Hello & welcome back to Trotting Through Life and back to the Rarity Retrospective and ugh....
Yeah, that sums up my feelings on this episode. We are looking at season 4's Simple Ways, now I had not seen this episode since it aired last season and at the time, I liked it but going back and re-watching it, well....
This may just be the worst Rarity episode of the entire series. Shame too as she had a great episode earlier this season with Rarity Takes Manehattan. For those of you wondering, why I'm skipping that episode, I already reviewed back when The Second Opinion was still a part of Trotting Through Life. Check it out here. As for this episode, where do I even begin with how bad it is? Seriously, how do I go from one of the greatest Rarity episodes in the entire series to this mess? Well, let's get this mess over with.
Episode Title
Simple Ways
Simple enough title and it feeds into the fabrication that Rarity is pretending to be someone she's not.
The Plot
Oh, there's really not much about to say about this plot. We start out finding that Rarity has been chosen to plan the Ponyville Days celebration. Huh, reminds me of Pioneer Days back when I lived in 29 Palms, California. But don't put too much stock into the celebration as it takes a backseat to rather lame story.
And we then learn that Rarity is going with is Small Town Chic. But that's not the real reason, why she interested in planning this year's event. Oh no, it's not and the real reason makes me want to do this.
Apparently, Rarity has a crush on this fella named Trenderhoof, who is always in the know before they even what the know is.
Wow, I haven't seen something like that since Helga's shrine to Arnold. Okay, let me be perfectly clear, I have no trouble with Rarity having a crush on a celebrity. I have a huge crush on Carrie Underwood, so it'd be hypocritical of me to judge her based on just the crush but that's not where my issue comes in. We will get to that in a moment. sometime later, we see Twilight and Rarity go to Ponyville Express to pick up Trenderhoof and Rarity takes him on a tour of Ponyville. And this is where my issue with this episode starts to come in. Because right around this time, he develops a crush on AJ. Heh, whatever floats your boat.
Show, your giving those people material. Anyways, Rarity is understandably broken up over the fact that Trenderhoof like Applejack and not her and we do get a nice joke about she's never noticed Spike's crush.
But all the rest of the episode comes down to Rarity pretending to be something she's not. To try and win the affection of this Stallion that is so far removed from any sense of reality, Rarity ends up making a foal of herself by pretending that she knows anything about country life and farming. That's not you.
I mean it even gets to the point, where she changes the theme of the celebration to Simple Ways just to improve Trenderhoof. Okay, going back to my crush on Carrie Underwood. I would love to meet Carrie Underwood but if she didn't like who I was, yeah I'd be bummed because I've adored her for as long as I could remember but I would NOT change myself just to get her approval. Now yes, I know that is what this episode is saying but Rarity's already had a lesson in being herself. A great lesson in being herself as a matter of fact. It was an episode that treated her with respect and never once made look like a complete and utter idiot.
Does this episode ring a bell? Thankfully, Applejack is able to knock some sense to Rarity by showing what a fool she had been by becoming Apple Jewel, which is admittedly the only funny part of this episode.
And the episode ends with Rarity remembering who she is and going back to Small Town Chic for the party as she helps Trenderhoof realize that he shouldn't change himself just because someone didn't like him.
Characters
Main Characters
Rarity voiced by Tabitha St. Germain
My biggest problem with this episode is that it's basically repeating a lesson that Rarity has already learned. Just replace The Canterlot Elite with Trenderhoof and it's the same lesson as Sweet and Elite. Now sure, you could aruge that characters like Fluttershy or Applejack have the same story told over and over again. And I've made that argument about both of them. It is a little annoying, when the show repeats a story but I'll let it slide if the story is entertaining and it really wasn't here.
Applejack voiced by Ashleigh Ball
Applejack was the one saving grace of this episode and that's saying something come from me. Because I don't like AJ but I swear, she was the audience surrogate in this episode as she saw how ridiculous both Rarity and Trenderhoof were acting.
Supporting Character
Trenderhoof voiced by Doron Bell Jr.
Yeah, that sums up my feelings on this episode. We are looking at season 4's Simple Ways, now I had not seen this episode since it aired last season and at the time, I liked it but going back and re-watching it, well....
This may just be the worst Rarity episode of the entire series. Shame too as she had a great episode earlier this season with Rarity Takes Manehattan. For those of you wondering, why I'm skipping that episode, I already reviewed back when The Second Opinion was still a part of Trotting Through Life. Check it out here. As for this episode, where do I even begin with how bad it is? Seriously, how do I go from one of the greatest Rarity episodes in the entire series to this mess? Well, let's get this mess over with.
Episode Title
Simple Ways
Simple enough title and it feeds into the fabrication that Rarity is pretending to be someone she's not.
The Plot
Oh, there's really not much about to say about this plot. We start out finding that Rarity has been chosen to plan the Ponyville Days celebration. Huh, reminds me of Pioneer Days back when I lived in 29 Palms, California. But don't put too much stock into the celebration as it takes a backseat to rather lame story.
And we then learn that Rarity is going with is Small Town Chic. But that's not the real reason, why she interested in planning this year's event. Oh no, it's not and the real reason makes me want to do this.
Apparently, Rarity has a crush on this fella named Trenderhoof, who is always in the know before they even what the know is.
Wow, I haven't seen something like that since Helga's shrine to Arnold. Okay, let me be perfectly clear, I have no trouble with Rarity having a crush on a celebrity. I have a huge crush on Carrie Underwood, so it'd be hypocritical of me to judge her based on just the crush but that's not where my issue comes in. We will get to that in a moment. sometime later, we see Twilight and Rarity go to Ponyville Express to pick up Trenderhoof and Rarity takes him on a tour of Ponyville. And this is where my issue with this episode starts to come in. Because right around this time, he develops a crush on AJ. Heh, whatever floats your boat.
Show, your giving those people material. Anyways, Rarity is understandably broken up over the fact that Trenderhoof like Applejack and not her and we do get a nice joke about she's never noticed Spike's crush.
But all the rest of the episode comes down to Rarity pretending to be something she's not. To try and win the affection of this Stallion that is so far removed from any sense of reality, Rarity ends up making a foal of herself by pretending that she knows anything about country life and farming. That's not you.
I mean it even gets to the point, where she changes the theme of the celebration to Simple Ways just to improve Trenderhoof. Okay, going back to my crush on Carrie Underwood. I would love to meet Carrie Underwood but if she didn't like who I was, yeah I'd be bummed because I've adored her for as long as I could remember but I would NOT change myself just to get her approval. Now yes, I know that is what this episode is saying but Rarity's already had a lesson in being herself. A great lesson in being herself as a matter of fact. It was an episode that treated her with respect and never once made look like a complete and utter idiot.
Does this episode ring a bell? Thankfully, Applejack is able to knock some sense to Rarity by showing what a fool she had been by becoming Apple Jewel, which is admittedly the only funny part of this episode.
And the episode ends with Rarity remembering who she is and going back to Small Town Chic for the party as she helps Trenderhoof realize that he shouldn't change himself just because someone didn't like him.
Characters
Main Characters
Rarity voiced by Tabitha St. Germain
My biggest problem with this episode is that it's basically repeating a lesson that Rarity has already learned. Just replace The Canterlot Elite with Trenderhoof and it's the same lesson as Sweet and Elite. Now sure, you could aruge that characters like Fluttershy or Applejack have the same story told over and over again. And I've made that argument about both of them. It is a little annoying, when the show repeats a story but I'll let it slide if the story is entertaining and it really wasn't here.
Applejack voiced by Ashleigh Ball
Applejack was the one saving grace of this episode and that's saying something come from me. Because I don't like AJ but I swear, she was the audience surrogate in this episode as she saw how ridiculous both Rarity and Trenderhoof were acting.
Supporting Character
Trenderhoof voiced by Doron Bell Jr.
I remember when this episode first aired that were some in the analyst community that Trenderhoof with the way, he talked about Earth Ponies was uh... how do I put this? Racist, and well I don't like this character but I wouldn't go that far. I think it's a case of his character at least for me is so far removed from any sense of reality because he's never had to do a hard day's work, so he doesn't know that what he's saying can come off as elitist. Still don't like the character and I groaned every single time, he was on screen and he's the big reason I opened the review with this.
My Final Thoughts
I was bound to come across as bad Rarity episode eventually, it happens. While I've worse episodes such as say Bats! or A Bird In The Hoof, in terms of episodes, we are looking at for this event, this is worthy of the face hoof. Not gonna use it again because I've already used it more than once during this review. I may have jinxed myself as I thought before going into this episode that while I didn't like certain episodes during this Retrospective, they weren't bad and they were at least watchable. I'm afraid I can't say that about this episode. I had to watch it chunks while looking away some of the time. I would completely skip this episode, it's not really worth checking out. Join me next time as we close out with a Spike episode where Rarity goes a little mad with power....
Inspiration Manifestation
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