Ah, it’s that wonderful time of year again in Equestria. That time of year, when MLP airs it’s Hearth’s Warming episodes months before December. Yeah, Hearth’s warming isn’t exactly Christmas but it shares a lot of similarities with the earth holiday. And seriously, this episode that we are looking at was first aired in August of this year. Also, this episode uses a well-worn storytelling cliche from one of my least favorite ’80s movies.
I don’t like this beloved John Hughes movie and I’ll just leave it at that but many shows aimed at kids have used The Breakfast Club set-up to tell stories with their characters. One notable example that comes to mind is that the Disney Channel show, Lizzie McGuire did it’s own Breakfast Club episode.
Having said all that, was I able to look past the show using a Breakfast Club set-up to tell a story. Yes, because it did a couple of things that helped to make it stand out. First, it gave the story, a holiday backdrop which is something that we’ve not seen before and it also allowed the audience to learn more about the other cultures in the show and the Student Six. Obviously, there are spoilers abound but something that you need to know about this season eight episode is that it like the majority of season eight takes place at Twilight’s School of Friendship that welcomes creatures of all kind.
(Even if a racist pony voiced by Maurice LaMarche is against this) So, that makes this a fun and great way for the audience to learn more about these new characters. And in that sense, as you’ll see in the plot section, this episode has a bit of an anthology feel to it. With that outta the way, let’s begin.
The Plot
Concerning the anthological nature of this episode, I’m going to do something different. I’ll start and end with the wraparound but I’ll look at the holiday stories of the Student Six from favorite to least favorite save for the last one. Our episode opens as The Student Six is getting ready to leave school to go home and celebrate the holidays with their families. But things soon go awry as a prank is played on The Hearth’s Warming tree topper, the Fire of Friendship as someone pours some purple goop into the Fire of Friendship and makes a mess all over the student lounge.
I want to focus in on this for a brief moment as it does more to help establish traditions of the pony holiday. We’ve already learned about the Hearth’s Warming Dolls that are placed above the mantle/hearth of a fireplace much in the same way that humans that celebrate Christmas do the same with Stockings.
Now, the Fire of Friendship is clearly meant to be a stand-in for the Angel/Star going atop a tree. It’s small but I wanted ton brig this up because I find it interesting how the show takes things we know of our holidays and reworks them for the ponies. Though, it is not to be as one of the students messes with the Fire of Friendship and that causes the purple goop to cover the tree. And we see the Headmare in Twily come out as she tries to get the creatures to confess to doing it by having them close their eyes and raise whatever appendage they have for a hand. None of the students confess and if none of them own up while Twilight and Dashie grill them, they will not be allowed to go home for the holidays. So, we have our setup for why The Student Six are being held back. And that brings us to the anthological nature of the episode as while The Student Six are being held back, we learn of the holidays celebrated by the other creatures. So, let’s start looking at the various holidays as celebrated by The Student Six.
The first two holidays I hope to look at share quite a few similarities as they’re either about establishing a holiday or re-establishing it. The first holiday takes us to the Changelings as told by young Ocellus. and we see how Twilight has provided them with material to celebrate Hearth’s Warming and it’s just adorable as they don’t exactly get what Twilight was suggesting as build a fire out of wood and just keep exchanging gifts in a circle. And when they sing carols, that’s what they do, they sing the word carol. Now yes, the Changelings took everything at face-value but consider that for so long, they were under the control of Chrysalis and knowing what we know about Chrissy, she would most likely not allow a holiday such as this that cherishes and celebrates love. So, The Changelings are discovering and developing their own take on a holiday that was shared with them by the Princess of Friendship.
So, this is sweet and helps set up how the Changelings are starting to celebrate this beloved holiday in their own way. Now, this brings us to the other fascinating holiday story as told by the cousin of my favorite character from the movie, Silverstream. Much like The Changelings, the Seaponies/Hippogriffs as we actually learn the name of their holiday and how since after the defeat of The Storm King, the holiday has gone from being a one-day affair to a three-day affair. That is something that one may not put much thought into but considering that the hippogriffs went underwater to hide from The Storm King for so long, some of the younger members of their culture may not know about their traditions. Something I appreciate is that the seaponies/hippogriffs celebrate on both land and sea as they celebrate on Mt. Aris and Seaquestira. It’s something small but I like how it shows how they both embrace both sides of their culture. Also, the name of their holiday has quite the impactful meaning. As the holiday is known as The Three Days of Freedom, consider that they limited it to only one day, when The Storm King was still active. One could be led to believe that they did this was done so that the celebration would not alert The Storm King or rather Tempest to where they were hiding but now that they’re safe, they can expand the holiday to be more fulfilling.
So, this is another fascinating look at how a culture is reclaiming a day or days that meant so much to them. The next two holidays I want to look at are less interesting but are still important to look at to understand the characters and their cultures. Starting with the Yaks, we hear from young Yona about their holiday and indeed, it involves a lot of smashing.
Huh, not quite. Yes, the yaks do celebrate their holiday known as Snilldar. Hmm, an interesting word there but yeah, while the holiday does involve a lot of smashing, it’s also a time for the yaks to come together and celebrate each other as a family as Yona mentions that this is the first time (last year) that she had her hair braided. So, yeah, while smashing is involved in the Yak holiday, it is used as a way to bring them together. Next up, we have the dragons and considering that one is an actual story, I’ll just link to this video that gives you the actual story as told by young Dragon, Smolder.
It’s neat but I dunno, doesn’t really have a holiday vibe to it. Now, we come to the lamest story and the show knows that as we come to Sandbar just telling a story of how his Hearth’s Warming doll almost fell in the fire but it didn’t. And that’s it.
The Student Six start arguing over who did the prank and that causes the one student I’ve yet to mention, Gallus from Griffonstone to lash out in guilt telling his friends that this is not what any of the holidays they celebrate are about and he admits that he was the one that did the prank. The other creatures ask don’t griffons have a holiday like this and this is when we learn of the Blue Moon Festival and that is the only time of year that griffons pretend to get along and spend time with their families. Well, except for Gallus as he does not have a family and he did the prank because he didn’t want to leave as he made friends at the school and going back home would make him feel lonely.
Gallus goes to confess but Twilight and Dash overhear and admit that they already knew and decides that unlike originally stated, Gallus doesn’t need extra friendship lessons. And The Student Six are invited to a holiday dinner hosted by Twilight.
In all, this was a fun little episode that explored these new characters and cultures in ways that we’ve not seen before.
My Final Thoughts
I’m forgoing characters as there isn’t a lot to say about the characters here as this episode is more about the cultures that inhabit the rest of the world that we’ve seen throughout
the show’s run. We aren’t done with MLP and the holidays just yet as right after season eight ended, we got a brand new holiday special focusing on the Mane Six. Join me next time as we look at…
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