MLP episode review: Bridle Gossip · 10:15pm May 22nd, 2014
*Leans over to the closest fimfic member and whispers in their ear* What? I'm just starting some...
Bridle Gossip
We open in Ponyville, with a gorgeous day! They surmise Dash woke up early 'for once'. :p Everyone should be out enjoying the day... except the town's deserted. We even get a tumbleweed tumbling by. *Waves to fellow poster* ;) It;s not a holiday. Spike's breath isn't any worse than usual. He wonders... zombies?
Okay... I seriously hope we never get zombies in the show. To be honest, although there's some I like, overall zombie-related media is really not my thing. I might need two hands to count the number of pieces of media I like, but there'd be fingers left over. So no zombies or else that would be a serious dent in my enjoyment.
Back to the show... Twilight says not likely, but Spike latches onto that. Suddenly Pinkie Pie pops out of Sugar Cube Corner and whispers REALLY loudly for them to get over there. Fortunately she doesn't pull a Scorpion. They race over and it's pitch-black inside. Until Pinkie turns on a flashlight. Spike scares her with zombie talk. Oh, thank god. It's not zombies! Twilight asks why she's alone in the dark. But she's not alone. The rest of the Mane Six and Apple Bloom's there, too. Twilight again asks what they're doing in the dark. Applejack says they're hiding... from her! We look out, see a cloaked figure pawing at the grass, bangles on her foreleg. Hmm, wants to Walk Like an Egyptian? :D Sorry, sorry. I love the Bangles. She turns, and in the darkness of her cloak she has spooky glowing eyes! Twilight is.... not amused.
After the credits Apple Bloom asks if she saw her and names her 'Zecora'. And apparently Zecora is Ponyvillian for Voldemort as Applejack tells her not to say the name. Twilight says they're flipping out for no good reason and I'm with her even before I saw the entire episode. Applejack is... definitely hitting some wrong notes, but in the right manner. The others say how weird she is, eliciting another eye roll from Twilight. Right there with you, Twi. She pulls down her cloak and... Missus T? She's got a mohawk Mister T would be proud of. Rarity insults her stripes and Twilight sets her straight. She's a zebra. Twilight tells her she was born that way and she faints, sans fainting couch. She is specifically not a pony, and from a faraway land. We also learn she lives in the... Everfree Forest! *Cue thunder* Oh, no. It's spike making a racket getting snacks. Okay, that was good. :D
The Everfree's not 'natural'. Well, it is by human definitions. The nature's not managed by the ponies. And it freaks them out. She's so evil, Pinkie wrote a song about her! And cue 'Evil Enchantress'. Not her best, but she notes it is a work in progress. Good on Dash's "Here we go!" :D Twilight asks them specifically, what have they seen her do? She comes into Ponyville once a month and lurks around the stalls, digging at the ground. Twilight is taking the piss outta them, here. VERY snarky and very funny. She says maybe she comes to visit, or to buy stuff at the stalls. Apple Bloom begins supporting Twilight's side. Applejack tells her to let the big ponies talk. The ones with small brains, apparently. Dash says the digging at the ground's weird. Dash, meet Pinkie Pie. I'll let you two work on the definition of 'weird'. Even Fluttershy wonders if she's digging for innocent creatures and oh dear god... *Headdesk*
While Pinkie sings in the background Twilight says the only way to find out is to go out, which Apple Bloom does. She goes out but gets an attack of the nerves. She sneaks over, but Zecora is already leaving. Back inside the Corner Twilight's head is butting against a brick wall of ignorance and plain stupidity as Pinkie says she eats hay. Like... Twilight does. And like Pinkie does. Oh, no. It's the evil way she eats it. Weirdly, I'm getting frustrated with Pinkie, but I know I'm supposed to be getting frustrated with her. So it's actually okay. Applejack notices Apple Bloom's gone! They race out to find her and we see her trailing Zecora into the Everfree. She hesitates at an ominous shadow line, but she ponies up and keeps on going! The camera's tight on their legs and some 'mysterious' blue flowers. And suddenly Applejack calls for Apple Bloom!
And Zecora speaks, warning them about the 'leaves of blue'. Well, better than the Hands of Blue. And yes, her dialog's all in rhyme. Orange? Door hinge. :p They all act all macho while Zecora repeats her warning, vanishing in a convenient mist. All of the Mane Six, mind, are standing fetlock deep in those blue flowers. Hint, hint. Twilight's just about had it, and even says there's no such thing as 'curses'. Dash flies over. "That's interesting to hear, coming from Miss Magic Pants herself." Dash, taking this and how you heckled in Boast Busters, do you have a thing against unicorns or something? Twilight says her magic is 'real'. She's born with it, while curses are artificial or fake magic. Yeah... Twilight? You don't know everything about magic, kid. :p Or at least I don't think she does, or ever will. Hopefully never will. She says they're old pony tales. Ah... Nightmare Moon? Even though I am on Twilight's side, that still seems pretty high-and-mighty of her. Applejack says she'll learn some pony tales really are true. She already did in the pilot!
We cut to Twilight in bed, tossing and turning. Hmm, Freddy's having a field day here. Or she had a bad hay smoothie. Either or. She wakes up with a bad case of bed mane. She brushes and... oh, noes! Her horn's gone all limp!
...
Insert your own joke there, folks! Mine is, "She thought a bit too much about Trixie last night!" :D *Dodges rotten tomatoes* Sorry, sorry. But truth be told I'm legit laughing in RL at that one.
...
Anyway, now she's wondering if she cursed her horn! She goes into research mode! A 'real' reason. Spike holds up a book entitled 'Supernaturals', but Twilight dismisses it. Spike wonders if she's wrong. So do I. Like I said, she doesn't know everything. And Pinkie Pie comes in with a swollen tongue. A purse? No, a curse! Oh, why couldn't they have saved this for later seasons when she becomes genuinely annoying?! Dash... butts heads against a window, then the outer wall, then the door. She flies in upside down and dear god her wings are upside down! Holy shit that's some body horror, there. And... Rarity's trying out for Hair? And we have a toy-sized Applejack. But Fluttershy is... fine? Well, she's not speaking. Well, there's a bit of charades until Applejack tells her to say it. And...
We have Barry White as a pony, basically. Spike and I lose it at this point and he comes up with nicknames. Hairity, Rainbow Crash-who has her head stuck between the rungs of a ladder-, Spitty Pie, Apple Teeny, Flutter guy and... nothing for Twilight, who looks like she could kill him. You know, I'm legit surprised he mocked Rarity. She tells him to look for more books, but he's more focused on her horn flopping about. Dear god the jokes write themselves here. Dash thinks they'll find the answer at Zecora's. They begin arguing, while Apple Bloom blames herself. She goes out to fix it, but Applejack spots her and hops into her tail.
They argue some more about going, but notice Applejack missing. They wonder if anyone stepped on her or sat on her. Ohhai Sir Mixalot! Pinkie checks Rarity and Rarity is aghast. "Ever hear of personal space?" Pinkie's answer... "NO!" You know, that could be taken one of two ways, only one of which is good. ;) They notice Apple Bloom is gone and go after her. Spike stays behind to look for a cure. But,no. He finally gets a good name. "Twilight Flopple!"
At the Everfree we see Apple Bloom racing to Zecora's. Applejack pipes up and orders her home, but Apple Bloom says no. She even puts Applejack onto a tree branch. "I'm the big sister, now!" Ooh, BURN! Applejack will tell Big Macintosh on you! The other five race in, but Rarity trips on her own coat and Dash is... Crash. She crashes into a tree and Applejack ends up inside her mouth. Okay... that's a bit weird. Applejack somehow rigs up a riding harness in about two seconds. Hmm, jump cut and/or time saving in animation. And she... mounts Dash with it. Not gonna go here, folks. Not this time. Dash is... still not flying too well.
At Zecora's hut and it's got tribal masks, candles and the whole nine yards. Zecora comes in and chants over a boiling cauldron. Pinkie accuses her of... stealing her song. Yeah, to this day I'm still not sure if that's what she said or if the others misheard it. So she begs Flutterguy to sing and...
Excuse me. I have to walk away while it plays I'll be laughing so hard. :D It's pure genius. Rarity confronts Twilight about all the things inside and even Twilight is beginning to be a bit doubtful. Ot, maybe it's soup? But then Zecora says it's the perfect temperature for ponies and wonders where Apple Bloom is. Oh, god... They all scream just as Dash and Applejack fly in. Well, dive in. She crashes in and wrecks the place while Zecora loses it. The others barge inside while Applejack... wrangles Zecora's ear. Just as much sense in context, folks! The cauldron's knocked over, and Twilight accuses her of cursing them.
Zecora turns it on them of crashing into their home, and she's getting pissed. Zecora and Twilight even begin butting heads. Literally, too. They demand to know where Apple Bloom is, and here she is! Twilight joins the angry peasants, and I'm kinda surprised the animators don't have any of them wielding torches and/or pitchforks! But Zecora and Apple Bloom merely laugh. Twilight say she can't stand there and say it isn't a curse. Apple Bloom... well, she walks and says it isn't a curse. So half-point to each team?
Zecora reminds them about the leaves of blue. It's poison joke. The plant basically plays a practical joke on them, by inciting body horrors apparently. Applejack has no idea what she's saying, but Twilight figures it out. They ask about the cauldron, chanting and other stuff. They're from her native land, the words were a nursery rhyme, and the cauldron held a cure for the poison joke. Twilight asks which book has this remedy and it turns out to be the one she dismissed earlier. "Supernaturals, Natural Remedies and Cure-Alls that are Simply Super'. Oh, that's a good one. Good job, show. Twilight apologizes for them all. And we get the 'don't judge a book by its cover' Aesop. It fits.
Twilight asks if she can mix up another batch, but she needs an herb in Ponyville. However, whenever she goes all the shops are 'mysteriously' closed. Twilight thinks they can help. We fade back to Ponyville and the Flower Trio spots the group heading back. They panic and everyone bolts. Twilight knocks on Daisy's door and says they need to talk. We fade to our first shot of the spa. They're in a hot tub, and we see one of the Spa Twins. Holy cow, she speaks! I had completely forgotten that! She asks for the recipe, and we have one more scare about crushing Applejack beforewe see her kinda... sitting on top of a bucket, not tiny anymore.
Thoughts
The episode's about as subtle as a sledgehammer, but as the Trope Page says, some anvils need to be dropped. Yes, racism and judging people solely by looks is not a good thing. You can look pretty damned stupid. And I think this episode did a good job here.
I did find Twilight's whole 'no such thing as curses' to be a bit... I dunno. I don't think she's right in that. Like I said, I don't believe she knows everything about magic, or ever will know everything about magic.
I like Zecora. I don't like writing her, but I like her. ;) I have rhymezone.com bookmarked so the few times she comes up in my fics I'm ready. ;) We see the beginnings of Apple Bloom's relationship with her, which is nice. One of the Spa Twins speaks, the blue one.
My headcanon concerning Zebras is... they live in the Western Savannahs of the Equestrian Alliance, as it is called in the Hasbroverse. Zecora rhymes because of her training in the mystical arts. It helps her remember the difficult parts. ;) Otherwise zebra don't rhyme. They use manticores as domesticated animals, for labor and warfare. Their land borders the territory of the Thirteen Dragon Clans. You are now imagining Zecora in a badass flowing cloak with a glowing magic staff riding Manny Roar, who is armored up, breathing fire and shooting laser beams from his tail. Again ;)
For the pic, the characters here all have a spiritual bit to them.
The pawing at the ground thing makes a lot more sense if you know that for horses that sort of thing is a threat response, while for zebras it's everyday behavior.
Don't quote me on that, though.
*walks in* I didn't like this episode all that much when it came out *Walks back out*
Any way, ok- Rei, Zecora, and Prowl I get...but how does Rhinox have anything spiritual? He was the tech guy, last I recall.
Two by two.
I love Firefly. You can't take the sky from me.
This episode I always felt was pretty gutsy for dealing with racism in its own way. You don't see children's tv taking risks like that these days.
2136487 That would be so awesome if it is true.
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Wasn't he also the 'wise old man' guy? I vaguely remember a Beast Wars episode where something happened to the Maximals, and Rhinox schooled everybody. The only thing I remember for sure is that he was meditating in beast mode, and that it was the first and only time I've seen a rhino doing yoga poses.
I also had problems with that line, but then you have to take it in context. At that point, Twilight's still lead a fairly sheltered (and blessed) life. I doubt she'd have said that in later seasons, given that she came into direct contact with what can only be described as a cursed artifact. Not to mention, dark magic as practiced by Sombra and Celestia. In that context, "there's no such thing as curses" sounds less like truth and more like "The Royal Kingdom of Canterlot has not recognized the existence of these so-called curses".
That's just my opinion, tho.
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The Alicorn Amulet? That seems like the opposite of a cursed artifact.
2137002
Sure, if its only effect were "Gives the wearer untold power". The moment you add clauses like "Corrupts the wearer" and "Can only be removed by the wearer", you're dealing with a cursed artifact.
Those effects in particular seem designed to trap the user in a can't-win loop. The more they use the amulet, the more it's going to corrupt them, and the less likely it is that they'll take it off. Not only that, but in the long run, they're more likely to get themselves into a situation where they'll need to use more of that untold power, which is going to corrupt them more, etc. Eventually they wind up facing the Princesses... and the friendly little amulet tells them that fighting someone who raises and lowers the sun every day is a good idea and they should totally do it.
Yeah, suuuuuuure there's no such thing as curses.
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Well, if we're playing by Dungeons & Dragons rules, a 'cursed item' is one with a detrimental effect, and which you can't remove by yourself. And D&D is owned by Hasbro, so there's a strong argument that those rules do in fact apply.
Heh, this is a good one. The poison joke transformations are funny, the moral of the story is important and handled well, we're reminded that ponies are herd animals and once the herd starts panicking, even the level-headed ones can get swept along... and we get the first look at Zecora!
On curses and their non-existence: One of Twilight's chief character flaws is her intellectual arrogance, her certainty that she always knows better than the others. She'll get better about it as the show progresses, but still, it's a very Twilight thing to summarily dismiss even the possibility of curses (never mind that she's totally right, here).
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Of course, there are items like sword +2, berserking, which really was a pretty good weapon; the only problem was that you couldn't retreat from the fight, and once it was over, you ran the risk of attacking your friends, too!
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2137313
D&D is filled with cursed items that seem beneficial or that work like normal magic items until specific conditions trigger the curse. There's even some that have a chance of the curse activating every time the item is used. There is no requirement that a cursed item have only a detrimental effect, just that it has at least one detrimental effect that will effect the user at some point.
Difficulty of removing the curse isn't even a hard requiirement- That +2 Berserking Sword will make the user fight until incapacitated or everything nearby is dead, but doesn't require Remove Curse to be used. The owner could just throw it away after regaining his senses. On the other end of the scale, Remove Curse won't save you from a Necklace of Strangulation- it can only be removed with a Miracle, Limited Wish, or Wish.
Even under D&D rules, the Alicorn Amulet counts as a cursed item because it is explicitly stated to corrupt the wearer which is pretty darn detrimental. It can also only be removed by the wearer themselves, and at some point (with constant use) they are going to be so far gone that they are not going to want to remove it.
There is a pretty big difference between "provides untold power" and "provides untold power, corrupts your mind, and can only be removed by you... but don't worry, you won't want to."
Getting back on topic, I totally buy your headcannon for Zebras, RK. Also, it makes me picture Zecora as a warlock from (Warma)Hordes. I could kind of see Zebras as having a distinct beastmaster tradition that ties in with their shamanistic roots; who was Zecora's closest neighbor again? ;) Also, I think what Lurks-no-More said about Twilight is about right, and she really does get better about it over time.
Something I always wondered after watching this episode... Poison Joke just seems like the sort of thing Discord would come up with, and Zecora said that it's from her native lands. All they mention on the show is how he caused havoc in Equestria, but I'm thinking that the Zebras and Griffins probably have their own complaints with his behavior. How did they react to his return and reformation?