S01:E05 - Griffon the Brush Off

[PlatinumWhiteForge 3]

Meh, I'm new to this website and discovered I need to make 5 posts before I can create my own characters for display. So, I'm going to mention that I was always quite fond of Gilda as a character. For some reason I like the sassier characters in most shows, idk why, but they just appeal to me. But yeah. I'm just really confused as to why they introduced her into the show then never showed her for ages afterwards, or better yet why they would introduce a completely new character into a story that hasn't developed very much yet. Probably just me though.

[Knightgem 158]

As much I enjoy the episode and I use the term 'enjoy' lightly as it was not one of my favorites and one of those I just roll my eyes at.

 

Title: Griffon the Brush Off
Air Date: November 12, 2010
Synopsis: Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash pal around playing pranks on the other ponies, but when Dash's old friend Gilda the Griffon shows up, Pinkie Pie suddenly becomes a third wheel.

---

I'm watching it on tv right now and I just realized something. First of all, the cart that Gilda stole the apple from didn't have any apples if you looked at it afterwards. Second of all, Pinkie Pie said nobody twice. I also realized that I over-analyze way too much.

Also Spike wanted to blow out the candles. He's a dragon. Dragon. Blowing. Fire. Out.

​Regarding Spike fire vs air, while it is true that (not all) dragons breath fire. I do believe they have something much like us humans and our spit glans(?) Being that it's a bodily function that they have the option to breath the element of just breath or else we'd be spitting over everypony or getting very thirsty very quickly. I can't say anything for sure, as fantasy books and mythology have many varied depictions of a dragon, what it is and how it looks.

Asking questions that don't need answering regarding an episode of a cartoon show. I like it! More of that!

[ToxicPunisher 0]

Griffins are awesome,why would you want to not be a griffin

[Honeysuckle 135]

i was loving the episode until Guilda came in >.> AND WHEN SHE WAS MEAN TO FLUTTER SHY

MY SWEET LITTLE FLUTTER SHY  

had to calm myself to continue watching 

[Guest]

Gilda is one of my most hated characters from the entire series. I didn't find her character appealing, and she was just purely annoying. Rainbow didn't behave quite well either, if gilda really was her close friend, dumping her that fast wasn't really nice overall, but thank god she's gone because of it atleast.

[Widdershins 9,959]

Been ages since I saw that episode, so I'll only refer to the one section I can remember clearly.

 

   That first what, three seconds that Gilda shows up? Her head pops over the edge of the cloud, in a jerky, chicken-like motion, she cocks her head to one side to better focus one eye onto this new interruption. And her eye dilates. Possibly a guitar riff thrown in, If I remember right.

 My thought process in those seconds: Huh. That's odd. Was that supposed to show her as predatory? To better exemplify her being a stereotypical bully? But pupils dilating and jerky head motions typically only mean fear doesn't it?

   Wait...she's a griffon. A mythological creature that's usually seen as predatory. As both halves of it are meat-eaters well known for preying on horses, of all things.

   What is a natural predator to horses doing in a world dominated by those herbivores? Maybe, some time over this world's history, ponies gained superiority, be it intelligence, culture or magic and they gained the upper hoof over their ancient natural predators. Would stand to reason the predator race, now having been proved defunct in the food chain, would hold more then a bit of a completely fair grudge against ponydom. As we've seen in more recent episodes, their kingdom is basically a ghetto & them being too proud to accept help from the more powerful nations they used to naturally prey on.

   Huh...but she's already friends with RD, why would she suddenly freak out at the addition of a second pony? Perhaps she's already wearing her spiky personality, and interspecies trust thin.

   Considering the broken hovels her town is, seems quite likely that where she comes from, getting bumped into on the street is an open invitation to fight. Pranking somegriffon who is constantly got her hackles raised for an attack likely isn't the best way to be friends with them. Maybe screaming in others faces & picking fights is the only way she knows how to interact.

   Yeah, I know she went to "Junior Speedsters Camp" with Dashie, so she HAS interacted with ponies before. But Fluttershy got bullied a bit too for being slightly different, wonder what happens to those in Cloudsdale who are an entirely separate, and subjugated race?

 

   Sure, can't deny she's a horrible bear to be around. Violent, mean, judgemental & more than a bit cliche. But maybe she never wanted to be. That's just the way she became.

[Dawn Darkness 217]

I thought the first six minutes of the episode was kinda funny in my opinion. But when Gilda got on screen, I only watched another six/seven minutes of it, then I stopped watching it. 

[cider float 2,538]

For the 5th episode of the whole series this was a big slap in the face. Gilda was a real beeeeeeitch.

[immortallegend69 1]

Wasnt a fan of the practical jokes between pinkie pie and rainbow dash at first but i eventually came around. it was just a bit of harmless fun. This episode is what made me a brony. Gilda wasnt very nice in this episode so it was funny to see her get jokes played on her.

[Tropico 226]

just watched and i liked it. didnt remember that rainbow found pikie pie annoying and didnt want to hang with her before this episode. find it kinda weird. so before that they were not really friends

amazing how rainbow went from these harmless pranks and even agrees that they cant do a prank to fluttershy because shes so sensitive to that episode seasons later when she does annoying pranks. (i dont say anything but at the same thing i say it everything.. :ninja: no need to explain xD)

also i noteiced at least these 5 episodes how twilight and pinkie's personalities are different from later seasons. i already commented twilight (before kinda sassy now kinda bland princess that does nothin). but i didnt see till now that pinkie before was more deep and dimensional. now it seems she has only one trait (the random/happy/4thwall breaker one) but before, her dialogues/worries/etc were a bit more mature, and humour crazy but not as crazy  

they tend to do this in all tv shows anyways. the more seasons, the more dumber or crazy a character gets. for example homer from the simpsons or joey from FRIENDS.

still i love pinkie pie from newer seasons and i laugh a lot♥♥ also i like new twilight, but im sad she doesnt get that many spotlight now and is more "wanna be perfect princess". hope in S7 things change


The friendship lesson was.. Hmm not sure . 'if a friend doesn't notice that has a mean friend, do nothing and just be a nice friend. Time will reveal that that friend is mean'. hmm not sure. If you do nothing maybe your friend starts being mean because of the bad influences, help

 

 

Rainbow didn't behave quite well either, if gilda really was her close friend, dumping her that fast wasn't really nice overall

 

element of loyalty but not to gilda 

 

 

 

First of all, i feel like i watch two short episodes. One is being Pinkie and Rainbow becoming closer friends and the other is about Gilda.

 

 

lmao i feel the same. loved the first part. is so cute. 

Edited February 24, 2017 by Tropico

[blackstarraven 142]

Again.

This is a meh. 3 out of 5 episode for me.

Again its a good episode because it teaches a good lesson without beating somepony over the head with it.

But I can take it or leave it.

Won't skip but wont go out of my way to watch it.

[TailsIsNotAlone 3,695]

I just watched this one again and it's still great. It's easy to get caught up in how much of a miserable bully Gilda is, but when you look past that, there are much more important things to take away from this episode. Sometimes your friends have other friends who you don't like, or vice versa. (In Pinkie and Gilda's case the dislike was mutual - the difference being that Pinkie tried to coexist peacefully and Gilda didn't.)

Also, your choice of friends can change over time. Dash wasn't exactly the most popular filly at flight camp ("Rainbow Crash", etc) and when you're an outcast, you turn to other outcasts for solidarity and protection. So I can see Rainbow and Gilda being old friends. One way to avoid getting bullied is to make a friend out of the bully. But now that Dash is older, more sure of herself, and living in a place where she's been accepted, things are a little different. She's still willing to hang out, but seeing how Gilda blows her top at the party, she realizes she doesn't need that kind of friend anymore. I think Dash actually learns more from this experience than Pinkie Pie does.

I really enjoyed the good clean fun in the first act, the rapport between Pinkie and Dash, and Pinkie's portrayal as an innocent and fun-loving but basically rational pony. She gets jealous, hurt, and upset without overreacting or going dark (like in 'Party of One'). I like this early version of Pinkie much better than the broad caricature she was reduced to in future seasons.

Edited July 17, 2017 by TailsIsNotAlone

[JadeSerpent 7]

Gilda is the first non pony character that I saw and she looked AWESOME! She was a big meanie as pinkie pie says lol By far my favorite part was pinkie pie's insults

[King of Canterlot 9,603]

My favorite scene from that episode was when Gilda looked super happy after she blew out the candles for the first time before she was told it was a prank.

  

[Sparky Hoof 78]

Me at the beginning of the episode:

Oh wow they have a character that's not a pony in the first few episodes. This should be pretty interesting to see what this turns out to be.

Me at the end of the episode:

Never again will I ever watch an episode of MLP where's there's a character other then a pony or discord. Never again.

 

Eh, probably not true, but Gilda seems like a complete jerk. I don't know why anyone would want to be around her, even pinkie pie.

[Thrond 3,263]

This one has a little more going on than the previous two. Gilda could have perfectly understandable reasons to dislike Pinkie's behaviour, but she deals with them immaturely, and does all sorts of other mean, selfish things to boot. It's not a terribly insightful depiction, and it makes me wonder what the show might have done with her had it not doubled down on the reformation thing, but it works for the story being told, which is a little less simplistic than in prior episodes. 

And yeah, otherwise this is probably the funniest episode up to this point, and the characters have started to solidify a little beyond the simpler archetypes seen in the previous two episodes. It's still season 1, so it's hardly the show's peak of complexity, but you see them being a little more mature here as they try to consider the effects of their actions on others. The Fluttershy scene is a good example of that. 

Score: 
Entertainment: 9/10
Characters: 8/10
Theme: 7/10
Story: 7/10
Overall: 78/100

[blackstarraven 142]

Its taking me longer to make these just because of Real Life and what not.

But so far I'm enjoying making them.

[Forest 35]

this episode isn't my favorite, but i like gilda's design even though she's a meanie lol. i hope for some friendlier griffins in the future!

[Meushell 52]

I like that this episode establishes that the five friends weren’t all friends before Twilight came along. That explains some behavior in Ticket Master and Applebuck Season.

As for episode itself, it’s gets weaker after Gilda comes. She’s not really given a motive, probably jealousy. One line from Rainbow Dash saying she changed might have helped.

The episode is good for Pinkie Pie though. She was fun to watch.

[bigbertha 414]

This was a surprisingly fantastic episode for early season 1. Gilda may be simple and one note, but her character does work for the story being told and she's definitely a better antagonist than Trixie.

Pinkie is also a highlight here and really shows why she's so much more tolerable in early seasons compared to the newer seasons. I mean, just listen to how easy on the ears her voice is here compared to her current screechy voice. This is the first time we really get to see inside of Pinkie's brain and it's done really well. That party idea is so wonderfully Pinkie.

The comedy is better here than in any of the episodes before it. I especially love Pinkie's line, "Can't you watch me like a griffon?"

The only thing keeping it from a 10 is that the episode doesn't do anything exceptionally well. It just does everything pretty well.

Score: 9/10

[Shy 156]

This episode was okay. I wasn’t too fond of Gilda, but I loved the pranks with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. 

[CypherHoof 26,483]

19 minutes ago, HappyCloud said:

This episode was okay. I wasn’t too fond of Gilda, but I loved the pranks with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. 

Gilda is pretty awful ,but they *do* get their comeuppance (although their reformation is saved for a future episode)

Never nice seeing Flutters being mistreated though

[Shy 156]

4 minutes ago, Cypherhoof said:

Never nice seeing Flutters being mistreated though

I know

Edited September 17, 2018 by HappyCloud

[Jaker747 4]

i wanted to nuke gilda

[Cash In 22,313]

Decent episode. I've definitely warmed up to it over time. The friendship issue here is very straightforward, but I'll give it credit for being something that a lot of people can easily relate to. 

Let's get one thing out of the way first: Gilda is very one dimensional, but it doesn't bother me too much, since the overall plot is pretty black and white to begin with. At this point, she's just a one and done antagonist. Having something more complicated wouldn't have really worked, unless she was planned to be a recurring character.

The episode itself is your standard jealous episode. I think it's got some pretty good moments. Pinkie being impervious to any sort of logic will always be funny. The scenes at Gilda's party were the best in the episode. Everything else was kind of okay. Enjoyable, but nothing amazing.

Also, one thing that confused me, is that Pinkie and RD have already been established as friends, so I don't really get why she was avoiding her at beginning of the episode. That always bothered me. Oh well.

Anyways, I'll give this episode a 6/10.

Edited February 26 by Cash In
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