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Cuddlepug β MLP FiM: S5 E4 - Bloom and Gloom Review
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Published: 2015-04-18 16:42:13 +0000 UTC; Views: 8625; Favourites: 55; Downloads: 156
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Description
Review of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Season 5, Episode 4: "Bloom and Gloom"
Final score: C-
Next review (Season 5, Episode 5)
Previous review (Season 5, Episode 3):
These episodes are all rated in the context of the show - therefore, if I give an episode a score, it is in relation to how it compares to the standard set by the show itself and not external factors.
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Comments: 184
my main issue with this episode is that it was a predictable mess
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I'm not sure what you mean!
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Uhm well looking through your replies to most comments I see some evidence of that
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Something you may not know about me...When I'm not writing on DeviantArt, like many people, I am employed to do a job. Unlike many people, however, my job is something a little bit unusual. It's a job that requires me to wake up at 4:00am every day, to take pills every morning to avoid sickness and one where I risk my life on a fairly regular basis.
What is my job, you ask?
Well, I'm a Sailor.
Now you may not think about it when you're sitting in the comfort of your own home eating your dinner, but the food you're consuming is arriving at your local supermarket from places often quite far away - usually another country. Some people are employed to pick the banana you have at lunchtime, or the coffee beans that you grind for your morning caffeine boost. Others, such as myself, are employed to trawl fish and bring them back to land for domestic use.
My work hours tend to be 5:15am - 4:30 pm every day. As you can imagine this is a very tiring job, and that's without factoring in that during turbulent weather, such as
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Oh, cool! I'll think of you the next time I eat fish.Β Β
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I would have rated the episode A+ if only Apple Bloom actually gotten her cutie mark, then it would be less character to worry about having repetitive episodes about.
Apple Bloom character as a whole is boring.
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Do you think she would be more interesting if she got her cutie mark, Sailor?
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I don't think we will get to see that any time soon.
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I loved that Babs got her cutie mark and that Princess Luna finally visited Apple Bloom's dreams. But I hated when those two stubborn irredeemable jerks Diamond Tiara & Silver Spoon ridiculed Apple Bloom's pest control cutie mark and didn't even apologize when the twittermites attacked Ponyville! They weren't even insulted when Apple Bloom called them the worst! I know Apple Bloom only dreamed them that way, but it was still annoying. I HAVE HAD IT UP TO HERE WITH THOSE TWO!!! I hope they turn themselves around in a future episode. Even if that happens, it does not mean the show will end. Remember when Twilight became a princess for the first time and a lot of bronies thought the show was ending? That didn't happen. In fact, the show is getting better!
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How would you score it, Sailor?
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After watching the episode I have to say this is probably one of the best "Cutie Mark" episodes in a while. That I personally feel is a low bar, but I have to applaud it of touching on some fairly mature issues like growing distant and self identity, which I thought it presented pretty well for young kids.
Also I think Luna is basically acting as an instructor for her subjects, kind of like Celestia in all honesty. While Celestia goes around and gives more formal tutelage in the day time, Luna talks to them at night.
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What would you score it, Sailor?
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Eh.... honestly a C+. Maybe a B. I still think the episode is mediocre by FiM standards, but I have to give it some credit for having a rather mature message and telling it the right way.
I should note I don't really like the CMC, so I usually go into their episodes with a sour attitude. The fact this episode won me over at all means it had to do something right. At least in my mind :/
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That's fair enough, Sailor!
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Ahoy there, Sailor, can you do the otter dance?
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It's not true that every CMC episode revolves around them getting a cutie mark though. The episodes in which Scootaloo went camping, Sweetie Belle ruined Rarities dress, and Apple Bloom staying "home alone" were not about their cutie marks at all
Other than that, I fully agree with your review. Let's hope for more B+ and higher marked episodes for the rest of the season!
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One of the best episodes is the Sisterhooves Social episode :')
Fingers crossed!
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I didn't like the episode much, it was highly repetitiveΒ and overall not the greatest we've seen. I was really hoping this episode would focus on one of the cuitemark crusaders getting their cutiemark, and how them and the others had to deal with them all not getting it at the same time. For goodness sakes they didn't even try to include Babs Seed in it, her getting her cutiemark was highly anti-climatic.
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How would you score it, Sailor?
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I'd give it a D+
I didn't even understand the moral. Was it supposed to be
"Don't worry about your future because your present is now"
Because it seriously lacks, and that's not something that can be solved in a single episode. I just want to see the CMC get their cutiemarks
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Do you think the CMCs would be more interesting characters if they got their cutie marks?
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It would be nice to see them grow in that sense. After so many episodes of them trying and very much failing at getting their marks. I would finally like to see them with it, plus it would make a great Segway for us to see how much a cutiemark affects your future. You've finally discovered your special talent, what do you do with it? How do you expand upon your talents?
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My special talent is Sailing :')
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Simply put, this episode had high hopes, but ultimately ran out of steam after Apple Bloom's pesticide nightmare.
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How would you score it, Sailor?
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Uhh... I dunno if you noticed, but this is the fist cutie mark-themed CMC episode since, like, The Cutie Pox. So your first paragraph kinda doesn't make sense.
"which would perhaps be more interesting if we hadn't already seen this side of her before many, many times." - we'd seen it? Where? Because I can only remember Applebloom worrying about getting her mark, not about the consequences of it. This episode's theme is very different from Call of The Cutie, The Cutie Pox and The Show Stoppets, and in some way more mature. Generalizing things isn't always a good way to go.
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How would you score it, Sailor?
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Babs Seed gets her cutie mark before the CMC....
0/10 too much water.
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This episode might have been predictable, but it homed in on some of the characters we don't get to see a lot of, and it even had LUNA(yay) and some creepy Apples. XD wayy better than that 2part train wreck of a "pilot".
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Interesting - what didn't you like about the pilot?
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Well the big think was the mane 6 ALLOWING their Cutie Marks to be stolen* stern stares at the writers. then ONCE AGAIN, they ALLOW the new minor character who wronged them to completely WALTZ away.
In short the highlight of the 2part train wreck was the "equalized" ponies finally showing some back bone and rebelling against Starlight.
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I think the C- rating is just a bit to harsh, honestly. I had a lot more fun with this episode than I did the premier. In your first paragraph, you state that it's overly optimistic to hope for the CMC to do anything beyond worrying about their Cutie Marks which, while I can empathize slightly as I want to see a Dash and Scootaloo sisterly episode, is kind of irrelevant to the characters. Cutie. Mark. Crusaders. It's exactly what it says on the tin, as it were. Their whole concept is adolescence working to understand who they are and what to do with their lives. They WANT to grow up but do not realize (until apparently the end of this episode) that a Cutie Mark is what you're passion is. You define your mark, not the other way around. Their quintessential kids who are trying to find their place in the world instead of making their own space for themselves.
Summarizing the episode with, 'Apple Bloom falls into a coma' is a little bit melodramatic, don't you think? Further more, the 'it was all just a dream' bit cuts the episode too deep. In my opinion, when someone titles something as 'it was all just a dream', it evokes that frustrating ending where the narrative kind of boxes itself into a corner with loose ends and straps on a deus ex machina jetpack to fly out of the ring. That is NOT what this episode does at all. From very early on in the episode, it's established that 'it was all just a dream' and given the context of the series so far, it made me squeal in excitement to wait anxiously for Best Princess to swoop down and show Apple Bloom the core of her turmoil. (although admittedly, Luna felt a bit out of character and lost that ominous feeling she had with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo as she warned them about letting their fears run their lives.) Little visual cues like, Apple Jacks hat moving around and disappearing all but solidified the Ground Hog Day nightmares that Apple Bloom was having. Unfortunately, Apple Blooms shadow (heh, Ponysona 4, The Golden) seemed to have strikingly similar ideals to Starlight Glimmer. I suspect that it wasn't a coincidence and will tie in later but, that could be wishful thinking on my part.
By now, you're probably tired of me ranting on and on though, so as someone unfamiliar with your other reviews, are these reviews intended to be taken seriously or do you simply like to have fun with the audience because throughout reading it, I honestly couldn't tell. Some parts felt a bit trolly while others seemed very genuine so, I'd be interested to know.
My rating for the episode? C+ Passable, not outstanding, but not awful. It made me laugh. A lot. (How could you not mention the Pinkie Pie Rooster in the third dream sequence... or was it forth? WATCH IT AGAIN.
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Thanks for your comment, Sailor. Like everything I upload, my reviews aren't to be taken particularly seriously - I often overly simplify the plot of an episode deliberately for comic effect and exaggerate things (Apple Bloom falling into a coma; Luna being cruel to children etc.) as part of the process :')
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It's cool, I was curious though. Reviews are a bit of a tough nut when it comes to employing comedy. I've read maybe one or two of your other reviews in the past, so, I guess I may have fibbed a bit when I said that I was unfamiliar with your stuff, though I guess it wasn't a blatent lie either as I believe the last one I read was in Season 2 or 3, only catching them when they pop up on my feed.
Anyways, thanks for the reply. Stay Gold.
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I know it's probably done for comedy here, but... In at least two of the Luna&CMC episodes, she's not the one causing the nightmares. I don't really remember if she caused any in Sweetie Belle's episode, but...
Anyways, I found it to be more or less middle of the road. The imagery was nice, and it was amusing to see Apple Bloom starting to NOT want a cutie mark, but the lack of progress was annoying.
One a final note... "it would be nice to see an episode of Friendship is Magic that spends a little more time showing Apple Bloom proactively doing things to gain her cutie mark"
Hehe, that amused me...
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Thanks friend. Why did that line amuse you :')?
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Isn't proactively trying to get her cutie mark exactly what the first CMC episodes said was the wrong thing to do?
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At this stage it's a bit of a free-for-all!
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I'm someone who goes through the same kind of anxiety Apple Bloom did in this episode, and I'd give it a much higher mark than what most of the fandom seems to be giving it. The progression of the dream sequence, when taken as Apple Bloom's true feelings, feels very authentic. Every subsequent, repeating scene subtly shows the cycle a person who does not yet know who they are feels as if they are trapped in and each shows a different aspect and different question Apple Bloom raises. All of it is a projection of her deepest fears.
The conflict itself doesn't feel like a retread of Apple Bloom's past as much as it portrays an evolution of such. If you look at the themes of the season premiere, Season 5 looked as if it was giving us a new take on the show's culture of self-image, the absolute importance things like cutie marks have as a pillar of Equestrian society. At first, Apple Bloom was recklessly trying to speed towards the Crusaders getting their cutie marks. Now, we see her dealing with the opposite of that, worrying if that's the wrong thing to do and running through all the "what ifs" of all the negative outcomes. The combination of the "don't worry" moral with her past should hopefully get her to calm down a bit, but like you said, it's up to future episodes to uphold that.
I find the episode to be very relatable and very enjoyable on a certain level to certain people.
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