Thursday 24 July 2014

Retrospective review: Suited for Success

PRETTY DRESSES

The best stretch of season 1 is underway. Great episode after great episode, and with more to come. Suited for Success is another favourite episode of mine, containing great humour, great writing, a wonderfully silly plot, and a great song as a cherry on top.

The whole story is about Rarity's friends being apparently fashion-blind, too caught up in their own requests to pay any heed to actual design. When Rarity's perfect dresses don't check off every point on their list, they're disappointed. This setup allows for silly hijinks to ensue through each character's attempt to guide Rarity through their requests. It's highly entertaining, and the variety of approaches shows off each character's unique personality.

Similar to the last episode, there's quite a few great lines here. Fluttershy's "freakish knowledge of sewing" comes to mind. A lot of the entertainment value comes from the writing, as the lines delivered by the mane six are all just plain great, to the extent that some have gone on to become memetic. Sure, we're all tired of 20% cooler by now, but it was repeated ad nauseam because it's such a great line.

The song, Art of the Dress, is the second big song of the show, and it not only lives up to but surpasses "Winter Wrap-up", which is not an easy feat. Aside from the catchy melody, having the lyricism involve Rarity design the dresses after her friends' personalities is a stroke of genius. It firmly establishes Rarity's dressmaking talent, which is reinforced by the amazing designs of the dresses themselves. The second half of the song is a bit less interesting, especially because of the somewhat less natural lines from the mane six, but it still sounds great.

Another great episode from the better half of the first season, and we're only getting started. Many great episodes are still to come, and then there's the other seasons. Suited for Success is a phenomenal character episode, and easily one of the season's best.

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