It's high time we traveled with Starlight and Trixie on the Road to Friendship for the next review!
This review contains spoilers; viewer discretion is advised.
Road to Friendship
Written by Josh Haber
It's safe to say that I've been pretty hard on episodes with Starlight and Trixie as the leads. No Second Prances very much turned Twilight into the antithesis of herself, and whilst the main plot for All Bottled Up was great, the subplot with the Mane Six was awful. This episode, thankfully, avoids both problems.
Twilight only appears in the cold open with Cadance and Flurry Heart, and seeing her do their foalhood dance with the former (with the latter on top) is adorably funny, especially Starlight and Trixie's reaction. And whilst the subplot is about a Saddle Arabian pony offering the two mares a new caravan, it tied up very nicely with the main plot. Oh yeah, and there's a moment of hypocritical humor with Starlight and Trixie breaking into song.
Now that it's out of the way, I can talk about the episode proper. I can understand how stressful it must've been for Starlight and Trixie when it comes to traveling - after the song, at least. Supplies don't really grow on trees, and there's only so much you can do with what you have.
What makes it more stressful is how cramped Trixie's caravan is. Because she's packed so much stuff, they barely have enough room to move around in. And it's funny to how she reacts to Starlight's loud snoring. Not only that, the next day shows just how much they're getting on one another's nerves, the final straw being when Starlight trades Trixie's caravan for the bigger one, much to the latter's fury.
And it's only after their falling out that Starlight realized how petty they'd been when she encounters two mail ponies from earlier and returns Trixie's caravan to her. Also, I'm pretty sure Kelly and Kathleen were improvising in the studio when it was recorded. There's no way it was scripted.
Of course, if I had to pick a nit, the phrase "Great and Powerful" got old really quick. I get it; Trixie uses it as part of her act, but it almost feels like it's her whole personality, especially in an episode that showed there was more to her than that. I'm not saying they should get rid of that entirely, but rather, they should use it a little more sparingly.
Season eight is now on its home stretch with five episodes before the finale. Surely nothing could go wrong as the season draws to a close... right?
Twilight only appears in the cold open with Cadance and Flurry Heart, and seeing her do their foalhood dance with the former (with the latter on top) is adorably funny, especially Starlight and Trixie's reaction. And whilst the subplot is about a Saddle Arabian pony offering the two mares a new caravan, it tied up very nicely with the main plot. Oh yeah, and there's a moment of hypocritical humor with Starlight and Trixie breaking into song.
Now that it's out of the way, I can talk about the episode proper. I can understand how stressful it must've been for Starlight and Trixie when it comes to traveling - after the song, at least. Supplies don't really grow on trees, and there's only so much you can do with what you have.
What makes it more stressful is how cramped Trixie's caravan is. Because she's packed so much stuff, they barely have enough room to move around in. And it's funny to how she reacts to Starlight's loud snoring. Not only that, the next day shows just how much they're getting on one another's nerves, the final straw being when Starlight trades Trixie's caravan for the bigger one, much to the latter's fury.
And it's only after their falling out that Starlight realized how petty they'd been when she encounters two mail ponies from earlier and returns Trixie's caravan to her. Also, I'm pretty sure Kelly and Kathleen were improvising in the studio when it was recorded. There's no way it was scripted.
Of course, if I had to pick a nit, the phrase "Great and Powerful" got old really quick. I get it; Trixie uses it as part of her act, but it almost feels like it's her whole personality, especially in an episode that showed there was more to her than that. I'm not saying they should get rid of that entirely, but rather, they should use it a little more sparingly.
Final Thoughts
After a really dull outing from Gillian Berrow, it was up to Josh Haber to bring things back on track again, and he did so too. Brilliantly. (Oh, and that Somnambula stallion in the trunk? He deserves his own mention.) To date, this is Trixie's best episode, but then again, there isn't much competition for that title. I'm just hoping this is the jumping off point, not the culmination, of the work done to develop her character.Season eight is now on its home stretch with five episodes before the finale. Surely nothing could go wrong as the season draws to a close... right?
Rating: Good
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