FiM Rewatch: Griffon the Brush Off · 9:22pm Aug 9th, 2020
Well, here we are at an... interesting entry. This was the first Pinkie-centric episode, and it forces me to confront something: I'd probably find Pinkie annoying if I wasn't watching her through the safety of the fourth wall.
Or maybe I wouldn't. Watching this episode gave me flashbacks to a roommate... no a friend of a roommate who was there all the time who turned everything into a joke and never had an off switch. I can legit say I have never knew true, red hot anger until he finally pushed me too far. But Pinkie is shown to have an off switch. She refuses to prank Fluttershy, and it's clear she makes sure her victims are laughing with her. Still, chasing I can't blame Rainbow for finding her annoying at first.
Did you notice that, at the beginning, Twilight flipping through the book backwards? I was wondering if the Equestrian language is read right-to-left... but then later, she's flipping through a book normally. So no world building here.
It's common fanon that Fluttershy knew Gilda as well, since they had a mutual friend in the form of Fluttershy, but unless I missed something there was no indication they had met before.
Okay, in terms of the episode quality itself, this is another one that's a bit light on plot. First Pinkie chasing Rainbow Dash Pepe Le Pew style, then all the pranks. By the time Gilda shows up, the episode's half over. I think that's going to be a thing in season one. And honestly, it was meh. Gilda was not my favorite at the time.
So... next time is Boast Busters. That will be... interesting.
Yeah, the plot switches direction multiple times. Apparently, the show was originally going to be consisting of two eleven minute stories in each episode, so most likely what we saw up until Gilda arrived was probably a holdover from that period.
Yeah... usually, if a character is annoying, I empathize too much with the annoyed people. As an example, the anime Strawberry Marshmallow can be hard to watch, particularly during the scene where they're in class, and Miu is drumming on her desk with two recorders -- one is Chika's -- and singing an improvised song... while the other students are trying to take their test.
But I didn't feel that with Pinkie, so... yeah.
This episode was one of I loved back then for what it did with Pinkie. Now, it's one of my favorites, if not my favorite period, for everything else it does. I love the moral of "you don't have an obligation to bad friend". Some friends are not worth having if they're like Gilda.
Boast Busters is another one that my opinion of heavily grew over time (lot of stuff I love from it), thought I might be the only person who thinks Trixie had a more stereotypically shoehorned villain role than Gilda.
This episode did a good job of adding more depth to Pinkie's character. With the way Gilda was acting in this episode, I didn't care to see her again, but they really salvaged her character in season five.