Tag Archives: family conflicts

Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 80: Parental Glideance

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Introduction / Navigation

< Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 >

Season 7, Episode 7

Season 7 Episode 7: Parental Glideance

In five words: Scootaloo meets Rainbow Dash’s parents.

Premise: While doing a school report on a pony she admires, Scootaloo encounters Rainbow Dash’s parents who discover their daughter is a Wonderbolt. They cheer Rainbow Dash on for this feat so loudly it starts getting on her nerves. But could they be in the right for doing so?

Detailed run-through:

Who doesn’t love cartoon physics?

Compared to the last two episodes, this one has a very efficient cold opening. First, the Cutie Mark Crusaders set up a crazy scooter slingshot to send Scootaloo to Cloudsdale, but right as she’s about to be launched, she realizes she could have used something safer like a hot air balloon. Doing something overly ambitious when they could have used a quick and safe alternative is the essence of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

When she arrives in Cloudsdale, the first pony Scootaloo sees is none other than Rainbow Dash’s father, Bow Hothoof. Technically, this isn’t our first time seeing Rainbow Dash’s family: that would be the flashback in Games Ponies Play, which had a stallion that viewers thought was her father. But it’s still interesting that the show took so long to introduce us to her parents. Maybe it’s because the earlier seasons portrayed her as on the move and rarely showed inside her house, or because it’s common for shows like this to introduce the main cast’s parents after doing all the obvious episode premises.

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Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 67: Spice Up Your Life

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< Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 >

Season 6, Episode 12

I decided to give this episode and the next one both their own posts because my review of Spice Up Your Life turned out longer than I expected, and my review of Stranger Than Fan Fiction will inevitably be super long. And also because I scrambled to finish this post today, publishing it a few hours later than the usual time. I haven’t started writing the next review yet.

Season 6 Episode 12: Spice Up Your Life

In five words: Family restaurant suffers blind judgement.

Premise: The Cutie Map sends Rarity and Pinkie Pie to a family restaurant in Canterlot that is struggling to stay afloat due to a family conflict, but there’s a greater problem that they aren’t yet aware of.

Detailed run-through:

To start the episode, Starlight Glimmer and Twilight Sparkle perform a magic spell to restore the Cutie Map, whose functionality apparently ceased when Starlight Glimmer used it to rampage through time. I’m not sure why the episode goes out of its way to show this restoration; it feels like this was meant to be a difficult challenge to take up the plot of an episode, but maybe an episode focused on this premise wouldn’t have been interesting enough, so they instead decided to do this at the start of this episode.

This makes for one of those weird cases where Starlight Glimmer is there, but only for one small role or plot point fulfillment. But frankly, complaints about Starlight Glimmer stealing all the spotlight in season 6 are silly. We’re twelve episodes in, and so far, she’s played a significant role only in the premiere, sixth, and eighth episodes of the season. She’s a wonderful character who I love dearly, but she’s still a supporting character.

I have to admire how well Pinkie Pie has memorized the map of Equestria.

The Cutie Map flashes between several random pairs of Mane 6 members in random locations, including Twilight and Twilight in Twilight’s castle. We’re supposed to assume those are glitches, but are they really? Maybe those are friendship missions that the ponies missed out on when the map was dormant, and the missions eventually solved themselves. And who’s to say Twilight never had another mishap with alternate selves offscreen? There are plenty of possibilities!

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