S05:E11 - Party Pooped

[Justin_Case001 4,896]

What....the....f*ck?  I don't even.

 

This may be the strangest episode to date, imo.  Maybe not as weird as Power Ponies, but weird.  I don't really know what to make of it.

 

I agree with Wind Chaser and Dark Qiviut's reviews, though.

 

The pacing was more or less disasterous.  Although I liked Pinkie's quest, with her amusing narration, I really don't care for the...time warp, or whatever the f*ck you want to call it, where ponies can travel a seemingly unlimited distance with virtually no time passage.  Are we really to believe that Pinkie joined the Wonderbolts in some band in Manehatten, and traveled around doing gigs until they broke up over creative differences...that afternoon?  I don't care for it when they throw in something that zainey, that has to literally be thrown out the window for the show to make any sense.  And Pinkie's backward toboggan ride from the northern border of Equestia all the way back to Sugarcube corner?  Yeah...don't really know what to say about that.  Didn't care for it.  Too weird.

 

The Yaks were a**holes.  Maybe Equestria should go to war with those bastards.  Their little change of heart at the end does not exonerate them.  They need to pay for they bullsh*t.  I just couldn't believe those guys.  Kudos for world building, though.

 

I like how someone offsite saw the Yaks as something other than rude, one dimensional barbarians, so I'm gonna drop their quote here. Hope people can see the yaks in a different light, instead of judging at face value.

Hmm.  Interesting quote.  That offsite one, I mean. Fair point, but no deal.  I still say their a**holes.  Their cultural differences don't give them the right to destroy others' property with wild abandon.

 

It was great to see Twi freaking out.  The fandom should be happy about that.  A good bit of Twilight classic.

 

I loved Pinkie's party cave.  Very good.  Nothing bad to say about that.  Twi's fear of quesadillas was hilarious.

 

I was happy to see that Twilight kind of screwed up this time.  I mean, not that anything was directly her fault, but she certainly couldn't solve the problem, and I was glad to see that she felt like she may have started a war.  This seems like good news for all the folks that feel that she's portrayed as overly perfect.

 

Good moral.  My mom predicted it before the first commercial break.  She said, "Instead of trying to make Equestria more like Yakyakistan, they should just be trying to show them what makes Equestria special."

 

My biggest disappointment was how Twilight just let Celestia give her basically all the credit.  Pinkie saved the day.  Her, and her alone.  And Celestia just goes on about what a great job of friendshipping Twilight did.  Twilight, and her friends.  Oh man, that really burned me.  The way they just stuck that line in.  Come one, Twi, you couldn't have said, "Well, thank you, but actually, I kind of dropped the ball on this one.  Pinkie saved the day, for all of us."  Credit grabber.  That was a missed opportunity by the writers, and very disappointing. Pinkie saves the day, and the credit goes to "Twilight and her friends."  WOW.  Like I said last week, I'm really starting to see where the anti-Princess Twilight club is coming from.

 

Highlights:

• Another Cadence appearence!
• Fluttershy's line: "So, um, do we walk back up the slide or what?"
• Pinkie's rump rub.  What can I say?  I like the equine booty.  So sue me.

[Allen 1,387]

The yaks from Yakyakistan made a visit Ponyville to attack, while Pinkie Pie is off to Appleloosa and then got back to Ponyville to save the day within joining the party.

 

Good episode today. 

[ManaMinori 4,145]

Anyone bashing the Yaks for wanting to start a war over something "so trivial", (in spite of the fact that royals of a different culture seeing people of a different culture trying to authenticate their culture and failing at it, possibly seeing the attemts as deliberate and insulting, and provocation to start a war on the ponies part)

Someone name a war that HASN'T been started from trivial reasons

[The Coffee Pony 1,390]

Someone name a war that HASN'T been started from trivial reasons

 

World War II. It was started by bitterness and insanity!

[Zhortac 1,474]

This episode was meh, which is sad since it was a Pinkie episode. It had it's moments, all of which were Pinkie's scenes.

And wtf is with this episode making Twilight a giant asshole? She nearley fucked everything up, and Pinkie busted her ass to make the party work out, and Twilight gets the credit?

That's right kids, as long as your a princess, you can take credit for your friends going to damn near the ends of the planet, to save your stupid ass from a war!

[ManaMinori 4,145]

This episode was meh, which is sad since it was a Pinkie episode. It had it's moments, all of which were Pinkie's scenes.

And wtf is with this episode making Twilight a giant asshole? She nearley fucked everything up, and Pinkie busted her ass to make the party work out, and Twilight gets the credit?

That's right kids, as long as your a princess, you can take credit for your friends going to damn near the ends of the planet, to save your stupid ass from a war!

one of the many reasons why I don't care for Twi (who should've corrected Celestia credited Pinkie), and Sunbutt, who obviously doesn't give a flying feather about anyne but Twilight.

[Zhortac 1,474]

one of the many reasons why I don't care for Twi (who should've corrected Celestia credited Pinkie), and Sunbutt, who obviously doesn't give a flying feather about anyne but Twilight.

 

Eh, I give Celestia a pass, since she wasn't there for any of it. Twilight had no excuse for not pointing out Pinkie did all of it. She's done it before, but this one time she decides to be all, "yeah..I totally did it!"

[ManaMinori 4,145]

Eh, I give Celestia a pass, since she wasn't there for any of it. Twilight had no excuse for not pointing out Pinkie did all of it. She's done it before, but this one time she decides to be all, "yeah..I totally did it!"

she's been riding on the back of her friends success since day 1, with the friendship letters. Thatsa the only reason why she was able to become a princess in the span of a year, taking credit for her friends success, and trickimg Sunbutt into thinking she actually had leadership skills. Where are these skills shown in the episodes where Twi actually has to do princess type work?

[VengefulStrudel 1,491]

Really liked this one, had a lot of funny bits (like Fluttershy's "So, do we walk back up the slide, or what?", the bits with Cadence, Celestia's reaction to finding about a potential war xD), pretty fun episode. Pacing could use some work, felt like they could've dropped some things to focus more on other ones. I love the Yaks though XD

 

Though, not sure what Twilight did to get credit in the end for the Yak friendship...I guess stall them? Also, yay for more crazy expressions!

[Zhortac 1,474]

she's been riding on the back of her friends success since day 1, with the friendship letters. Thatsa the only reason why she was able to become a princess in the span of a year, taking credit for her friends success, and trickimg Sunbutt into thinking she actually had leadership skills. Where are these skills shown in the episodes where Twi actually has to do princess type work?

 

Yeah, but before she at least was like "Well, it's all thanks to [pony]", but this time she didn't even make an attempt to acknowledge that Pinkie busted her ass to save the day.

[ManaMinori 4,145]

Yeah, but before she at least was like "Well, it's all thanks to [pony]", but this time she didn't even make an attempt to acknowledge that Pinkie busted her ass to save the day.

hmph

not surprising. Soon as she gets a crown, she drops the humility act and throws her friends under the bus.I wouldn't be surprised if the other ponies started to wise up and abandoned her, when they don't get credt where credit is due. It would certainly be a good lesson to deal with, and hopefully an eye opener for Twilight.

Edited June 28, 2015 by Nightmare Muffin

[Zhortac 1,474]

hmph

not surprising. Soon as she gets a crown, she drops the humility act and throws her friends under the bus.I wouldn't be surprised if the other ponies started to wise up and abandoned her, when they don't get credt where credit is due. It would certainly be a good lesson to deal with, and hopefully an eye opener for Twilight.

 

We can hope...unless Larson really is that stupid...which I wouldn't doubt.

 

Although, an episode like that would be perfect to bring Trixie back in.

[Glike 487]

I really really liked this episode. You know, we have had some ridiculous episodes *cough* Filli Vanilli *cough* where Pinkie Pie was written as a super random, slightly unintelligent character, but in this one you can really see some of her real, not happy-go-lucky self. You actually see her anxiety, you see her actually analyze her near death situation and save herself and Cherry, and you see her actually trying to help her friends without the randomness she tends to have. I think this is one of her most genuine episodes since Baby Cakes. I'm a fan.

[CM Pony 30]

This was a great episode. I loved it.  Other than being about my favorite pony, it also had a lot of that Pinkie-ish random humor that I love.  I loved the fact that Twilight is afraid of quesadillas.  I also loved the description that Pinkie was giving about her afternoon, including being on the cover of Sgt Pepper's and mostly when Cadence turned out to be the one she was talking to going up the slide was very Pinkie-ish but it was Fluttershy's question about if they can do it too made the joke.

 

Enjoyable all around.

[Silver Letter 1,832]

What can I say about such an episode as this?

 

It is an episode that is hard to grasp. I have to watch it more than once and even then, I might not understand everything that was intended by the moral. It was just so out there. This episode does have a moral which is, from what I can understand, that friendships between different groups are born from understanding the true nature of ponies or whoever. The intended moral leaves a bad taste in my mouth through its presentation and delivery, including how the ponies reacted to the foreign guests. The behavior of the guests is a significant reason why the moral doesn't work and why I have a problem with it. So I'll bring it up before I continue.

 

These yaks are some of the worst characters I've seen on the show. They are loud, obnoxious, rude, uncouth, irritating, one-dimensional, stupid and more. I was thinking that there would be some good to be shown with them but it doesn't happen. Not really. They even double down by becoming aggressive and threatening throughout the episode, resulting in a hilarious threat of war on the ponies. This is where Twilight should have brought forth Rainbow Power and banished them back to the north but I digress. I can hardly seem to think that the moral learned had much of an effect on the yaks. Why would it? What did they learn in particular? What part of pony culture opened their eyes? How do we learn that they had potential to be able to come to such an understanding? We don't because by all accounts, they are incapable of it. These creatures are the worst we've seen as far as their interactions with ponies except for the buffalo and they had a good reason. The yaks had none. Their personalities were foul and irredeemable.

 

So because of these yaks, I don't believe the moral fits well. Two sides that understand each other must be able to give and take. The yaks didn't comprehend that it's not possible for the ponies to recreate their food or beds or other things. They should have been grateful and seen it as a gesture of good will. By meeting everything with aggression, it's not possible to see eye to eye. If these were ambassadors, then they were not cut out for trying to make the yaks look like reasonable creatures. So why does the moral fail? Because friendship is not a one sided issue. The yaks demanded friendship or at least demanded it their way. Making them see Equestrian culture doesn't address the core problem; in fact, I still don't get the purpose. They are bad creatures. They are not open minded and are in fact hostile. The moral comes out as simplistic, shallow and silly. And the fact that it somehow works just seems ridiculous. And it's an accumulation of events that none of the mane six should have tolerated up to this point anyway.

 

It's like with Maud Pie. It's not possible to force friendship. The idea that the yaks would just come around is absurd. It's not the pony's fault anyway. They should have stepped back and reconsidered whether it was all worth the effort from the beginning. The initial lack of grace at the castle should have been enough to dismiss them. This is where Twilight shows a lack of initiative. She needs to start acting like a princess. Just breathing calmly is far from enough. It's a tough call but she needs to do it. So anyway, this whole making new friendships thing has to make sense. Give and take demands that both sides make some kind of effort to join in such a union as friendship. But what do the yaks offer? Certainly no issue of thanks for the generous desire to make them feel welcome. Then why even desire the friendship? This really goes towards the entire idea of these outlying groups. The arrogant Griffins, the savage yaks, the Saddle Arabians...maybe these groups were outside of Equestria (or on its fringes) for a reason. The Equestrians have two demigods as leaders, can control the weather and are not wanting for materials. What do they even need any of them for?

 

Stepping away from the moral, I must say that the characterization of Pinkie and Twilight were okay. I can understand their motivations of course. Pinkie wants to help with the party and Twilight wants to succeed at promoting good relations at any cost. Their efforts even seemed to mirror each other which was interesting. How they were handled was a high note in this episode.

 

The story overall isn't that interesting. It's somewhat boring and it drags. It reminds me of Maud Pie but bad. At least with Maud, I can understand her motivations. She wanted to be closer to Pinkie. These yaks just went around destroying any effort to bridge the gap between themselves and the ponies. With Maud, the ponies and her did things together and it was all woven together. With the yaks, it was separate. There wasn't a whole lot of substance to the episode. Which is why there was so much filler. Pinkie's journey felt like such a waste. The scene with that hidden room? That was just plain stupid. Cadance and Cherry Jubilee? Unnecessary. Just skipping to the yak's homeland and seeing that could have sparked a realization with Pinkie. Tone down the yaks' behavior and then a moral starts to make sense. Then have them actually interact with what makes pony society so great.

 

That's just a huge problem. The story isn't written well. It feels like a story from one of the MLP comic books. Random creatures appearing from nowhere, character cameos that don't matter, some one-dimensional characters, etc. The jokes and efforts fall flat. Sheep? The band thing? Cherry Jubilee? It's not up to show standards and it shows badly in the presentation of story and moral.

 

This episode is a colossal disappointment. Coming back to back with a mediocre Spike episode is not a good sign. A bad sign for the season. Overall, the episode is the worst this season and maybe one of the worst ever. Yes, worse than the CMC's trouble shoes episode. This show has proven that it can do much better. Episodes like Maud Pie. Building friendships is a great thing and it can lead to many great morals but it has to be done right. I wasn't feeling much but upset while watching it.

 

In the end, I have to give it the grading it deserves. Any kind of official ranking would be in the neighborhood of 2/10. Rancid morals, the amount of filler and bad characters (yaks) are the main reasons.

 

And that is pretty much my opinion of it. For now anyway.

[Pastel 7,630]

What a boring episode. The Yaks got annoying very quickly, and Pinkie Pie trip was nonsensical (especially when she "came back")...

The last scene and the moral are pretty good though, but it's my least favorite episode of the season for now.

[Rainboom Dash 1,056]

A decent episode. The Yaks destruction gag got overdone, but I enjoyed Pinkie's characterization and the ending was pretty cute.

[Pastel 7,630]

War is canon.

I think it was already canon since Over a Barrel.

[Qsphere580&9/5 10]

I needed a good laugh, this episode was awesome!  

[UnknownFry 169]

This episode was hilarious.  Pinkie Pie and Twilight had some excellent characterization. Prince Rutherford and the Yaks were an interesting bunch, certainly hard to please, but that tied into the moral beautifully. Excellent word building this episode, and nice to see Twilight expand on her princess duties by trying her hand at diplomacy, and Pinkie Pie's trip was a delight to watch 10/10.

 

Loved Pinkie Pie's hidden room, especially the file she had on Twilight. Afraid of Quesadillas, huh?

 

Cherry Jubilee, Cadence, and Celestia all had nice little cameos as well.

Edited June 28, 2015 by UnknownFry

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

This is one of weakest episode in season 5 but i like it. Season 5 has some pacing issues that really bother me, i hope they will get better. Amending Fence written by Larson make me feel a little confident cuz i trust Larson can impress me. Anyway, i expect no perfection... 

[LHfunk 422]

What can I say about such an episode as this?

 

It is an episode that is hard to grasp. I have to watch it more than once and even then, I might not understand everything that was intended by the moral. It was just so out there. This episode does have a moral which is, from what I can understand, that friendships between different groups are born from understanding the true nature of ponies or whoever. The intended moral leaves a bad taste in my mouth through its presentation and delivery, including how the ponies reacted to the foreign guests. The behavior of the guests is a significant reason why the moral doesn't work and why I have a problem with it. So I'll bring it up before I continue.

 

These yaks are some of the worst characters I've seen on the show. They are loud, obnoxious, rude, uncouth, irritating, one-dimensional, stupid and more. I was thinking that there would be some good to be shown with them but it doesn't happen. Not really. They even double down by becoming aggressive and threatening throughout the episode, resulting in a hilarious threat of war on the ponies. This is where Twilight should have brought forth Rainbow Power and banished them back to the north but I digress. I can hardly seem to think that the moral learned had much of an effect on the yaks. Why would it? What did they learn in particular? What part of pony culture opened their eyes? How do we learn that they had potential to be able to come to such an understanding? We don't because by all accounts, they are incapable of it. These creatures are the worst we've seen as far as their interactions with ponies except for the buffalo and they had a good reason. The yaks had none. Their personalities were foul and irredeemable.

 

So because of these yaks, I don't believe the moral fits well. Two sides that understand each other must be able to give and take. The yaks didn't comprehend that it's not possible for the ponies to recreate their food or beds or other things. They should have been grateful and seen it as a gesture of good will. By meeting everything with aggression, it's not possible to see eye to eye. If these were ambassadors, then they were not cut out for trying to make the yaks look like reasonable creatures. So why does the moral fail? Because friendship is not a one sided issue. The yaks demanded friendship or at least demanded it their way. Making them see Equestrian culture doesn't address the core problem; in fact, I still don't get the purpose. They are bad creatures. They are not open minded and are in fact hostile. The moral comes out as simplistic, shallow and silly. And the fact that it somehow works just seems ridiculous. And it's an accumulation of events that none of the mane six should have tolerated up to this point anyway.

 

It's like with Maud Pie. It's not possible to force friendship. The idea that the yaks would just come around is absurd. It's not the pony's fault anyway. They should have stepped back and reconsidered whether it was all worth the effort from the beginning. The initial lack of grace at the castle should have been enough to dismiss them. This is where Twilight shows a lack of initiative. She needs to start acting like a princess. Just breathing calmly is far from enough. It's a tough call but she needs to do it. So anyway, this whole making new friendships thing has to make sense. Give and take demands that both sides make some kind of effort to join in such a union as friendship. But what do the yaks offer? Certainly no issue of thanks for the generous desire to make them feel welcome. Then why even desire the friendship? This really goes towards the entire idea of these outlying groups. The arrogant Griffins, the savage yaks, the Saddle Arabians...maybe these groups were outside of Equestria (or on its fringes) for a reason. The Equestrians have two demigods as leaders, can control the weather and are not wanting for materials. What do they even need any of them for?

 

Stepping away from the moral, I must say that the characterization of Pinkie and Twilight were okay. I can understand their motivations of course. Pinkie wants to help with the party and Twilight wants to succeed at promoting good relations at any cost. Their efforts even seemed to mirror each other which was interesting. How they were handled was a high note in this episode.

 

The story overall isn't that interesting. It's somewhat boring and it drags. It reminds me of Maud Pie but bad. At least with Maud, I can understand her motivations. She wanted to be closer to Pinkie. These yaks just went around destroying any effort to bridge the gap between themselves and the ponies. With Maud, the ponies and her did things together and it was all woven together. With the yaks, it was separate. There wasn't a whole lot of substance to the episode. Which is why there was so much filler. Pinkie's journey felt like such a waste. The scene with that hidden room? That was just plain stupid. Cadance and Cherry Jubilee? Unnecessary. Just skipping to the yak's homeland and seeing that could have sparked a realization with Pinkie. Tone down the yaks' behavior and then a moral starts to make sense. Then have them actually interact with what makes pony society so great.

 

That's just a huge problem. The story isn't written well. It feels like a story from one of the MLP comic books. Random creatures appearing from nowhere, character cameos that don't matter, some one-dimensional characters, etc. The jokes and efforts fall flat. Sheep? The band thing? Cherry Jubilee? It's not up to show standards and it shows badly in the presentation of story and moral.

 

This episode is a colossal disappointment. Coming back to back with a mediocre Spike episode is not a good sign. A bad sign for the season. Overall, the episode is the worst this season and maybe one of the worst ever. Yes, worse than the CMC's trouble shoes episode. This show has proven that it can do much better. Episodes like Maud Pie. Building friendships is a great thing and it can lead to many great morals but it has to be done right. I wasn't feeling much but upset while watching it.

 

In the end, I have to give it the grading it deserves. Any kind of official ranking would be in the neighborhood of 2/10. Rancid morals, the amount of filler and bad characters (yaks) are the main reasons.

 

And that is pretty much my opinion of it. For now anyway.

Reading your response has made me realize something. Some people actually care how the plot is, in a children's show. And care how characters are presented. I'm all for having a good story and nice characters, but an episode doesn't need that to be good. I know that not everyone has my kind of humor, but this episode was funny, and random, and just so Pinkie Pie. I loved it, simply because it was funny, and it felt like a Pinkie Pie episode.

[Shoobedoo 44]

I loved pinkie's and twilight's complementary breakdowns. Althoughh the title was misleading. I figured it would be about Pinkie having to plan a big party last second after a long period of constant parties, and being just too exhausted for it to be fun.

[Buck Testa 5,505]

You know at first I didn't like the yaks, they were so predictable and were smashing everything. The second everything wasn't exactly right they would start raging...

 

And then it hit me, It hit me in both a self reflective way and right in the funny bone

 

The Yaks...are the fans that want the show to be a very specific way. Be it a season oner or someone like me who values plot structure and character development, when those ideas aren't met we can get.... a bit aggravated. The Mane six (the writers) want to make the show that the Yaks want, but they fail to meet those standards every time, and why not, since those standards are rather ridiculous to put on a show and in some ways would be counter productive to their own season long plot. 

 

Its when Pinkie (the writer) realizes that they shouldn't be making the party (episode) to be just like how the Yaks want it, but rather show the yaks how great THEIR version of a "party" can be if you just give it a chance. 

 

Clever writers are clever. 

[DragonFlyer 329]

While the pacing was a little off (too much happening in the amount of time given) I enjoyed this one more than last week's episode. Also can I just say the Beatles reference was AWESOME! That was the highlight of the episode for me. SO MUCH WIN.