My Review of MLP: FIM season 9 episode 7 She’s All Yak · 8:04pm Aug 4th, 2020
Grading Scale:
A (fantastic episode)
A- (an excellent episode with at least one flaw)
B+ (a great episode with a couple of flaws)
B (a good episode which still could have been better)
B- (a good episode with numerous flaws but still rewatchable)
C+ (a decent episode)
C (eh... it’s not terrible but not good either)
C- (it’s not worth rewatching although it does have good elements)
D+ (a bad episode with a few good things in it)
D (a really bad episode with wasted potential)
D- (a terrible episode with badly written characters and butchered moral)
F (horrible and unwatchable)
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Greetings, everyone. Here is my review of MLP: FIM season 9 episode 7 She’s All Yak. Okay, I think this was a really... bad episode. Honestly, I wanted to really love this episode to the point where I could give it a higher grade but... there are numerous issues I have with it. First off, the Young Six are again featured in this. Am I the only one who just dislikes them and gets annoyed with them? Seriously, there is literally nothing appealing about them, so why should I care about them? Also, you know what I noticed? In this last season, the new writers brought certain plot points and concepts that make little sense and were never established before in the previous seasons such as the princesses’s retirement. You will see this trend once I list them in my upcoming season 9 episode reviews. Anyway, let’s go over this:
The episode begins with Twilight announcing a special event: the Fetlock Fete, a pony-centric dance. Twilight decides to call it the “Amity Ball” and invites all the creatures as well to join the dance party with music and potluck dinner being served. So every creature signs up including the Young Six. As Twilight and the others hang up posters of the Pony Pal Contest, Sandbar asks... Yona to be his dance partner. Okay, here is the second issue I have with this episode: it has WAY too much shipping fuel especially between Yona and Sandbar. That’s another thing the writers brought in that was never shown from the last season: Yona and Sandbar’s relationship. Since when did those two have any sort of chemistry or subtle romantic interests with each other? It may not look like they have a thing for each other for some people, but to me it does. I... don’t like that honestly. The only time I recall seeing them together was back in School Raze when Yona pounced on Sandbar as she was happy to see him once he and the CMCs came to their rescue. Besides that, there is no other episode from season 8 that shows Yona and Sandbar together to build up their relationship.
Yona goes to Rarity to help her prepare for the Pony Pal Contest. Since she is entirely focused on being a “pony” for Sandbar, she asks her to help her being something and do something that a pony would do. So Rarity shows her all the cringeworthy ways of how she... can be a polite “Rarity-like” type of pony. Then they have a catchy song together about fitting right in. While not a bad song, it’s not really a song for my tastes. Oh, and nice job making Yona in pony form! That surely gave the fan artists a hell of a day, didn’t it?
Anyway, Yona asks other ponies—the Mane Four— to help her fit in. Thus, she tries to imitate the ways in which ponies would do in a dance... through a montage. (Sigh) This is really bothering me because Yona throughout this whole episode tries so hard to be someone whom she is NOT. I get what the writers were going for, but why would Yona be so worried about not fitting in properly? Twilight literally stated that it’s for every creature and not once did she say that creatures have to dance or behave like ponies for the contest. Who told her that? “Pony-centric” yeah, but the way she quickly assumed that? No... just no.
Ughhhh... later on, Yona masters her “pony skills” and dresses up with Rarity’s dress for the dance contest.
I find this scene to be so cringeworthy and unbearable to watch. I hated how the Young Four kept teasing Sandbar acting as if Yona has a crush on him or something. Okay, I think it’s obvious that he has a thing for her because he keeps blushing in embarrassment. So, after she messes up and destroys everything in the ball by her clumsiness, she runs off crying in humiliation. They all feel bad about it while Sandbar attempts to comfort her and talk with her.
“Yona might be bad at being a pony, but she is best as a yak.” I agree, being yourself is very important when you interact with friends. We should never try at bring someone whom we’re not. Being appreciative of who we are is essential for our growth. That’s all good, and it would’ve been great if it weren’t for one distracting element... SHIPPING FUEL!! “Awwwww, I SHIP THEM! YONABAR FOREVER!!” Ughhhh... I seriously hate shipping characters. Why? Just why? Ship them all you want, but it is so annoying.
At the end, the Mane Six apologize to Yona for not allowing her to be herself even though it was HER fault to begin with. They win the contest because... nepotism? Yeah, this episode had a great moral with a catchy song, but it has a boring concept with little to no interesting elements. Not worth my time at all. Don’t get a trophy, Yona. You should get a D instead.
Peace.
Felt the same way, pal.
Not the best episode, but I did enjoy it
Just so you know... me and my UK Friend, aka The Blue EM2, dislike this episode because of Sandbar being shipped with Yona. :/
I mean.... heh.... wanna know which other Young Six character me and him prefer Sandbar being shipped with? :)
5329354
Sure. Even though I can care less who it is...
5329383
Alrighty.... the other Young Six character me and The Blue EM2 prefer Sandbar being shipped with is......
Ocellus!
cdn-img.fimfiction.net/story/fhgy-1580685778-460137-full
Is that better than Sandbar being with Yona? ^^;
5329388
Like I said, I can care less since I don’t like shipping characters at all. If you want to ship Ocellus with Sandbar, that’s fine.
5329391
Okie Okie. Just making sure. :P
Btw... I kind of forgot btw: What's next after She's All Yak? ^^;
5329397
The best episode of the season of course! Frenemies!
But I will first be reviewing a movie before I review that episode though.
5329400
Alrighty. :)
The episode also pointed out the awkward fact the only non-ponies attending the school at all is just 5 of the Student 6.
Yona is probably my least fav of the Student 6. She looks adorable yes but.. my only big problem with her is how she keeps talking in third-person. Characters speaking in third person gets on my nerves at times.
5330133
That’s just the way yaks speak I suppose.
It reminds me of Grimlock of how he speaks in third person... most of the time.
5330145
I think I can sort of bear Grimlock doing that for some reason.
But definitely not the Yaks doing it in general.
Speaking in third-person just annoys me. Grimlock kind of being an exception I suppose.
5330149
I see. Imagine if Grimlock and Yona talked together and interacted in Ponyville.
5330151
I wanna say that the yaks are a stand in for Russians, but I'm not entirely sure. All I can say is that they got the stereotypical Russian voice down pat.