S08:E18 - Yakity-Sax

[PacificGreen 1121]

So, I can appreciate that the episode tried to come across with a heartwarming "be supportive of your friends if they enjoy doing a hobby", but there are a couple of important elements that undermine it.

Pinkie's playing was clearly annoying and messing with the others' lives, as well as the lives of the Ponyville citizens. I mean, heck, the entire Apple Orchard almost exploded thanks to her playing, and her playing in Rarity's room felt just plain inconsiderate.

It wouldn't have been hard for them to just say that she's being a bit too obnoxious and come up with a way for her to play without annoying everyone, but instead they tell her she should just stop playing because she's bad. I think this is where the episode went awry, and the whole thing could have been avoided had the others given her a legitimate reason to stop playing, or play somewhere else. 

I also did find it kind of incredible (not in an "amazing way", but in an "unbelievable" way) that her stopping this one hobby (that she wasn't even made to give up, mind you, but just did so because her friends told her to), is the trigger that makes her go into a crippling depression. It was a bit more understandable with Party of One, not just because she was less developed, but because she legitimately thought her friends didn't like her parties, and, given that her whole talent is basically parties, that must have been a serious blow to her. Contrast that with a new instrument that we literally just heard of this episode, and, yeah, you kinda get the point.

And Dash's line about, "if they don't like it, they'll have to answer to us!" at the end comes across as not really the kind of attitude you want to have in real life: "if you don't like it, f-- you". 

That said, I will give this episode points for being pretty humorous at times, especially with regards to Maud. But ultimately, this episode suffered from the same problem as Parental Glideance in that a character's annoyances blatantly got in the way of other characters trying to live their lives, and were ultimately overlooked in the end for another moral. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the writers for this episode were new, which may explain the step-down. I agree with AlexanderThrond in that the characters felt less organic and more like conduits for storylines, or maybe the writers were just trying to make another Pinkamena episode.

So yeah, the whole premise was kinda executed poorly, but a few entertaining moments and pieces of dialogue here and there make me give this one a shaky "Meh".

[This Whomps 15617]

Good Remane 5 episode. Bad Pinkie Pie episode. I look at the episode much more favorably like that

Edited August 27, 2018 by This Whomps

[Music Chart Fan 660]

Overall, this is another episode that I really don't care for. The intended message of this episode seems to be that people should feel free to do things that make them happy, even if they aren't perfect (or even good) at doing them, but then this episode has a strange way of trying to deliver that message. The episode starts off with Pinkie's yovidaphone playing being disruptive and obnoxious, with several examples of that. And I might have thought that would lead to a lesson that it's okay to do things that you like, so long as you're aware of their impact on others and generally respect others' wishes to be left alone. However, instead, this episode has the rest of the Mane Six giving Pinkie a rationale to stop playing (namely, that she's not good at it) that completely misses that point, with the rest of the episode then portraying the rest of the Mane Six as having to make up for this wrongdoing to Pinkie. And in the process, the episode completely ignores any possible wrongdoing on Pinkie's part and overexaggerates Pinkie's behavior - e.g., with playing yovidaphone now being the one and only thing that gives her life meaning, and with Pinkie's not cooperating with or even acknowledging at all any of the rest of the Mane Six's attempts to cheer her up.

To start, in the first third or so of the episode, Pinkie's playing is observed to interrupt Rarity's concentration on detail-oriented sewing; wake up the tens (if not more) of Fluttershy's animals as they're being put to sleep at night, cause them to cry, and consequently cause Fluttershy to be up all night tending to them; interferes with a publicly-attended Wonderbolts competition; explodes all the apples on entire rows of trees on the Apple family's farm, destroying both part of the Apple family's livelihood and other ponies' source of food; and causes residents of Ponyville to actively run away screaming on multiple occasions. So what are we in the audience supposed to believe is going on here? Are we to believe that Pinkie is completely unaware that these might be inappropriate occasions to blast her yovidapohone? Are we also to believe that Pinkie completely failed to notice the disruption, and even destruction, she's causing on all of these occasions? Is there any point at which Pinkie can be expected to exhibit some minimum awareness of social expectations, her surroundings, and the impact of her actions on everyone else around her?

But then that leads into another problem - namely, that if her friends (or, most likely, anyone else) want to tell her that she's being disruptive and even destructive, or that they just aren't interested in hearing her play, they have to try to conceive of just the right walking-on-eggshells method of telling her that, because Pinkie has repeatedly failed to handle being told something that she doesn't want to hear with maturity, and she's liable to go off the deep end and do something stupid and/or dangerous. So yeah, telling Pinkie not to play any more because she's not good at it, and therefore it's a waste of time, misses the root issue. Pinkie's playing was repeatedly disruptive and obnoxious, and, in most of the cases shown in the episode, would have been so even if it were better. The rest of the Mane Six's being "supportive" shouldn't mean having to listen to Pinkie play any place, any time. But I have to wonder if a "good" way of telling Pinkie about this root issue even existed, such that Pinkie would actually accept it and not go crazy about it. If the rest of the Mane Six told Pinkie the truth about her playing being disruptive or how they don't want to hear it right now, would that have gone any better? Or would Pinkie have reacted essentially the same way? It feels like the rest of the Mane Six are damned if they do, damned if they don't.

And later, Pinkie's depression doesn't budge an inch with all of her friends' efforts to cheer her up, nor does Pinkie cooperate with or even acknowledge these efforts at all. Again, what are we in the audience supposed to believe here? Is Pinkie (supposedly) rightfully holding a grudge against the rest of the Mane Six for telling her not to play the yovidaphone any more because she's not good at it, and therefore Pinkie is right not to cooperate with or acknowledge any of their attempts to cheer her up? Should Pinkie not be expected to say something like "Hey everyone, I know you're trying to cheer me up, but I just want to be alone right now"? Does the responsibility to make Pinkie "undepressed" fall entirely on the rest of the Mane Six (and whoever else they recruit to help)?

In the final scene in Yakyakistan, of course the rest of the Mane Six must not just confess their sin, but demand that Pinkie go up and play on stage, and "If these yaks don't like it, they'll have to answer to us!". What does that mean? If the yaks say that Pinkie's playing is bad, then what would the rest of the Mane Six say - "Shut up, you're wrong, Pinkie's playing is awesome"? If the yaks say "Hey, we don't want to hear Pinkie's playing, so we want her to stop and/or leave", then what would the rest of the Mane Six say - "Too bad, deal with it, or else (something)"? This "threat" only seems to make sense if the yaks were to say the same thing to Pinkie that the rest of the Mane Six did; so if the yaks said something to Pinkie like "You're bad, therefore stop playing", then I suppose that the rest of the Mane Six would say something like "Hey, she shouldn't have to stop playing just because she's not good!". But then the yaks could just reply with something like "Fine, but we don't want to hear it, so don't play here", and then what? This issue of there possibly being a proper time and place to do things that you like to do, so as not to disrupt or annoy others, is one that this episode has been avoiding the whole time, and is never addressed.

So, by the end of the episode, Pinkie must be fully validated in her yovidaphone playing, with no compromise on her part. The rest of the yaks, including the "master" himself, applaud and praise her playing. And the rest of the Mane Six seem to have an open-ended (maybe even lifetime) penance of not just background acceptance/support, but active defense and cheerleading of Pinkie's playing.

Now for the rest of my miscellaneous observations:

I would think that there would be rules about not disrupting the Wonderbolts competition which are agreed to when one purchases a ticket. I might then think that Pinkie's playing, which was affecting not just the audience but the competitors themselves, would violate such rules, and that she could be told by security to stop playing her instrument or leave.

I guess we're to believe that Pinkie can "store" anything of any size in her hair, and thus could get her huge instrument past any security when entering the arena for the Wonderbolts competition. But between this and Rainbow's parents carrying in and shooting fireworks toward the Wonderbolts back in "Parental Glideance", it seems that the Wonderbolts really need better security for these public performances.

Does Ponyville have any noise ordinances or public nuisance laws? I might think that Pinkie could be cited for violating those, at least for the times that Pinkie was playing in public and causing the public to run away screaming.

When Twilight says "Okay, maybe we can just pretend she's really good, and then I'll find a spell that will—", Applejack cuts her off and says "We're not goin' through that again!". Then Applejack references how they pretended (at Twilight's behest) that Celestia was really good when she wasn't in the episode "Horse Play". My first thought, though, was that Applejack would refer to Twilight's backfired attempt to magically hypnotize the fruit bats back in the episode "Bats!", with the lesson being not to try to cast a spell to fix this problem, either. Was Twilight planning to try to cast a spell on Pinkie directly, without her knowledge or consent? Or was Twilight thinking of at least a non-invasive magical solution?

The oven in Sugarcube Corner also has electric heating elements on the sides of the oven, as I noted for the Apple family's oven in "The Break Up Break Down".

As I've said before, I am really tired of Maud's "twenty questions" shtick, and its appearance again here is no exception.

Finally, in Yakyakistan, nobody even asked the "master" and presumed owner of the yovidaphone if it's okay for Pinkie to play it. Applejack just presents it to Pinkie, and the rest of the Mane Six just insist that she play it, without the "master" even being around.

[Truffles 1593]

20 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

When Twilight says "Okay, maybe we can just pretend she's really good, and then I'll find a spell that will—", Applejack cuts her off and says "We're not goin' through that again!". Then Applejack references how they pretended (at Twilight's behest) that Celestia was really good when she wasn't in the episode "Horse Play". My first thought, though, was that Applejack would refer to Twilight's backfired attempt to magically hypnotize the fruit bats back in the episode "Bats!", with the lesson being not to try to cast a spell to fix this problem, either. Was Twilight planning to try to cast a spell on Pinkie directly, without her knowledge or consent? Or was Twilight thinking of at least a non-invasive magical solution?

Interesting observation. I confess when AJ referenced "Horse Play," it set in my mind that the whole conversation was about that and not about "Bats!", which does make sense in terms of that last mention of the use of magic. It's too bad AJ didn't let Twilight finish, because now I'm curious as to what she had in mind for a spell. The part about pretending she's good does seem like it goes more with "HP", and the use of magic could fit a bunch of episodes - most notably those with Starlight's early path to redemption. AJ could have just as easily referenced "Every Little Thing She Does," and I think the audience would have accepted that as an equally proper continuity as well.

Also, sorry about not being so wordy these days - this helter-skelter release of episodes has completely derailed my ability to focus on the current week's episode on DFC.

[Music Chart Fan 660]

49 minutes ago, Truffles said:

Also, sorry about not being so wordy these days - this helter-skelter release of episodes has completely derailed my ability to focus on the current week's episode on DFC.

Don't worry about it, I know that it can be hard to go back and try to remember details about episodes that you originally watched weeks ago. I suppose I'm opting to stick to the one-episode-a-week schedule in part because I tend to think about episodes a lot (maybe even to a fault), and I would rather have more time to do that. Also, I feel as though if I were to watch new episodes on a shorter timescale, then for episodes that I didn't really like on first airing, I might not find the motivation to go back, re-watch, gather my thoughts and observations, and actually write posts about them. But I wouldn't disparage people for wanting to watch new episodes because they're particularly looking forward to certain ones, they don't want to try to dodge spoilers, etc.

One potential downside to the one-episode-a-week schedule, though, is that it then takes longer to move past episodes that I dislike or don't care for. And for me, at least, other than "The Hearth Warming's Club", the run of episodes in the second half of Season 8 to this point has been kind of dispiriting, and I'm not sure if I'll like at least some later episodes more than these so far. A couple of other episodes this season sound as though they could be decent, so I might have to try to hold out some hope for those, at least!

[Justin_Case001 4078]

I had predicted that this episode to be another childish shouting match where the ponies regress to the maturity of 7-year olds.  I figured the first act would be the gang trying to come up with some deception to avoid telling Pinkie the truth, and then the rest of it would go something like this:

Gang: "You're playing sucks ass, Pinkie."

Pinkie: "I thought you guys were my friends!"

Gang: "Yup, well, live and learn."

Pinkie: "I hate you!"

Gang: "Right back atcha, b*tch!"

Pinkie: "I'm leaving!"

Gang: "Good riddance!"

And so on.  I'm pleased that it wasn't so bad.  It was an okay episode, but still, it left a bad aftertaste for me.

Pros

I love that it didn't take more than a slight nudge from AJ to convince Twilight to go for transparent honesty.  Finally, a lesson learned and remembered.  The ponies acted with relative maturity, and didn't engage in any childish fights.  I was pleased to see that the gang was honest but not hurtful, and that Pinkie wasn't angry at her friends for their honesty.

We actually got to see Rainbow fly with the 'bolts!  It was only a fleeting throwaway scene, but at least it was something.  I was beginning to think the writers forgot that she's supposed to be a 'bolt.

*EDIT* [Adding this in a couple of days later.]  Forgot to mention, but I also really liked the montage of the others trying to help Pinkie get her pink back.  Very funny, especially Rarity putting make-up and stuff on her to make her look normal, and Pinkie subsequently looking like Heath Ledger's Joker when she sneezed it off.  Probably the best part of the episode.

Cons

I hate extreme overreactions.  Really, Pinkie?  Really??  Your life has no meaning without the yavidaphone?  NO meaning?  I get that you love it, but you're really prepared to throw away your home, your job, your family, your friends, your throne at the castle, and your professorship at the school, just like that (*snaps fingers*), just because of this one instrument that you just started playing a few days ago??!!  SERIOUSLY?!  Come off it, you little pink piece a crap.

The resolution wasn't a resolution at all.  They saw how upset Pinkie was, so they just said, "we take it all back, play to your heart's content," and that's that?  They just rewound time, and problem solved?!  That's not a solution!  Everyone in town was miserable due to the sucky playing, and now they're just gonna go back to that?  No sir, I don't like it.  Now, it would not be a good message to say that you shouldn't do something if you're not good at it, even if you enjoy it, but could we talk about compromise, perhaps?  All they would have needed to do to fix this ending is add a couple line right at the end:

Pinkie: "Thanks, guys.  And I promise I won't play 24 hours a day anymore."

Gang: "And maybe not while we're trying to sew?  Or practicing with the Wonderbolts?  Or doing farm chores?  Or while we're trying to sleep?"

Pinkie: *Chuckles*  "Okay, okay.  I get it.  I'll be more considerate about when and where I play."

All ponies giggle.  The end.  There--would that have been so hard?  That would have satisfied me.

At any rate, I'm sure the fandom was tickled pink by the long awaited return of Pinkamena.  She's cool.  I think I'd get along with her quite well.

The gang needs lessons on how to converse with Maud.  That was amusing.  I wonder if we're ever gonna see her boyfriend, old Stick-in-the-Mud again?

 

On 7/20/2018 at 12:27 PM, ggg-2 said:

Interesting how the episode summary calls it a Zenithrash, while it's a Yovidaphone in the episode itself.

I thought it was only my on-screen guide with my cable company!  It's like that everywhere?!  What's up with that?  How does something like that happen? 

*EDIT* Oh yeah, I wanted to add this, too.  The best part of this episode for me was definitely this face:

Because it's how I feel  ALL THE TIME.

Interesting thing: Pinkie is a great and complex character because she's actually ironically the most likely to become deeply depressed.  Obviously, she's usually on top of the world and bouncing off the walls, but when she does become depressed, she crashes and falls the lowest and the hardest.  I think that that's actually common among people with extreme personalities like hers.  Higher highs and lower lows.

Edited August 31, 2018 by Justin_Case001

[ImpctR 89]

On 7/21/2018 at 12:55 PM, Jeric said:

And for those that have heard my singing on here, the lesson fits with my own view of things. I can kill flying birds with my voice, and I don't care. I sing badly and with a smile on my face.

Some just need to accept it. I have given up on things that I like but I know circumstances disallowing me to become good at, means I have to move on with something else. And others (snowflakes) just burst into tears if you tell them they are not good. Sadly the episode just wants us to believe that it's OK, Pinkie is even good at it, instead of facing the harsh truth..

Edited August 29, 2018 by ImpctR

[JCKane 333]

First of all I was a bit annoyed when I found out that for some reason my timer just suddenly stopped recording it... or it shifted to a different channel on my satilite of I don't know.  Had to wait a week to finally see it

Anyways, as for the episode itself, again I'm in between "meh" and "I like it", as it was ok.  I find the 'sad Pinkie" episodes enjoyable and I got the lesson just, I dunno, I did like how I feel like they were doing better in trying to make her feel better, just, why didn't they think about like hiring a tutor for Pinkie?  Yeah I get it wasn't the moral of the show, but it would of been a bit interesting if it ended with that. Because yeah some things can be difficult to learn on your own and most of those thigns depends on the person.  They could of perhaps tied that into the episode?  Like a "It's ok to need help with something and not be 'sad' if you're not a natural at it or need help in learning it".  Ah well.

 

On ‎7‎/‎20‎/‎2018 at 2:48 PM, Lucky Bolt said:

Oh God, this episode title threw me off guard for a second there. 

I agree.  Dunno if it was for the same reason, but I thought it was going to be about the Yak student, forgot her name, perhaps having to deal with being removed from school or what not. :/  But turns out it's about Pinkie Pie trying to play a instrument!

[Cash In 8327]

I was caught of guard to see the return of Depressed Pinkie Pie, but other than I liked the stance of the episode.

Did Pinkie Pie overreact? Probably. I doses't bother me one bit, as Pinkie Pie has always been a character who's had a tendency to overreact. While I found her sudden transfer to Yakyakistan without anypony noticing strange, I like the fact that that the rest of the Mane 6 were willing to take the trip, just to get her back. I also liked the callbacks and the joke with Gummy. 

Perhaps Pinkie will now have a designated place to play her yovidaphone. Somewhere very private.

[Singe 1833]

So basically Pinkie Pie is super sensitive where she allows a criticism to obsessively takeover her life. Reflectively, she still has the mindset of a child.

[Senko 293]

11 minutes ago, Singe said:

So basically Pinkie Pie is super sensitive where she allows a criticism to obsessively takeover her life. Reflectively, she still has the mindset of a child.

Or she has serious problems and has been making them worse by bottling them up inside and trying to hide them even from herself. Something we've seen in party of one, pies and lies and yakkity sax. As her will wanes and it becomes easier and easier for her to fall into a crippling depression because no one she realizes she needs help.

[Singe 1833]

9 minutes ago, Senko said:

Or she has serious problems and has been making them worse by bottling them up inside and trying to hide them even from herself. Something we've seen in party of one, pies and lies and yakkity sax. As her will wanes and it becomes easier and easier for her to fall into a crippling depression because no one she realizes she needs help.

It's that the solutions given to her are temporary and she really needs to learn to overcome falling into it herself. PP needs a self improvement episode.

[~Dusky~ 1393]

I didn't go into this episode with very high expectations, and I have to say, the low expectations I went in with weren't even met.

Good:

• Most of the humor hit the mark. Honestly, Maud was on point for the segment she was in. The sarcastic way she responded to the remane 5's questions about Pinkie was hilarious.
• The Yovidaphone is a very interesting instrument, to say the least. It seems like a sort of combination of bagpipes and a sousaphone. 

Bad:

• Pinkie was SEVERELY out of character. They emphasized her emotional issues over, well, everything else. She selfishly put her want to play the instrument over everyone else's sanity. She literally MOVED OUT OF PONYVILLE BECAUSE OF HER OBESSION WITH IT. Heck, I have no idea why she got so depressed over it.
• I have a serious problem with the way the remane 5 initially acted towards her practice, She didn't sound that bad, I think. But I do understand it after she started pestering everybody with it. I also don't like the whole "tell her she's terrible at playing the Yovidaphone so she'll stop doing it" approach. 
• Her affiliation with the instrument has little if any story behind it. The only bit I could gleam is that she could have heard it played in Yakyakistan and liked the sound of it, but aside from that, they say nothing so I don't know anything else, and I'm pretty sure nobody else does either.
• The ending was absurdly predictable. To the point I knew it would end the way it did before they even got to Yakyakistan. But, I disagree with it being necessarily awful in any other way. She could actually play it decently at the end (somehow, not explained), and it made sense to me that the remane 5 changed their minds about it. for that reason.

 

In my opinion, this episode was about a 4/10.

[Sh Pie 50]

This was a nice episode. The Yovidaphone is an exotic instrument that makes some very unusual music. I thought the moral of doing what you like even if you suck at it was similar to that CMC episode where they enjoyed doing activities while acknowledging they didn't have any talent for them and also the Rumble focus episode where he wanted a CM in flying so much that he dismissed the possibilities of trying new things.

While I appreciated how Pinkie's friends accepted that playing the yovidaphone, however poorly, made her happy, I should add that her music was the cause of a lot of unintentional destruction and annoyance throughout Ponyville which wasn't really resolved in the ending. Perhaps in the future, Pinkie should consider how her actions affect everypony around her since she can sometimes be a little oblivious to stuff like that.

It was humorous when Twilight was about to cast a spell to make Pinkie think she was good and AJ reminded her of what happened last time. AJ is always good at giving constructive advice. Friendship is magic, but magic isn't friendship, I guess.

[Bas 1275]

To me, averaged or under-averaged ep. To me it was clear right away it wouldn't go well telling her the truth. And it felt like a throwback to previous Pinkiessions episodes, following the same pattern. The solution in the end wasn't great, albeit I get the takeaway that you shouldn't let others dictate what you are allowed to enjoy and what not, it wasn't worded like that though. (And you should actually probably extend the statement with "while not hurting anypony").

I did like Maud's ice cold dry humor though, but I like her most of the time she appears anyways.

[MLPFanatic34 3157]

I loved this episode, it was a great Pinkie Pie episode and I liked seeing the return of Pinkamena. The moral of this episode was well explained, and I enjoyed seeing Yakyakistan and all the yaks enjoying the yovidaphone. The dialogue and jokes in this episode were hilarious as well. 10/10.

[FizzyGreen 906]

Yo what the buck is this

Pinkie so extremely out of character

The moral completely wrong (it misses the -as long a you don't bother anyone)8

She was actually making the life of others harder like... why not just tell her to do it in private?

 

[Kevin Tang 1864]

I wish there's more excitement to this one

[Denim&Venom 8285]

I don't get it.

This episode never told us why she loved playing though. 

No background, no history. When did she get into playing and why does she love it so much. 

This feels so forced. 

[WWolf 9151]

I thought Pinkie’s playing was great  . Those fiends wouldn’t know good zenithrash playing if it killed them .

[qwerE 56]

I liked this episode, except for the ending. I'm glad Pinkie is happy again, but everything just came back to how it was in the beginning. The original problem wasn't solved at all. I expected the mane 5 to make a miniature instrument for Pinkie, that isn't as loud as the original or something. 

[Bas 1275]

I can't believe anypony liked this episode.

[TBD 12167]

I don't know, I think her friends could have just find someone to help Pinkie with her lesson in the first place. A Win-Win solution.