Afterthoughts: 28 Pranks Later · 11:32am Aug 19th, 2016
art by TheRandomJoyrider
Back in 2011, I started watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic because a brony friend challenged me to, rightly saying that I had no place criticizing something I hadn’t actually seen. The first episode made me cringe, especially the opening song. But some of the things in the second episode were a pleasant surprise, and I was curious enough to continue. However, I wasn’t converted to actually liking the show until “Griffon the Brush Off”. And the scene that sold me was the one where Pinkie Pie stopped Rainbow Dash from pranking the extremely shy and sensitive Fluttershy.
That moment breathed a lot of dimension into her character, transforming Pinkie Pie from someone I found annoying into someone I could admire.
Rainbow Dash went along in agreement, particularly since Pinkie Pie was quick to switch targets. But it makes sense that this was a lesson Rainbow Dash never really learned. And it is about time that she did.
I’ll take a more detailed look at the episode below the break.
art by AssasinMonkey
This episode takes place much later, and after the friendships between the characters have been firmly established and after Fluttershy has had plenty of experiences to strengthen her character. So when Rainbow Dash finally crosses that line which Pinkie Pie prevented her from crossing back in the first season, the impact of the prank is much less catastrophic than it would have been, and the response is appropriately mature: the Mane Six arrange an intervention.
(And to give Rainbow Dash some credit, the fact that this is happening now strongly implies that she never tried to prank Fluttershy in this manner prior to the episode. Rainbow Dash may not have put proper consideration into whether Fluttershy would be all right with the prank and enjoy it in retrospect, but she at least held back until she had assessed – correctly, I would note – that Fluttershy could handle it. While that doesn’t make it okay, it does show she didn’t simply ignore what Pinkie Pie had told her.)
Unfortunately, the intervention does not go well. They get off-track, wounding Rainbow Dash’s pride in the quality of her pranks rather than focusing on proper consideration for the target of the prank.
Now you've challenged her. Congratulations.
(Special kudos to the writers, by the way, for Pinkie Pie in the intervention scene, as well as making her the one who orchestrated the big prank. It is important to remember that these ponies are individuals; they won’t all react the same or automatically form a homogenous front.)
Even without the synopsis, it seemed obvious that this would be a “Mane Six get together to teach Rainbow Dash a lesson” episode, almost certainly in the form of an elaborate and pointed prank. This time, they did far better than the last time they tried this – their exceptionally ill-thought, poorly-implemented and morally questionable gambit in “The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well”.
A small part of me worried that this episode would turn into that one, but the Mane Six have become much more mature (and gotten much better writing). I am exceptionally happy to say this episode succeeded everywhere that one failed. Amongst other things, here, they actually gave communication a serious try first. Not once, but twice. The reverse pranking was relatively brief and designed to have the proper impact, nobody acted hypocritically, and they ended the prank at their own initiative and at the right time.
I strive to avoid spoilers, including not viewing the previews, so normally all I know about an episode before watching it is the title (and possibly a little of the synopsis, thanks to my recording method). As such, I was pleasantly surprised when they lived up to the title’s promise with an actual zombie apocalypse prank. That was… kinda awesome.
True, it was obvious that it was all going to turn out to be a prank. There isn’t anything wrong with that kind of predictability. Many of Shakespeare’s plays were based on historical events, and everyone knew how those stories would end before arriving at the theatre. What they came to see was how the story unfolded. The audience can delight in the journey regardless of whether they already know the destination. This episode played on the same level, and did so with enjoyable effect.
art by Flutterthrash
from Rarity, “28 Pranks Later”:
”Every pony has things they like and things they don’t.”
I have only once played Cards Against Humanity. The game simply doesn’t appeal to me. There are many kinds of humor, and people have different levels of enjoyment and tolerance of each. Just as I do not find anything funny about slapstick, I have no appreciation for toilet humor and generally feel that being crass is what people do if they don’t know how to be clever. Cards Against Humanity aims towards very low-brow amusement.
(I did win a few hands, enough to move on to the second round at the convention tournament. But my only play I found funny enough to remember was for the “haiku” challenge – stringing three cards together in some semblance of sense – which I won with this combination:
John Wilkes Booth
The Big Bang
A Salty Surprise
That was bad and I feel bad. But I also giggle a little.)
Likewise, I agree with Applejack that “a whoopee cushion is like a joke short-cut.” Conversely, some of Rainbow Dash’s pranks actually made me laugh. Her prank on Rarity was pretty masterful; it was both well thought-out and required a level of understanding of her target that no mere acquaintance would have. And it left them with a tasty treat that Sweetie Belle at least would enjoy. The fact that the sewing-machine cake was even yummier than the cake-cake was just the icing on the… um… cake.
I found the prank on Applejack was also quite good, if only because of the excessive effort that Applejack put into avoiding it to no avail.
Conversely, there were pranks that just fell flat, seeming to lack the sense of humor that those first two employed, at least to me. I was far more impressed with Rainbow Dash’s l33t ninja skills in Cheerliee’s classroom than her crude drawing. The young children thought it was funny though. Perhaps they were the target audience?
The skunk was just cruelty.
In the real world, Rainbow Dash’s “prank” with the brick sandwich could have caused serious harm – a lot of pain, expensive dental surgery and a permanent reduction in chewing capability. But I had to shuck my initial negative reaction and remember that this prank is happening in a world where some ponies eat rocks, and where the feats that ponies can casually perform with their teeth are often shocking.
In fact, the scene from “A Dog and Pony Show” is what convinced me that mouth-held pony firearms were within the realm of suspension of disbelief; the scene was even directly referenced in Fallout: Equestria
from Chapter Twenty-Three, “Patterns of Behavior”:
"Little Macintosh is possibly the most powerful firearm of its size... designed with the kind of buck to the teeth that only a mare like Applejack could handle easily.”
Despite how low I was feeling, a snort of laughter escaped me. According to Spike's story, Applejack was strong enough in the tooth to haul not only her own weight but that of all five of her friends with nothing more than a bite on a dragon's tail.
The success of the pranks, however, did not depend on whether or not I thought the pranks were funny, but whether the targets did… a point that was nicely illustrated with Rainbow Dash’s prank on Pinkie Pie. To quote Quibble Pants, I found it “not particularly original or inspired, but it worked.” Pinkie Pie, however, was delighted. And that is what mattered for the prank to be a roaring success.
It was particularly appropriate that the pony who exemplifies the virtue of Laughter was the one to teach the lesson. In the real world, there are many people who use “it’s just a prank” as an excuse for unsafe, unethical, excessively cruel or even violent behavior. Intending a prank never makes bad or malicious behavior acceptable or excusable.
Virtuous laughter understands the difference between laughing with someone and laughing at them, and finds upsetting, demeaning or harming someone (emotionally or physically) in the name of “amusement” to be vile. Fortunately, Rainbow Dash never descends to the level of a troll, but the fact that she crosses the line at all makes this a lesson needed.
art by mysticalpha
Other tidbits:
It is cute that the CMC are part of the Filly Guides. The first time I recall seeing this group was in “Just For Sidekicks”. I like to think that the CMC joined as part of their efforts to try new things to get their cutie marks, and have happily stuck with them after.
Just like in past episodes such as “Spike at Your Service” and “Party of One”, Applejack continues, fittingly for someone who exemplifies the Virtue of Honesty, to be cringingly bad at lying. If Rainbow Dash hadn’t been overwhelmed by the situation, AJ’s “backfired on you” line would have given everything away… as would her sloppily-applied muzzle coloring.
We know from previous episodes that Pinkie Pie is on a first-name basis with everyone in town. Only she could have gotten everyone together like this. Who other than Pinkie Pie could have even gotten Pound and Pumpkin Cake to play their part? Seeing them involved was quite surprising.
”How many boxes would you like?”
art by dstears
I am missing out on these damn episodes! Goddamn my slow and stupid Wi-Fi...
I am missing out on these damn episodes! Goddamn my slow and stupid Wi-Fi...
Pretty much hit all the points I was thinking about. I'll admit the brick still seems a bit dick-ish though, even if ponies can eat things that they don't normally have problems with. I do have one question though about one of the pictures though...
vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/4/4a/Main_crew_go_down_the_dog_hole_S1E19.gif
What the hay are you doing, Pinkie Pie? Why is it only now that I've noticed you are pretending to be a streamer in the wind and not actually helping the others?
Anyways, yes, the Rarity sewing machine-cake was REALLY well done though. I respect that sort of outside thinking. And Rarity even admits to keeping that cake after the prank when she offers some to the others near the end of the episode. Mmm, that does sound good. Yummy cake for breakfast.
Littlepip Cookie Zombie when?
Also of note is just how close to what Fluttershy did to the Mane-6 on Nightmare Night this was, another mark of why RD thought it was fine, since if Fluttershy had proven able to give a scare like that, of course she'd appreciate being on the receiving end... right? Well, it works in RD logic.
Obligatory Merriweather Williams complaint... and we're walking, we're walking.... Do find it kind of funny how so far we've gotten Dragon Quest 2.0 and MMDW 2.0, like even the other staff are acknowledging the issues with those scripts. Now to see if we get PYHD and/or SAYS 2.0
THANK YOU!!!! How do people not really get this? I just.. do not understand the whole "It was predictable" as some kind of flaw. So those people never rewatch an episode? Never reread a story? Doesn't then make everything predictable? Now yes there are some instances where being predicable is bad, like a mystery, or other cases where it's clear the story is trying to keep you from knowing what is coming next to build the tension for the reveal. But nowhere near as often as people complain about it. Hell most of the time I LOVE when a story is 'predictable' because it 1. keeps my anxiety issues in check when I'm not worrying about to many possibilities of how things can go wrong. 2. It usually means that it's because the story is progressing logically and rationally.
True, never really card for the base game, do have one version that I love playing with my Ponyfinder group, because we created our own card decks based on stuff from our games
So much this.
Exactly, they had to make it clear she was crossing the line and going way to far with her pranks to make pulling something that large on her like that. And they did do a good job of making clear she went to far, without having her go TO to far and cross over into being overtly cruel.
And as to Virtuous Laughter, agreed, and it does further help showcase why RD was like this. While she is be no means lacking in empathy or compassion, she is a very self centered type of pony, beyond the obvious bragging and what not, is the fact she seems to have a very very hard time understanding and empathizing with others feelings if she herself has not had similar feelings or been in relatable situations. It's very hard for her to consider abstracts, she needs something solid to relate to to understand things. And given the only other pony in town that would try to pull pranks on her is Pinkie, who knows how to make a prank both the pranker and the prankie can enjoy, means RD has never been on the receiving end of a prank that went to far, and so isn't able to really understand what the issue is, hence needing to be forced to experience it herself to understand.
Yeah.... AJ just.. just stick to the script....
Squeeee... I'll.. I'll take all of them!
So, as always great follow up and, pretty well spot on
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because she is smart enough to know she IS helping. She knows they simply aren't going to be able to stop this, and so she is reducing the amount of drag she places on the others to reduce how hard she's pulling and hopefully not pull Spikes' tail off. Yeah AJ holding on while towing all of them is impressive, but major props to Spike for dragging those five behind his tail like that.
This episode felt rather weak when i saw it but before complaining about it i kinda let it settle for a while.
It is actually one of those episodes that get better with time.
I still don't like the fact that the prank streak kinda came out of thin air but that is something the previous writers messed up a bit, rainbow is a known prankster and a few harmless pranks here and there during the past episodes wouldn't have hurt.
Anyway, while the episode won't really make it into my favorites it is definitely not bad and especially not as bad as some internet postings out there claim it to be.
Here we see the benefit of letting the dust settle before posting a reaction. This one definitely improves with repeated watchings, and your analysis of it highlights the strengths that its brush with one of the series's more infamous episodes obscured for me at first blush. Thank you for the quality rundown.
4158342 You know, corpse reanimating rainbow slime is definitely something that I could imagine existing in Fallout Equestria.
img03.deviantart.net/1ca8/i/2016/228/e/3/28_pranks_later_core_by_teranen-dae0r0m.png
-Once contacted it Kills the host and then begins controlling the corpse like a puppet, slowly turning the flesh into more slime as time passes until it begins leaking out of the mouth, eyes and holes in the hide.
-Any contact with the slime is a death sentence, either touching drops that have leaked out of an infected, being bitten, or getting hit with splatter from killing one.
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I remember Lauren Faust saying she wanted Rainbow's pranks to be a regular thing, but Hasbro didn't like it - might be a bad influence for children - so she could only do pranking in a few isolated episodes. it does feel odd, coming back out of nowhere, but I wouldn't blame it on the writers.
If you ask me, this episode was a horrendously wasted opportunity. The zombies were far more interesting than doing the "gang up on the misbehaving character" episode that every cartoon does at least once. In fact, this was technically the second time they did it to Rainbow Dash, the only difference being that the first time she was at least trying to help ponies.
Which brings me to the part about how the Mane Six get "good writing". How does it make sense that Rainbow Dash, the pony who previously wanted to be the town hero, now goes around doing pranks that would probably count as severe crimes even in a place like Equestria?
But without going into details, this episode is just a waste. Unless you've never ever seen a cartoon or read any kids story before in your life, you can see the twist and the moral coming from a million miles away. Granted, this applies to episodes of FiM more often than not, but I don't remember the earlier seasons being nearly as predictable and uninteresting.
That said, the zombies were the actual high point for me, and I'm immensely frustrated by how half the episode was wasted on showing off what a dick Rainbow Dash is (as if we didn't know that already), leaving barely any time for the parts that were both interesting and fun. You could pretty much feel how they had to rush to the end when Rainbow and co are stuck in the barn, and suddenly her friends become zombies because they ate the cookies.
This is why I did not say that "the writers are out of ideas", because despite the dismal first half, the rest of the episode very nearly made up for that. It tends to be rather hilarious when kids shows try to incorporate adult content into their episodes, since it forces the staff to be creative in order to replace the blood&guts, and the end result is almost always something painfully (yet hilariously) kids-friendly. In a way, it's the polar opposite of every "edgy" cartoon out there that takes itself too seriously.
Case in point: the zombies wanting to eat cookies, as well as Rainbow Dash herself (due to her mane). The barn scene could have been a brilliant opportunity to do a Dawn of the Dead-style last stand, or something. If the episode were focused on the zombies, along with any of the "friendship lessons" that may come up along the way (e.g "who do we feed to them while the rest of us make a run for it?"), I think it could have been far more interesting. Hell, it could even have incorporated the pranking business if really needed. Half of Ponyville being zombified due to a prank gone wrong sounds like an entertaining premise.
I'm not asking for MLP to turn into some kind of Adult Swim-tier show, but I think the "friendship lessons" theme is starting to wear thin. It would probably do wonders for the quality if they switched to a more subtle approach, instead of wasting good ideas on lame morals.
4158475 y
And this is an issue... why? As I have yet to get answered by people using this as some proof a story is bad... so you never watch a story more then once? How is this some issue?
I was ready to be frustrated at this episode, but honestly, I was impressed they managed to get the Cake Twins in on the joke.
Also writing a zombiehorse fic with a friend and it provided some much needed inspiration.
Personally, I didn't really like that episode much. I've only watched it once, but I really thought Rainbow was a little bit more considerate than that by now. Though, I might give it a rewatch after this little enlightening read, see if I may have misjudged it a bit.
I was actually thrilled that a, at it's basis, kids show had the courage to show an infant zombie, which even target shows like The Walking Dead didn't want to dwell upon (the only movie I know that did dwell upon it was Dawn of the Dead, the 2004 movie), even if it were just a pranking duo of children. It was a nice touch which is often, well... touched in written fiction, but avoided at great lengths in any movie media.
Other than that, It was a cute story, really with some nice writing and I can't disagree on any points you pointed out. Maybe just the brick in the sandwich part not so really. When boxer (the unclad one) hits someone or something he is well prepared for such hit and his body acts on it. But if a, say, training bag was filled with something of a different composure, softer or harder, he could hurt himself this way. I have seen professional sportsmen who injured themselves in situations that they were well prepared for normally, when their bodies didn't react the way it could save them from injury.
That was wrong on so many levels. I feel bad for Cranky.
Not a fan of zombie stuff but i still enjoyed the episode.
4158522 I answered that question a week ago when you directed it at me. Just looking for more opinions?
4158597 Mostly
It was a really great episode. It felt like it could've been earlier though. Somewhere between seasons 1-3 though. But besides that, perfect. How you described also made me reconsider and drop many of my other problems with this.
4158597 To be fair, your answer last week to Seraphem's "Why is it an issue?" largely amounted to "it's not an issue"...
..."unless it bores me," which isn't an issue with the predictability so much as meeting your personal tastes of pacing and premise. You even went on to list examples of times when, despite your personal preference for not knowing what will happen, you revisit stories (or other media) because unpredictability is less important than the things those stories provide.
So it is fair to say that your answer is not an explanation of why predictability "is an issue" by someone "using this as some proof a story is bad". Rather it is an explanation of why predictability can exacerbate an existing issue, by someone who is a fan of unpredictability (but doesn't condemn a story for being predictable).
Honestly, I found this a rather okay episode. Just as many seens I liked as I didn't liked. I think the zombie prank would have been more enjoyable if Rainbows pranks had been far more severe, but other than the skunk and really painful to watch brick prank, they were completely harmless. And i don't wanna hear gotcha again for at least a year, it was funny the first time, but it was just annoying after that, which I suppose is what they were going for. And I admit it would have been a nice little touch to put the Filly Scout pony in this episode. Overall I did find this to be a rather enjoyable, though kinda dry episode. I probably would have liked it more if I hadn't watched that second trailer
The only part that really bothered me was Rainbow Dash not appreciating the zombie prank. I mean, come on! They got her good.
4158683 Well she kind of did once she got over the terror and fear from it and calmed down a little.
Things I liked about this episode:
1.How Sweetie Belle and Rarity play off of one another. Sweetie Belle is just a little more open to the joke because she gets cake out of the incident.
2.Cheerilee chasing Rainbow dash with a ruler.
3.Googly eyed Macintosh.
But On a more thought out perspective: I like how well thought out Pinkie's plan was compared to all of Rainbow's small gags. Sure a few of Rainbow's jokes might have needed a bit more planning then other jokes Dash had played... Such as the cake, but for Rainbow Dash, her plans just seem rushed how they were played and how Dash would get in her "Got ya" and flew away.
Pinkie on the other hand had a full blown plan and an entire town to help her get her plan together and get the point across to Rainbow Dash. It didn't just happen to be zombies. Pinkie Pie made sure that Rainbow Dash made the connection between the cookies and the zombies by appearing she was getting sick and her unnatural attraction of wanting more cookies when Rainbow tried to collect her to help her.
Then I applaud you even more so for the quality of Pip's trademark oaths.
4158680 hm, true.
They're always picking on poor Dash... why? From industrial sabotage to her closest companions tall poppy syndrom... is it cause she's a jock, and all jocks are jerks? Is it because she's a tomboy and is thus emulating "stallion" behavior? We see something similar with applejack, whose another tomboy, but never to the extent of mean spiritedness like with Rainbow, so probably not that... Oh well... I just kind of wish that they didn't pull a full assassination on her character whenever she has to learn a lesson.
As for her behavior... I kind of think its a pegasus tradition, an aspect of their culture. They are a quasi military with a heavy emphasis on unity, and a part of that is a bit of good natured ribbing and hazing. And being told she was lazy in that regard did get Dash's tail in a twist, so more then likely such behavior is a part of their heritage.
You know what would have helped with that tapestry? If Fluttershy or Rarity had levitation powers. If one of them had the power to move that tapestry with their minds then the ponies equivalent to origami wouldn't have had to hurt her wing.
Ehh... yes and no. Now, intentionally going out to hurt someone for ones own amusement is of course reprehensible, but we also have to remember the dark side of comedy in that there has to be something of negative aspect to it if you're going to get a laugh.
For example, we should all take note of the filly in Fallout Equestria who wanted to celebrate with a balefire bomb. She really knows how to have a blast!
As for crude... eh, for me it depends less on that then the context and whether or not its clever. For examples the Text To speech series of the W40K verse is very crude, but funny as hell.
And the rock thing... well, we see certain ponies eat rocks, namely the Pie family, and that has more to do with their cutie marks then anything
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Because people are spoiled
4159350
If you're sadistic yes.
This is just repackaging Nostalgia Critics tired old reply "All comedy is built on pain/suffering" which is BS. And a good portion of Pinkie Pie's.. everything... proves that false.
4159411
Well, I wouldn't its built on it. Thats just stinkin thinking. But a lot of the best humor has a lot of dark undertones.\
Let's also consider Archie Bunker. He said horrible things, and is one of the most beloved characters of all time. Mind you, the golden hearted curmudgeon was always a popular trope, but no one would ever say he was a Pinkie Pie in terms of humorist.
Hell, this scene is probably the funniest ever
4159501 I'm not saying humor cant or often does not have a dark element to it, my issue is with saying all humor MUST have that to be funny.
4159543
fair enough
Though some were funny, it bugged me a bit how physically impossible some of Rainbow Dash's pranks were: though her relationship with physics is tenuous at best.
Overall it was a good lesson and a good episode that made me like Pinkie Pie more with her working to correct bad behavior again, and I loved the CMC in the Filly Guides.
I need more of the CMC in the Filly Guides, and more Babs Seed while we're at it. It feels like there was foreshadowing with her that just hasn't manifested yet.
What I absolutely love about this episode, too, is that unlike "Mare Do Well", Dash is given a very clear point at which she could have backed off, displayed some concern, and learned her lesson right then: she goes to see Pinkie, and the latter is already showing "symptoms." But she utterly ignores her friend's apparent misery, too caught up in her own idea of fun, and that more or less seals her fate.