MLP:FiM 2x05 "Sisterhood Social"

[Kemaiku]

"Sweetie Belle is upset when her sister, Rarity, refuses to participate in a rough and tumble celebration of sisterly unity. Things get tense when Rarity manages to push Sweetie Belle over the edge."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_My_Little_Pony:_Friendship_Is_Magic_episodes#cite_note-7

 

[Gepard]

Four minutes to go!

 

[Count Zero]

The show that's on before the ponies, Strawberry Shortcake or something, drives me mad. It shares some of the mane six voice actors and therefore comes off as some sort of bizarro universe version of MLP.

 

[Kemaiku]

Sweetie Belle and a lit stove, that wasn't going to end well

 

[Count Zero]

But Rarity was cute.

 

[Kemaiku]

Her parents!? ok

 

[Count Zero]

The breakfast scene was great. "What's that? Juice?" "Toast!"

Rarity's parents are cool. Are they some kind of hippies or just a bit of white trash?

 

[Kemaiku]

White trash Ponies, no wonder Rarity acts the way she does

And yeah the bowl of toast was weird, how did even she manage to do that?

 

[Count Zero]

You don't want to know.

I loved the apple pie metaphor just now.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Aww, it was Rarity all along.

 

[Wanderlust]

BERRY PUNCH

 

[Count Zero]

Aww, that was a nice episode.

My favourite parts: the breakfast scene, meeting Rarity's parents, the sheep ("You could have just asked!" ), the apple pie metaphor, the twist at the race and the end with them arguing over the letter to Celestia with Spike having to solve the issue.

 

[cardinal biggles]

I think Celestia opening the 'friendship lessons' to all the ponies at the end of "Lesson Zero" was a great idea on the part of the writers, because Twilight would have been totally superfluous in this episode. You really only needed the two pairs of sisters to tell the story here.

I really look forward to Rarity-centric episodes now. Not so much because she's my favorite character, but because Tabitha St. Germain always gives a tour de force performance, and this was no exception.

 

[Gepard]

White trash Ponies, no wonder Rarity acts the way she does

It explains so much. Imagine being raised by parents who just don't seem to care.

Random thoughts:

• Rarity would make a terrible parent herself. Element of Generosity, WHY U SO SELFISH?
• There were a bunch of people on EqD afraid that Applejack would be getting short shrift this season. Not so! I can see why Sweetie Belle would rather spend time with her and Applebloom than Rarity.
• I felt really bad for Sweetie Belle during the first act, especially after she cleaned up the workroom. Rarity's refusal to outline any rules about what she wanted and just letting her sister to stumble into making mistakes made we want to reach through the screen and slap her. Having experienced similarly arbitrary and capricious (unspoken) rules from my family growing up, I know just how maddening it can be.
• I'm expecting "ONE. DAY!" to go mimetic. There was something else Sweetie Belle said at the end of the episode that I remember thinking will become like the "Sweetie Dictionary" meme, but I've already forgotten what it was.
• Was that Dinky Hooves participating in the Sisterhooves Social with a pink unicorn mare? Interesting.
• I just realized there was no Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie or Fluttershy in this one. This was the first episode without Twilight in it, wasn't it? After "Lesson Zero," they're not going to have to fit her into every story.

Anyway, solid episode. All the other episodes this season have been "event" episodes in one way or another (Lesson Zero was the closest to a normal, slice-of-life installment, but but boy was the humor atypical), but this was very much in keeping with season 1.

B+

 

[Kemaiku]

An episode without Twilight was weird, and no Rainbow Dash was not nice but then I'm biased that way.

It was nice to get back to the little slice of life episodes and the daily lives of the mane 6 other than Twilight. Seeing more of Applejack is nice and they have been fleshing her out this season.

Dinky was only ever fan speculated to be related to Derpy and we only ever see her dancing with other fillies in Winter Wrap Up, nice to see some canon family for her, and a matching Unicorn which explains a few things. Berry Punch though, do they have social services in Equestria? alcoholic big sister can't be a good thing.

I never really liked Rarity right from the start, so her being such a bitch didn't surprise me, felt very sorry for Sweetie Belle and even more so now seeing their dead beat parents.

It was nice to Rarity to make that one jesture and it was a good twist, but she was already being anal again by the end of the episode so I see a lot of this progress going down the drain by next week.

And we see the first other-than-Twilight spam/report for Trollestia.

 

[Gepard]

Dinky was only ever fan speculated to be related to Derpy and we only ever see her dancing with other fillies in Winter Wrap Up, nice to see some canon family for her, and a matching Unicorn which explains a few things.

You should see the discussion thread over at EqD. Half the comments on the episode are trying to reconcile this with fanon, and the other half are gleefully proclaiming fanon dead.

Berry Punch though, do they have social services in Equestria? alcoholic big sister can't be a good thing.

Lauren Faust said (IIRC) that there's no alcohol in Equestria. But....they have grape stomping now. Hmm.

I never really liked Rarity right from the start, so her being such a bitch didn't surprise me, felt very sorry for Sweetie Belle and even more so now seeing their dead beat parents.

I hated Rarity with a passion when I first started watching the show, and this episode (and the one with the Diamond Dogs, back when it was new) kinda reminded me why. The weird thing is, the more I'm exposed to her – and the more she irritates me during the episodes – the more I love her character after it's all over. It doesn't hurt that St. Germain gives, as Biggles said, a tour-de-force performance every time. She's also the most conflicted character, though, as she can be very generous but she has to work past her own self-absorption to get there. And that's ready-made, just-add-water character conflict, which makes her the most fascinating of the mane 6 to watch.

 

[Count Zero]

It was nice to Rarity to make that one jesture and it was a good twist, but she was already being anal again by the end of the episode so I see a lot of this progress going down the drain by next week.

Well, this is rather common on the show. Crises/conflict do get resolved by the end of the story but often only to a degree. The show doesn't pretend that people change totally or overcome their difficulties/weaknesses within an episode. It's similar with Fluttershy's shyness and Twilight's social anxiety/awkwardness and OCD. It's one of the reasons I like this show so much because that makes it very believeable and realistic.

 

[Kemaiku]

They do mention wine I think, and we see Applejack pretty much starting to make some, but yeah I guess there isn't any real liquer in their world.

I have no problem with Dinky not being related to Derpy, even if it does render like a hundred very sweet fan art pieces in my collection redundant now.

I know cartoons have that week to week reset of everything, but Rarity manages to go beyond that, almost as if to deliberately crush any character growth and kindess she developes under hoof.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Lauren Faust said (IIRC) that there's no alcohol in Equestria. But....they have grape stomping now. Hmm.

That doesn't mean anything; they could just be drinking unfermented grape juice.

 

[Kemaiku]