S09:E07 - She's All Yak

[Zantetsuken 364]

1 hour ago, KH7672 said:

I agree with you on the bland execution but when it comes to your counter-example of a better execution it doesn't work quite the same. With Hurricane Fluttershy, the stretch in reach was a physical, objective goal. Either you break the record or you don't and if you don't then, oh well nothing can be done.

But with these "Best _____" awards it's ALWAYS subjective decision. Anything whether it be plot, characterization can impact the choice of such an award. And with a show so furiously focused on Friendship and an award solely focused on such a thing there is no way they would get around it with the characters involved. Twilight was never going to give a Friendship/pal based award away unless a great example was done. Plus it threw in more of that underlying inclusion she's pushing with her event.

The series is trying to do so many things that unfortunately implications are going to pop up regardless what decision.

I personally would have liked to see Yona present it to someone else, but then you have her subjectivity to factor in where there wasn't any present to use. Or just have her reject the prize out right or not even bring it up in the end, but then that's a Chekhov's gun that never went off.

I'll agree that my Hurricane Fluttershy example wasn't 100% accurate but I still do believe if it was written today they still would have broken the record. 

I also think Yona rejecting the award would have been a very interesting and mature move. That wouldn't have made the trophy a Checkov's gun cause it was still used, it was just not accepted by the recipient. Yona could have said she didn't deserve it cause of how she ruined the dance and I would smiled and bumped my rating for the episode up by about 0.4 or 0.5 points for that.

These awards are supposed to be a motivator for the characters actions but in MLP they prove to be more of a major hindrance as they cause the characters to make stupid decisions. More often than not causing collateral damage and ruining something for everyone around them, it's not right when that is essentially what they are awarded for. If you ask me they should be punished... but that wouldn't fit the tone of the show. I think would have just been straight up better without the award. 

Edited May 11, 2019 by Zantetsuken

[Kion 7,374]

Meh I thought this episode was okay. Not much that got me except that awesome Rarity song and Fluttershy and Rainbow teaching yona how to dance. And the yona and sand bar scene.  I’m a little upset Starlight wasent included the event but then again maybe she didn’t wanna be in it. 

Edited May 11, 2019 by Fluttertastic 16

[Will Guide 21,325]

Now, I bet fans would make parodies of the Twister party game using footage from this episode and audio from the original Twister commericals.

[Savygriffs 5,022]

I thought it was a pretty cute episode! :3 

[bigbertha 410]

I think the biggest problem with these season 9  slice of life episodes so far is that they're more concerned with hitting story beats than making the episodes fun. Aside from Sparkle's Seven, they've all been ruined by this problem.

[bwrosas 252]

12 minutes ago, bigbertha said:

I think the biggest problem with these season 9  slice of life episodes so far is that they're more concerned with hitting story beats than making the episodes fun. Aside from Sparkle's Seven, they've all been ruined by this problem.

Yes, but (with the exception of next week's episode) they're saving the good stuff (the meat of the season) for the 2nd half.

[Rushing cash 824]

I ended up liking this episode more than I expected, some moments felt forced(like the accident at the dance) and some of the comedy intended moments were not my cup of tea but this episode made me like yona a bit more(she even managed to tie herself up, this is impressive), the interactions between the students were interesting and enjoyable, I liked how each of the mane 6 helped yona in their own way and got their chance to shine. It was amusing seeing yona try to fit in so hard, the part when she was dressed up(with the purple wig, was she twilighted? or sparkled? I love that twilight is a verb now, it shows she is slowly becoming seen as kind of a goddess to the populace, like celestia) and talking in such accent(why the main 6 didn't tell her she doesn't need to talk like this though?) was funny and I found myself invested in what is happening.  

We got to see the tree tample again, we got a mention of cozy glow and king sombra again and twilight DID NOT freak our!! what? when was the last time she didn't freak out during an episode she appeared?!  Now I ship yona and sandbar, they better mantion it again!    7\10.  

Edited May 11, 2019 by Rushing cash

[bigbertha 410]

1 minute ago, bwrosas said:

Yes, but (with the exception of next week's episode) they're saving the good stuff (the meat of the season) for the 2nd half.

Every episode should be treated equally. High stake episodes are not inherently better than low stake episodes.

[bwrosas 252]

7 minutes ago, bigbertha said:

Every episode should be treated equally. High stake episodes are not inherently better than low stake episodes.

I agree.  But from a creator's perspective, what's going to invest you more.

[RDDash 18,866]

If there was a "I am confused" voting option I would have taken it. Rarity was a little bit of a wrong person to prepare Yona for a casual dance.

I thought that Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash was perfect for when they taught her how to dance and have fun. I think I tunned out when Pinkie Pie and Applejack "recruited" Yona to do their own chores. I thought, really guys this will not teach her what she wants to know.

Then there was this final product of a dress that extremely tucky and uncomfortable for Yona to wear. Also why in Celestia name Yona wear a purple wig? 

2/5 Not a fan

Edited May 11, 2019 by R.D.Dash

[Sepul-Coloratura 756]

The biggest problem of this episode was, 3 minutes in it and I already knew how it the problem would occur, how everyone would act strange to not fix the problem, how the cut before the ad would be, how it would resolve, everything. And it did. And the the episode didn't add anything more than I thought of. I'm surprised that it was so generic to the point of having nothing more to offer than my arbitrary imaginative plot that I didn't even fully developed during the watch. It's not any exciting more than reading the synopsis. That's the same issue with The Cart Before the Ponies and Non-Complete Clause, which were two lowest rating episodes of each season.

The episode's moral was half baked and executed boringly. She didn't did anything different from what the yaks did back in Party Pooped, (and the yaks were extremely rude and wrong back then, I seriously admire the ponies' patience) this time she "didn't mean to do it", but does it need to be rewarded? What good did she do? Well at least she apologized thank god I hate non-apologetic episodes. She didn't do anything better than other characters in the party. Twilight just gave it because she felt sorry for her, I guess? What's the lesson kids?

What everybody did wrong was to dress her up in an objectively horrible looking dresses (what the hay Rarity, you outdone yourself from Suited for Success), make her speak and act funny. And try to make it about a pony thing when it wasn't. Besides, her speaking funny wasn't the problem. Her dress wasn't the problem. Her dance moves wasn't the problem. The problem was purely just an unintentional accident. (or that she is an uncontrollable destructive creature by nature.) The same thing could have easily happened by stepping on a banana peel which is of course, irrelevant to where the plot was leading up to. Yona is worse than Trouble Shoes and I don't see her on a wanted poster.

Yes, learning other cultures is a helpful thing to do. But Pinkie Pie did it right and respectively when learning yak culture, yaks including Yona did it wrong. (and the Mane Six taught her in a strangely obviously misleading way, that I would believe if it was a sick prank) If all yaks are portrayed as stubborn, ignorant, clumsy and destructive, that's kinda racist. Or it might not be racist and actually a fact. If only Yona had something good to offer as a character in this episode, that would be somewhat have a redeeming quality. This is the first Yona episode, and the first student six solo episode. I kinda briefly got a fraction of what kind of character she is from previous episodes, but this episode doesn't deliver any character insights at all. It was a Yona episode and we got nothing about her.

By the way, Equestria, especially Ponyville isn't a racist place to begin with, so it's not a special moment to have other creatures in a party or have cultural exchanges. (Equestria was built on non-racist principles to begin with.) That Twilight (and others or the show itself) deliberately paying extra attention about racial diversity lately is kinda odd honestly. Equestria does have mostly ponies, but nothing stopped them from having other creatures. Spike, a pony eating creature seems to have no problem growing up, Zecora has no problem with ponies after resolving the misunderstanding, Gilda seemed to have a flight camp with Dash and even while she was being rude to others, ponies were being nice and didn't treat her any different from other ponies. (Chancellor Neighsay would have never allowed the flight camp to have griffons and ponies together btw.) I wouldn't mind all of that if the fun of the show wasn't the expense for it.

A lesson about accepting other's race and culture was already done and done better in Bridle Gossip. And about being yourself and not changing only by others expectation was done better in Simple Ways, Green isn't Your Color, Sweet and Elite (heck, most of them are Rarity episodes) and even Applejack got her cutie mark from the lesson. Besides, Twilight and friends didn't receive a reward after breaking up Zecora's place, did they? Isn't Gabby's episode, which is about a different creature enthusiastically trying to become a pony but not working, better than this?

So, I don't know what this episode is about. And I don't know what it is encouraging either. Is it about being yourself and not doing stupid things? Is it about that accepting other culture is the same thing as changing yourself and it is a stupid thing to do? I could pretty much guess what this episode was trying to say, but it didn't work. Most of all, the episode was not fun.

Edited May 11, 2019 by Sepul-Coloratura

[bwrosas 252]

4 minutes ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

The biggest problem of this episode was, 3 minutes in it and I already knew how it the problem would occur, how everyone would act strange to not fix the problem, how the cut before the ad would be, how it would resolve, everything. And it did. And the the episode didn't add anything more than I thought of. I'm surprised that it was so generic to the point of having nothing more to offer than my arbitrary imaginative plot that I didn't even fully developed during the watch. It's not any exciting more than reading the synopsis. That's the same issue with The Cart Before the Ponies and Non-Complete Clause, which were two lowest rating episodes of each season.

The episode's moral was half baked and executed boringly. She didn't did anything different from what the yaks did back in Party Pooped, (and the yaks were extremely rude and wrong back then, I seriously admire the ponies' patience) this time she "didn't mean to do it", but does it need to be rewarded? What good did she do? Well at least she apologized thank god I hate non-apologetic episodes. She didn't do anything better than other characters in the party. Twilight just gave it because she felt sorry for her, I guess? What's the lesson kids?

What everybody did wrong was to dress her up in an objectively horrible looking dresses (what the hay Rarity, you outdone yourself from Suited for Success), make her speak and act funny. And try to make it about a pony thing when it wasn't. Besides, her speaking funny wasn't the problem. Her dress wasn't the problem. Her dance moves wasn't the problem. The problem was purely just an unintentional accident. (or that she is an uncontrollable destructive creature by nature.) The same thing could have easily happened by stepping on a banana peel which is of course, irrelevant to where the plot was leading up to. Yona is worse than Trouble Shoes and I don't see her on a wanted poster.

Yes, learning other cultures is a helpful thing to do. But Pinkie Pie did it right and respectively when learning yak culture, yaks including Yona did it wrong. (and the Mane Six taught her in a strangely obviously misleading way, that I would believe if it was a sick prank) If all yaks are portrayed as stubborn, ignorant, clumsy and destructive, that's kinda racist. Or it might not be racist and actually a fact. If only Yona had something good to offer as a character in this episode, that would be somewhat have a redeeming quality. This is the first Yona episode, and the first student six solo episode. I kinda briefly got a fraction of what kind of character she is from previous episodes, but this episode doesn't deliver any character insights at all. It was a Yona episode and we got nothing about her.

By the way, Equestria, especially Ponyville isn't a racist place to begin with, so it's not a special moment to have other creatures in a party or have cultural exchanges. (Equestria was built on non-racist principles to begin with.) That Twilight (and others or the show itself) deliberately paying extra attention about racial diversity lately is kinda odd honestly. Equestria does have mostly ponies, but nothing stopped them from having other creatures. Spike, a pony eating creature seems to have no problem growing up, Zecora has no problem with ponies after resolving the misunderstanding, Gilda seemed to have a flight camp with Dash and even while she was being rude to others, ponies were being nice and didn't treat her any different from other ponies. (Chancellor Neighsay would have never allowed the flight camp to have griffons and ponies together btw.) I wouldn't mind all of that if the fun of the show wasn't the expense for it.

A lesson about accepting other's race and culture was already done and done better in Bridle Gossip. And about being yourself and not changing only by others expectation was done better in Simple Ways, Green isn't Your Color, Sweet and Elite (heck, most of them are Rarity episodes) and even Applejack got her cutie mark from the lesson. Besides, Twilight and friends didn't receive a reward after breaking up Zecora's place, did they? Isn't Gabby's episode, which is about a different creature enthusiastically trying to become a pony but not working, better than this?

So, I don't know what this episode is about. And I don't know what it is encouraging either. Is it about being yourself and not doing stupid things? Is it about that accepting other culture is the same thing as changing yourself and it is a stupid thing to do? I could pretty much guess what this episode was trying to say, but it didn't work. Most of all, the episode was not fun.

Every see the movie "She's All That" (if you have STARZ, you can watch it on demand), well read this from Wikipedia and maybe you'll get your answer.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She's_All_That

[Sepul-Coloratura 756]

5 minutes ago, bwrosas said:

Every see the movie "She's All That" (if you have STARZ, you can watch it on demand), well read this from Wikipedia and maybe you'll get your answer.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She's_All_That

I can't believe believe my eyes reading the plot. It's a talent to be that generic beyond imagination.

[bwrosas 252]

3 minutes ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

I can't believe believe my eyes reading the plot. It's a talent to be that generic beyond imagination.

Well, now you see where they got the inspiration and some of the ideas from.

Edited May 11, 2019 by bwrosas

[Dark Qiviut 22,173]

2 hours ago, StitchandMLPlover said:

Plus as some others have noticed, Rarity is comfortable standing out when it comes to fashion and her own business but tends to want to fit in when other cultural things are involved, especially when what she views as high society comes into play.

That still doesn’t change the critique with Rarity’s character there. In Canterlot Boutique, she wanted to expand her empire without sacrificing its character and soul. Rarity is a creative-first character who strives to stick out and do her best. Sassy’s model was all about selling as many of the same outfit as possible, robbing the soul of her Boutique empire and turning her into an assembly pony. Rather than accept this model, she willingly risked the success of her business both in Canterlot and beyond. Quality and creativity matter.

That is a complete reversal of her characterization in Spice Up Your Life. Instead of assisting Pinkie’s idea and being themselves to stand out from the other clichéd restaurants, she told them to assimilate and worked to make them as soulless as the rest. Zesty Gourmand, albeit being hypocritical, rightfully called Rarity’s idea out as a blatant ripoff of the others. A pony like Twilight would fit her role more, since she lived in Canterlot for most of her life and adheres to a more standards-and-practices approach in some parts of her life.

2 hours ago, StitchandMLPlover said:

We see this tendency in “Sweet and Elite”

In that episode, we saw a complete line of thinking that made her eventually believe that the only way to succeed there is to be the popular aristocrat (thank Jet Set and Upper Crust for this), which the episode actively showed to be in the wrong. When she had to choose between sticking up for her friends and their un-Canterlotty partying or retaining her reputation in high Canterlot society, she chose to do what’s right: defend her friends and call them the most important ponies she knows. She sacrificed her status for them.

2 hours ago, StitchandMLPlover said:

like her desire to open “Rarity For You” on a particular day regardless of how overworked she is because she believes that is what is expected of her.

The customers expect R4Y to be open, not no character.

46 minutes ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

A lesson about accepting other's race and culture was already done and done better in Bridle Gossip

Bridle Gossip handled the subject of racism really poorly. Everyone in Ponyville treated Zecora like shit and spread rumors around her just because she scared them, implicating that all racism in real life happens from fright while ignoring the hatred and superiority aspects. The fact that Twilight, who stuck to her guns, shunned a book due to a crummy cover and gave in really hurt her character there. The episode simplifies and whitewashes a very serious subject.

[RaphLuna 305]

Its just a recycle of the last lesson.

Stop being something your not and just be yourself.

To me its just shows they are really running out of ideas.

[Truffles 2,033]

A really funny episode that I ended up loving. I seem to be responding more to the funny episodes this season than I am to the ones with the more serious tones, though the moment where Yona runs off is as heartbreaking as anything I've ever seen in this show. So kudos to the episode for managing to cover a vast range of emotions well.

Everyone played their part well. I didn't get the feeling anyone was acting stupid or OOC. The Mane 6 do have some good reasons to believe Yona wants to fit in - after all, they know first-hoof how difficult it is dealing with yak culture, and if she really wanted to tone it down for the dance then their actions can be justified. (Certainly hinting that her slop-bucket was not going to go over well was a good thing to do.) Their main fault was taking it too far.

Rarity had the most amusing expressions this time out, even beating out the Student 6 who had their fare share as well. My favorite is this one:

Seeing characters unhappy about getting food on them tickles my funny bone. Reminds me of this scene which I still find amusing:

Even though a lot of what happened was what I expected, I did have some doubt Yona would ever learn to be like a high society Canterlot pony. (I mean, let's face it - that's who Rarity was trying to mold her into. If she had aimed for someone more down-to-earth like Applejack, it would have worked out better. Though the dance probably still would have ended in disaster like it did.)

So I was surprised and amused to see Yona speaking and acting so refined, even though it's right in line with the "My Fair Lady" plot. Knowing her character (and the yaks in general) It's something I guess I just never expected the show to do. The interesting thing about Yona is she's already pretty different from other yaks. In the very first scene after the title sequence, we see her cautiously knocking and entering Rarity's room. She already knows the propriety of being polite, which I can't say any of her brethren have caught on to yet.

After the Mane 6 realize they've succeeded, it's interesting to note Angel's expression compared to the rest of them:

Is this just a case of him being resentful because he's jealous of how well she's learned? Or does he already know the Mane 6 are making a mistake by trying to make her into someone she isn't? There is some evidence from past episodes he's a lot wiser than he looks, and I'd like to think that's the case here.

There's a few other shots that I like because of some of the details are notable and nice-to-see moments that could get easily overlooked:

A nice bit of love from Twilight, making sure her little brother, #1 assistant (and newly minted DJ Scales and Tail, lol) doesn't get hurt in his costume during the pandemonium.

We know Gallus is actually an emotional guy on the inside, but it's always nice to see him show it. Here, he seems genuinely shocked over what just transpired, maybe even as much as Sandbar. It probably reminds him of the kinds of fights he's seen back at home when they get together for "family" time.

 

I also really loved the pacing of this episode. A lot goes on before the end, but somehow they managed to leave the entire third act available for Sandbar and Yona to work things out, and even leave time for the Mane 6 to chime in as well. I wish more episodes could be organized this way - it's much more satisfying than getting a rushed moral in the last minute or two.

And Sandbar is the big winner in this episode. Between learning he has a crush on Yona to how he explained his feelings for her and what he likes about her, he's shown more development in these 22 minutes than he has at any other time - including his moment in last season's finale where he rescued the rest of his friends. We get to ride sidecar along with his emotional state for the first time - something that has been severely lacking in his character up to this point. Before this, it was hard to take him seriously about anything due to how he reacts to the littlest inconveniences, or seemed like a stereotypical surfer dude during other conflicts. Vincent Tong must be happy he finally got a chance to play a role that didn't seem one-dimensional.

What else? I guess Gallus is open to the idea of dating Smolder, even though that hug from Silverstream last season seems to say otherwise. I personally think Smolder is just a cover for him so he doesn't have to reveal too much of his true self. If he had asked Silverstream, he'd be putting himself out there emotionally since he seems to have feelings for her. Asking Smolder (who from the S8 premiere he seems to have the most in common with in terms of attitude) is a safe bet since both of them just want to go for the food. No need for either of them to open up about anything.

The song was great and gets better each time I hear it. The reprise was good, as was Yona's heartbreaking song at the start of the third act. I really want someone to make a GIF of Silverstream waggling her eyebrows at Sandbar at the start of the dance, lol! Speaking of the dance, I could tell the new name was "Amity Ball". But I was scratching my head as to the original name: The Fetlock Fete. I had to look "fete" up to understand what Twilight was talking about, lol.

 

1 hour ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

It's not any exciting more than reading the synopsis. That's the same issue with The Cart Before the Ponies and Non-Complete Clause, which were two lowest rating episodes of each season.

No, the big problem with those two episodes was how insensitive, out-of-character, and unlikable 3 of the Mane 6 were. Here, they had good reasons to try to help Yona out.

1 hour ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

he episode's moral was half baked and executed boringly. She didn't did anything different from what the yaks did back in Party Pooped, (and the yaks were extremely rude and wrong back then, I seriously admire the ponies' patience) this time she "didn't mean to do it", but does it need to be rewarded?

1 hour ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

The problem was purely just an unintentional accident. (or that she is an uncontrollable destructive creature by nature.) The same thing could have easily happened by stepping on a banana peel which is of course, irrelevant to where the plot was leading up to.

These two statements seem to be in conflict with one another. I guess you are just saying the end result wasn't any different? But the big difference is the yaks in Party Pooped meant to do all that stuff and this (as you say) was by accident. But the difference between the accidents of slipping on a banana peel and her tripping on the dress is that the actions of the Mane 6 are what caused her to trip (and later also get blinded by the wig.) So the award was an extension of their apology to her for taking things too far. Whether or not she should have accepted it is a matter of debate, though I tend to let it slide since her and Sandbar did show a great example of friendship.

1 hour ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

Equestria, especially Ponyville isn't a racist place to begin with, so it's not a special moment to have other creatures in a party or have cultural exchanges. (Equestria was built on non-racist principles to begin with.) That Twilight (and others or the show itself) deliberately paying extra attention about racial diversity lately is kinda odd honestly. Equestria does have mostly ponies, but nothing stopped them from having other creatures. Spike, a pony eating creature seems to have no problem growing up

It's not so much about showing ponies how to not be racist as it is about exposing the citizens of Ponyville to other cultures and how they do things differently. While Equestria does have other creatures, it is a mostly homogeneous population made up entirely of ponies. They might see a few griffons during the Equestria games, they might run by a few cows to chat. But for the most part the other species have been AWOL from their society for one reason or another: Griffons and the yaks kept to themselves. Hippogriffs were in hiding. Dragons and ponies don't get along and knew "next to nothing" about one another. The changelings were adversaries. Even Zecora seems to be the only zebra interested in living there.

These past two or three seasons have been the first chance they've had to intermingle, and this dance was just another chance for them to do that. Also Spike is an interesting case. Even though ponies don't seem to react to him negatively (probably due to his age), we just saw 3 episodes ago he didn't feel like he fit in with Twilight's family. I talked about that a bit in my comments on that episode, but to summarize they just didn't think he'd be interested in doing pony things since he was a dragon. So even though ponies aren't all outwardly racist, there's a cultural divide that may make others species feel excluded.

Edited May 11, 2019 by Truffles

[ImpctR 155]

Now this is an episode that relates to the Season 9 with its continuity from Uprooted (the tree) and with characters we would expect the ep. to be made for, than some BG pony like last episode. It is the kind of regular episodes that I like if it is going to be of this type. It felt light-hearted and pleasant to watch. I don't care that the lesson be yourself has been used, why should it matter? To me it matters what the content of the episode is, and it was nice. To break it into details:

The school dance is a common topic in such student related shows. I've seen the plot of speaking in a sophisticated manner  in other such shows, exactly related to some dance party.

Things I found funny: Brussels cabbage is a thing! They know about Brussels? What does pony world look there. 

Yona Sparkle and Yona as a pony lol:

 

Spoiler

 

Aww Flutty's blush.

 

Spoiler

 

When you want to cosplay... yourself:

 

Spoiler

 

Yona's look, wtf. 

 

Spoiler

 

welp, quite predictably making a mess. Yonaaa....

 

Spoiler

 

Really sweet interaction between Sandbar and Yona, new shipping after Silverstream and Gallus? Certainly the next.. couple. Starting to like Sandbar more, I actually like his character.

Some rap-like music and the yak's smashing dance. Couple of funny parts, cute episode, 5/5 even though I give different weight to 5/5 for best episodes of season and those that are just fine and I can find nothing bad about. Pacing and such do not concern me, it went fine. I was not familiar with the writer but I see he wrote Surf and or Turf last season, one of my favorite episodes back then.

 

[Sepul-Coloratura 756]

1 minute ago, Dark Qiviut said:

Bridle Gossip handled the subject of racism really poorly. Everyone in Ponyville treated Zecora like shit and aimed rumors around her just because she scared them, implicating that all racism in real life happens from fright while ignoring the hatred and superiority aspects. The episode simplifies and whitewashes a very serious subject.

Well, we can't show buffalos scalping ponies to show the true violent nature of the history of American Indians in Over a Barrel. Or show the brutal nature of bullying, war, enslavement, brainwashing, capitalism, mental abuse, abuse of power, death, power struggle, guilt, anxiety etc. Bridle Gossip showed one aspect of racism, and it wasn't about all the reasons why. It was not a solid episode, but still way better than She's All Yak.

[Truffles 2,033]

9 minutes ago, ImpctR said:

Aww Flutty's blush.

Speaking of blushes, if they handed out awards for blushing Sandbar would take the cake. I almost want to call him Sandblush for the number of times he blushed at Yona this episode.

11 minutes ago, ImpctR said:

When you want to cosplay... yourself:

This is the dragon who for the first HWE dressed up as...a purple dragon. And for another as a two-headed version of himself. I guess he saves all his best roleplaying for O&O. XD

[Mirage 24,136]

It's unfortunate that the moral seems to be if you don't fit 'in', then everyone else has to accept that. In addition, if you don't fit in you shouldn't try to make harmless compromises to learn things to be more in harmony with your surroundings? There is a modern trend of this - don't offend me. Society has to change, government needs to make laws, culture needs to change, the roads need to be fixed - all because 'society' isn't ready for how totally unique I am and my sensitivities that go along with it.

But really, it's all just wishful thinking. The world does revolve around you. Learning to get along with others is grade school level morals.

A better twist would be that Yona learns and comes to appreciate pony ways, and participates as much as she can. Then have a Yona smash party outside with those who wish to attend...

Edited May 11, 2019 by Totally Mirage

[DonMaguz 1,023]

I may need to watch this again to catch all the details, but having just finished it once I can say that, for me, this one has been the most entertaining episode of the season so far.

A few things that I loved about the episode:

- Yona was already my favorite student, this was adorable to watch.

- I've said time and time again how bad the school of friendship has been for the Remane 5, this time they were amazing on the role of teachers. Although they could have done the same thing just as good friends of Yona, their responsibility as teachers helped them for consistency.

- Rarity was at her best as a support character.

- Spike's self-reference disguise and his lines were hilarious!

- I didn't like all the 'pony' reference words and phrases trying to highlight the diversity lesson. I get that its a kid's show, but I think this episode in particular has it so clear at the screen that the lesson had still been understood with a "show, don't tell" approach.

- After Rarity, who was the main secondary, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had my favorite moments while teaching Yona how to dance.

- Rarity will still need AJ as a critic to help her with the functionality of clothes. The event would have gone perfect if not for the long dress and the unnecessary wig.

First great episode of the season for me.

Edited May 11, 2019 by DonMaguz
missed a word.

[Truffles 2,033]

Just now, DonMaguz said:

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had my favorite moments while teaching Yona how to dance.

Fluttershy reading off the dance moves so effortlessly was an absolutely amazing moment! It reminded me of her surprise detailed knowledge of sewing and couture back in Suited For Success.

[DonMaguz 1,023]

2 minutes ago, Truffles said:

Fluttershy reading off the dance moves so effortlessly was an absolutely amazing moment! It reminded me of her surprise detailed knowledge of sewing and couture back in Suited For Success.

Yup, the little rhymes also reminded me of how her human counterpart remembers to prep for driving.

[BastementSparkle 20,312]

15 minutes ago, Totally Mirage said:

It's unfortunate that the moral seems to be if you don't fit 'in', then everyone else has to accept that. In addition, if you don't fit in you shouldn't try to make harmless compromises to learn things to be more in harmony with your surroundings? There is a modern trend of this - don't offend me. Society has to change, government needs to make laws, culture needs to change, the roads need to be fixed - all because 'society' isn't ready for how totally unique I am and my sensitivities that go along with it.

But really, it's all just wishful thinking. The world does revolve around you. Learning to get along with others is grade school level morals.

A better twist would be that Yona learns and comes to appreciate pony ways, and participates as much as she can. Then have a Yona smash party outside with those who wish to attend...

Yona wasn't making "Harmless compromises" to be more in harmony with her surroundings, she completely changed everything about herself. She changed the way she talked, the way she dressed, the kind of things she said. Learning more about pony culture and how the dance works is all fine, Sandbar even seemed kind of excited that she knew how to do the dances, she could have learned more about the dance traditions and how to participate without totally removing her individuality for it. Yona already fits in just fine being Yona as she already is, there's no reason for her to change that, other than she felt she had to, to be a good partner for Sandbar.

 She wasn't having trouble getting along with others or "Fitting in" in the first place.