MLP episode review: The Ticket Master · 2:20pm May 14th, 2014
The Ticket Master
We open on sweet Apple Acres and twilight helping out Applejack. Aww. :) Spike is... sorting. Let's go with that. Turns out Applejack bet Big Mac she could get all the apples picked by lunch. If she wins, he wears a girdle down Stirrup Street. Wait... where is Stirrup Street?! I've never heard any speculation on that! Twilight's glad, since she's hungry. that'll be a running thread though this episode. Spike missed snack time, even! And he burps up a scroll! Okay...
"Here ye, here ye! Her grand royal highness, Princess Celestia of Equestria, is pleased to announce the Grand Galloping Gala, held in the magnificent capital city of Canterlot, on the 21st day of..." "cordially extends an invitation to Twilight Sparkle plus one guest." Okay, remember this. I'll be getting back to it. Both Applejack and Twilight are excited.
Cue opening!
Yeah, they're hopping, Spike's not impressed, but he then burps up two golden tickets. I've got... two tickets to paradise! Twilight's never been, natch. Neither has Spike. He doesn't want any girly nonsense. Applejack begins fantasizing and we get out first imagine spot. Basically, it's the planet's largest county fair. She wants to go there and sell apples. For a new plow, new barn, new hip for Granny Smith. Twilight is about to give it when Dash suddenly drops in. Literally. She crashes into Twilight.
Applejack asks where she's been and she's been... "I was busy... napping." Heh. We even see a blanket and pillow in a tree. Nice. She hears about the ticket and now she wants to to go to impress the Wonderbolts. Her imagine spot is an air show and her interrupting their performance, which even in Equestria would get you tossed out on your flank. It's a pretty... for lack of a better word, childish fantasy. She impresses them so much they ask her to join. To be fair some of her stunts are kinda cool... but that's also not how it works, as we see later on. Applejack and Dash begin arguing about it and get to hoof-wrestling contest. Twilight reminds them they're her tickets and she'll decide. They give their reasons, but she uses her hunger to get away. To be fair, neither could I.
She goes into town and is conflicted. And Pinkie Pie barrels into her for some reason. Yeah, I have no idea why either. The tickets land on her and she thinks they're bats, running around and making me genuinely laugh. God, I miss season-one Pinkie Pie. Which is kinda odd since I also like season-three Pinkie, most of season-four barring one episode and even some of season-two Pinkie. Anyway, she thinks they're specifically for her and we get her imagine spot. Which is... basically a huge amusement park/party. And she launches into 'At the Grand Galloping Gala'. Which again, is a good song. She also pins the tail on herself. It's an imagine spot. Go with it.
And then... Rarity spies the tickets. And it turns out she already designs ensembles for the Gala! Huh. Another thing I forgot. She's already got the proverbial hoof in the door, doesn't she. And her imagine spot is actually the closest to reality. As in a fancy ball. But all eyes on her, because it's her spot. And we see our first kinda glimpse of Blueblood. And my god this is straight out of a romance novel, which she probably has enough to make Twilight go, "That's too many books!" ;) And Blueblood is Celestia's nephew. Interpret that as you will. I might share my own fanon on that. "Twilight, how could you..."
And then Angel runs in and snatches the tickets. This is his 'jerk with heart of gold' phase, IIRC. And he takes them to Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie and Rarity are shunning each other in their own way, too. And then Fluttershy asks, in her own adorable way, to go. But it turns out it's not for the Gala. It's to go to the garden around the dance. And her imagine spot... naturally has nothing to do with the Gala itself. And apparently a buzzard there needs a tune-up. ;) She goes all Disney Princess with the animals, except a lot cooler. And now Dash and Applejack show up and it devolves into a huge clusterbuck. And poor Twilight is caught in the middle, literally. And I legit feel bad for her.
We come back from commercial with a Brady Bunch-styled frame of the four and Twilight yells quiet. And we get the famous, "Oatmeal, are you crazy?!" line. Yeah, no idea either. She reminds them it's her decision and she shoos them off. She'll figure it out... somehow. *Hugs Twilight* We cut to a restaurant and Twilight conflicted. she picks flower petals, then eats them. Hehe. She orders a daffodil and daisy sandwich, while Spike orders hay fries, extra crispy. But he wanted gems. Twilight's got no real clue what to do... which makes perfect sense. She's pretty damned new to this friendship thing. She even thinks to give away her ticket, but that leaves three disappointed ones. And we see the ones disappointed are... Dash, Pinkie and Rarity. Interesting.
The waiter comes back with their orders, but everyone suddenly stampedes off. We pan out and we see a rainstorm, except where Twilight's sitting. And here's where the favors come in. Dash has opened a hole in the clouds, but Twilight is not pleased. Ad we see Dash is a bit of a hypocrite, too. "I'd' do this for anypony..." As we see who I believe to be Berry Punch running off. So Dash... zips the clouds back up. That's a great sound effect. :D The rain falls and the sandwich and mane is ruined. Rarity sees Twilight and drags her to Carousel Boutique. She does a massive makeover, complete with power tool sound effects. And Spike is... turned into a pageboy or something? I have no idea. But not even Rarity doing it can convince him to go to the Gala! Twilight's legit impressed, but Rarity lets slip it's about the Gala. Her outfits are... not as impressive as later on, but this is the third episode of the series. Twilight chews her out and takes off the outfit. She goes to once more to get lunch and Applejack hauls her out for some grub. Yee-haw!
It's a wagon of foodstuffs. And Twilight is so tempted. But no, and this makes the decision harder. Which indicates she was leaning to Applejack. "So, that's a maybe?" Probably not, Applejack.
Twilight goes to the library and Fluttershy is really rocking the Disney Princess vibe. She's cleaning with animals and humming the theme song. She's spring cleaning... in summer. And we see Angel making a salad. Damn, two-pronged attack! Twilight says no, goes to the door and... Pinkie Pie grabs her and has a bunch of ponies tossing her into the air while singing. Or about as subtle as a Base Delta Zero. Twilight gets really pissed, but the others there overhear about the tickets and... oh, one of them says she'll paint Twilight's condo, at least according to the closed captions.
Benny Hill theme/chase for the win! Yeah, this is great. :D But they get cornered, Twilight stresses and 'ports her and Spike to the library. he's slightly singed and she didn't know she'd do that. Hmm... no. Not yet. She says to close and lock everything and... it's night? I'm calling animation/continuity error on this one. But... the others are there and she freaks. They all, to their credit, look contrite. Applejack apologizes and turns down the ticket, followed by Fluttershy, Pinkie and then Rarity. Good on them! Dash... crows and claims the ticket, which is jerky, awesome and a great little moment for her. After death glares from Fluttershy, Applejack and Spike, she backtracks. They all apologize and Twilight decides to give back the tickets. Aww. *Hugs Twilight again*
Spike sends it off, but really quickly gets a letter back. She's got tickets for everyone! And asks why she didn't say so in the first place. I will... be getting back to this in about a minute. They take Twilight to dinner, who must be starving. Spike's sad he has no ticket, but Celestia sends him one! YAY!!!! And pan up to Canterlot.
Thoughts
This is a very good episode that holds up well. Again. This has great character moments and interaction. Again. It's a stock plot, the Golden Apple. But it's pulled off really well. Twilight's indecision was... sad, because she's got no real idea what to do. As noted, half the time you just wanna hug her here.
Now then... the letter. Some people think this is some secret test for Twilight. I... no not. Let me copy/past what I transcribed:
"Here ye, here ye! Her grand royal highness, Princess Celestia of Equestria, is pleased to announce the Grand Galloping Gala, held in the magnificent capital city of Canterlot, on the 21st day of..." "cordially extends an invitation to Twilight Sparkle plus one guest."
Yeah, if this isn't a form letter I'll eat my hat. My view? Some official for the Gala has a huge stack of letter like this, got one ready for Twilight along with tickets and asked Celestia to send it. That's it. Hell, I may be misremembering, but pretty much every single invitation I've ever really received to some party or something was for me and a guest. And once Celestia got Twilight's letter she corrected the understandable oversight.
Again, there is nothing sinister here. There is, IMHO, no test or challenge. There was nothing sinister, nothing bad or anything like that. That's how I see it.
We wants the Precious, because we loves and hates the precious!
Yeah, the initial invitation is a really obvious form letter. No way Celestia would ever pen something like that on her own. Still, I kind of think that there might have been a subtle testing aspect going on here... but a straightforward reading works just as well.
Looking back, it's remarkable how good this show's been right from the start. I think quite a few potential fans might have called it quits here, if the transition from the pilot's adventure story to the comedic slice-of-life conundrum here wasn't so smooth.
I am completly with you on this. This is just Celestia looking on and going "How could those guys forget Twilight's friends? I would love for her to bring them. After all...it could be fun."
But on thing I have to ask, is this. I have heard that this was the first episode produced, did you see any evidence of that here?
But for me. I remember as this the first episode I watched where I was worried that the first two, were just flukes. That this show would quickly decend into cliche badness or would become bad. I am glad I was wrong
I've seen all the episodes of Season 1 and most of the episodes of Season 2 at least twice. I'm going to get to the rest of them soon enough. The second time I saw this episode though, I though the resolution was a bit rushed. You know the Remane 5, other than Rainbow Dash, seem too contrite too quickly.
These reviews are really detailed. Quite a few details I forgot. Makes me feel better that my reviews have a tendency to be obscenely detailed.
Whole wheat. I hate whole wheat.
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No evidence of that, sorry. Then again to be honest I wouldn't know what to look for.
2111621
Maybe a bit, but it was the end of the episode. And Twilight breaking down like that must've been one heck of a shock.
lol, thanks. There's a number of things I forgot, too.