It ain’t easy holding in my excitement for this episode; It Ain’t Easy Being Breezie’s Review! · 11:17pm Mar 2nd, 2014
Ah, Zipzee, Tiddlywink and Tra-la-la… I haven’t watched It Ain’t Easy Being Breezie at the time I type up this intro but it would make my day to see the original Breezie trio appear in some way.
As to why this blog comes a day later than usual; I can explain. My brother and I were making our first video. The two of us will sometime this month be starting up our own YouTube channel where we pretty much just play games and talk. Sometimes just a few versus matches and other times we plan to do whole playthroughs of games. We also have various other ideas planned; each of us doing our own solo series on the channel. He wants to play through some of his PC games, Spore in particular so he can scar the world with created abominations, and myself to be hunting down and recommending various Wii games (many accuse it’s library of being full of shovel ware but there are some amazing games within it). But yeah, we did our first bit of recording yesterday using the equipment I got for my 21st Birthday. I’ll be sure to link you all to it once it is uploaded.
Fanfiction Progress
An today I present you the wonderful gift of a… wait, haven’t I done this before… PROOF-READERS!
I wrote a one-shot a while back. I sent it over to NintendoGal as it was the sort of story that was best suited for her, as you should hopefully find out soon enough. I told her not to worry about getting it to me anytime soon as it wasn’t urgent. I did however mention that I wanted it back before the end of Winter as it will seem a bit odd uploading this one-shot outside of Winter as you should also hopefully find out soon enough. Recent business in the last couple of weeks have prevented Nintendo Gal from getting the story back to me, much to my annoyance, but these things do happen. Hopefully she’ll be able to get it to me this week so I can finally upload it.
In other news, I got on brilliantly with my SSB fanfic. I hadn’t got much done during the days but I just worked on it through the night one day and got plenty done on it. Hopefully I’ll be able to make even further progress on it and manage to get both of the 2 Smashing Reactions chapters I’m working on done before the end of this month. Hopefully Nintendo won’t reveal a newcomer this month to add to my schedule… though considering that this month has the 20th anniversary of Super Metroid… meaning Ridley is likely if a newcomer is announced… maybe I do want a newcomer announcement this month. We’ll see how things go but hopefully, I shall present a new MLP One-shot to you on the 7th.
Other Episode Reviews of Twilight Time
James Corck
Thejboy88
NintendoGal55 (also, her review on the episode I’m just about to review)
Episode Review of It Ain’t Easy Being Breezie
It should be noted, that while I am a fan of the G3 series of My Little Pony and have been completely ecstatic about this episode on the sole principal that the G3 race, the Breezies, are featured in this episode I am not going to let that blind me to this episode’s flaws. That said, even without my liking of the G3 series I can honestly say that it doesn’t really have any… in fact my liking of G3 actually does more to try and make flaws.
The premise of the episode is that the Breezies, a mythological insect/pony like creature, are flying through Ponyville on their way to their home. Their home apparently is within a pocket dimension, and they travel to Equestria in order to collect pollen to take back to their home, whom the portal to is closing in a couple of days. As such, Fluttershy organises the ponies of Ponyville to help get the Breezies and their pollen home safely. This involves creating a gently breeze so their Breezie magic can work. Unfortunately an accident occurs and a small group of Breezie’s led by Sea Breeze are separated from the rest of the group. Sea Breeze wants to carry on straight away but the other Breezie’s take advantage of Fluttershy’s kindness so that they can have a break. The rest of the premise is for you to find out through watching the episode.
As per usual I shall start off with the opening which serves as a great call-back to Sonic Rainboom’s opening. Despite that it still manages to stand on its own via humour, and I feel it is a funny opening regardless of whether you’re familiar with Sonic Rainboom’s opening or not. To be fair, the first 3rd of the episode follows suit on being amazing in terms of its writing, humour and interaction. We get several great jokes, some of them simple like Twilight’s response to being accused of saying Rarity’s dress was too purple, and others more specific such as Rarity’s dress itself. It was remarkable for humour, remarkable in animation and remarkable in its set up. It also included both of my favourite designed ponies; Mr. Cake and Flitter.
We are swiftly but efficiently introduced to the various mythos surrounding the Breezies, thanks to natural and well-paced conversations between the characters. Speaking of natural, the accident that occurs to split up the Breezies courtesy of Spike, feels natural itself as well as the reaction of Fluttershy and understand of it as an accident. It’s another case of things feeling just right in terms of how it progresses. This feeling also extends to the progression of how Fluttershy lets the Breezies get away with more and more things, the increasing frustration of Sea Breeze, and both of their character developments.
Oh yes, the king of all good elements to this episode would be the character development. First off I should mention more on Sea Breeze, a rather bossy Breezie though within good reason who alongside Fluttershy is the central character of the episode. Sea Breeze is awesome, he comes across as a jerk but is always valid in his actions, he has good reasons for his jerk behaviour and ones which paint him as the only smart Breezie about. His jerk actions only extend to bossing and insulting his fellow Breezies and even Fluttershy but you can understand his frustrations; his job is to get him and his fellow Breezies home, he has a family waiting for him and time is of the essence. He develops through the course of this episode alongside Fluttershy and the moral of it all ties their character development together. Sea Breeze learns that being kind towards others is the better way to get others to what you want and need of them whilst Fluttershy realises that you can’t always be nice and there is a point where you have to stand firm and say no, to refuse and refute. It is all top quality writing as the theme and character development gel together.
I made an earlier remark as to one flaw within this episode but another I feel that exists, though not a considerably large one, is the disparity between humour. By this, I mean how the first third of the episode is filled to the brim with great jokes but they become rather absent throughout the rest with only a couple jokes as the episode goes on to be more serious in tone. This would normally be something I’d be okay with but the shift from the humour to seriousness is not immediate and there is a short moment inbetween the two parts where they are trying to be funny but nothing is catching on and trying to transition into seriousness but the mood of humour isn’t helping. It’s only a short period of time but one that exists.
As I mentioned earlier, my liking of G3 might actually be a reason that this following flaw exists. That flaw would be my mixed opinions on the G4 Breezies. The G4 Breezies do stand out more from the pony races; their more insect like, have their own language and are more unique in terms of mythology. That is good, however I can honestly say that I’m not a fan of their designs, their voices (my ears suffered through much of this episode, even more so when they spoke in their own language) and how they are rather pathetic. You see, the Breezies in G4 are rather fragile, they are reliant on the ponies to help them and if not then Darwism would have made short work of them. In G3, they could take it and get stuff done; they were studier creatures whom the world did not have a natural hatred for. Admittedly these faults were likely to have existed regardless of being a fan of G3 but I feel they may be perceived that way and in being familiar with the G3 Breezies, I feel these flaws within the presentation of the race in G4 were more apparent.
I shall admit here, It Ain't Easy Being Breezies has been one of the hardest episodes of all to rate. Its lack of flaws and absolute array of positives surely denotes that it should be a ten out of ten, but I realise that there are episodes only rated a 9.5 that I do prefer over it. It’s quite a pickle and I do feel that I will have to look back on this episode as well as my top ten favourites to truly ascertain my opinion on everything. That said, regardless of the amount of positives and the lack of negatives, personal opinion does come into play and while there can be many positives, individually some of the positives may not be as effective. You can have lots of small things go right or wrong, and other times rather few things go right or wrong but those things being big issues. It truly makes evaluating episodes both tricky and incredibly interesting. So my opinion on It Ain't Easy Being Breezies… it is easily one of the greatest episodes of the entire series, a truly amazing episode of season 4 and in terms of episodes I can only name 12 others that I like more than it. I rate It Ain't Easy Being Breezies as 9.5 out of 10; a truly Fantastic episode.
Wait, someone enjoying this episode and NOT saying that the Mane 6 transformation was just a marketing tool? THANK YOU! HUG ME BROTHER!!
Sorry, I normally don't let it get to me, but that complaint has been constant for the past few reviews that I have read and for the like of me...I do not see it! I just see Twilight using what she knows, does what she does best (RESEARCH!), and hitting the magic. I mean, maybe I would believe it if I saw Breezy toys of the mane 6, but I have seen the toy fair pics and all I am seeing is "Random Breezy molds". This is like saying, "Kim's new outfit" is to sell toys. Show me Breezie mane 6 in a toy form and maybe I'll believe it. Then again, the other complaint that I have been seeing that is getting on my nerve is that "Oh, this is similar to G3". Admitally, I am not a big fan of G3 and don't share your enjoyment, but to say that just on the basis on them squeeing on the cuteness of the breezies (because they have "Parasprites", never dawwed over something "Fluttershy in front of any animal", before "The cake twins") is just weird.
Sorry if it feels I am unloading a whole lot of anger here, I'm trying not to. I am usually proud to be the only one in the crowd to like an episode (there are many) seeing these comments just annoyed me more than usual. I don't know why.
This was a very well written episode that I did enjoy (partly because it was a Fluttershy episode) it just felt like someone at Hasbro had a very heavy hand in this. The first portion was very nice and I enjoyed it immensely, but after the cottage came in it sort of became a continuos monotonous cycle that really didn't add much to the plot or flow of the episode. As for the transformation, I don't follow the toy brand, but this feels like a big Hasbro stamp on the episode since it is such a random Ex Machina that really doesn't add to the story. Especially since the Mane 6 didn't add much in numbers to the group and likely could have been more help on the ground if it came to it, but the real kicker for that is that there were 3 pegasi. They try 3 and 1 but not two? This logic makes very little sense especially when you consider distance and direction of flap as added factors. The pegasi not being able to make the perfect breeze was pretty bull in my opinion.
Long story short, I loved the first half until the cottage scenes then it all started to go a bit downhill for me. The saving point at the end was the decent moral that really accented that there are other ways to be kind other than being a doormat (which I loved).
So, I'd give it a definite good job, but a definite eh for the later half.
Sort of an 8/10 or higher mixed with a 4/10 except as a whole I'm not exactly sure what grade this deserves.
1889591 Of course I don't have a problem with it, and even if it were some marketing tool that would be okay, because the entire show is a marketing tool! My brothers and I grew up with plenty of cartoons that were likely made solely for the sake of promoting toys. Was that a problem? I feel we were having too much fun having Mighty Max and Polly Pocket explore the same castle to really care (turns out that the two could combine to the same playsets very well).
I like that this show has a marketing emphasis, though I do wish the official toys were better done and took more influence from the show in terms of designs and characterisation, but their are even toy based MLP things that I wish were in the show. Applejack's Truck for instance;
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I really must make a fanfic on that one day, I really do.
Anyway, it's a shame to hear that people have been complaining about that moment as a 'marketing tool'. There has so far been no word of any Breezie related toy, Mane 6 or otherwise, and it did feel a very fitting thing for Twilight to do. Plus we got to see the Mane 6 as another race/form which I feel is interesting from an artistic standpoint so I feel it flows perfectly fine having that moment in the episode.
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the episode like I did and I hope that the complaints will bother you less in future. Thanks for commenting, Alchemystudent.
1894644 I'm going to have to disagree with you there for reasons I've pretty much stated above. It frankly feels very natural, it seems like the sort of thing Twilight would do as in try to solve the situation with magic. It also sounds like an interesting to do from a writer and artistic standpoint so I can easily see the people working on the show doing this even without Hasbro's influence. Even if it was influenced by Hasbro, I still wouldn't mind, as it flows very well into the situation at hand and unlike you I feel it makes sense.
I've probably not put that argument for in an all eloguent or detailed manner but I'm typing this reply rather late, rather sleepy right now. Still, it was a rather small moment for the transformation, and before the episode could get dull they have that moment of character progression through showing Seabreeze putting forth what he had learned from Fluttershy into practise so I felt it all good. I'm sorry to hear that it gave you a distasteful moment in an otherwise sweet episode. Thank you for commenting, KiheerSEDMAN.