My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. "The Mysterious Mare do Well" REVIEW

Do you remember those good old days when people just used to enjoy a kids show and didn’t even bother to question the mythology, setting or technology of the universe it takes place in? Well, apparently the Bronies are taking the MLPFiM way too seriously and they are forgetting what it’s all about. Of course, this is a vast minority of loud mouths, so why should I even care pointing it out? Well, for the same reason why you throw a shoe to that cat that keeps mewing out your window every night. It’s just a cat and nobody loves it, but goddamnit it drives you crazy! So to those of you who are complaining about seeing a hydroelectric dam or a construction site, IT IS A CHILDREN’S CARTOON GUYS! It’s not Lord of the Rings, there’s no need for consistency here except the one the Fanon throws at us.

So now that I made a shout out to those who will never shut up, let’s dive into this episode the same way I always do, and since the most interesting part of it is over why not giving you a TL;DR so you can skip to the bottom of the page? Is the episode good? Yes, oh my God it’s freaking fantastic. Is the best episode of the season? No, but it could very well be a neat contestant to replace “Sonic Rainboom” as Best Rainbow Dash episode. And if you stick around I will tell you why.

NO. REALLY. SPOILERS FROM HERE ON NOW. Don't believe me? I will put another one.

See? See how serious I am about this?

First of all, this is an all out superhero parody/mockery of every single good superhero movie out there. The entire episode revolves around the fact that Rainbow Dash is given a fan club and she starts saving ponies around Ponyville. She saves a kid from a well, a baby from falling off a cliff in his cart and a balcony full of elder ponies collapses. Rainbow Dash manages to save the day in every incident and this gives her a boost of popularity (more so than she already had) which makes her start bragging and showing off about it. If you thought Rainbow Dash was insufferable during Fall Weather Friends, you’ve seen nothing. She is signing autographs, posing for photos, making press conferences, and she even hires Spike to write her autobiography.

Detective Spike Phelps of the Ponyville Police. What did you know of the victim?

But it’s during one of those moments of heroic boasting that Rainbow Dash gets her glory sneaked from her by a new super hero. A mare that dresses all in purple and that the Townsfolk calls “The Mysterious Mare do Well”. Soon enough Dash finds herself battling to try and beat that new super hero. She tries to save a bus full of tourists, but MMW is stronger than her. Dash tries to save some workers from a crumbling building in construction, but MMW is able to predict where the debris will fall and thus saves the entire crew. She goes on to stop a dreadful dropping leak from a dam, and ends up causing a serious breach which MMW solves using her magic. And just to add insult to injury, Dash also discovers that MMW has wings. So This Mare is pretty much way better than Rainbow Dash in every aspect. How does our Dashie react? Well, she reacts probably the worst way possible as she heads onto Ponyville and forces heroic acts to the point of ridicule. You will see her fighting the menacing peanut butter jar and the dreadful lawn that wanted to invade the grass patches. This excess of her trying to show off her heroic abilities makes the entire town to shun her and leave her alone.

We will painfully shun you. You will also be ignored.

Alone in her dark cloud, Rainbow Dash starts pondering why everypony left her. She even has a moment of weakness where she asks herself if she had changed. Of course, due to her lack of self-criticism, she ends up blaming them for being wrong about her…despite her not understanding why is she all alone. I have to admit I felt really sorry for her at first, but then I realized she just asked for it. This is what anyone who brags and boasts for no reason will get for their actions. But Dash doesn’t know the word “defeat”, as she heads towards Ponyville decided to unmask the Mysterious Mare do Well. After chasing her through alleyways she finally pins her down and, SURPRISE TWIST, it happens to be Pinkie Pie.

And Twilight.

And Applejack.

And Fluttershy.

And Rarity…made the costumes for all of them.

The five friends decided to gather up and give Dashie a lesson in something that’s been lacking in today’s World: Humility. By the end of the episode Rainbow Dash learns she can still be heroic and a brave pony, as long as she doesn’t rub it on everypony else’s faces and work hoof in hoof with other heroic figures, like Mare do Well. 

Or Batman. I'm okay with Batman.

So, what do I think of this episode? I…I…Okay, I will say this, and I think I am going to be right when I say this according to what other people on the internet have been saying. Those who didn’t like Spiderman 3, will not like this episode because it’s pretty much Spiderman 3. Rainbow Dash is like Peter Parker; she is boasting the hell out of her actions only to have their consequences bite her in her flank. We even have a scene into a construction site where a crane goes out of control and puts everypony around in peril. And that’s the biggest beauty of this episode: The superhero clichés. For an entire episode Ponyville turns into what I already called, and what I like to call, Disasterville. Dissasterville is any town, city or population that always, ALWAYS, gets blown up, destroyed, invaded by aliens, whipped out by natural disasters, you name it. Examples of this are: New York, Angel Groove from “The Power Rangers”, the city from Power Puff Girls, Tokyo, or Los Angeles. I love that cliché a lot, and to see this episode, this cartoon for little children, lamp shading and lampooning every cliché out there is awesome: Kid trapped into a well? Check. Baby in peril? Check. Bus full of Tourists with shout out to Spiderman 2? Check. Superman dam moment? Check, check, triple check. Even Mare do Well dresses like Darkwing Duck and her theme songs are the Jimmy Hart versions of “The Shadow” and “Batman the Animated Series”. And when she is revealed Rainbow Dash goes “MysterySolved”.

So…yeah, wow I didn’t realize it but I actually loved this episode a lot. This was an awesome episode! This was great! It had action, genuine mystery, great comedy, fantastic shout outs, memorable moments and a good moral. It even had my very first guilty pleasure moment of the entire show! A guilty pleasure! In My Little Pony! This is fantastic. So yeah, now that I gushed like a total fan boy I really don’t know what I hated about this episode. Oh wait no; I do know what I hated: The fan reaction. I understand why they reacted that way however. Season 1 gave them a very basic idea of Equestria and how it worked, and from that idea they developed their own little theories. Now that they are seeing their theories don’t match with that of the show, they react the worst possible way. That’s understandable. You can’t aim to please to all the fans, especially when the biggest demographic of this show is still the 5 to 7 year olds. Guys, we are a small minority. Instead of overanalyzing a children’s cartoon, we should just sit down and enjoy. After all, that’s why super hero stories exist. They stand apart so much from our reality that it gives us that evasion feel so sweet and sour at the same time. Let’s keep having that, alright?

And more Twilight cosplaying with big hats and capes, please.

- Defining Moment: The construction action sequence which has nothing to envy to the one we saw in Spiderman 3. If you push me it’s even better because it doesn’t end with Topher Grace acting like a douche-nuzzle.

- Guilty Pleasure Moment: So apparently Applejack named her hind hooves Bucky McGuilligutty and Kicks McGee. I mean…Close up of her hind hooves tightly wrapped up in leather … They are so tight…Darn it, stupid Sexy Applejack naming her pretty looking hooves with those cute Irish names.

I think only Tarantino will understand me...Nah, not even he could.

- Moral: Just because you are good at something you should boast about it and rub it over everypony’s faces. Also, if somepony better than you shows up you shouldn’t try and compete against him/her. Instead, try to be more humble. So yeah, even though we didn’t have Trixie in this episode the moral is basically “Don’t be like Trixie”

SNAPSHOTS PROVIDED BY THE MLP:FiM WIKIA.