S01 EP06: "Boast Busters"

Hoo boy, where to start...

Well, first thing's first I guess--You may be wondering where the hell I've been for the last month! I've been quite busy at my "day job" in the last few weeks. A few of my co-workers became incapacitated for various reasons, and those of us that remained have been tapped for quite a bit of overtime. While the extra income will be nice, it's put a serious drain on my available free time.

Add this into a grueling commute, and you've got a recipe for exhaustion. I pretty much spent a great deal of my time off sleeping, and now that I feel rested, I figured it was time to get back in the saddle, so to speak.
That said, here's a friggin' review, finally!

S01 EP06: "Boast Busters"

Episode Recap

From the MLP: Friendship is Magic Wikia: "Boast Busters is the sixth episode of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, season one. In this episode, a new unicorn going by the name of "The Great and Powerful Trixie" arrives in Ponyville, claiming to be the greatest pony in all of Equestria."

Opinions and Stuff

Okay, so after a looooooooong hiatus, I was wondering what coming back to the show would be like, and I have to say that honestly, something was lacking. It wasn't the animation, the dialogue or plot, or the characters really...something was just...off. The episode isn't without it's pluses though, there are a few humorous moments sprinkled throughout, especially the ending where they clarify just what an Ursa Major is.

There are a couple of new characters who are actually, and get this, male ponies! Unfortunately Snips and Snails are the pinnacle of dumb-fuckery yet to be seen on this show, and thus somewhat annoying, to me at least.  

Not pictured: The 3rd ingredient for creating The Rowdyruff Boys. 

I have no idea if we'll be seeing more of them, since this show has a habit of introducing oneshot characters for the sake of a gag, but I won't be shedding any tears over it if they don't come back.

Something else came to mind while I was watching this, which is how some people consider Twilight Sparkle to be a Mary Sue character because she got made into a princess alicorn thingy. If she is to be considered to be a Mary Sue, then it happened a lot earlier in the series, given that the foundation of this episode's plot is how she's the most powerful magic user in Ponyville. The writers at least had the decent sense to make her humble and reluctant to use her powers out of fear of alienating her friends, but it's glaringly obvious that she's being pumped up here.

Purple. Ridiculously powerful yet nebulous ability. Future princess. Sparkly to the point that it's actually in her name. Oh yeah, you're well on your way to Sue-dom, honey.

Other than that stuff, something about the episode also seemed gratingly predictable. I've consumed plenty of media, and this being a show for kids, plenty is going to come across as obvious. For some reason, this episode seemed especially telegraphed, even though the quality of the writing doesn't seem to vary much from what I've seen so far. I'm hoping it's not a symptom of burnout...

As for everything else, the animation was fine, but nothing stood out other than the work done on the Ursas. I really liked the semi-transparent starfield effect they used for them, it kind of reminded me of something from the 1980's for some reason. 

That's pretty much it for now! Stay tuned for the next review of MLP: Friendship is Magic Episode 7: Dragon Shy!

-Apathy Pony