My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Season 4 Episode 8

In the end, the episode wasn't bad, and yet, I felt like it was very weak. I enjoyed The Crystal Empire more than I enjoyed it - The Crystal Empire, for all its emptiness, had some really stand-out stuff in it (the tower scene, some of the bits with the fair, some of the Rarity/Applejack stuff). This episode wasn't really bad anywhere, but it wasn't GREAT anywhere either. There weren't any golden moments in the episode - no brilliant bits of dialogue or scripting which really made me want to repeat them with an "XD" or something afterwards while watching. Rainbow Dash felt a bit out of character in some of her dialogue, and really the whole lack of focus meant that none of the characters other than Rarity got much real "character" in the episode. And while Rarity did fine in her bits, I really love seeing Rarity be a ham, and she really didn't get to be very hammy this episode.



It was mostly just straight up serious drama, and while that's okay... it isn't amazing, and the episode didn't sell the drama well enough to me to really rate the episode well, merely being lukewarm the whole way through.

I'm not gonna go into too much detail. This episode was great, just like every other Rarity episode, but strangely enough, this is the one with the most heart. Rarity flipping out at her friends was understandable and I felt sad for her when she sang the reprise of her "generosity" song. I do not factor my enjoyment of the songs into my ratings, but music can make a difference in terms of the mood of the episode.



Rarity herself gets some decent character development, and I like how Rainbow Dash keeps her "professionalism" from Flight to the Finish. Overall, I really liked this episode. This season is shaping out to be awesome so far.



9/10

And so a new Year of Ponies had started in the year of the Horse. Rarity had not any centered episodes about her since December 2011. But now at last Rarity is back and this time with her friends in Manehattan. Rarity is going to star in the fashion week, but her design is stolen. Notice the many BG ponies cameos too. There are many highlights like the return of Rarity's whining, a brandnew song, the return of Manehattan, Nathan's shoutout and on. It also seems like we are building up to the Finale here like we did with the Gala. So there is something for everypony here. Both drama and heart. This Manehattan episode could easily fill two parts as big as this city is.

For a full season, we haven't seen a Rarity based episode at all, which disappointed me since Rarity is probably my favorite member of the Mane 6. So it was a really big relief to hear that we'd get an episode about her this season which takes place in Manehatten. Our writer this time is very familiar to the show: Dave Polsky, who's known for writing a lot of good episodes such as Feeling Pinkie Keen, Over a Barrel, Keep Calm and Flutter On, and a few other episodes. So this is Polsky's first attempt at writing Rarity as a focus. How does this episode hold up to other Rarity episodes?



The story begins with Spike carrying bags for Rarity and everypony showing how excited they are to go with Rarity for Fashion Week in Manehatten. When they get there, the Mane 7(Yes, I include Spike as a main character) are shown around the city and we get to see plenty of new looks to Manehatten. After a song number, Rarity realizes she's late for Fashion Week and hurries over to where the other dress designers are.



It's here we meet our villain of the episode, Suri Polomore, forgive me if I get the last name wrong. Apparently she's an old friend of Rarity's and needs help with some of her clothes, so Rarity deices to give her a piece of her own fabric design. The next day however, Rarity sees that Suri used her own fabric to create her own line of clothing. Rarity accuses her of cheating, but Suri shrugs it off and says it's everypony for themselves in the big city.



Rarity goes back to the hotel and tells her friends what happened. Saddened by this, they agree to help Rarity with some new dresses. However, she pushes her friends to work overtime, sew more dresses(Weird, I thought it was Fluttershy who could sew, not the others as well)and miss a musical show they've been wanting to see. Rarity scolds them for this and gallops away. The others, feeling guilty, decide to get to work.



The following day, Rarity takes her dresses and showcases them to all the famous fashion people. We even get to see Photo Finish, Sapphire Shores, and Hoity Toity. It's a really nice shout out to fans of the show who know them and seen them before. Rarity is expected to win, but she sees several empty rows of seats and realizes that her actions pushed her friends away. Unwilling to see her friends suffer, Rarity goes back to the hotel to make amends, but it's too late, they're gone.



Rarity sulks back to the fashion studio and sees her friends there, but Suri comes out and says that she didn't win at all. Rarity shrugs it off saying that her friends are more important and offers them another chance to see the musical show. After they leave, it's revealed that Suri lied again and that she's hoping Rarity leaving would mean automatic disqualification.



After the musical show, which is oddly not crowded for a show supposed to be so popular, Rarity says that she got these tickets because she offered to stay in Manehatten for another week to design more dresses. Suddenly, Suri's assistant comes in and gives her the trophy for Fashion Week. She says Rarity did win and that the generosity she showed to her friends made her realize that she couldn't just do Suri's work anymore and quit so she can find something else to do. Rarity decides to give Suri's assistant the job of doing the fashion designs and everypony goes back to Manehatten. Rarity learns that sometimes somepony will take advantage of their generosity, but that shouldn't stop her from continuing to be generous. Our episode ends with Rarity opening a present given to her by Suri's assistant, which turns out to be Rainbow Thread for some reason.



So after a full season of no Rarity episodes, how'd this hold up? To be honest, I felt this episode fell short of the other Rarity episodes in the past. I feel that it wasn't done as those episodes. Now don't get me wrong, this episode is still pretty great and all, but there are still many faults with this episode. But let's look at the good first.



It's nice to see Manehatten again and we get to see more of the city again. It's a lot more detailed and modern than what we saw in Cutie Mark Chronicles in Applejack's flashback. It's pretty much what you expect Manehatten to be like, a parody of New York City, complete with rude ponies with accents.



Naturally, since this is a Rarity episode, we have a song as well. Once again, Rarity shows why she's the best singer out of the entire Mane 6. It's a step up from last week's attempt at a Danny Elfman-esque like song as well. It's more upbeat and a little more energetic this time. This isn't my favorite Rarity song, but I still enjoyed it and the instrumental, but the lyrics could've been done a little better.



Not much to talk about in comedy this time. Pinkie, again, steals that category. Polsky seems to write Pinkie really well, especially in terms of jokes, and he did what he did best with Pinkie. I also did find it amusing to see Rarity act so dramatic a few times. And yes, I did see Grumpy Cat on that pony, very cute and pretty funny to see.



But now, we need to focus on why I think this episode isn't as good as past Rarity episodes.



For one thing, Spike literally disappears in this episode. Yes, he's in this episode, but in the second act of the episode, he literally vanishes from the episode. Where did he go? He couldn't have been allowed to be out on his own. It's not explained and then he appears towards the end. What happened to him? I will say this though, considering Spike could hold all those bags without collapsing shows he's got super strength or something.



The villain, Suri, is what some fans called a "New Trixie". Well Trixie fans, don't worry, Suri has got nothing on Trixie at all. Suri is pretty much the embodiment of Rarity's greed and selfishness. She's pretty much your generic stuck up jerk who will do anything she can to get what she wants. Nothing too memorable to me in all honesty. What earns her on this list of things wrong though is that there's no resolution as to what happens to her at the end. Did Suri's assistant tell the fashion designers the truth? Did Suri vow vengeance against Rairty? And what's worse though, is that really there's nothing that comes back to haunt her for her plagiarism, not even being caught or the head fashion designer hear her and disqualify her. It feels so unresolved and her character is pretty forgettable. I think this is one villain who is best left unwarranted for another episode.



Thirdly, and this is my biggest gripe with this episode: it's REALLY rushed. The plot doesn't really pick up until the second act of the episode. And despite the synopsis being Rarity pushes her friends to hard for her, that's not seen until just before the end of the second act. Most of the episode centers around the song, seeing Manehatten, and being introduced to our villain before the plot truly gets going. By the third act, everything feels so rushed that it's really glaring. As I said before, the thing with what happens to Suri feel unresolved and everything feels so forced and rushed at the end that it irritated me. This wasn't a properly put together episode like in other Rarity episodes. Usually, her episodes start the problem off before the first act ends, the second act shows her doing something wrong, and the final act shows her resolving it. The problem here is that the problem doesn't begin until the middle of the second act and then, by the end of it, she feels bad for it. It feels so sloppy to me. This was an episode where pacing was its biggest flaw to me. If it was structured like other Rarity episodes, I'd forgive it, but this one was literally rushed. I've heard others complain about how Power Ponies took too long to get to its plot, but this is even worse.



Overall, I feel that this episode really didn't do it for me as a Rarity episode. It does have a lot of bright moments, the song is good, and it does have some good jokes, but the villain is pretty stock and the pacing is just dreadful to me. I don't hate this episode, but I feel there should've been some changes. Sorry Polsky, you're a good writer, but maybe you're better off sticking to Pinkie episodes instead. Rarity fans may or may not like this episode, so approach with caution.



FINAL SCORE: 7.5/10

Okay, don't call me out on this, because I admit. I have a bit of a bias when it comes to New York related movies and media because I live on Long Island, so close to the city, and despite not being phased by a majority of the things shot in New York, seeing ponified NYC left me with butterflies in my stomach for some reason (and seeing what appears to be a ponified Brooklyn Bridge, could that mean a PONY LONG ISLAND?- not that they'd ever explore that).



Anyway, upon first watching previews for the episode, I felt a bit concerned that Rarity's generosity card was going to be thrown at us to make up for all of generosity she seems to have had over the past few seasons, especially during that snippet of song we got. But this is her highlight episode, one we haven't gotten in a long time, and thus we actually get to see more of Rarity that we haven't seen before. Her ecstatic emotions upon arriving in Manehattan probably drive her to her gigantic generosity spree, before eventually realizing that it really is "everypony for herself" in the big city and that sometimes, acts of generosity may not get you much.



Seriously though, that song. I've been hearing some people say that they didn't like the whole bombastic Broadway (*ahem* BRIDLEway) feel that Ingram was doing with the songs this season, but obviously, in this case, it works with the huge hustle-and-bustle going around them (of course, I may just be on a Broadway high- I've seen two Broadway shows last month, both of which were astounding). Definitely up there for one of my favorites in the series.



Rarity being poisoned by the Manehattan attitude; after having her fabric stolen, she's already adapted an "everypony for herself" attitude. However, it's pretty apparent that it's all done out of stress. She openly bashes out at her friends, despite their help with her new line, and in a few cases contradicts herself, all because of, what I feel, may be her inability to adapt to that attitude. It did seem like an entire 180 though, as it all happened so quickly. Even though the way it was executed was okay, the rushing may be my only issue. But of course, Rarity realizes the error of her ways, and goes to make things right, which leads to an awesome reprise in the rain (seriously, loving the songs in this episode!)



That pony, I already forget her name, that stole Rarity's fabric, be honest, I'm kinda glad that she didn't get her comeuppance at the end, even though it was true that Rarity had won fashion week. It just feels right that with the whole Manehattan atmosphere, there's not always going to be retaliation. I suppose her assistant leaving her and going to work for Rarity for her remaining time in Manehattan may be a bit of a loss on her end, but Prim Hemline never actually found out that she stole the fabric, which, ironically, is actually a bit satisfying, because while she technically got away with stealing, she still lost.



Despite the previously mentioned rushing in the middle of the episode, the pacing in this episode was impeccable, almost unparalleled in season 4 so far. The ending didn't feel rushed, and while it would have been nice to see some more of that musical, it wasn't necessarily essential to the plotline. Granted, this episode did have a few hiccups, but not enough to bring it down from what I consider the best episode this season, and one of the best episodes ever.



FINAL SCORE: 9.5/10

I thought this episode was just OK. I've seen far better but far worse too.



Pros:

Rainbow Dash being cute

Episode picked up on the second half

Rarity's funny freak out



Cons:

First half was boring

The townspeople wanting the main six to leave

Boring song number



So this episode was just OK in my opinion, it has an equal amount of ups and downs, and as well as the first episode that I didn't love OR hate in this season. While I thought this episode was decent, there were some parts that I didn't lie.