Episode Re-Review: Forever Filly · 7:37pm January 20th
Well, 2024's underway, and I really need some pony content to get through it. With "Make Your Mark" having wrapped up for good, "Tell Your Tale" has done nothing to convince me it's worth watching, especially not when it's come to light that "Secrets of Starlight" was supposed to be a stand alone special for a Chapter 7 of "Make Your Mark", undobutly meant to be a second pilot, hence why we had a new villain in Alura and a new addition to the main cast in the form of Comet. But not wanting their hard work to go to waste, they decided to throw it into the end of Chapter 6 of "Make Your Mark" despite the cliffhanger. Meanwhile, on the "Tell Your Tale" front, not only did Hasbro release Season 2 only about two weeks or so after Season 1 wrapped up, but they abruptly fired many foreign dub voice actors, replacing them with such low quality substitutes that some thought they were using A.I. generated voices. If that doesn't convey Hasbro's priorities for G5, I don't know what does.
So instead, I'm doing a re-review of all the episodes of FiM and all the specials of Equestria Girls that I skipped over during my big re-review marathon back in 2021. Since that's not that much content, I'm limiting myself to one a week every Saturday from here on out. If I did them every day, I'd blow through the content to cover in probably about a month or so. I'll do my best to keep you all posted if the re-review schedule changes at all. But for now, on what will be the five year anniversary of the wrapping up of FiM, let's look back at what I chose to skip over during my original re-review sessions back in 2021.
This is the first episode I skipped over back in 2021. It's written by the Fox brothers Michael P. and Will, whose track record up to this point was not very good. Not necessarily bad (with the exception of "P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)") but nothing really stand outish either. This seems to be one of the few episodes they penned that gets any praise at all. And after Season 6 dragged Rarity and Sweetie Belle's sibling relationship through the mud for the first time ever in "The Cart Before the Ponies", an episode focusing on the two was no longer a guaranteed success. Has this episode deserved its reputation, especially now that we know there was going to be a Sweetie Belle focused episode in the original draft of "The Last Crusade"? Well, let's find out.
The episode begins with what will be the last time Sassy Saddles will have a speaking role of any sort, in her next (and ultimately last on-screen appearance) she'll be a mute for unspecified reasons. Maybe it has something to do with Kelly Sheridan's stipulations for Starlight Glimmer? Well, in any case, Sassy is with Rarity as the two are working to prepare Canterlot Carousel for a spring transition. Sassy is repeatedly worried, but Rarity isn't, she's confident everything is under control and nothing is slipping through the cracks. That is, until she notices a photo of her and Sweetie Belle playing together. And this more or less touches off the equivalent of a mid-life crisis in Rarity, as she realizes she can't remember the last time she and Sweetie had fun together. Kind of odd that Rarity is going through a mid-life crisis in her late 20's/early 30's, even considering she has been more or less taking care of Sweetie Belle full time due to the unexplained on-screen absence of their parents.
As Rarity starts crying and having a break down, Sassy Saddles shows up. Fortunately, she's only a little weirded out by Rarity's dramatic antics, and ultimately proposes that Rarity go visit Sweetie Belle, insisting that she has everything under control and that Rarity's already done most of the work. That's all the persuasion Rarity needs to leave.
Meanwhile, back in Ponyville, Sweetie Belle is with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, helping out another client. This client is a pegasus colt named Chip, who's gotten into trouble for making sculptures out of his lunch. Fortunately, the Crusaders have brought a huge stone slab for Chip to work with. And sure enough, Chip turning the slab into a statue of the Crusaders is enough to give him his cutie mark. We then return to the clubhouse as we see that the CMC are more or less running their club as a business now, even referring to ponies who come to them as clients. And they hang up framed pictures of them on the clubhouse wall to symbolize a job well done.
And who's their next client? None other than Zipporwhill, the filly who was seen during "Filli Vanilli". She's having problems reconnecting with her puppy that she adopted back in that episode, said puppy now having grown quite a bit. However, before the CMC can get to work helping Zipporwhill, Rarity shows up and announces her intention to spend the day with Sweetie Belle. Sweetie is a bit hesitant at first, but ultimately trusts Apple Bloom and Scootaloo to manage without her. And Rarity finds it rather adorable that the CMC have turned their club into a business more or less. I wonder who gave them the idea, or if they came up with it on their own?
Rarity proceeds to spend the day with Sweetie Belle doing things Sweetie used to love when she was younger. So for the first time ever, it's a plot point that characters are getting older. And what does Rarity do with Sweetie? Well, there's a puppet show perfomed by the puppet master from "Inspiration Manifestation", and a trip to an ice cream parlor where Rarity managed to convince the owner to "come out of retirement" in order to make a tiny little ice cream for Sweetie. It's so microscopic it barely fits on a plate.
As for Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, they can't really help Zipporwhill all that well. They do try to get her dog to play with his toys, Scootaloo even fetching a ball after it's been in the dog's mouth. But nothing works. Sweetie Belle briefly stops by, trying to get away from Rarity, and seems to have an idea of what the problem might be. But she's called away before she can help. Rarity's next activity involves this balloon making pony named Twisty Pop. Weird how he was nowhere to be seen back when Pinkie promised to make balloon animals for the school children.
Well, anyway, Twisty makes a balloon boquet, and this gives Rarity the idea to do various costume shots. They include shots of her as a butterfly and Sweetie Belle as a caterpillar (the butterfly wings resembling the ones Rarity had in "Sonic Rainboom"), her as a chicken and Sweetie Belle as an egg, and her as a frog and Sweetie Belle as a tadpole. When she realizes Sweetie Belle was doing "hate the camera" the whole time she proposes doing them again, but Sweetie says no and tells Rarity off for treating her like a little kid instead of accepting that Sweetie is growing up. Sweetie then storms off as Rarity initially believes her sister is being "unappreciative" and storms off to confront Sweetie Belle again.
Sweetie, meanwhile, catches up to the Crusaders and Zipporwhill, and rightfully pins down the problem. Zipporwhill's dog isn't a puppy anymore, and the toys Zipporwhill wants him to play with are too small for him. As Sweetie Belle explains the problem and the solution, Rarity is nearby, having hidden herself in a bush. As a matter of fact, she's still in costume and laments about needing to "get changed".
Fortunately, Rarity realizes the epiphany she ignored earlier and apologizes to Sweetie Belle for not listening sooner. All is forgiven as Sweetie isn't really mad with Rarity, just annoyed at the way Rarity's been treating her. And as luck would have it, they still have time to do something together, and this time Rarity asks what Sweetie Belle what she wants to do as a "grown pony". That idea is getting huge ice cream sundaes at the ice cream parlor, with the two posing for a picture with their faces full of ice cream.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, honestly, there's almost nothing bad to say about it. The set-up may be a little bit weird in that Rarity's having what amounts to a mid-life crisis in her late 20's/early 30's, and if the Cakes and Granny Smith are anything to go by, ponies can and do live for a very long time. But this episode managed to do right what no previous episode of the show had been able to do: Do a conflicting loyalties story where both are sympathetic and in the right. In all other conflicting loyalty stories (especially "Rainbow Falls") there was a clear black and white contrast where one side was entirely in the right and the other entirely in the wrong. It would've been so easy to play up Rarity's treatment of Sweetie Belle and have her go on not understanding at all, to have her interrupt her little sister's life just for the sake of wanting to spend time with her. Likewise, Sweetie Belle could've easily been potrayed as blowing Rarity off for no good reason, wanting to focus solely on the Crusaders and nothing else. But instead, it took the high road. We got to see where both ponies were coming through. Aside from Rarity's brief ignorance of the obvious epiphany after Sweetie Belle tells her off, there's really nothing wrong with the episode. This served as a reminder of why we loved Rarity and Sweetie Belle sister episodes: They portrayed the best and worst of sibling dynamics, and showed that Rarity remembered her lesson from "Sisterhooves Social" about making time for Sweetie Belle in a meaningful way. So this episode easily earns an A+, it was definitely the strongest episode of Season 7 up to that point, finally putting Season 7 on the right track.
Sadly, it wouldn't last, the very next episode would continue Season 7's stumbles in its first half with the unbelievably annoying "Parental Glideance", the episode that drove the "Amazingly Embarassing Parents Trope" right into the ground. So come back next Saturday to see whether that episode has changed in light of what we know about Scootaloo's family situation.
If you recall back in your re-review of Family Appreciation Day, I brought up how with the exception of Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie each member of the Mane Six has at least one episode in which they appear without any of the other five, and for Rarity this is her one and only solo episode in the entire series.
And of course, I feel the need to share her first and last speaking lines.
Are there any sources that officially confirm this?