My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - P.P.O.V. (Pony Point Of View) [10/1]

zoombie

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Okay for another episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. We got a interesting one this week.

Twilight Sparkle gets different accounts of what happened on a boat trip between Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie.

Discuss
 

Neo Ultra Mike

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First off anyone think the title of this one is based on the deviantart Pony POV series?

http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/gallery/42978747/Pony-POV-Series-Shining-Armor-Story-Arc

Which is a series that I believe started like at the beginning of season 2 and considering how much other things they've sort of referenced from fan fics in the show seems like it would make sense to reference that.

More on topic, I admit I don't watch as many children's cartoons as I use to, but one story telling device I feel hasn't really been used lately, at least in shows I do watch, is a good old Rashomon style plot. You know the "here's an event that happened, but due to various character's differing POV the story winds up dramatically changing". This was especially something Cartoon Cartoons were big into as Powerpuff Girls, Ed Edd n Eddy, Johnny Bravo and Kids Next Door all had their own takes and is an idea I really like. As it allows not only for a lot of great comedic bits but it's interesting to try and piece the story together from each point of view to find out what really happened. As the best of these POV stories that are you know trying to tell stories don't have someone totally right and someone totally wrong, but take things from each story to build a narrative you have to read between the lines. Something these stories also usually do that sadly this episode didn't do is have the various POVs told in different looking animation styles. I wasn't expecting an Operation REPORT where Pinkie Pie's story had them all as doodles and Applejack looking like an old fashioned western and Rarity extravegently designed color spectacular but they really could of honestly given this one an additional artistic flourish. This one also has the "we have to cram in the plot of the episode in the first minute in heavy handed exposition" problem a lot of MLP episodes have (I mention ones that do as some don't like last week's episode really didn't) and honestly it should of been brought up it's especially weird for Applejack's story sounding so different if she's the element of honesty, but those honestly are more minor problems in an otherwise actually pretty good episode.

First off though obvious that all three were exaggerating to pretty large degrees, like the best story takes on this there were some bits of truth in each that matched up so again it wasn't just trying to claim one side as weaker then the others. Plus I think we've all been in situations with friends where something happens and we're more annoyed with them that we feel it's their fault and not ours thus feeling them to be in the wrong and assume reality worked like that when that may of not been the case. Which honestly makes the lesson "even people who have known one another should communicate when they're trying something different" feel like a pretty earnest and needed lesson. Plus honestly this does feel like the first actual Twilight episode this season where she's really either helped someone more directly or been involved with the story. Even the Starlight Glimmer episodes felt like she was taking a more back seat role. And though I appreciate her not being in every episode or focusing in it, the main character of the series should have some real role even if it happens like... 5/6th the way through the season.

Though yeah what made this one work was the comedy. Honestly Spike had a lot of good bits especially his annoyance in no one telling him how the boat sank and how they got back and the reveal of how they weren't at the middle of sea was probably one of the best comedic bits in the show and him even wondering how Twilight is going to solve the problem and getting the ice cream at the end. As well as pointing out how OOC everyone's takes are though yeah that's by far where the best bits were. Rarity imagining crazy pirate Applejack, Pinkie Pie imagining overly posh and elaborate Rarity with herself for some reason being more smary, while Applejack having Rarity act like a super flandaraized version of herself having to add in Darling or oh my into everything and Pinkie Pie just behaving crazy and random for no reason. And hey at least there were costume changes in each pony's different story so there was at least some flourish even if it wasn't like a totally different art style. And I liked how they brought up the sea monster and actually had him in the entire ending even joining in the party as well. Honestly part of me wonders if they should of done a more comedic ending where we see Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy fly in angry at each other for what happened at the Young Flyers reunion but ehhhh that would of just been a "here we go again" kind of ending and I'm all for having a more solid ending then just a joke ending if the joke would of been eh. And yeah the comedy and point in here were solid. I admit it could of been better as there was some obvious exposition, some weaker jokes ("I'm sure they had fun" following them clearly not and saying Pinkie Pie will have a more sane take then Rarity when you know that isn't the case),and honestly they could of really played more with the stiuation then they did but this was still a solid episode getting to re use a story style I wish more people would and made for an enjoyable episode.
 

TnAdct1

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Honestly part of me wonders if they should of done a more comedic ending where we see Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy fly in angry at each other for what happened at the Young Flyers reunion but ehhhh that would of just been a "here we go again" kind of ending and I'm all for having a more solid ending then just a joke ending if the joke would of been eh.
The reason why we don't get this type of ending is because it would probably go against the events of said reunion.

Personally, this was a middle of the road episode. While there's some fun in terms of the various takes of what happened, there's some story elements that could have been handled better (i.e. not have two versions of Rarity being too glamorous, bring up the other "common pieces" of the three tales instead of just focusing on the cucumber sandwich).
 

zoombie

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I love these types of episodes, my favorite episode of Garfield and Friends was this type of episode, I remembered it had frozen yogurt.

Well I don't know whose story I liked the best, Rarity had Applejack as a pirate, and Pinkie Pie was just typical crazy Pinkie Pie.

Long time friends can have communication problems, that was a good lesson, and it turned out this sea creatures was behind it all, and if Fluttershy there wouldn't have been a problem.

It is nice they explain why Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy weren't there, though I wish they would explain where Starlight Glimmer was. You could have at least done some effort there.

Twilight was a brilliant detective to figure out that mystery, not as good as the Garfield yogurt episode but still an excellent episode.
 

the_joker

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I wasn't sure if the episode would show what actually happened on their little trip or not. I thought that if it weren't shown, the episode would state that what ultimately happened doesn't matter all that much if they're all willing to accept what has happened and forgive. I suppose that was sort of the case. Twilight also tried to explain some of the things that happened, but she didn't/couldn't reveal anything unless she could time travel, so leaving the remaining gory details to the imagination was a nice touch.

One interesting aspect about these kinds of stories is that, as a common saying goes, everything is relative. Even though Applejack has the element of honesty, she would only state what she thought she saw (and what she paid attention to), though this goes to the other ponies as well. The episode can also show how these ponies view each other even though they're close friends. In Applejack's story, Pinkie is a mindless fun-lover, and Rarity is something of a snob outside of her stories, for example.

Overall, this was enjoyable enough.

Also, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were said to be in a school reunion. I wonder if that was an intentional reference to one of the comics.
 

ShadowBeast

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This was a pretty good episode. I can understand why Starlight wasn't in it as that would've cost too much time. Now each of their stories I can see the other ponies's personalities being over-exaggerated, but Pinkie was most guilty in the story telling as she made herself the one with common sense. With Rarity's story I can see getting mad at her food being dropped and fighting over the map. With AppleJack, she seemed the most in-character with her story, but she had Pinkie and Rarity the most out-of-character out of the three stories.

Also, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were said to be in a school reunion. I wonder if that was an intentional reference to one of the comics.
That would be cool if the comic can be considered with the show.
 

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