The episode just aired it was even more insulting than I thought. The horse goes through body modifications which turns him into a monster. Horse gets turned back to normal.
It ends on the horse being an idiot and it turns out there was a unicorn horn under his hair his whole life. He was physically a unicorn his whole life.
I think they just made an episode, and BS’ed message when talking about it with the press in hopes Tumblr will get “The Feels” or something. They’re using gender identity to be trendy. In the same way other episodes had Smart Phones and used phrases like “YASSS” and “I can’t even.”
This is the Yo Yogi of the 2010s.
When are they going to get to the fireworks factory?
Yeah, it feels like they almost definitely made a nonsense comedy episode about a horse and just backpedaled to spin it as some sort of progressive allegory for being trans, which it is not. If it was intentionally an allegory for being trans, it does nothing but make fun of and deride the concept.
And even if it didn’t, this story isn’t even new. It’s an age-old, generic stock plot every single kid show I can think of has done it already; the robot wanting to be human, the ghost wanting to be alive, the “dumb” character wanting to be smart.
You can interpret those episodes as metaphors for being trans, sure, but they’re so broad and vague that you can just easily interpret them as metaphors for any other conceivable issue with one’s appearance, skills or identity. This plot device speaks to so many people it effectively speaks to nobody and ends up having nothing to teach…especially when the final resolution is often that the character in question was foolish to ever want these things for themselves, and should be satisfied being what everyone else expects them to be.
Even if this episode were written far better, it says nothing new. It’s a patronizing afterthought.
Honestly it would be better if the creators didn’t try to imply it was an allegory for trans.