My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Episode 621 - Every Little Thing She Does

 Rating:

I must be feeling quite charitable not to give such a dumb, dull, and misplaced episode two stars or worse.  Michael Vogel had some relative success in season six (story credit for Viva Las Pegasus, Stranger Than Fan Fiction script doctored by Josh Haber), but every decision he made here was poor.  Starlight has been shirking her friendship lessons (guess that explains her relatively few appearances), so she decides to do them all at once.  “Surprisingly”, it doesn’t go well.  Given Every Little Thing’s somewhat introductory nature into Starlight’s mane six friendships, many bronies understandably wondered why the episode wasn’t aired earlier.  Like, say, in place of that Christmas episode which aired in May.  As also happened in The Fault In Our Cutie Marks, Vogel assumed Starlight had a more productive season than she did, including many new alicorn-strength spells with Harry Potter-styled names (accelero, fiducia compelus, cogeria, persuadere).  So instead of her lesson, Starlight hypnotizes everyone while Twilight is conveniently away and nearly destroys the castle, an event which includes her exclaiming “this can’t get any worse”.  At least Vogel tries touching on how difficult making friends can be for those who don’t have many, but this doesn’t compensate for the slapstick, dumb movie quotes, and overall general tedium of an episode that goes nowhere and has little to say.  Unfortunately, the animators also did him no favors, using more strangely ugly faces for angry ponies and putting footprints above a door which no animal could reach.

How the hell did a bear get up there?  Typically for season six, Every Little Thing was another sloppy and uninteresting effort from the B-team who clearly weren’t capable of better work.  Maybe it doesn’t reach the pain levels of inferior episodes, but that might only be because you’re too bored to notice.

Vogel unsurprisingly wastes his trailer, although in a more spectacularly bad way than usual.  Twilight quizzes Starlight on all of the magic she’s totally learned this semester year, whatever, after an all-nighter or something (they forget about being tired really quickly).  First up is another scene borrowed from that endless source of inspiration, Star Trek: TNG.  Starlight must find where Twilight teleports to, exactly like Q and guest star of the week Amanda did during True Q.  The Q are omnipotent, but how does Starlight find Twilight?  Oh shit, are they both all-powerful beings now?  Nah, it’s just an excuse for some sight gags like hanging upside-down with bats.  Hope they didn’t get bitten!  Afterwards, our leads create life and blast the hell out of Twilight’s castle, because nothing says friendship like weapons fire.

This goofy teaser perfectly demonstrates why Lauren Faust left My Little Pony.  Guess we should start the actual show now.  Starlight hasn’t been doing her friendship lesson homework, but she’ll totally work on it while Twilight guest lectures at another class in Canterlot.  Literally pulling  suggestions out of the trash, Starlight decides to catch up by doing all five at once.  What could go wrong?

Well, the answer is sadly her supposed friends.  They start complaining about not getting attention and how conditions aren’t right and blah blah blah.  Rainbow Dash won’t shut up about chillaxing either, Christ.  Starlight can’t take any more of this shit after they all start talking together on cue, and (after a panic attack) tries hypnotizing them with magic.  It works too well.  Now displaying blank stares, the mane five won’t do anything unless Starlight tells them to, which produces many “comic hijinks”.  Pinkie Pie bakes every cake in the book, Rarity draws a picture of her dress, Fluttershy becomes an entomologist, and Applejack won’t stop quoting movie/book lines (“they can take our farm, but they can’t take our freedom!”, “it was the best of apples, it was the worst of apples” (really?)).  Mercifully this dreadful section is cut short by Twlight’s early return home.

She’s pissed well not really, since Twilight usually gets stuck cleaning up everyone else’s mess (Inspiration Manifestation).  While pondering how much of each spell she should have used (apparently they’re ingredients now), Starlight tells Twilight that doing friendship lessons gives her anxiety from likely failing the tasks.  After apologizing to a quite hungover mane five (spells are alcohol too), Starlight montages through her friendship lessons with them while cleaning the castle (they got over their hangovers pretty quickly).  Well, except chillaxing with Rainbow Dash, which only ends when Dash says it does.  How long will that be?  Who knows, they all just laugh like the end of a ‘90s cartoon show.

At least Vogel tried defining Starlight as a character here, but unfortunately he made her Harry Potter.  She recites spell names which previously didn’t exist, and debates how much of each she put into one like doing so is even possible.  The teaser continues Meghan McCarthy’s trend of having ponies fight with magic when they’re supposed to be friendly and never actually learned such spells.  Twilight previously freaked out when Trixie was using absurdly strong magic during Magic Duel, but regular unicorn Starlight matches that power because it’s in the script.  Considering how close Starlight’s name is to Twilight, having them be equal at magic and scared of making friends doesn’t count as original characterization.  Starlight might seem more distinct here, but only deceptively.

Practically nobody else counts as even appearing in Every Little Thing.  Twilight must deliver another lengthy lecture and misses the entire second act, while her friends spend that time hypnotized and thus have similar pliable personalities.  They all experience different hangovers though, which suggests this was all for comic effect rather than something that could actually happen.  The third act montage also robs potential development time since we don’t hear anything occurring.  Even when they weren’t mesmerized or absent, the mane six offered nothing that hasn’t been seen before.  And as he’s done in Winter Wrap-Up and elsewhere, Spike accurately grumbles about how dumb the events he witnesses are, which is never helps an episode’s rating.

Perhaps Vogel’s lesson seems meant for introverts with few friends, but it isn’t relevant in practice since nobody can actually perform magic.  We likely aren’t strong enough hypnotists to pull off that clusterfuck either, so “don’t brainwash potential pals” probably won’t come up.  Fluttershy has struggled with her introversion in many earlier episodes, while Twilight and Moondancer had difficulty meeting other ponies at various points, so that angle wasn’t new either.  Vogel mostly used his premise as an excuse for comic hijinks, and though some might have laughed at Applejack’s quotations, there weren’t many other funny moments.  This means Vogel failed on both counts.

Essentially, being bland and nondescript is “better” than being terrible, so I’m giving Vogel a pass from the bottom five list.  There really isn’t anything else positive to say though, since Every Little Thing couldn’t distinguish itself despite its efforts.  Writers really do make a difference, and nowhere was that more obvious than My Little Pony’s sixth season.  Vogel’s confusing effort left no impression, and the animators also struggled at times.  There have certainly been worse episodes produced, but explaining why Every Little Thing isn’t among them remains very difficult.