Hello & welcome back to Trotting Through The Snow. Yesterday, we looked at the latest Hearth's Warming episode from MLP: FIM and I enjoyed it overall but we are actually gifted with the first MLP holiday special. Let me explain this, we have looked at episodes centered around Hearth's Warming in the past including Hearth's Warming Eve, Hearthbreakers, A Hearth's Warming Tail, and The Hearth's Warming Club.
But there a few key differences between those four episodes and Best Gift Ever. First, all these episodes were aired as a part of their respective seasons, season 2, season 5, season six, and season eight. Best Gift Ever was aired independently and not as a part of any season. As the special was aired after season eight had wrapped up. Which is still strange scheduling as this aired Halloween weekend. The second thing that helps sets this apart from those episodes is that those were all 22-minutes and this was a one-hour special that unlike the one-hour premieres and finales, this was not broken up into two parts. The other thing that actually sets this apart from any Hearth's Warming story from this franchise is that it's the first Hearth's Warming story to focus on The Mane Six. Hearth's Warming Eve starred the Mane Six but they were playing characters, Hearthbreakers was an AJ and Pinkie episode, A Hearth's Warming Tail was A Christmas Carol, The Hearth's Warming Club was a way to learn more about the Student Six. This even extends to the Holiday comics put out by IDW as the first one was an Equestria Girls comic that decided to some unforeseen reason tackled cyberbullying (Man, that is possibly the worst story from this franchise) the second one was an anthology take with the characters redoing classic tales. And last year's was the first holiday comic to have an actual story about letting people celebrate the holidays how they want.
So, all previous Hearth's Warming stories from this franchise have limited their focus onto a small group of characters or as a way of worldbuilding but this special gave time to each of The Mane Six. Really, the closest we've gotten to this is the Christmas soundtrack, It's a Pony Kind of Christmas but that's a stretch.
Now, this is just some speculation but there have rumors that season nine will be the final season of Friendship is Magic and the staff may have wanted to allow The Mane Six to shine in this special and that makes quite a bit of sense. And along those lines, this special has a sense of finality to it. With this rather long introduction outta the way, Oh, there is one more thing that sets this special apart from those Hearth's Warming episodes. All four of those episodes still open with the traditional intro whereas Best Gift Ever opens with a title card letting you know the title of the special.
Something interesting to think about and I'm always happy to see characters I love in holiday specials as to me there is some extra special about seeing characters I love celebrating holidays. With this rather long introduction outta the way, let's look at the plot of this great special.
The Plot
Now unlike The Hearth's Warming Club, this special does not use the anthology approach but considering that we are following seven mane characters, eight when Discord joins in, the special takes the approach of separating each of the character's stories into little vignettes. So, along those lines, I'll be breaking this down into focusing on each of the character's stories one-by-one instead of trying to go back and intersperse every little plot detail. Also, we have a new meme face from this special and we got a reference here to another beloved Hasbro franchise. Oh, and the return of Derpy.
Now, one more thing to mention considering that this special is rather packed, my descriptions might not be as detailed as I usually am and that comes down to once again, a lot going on. With that outta the way, let's look at what sets up this special. Well, we open with a rather nice song number and Twily's friends see that she is having her traditional holiday meltdown. And that is when AJ comes up with the idea for them to do a Hearth's Warming Helper. Which is the pony version of Secret Santa. Something that if you're reading on ME, we are familiar with. So, the ponies and dragon write their names and then pull them out and that's how they determine who to get a gift for. Twilight gets Pinkie, Fluttershy gets Rainbow Dash, Dashie gets Flutters, Pinkie gets Twily, AJ has Spike and after some trading, Spike gets Rarity. Which is special is interesting with Spike as it makes his storyline all about Spike trying to find a gift as perfect as Rarity is. I say that this is interesting because this special aired after the eighth season and it had been ages since Spike's crush on Rarity was featured so prominently in a story focused around the dragon. That's fascinating really. Now, the special does focus on something that I think a lot of people can relate to, trying to find the best gift for the friend that we think they'll love. I know that I've had that issue when shopping for family and friends around this time of year.
Now, let's look at the individual struggles that our mane seven characters go through. Starting with Twily, she struggles to figure out what to get Pinkie but gets the idea of using her love of research and baking to make her, Chancellor Puddinghead's special pudding. Which, not a bad idea but it consumes her and she forgets that Shining Armor, Cadence, and Flurry are coming for the holidays. And while she's not looking, a certain niece of the Princess of Friendship adds extra ingredients to the pudding and well, you can imagine how well that goes.
Yeah, I am looking at part of the climax this early on but I kinda want to as this is what Twilight's story leads to. And that brings us to Pinkie as she is perhaps the most character in terms of story here as she goes to visit the Yaks during Snildar Fest to ask Prince Rutherford what is the Best Gift Ever. Okay, I have to comment on this but if you recall when I looked at Rutherford and the Yaks' first appearance during Party with Pinkie, I hated the Yaks and hoped that never returned but through multiple appearances since then and having a young yak be one of the main characters of season eight, the show has gone a long way to show them to be more than the annoying brutes that they were in the first appearance they had. It goes to show that you can't always look at first impressions and have to be willing to give people second chances. This is a recurring theme that we see throughout the series whether it be with characters such as Sunset or Starlight or even Rutherford. Now, I want to include a riddle here because you see Rutherford sends Pinkie off to meet these really beautiful reindeer that evoke the spirit of the holiday that leave Pinkie with a riddle as they give her a gift for Twilight.
The best gift is more precious than gold, but it cannot be sold. When it breaks, it's not ended, for quickly it's mended. It can never be bought yet is easily sought.
It's not explicitly stated in the special and doesn't need to be but I read these reindeer as being the Santas of Equestria. I give you Aurora, Bori, and Alice. I love a good pun name but part of what makes me think that these characters are the Santa stand-ins for the series is that Aurora knows ponies' past, and Alice knows their future and Bori just keeps them in check. It's not a hundred percent but what they do is akin to Santa knowing when children are awake or sleeping. It's nice to see things such as this as it makes me think of early in the show's run and the fanon character, Santa Hooves. But I like that Equestria doesn't have a carbon copy Santa and instead did its own thing with these reindeer characters. Also, they're much more likable than the IDW deer.
And Pinkie's present saves the day and that leads to what the best gift ever is. It's friendship. D'aww. Okay, let's look at Fluttershy and AJ's story. Yay, they combined one, that makes my reviewing a bit easier. The story of these two takes place at Rainbow Falls, I gotta say that I love seeing so many locations from the show's run being used and who should they run into but Flim and Flam selling an ugly doll, Holly The Hearth's Warmer.
Now, I might be reading into this but the name of that ugly doll made me think of one of the most despised things that has been become a new holiday tradition.
I hate Elf on the Shelf and think that it is one of the creepiest things to pop up in terms of new holiday traditions. The whole idea of it is just so creepy and just seems to be twisting the themes and love of Santa into something more akin to Big Brother.
Huh, less the show and more the idea that George Orwell presented in his book. Yes, Santa does have the standard Naughty & Nice list but Elf on the Shelf takes that idea too far in my opinion too far and what may seem like an innocent and fun idea to celebrate Christmas but the idea of an Elf spying on children and reporting back to Santa whether they've been good or bad goes against what I think Santa stands for. I'm a Santa fan and you'd know if you read my Santa Spectacle I did on A Look at Disney a couple years back and to me, what Elf on The Shelf is, goes against Santa Claus.
And considering, Elf on The Shelf is something that cashes in on the holiday without understanding it, it'd make perfect sense that Flim & Flam would attempt to capitalize on the holiday. I mean, we saw with Windy the Windigo last year but this one feels a bit more shameless.
But in the end, through some bad acting from AJ and Fluttershy, they are able to convince the other ponies at Rainbow Falls to not buy the latest big-ticket item and actually think about what they want to get those that they love. Let's move onto Spike, he's trying to trade to get Rarity and then can't figure out what to get her and ends up gifting her with a song. Well, that was easy to cover. Now, Miss Rarity has perhaps my favorite story as a hat that she had ordered had been shipped to the wrong location. And she goes there in hopes of getting the hat back so that she can give it to AJ but she sees how much the hat means to the young colt named Pistachio and that he has an eye for fashion. He knows that the hat wasn't for him and the right thing to do is to give it back but Rarity lets him keep it and invites him to the Manehattan fashion show as her guest.
It's simple & sweet but I love it because it understands who Rarity is and shows her truly generous heart. Now, our last story takes us to Discord and Dash as Dash bought a candle thinking that'd be perfect for Fluttershy but Discord says that's the type of gift that ponies buy when they don't know what to get. That's when he tells her about an animal that Fluttershy doesn't have and they t, find and it's a Winterchilla but during sunrise, it turns into a Winterzilla and this is when we learn that Discord tricked Dash into bringing this animal to Fluttershy so, that she could be the hero. That's it really except for Dash's story collides with Twily's story as the Winterzilla runs towards the castle and that's how Flutters is able to save the day.
In all, this was a great special that celebrated the holiday and the characters. Speaking of, let's move onto that.
Characters
Now, I'm not going to break this down into individual characters as this review is already quite long but rather, I want to look at the characters collectively and say that all of their stories had a similar beat, not that they were telling the same story over and over again six different times but more that it showed the best traits of these characters and why fans have come to love them during the show's run.
Songs
One More Day
This number has a bit of a frantic pace to it but it does a good job of setting up what the audience can expect from the special as it goes on. And it's also a great way to see the citizens of Ponyville again.
The True Gift of Giving
As I mentioned in the introduction, this special had a feeling of finality as though, it knew that the show was coming to an end and the sense of finality really comes from this number. It's hard to explain as this song doesn't reflect on the journeys that these characters have taken but it seems to encapsulate the lessons that it wants to leave it's audience with and not just for the holidays.
My Final Thoughts
What a great special! That's all I can say here because I'm kinda running out of words but seriously, this special is wonderful and it shows why I love these characters so much. Happy Hearth's Warming.
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