My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic ‘Somepony to Watch Over Me’ Review

This episode of My Little Pony was one of those wildcard ones. There wasn’t too much hype for it, and there wasn’t much known about it either. ‘It Ain’t Easy Being Breezies‘ proved to be one of the season’s best. This one takes a left turn and instead only features Applejack from the Mane 6. She’s not the main focus however, Apple Bloom is. So you can call this an Apple Bloom episode specifically. Sadly, it’s definitely the season’s weakest.

Here’s the official episode description from The Hub:

After Apple Bloom gets into a few accidents at home, Applejack starts to become very overprotective of her little sister. Now Apple Bloom must find a way to prove to Applejack that she is quite capable of doing things on her own.

It’s always interesting to see new writers. Some start off strong, and some not so much. This is Scott Sonneborn’s debut. The story isn’t particularity great for a few reasons. For one thing, I don’t think anyone really cares about Apple Bloom staying home alone. She walks around Ponyville all the time without her family, so a story revolving around the concept of staying home alone just wasn’t going to prove entertaining enough. Apple Bloom is definitely written solid however, even being one of her better portrayals. The problem however seriously hurting the episode is the portrayal of Applejack.

This is by far the worst portrayal of Applejack the show has ever seen. Having an overprotective nature of your younger sister is fine. but it’s done to the point where it’s slapstick comedy. It’s hard to like her in this one. While Sonneborn could write a solid Apple Bloom, his Applejack is horrendous. Perhaps the best part was the debut of the Chimera, a really cool monster. It actually talks! Hopefully we’ll see her again down the road, she makes a for a good villain. The battle between her and Applejack was fun, and a cool example showing why the latter is one of the best fighters in the series. In the end, the message is that eventually you have trust your younger siblings with responsibilities and being independent. You can’t be so overprotecting to the point where you think they aren’t capable of doing things. Pretty solid message.

Overall, a generally weak episode in comparison to the rest of Season 4, and the show altogether. Applejack was extremely annoying, very badly written. Apple Bloom was very solid however to counteract that. The story isn’t that interesting, but the message is for the most part solid. The Chimera was an awesome foe. While definitely not bad, (none of them are) ‘Somepony to Watch Over Me‘ will not be going down as a classic.