My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and all the images you see in this recap are owned by Hasbro.
Episode directed by Denny Lu and Tim Stuby
Oh hey! It looks like we’re finally getting another Cutie Mark Crusaders episode that’s ACTUALLY about them being the CMC! It’s unfortunate that they still can’t seem to carry an episode when it isn’t explicitly about cutie marks, but until the writers figure out that mystery, I guess we should take what we can get. Does this episode bring back some of that CMC magic in a new and interesting way, or are we gonna keep dipping back into the same well until it completely runs dry? Let’s find out!!
The episode begins with the CMC LLCTM doing what they do best, which I guess means assuring waspy white ponies that their kids aren’t going to grow up to be serial killers. I’m sure this is EXACTLY what they pictured their lives would be when they got their Cutie Marks.
In this case however, there might be a cause for concern as the kid’s new Cutie Mark is a bunch of bones; a cutie mark I’m sure would have shown up on Kevin’s ass if there was some horrifying crossover between My Little Pony and Sin City. It’s alright though because while Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are talking to the terrified parents, Scootaloo and the at risk youth named Petunia manage to find Pony-sarus bones in their backyard. She’s an archaeologist! Oh what a hilarious misunderstanding!
…
Wait, what the hell is a Pony-sarus? Are there extinct hybrids between dinosaurs and ponies? Wait; are dragons different from dinosaurs!?
So after that… odd opening, the CMC head back to their tree house feeling quite accomplished and even get to walk past some of the ponies they’ve helped such as Bulk Biceps who’s teaching a group of seven year olds how to overwork their glamour muscles and Tender Taps who will probably be busking for his meals til the day he dies! It looks like everything is coming up roses for the Cutie Mark Consultants (they should really change their name to that) which makes it all the more obvious that something bad is about to happen. And what is that bad thing? There’s a griffin waiting for them at the tree house! OH NO!! Wait, what? That doesn’t sound very bad.
This trepidation towards Griffons seems to be borne from the stereotype that they all cranky pricks, which might be an interesting topic to discuss (how society ingrained these negative perceptions of others into children) but I guess they’ll save that for another episode as they break the ice rather quickly and find out that this newcomer known as Gabby is basically a CMC fan girl which means she’s totally harmless. Annoying perhaps, but harmless.
So it turns out that Gabby’s story is not that dissimilar from Thorax’s, in that they’re both the only nice creatures in their entire species. Back in Griffonstone, Gabby’s super helpful and always trying to look out for others which I guess only raised the ire of her peers who are perfectly fine being total assholes to each other. Then The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone happened and Gabby got her first glimpse of friendship from Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash as well as their cutie mark which Gabby took to be the only true signifier of… being a good pony I guess? So now Gabby wants a cutie mark of her very own and wants the CMC to help her out! So on top of ponies being racist against Griffons, we’ve now got a griffon trying to appropriate Pony Culture. Beautiful. ANYWAY! Gabby found an excuse to go to Ponyville (she’s a letter carrier and is delivering a message for Gilda) and asked around town about the best way to find a cutie mark. Naturally they all pointed to the CMC, and so she’s ready for them to bestow one upon her! The CMC are skeptical, but promise to do what they can to help out Gabby. If you ask ME, they should probably go to Twilight and see what she has to say. After all, she WAS the one who figured out that Cutie Mark spell thingy that Starswirl the Bearded couldn’t figure out which led to her becoming a princess! Wait, the CMC are actually going to do that? Well it’s about TIME somepony in this show started taking my advice!
Alright fine. That didn’t actually go anywhere, but it’s nice that they actually managed to address an issue in a way that I felt was satisfyingly handled! So now that we have CONFIRMATION that Gabby doesn’t have a chance of getting a Cutie Mark, what will the CMC do now!? The same thing they always do! Help somepony (or in this case, somegriffon) find their super special talent! Just because someone doesn’t get a mystical brand on their ass doesn’t mean that they don’t have a place in the world! They meet back up with Gabby and TRY to explain the situation, but Gabby has a bad case of selective hearing and doesn’t get the whole “no cutie mark” part of the conversation. Oh well. They’ll give it a shot anyway, and considering that ancient beings of Chaos can be reformed, ponies can be banished to the moon which doesn’t have any oxygen, and Pinkie Pie has yet to tear the multiverse apart, who’s to say that she won’t be the first Griffon to get one? It’s montage time!!
The quest to find what Gabby is good at (isn’t she already a letter carrier?) goes a lot better than any of them could have expected… which turns out to be a HUGE problem. How the hell are they supposed to find out what her super special talent is if she’s so gosh darn good at everything!? It’s not like she can be crowned greatest creature alive considering that honor has already gone to Lin-Manuel Miranda, so the Cutie Mark Crusaders are stumped. I mean… Gabby DID just show that she can do anything she wants with her life and excel at it, but no cutie mark means no reason to celebrate.
Gabby storms off in a huff after hearing the bad news that Griffons will continue to not have Cutie Marks, and it leaves the CMC feeling pretty lousy about the whole affair. That is until Gabby waltzes back into the clubhouse and displays her brand new TOTALLY legit cutie mark for them to see! Uh huh.
I guess the Cutie Mark Crusaders are too busy patting themselves on the back to notice how fishy this whole situation is (and how Gabby is sweating bullets the entire time), so when they tell Gabby she needs to see Twilight, they don’t bat an eye to how evasive she is about the subject. She mumbles something about an errand before zipping off towards Ponyville as the CMC (none the wiser to the obvious shenanigans) make a bee line for Twilight’s Doom Fortress. By the time they get there though, Gabby has already come and gone; leaving a letter for the CMC telling them how awesome they are and that she’s going back to Griffonstone. Seems a bit odd to be running away right after getting what they always wanted. Then again, seeing Twilight’s reaction to hearing that Gabby has a cutie mark makes it a bit easier to understand why she’d be concerned about getting E.T.’d by overzealous science ponies.
Okay, NOW the CMC start to think that something is up and decide to find Gabby who hopefully hasn’t made it all the way to Griffonstone yet. Fortunately, she’s stuck helping some poor sap who got his wagon stuck in the mud because she’s too awesome to NOT help somepony in need, and in the process her Cutie Mark gets smudged off; revealing the true nature of her deceitful ploy! Twilight is going to be SO disappointed! So what was the reason that Gabby faked her cutie mark? Well it’s not the obvious reason that her sense of self-worth was relying on a her getting a meaningless symbol tattooed on her butt; rather it’s that she’s SUCH an awesome griffon that she couldn’t bear the thought of the CMC thinking they failed. Fair enough I guess, but that doesn’t change the fact that she was lying her ass off (hee hee hee) to ponies she considered her friends. Eh… they seem okay with it, so who am I to complain? The CMC tell Gabby to meet them at the clubhouse, and when she gets there the CMC present her with here very own Cutie Mark buttons to clip onto her mailbags! On top of that, she’s now an official Cutie Mark Crusader, whose ranks include Babs Seed from the Manehattan chapter, and a Mimicker called Imp from the comic book series. I think Discord might be an honorary member too? I’m not sure, but at least she’s still the first GRIFFON member! Go diversity! And so the episode ends with Gabby becoming a new missionary of Friendship for the glorious pony empire, and she even gets her on Cute-ceañera to send her on her way! The CMC franchise continues to grow strong!
I actually liked this episode a lot and honestly have very little legitimate criticisms to levy against it. It feels a bit light overall, with not much in terms of stakes or character building (Gabby is pretty one dimensional), but the jokes tended to work more than they didn’t and the few moments we get of Twilight were quite delightful. I felt that it was kind of skirting some uncomfortable topics about being infatuated with another group of people and trying to co opt their culture (Weeaboos, Ganguro) or even the accusation of doing such to erase someone’s identity and reinforce stereotypes (Oreos, Twinkies), but it didn’t really go there and I guess it’s for the best. Something like that would have been too easy to screw up. Just ask the Powerpuff Girls reboot (*cough* Horn, Sweet Horn *cough*). If nothing else, it is leaps and bounds better than the awful The Cart Before the Ponies episode which was a complete waste of time and not funny to boot. This isn’t anything deep or meaningful either, but it gives us a new character that may show up again in the future, and manages to be a lot of fun all the way through. Now if only we can find out what the heck a Pony-sarus is…
The Reviewers Unite 
Short Version: A fine recovery for the Crusaders this season.
Long Version:
-Between having a rather limited presence and only two episodes focusing on them this season so far, one of which stands as one of the worst episodes in recent memory, I think it’s fair to say that the CMC have had it pretty rough lately. A lot of that is based on the expectations of having such a large change in their dynamic last season, but even then, what time has been given to help establish that change and show the new challenges and experiences that come with it haven’t really helped. This episode is the first time that we get to see the Crusaders not just relish in their new purpose in life, but also face the challenges that come with it, and thankfully it’s a very sweet one.
-As is the case with most episodes that focus on a brand new character, opinions on Gabby are gonna play a huge role on opinions on the episode overall. While some will find her irritating, I’m all about characters like her. She’s bubbly, optimistic, hyperactive, one-track-minded, a chatterbox, and big into hugs (kinda like if Pinkie Pie was a griffon) who for me bears a small resemblance to Wander from Wander Over Yonder, in that they’re both beings who feel the need of helping others as a vital part of who they are. A real sweetheart, all-in-all. The difference would be that while Wander has his act figured out pretty well, Gabby feels like doing what she does makes her an outcast among griffons, and while it’s not said out loud, it’s easy to understand that she never figured out how to fit in and why she’s so fixated on something as superficial as a cutie mark to believe that’s what she needs to do so among ponies, regardless of how much of a connection she feels with them.
-I feel like this makes a good companion-piece to the recent The Times They Are A-Changeling, in that they’re both stories about members of other species/races with an innate desire of separating from what defines their cultures and running into trouble along the way. One key difference, other than the fact that the latter is very much about prejudice and this one isn’t, would be about the stakes at play. While that episode had the stigma of Changelings as nothing but an enemy in the minds of ponies crippling Thorax’s chances of becoming friends with them, hardly the same can be said about griffons, who are just kinda jerks. Also, it would’ve been hard to blame the Crusaders, or even hold it against them, if they failed to make a griffon get a cutie mark. Things would’ve been pretty much the same afterwards, though hardly the same could’ve been said for Spike’s reputation if he failed to be a hero for Thorax’s sake in that episode. That being said, the difference in tone between the two is appreciated. It’s nice how this one sets itself apart by being a more laid-back, easy-going version of a similar relationship.
-Surprisingly, and thankfully, once it’s established what sets Gabby apart from most griffons, the episode never leans on that difference too hard. While that continues to loom over the whole story, it wisely keeps the focus on figuring out what makes Gabby special and the Crusader’s ups and downs on seeing this mission through. I feel like it would be easy to dismiss this as a story about race, not just because because the word itself is far too broad to have any meaning in this context, and especially given how so much of Gabby’s story is based on her fixation on a symbol/physical trait rather than something that runs far deeper (at least, as far as she’s aware of at the start), it would be kind of creepy to do so, which is why I’m glad that the episode opts instead for the unique predicament of how the CMC, for a change, need to help someone who seems to be good at everything, and also the more meaningful message about how discovering oneself and having a sense of purpose can be a culturally transcendent thing, and as long as you embrace what makes you unique, the differences in culture won’t matter. So yeah, I guess that does kinda make it an episode about race, but does so in a way that’s both tactful and manages to set itself apart from the similarly coded Changeling episode.
-While Gabby’s story is front and center, this thankfully doesn’t overshadow the Crusaders. This experience allows them to increase the scope of what they’re capable of, and it’s very gratifying how they’re starting to make a significant difference in the world already. All in all, it’s exactly the kind of thing I’ve wanted to see from the Crusaders since they earned their own marks. Even though the prospect of a griffon getting a cutie mark was impossible, they find their own workaround the issue that manages to be satisfying and uplifting. Also, even though it’s mentioned just briefly, I greatly appreciated the touch of Scootaloo’s empathy for someone who dreams big.
-Not much in the way of little details/background stuff that really called my attention this time. I guess it’s always nice to see Zecora, even if just for a few seconds. Also, I laughed out loud at the pirate joke.
LikeLike
“So on top of ponies being racist against Griffons, we’ve now got a griffon trying to appropriate Pony Culture.”
I don’t know that Gabby CAN appropriate pony culture. In the same way that it’s not really possible for Black people in the US to appropriate white culture because it’s so dominant and widespread, I’m not sure it’d be a thing for anyone else to appropriate Equestria’s culture, especially when the other countries seem to be so comparatively small.
Also, I like that they had to throw in that pirate joke at the beginning to steer the kids away from the “she’s going to become a serial killer” thing. Also also, the fact that Petunia’s parents had the outfit all ready to go and seemed willing to helping their daughter be the best criminal she could be.
LikeLike