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The first time I’ve drawn Maud (even if just as a chbi!). I need to draw her more sometime. :0

💎 SYNOPSIS 💎
Maud gets her “rocktorate” and graduates from college, now preparing to expand her horizons. Pinkie Pie is ecstatic when her big sister expresses interest in living in Ponyville and tries her best to convince Maud to stay. While studying rocks is a big motivation, Maud admits that she’s actually more interested in finding someone she can relate to (outside of her family, of course). This only excites Pinkie more, and she makes it her personal mission to find a BFF for Maud somewhere in Ponyville. And that candidate just might be closer to home than she would’ve thought!

💎 IMPRESSIONS AND STUFF 💎
Nice to see the rest of the Pie family! As stoic as most of them are, it’s sweet that they all came out to support Maud at her graduation ceremony. The contrast of the other Pies with Pinkie’s loud exuberance is always funny to me. XD

I loved Pinkie Pie best, no contest. I admit that I have… mixed feelings about the party pony. When written well, she can be very entertaining and endearing. When she’s not, she comes off as extremely immature, grating, and hard on the ears. All the animation for her was bouncy and impressively expressive this time around, and perfectly shows how energetic and cartoony Pinkie is compared to everyone else around her. Her attempts to convince Maud to set up shop in Ponyville were amusing in how desperate and illogical they were becoming. But she just wants to have her big sister around more, and it’s impossible to get mad at her for that. When she realized that Starlight might be the friend Maud could have, I liked how insistent she was in getting Maud to take initiative in forming a bond. It was a nice inversion of the dynamic she and Maud had set up before: she’s the one who has to take charge and push her sister in the right direction, and that’s cool to see.

Granted, Pinkie Pie eventually got a bit obnoxious with her pushing of Starlight befriending Maud. But it was easy for me to deal with this time due to her being highly entertaining, along with Maud and Starlight feeling the same way and it causing problems. While I think most of her motivation stemmed from a somewhat selfish desire to keep Maud close, I did get the impression that Pinkie truly wanted Maud to find her first true friend. Even though she was in the wrong, her flaws realistically manifested and backfired, and Pinkie handled herself with maturity once being called out on them.

And you better not ever bad-mouth Pinkie’s family. Her immediate and heated reaction to Starlight referring to Maud as “weird” was very similar to her defense of her family in “Magic Duel”. I like that little detail: as different as she is from the rest of her family, she loves them just the same.

My favorite part of the episode was when Pinkie began frantically trying to prove to Maud that Ponyville had unique and interesting rocks for her to study. All those unique expressions and her becoming downright manic had me laughing out loud!

A good piece of character development was shown with Pinkie as well. Rather than getting super upset and mopey after realizing she was the reason Maud didn’t properly connect with Starlight, Pinkie quickly pulled herself together and worked to make things right. This is a huge step-up from “Maud Pie”, where she went to ridiculous extremes when things didn’t go her way. I’m proud of party pony!

Of course it’s good to see Maud again. I enjoyed that they tried to add some depth to her: previously, she only really worked as a character because of the hilarious reactions of those around her. She expressed a genuine desire to form a friendship, as her work and interests leave her lonely and isolated. I honestly didn’t expect this: from previous appearances, Maud seemed very disinterested in forming a connection with any of the Mane 6. But hey! People’s views change with time, so it’s not strange that Maud has warmed up to the idea. With her being so hard to read, her admission to finding it hard to connect with others really… “humanized” her. I didn’t really see much of Maud’s character outside of rocks and Pinkie Pie. Nice to see her trying to branch out!

Maud’s full name is “Maudalina Daisy Pie”! I like that it falls in line very well with Pinkamena Diane Pie. Makes me curious what their sisters’ full names are now.

Sooo… Starlight and Maud have actually met before. In all honestly, I find that extremely contrived. Maud just so happened to be near Starlight’s village. Then just so happened to come across Starlight herself, who outright asked (with no hesitation) about a rock that could steal and store away cutie mark energy? And Maud didn’t think for a moment that it would be a terrible idea to give that information away to just anybody? Especially a mare who’s clearly unhinged and wouldn’t have good intentions? Yeah. Okay. Sure. >_>

While that was clearly supposed to be more for laughs, it honestly made me look at Maud a bit differently. Is she just that clueless to where she didn’t realize telling random ponies (especially unstable ones) about powerful manipulative stones? Or is she at best apathetic (at worst malevolent) and simply didn’t care that she had told a suspicious stranger dangerous information, and herself being the indirect source for Starlight starting a cult? It’s not helped by Maud’s rather nonchalant attitude to this being revealed (again, her monotone voice makes it hard to tell if she’s being sincere or what). But either way I look at this, I didn’t quite like Maud as much after that. Can’t blame Pinkie for freaking out and stressing that her sister keep her mouth shut about this revelation!

But despite my complaining and conspiracy theories, I actually do enjoy Maud’s monotone voice and ambiguous manner in general. Like when she was telling Starlight that the right stone could be key to ruling Equestria? That got a good giggle out of me, because Starlight just didn’t know WHAT to think about this and just chose (maybe for her own sanity) to consider it a joke. I wouldn’t be surprised if Maud was completely serious, though. The Elements of Harmony, Trixie’s Alicorn Amulet, etc. But yeah, her deadpan way of delivering dialogue is a fun aspect of her personality that I hope remains. Looks like Pinkie’s personality has rubbed off on her a bit.

I feel like Starlight is being force-fed to us again. Her random former meeting with Maud just can’t be ignored, I’m sorry. Sure, I felt some sympathy when her past was brought up again because of Maud. But they’re really laying it on thick by having Starlight understand Maud’s fixation on rocks because “they don’t judge you”. Oh brother, would you STOP IT with that? While that’s good insight into Maud’s mind (she’s insecure about how she comes off to other ponies due to her hobbies and personality, and so forms friendships with inanimate objects to avoid possible judgement), there are VERY good reasons for others to judge Starlight. Your actions can and should be judged accordingly, so I can do without the attempts to make Starlight and Maud “so alike!!1!!”. The connection being made between Starlight and Trixie made a heckuva lot more sense. Here, it comes off as anyone who’s potentially misunderstood will be the perfect friend for Starlight, no matter how little sense it actually makes when you step back and compare the two. I feel like with Rarity’s knack for gems and their previous entertaining dynamic in “The Gift of the Maud Pie”, them becoming friends would have made a lot more sense. That’s not to say I have an inherent issue with Starlight being that friend for Maud, though. I just think it could’ve been done differently.

But I will cut Starlight some slack here and say that her unexpected love and knowledge of kites was super adorkable. And from what I can tell, she was using the correct terminology and everything! Girl knew here stuff.

Starlight’s blunt admission that Pinkie Pie’s interference was what prevented her and Maud from properly connecting as much as they could have was funny. It’s so in-character for her to just… say exactly what’s on her mind without thinking of how hurtful it comes across, no matter how true! Shows she’s still socially awkward. Even cuter, her remorse was appropriate and endearing, as she immediately realized she could’ve worded that better. But I appreciate her bluntness, especially when it comes to someone like Pinkie. That part I really enjoyed. XD

Rarity and Spike made a small cameo, but boy was it funny. Poor Rarity. She was like “C-Common? NOOOOOO!”. And don’t think I didn’t notice little Spike trying to comfort her about it. But hey, that meant he could snack on them without worrying about a rare one being destroyed, right? :‘3

Hey, another sweet and heartfelt reconciliation! The family relationships in MLP are really top-notch. But what is this, like… the third make-up scenario in a row? Pinkie learned a valuable lesson that there are different ways to go about building friendships, and also learned that allowing relationships to form naturally and at their own pace is key. This is a good lesson for a mare that prides herself in befriending everyone in Ponyville, and is a welcome aesop (this should have been a lesson she learned in “A Friend In Deed”). It’s somewhat irksome that she didn’t seem to learn that lesson before now, but I can appreciate that it was handled well here.

💎 OVERALL OPINION/SCORING 💎
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It was bound to happen that I’d have a non 5-star rating, huh? People might have gotten the impression that I think EVERY episode is just golden in my eyes and that’s far from the truth! Just wait until I start going backward in my reviews and start on Season 6. Hoo boy. XD

What I loved about this episode the most was Pinkie Pie. I do have a very… rocky relationship with her character, but I thought she was written and portrayed perfectly. Sure, she was very overzealous and a bit selfish, but it was done in a sympathetic and understandable way. Her taking complete responsibility in causing Maud to run away from a potential friendship really made up for her interference in Maud and Starlight’s relationship. She was just plain adorable, and I appreciate that she seems to be maturing while still retaining the personality that makes her the bubbly, optimistic, and sweet pony we love.

On the other hand, I had mixed feelings about Maud. I like how they’re fleshing her out by revealing her deadpan (and somewhat dark) sense of humor and her secret desire to make a friend. They also explained a bit why rocks attract her so much (they don’t judge and she can talk to them freely). But the somewhat worrying implication that she’s worryingly apathetic (she shrugged off indirectly contributing to the formation of Starlight’s cult), and her tendency to just run away rather than confront her sister made me tilt my head. I mean, she ran away the first time when she didn’t connect with the other Mane 6! Might just be me, but I feel – considering how she and Pinkie seem to have the strongest bond out of the Pie sisters – Maud would have just sat Pinkie down and let her know to not interfere so much.

And I felt Starlight was largely unnecessary. Again, it seems anyone with the “misunderstood” label on them will connect with Starlight and have her be in episodes she didn’t really need to be in. It’s helped that she’s kept a bit out of focus (her dorky kite love is cute, I admit!), and that she served to bluntly call out Pinkie Pie on her meddling. As a character, she was enjoyable, even if I didn’t buy all the circumstances surrounding her.

Long review short, t was an okay episode. Nothing bad, surely, but it had quite a few problems that prevented me from enjoying it beyond Pinkie Pie. However, I appreciated the character development and that it set the stage for Maud to appear more often in the future. Maud fans are bound to like it.

Upvotes at import: 151 | Stars at import: 100
Posted previously at: 2017-06-12T17:09:55 | Posted previously by: Soarinjack