 2015 11:26 pm

The Doctor wrote::v: Duh. I guess it could be her mom.


It's Aunt Orange, you silly. :P
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Sat Sep 26, 2015 11:40 pm

The Doctor wrote::v: Duh. I guess it could be her mom.

If anyone is this episode is her mom, it's that popcorn vendor.
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Postby Durandal (?) » Sun Sep 27, 2015 12:04 am

This episode is just not doing it for me, as much as I love the idea of Rarity and Coco being together on screen again. It was like:

- Lots of meandering exposition
- Weird accents
- The same problem is reiterated over and over again
- Applejack fixes the problem in like 15 seconds while I wasn't even paying attention
- The resolution was kind of nice I guess, except for the overused fashion emergency jokes

Sorry Rarity and Applejack :pinkieshrug:
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Postby Highbrow Dash (?) » Sun Sep 27, 2015 12:15 am

Yeah, it had its moments but it wasn't anything special. Also, Coco feels like a total non-character :pinkieshrug:

They can't all be winners though, last 2 eps were amazing :-P
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Postby Mechanical Ape (?) » Sun Sep 27, 2015 1:24 am

Mechanical Ape Reacts!

  • Bizarro-Twilight is bored of reading while Normal Spike enjoys his comic books graphic novels sequential art anthologies.
  • I wonder if Twilight not getting selected for cool map missions is a theme? It happened with Griffonstone too.
  • Pinkie probably gave Spike permission to use her throne for comic book reading.
  • Yes, I'm sure Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom can be counted on to be mature and understanding in re the Sisterhooves Social.
  • You know where you are? You're in the jungle, Applejack!
  • You're gonna DIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
  • I want an "AJ crosses the street" Flash game and I want it yesterday.
  • Rarity remains the best thing to ever happen to this town.
  • :eyebrow:
  • Wow, what a mad hatter!
  • Rarity of course folds the flyer neatly afterwards HEY THERE'S THAT RECEPTIONIST PONY HIIIIII RECEPTIONIST PONY
  • Filly Coco is seriously cute. Also, I was not expecting an origin story for her hair decoration, but this fucking show.
  • "Oat and hay export business" = organized crime.
  • If something is too much work for Applejack and/or Rarity, it is too much work.
  • rip hat
  • Coco, Rarity and AJ are shot like they're MSTing the play.
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Postby PaulloDEC (?) » Sun Sep 27, 2015 1:39 am

Nice episode, but I feel like there was something wrong with the pacing. It seemed like there should've been more build-up to the big performance, but things kinda just seamlessly merged into it, to the point where I was barely aware I was even seeing the big the performance until midway through.

I guess it seemed like all the elements of a great story were here, but they didn't quite pull it off in the execution. Still, nowhere close to being rubbish. Just an OK episode.
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Postby Cthulhu Inc (?) » Sun Sep 27, 2015 6:23 am

It's worth noting that the MLP section on the Hasbro website has stuff for how kids can contribute to their community, so it's basically a community service PSA :-P
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Postby MurdER_weapOn '78 (?) » Sun Sep 27, 2015 9:16 am

Yeah I wasn't really feeling this episode either unfortunately :unenthused:

Like others have said it just didn't really feel like anything was at stake, a feeling exacerbated by Applejack just solving the problem at the drop of a hat at the end. I could have done without having 2 or 3 minutes devoted to the play as well.

I also agree that it was a missed oppurtunity with Coco, who seemed to spend most of the time moaning that the situation was hopeless.

Alas, for me this one gets thrown on the pile with Appleoosa's Most Wanted and Princess Spike :gonkity:
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Postby Soft Snow (?) » Sun Sep 27, 2015 3:38 pm

I liked this episode. Coco was nice. I like how Rarity figured out why Twilight couldn't come. It is like they had to save the city before it before it became an unfriendly place to live. I think that is what the map episodes are about, not large singular friendship problems, but solving more subtle ones that would effect the mood of society as a whole. Like in the one where they slightly nudge the griffons in the right direction. Overall making the world a better and friendlier place to live in. :allears:
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Postby Aramek (?) » Sun Sep 27, 2015 7:38 pm

Didn't get to see it yesterday due to being out drinking, but, just watched it!

===

- Hammy Twi sighing with that frustrated raspberry was awesome.
- Tabatha noises.
- Rarity faces.
- Twi is getting so frustrated the map isn't picking her. Awww.
- "Libraries!" Twi, you can go too. Like, you aren't needed to solve the problem, just, go and do tourist stuff. AJ and Rarity won't mind.
- Super obvious tourist ponies. :lol:
- Rarity's totally-not-Louis-Vuitton luggage.
- "EYES PEELED! EARS UP!" Dead from cute.
- :starity: "Don't buy that hat! It is uggo!"
- Trunk bonk.
- Mega AJ eyebrow action.
- Man he's gross. :lol:
- GOOD GRIEF!
- Lovely and lively tea greeting. AJ picks up a pastry with her face.
- Moons still feels like an odd unit of time.
- "I'M TROTTIN' HERE!" Thank fuckin' god they said it. I hoped they would, and they did.
- Coco has a lot of animation. Like, they seem to have tried harder on her little movements.
- "Everything is gonna be just fine!" and epic card flop scene change.
- RIP hat. X2.
- Everything broke.
- Rarity faint. :3:
- AJ's habit of shoving her hooves into mouths continues.
- Mmmm, dats some good old fanshioned ham.
- "Ah dunno shugah! Aww, awwright, ah suppose we cud stahh fah a mahnnut."
- HAHAHAHAHAHAH IT'S THOSE SPECIFIC TWO FROM MAD MEN AGAIN! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
- I love how Yawkie all the backgrounders are. (Sorry HH. But these are your people.)
- Being carried to the stage by an array of technicolor pool noodles.
- Move over Rarity faces, AJ face! AJ FACE! :ponydrugs:
- I love this foppish Exporter.
- Yay for commuinty betterment!
- Horse hug. :hug:
- "Aaaaaaand, in the garbage with youuuuu..."
- Completely transparent setup for the next episode.
- UNT ZE FASHION POLIZE AH IN AKTCTION!
- Nice, custom credits music again!
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Sun Sep 27, 2015 8:02 pm

Aramek wrote: - Moons still feels like an odd unit of time.

I agree. I wonder if the writers keep using this because they legit think it's cute or interesting or unique for Equestrian society to mark time by the lunar cycle, or if it's that way because that lets the writers be more vague than if the scripts specified weeks and months and the like. Whatever reason they have, it's always felt awkward ever since the practice started in Apple Family Reunion.
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Postby Headless Horse (?) » Sun Sep 27, 2015 8:29 pm

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What are they trying to pull off with this weirdo?



Anyway—it's a Rarity episode, which means it's going to be light on the slapstick and heavy on the Grown-Up Problems. Hence why the episode as a whole feels slow-paced and overwrought and not very funny. It's a story for adults that's vacationing in a kids' show. Unfortunately it doesn't fit all that perfectly into the genre, hence all the awkward exposition (especially at the end where the townsponies go on at length about how they've been inspired to go clean up trash or whatever); no 11-year-old is going to sit still for that.

Honestly it feels like the work of a greenhorn writer, someone who falls too easily into the trap of writing lots of fanfic-style story development and doesn't give enough attention to the silly little gags and visual jokes. They're there, but nowhere near as much as in some other eps this season that feel more like "classic" laugh-a-minute-with-occasional-feels pony show (particularly Scare Master).

- I did think the cold open was amazing though. Nice bored groooooaaan out of Twilight there. :lol:

- AJ carrying the trunk on her back was very classic Pony.

- "Bronclyn" :iamapony:

- "Oh Manehattan, what you do to me!" Yep, writer's got a bad case of the callback-to-prove-I've-been-paying-attention-itis.

- The Charlie Brown gag was great. Made me guffaw. "Good grief!"

- That kid was a pegasus, and his mom didn't look like she had wings under that shirt.

- I wish they'd applaud by stomping, like they used to.
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Postby Wayoshi (?) » Sun Sep 27, 2015 8:33 pm

There's some board layout guy this season who thinks fatpony is funny, I'm pretty sure now.

I will add on to Headless's spoiler and say that the best ep so far in 5B is the leaked one. Looking forward to that finally airing in a month.
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Postby WandereringPony (?) » Sun Sep 27, 2015 8:57 pm

shotgunbadger wrote:Yea taped on cutie marks have been a thing I think.

Also, great episode.


It strikes me as what you'd do as a small-scale production, since they backgrounded much of the stuff as cardboard drawings and the like. But to take that earlier Greek reference, I'd honestly say that cutie-remarking your actors likely helps make an impression on pony audiences- along with helping out in classical performances where a "modern" cutie mark would stick out like a shaved mane.

Middling episode compared to the last two, but solid. I do wish Applejack had at least gotten some comments and/or help there before the play started, but it worked out well in the end.

Best part was explaining exactly WHY Twilight doesn't go everywhere, and it's the one reflected in the Celestia/Spike comic- if a Princess can make your problems go away, you never learn how to deal with them to begin with in a way that doesn't require a Princess.

Afterthought edit: More musical credit stuff, please. MLP has some delightful background music work as it is, and it's a lovely touch at the end of episodes. Smooooooth jazz.
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Postby Bremen (?) » Sun Sep 27, 2015 9:13 pm

WandereringPony wrote:It strikes me as what you'd do as a small-scale production, since they backgrounded much of the stuff as cardboard drawings and the like. But to take that earlier Greek reference, I'd honestly say that cutie-remarking your actors likely helps make an impression on pony audiences- along with helping out in classical performances where a "modern" cutie mark would stick out like a shaved mane.


I like this idea; it's pure fanon, but it's a fun one. I wonder if the villain always gets a bleeding dagger cutie mark that no one ever seems to notice before she betrays them :gotcha:
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Postby Nemrex (?) » Sun Sep 27, 2015 9:20 pm

Finding this episode to be one of the "middling" ones. Good for the laughs, but not one of the best that the season has to offer. But I always enjoy an Applejack and Rarity centered episode.

Plus this
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Postby Soft Snow (?) » Sun Sep 27, 2015 10:17 pm

Headless Horse wrote:Image

What are they trying to pull off with this weirdo?

I'm not sure but I get the feeling they might be trying to force a new fan favorite background pony like did with Lyra.
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Postby Headless Horse (?) » Sun Sep 27, 2015 11:45 pm

Highly appreciated: the close-up montage sequence of Applejack weeding and gardening. :twasnothin:


Also snorting and pawing the ground before crossing the street.
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Postby Mechanical Ape (?) » Mon Sep 28, 2015 1:05 am

Aramek wrote: - HAHAHAHAHAHAH IT'S THOSE SPECIFIC TWO FROM MAD MEN AGAIN! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!


Two?! We had Roger, Joan, Peggy, and Don.
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Postby Aramek (?) » Mon Sep 28, 2015 1:37 am

Mechanical Ape wrote:
Two?! We had Roger, Joan, Peggy, and Don.

In the first scene, the two together were these ones:

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I dunno their names.
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Postby Frith (?) » Mon Sep 28, 2015 1:33 pm

I think this was a very solid episode. Nothing mind blowing but nothing really wrong with it either.

The story was well written and the lesson was good. I think Coco is a very likeable character so it was nice to see her again. Rarity and AJ make a really good team together and their interaction were again fun to watch.
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Postby Daring Do (?) » Tue Sep 29, 2015 2:38 am

So, anyone interested in talking about the implications of Babs Seed being with Aunt Orange? Were the background artists or whoever's responsible trying to imply Babs actually is the Oranges' daughter?
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Postby Octavia (?) » Tue Sep 29, 2015 2:48 am

Daring Do wrote:So, anyone interested in talking about the implications of Babs Seed being with Aunt Orange? Were the background artists or whoever's responsible trying to imply Babs actually is the Oranges' daughter?

I have no idea how Babs got that accent, if that's the case.
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Tue Sep 29, 2015 3:09 am

Daring Do wrote:So, anyone interested in talking about the implications of Babs Seed being with Aunt Orange? Were the background artists or whoever's responsible trying to imply Babs actually is the Oranges' daughter?

I don't think so. I mean, remember that Aunt Orange is Babs Seed's aunt, too. Is it that odd for her to go visit family members, too?
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Postby Daring Do (?) » Tue Sep 29, 2015 3:12 am

Fizzbuzz wrote:I don't think so. I mean, remember that Aunt Orange is Babs Seed's aunt, too. Is it that odd for her to go visit family members, too?


Yeah, I feel that could easily be the case in-universe, but I'm trying to work out "creator intent".
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Postby The Doctor (?) » Tue Sep 29, 2015 3:16 am

Fizzbuzz wrote:I don't think so. I mean, remember that Aunt Orange is Babs Seed's aunt, too. Is it that odd for her to go visit family members, too?


Has it ever been said that she is Babs' Aunt? I figure it could go either way.
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Postby Daring Do (?) » Tue Sep 29, 2015 3:25 am

The Doctor wrote:
Has it ever been said that she is Babs' Aunt? I figure it could go either way.


Not to my knowledge; I think Fizzbuzz meant "she doesn't have to be Aunt Orange's daughter, because Aunt Orange would at the least be her aunt too".
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Postby MurdER_weapOn '78 (?) » Tue Sep 29, 2015 8:40 am

Could it be that Babs ended up living with the Oranges after she changed schools? No way did she grow up with them.
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Postby SlateSlabrock (?) » Tue Sep 29, 2015 8:52 am

Daring Do wrote:
Yeah, I feel that could easily be the case in-universe, but I'm trying to work out "creator intent".

A lot of non-voiced things get thrown into episodes by the animators on a lark. I'm guessing Babs was one of them because, "Hey, it's Manehattan, and the script says nothing about Applejack's relatives."
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Postby Dexanth (?) » Tue Sep 29, 2015 2:28 pm

Yea, it's almost certainly an animator easter egg. They love doing that, because it makes the show more fun for them too.
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Postby Just Scuds (?) » Tue Sep 29, 2015 2:38 pm

Soft Snow wrote:Image
I'm not sure but I get the feeling they might be trying to force a new fan favorite background pony like did with Lyra.



Lyra was there just as an animator's gag or in-joke in joke around the office, this is probably the same thing.

I'm wondering what the article on the left is about. An Op-Ed from a horse on the 'state of pony society these days'.
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Postby Mechanical Ape (?) » Wed Sep 30, 2015 1:50 am

^^^^ That is a very Charles Krauthammer-looking pony to me.



Aramek wrote:I dunno their names.

Image
These were the Roger, Joan and Peggy ponies. Don Draper pony was in the background elsewhere, I'm pretty sure, but I couldn't be bothered to check again. :effort:


Image

The bridge supports are horseshoes! :ponydrugs:



Image

:ohboy:
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Postby Mordja (?) » Sat Oct 17, 2015 9:41 pm

I actually really liked this episode. It was low-stakes, low-energy and something of a break from the frantic comedy of the last two and I liked the moral.

Those stage actors were preeeetty bad tho.
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Postby BurningBright (?) » Sat Oct 17, 2015 11:56 pm

Things I liked about this episode:

-As a former, uh, Manhattanite? The artistic detail spent on the city was really nice. It still felt like Ponyland but even someone casually flipping channels would recognize the backgrounds as a cartoony NYC.

-They did a really good job with the play's layout, even if the little story-within-a-story that was its plot was dull. The lighting and the way the voices rang out felt almost exactly like watching a televised off-broadway show.

-Applejack's fear of the city was awesome and well-played. I know irl country people who are afraid of ever setting foot into a city because of Reasons. I honestly would have rather seen more of that then the actual plot.

-Having a slow pace and a story that actually takes time to breathe instead of feeling like it was forcefully squished into 22 minutes was refreshing.

Things I didn't like:

-This felt really weak for a Rarity episode.
-The second half of the plot was boring.
-Coco was boring.

Overall, the weakest Rarity episode I've seen in a long time and fairly weak for an Applejack episode too. Not bad, but not great.

I think it would've been more interesting if they either just said fuck it and did New York gags for the whole show or went in the opposite direction with a full-on-drama in a plot that was a bit more heavy and with more feels. (Maybe focusing on a streetwise kid who is stuck in a really bad neigborhood or a Very Special Episode about pony racism or a new background pony having problems making friends in a city where everyone seems to be flaky. Something, anything).
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Postby Mordja (?) » Sun Oct 18, 2015 12:50 am

BurningBright wrote:-As a former, uh, Manhattanite?

goondolences
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Postby Jill (?) » Sun Nov 01, 2015 2:37 am

  • Princess Twilight Sparkle: Bored
  • Haha you don't even get to go anywhere. Just like me. Just. Like. Me.
  • AJ don't get city folk. It's alright, I don't get any folk.
  • Fat Capitalist Jerkwad is like the cherry dude from PYHD cranked up to 11.
  • Rarity opens the Rarijack shipping booth, but there's just not enough interest. Should have brought Fluttershy instead.
  • Oh no! How are they ever going to get off that street corner? :flail:
  • Oh. I guess they figured it out during the commercial break.
  • Coco and filly Coco. :allears:
  • Takin' them countryisms all literal. :hilarious:
  • RIP hat. Also where did you even get that mower.
  • RIP any fanon that considered AJ's hat a memento. :smirk:
  • So the lesson I take away from this is that nobody gives a shit unless you can get the ball rolling on your own. Ain't that the truth. :ohrarity:
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Sat Mar 05, 2016 2:57 am

I just watched this again on the Pasture and, thinking about it now, I feel like I was perhaps a bit harsh when I first saw this episode. Sure, its story and Coco Pommel herself are both rather low-key, but is that really such a bad thing? Nothing hugely important happened, but it still told a charming story about the importance of getting a community to come together even when circumstances aren't always perfect for it. Things like this don't have to be perfect in order to inspire or entertain people, so long as they have heart and soul put into them.
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Postby Zimbie (?) » Mon Mar 21, 2016 5:31 pm

I was convinced that I would see a return of Suri Polomare.
I didn't see her in this episode. :consternation:
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