The Last Roundup

Hooves down, best sequence of the season
So I figure rather than just, y'know, praising the latest episode without reason I should explain why I loved it so much. I truly do, and I think most fans enjoyed it as well.

First there was a pretty big revelation in the first few minutes of the episode, what with previously-a-random-background-pony-with-an-animation-error-noticed-by-community-given-a-name-and-suddenly-an-ensemble-darkhorse-who-evolved-into-a-pony-where's-waldo-and-finally-ascends-to-having-a-canon-name-and-a-canon-voice....you know who I mean, Derpy Hooves. I admit I did not expect this at all. Who did, really? I literally yelled out loud something like (I do not recall anymore) THEY GAVE HER A LINE! when that happened and was there live when the chat pretty much exploded in craziness. But after that scene I promptly forgot about her, knew in the back of my mind no matter how amazing this episode or not turns out, a majority of people will only be talking about this scene over the fact that it's an Applejack episode and should logically be developing her character.

Now I had a long rant here about Pinkie Pie, but I went over it and it looked far too long and pointless for what I was trying to say. I loved Last Roundup Pinkie, she had more humour to her than just food jokes and party jokes. It kept up some continuity/consistency about her character because last season it was long established that she had a huge problem with breaking secrets, promises, and trust, so her getting crazy angry was very in-character and was funny to boot. Of course this high-concentration of Pinkie is only best kept in small doses and if I saw this much of her like this in every episode it'd be way overkill. That's what Baby Cakes is for, a more down-to-Earth episode involving Pinkie Pie and providing some depth to her as well. Being a wacky and ridiculous pony is not an excuse to lack depth after all. With so many episodes where she only had one-liners or a random funny thing to say, this and Baby Cakes were well-timed.

Dun dun dunnnn!
But in the end, this episode is technically an APPLEJACK episode. I kept wondering how you could possibly make Applejack stand out, have an amazing scene, something about her so she'd gain a lot more popularity, but I couldn't think of a single thing, at least not a thing that wouldn't be OOC at least. My expectations for this episode was something more sentimental and sad after all, but I got a ton of humour and action instead. (On the other hand I expected humour in Baby Cakes, but got heartwarming/sad there INSTEAD, Funny how that works!) Still I saw several people finding her to be a tad out of character, in terms of being loyal to her element which is honesty, but I found Applejack avoiding her problems and being that desperate in getting away very refreshing to see.

You see she technically didn't lie, she just avoided telling the truth. If someone dislikes lying so much, and knows they're pretty terrible at it anyway, avoiding the topic entirely is their only option! And in the end, she was only so stubborn to get away and work at the cherry factory to stay honest with Ponyville! She did promise to bring back money to fix the roof after all, but she never won any, only ribbons that were useless to her because she wasn't first. So she refused to return until she did have enough money to fix the roof, thus her working at the factory. That in my opinion, is very in-character of Applejack and worked very well. Even if in the reveal at the end that she didn't win was rather predictable for the episode, it was very fitting. She's not like Rainbow Dash that she takes pride in winning because it's winning, but she takes pride in being very dependable, in being the best so she can be more useful to the ponies. She doesn't have a vibrant personality or a rainbow mane, so this is how she sees her value in Ponyville, by being downright efficient!

And in the end standing out and being crazy funny like Pinkie, being super adorable and surprisingly-badass like Fluttershy (it's getting less surprising though), being generally wicked awesome like Rainbow Dash, being obscenely powerful and dorky like Twilight, or being out-of-this world hammy and three-dimensional like Rarity is not Applejack. Maybe my imagination is stinted somehow, but I really can't think of a way for Applejack to wow or stun a bunch of fans into loving her. The fact that she got second place in that episode alone, the fact that she's the jack-of-all-trades similar to her very own name...THAT is Applejack. Having few fans and being humble about it as well, it's all very Applejack and in the end, perhaps is the reason I appreciate her character. If someone told Applejack that she was less popular than all her friends...I think she wouldn't care, in fact would be very happy for the others who are appreciated for what they are while she quietly advances the show in the background.


I couldn't find the image I was looking for to put here, so have a sad AJ. :(
In fact it is only fitting for Derpy to have spoken in Applejack's episode. I'm sure if they knew of the MLP meta, knew of the fourth wall, knew they were cartoon characters, she'd the be who would've minded the least to have Derpy speak in her episode, so the fans would rejoice, and rejoice they did.

Or maybe I'm over-analysing and AJ needs her own Lesson Zero/Party of One moment. I DON'T KNOW, but I certainly am not annoyed about anything following this episode! Well, besides the lack of Fluttershy. I am starting to go into Fluttershy withdrawal due to her character being pretty much like pre-Baby Cakes Pinkie Pie in terms of not having much to do with episodes except there to provide some amusing/cute scene like being surprised/startled or avoiding bunnies in the road, or having a good-cop bad-cop joke in Secret of my Excess, or even her "Please don't be mad at me" line in Baby Cakes. FLUTTERSHY REALLY NEEDS AN EPISODE, VERY BADLY in fact. I was slightly disappointed when I heard episode eighteen was a Pinkie episode.There REALLY needs to be some Fluttershy, really. Really.

One more thing, I don't like how Lesson Zero pretty much took Twilight out of episodes. I enjoyed her being there to write that letter in Season One and she feels rather uninvolved in MLP this season, and though not to the extent of Fluttershy, it's more apparent due to her supposedly being the main main character of MLP.

Yes I believe that is all....except one thing. MLP is actually made in Canada, at least most of it...here in Vancouver. The voice actresses live here and I believe some of the animation is done here too, so why can't you view season two at all here? Not only that, but MLP is on Treehouse, a channel whose demographic is preschoolers. And even if you can tune in to watch season one, they censor out the word "losers" and they don't play a few of the episodes due to being too mature for three-year-olds. Finally, you can only watch the show in SD. Treehouse doesn't have an HD channel and doesn't even have commercials, so it doesn't matter whatever show you put on it, but good god! The country MLP is made in and you can't watch the bloody thing in its uncensored entirety. I find this rather stupid. You also cannot buy the show on itunes in Canada either so...kind of screwed if you want to obtain pony episodes legally. If only it were on YTV...

That is all from Spotto...over and out. :D


How many cartoons utilize handcars now?