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Pony Point of View (P.P.O.V.) review
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The Blame Game
These reviews do contain spoilers. Read on at your own risk.
Often, when it comes to FiM, there have been few episodes showing the Mane 7 fighting against each other. Sure, we have had some episodes where they share some disagreements like Look Before you Sleep or Fall Weather Friends. However, we haven't really seen anything where they all have a major fallout between each other. I don't count Return of Harmony since that was Discord's doing.
Pony Point of View (P.P.O.V.) though offers such a story though. Admittedly, I was pretty interested since it had a big mystery about a trip going wrong. If anything, this sounded somewhat similar to Mmmmmystery on the Friendship Express. With Twilight taking the spotlight too to figure out the mystery, it sounded like a great concept for the episode. Unfortunately, what we get at the end of the day is a mystery that leaves far more questions than answers.
When Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie all come back from a boating trip, Twilight and Spike see that they are very upset at each other. They are so angry in fact that none of them even bothered to take a shower before getting on the train back home. That must have been an eyesore, and since the three ponies must smell, and stink for the other passengers on the train. As things look grim and there seems to be no peace in sight, it's up to Twilight to investigate and see what happened on this boat trip that left three of her friends so bitter against each other.
Being a fan of these kinds of episodes with a "he said, she said" scenario, I was immediately hooked by this premise. However, it's kind of weakened a little when Twilight has to find out which story is true. Immediately, the response should be Applejack since, you know, she's the Element of Honesty and she's not exactly the best at lying. I suppose you could argue that in this case with how Applejack is so angry at Pinkie and Rarity that she would lie. However, we all know that Applejack is so bad at telling lies, that the only way she could be so transparent with lying is if she was made of glass.
Like a lot of these "he said, she said" types of stories, they usually have the one character telling the story making themselves look good, and the others bad or extremely stupid. This episode is no different from that kind of story. All three stories from Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie are amusing in their own way. My favorite easily had to be the Rarity one mostly due to the fact of Pirate Applejack. When I saw Applejack like that and speak in that voice, it was not only hilarious, it was actually pretty awesome as well to see her like that. Me personally, I'd love to see a future episode with Applejack using that same voice and going on a pirate adventure.
Applejack's though had to be the weakest mostly because of how she portrays the others. For some reason, she makes Rarity out as some completely stereotypical snob and Pinkie as an idiot. I suppose you could say she was upset and thought of her friends as incompetent, but it still feels a little off for Applejack's character. Also, you got to love how Rarity says in Applejack's story that luxury cruisers never sink. I guess there's never been a Titanic like tragedy in Equestria.
Speaking of characters, that's another thing that bothers me about this episode. The way everypony is coming off in this episode doesn't exactly feel right. All the characters feel off in their own way. Applejack is coming off as very vindictive and her story makes her friends seem like idiots. Twilight comes off as a little oblivious with how her friends are obviously not happy with each other and how she seems ignorant towards Spike's feelings. Spike himself feels like he's a little too snarky even for him. The only ones who felt somewhat in character were Pinkie and Rarity. Pinkie being upset is natural after what happened and she's still somewhat silly. Rarity is probably the best though since she is in character, and her story was really good.
The mystery behind what caused the boat to sink is the center of this whole thing. Throughout the episode, we do see some similarities like the pinata, some cucumber sandwiches, and a map Applejack had for treasure. How did she even get that map in the first place? The episode does encourage you to try and play along and figure out what really happened when the others are clearly exaggerating their stories. To be honest, I liked that element of trying to solve the mystery yourself and see what happened.
The revelation about what happened is underwhelming to be honest. It turns out those cucumber sandwiches were really the deciding factor of the ship sinking. When they all fall into the ocean, it attracted a sea creature. The Sea Ponies! Nah, I'm just joking. It's actually something called a tri-horned bunkum. He was actually attracted to the sandwiches that fell overboard, and caused the boat to sink. As usual, I always love seeing new creatures on the show to build more of the world, and the twist isn't too bad. However, this whole leaves far more questions than answers.
One, how did this creature live around these docks for so long before anypony noticed it? I'm pretty sure before Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie showed up that somepony else would've seen it and told the dock officials about this. I'm pretty sure that the tri-horned bunkum couldn't have stayed hidden for that long before being found out.
Two, how could that huge galleon ship sink in shallow water? It wasn't in the middle of the ocean as we see, it was literally ten feet from the dock before it sank. At the very most, it would've just rested on a dune underwater and stayed there as a shipwreck. Either those docks have a really deep sea trench nearby, or that boat was only made of paper mache.
Three, and this is about the shallow water again, how did the tri-horned bunkum flip the boat over like that? Again, it's in shallow waters. It shouldn't have been able to do that kind of damage to a boat. Maybe rock it around, but completely and utterly sink it when it was clearly still at the docks? That's hard to believe, even for cartoon logic.
Four, this doesn't change the fact that nopony was at fault. If anything, this whole situation was everypony's fault completely. Rarity for bringing the cucumber sandwiches, and Applejack and Pinkie for probably not caring about them, and just somehow threw them overboard. If anything, all three are at fault at the end of the day for the boat sinking.
The moral itself is fine and something all friends should know about; communication. When it comes to failure to communicate with each other, it could lead to a potential disaster and to some unforeseen consequences and maybe even bitter friendships. The episode does a fair enough job doing something like this. However, it kind of feels undercut when you realize that this whole situation was about cucumber sandwiches and that they were all at fault at the end of the day.
Pony Point of View (P.P.O.V.) is an underwhelming episode all around. While not the worst episode, it still feels like a bore. Not as boring as say Applejack's Day Off or The Cart Before the Ponies, but it kind of feels close to it. At times, it does have some good elements to it like Rarity's story and the mystery itself about what happened. There are some decent good jokes, it shows more of the world of Equestria and introduces a new sea creature. There are some good ideas here and there.
However, when everything is revealed, it doesn't leave you feeling satisfied about what truly happened. If anything, it leaves even more doors open and questions unanswered. Like how the boat sank in shallow water, or how nopony noticed the tri-horned bunkum for so long. Combine that with some pretty repetitive lines of dialogue and some pretty lousy characterization for most of the characters, it leaves a pretty bad taste in your mouth.
There are better episodes on other TV shows that do the "he said, she said" story better. While I do applaud the show for trying to show something new and showing a huge rift between three of the Mane 7, it falters in a lot of ways and leaves you feeling underwhelmed at the end of the day. This is one trip on the sea that I doubt I want to go back on.
FINAL SCORE: 6.5 out of 10 (C+)
These reviews do contain spoilers. Read on at your own risk.
Often, when it comes to FiM, there have been few episodes showing the Mane 7 fighting against each other. Sure, we have had some episodes where they share some disagreements like Look Before you Sleep or Fall Weather Friends. However, we haven't really seen anything where they all have a major fallout between each other. I don't count Return of Harmony since that was Discord's doing.
Pony Point of View (P.P.O.V.) though offers such a story though. Admittedly, I was pretty interested since it had a big mystery about a trip going wrong. If anything, this sounded somewhat similar to Mmmmmystery on the Friendship Express. With Twilight taking the spotlight too to figure out the mystery, it sounded like a great concept for the episode. Unfortunately, what we get at the end of the day is a mystery that leaves far more questions than answers.
When Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie all come back from a boating trip, Twilight and Spike see that they are very upset at each other. They are so angry in fact that none of them even bothered to take a shower before getting on the train back home. That must have been an eyesore, and since the three ponies must smell, and stink for the other passengers on the train. As things look grim and there seems to be no peace in sight, it's up to Twilight to investigate and see what happened on this boat trip that left three of her friends so bitter against each other.
Being a fan of these kinds of episodes with a "he said, she said" scenario, I was immediately hooked by this premise. However, it's kind of weakened a little when Twilight has to find out which story is true. Immediately, the response should be Applejack since, you know, she's the Element of Honesty and she's not exactly the best at lying. I suppose you could argue that in this case with how Applejack is so angry at Pinkie and Rarity that she would lie. However, we all know that Applejack is so bad at telling lies, that the only way she could be so transparent with lying is if she was made of glass.
Like a lot of these "he said, she said" types of stories, they usually have the one character telling the story making themselves look good, and the others bad or extremely stupid. This episode is no different from that kind of story. All three stories from Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie are amusing in their own way. My favorite easily had to be the Rarity one mostly due to the fact of Pirate Applejack. When I saw Applejack like that and speak in that voice, it was not only hilarious, it was actually pretty awesome as well to see her like that. Me personally, I'd love to see a future episode with Applejack using that same voice and going on a pirate adventure.
Applejack's though had to be the weakest mostly because of how she portrays the others. For some reason, she makes Rarity out as some completely stereotypical snob and Pinkie as an idiot. I suppose you could say she was upset and thought of her friends as incompetent, but it still feels a little off for Applejack's character. Also, you got to love how Rarity says in Applejack's story that luxury cruisers never sink. I guess there's never been a Titanic like tragedy in Equestria.
Speaking of characters, that's another thing that bothers me about this episode. The way everypony is coming off in this episode doesn't exactly feel right. All the characters feel off in their own way. Applejack is coming off as very vindictive and her story makes her friends seem like idiots. Twilight comes off as a little oblivious with how her friends are obviously not happy with each other and how she seems ignorant towards Spike's feelings. Spike himself feels like he's a little too snarky even for him. The only ones who felt somewhat in character were Pinkie and Rarity. Pinkie being upset is natural after what happened and she's still somewhat silly. Rarity is probably the best though since she is in character, and her story was really good.
The mystery behind what caused the boat to sink is the center of this whole thing. Throughout the episode, we do see some similarities like the pinata, some cucumber sandwiches, and a map Applejack had for treasure. How did she even get that map in the first place? The episode does encourage you to try and play along and figure out what really happened when the others are clearly exaggerating their stories. To be honest, I liked that element of trying to solve the mystery yourself and see what happened.
The revelation about what happened is underwhelming to be honest. It turns out those cucumber sandwiches were really the deciding factor of the ship sinking. When they all fall into the ocean, it attracted a sea creature. The Sea Ponies! Nah, I'm just joking. It's actually something called a tri-horned bunkum. He was actually attracted to the sandwiches that fell overboard, and caused the boat to sink. As usual, I always love seeing new creatures on the show to build more of the world, and the twist isn't too bad. However, this whole leaves far more questions than answers.
One, how did this creature live around these docks for so long before anypony noticed it? I'm pretty sure before Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie showed up that somepony else would've seen it and told the dock officials about this. I'm pretty sure that the tri-horned bunkum couldn't have stayed hidden for that long before being found out.
Two, how could that huge galleon ship sink in shallow water? It wasn't in the middle of the ocean as we see, it was literally ten feet from the dock before it sank. At the very most, it would've just rested on a dune underwater and stayed there as a shipwreck. Either those docks have a really deep sea trench nearby, or that boat was only made of paper mache.
Three, and this is about the shallow water again, how did the tri-horned bunkum flip the boat over like that? Again, it's in shallow waters. It shouldn't have been able to do that kind of damage to a boat. Maybe rock it around, but completely and utterly sink it when it was clearly still at the docks? That's hard to believe, even for cartoon logic.
Four, this doesn't change the fact that nopony was at fault. If anything, this whole situation was everypony's fault completely. Rarity for bringing the cucumber sandwiches, and Applejack and Pinkie for probably not caring about them, and just somehow threw them overboard. If anything, all three are at fault at the end of the day for the boat sinking.
The moral itself is fine and something all friends should know about; communication. When it comes to failure to communicate with each other, it could lead to a potential disaster and to some unforeseen consequences and maybe even bitter friendships. The episode does a fair enough job doing something like this. However, it kind of feels undercut when you realize that this whole situation was about cucumber sandwiches and that they were all at fault at the end of the day.
Pony Point of View (P.P.O.V.) is an underwhelming episode all around. While not the worst episode, it still feels like a bore. Not as boring as say Applejack's Day Off or The Cart Before the Ponies, but it kind of feels close to it. At times, it does have some good elements to it like Rarity's story and the mystery itself about what happened. There are some decent good jokes, it shows more of the world of Equestria and introduces a new sea creature. There are some good ideas here and there.
However, when everything is revealed, it doesn't leave you feeling satisfied about what truly happened. If anything, it leaves even more doors open and questions unanswered. Like how the boat sank in shallow water, or how nopony noticed the tri-horned bunkum for so long. Combine that with some pretty repetitive lines of dialogue and some pretty lousy characterization for most of the characters, it leaves a pretty bad taste in your mouth.
There are better episodes on other TV shows that do the "he said, she said" story better. While I do applaud the show for trying to show something new and showing a huge rift between three of the Mane 7, it falters in a lot of ways and leaves you feeling underwhelmed at the end of the day. This is one trip on the sea that I doubt I want to go back on.
FINAL SCORE: 6.5 out of 10 (C+)
Comments15
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I think you forgot to mention the episode's biggest problem: it's a 22 minute episode with a plot that would struggle to hit 7 minutes. This Rashomon-type thing is what you do when you realize that the story you've written isn't going to fit the allotted time, so you have multiple characters tell it with superficial differences in order to pad out the run time.
I don't particularly like episodes like this; not sure if you can tell.