Analysis Is Magic
Friday, June 7, 2013
Pony Thought of the Day: Best Episodes vs. Best Season
While I'd argue that, overall, Season Two has more great episodes and fewer bad or mediocre episodes than any other season, I think it could have been better organized. It has two episodes in a row that heavily feature members of the CMC, two Applejack episodes in a row (in fact, of the four episodes that aired in January 2012, three were about Applejack or the Apple family), and both its Rarity episodes were in the first nine (which wouldn't have been so bad, except that Season Three had no Rarity episodes, meaning it's now been 30 episodes since the last time Rarity got one). Spreading some of those episodes out would have helped even out the season, and I suspect the clumping influenced fan attitudes negatively--I love the CMC, and even I'm a little nonplussed by having to review "The Cutie Pox" right after "Sisterhooves Social." And I know I didn't start talking about how boring Applejack is until somewhere in late January 2012, right around the third Apple episode of the month.
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Do you mean "influenced fan attitudes positively?"
ReplyDeleteAlso, it's "fewer," not "viewer," in the first sentence.
I left out some words. Both are fixed now. Thanks for the catches!
DeleteI think most writers don't know how to write Rarity; my theory is that they see her as shallow, since she is interested in fashion and social status; these things are currently not considered "good" and they forget her other trait which is generosity.
ReplyDeleteThe Rarity in the pilot, "Suited for Success" and "Green Isn't Your Color" is consistently acting out of a genuine desire to make others happy, by helping them with the things that she deems important. When she stumbles it's because she forgets that their priorities are not hers. In most other episodes when Rarity shows up she is quite self-centered, not just in the sense of acting as though others want what she wants, but in rarely even trying to help others get things that they don't want.
Yeah. One of the things I'm pointing out in the book version of the essays is that part of what makes Rarity so hard to write is that she's very close to the Queen Bee archetype--a fashionable social-climber who's kind of judgmental and is (according to Spike, at least) extremely good looking. In other words, the villain of everything set in high school ever.
DeleteMy headcanon-y thing is that Rarity (written correctly) doesn't so much just want to help others as she makes almost no internal distinction between helping others achieve (what she thinks are) their goals and achieving her goals. Like, look at Sweet Elite, where we supposedly see Rarity at her worst. But then rewatch the montage and you'll notice that almost every scene is of Rarity offering approval to someone/thing that was struggling, knowing that her yes-men will follow. Not once does she do the opposite. Moreover, the reason she went to all those events when she should have been working is because the organizers guilt-tripped her into going by saying how important it was to them that she attend and how the event would flop without her. Yes, she was "selfishly" advancing her own position when she should have been preparing Twilight's dress, but she was simultaneously "helping" others (in her own way) and I suspect that's the only reason that she was enjoying any of it. So yes, she made some mistakes, but she might have made them for the right reasons (even if she didn't realize it herself).
Delete(I absolutely love that episode for how layered it is and how it chose to be more than the "standard" joining-the-popular-crowd-for-twenty-minutes plot)
@Brickman: Yes! I've never quite looked at it that way, but you're exactly right. What I've usually said is that Rarity's generosity is mostly about donating her time and effort, not material things. But this is, I think, an even better way of putting it, and I love your read of "Sweet and Elite."
DeleteRarity is the most nuanced character that you will ever find in a show written for five-year-olds. *Ever*. And that is why she is my favorite.
DeleteRarity was my least favorite in first season. But the combination of "Sweet and Elite" and doing this blog has slowly but surely shoved her up the list, and now she's my second-favorite. (Nothing can or will ever surpass Fluttershy.)
DeleteIndeed, the lack of Rarity in season 3 was quite a bit of a let down - for me at least - next to the shortness of it.
ReplyDeleteAt least there is the micro series comic featuring her that makes up for it a bit. Have you read it? (It's awesome!) The other issues of the micro series comics up until now are, I'm sorry to say, rather forgettable (not bad, but nothing that would leave a lasting impression).
The Rarity one is the only MLP comic I've read. I loved it!
Delete