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Like all of us, I have fond memories of the various winter wrap-ups we must all perform
every year. It's a lot of work, but something that must be done since otherwise winter would last all year round. Wait a minute, now I
remember what happened. I did absolutely nothing and
let winter wrap itself up by waiting for the temperature to rise and letting
the animals behave naturally. Surprisingly enough, Spike is spot on in Winter Wrap Up with his lackadaisical
attitude. “Who cleans up winter? It’s ridiculous,” Spike announces, and this
is just in the teaser. He spends the
rest of the episode just trying to get some sleep, and is cranky enough to
level some great cheap shots at Twilight (“outhouse”, “natural disaster”). Unfortunately, having a character accurately
criticize an episode doesn't bode well for the show itself. Like Spike observes, Winter Wrap Up is a
mildly pleasant but pointless exercise, which only ends up suggesting that
Twilight should have stayed at home and done nothing (and that also means the
episode would be better off not existing).
Hmm, staying home and doing nothing.
On second thought, maybe this is an episode I can get behind after all.
So Twilight’s real excited about
something called Winter Wrap Up, be-cause tomorrow’s spring and somebody has to
make it not winter anymore. Except for
Hearth’s Warming Eve in the middle of season two, it’s never been winter at any
other time on the show, and certainly not in the ten previous episodes. But
seriously, it’s been winter for three months now, seriously. And every March 20th, all of the
snow around magically disappears to make way for sunny skies and all of the
hibernating animals to emerge on March 21st. In preparation for this, Twilight is sure to rise at 3 AM on the 20th
so that she can ready her saddle, boots, and that scarf she stole from
Rarity. She runs outside to find that
not only is it not winter yet, but surprisingly nobody else is up this
early. Then when the event does begin,
she’s running late and forgets to bring all of the items she just put on. But Twilight does remember Spike, despite
the fact that neither of them were invited to this massive chore fest.
All of the ponies were assigned vests
for whatever area they’re supposed to help out on, but Twilight doesn't have
one, because she’s late or because no one actually expected her to show
up. So she spends a good chunk of the
episode “trying” to help out. As the man
says, there is no such thing as “trying”, so in trying I mean failing. Twilight offers to help Rainbow Dash clear
clouds, and has to be told that she doesn't have wings. She also tries to help Fluttershy wake up
animals, Rarity build bird’s nests (neither could be done by the animals
themselves), and Applejack clear snow.
Also, Pinkie Pie skating on thin ice at a lake counts as helping, but
Twilight can’t do that right either.
Finally, Twilight has a realization most middle management comes
to. Those who can’t do, supervise! Twilight organizes everybody with checklists
and a montage, and forces the entire town to pull an all-nighter. Her slave-driving tactics earn her the town’s gratitude, and she is able to take full credit for Ponyville more or less completing the wrap-up on time despite barely doing any of the work. Twilight learns a valuable life lesson while
every hourly worker dies a bit more inside.
The end!
It’s hard to hate Winter Wrap Up since
there’s a good heart behind it, and the purported idea of trying to find your
place in the world is solid (although this would be explored much more
effectively with the Cutie Mark Crusaders starting in the next episode). Unfortunately, Winter Wrap Up just comes off
as a bad workplace parable that teaches a “lesson” kids probably shouldn't be
learning until they’re older (and which ideally wouldn't exist at all). Winter Wrap Up also feels like it takes
place in a different series, which leaves an odd feeling overall. Twilight doesn't seem that close to her
friends, who never thought to include her in their activities despite the rest
of Ponyville having jobs. Perhaps the show takes place immediately after the pilot, but unfortunately that
episode made a big deal of occurring at the summer solstice. Of course, if Celestia is in charge of the
sun and most days are clearly spring or summer, then how do seasons exist in
the first place in Equestria? Celestia
just feels lazy for three months out of the year? It’s fun to have these supernatural stories
as to how the world works, but then the fake world is inevitably grounded in
the real one. Which produces questions
that shouldn't need to be asked. The
idea for Winter Wrap Up might have seemed cute, but it doesn't really make sense
in any version of any world.
There are at least some positive
moments that creep up. Winter Wrap Up is the
origin of the bro-hoof meme between Applejack and Twilight, and we do have the
first mention of “Ditzy Doo” flying off in the wrong direction again. Spike is at his best in perhaps the entire
series throughout, although he clearly wishes he wasn't involved in this
episode either. The most memorable part
is the three-minute song Winter Wrap Up, but its length suggests the episode
had a lack of material and needed some stretching to fill it out. It also summarizes the entire episode
(without doing a better job of justifying it), which leaves little for the
actual show to expand on. The final montage is a two-minute instrumental version of the same song, which seems more
ponderous given how much time has already been wasted with music.
The main problem with
Winter Wrap Up is how unnecessary it is.
The premise is flawed from the start, which Spike immediately realizes
and calls out. Then we have the
continuity lapse and slapstick, and the long uninteresting stretches of
watching Twilight do boring activities poorly.
Like many of the early first season episodes, Winter Wrap Up seems extremely inconsequential given how little of it has to do with the series Winter has never been seen before but now the season magically happens,
and Twilight doesn't have friends as much as ponies who put up with her. Then she bosses them all around despite not
being able to do any of their jobs and gets rewarded for it. Even the angle on Twilight using magic never panned out, with the only suggestion being that she shouldn't (so
much for being who you are and using your special talents). Writer Cindy Morrow has technically been hit
or miss over the first three seasons, although it’s mostly miss (Owl’s Well That
Ends Well, Sisterhooves Social, Family Appreciation Day). Winter Wrap Up might be an improvement on
Griffon The Brush-Off, but most of the episode is just as forgettable.
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