SPOILERS! Mariusioannesp Reviews: "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies" · 4:36am Mar 2nd, 2014

WARNING!!! The following contains SPOILERS of today's episode of MLP "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies".

Now with that out of the way, here is my review of "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies".

Fluttershy is preparing Ponyville for the migration of the Breezies that will be passing through town. It’s important that everything go smoothly or else they won’t make it back home before the portal to their magical fairyland closes. Anyway, a group of Breezies get separated from the rest, and Fluttershy takes it upon herself to care for the Breezies until they are ready to go again. However, the Breezies become very fond of Fluttershy’s kindly ministrations and keep making every excuse to stay with her longer despite the insistence of the Breezie cohort’s leader Seabreeze that they need to be getting home. Will Fluttershy learn when too much kindness might do more harm than good?

So, what’s my verdict.

I really liked this episode.

There’s a lot to like in this episode. First off, there’s continuity with previous episodes. The episode opens with Fluttershy training her friends on how to quietly cheer the Breezies on so as not to startle them just as Rainbow Dash tried teaching Fluttershy to cheer in “Sonic Rainboom”. She even ends it with her trademark “Yay” from that episode. Also, of course, Fluttershy mentions having gone on a trip to observe the Breezies gathering their pollen, which is what she did in “Three’s a Crowd”. Then towards the end, Twilight mentions that the spell she used to turn all her friends into Breezies was in a book she was studying from the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters in the Everfree. So, Twilight’s been perusing the old castle’s library. I wonder if she’ll find some more interesting things there…

Then there’s the Breezies themselves. They were so adorable! With their tiny bodies and their delicate wings… Uh, I mean, it was a'ight. I was a little concerned based on “Three’s A Crowd” that Breezies might not actually be sapient. But in the end, it turns out they are. I did speculate in a previous blog that I hoped the Breezies might be given a Fair Folk kind of treatment. While they aren’t malicious in any way, they are mischievous little scamps, totally in line wih fairy lore. Apparently these Breezies are fairy ponies that migrate across Equestria to collect pollen and then ride the breezes which gives them the magic to hold onto their pollen. They then fly back through the portal that leads to their homeland before it closes. The needed breeze at the Ponyville neck of the migration route is provided by Rainbow Dash and a couple of her weather pegasi. They also speak a language that sounds a lot like Swedish or that fake Swedish the Muppets’ Swedish Chef used to speak.

Bork, bork, bork!

Fluttershy can understand them though because she can understand the language of all creatures. Their leader Seabreeze can speak English though.

Anyway, while Ponyville is observing the Breezie migration, Spike climbs a tree to get a better look which knocks a leaf off a tree that sends a group of Breezies spiraling out of control. Fluttershy rescues them but by then the rest of the Breezies are gone and the weather pegasi can’t make the breeze stronger lest the rest of the Breezies get blown away and stuff. So, Fluttershy decides to take care of the Breezies until she is absolutely certain they can make it on their own. And here begins the problem. Fluttershy doesn’t want to feel like she’s abandoning them to the cruel world or that she hasn’t been kind to them. The Breezies become very fond of the care Fluttershy lavishes them with. They do everything they can to delay leaving. They even all fake sick so they can stay longer. Fluttershy ends up throwing them a party! This goes on so long that even Rainbow Dash starts getting concerned that the Breezies should be getting on their way. All this time as well, the Breezies’ cohort leader Seabreeze keeps complaining that they really should be on their way. But Seabreeze is very abrasive and often bluntly insults the other Breezies, calling them wimps and incompetent and other stuff.

Seabreeze gets tired of waiting and decides to try to wing it on his own. However, he runs into trouble with an acorn and is almost attacked by bees. Fluttershy shows up and politely asks the bees a couple of times to not attack Seabreeze. When that doesn’t work, Fluttershy asserts herself, and the bees go back to the hive from whence they came. After thanking her, Seabreeze laments how no Breezie will listen to him, and Fluttershy points out that it’s probably because he’s always yelling at them. Seabreeze points out that’s the only way they’ll listen, which is exactly how Fluttershy got rid of the bees.

And then it happened!

I think it was yesterday that I found out that this episode would have to do with Fluttershy and kindness. So, I knew Fluttershy would have her Kindness Epiphany. Rainbows appear in Seabreeze’s wings and then in Flutthershy's eyes, and then Fluttershy knows what she must do. Fluttershy realizes that being nice to the Breezies wasn’t actually helping them. True kindness means being firm and demanding that the Breezies get on their way. I found it interesting that the way kindness is understood in this episode is quite similar to the Christian understanding of meekness (as in Matthew 5:5). Meekness is about taking a stand for what is true and good. It’s kind of full circle for Fluttershy since she learns here that sometimes kindness requires you to be assertive.

They then run into a problem when the weather pegasi can’t get the breeze gentle enough for the Breezies to fly in. Fluttershy suggests that the breeze was fine before because there were more Breezies. Twilight then casts a spell that transforms the Mane 6 into Breezies. (The scene in which they transform into Breezies is borderline disturbing as you see some of their body parts shrink.) Anyway, the Mane 6 lead the Breezies back to their home. On the way, some of the Breezies get blown away but Seabreeze catches them and apologizes for calling them all names before. He really does believe in them; he just lashed out from fear of never returning home. It’s clear he’s learned something about kindness from Fluttershy. They eventually make it to the Breezies’ little grotto. (I hereby declare that the Breezies' grottow will be known as "Breezy Blossom"!) There we discover the reason why Seabreeze was anxious to get home. He has a wife and kid. (Awwa!.. I mean YEAH!) As Fluttershy leaves, Seabreeze gives her a flower.

So in the end, Fluttershy narrates her lesson about how sometimes being too kind does more harm than good and sometimes pushing others away, though it seems cruel, is actually the kindest thing you can do for them. Another lesson I can stand behind. Twilight turns the Mane 6 back to normal, and they make their way back home. At the very end, just like we’re all expecting by now, the flower Seabreeze gave Fluttershy glows with rainbows.

Four keys down. Two to go.

Just a bit of a comment. The previous “key” episodes as they are being called (“Rarity Takes Manehattan”, “Rainbow Falls”, “Pinkie Pride”) all have the name of the pony in question in the title. Although last week’s episode “Twilight Time” had Twilight’s name in the title, and it wasn’t her key episode. In fact, it was a CMC episode rather than a Twilight one. This one “It Ain’t Easy Being Breezies” doesn’t have Fluttershy’s name in it at all. It could be a sign the writers knew we would pick up on that and now they’re trying to mess with us. However, what about a more intriguing possibility? In my aforementioned blog about this episode, I speculated that the Breezies might end up being thinly disguised Flutter Ponies possibly due to the legal reasons that prevented Hasbro from using the names of the G1 MLP ponies. That technically wasn’t the case since the Breezies were not Flutter Pony sized. Still, these Breezies are still have a body type more similar to G1’s Flutter Ponies rather than the pudgier G3 Breezies.

Interestingly enough, recall the scene where Seabreeze is almost attacked by bees. There’s an episode of G1 MLP called “The End of Flutter Valley” where the Flutter Ponies are kidnapped and their Sun Stone is stolen by the Bumbles, giant bee creatures. This makes me think that the Breezies were originally intended to be Flutter Ponies but they ended up not being able to call them that for whatever reason. The episode would then have to have been called “It Ain’t Easy Being Flutters”! Or I could just be overthinking it.

I still would like to stand by my headcanon that Changelings are corrupted Flutter Ponies, and I’m also headcanonning that these Breezies are related to Flutter Ponies as well. In fact, the Breezies speaking something that sounds like Swedish has given me some cool ideas as well. (Flutter Ponies had a Sun Stone. Vikings, according to legend, had something called sunstone. Vikings spoke Old Norse. So Flutters Ponies speak Old Norse. This is the way my mind works.)

A few random things I liked. Early in the episode, we spot a group of ponies in a Mariachi band! So, two weeks ago in “Filli Vanilli”, we had Italian ponies. Now we have Mexican ponies. And Pinkie Pie sang a Mexican piñata song in “Pinkie Pride”. It all comes full circle! I also liked the fact that this episode included all the Mane 6 but didn’t needlessly force them into the story. This has been going on in quite a few of the past episodes. Then there’s at the end where Rainbow Dash asks if Twilight knows a spell that could show what it’s like to be a Griffon or a Dragon. (Interesting she said Griffon. We did see some Griffins for the first time in a while in “Rainbow Falls”.) That’s quite an interesting implication. I feel like Jake The Army Guy saying this, but I bet someone is going to write a clopfic about that. Or maybe they already have.

Gosh, I hope that was Safe For Work!

One thing I can say that I didn’t like about this episode was that Spike was basically responsible for the problem with the Breezies. And then he’s begging on hands and knees for Fluttershy’s forgiveness. She does but that’s not the point. The point is that there was no reason for the incident to be Spike’s fault. Outside of “Power Ponies” Spike’s really been getting the short end of the stick lately. And that wouldn’t be standing out so much if it wasn’t for “Power Ponies”. It’s not too big a problem though.

Another thing was that the Breezies seemed like really androgynous. The high pitched voices don't help either. That's totally in line with the Fair Folk thing but still. I didn't realize Seabreeze was male until Applejack referred to Seabreeze as he. In fact, it's really hard to tell which of these Breezies are male and female. That kind of made me a little uncomfortable.

Overall, “It Ain’t Easy Being Breezies” was a wonderful episode. Fluttershy got her key, and we get to see her come full circle when it comes to her kindness and assertiveness. And we have the wonderful addition of the Breezies to the canon of pony species.

Now, let’s see if we can get some Sea Ponies up in here. Just don’t let them sing that gosh forsaken song!

Shoo-be-doo! Shoo-shoo-be-doo!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless Equestria.

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