Well wow! We all appreciate what you do Hoagiebot. 
And I mean the mad science as well as the episode reviews of course.
I really do appreciate your saying that, Aspect. I don't know why it took me so much longer than usual to write my episode analysis post this last time around. Taking 5 or 6-hours to type out a MLP:FiM analysis is pretty typical for me, but 8-hours is pretty extreme. Maybe it was because I was still all aflutter from a Cheerilee episode induced hangover, or maybe it was because I was exhausted at the time that I wrote the post because I did it after moving computer equipment around all night (let that be a lesson to all of you aspiring mad scientists out there-- do
not stack over 700-lbs. of computing equipment in front of the electrical outlet that you need to get to. It may seem like a great place to stack three columns of Sun workstations 4-feet high at the time, but believe me, you'll eventually live to regret it when you need to plug something new in!). Either way, my mind was just not as focused as a result.
Speaking of which Hoagiebot's general inability to criticise this episode is a good example of one of my little pet theories about fiction, namely that obviously no literature (let's call FiM literature for the moment) is actually perfect (ie uncriticiseable), but all a piece has to do is fill some quota of desirable elements (let's use the technical term "neat things") for the individual viewer to be satisfied with it overall.
I was actually joking when I said,
"If you don't want me picking apart the writing of your episodes in excruciating detail then you need to throw me a bone in the form a large amount of screen time featuring Spitfire or Cheerilee, just like you would throw a porterhouse steak at a guard dog before you break into someplace! Then I will um... look the other way." I didn't criticize the episode "Hearts and Hooves Day" because there really wasn't much of anything that I personally noticed that could be criticized. I will agree with you that nothing can be perfect, but this episode was still
extremely strong. I seriously can't really find anything in the episode that I would want to complain about. The episode's opening gag before the theme song was cute, the episode had a very good musical number with the song "The Perfect Stallion," its story worked extremely well, it didn't ruin the character of Cheerilee for me (in fact it made me like her that much more), and as I mentioned in my previous post, it used the visual medium of television to portray information very effectively during several scenes, such as the scene where Apple Bloom is envisioning a Ponyville where Big McIntosh and Cheerilee were shirking their responsibilities, which I found to be notable. The animation for this episode was also very good, with some very funny character animations and some very good "camera work." And I don't think that I am the only person here who was pleased with this episode-- most of the other comments here about "Hearts and Hooves Day" have been overwhelmingly positive as well. But if you want me to try to break this episode down a bit further, I can try to oblige you. I could use the further practice at studying how television screenplays are written, anyway.
Anyway about the episode. I too very much enjoyed it. "LOVE POISON!?" seems like a great concept to me, though of course it wasn't originally invented as a poison. There's also this general sense of science gone wrong to the whole thing, though of course on the big issue of whether love potion is inherently wrong to meddle with it came down somewhat on the Luddite side.
As enjoyable as this episode is, the "love potion" plot that it revolved around wasn't necessarily profound or groundbreaking by any means. TVTropes.org has a trope for it, called conveniently enough, "
Love Potion." The first sentence for the trope reads as follows:
Ah, the Love Potion. Not since the Eskimo Freezer was patented has there ever been such a useless invention. Not that love potions are ineffective, mind you; it's just that they rarely ever work as intended, to the point where one wonders why a character would even bother to use them at all. When you see someone employ a Love Potion these days, you almost expect it to fail. It should be a Discredited Trope by this time, but for some reason, even the most Genre Savvy of characters continue to use Love Potions, with said potions continuing to cause far more trouble than they're worth.
That is
exactly what the central conflict for this for this episode was in a nutshell: a love potion that didn't work out as intended. This isn't a complaint on my part, however. As TVTropes itself states, "
tropes are not bad." Tropes are just storytelling tools, and like any tool they can be used for good, such as using a hammer to build a house, or they can be used for bad, such as using that same hammer to hit someone in the back of the head with. Tropes when employed in stories can end up helping or hurting as well: you can build a solid story with them when they are used in a thought out and creative way, or they can detract from your story if they are used improperly or carelessly. As I mentioned, I thought that this episode was absolutely great, so I am of the opinion that the "Love Potion" trope was employed extremely well in "Hearts and Hooves Day."
If you want me to analyze this episode even further, I can break the story of "Hearts and Hooves Day" into its major plot points under
Syd Field's Paradigm. When you do this, you you get something along the lines of:
- Exposition: ("Provides some background information to the audience about the plot, characters' histories, setting, and theme.") The short opening scene before the credits provides much of this. You learn that it's "Hearts and Hooves" day from the opening scene, that Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo care their teacher, Miss Cheerilee, and that they want her to be happy on that day, whether that means that they make her the perfect "Hearts and Hooves Day" card or otherwise.
- Inciting Incident: ("Also called the catalyst, this is the point in the story when the Protagonist encounters the problem that will change their life.") Happens at 1:57. The Cutie Mark Crusaders learn that their beloved teacher, Miss Cheerilee, doesn't have a special somepony for Hearts and Hooves Day. Apple Bloom: "If anybody pony deserves a very special somepony it's her." Sweetie Belle: "I'm more than alright! I've just come up with the best idea ever! We're going to find Miss Cheerilee a very special somepony!" This starts the Cutie Mark Crusaders on a quest to find Cheerilee a special somepony for Hearts and Hooves Day.
- Plot Point 1: ("The last scene in Act I, Turning Point 1 is a surprising development that changes the plot's direction and begins the second act.") I would argue that Plot Point 1 occurs just after the 8:00 mark, when the CMC's learn from Twilight Sparkle about the existence of a Hearts and Hooves Day love potion. This begins Act II, where they make and use the love potion.
- Midpoint: ("An important scene in the middle of the script, often a reversal of fortune or revelation that changes the direction of the story.") At the 11:13 mark (which is about as close to the exact midpoint of a 22-minute episode as you can get!), Cheerilee and Big McIntosh both drink the love poison and to the Cutie Mark Crusaders' surprise, they don't start acting the way that the Crusaders expected them to. The CMC's instantly recognize that something has gone seriously wrong with their love potion plan, and now they have to find a way to revert Cheerilee and Big McIntosh back to their original selves.
- Plot Point 2: ("A dramatic reversal that ends Act 2 and begins Act 3, which is about confrontation and resolution.") At around 13:40, the end of Act II is denoted by an "all is lost" plot point, where Apple Bloom panics and starts imagining what would happen to Ponyville without Big McIntosh and Cheerilee. The reversal comes when Sweetie Belle determines from reading the book that there is an antidote to the love poison, and that begins Act III. Act III is focused on the CMC's attempt to keep Big McIntosh and Cheerilee apart from one another for an hour to reverse the effects of the love poison.
- Climax or Showdown: ("The point at which the plot reaches its maximum tension and the forces in opposition confront each other at a peak of physical or emotional action.") The climax in Act III happens at the 17:00 mark. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo need to do everything that they can to slow down the seemingly unstoppable force that is Big McIntosh, and keep him away from Cheerilee long enough to allow the love poison to lose its power. This culminates with Cheerilee charging towards her beloved Big Mac in the pit and smacking into him head-on at the last second, causing them both fall into the pit and leaving the audience to wonder whether or not the CMC's were able to delay the two of them from meeting for long enough to cure them of the poison.
- Resolution or Denouement: ("The brief period of calm at the end of a film where a state of equilibrium returns.") Starts at 20:58. The love poison has been cured, everything is back to normal, and the CMC's are doing Big McIntosh's chores as their punishment for meddling with the relationship between him and Cheerilee.
So as you can see, all of the major plot points typically found in screen plays are there, which is probably yet another reason why the story of this episode seemed so satisfying. The third act also employed a "
Race Against the Clock" trope, which added greatly to the tension and made the third act really exciting. So it really wasn't just the large amount of screen time for the charming Cheerilee that made me love this episode (though that certainly didn't hurt it)-- this episode was also extremely well-written, well animated, and had a great musical score as well. As far as I am concerned, everyone from the writers to the voice actors to the animators were at the top of their game with this one-- I couldn't ask for any better than this in any cartoon, and I hope that if I ever get a chance to make an animated short myself someday that it ends up being even half as good as "Hearts and Hooves Day."
I also liked that Cheerilee really did sound completely okay with spending Hearts & Hooves Day without a "very special somepony."
I am going to have to disagree with you here, Ryffnah. While Cheerilee may have made it sound like she was O.K. when she said,
"It's alright Sweetie Belle. I have lots of good friends and wonderful students who care about me very much. I am going to have an absolutely terrific Hearts and Hooves Day!", that was just her being a responsible teacher and not wanting to reveal anything about her personal life to her young students. Just look at Cheerilee's facial expression when Sweetie Belle says,
"How could somepony as amazing as you not have a special somepony on Hearts and Hooves Day?":
That is not the face of someone who is happy to be reminded that they are alone and don't have a special someone. Cheerilee may be able to put on a good facade for the children, but on the inside she is not happy about being alone on "Hearts and Hooves Day", and that facial reaction of hers is a brief reflection of her true feelings.
Speaking of which, it sounds like there is a mad science episode coming up, doesn't it? Twilight Sparkle invents time travel and goes back in time to warn herself about something, slated for March 10th!
I too am very much looking forward to the upcoming Twilight Sparkle time travel episode, "It's About Time." Ever since I first saw the
Back to the Future film trilogy as a kid I have been a huge fan of time travel... and flying DeLoreans... but mostly time travel. In fact, my favorite fiction book has long been
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, and my favorite movie of all-time,
The Terminator, also features time travel prominently as part of its plot along with one of my favorite hero tropes, the "
Future Bad*ss." (Note to the moderator: that is TVTropes.org's name for that type of character, not mine.) Since I doubt that there is going to be any "future bad*ss" characters in My Little Pony (though it would be absolutely awesome if their were-- could you imagine a hardcore battle-hardened Rainbow Dash from the future wearing grungy black armor, being covered in scars, and having one robotic eye? My main man
Tirek could easily provide the
bad future for that Rainbow Dash to come back in time from!), this upcoming episode is probably going to be an example of the trope, "
Set Right What Once Went Wrong." TVTropes.org describes this trope as:
The character receives foreknowledge of what will happen (or, if Time Travel is involved, Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory will allow them to remember what happened "the first time around") and has to correct it.
That's all well and good-- Twilight Sparkle receiving a warning from her future self could lead to a great story. There was one thing that was mentioned in the TV Listing episode summary for this episode that worries me however: "Twilight receives a warning from her future self
and drives herself crazy with worry". I want to see Twilight Sparkle
acting on the information that she receives from her future self and actively trying to change future events. I don't want to see her just sitting around and going crazy worrying about what could come to pass. I saw enough of Twilight Sparkle going crazy in "Lesson Zero" to last a lifetime as far as I'm concerned. As a result, I sincerely hope that the TV listing episode summary is just describing the first act of the episode, and not the entire episode. If Twilight only worries during the first act, then at the beginning of the second act she can resolve to change her fate, then at the mid-point she can discover that she only succeeded at making everything worse through her attempted changes, and then for the third act she can discover one last crazy dangerous way to make everything better again, only to just barely successfully resolve things in the end. If the events play out like that, then this episode can be really good. In any case, we have more than two weeks yet before we find out, so I have plenty of time to speculate about what the episode will be like until then! In the meantime, I sincerely hope that this Saturday's upcoming episode, "A Friend in Deed," is going to be good, because I don't want MLP:FiM's current three-episode winning streak of absolutely excellent episodes to be broken. Instead, I want moar!
Well, that was another 5-hours spent writing about ponies. I really need to get a life!
But hey, if any MLP:FiM episode deserved two giant text walls instead of one, it was definitely "Hearts and Hooves Day!"
