THE PANDERING IS STRONG IN THIS ONE!
It… it was honestly rather painful. What could have been a strong episode that expanded the world turned out to be officialized fan fiction. There were some really fun moments, but it was hard wading through all the “here’s a fan-created thing we’re making official!” moments.
Cranky and Matilda are finally getting ready, but there was a problem with the wedding invitations, and now they have to push their wedding up to today!
Turns out it was Derpy (or Muffins, as she’s credited as now… ew…) screwed up the invitations, and she takes it upon herself to make things right in whatever way she can. She talks to her friend, the Doc (Time Turner, or Doctor Whooves as he’s known in the fandom – here he’s only referred to as “Doc”), who can’t be bothered to help because he needs something to wear.
The Doc talks to DJ Pon-3 about his fashion problems (since Rarity is currently out), and leads him to the bowling alley, where he sees Letrotski’s crew and is impressed by their fashion sense. They agree to make him a new suit if he helps them win a bowling game.
Meanwhile, the Mane 6 are busy battling off a Bugbear attack, so they’ll be out of focus for the entirety of this episode.
The Bugbear attack distresses Bon Bon, who reveals herself to be Secret Agent Sweetie Drops, shocking Lyra, who is (amusingly) a perfectly normal pony.
Yada yada yada, Octavia and DJ Pon-3 make some music and bring the entire town to the wedding. The Bugbear attack is stopped, but the Mane 6 fail to enter before the doors close. Cranky and Matilda get married, and… some crappy moral about everyone being the star of their own story.
Overall it’s a pretty entertaining episode, but VERY hit-and-miss depending on your tastes. I thought giving Time Turner a British accent was pushing it, and him saying allons-y crossed the line. The fact that he and Derpy are friends was downright pandering, though I liked that their relationship seemed to be more akin to Doc Brown and Marty than The Doctor and a companion. The Lyra and Bon Bon stuff was pretty clever, and I thought the Octavia and DJ Pon-3 scenes were awesome.
Steven Magnet actually being named Steven Magnet was by far the most bizarre thing in the episode for me. It just doesn’t add to anything. Besides, the only reason the fandom named him Steven Magnet is due to a youtube caption. But hey, I guess that’s a win for youtube captions, so I’ll take it.
Rather than making all these wink-wink moments to the fandom by giving screentime to fan favorites and just giving them traits the fandom gave them, I’d rather they cut down time on those scenes and gave some spotlight to even more background ponies with potential, like Cherry Berry. Heck, I’m surprised Cloudchaser and Flitter barely got any screentime. This was the perfect time to do something with those ponies and even more, but I got the feeling that since they don’t have as-established characters by the fandom, the writers didn’t have anything to go on and thus didn’t put in any effort.
Basically, my primary gripe with this episode was that the writing was lazy, and the only imaginative things were ultimately just 10-second gags.
Normally, this is where I pick an exploitable meme, and the clear winner would be Derpy’s Door.
Buuuuut door memes are ridiculously overdone, so the true winner is IMAGE MACROS!
Again, Princess Luna was in this episode, so it’s automatically her, making this a run for second place.
The winner for second place was easily Gummy!
Gummy’s monologue was one of the legitimately funny and unexpected moments of this episode, and one that didn’t resort to blatant pandering. Congratulations for this long-deserved win, Gummy!
Special consideration goes out to Coco Pommel, who sadly couldn’t make an appearance in this episode.
Marsminer brings us the next logical step after that visual of Derpy sitting in that model flying apparatus.
Love the shading, love the concept, love bitchslap in the face of physics.
The next episode is called Princess Spike. No, it probably doesn’t involve crossdressing. Apparently, Spike makes sure Twilight isn’t disturbed, so he makes some decisions in her name and probably causes some major problems. Sounds predictable, but it’s a solid idea.
Not sure if the following screencap is from this episode specifically, but I’ve been looking forward to it for years.
I always wanted an episode where Twilight gets back with her friends from Canterlot. It’s such a throwaway moment from the first episode, but one with so much potential.