Oh, Valentine's Day. What a... polarizing holiday. On one hand you have those who have a fun little day to give gifts to their sweethearts (or those that they wish were their sweethearts), while on the other hand you have those who are loveless or rejected and stuck in aloneness, and on the other other hand you have those that try to enjoy the holiday anyway even if they are all alone. Forever and ever. And ever.
I can't decide whether I'm the second or third hand. I also can't decide what grotesque beast we are talking about that has three hands... didn't Daring-Do's rival from last episode have three hands? Whatever, this tangent is silly.
Ponies. Valentine's Day. Romance, shipping, Cutie Mark Crusaders, GO.
(Spoilers lie within!)
So as the episode starts off, we -- wait, hang on, this is episode one. I must've gotten the wrong episode. No, wait, it just has the same intro music as episode one, haha. Carry on!
Okay, so, as the Valentine's Day episode, this episode is more-or-less about shipping. The Cutie Mark Crusaders are celebrating the greatness of Hearts and Hooves Day, but find out that Cheerilee doesn't have a, quote, "very special somepony"! Thoroughly disturbed, the three set off to remedy this by playing matchmakers.
Now, first and foremost, I think this is easily the best episode for developing the CMC. The episode starts off with what is seemingly a chaos-filled arts and crafts project, but instead ends up being, for all intents and purposes, beautiful, bringing to mind the fact that we already know Apple Bloom is particularly talented at crafting things. Then, later, we have the CMC singing a song (one of the best yet in my honest opinion!) led by Sweetie Belle, who we know is the singer of the bunch. It takes a nice step in the direction of seeing their special talents develop and, just like how the Crusaders are always told, it pops up when they're not trying to get their Cutie Marks at all. It's brilliant, really, even if Scootaloo doesn't really have an element to herself.
Also very noticeable is the sheer production quality of this episode. Sure, MLP is famous for its great animation, voice acting, and music, but the quality of things are pumped up to eleven here, much as they were in episodes like Hearth's Warming Eve and the season starters. It's great, and really gives this episode some amazing heart. No pun intended.
(Maybe the pun was intended, actually. You may never know! Wahaha~)
Another strong point of the episode is the focus of two minor characters that don't usually get a lot of screen time - Big Mac and Cheerilee. Cheerilee, especially, has rocketed up when it comes to my respect for her after this episode, as she is pretty darn great throughout. Big Mac was already great, but he just gets better. Especially in the final sequence, where he demonstrates that he is basically the strongest pony to ever exist, ever.
So really, we have an episode that fleshes out the CMC further, has some of the best production quality seen yet, and focuses on characters that rarely get to be focused on. It's a great setup, really!
Well, except the plot is a tad silly, and the lesson seems relatively inapplicable in real life. The lesson learned by the end is definitely good, but it doesn't seem to be one that people in a world without love potions/poisons can really learn much from. Granted, sometimes friends butt their noses into relationships too much and that's bad, but on the other hand it's probably worse to stay away from the topic entirely, at least in real life, as it can hurt friends when they need help the most. It's a tricky thing to really cover, and thus I don't think it makes for the best lesson. Honestly, it might've been better if they hadn't tacked on the lesson at the end, as the writers have proven that not every episode needs one... ah, well.
But despite some minor quibbles, this episode still stands out as one of the best in the season. It's funny, fun, full of character development, and one of the best animated episodes yet. I'll give it a...
9/10
Pros:
-Great character development
-Incredible production quality, with some of the best animation yet
-Focus on characters that rarely get to be focused on
Cons:
-Lesson falls a little flat, and the plot seems a little silly because of it
---
You have NO IDEA how close I was to giving this a 9.5/10 and calling it the best episode of the season. NO. IDEA. But I'm just not sure I can call it better than Hearth's Warming Eve or Lesson Zero! I just dunno, man!
Oh by the way, if you happen to be reading this and you don't follow Equestria Daily, check this out. I certainly didn't know about all the fun little visual secrets provided here, and they just make the episode THAT MUCH BETTER.
~C.O
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