Duckyworth on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/duckyworth/art/Secret-Cupet-Notepage-FULL-REVIEW-IN-DESCRIPTION-555070603Duckyworth

Deviation Actions

Duckyworth's avatar

Secret Cupet Notepage *FULL REVIEW IN DESCRIPTION*

By
Published:
5.1K Views

Description

....Sorry, Littlest Pet Shop fans, but today, I watched an episode of Littlest Pet Shop that actually offended me slightly. It's another bit of proof for me that most romance episodes in animated shows revolve around FORCING characters to fall in love with a love drug - because THAT'S what love is all about.... :iconthatsgreatplz: And I mean, I do really like Littlest Pet Shop, but this is.. NOT a good episode to me. And I wanted to give a longer review, so the full review is below. This is my review for my personal least favourite Littlest Pet Shop Episode Secret Cupet. :no:

(BTW - this episode is episode 4 in Season 3, not 5. Thanks to :iconfeloniousfeline: for pointing that out - I'll correct that when I get the chance. :) )

:iconread-plz: Please comment constructively - no flamers or troll comments please. This is my personal opinion here.



Yet Another Valentine’s Day episode with bad implications, forcing characters together, and thinking that all that love is is endlessly stalking the innocent bystander you have a crush on without any regard for their feelings and the fact that you should give them personal space. I’ll just lay all my cards on the table and say right now – I REALLY don’t like this episode… It’s one of three episodes of Littlest Pet Shop I legitimately dislike – Grounded and Shanghai Hi-Jinks are the other two. But this episode actually OFFENDED me upon first viewing, for reasons I’ll get to. 

Now, here’s two positives in this episode – Roger didn’t know anything about Blythe’s fake letter – so his mistake being accidental is one of his better portrayals compared to some of this dumb moments in the series. Also, Zoe gives a really funny moment when she tries to chase the mailman, and the moment with the squeaky toy. Too bad two of her funniest moments in the series is badly wasted in my least favourite episode in the series.

And, here’s one of the main reasons why…. Sugar Sprinkles is TERRIBLE in this episode! I mean it, this episode KILLED Sugar Sprinkles for me. In this episode, the pets discover that there has been a secret cupid (by the way, Pepper’s ‘cupet’ joke was a groaner :x) that has practically been forcing pets to fall in love with the first pet they see. As is expected with male stereotypes, the boys all think love is pointless and think it’s gross – seriously guys, boys can take an interest in love too – but according to stereotypes, only males that are camp take an interest in love – UGH, already I’m uncomfortable!

Russell and Penny-Ling pretend to be a couple to lure out the secret cupid, and the cupid turns out to be Sugar Sprinkles, who has been practically using a LOVE DRUG SONG to FORCE pets to fall in love. And here comes another problem – taking out the ‘girl talking to pets’ thing, Littlest Pet Shop remains relatively grounded in reality – the only episode I can think of where they did something otherworldly or supernatural was the episode with the baby Bigfoot – this show isn’t one where I would expect something like a LOVE SPELL – it feels a bit jarring just throwing in something like this, in my opinion. It’s like if Hey Arnold threw in space aliens… it just doesn’t fit. Speaking of which, she FORCES Russell to fall in love with an innocent bystander (also, notice the way she PUSHES Russell away to the poor guy’s fate of being brainwashed into a crazed stalker – I’m not the only one who noticed this, am I? :ohnoes: ) – in this case, Penny-ling. Because THAT’S what love is all about…. *sarcasm* No wait, constantly stalking someone, not listening to a word they say and groping them against their will is NOT love! :ohnoes: Can we please have more romance plots that DON’T involve a date rape drug?! The only time I recall this plot working is the Rick and Morty episode Rick Potion #9, where Rick CALLS OUT Morty for making a date rape drug! Show the people ACTING LIKE REAL LOVERS, not STALKERS!

Oh, and it gets worse. Sunil and Vinnie head out to try and snap some sense into Sugar Sprinkles, but she – GET THIS – BREAKS IN and forces THEM to fall in love with the innocent bystanders Pepper and Miinka! I… I’m officially frightened – we have a demon on our hands. Seriously, how is FORCING people into a relationship okay?! And why are only BOYS affected by this spell?! It’s not like the mythological creatures like mermaids or sirens, it’s just… written for the sake of being written. Is it just because boys APPARENTLY don’t care about love? In Friendship is Magic’s A Canterlot Wedding, Princess Cadence’s magic was used to keep bickering couples that are ALREADY IN A RELATIONSHIP to stop needlessly arguing and help fix their relationship – I repeat, ALREADY IN A RELATIONSHIP! Also – why is it in these date rape drug episodes that only HETEROSEXUAL relationships are caused by the spell? Sugar Sprinkles says ‘the first pet you SEE’ in her spell – she doesn’t say anything about ‘the first pet of the opposite gender you see’. It makes the writers of these episodes look very closed minded about not being allowed to go there.

When the poor girls Penny-ling, Pepper and Minka tell the Shipper Demon (sorry, Sugar Sprinkles) that it’s gone too far, she simply shrugs it off and says ‘You’ll get used to it.’ ….HEY A**EHOLE – three words. BLIND. TO. MORALITY. You’re not just forcing poor defenceless guys to be brainwashed and turned into mindless stalkers of innocent girls, but you’re also forcing poor defenceless girls to be potentially chased, stalked and harassed by these same guys – how do you sleep at night, sugary cat with an ACID DROP heart? Now, I know what you’re thinking – isn’t calling her immoral a bit harsh? Just wait until later – yep, it gets WORSE. She SOMEHOW figures out that singing her song backwards breaks the spell over the boys,  but when the boys are about to call her out for what she’s done, she says ‘I preferred the lovey-dovey Russell better’, and RUSHES AFTER HIM TO DO IT AGAIN! No, the fact that she broke the spell doesn’t make her better – it makes her WORSE, because judging by her saying that she found the actions of the boys bad earlier, she must have KNOWN what she was doing was wrong! Also, why is she doing this? I need a REASON!

And the B plot? Blythe struggles to cope with her crush on Josh Sharpe (who has LESS development than Flash Sentry – say what you will about Flash, but at least I have a general idea of his role in his show’s society, and I have a general feel for him – Josh barely has ANY prevalence!) and Youngmee convinces her to write a mock letter to him to vent out her feelings and throw it away to put it behind her. Roger accidentally posts it, and Blythe and Zoe… just got out to get it back. That’s it. Oh, and as for Josh? Shipper Sprinkles forces HIM to fall in love with Blythe with her spell – AGH! Yep, she learned absolutely NOTHING! I can only imagine what will become of this poor guy (and of Blythe) when he starts stalking her and doing what else Russell, Sunil and Vinnie did to Penny-Ling, Pepper and Minka… :o

And at the end of the episode, they all see the goat and pig Sugar Sprinkles had FORCED into a relationship without realising the disturbing fact that they had been FORCED into a relationship by Sugar Sprinkle. Sugar Sprinkles learned absolutely nothing about the errors of her actions. She suffered no consequences for what she had done – besides, getting one of the guitars she used to spread her love date rape spell taken, I guess…. LOVE EPISODE LOGIC. Two words – ‘KARMA HOUDINI’. Also, on a sidenote – why is it usually a guy stalking a girl in these terrible love drug episodes? Girls DO stalk guys for a similar reason, you know – it’s not only guys who try to stalk someone for their ulterior motives…

Sorry that this review has been so long, but I had to go into detail here – because this seems to be an episode that I dislike that everybody else seems to like. Hopefully you can see why I don’t like this episode – and why I’m not too fond of episodes that use love drug plots in general. Come on Littlest Pet Shop – you’re a good show! But you didn’t learn from the bad episodes like Fairly Odd Parent’s Love Struck, Breadwinner’s Love Loaf or Gravity Falls’ Love God (and no doubt many others)? Being in love means much more than simply wanting to stalk, kiss or grope them, ESPECIALLY if it’s against their will – and by NO means should you FORCE someone to fall in love with someone…. I understand that cartoons usually have an over the top portrayal of a character having a crush on another, but when it comes to romance episodes, why do most of them involve characters being FORCED together via love drug/spell? Even as a guy, whenever I try to write couples, I show MUCH MORE than just one character wanting to grope or kiss the other – they need to come to feeling romantic emotions towards each other on their own… But for some reason, these romance episodes tend to think that this doesn’t happen in the animated show world….

Sorry for that overly long review, but I felt that I wanted to vent out most of my feelings towards date rape plots in general. It’s not the worst example of this plot I’ve seen (that would be Love Loaf without a doubt) but it’s just another love date rape drug episode. And it especially hurt when Littlest Pet Shop did this, because I’ve really been enjoying this show… and seeing it churn out THIS as a romance episode disheartens me a little…. Yeah, this episode kind of sucks. :x

Image size
847x1181px 406.46 KB
© 2015 - 2024 Duckyworth
Comments37
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
LunaKittyfox's avatar
TBH, I never liked this version of LPS. A new one is on discovery family and I love it a lot!!