What I Thought About "Griffon the Brush Off" · 2:49pm Jun 10th, 2015
Episode review
While the prospect of rewatching the last episode made me excited, this one didn't make me feel anything. I'm just like, "Hmm, Gilda. Whatever." I never cared much for the griffon, honestly, nor for griffons in general. I mean, there's that cool-looking black-and-white one that was in the Equestria Games, but that's about it for me. So, not really stoked to see this episode again, but let's dive in.
"Hoof-biting action overload!"
I always forget that this is the episode where that quote (and somebody's username around here) came from. I like how Twilight is totally bored and just trying to ignore Pinkie. I mean, I once considered Pinkie to be best pony, but she really is annoying at times. She has her great moments, though, so I still like her a lot.
This episode had some pretty cool moments in the first half, like Rainbow sleeping on that cloud just before Pinkie started pestering her. That was cute. When Dash is cute, she just seems that much cuter because she's normally awesome, instead. Then that moment in the leaves of the library where Dash's face melts. The whole sequence was cartoony in a classic way, and despite my dislike of many classic cartoons, I had some fun with it.
Man, I hate hiccups. Worst thing ever. They have plagued me for hours at a time. Horrible. Spike teleporting the scrolls was funny, though, and Celestia gasping as she's buried under a huge stack of them was totally awesome. I really dig those little moments that show Celestia to be more normal. I never liked the idea that the land was ruled by a nigh-omnipotent, godlike figure. Just turns me off, and always has.
The pranks were kinda fun to watch, though I've never cared for pranks. Being pranked usually isn't all that fun. The ponies seem generally good natured about it, though, and no harm was done that we know of. Though, I dunno what all Twi was doing, and she could've blown herself up. Also, Dash looks kinda cool with that ink ring around her eye.
And here we are at the moment that everyone points to when criticizing Filli Vanilli. They're all like, "Pinkie would never be so mean to Fluttershy! Just look at how she didn't want to prank her!" I just recently pointed out how totally oblivious Pinkie can be to others, and other people have before me. Maybe her blood sugar dropped and she had an off day. Maybe, in her weird mind, she thought that taunting Fluttershy would help her overcome her fears, because Flutters usually seems to need a push to actually get somewhere and change herself. Whatever it was, we gotta deal with it. It happened.
By the way, it's really interesting to view all the episodes and really look at them now, with so much context from future events to look at and compare to. To look at the series as a whole, rather than just as each episode comes out. Like, as DragonShadow pointed out on the last episode review thingy, Twilight very likely does have some pull in Ponyville and always did, being Celestia's prized student. It kinda colors things differently, and it's a point against the people who seem to think she has no authority in the town and the mayor runs everything, even after becoming a princess. She's kinda been involved in town workings for a while. Moving on.
Pinkie really is obtrusive in this episode, busting in on Dash and Gilda. I guess she really wants her friends's friends to be her friends. I mean, we see how obsessive she is about making new friends in Season 2 (there's that hindsight again). Pinkie does act jealous and whatnot, but even in this episode, she just seems totally oblivious to the fact that Gilda is annoyed by her. Dash likes it, though. And to be fair, Gilda really is a jerk. Pinkie was annoying, but Gilda was antagonistic. Pinkie wins my favor, here.
"I've never met a griffon this mean. Well, actually, I've never met a griffon at all, but I bet if I had, she wouldn't be as mean and grumpy as Gilda."
Guess again, Pinks. Wow, was this a five season-long brick joke? Whether intentional or not, that's an interesting connection between the two Gilda episodes.
This may be the first look we get at a non-random, introspective Pinkie, just like in Maud Pie later. Pinkie is walking along, talking to herself and speculating that maybe she really is just jealous of Rainbow's long-standing friendship with Gilda. I always love seeing the deeper parts of Pinkie, so this was cool.
Okay, let's take a look at Gilda's mischief. First, she pranks Granny Smith. I dunno why Granny thought a lion tail was a rattlesnake, but I guess her eyes ain't what they used to be. Just a prank, but pranking old people is kinda not a good idea, and she never came out and said it was a joke. Granny wandered away thinking that it was really a snake. So then, Gilda disses some produce from a stand and totally steals an apple. In our world, that's straight-up illegal, and Pinkie's reaction implies that it's very much frowned upon, at the very least. Not cool, G.
Then we get to the big one. The major crime. The capital offense: being mean to Fluttershy. Let's be fair for a moment, though. Fluttershy is afraid of everything that isn't cuddly and a pony. She shrinks away from conflict, especially early on. It probably wouldn't be hard to make her cry. However, Gilda is still a class-A crudfunnel. I don't care which pony it was that Gilda walked into, that's not the way you treat someone who accidentally backs into you while leading ducks across town. It's bad regardless of whether it's Fluttershy or not, but that factor only makes it worse. Doesn't make Gilda evil, though, just a jerkass.
"All these lame ponies are driving me buggy. I gotta bail."
That's racist.
I really liked seeing that Fluttershy was having her bird chorus singing at the party for Gilda. I always forget about that, but it's been in at least five episodes that I can recall off the top of my head. And since we're on Fluttershy again, I wanna mention something. I sorta get the feeling like Pinkie Pie looks down on Fluttershy. Like, she doesn't think much of the buttery pegasus. She doesn't want to prank her, but that may just be out of not being an outright jerk. The way she talks to Flutters at the party just gives off that vibe, you know? There's at least one more moment that correlates, but I'll get to that when I figure out where it is as I go through these episodes. It may be nothing, though. Pinkie is a weirdo, is oblivious, and later thought that Rainbow might forget about all her friends at the Wonderbolts Academy, so she probably just has trouble understanding other ponies... usually.
Anyway, then we have Spike doing some stuff. Gilda knocks him aside, but lots of us tolerate him being thrown about by Twilight, so it's not a huge deal. But then Spike invades the cake, tunneling in like some sort of pastry mole. When Twilight seems upset, he's just like, "What?" Considering that we just saw him eat from the trash and then offer the food to others, he may simply not get that these things aren't socially acceptable. We don't know a whole lot about his upbringing, after all, and he still seems to act pretty young, at times.
Pin the Tail on the Pony is Rarity's favorite game. Seriously? Really, now? This is another one of those weird, childish moments that pops up now and again. I dunno, but within the context of the show, it just feels weird. The show normally seems at least a bit more mature than this. Maybe it's that hindsight tainting my view, though. In any case, it's not a big deal at all.
Moustache.
You know, that really was kinda a crappy party. Then again, I just don't dig pranks, most of the time. Just not my style.
Okay, now we get to another can of worms: Rainbow Dash breaking up with Gilda. I've seen at least one person level a sharp, scathing accusation at Dash for this, calling her a bad pony and a horrible friend for this. People put on their smug smiles, shake their heads, and sarcastically remark, "Element of Loyalty, everybody." If you really think that it's great to hang around a person like Gilda, you might want to step back and take a look at the situation. Gilda is toxic. She's mean, rude, and generally unpleasant to everypony except Rainbow Dash. And even from what I see of the two of them, I get the sense that they argue rather a lot. She is not a great friend.
"But all friends argue," you say. Yeah, that's usually true. My best friend of around ten years and I have never had an argument or fight, though, so there is that. But my point here is that Dash was not bad for dumping Gilda. Hell, the letter to Celestia was about false friends and how they'll eventually reveal themselves. How much more obvious can you get?
It's even more apparent in hindsight, as it's clear that Gilda was not such a douchenozzel when she first started at that flight camp with Dash. Rainbow used to have what was probably a pretty good friend. Something clearly happened between then and now, though. Dash probably matured, and Gilda went bad. Best guesses for the latter have to do with not having Dash around and going home to live in her broke-ass city and eat scones that had rocks in them. That's not a fun environment to spend a lot of time in, and it probably had something to do with her heel turn. We can't all be indomitably-upbeat, after all. We're not all Joe Dirt.
Oh, and I totally dig how Celestia got pranked at the end and totally just let it roll off of her. She's been around for over a thousand years, so I'm sure she's been pranked before. Maybe the pony had to be crazy, but I'd say it's pretty probable to have happened in all that time. Like I said before, I like seeing the more normal side of Celestia, as well as evidence against this whole "Tyrant Celestia" thing. But that's another discussion.
All in all, I liked this episode. I don't think it's super awesome or anything, but I think it's solid. Good lesson about toxic friendships, some fun antics, and was put together well. Gilda's dialogue kinda grated on me at times, but her exhanges with Pinkie at the party were nice. I'd give this a solid 8/10. Good episode.
P.S.: Dash won the race to that cloud, by the way. Close, but she really did win.
I honestly see Pinkie as the more antagonistic one in this episode. I mean she butts in between two friends who haven't seen each other in a VERY long time and acts like that's okay.... no.... it's not. She could try and WAIT for Gilda to have some alone time to talk with her and try to be friend THEN instead of trying to force her friendship on Gilda. Does that make her outburst any better? No but it's at least understandable. How would you react to JUST having met an old friend after a long time and then all of a sudden one of her new friends decides to not only budge herself into your life but seemingly take your friend from you when it's clear you and the old friend were BEST friends and then you go to a party where it seems that new friend just EMBARRASSED YOU in front of your friend. Then you find out it was your BEST FRIEND who set up those pranks and you realize that the new friend just showed your bad side.... and now you're.... just alone.... but yes CLEARLY Pinkie was in the right. Also as to Fluttershy getting roared at, I know you don't care either but I just feel the need to address this, GILDA WAS HAVING A ROUGH DAY it could've been ANYPONY AT ALL right then oh and her stealing an apple? She's a griffon.... that was going to do NOTHING for her digestive system since she's a hybrid of an eagle and a lion, AKA two MEAT EATING predators the bodies of whom can't digest fruit or vegetables so yeah.... the apple would've done NOTHING for her. This was just my two cents of the episode.... I just never really liked it.
I actually consider this to be the weakest episode of the whole series. However, I still find it okay.
It has a good moral, the pranking montage was funny, the interaction between Pinkie and Twilight was good, and the few minutes after Gilda leaves was good.
However, the biggest thing bringing this episode down for me is Gilda herself. She's one of my least favorite characters in the whole show, and that's even accounting for The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone. Even before she yelled at Fluttershy, I didn't like her. Mainly because of the way she talked. It just... wasn't natural.
3136895
1. Pinkie didn't mean any harm, she's just an idiot sometimes. Gilda was just plain unpleasant. The difference is intent. Pinkie is often an annoyance, but she's still a good friend and she clearly was trying to be friends with and be nice to even the unfriendly Gilda. She threw her a party, after all. Pinkie is a better friend. Maybe Gilda was better before, but she wasn't by the time she came to Ponyville.
2. What would I do? Get pissed off, quietly brood, and then confront my old friend about it later when I can finally get a break from that pink maniac. I am not Gilda, though.
3. It's a griffon, not an eagle or lion. Besides that, creatures don't always only eat what we classify them to, and Rarity once fried eggs for breakfast. I was once directed to a video of a deer (herbivore) eating a live bird. It's not the only video of such out there, either, so it happens more than one might suspect.
3136925
Yeah, her dialogue just felt weird, didn't it? Not just her voice, but the word choice, too. Odd. I just brushed it off, though. Not everyone talks the same way, after all. But yeah, even this far into Season 5, I still don't like Gilda. I never found her very interesting. I'm intrigued about her path toward being a jerk, but that's about it.
3136926 1. It's not just that. Have you SEEN a lion or eagle eat a herb? Or anything related to the vegetable or fruit group? At all? No? That's because it damages their digestive system
2. Pinkie a good friend? A good friend would've given two old friends some space while they reconnect but instead she was being an IDIOT and decided against that and thought that 'hey maybe I should try and force Gilda to be my friend! That's a good idea!' like the utter dumb ass that she is.
3. Yeah sure YOU would do that.... after a day long irritation of a new friend trying to force themselves in between you and your best friend. Oh but NATURALLY because it's PINKIE being a DUMB ASS it's excusable! She is by far the WEAKEST link of the Mane 6 and is an utter liability. I would not miss her if she somehow lost the privilege to be the Element of Laughter. HeckS CHEESE SANDWICH WOULD'VE BEEN THE BETTER CHOICE! But that's not what this is about. Besides you're right. Pinkie didn't mean any harm.... but that doesn't change the fact she was butting in on a area she should've known better on but once again gets a pass because 'she's Pinkie' which honestly IRRITATES me. She has had a few comic relief moments.... but that's all she is. A comic relief. THE BUTT MONKEY. She. Doesn't. Do. Shit. Oh and Gilda being toxic? Yeah I'd be toxic to if someone tried to force themselves into my life due to us being friends with the same person.
3136940
You must be having a bad day too, huh?
3136947 That's the sad part.... I'm not having one. I've just wanted a chance to let loose on Pinkie for a while. I want it to be clear. I don't care for her.... I do NOT hate her. I don't hate ANY of the Mane 6 or anything like that. My main issue is that they make her.... TOO jokey. Not really serious at times.
3136951
They've used her as just the comic relief too often for my tastes, honestly. But she has had her good moments. What made me once consider her best pony (though not anymore) was the thought that she really does devote her life to making everypony happy. She's really is Laughter ponified. That's what she's all about. Above all else, she loves to make others smile. I felt that was something special.
3136998 Oh I'm not denying that. But like you said.... just too often and it gets rather grating. Why not have her be mature for an episode like I've seen on this site. I've read GOOD Pinkie Pie focused stories where she was serious so why can't Hasbro do it?
3136930 That's pretty much the same way I feel about her.
3137000
I actually thought her role in the griffon episode was pretty good. She was silly and made jokes, but she actually worked toward solving the problem. We're probably never going to see her be completely serious through an episode because that's just not who she is. I expect it would take something really serious and personal to completely break her spirit and stop her from trying to spread fun for an extended period, like Gummy dying. The closest we'll probably ever get is Party of One.
3137076 Meh. Oh well.
Like you, I never much cared about griffons.
Now, I've been an avid fan of fantasy for years before MLP:FiM. I started playing Dungeons and Dragons when I was 12, and was reading things like Tolkien and Piers Anthony for years before then. So I love griffons, dragons, manticores, and all the odd beasties that populate Equestria near and around the ponies.
But I watch MLP for the ponies. Because ponies are interesting and spark my imagination. I can accept that other denizens, like the griffons, dragons, or changelings can be interesting to others, and I can respect it even. They are part of Equestria too. We all know how popular these various beings are in fanfic, after all.
It gets kind of annoying though when fans start trying to push their personal interpretation of these various beings upon everyone else. While these beings may share the appearance and name of beasties of lore, everyone needs to realize that Equestria, like any other fantasy creative work, gets full authority to decide the ins and outs of the things within. Griffons are sapient and have a society? Already a big difference from the mindless super-predators of myth. They can eat things like apples and pastries? Sure. Rabid capitalism? Neat.
On the flip side, there is also a point of taking elements of canon too far. Up until Griffonstone episode, Gilda served as the defacto template for the entire species of Equestria. Griffons were _all_ jerks, and indeed many a fanfic presented their entire nation/kingdom/etc as a bunch of hostile violent savages. In some, they raid border pony towns to eat them, or worse. In others they simply have been at war with Equestria once or several times. Conveniently, fanfic writers like to forget about the griffon from MMMMMystery episode. The one on the train.
So, care for her or not, Gilda is popular. At least the idea of Gilda. This was an episode that, for all of its strengths or weaknesses, offered a huge amount of worldbuilding. Even if I'm personally much more interested in ponies, the fact that beings like griffons exist and have their own society in Equestra is neat. This episode brought that, so it's great in that sense.
In terms of the lesson, or Dash's loyalty, this was still a great example of her character and how she is indeed the Element of Loyalty. A lot of people seem to have this incredibly retarded idea that each of the M6 represents the best of that element. What the show actually depicts is that the virtue is very important to that pony. The plot was a conflict of loyalty, which is important to Rainbow Dash. Being loyal doesn't mean mindlessly sticking by everyone. That's impossible. Loyalty is about sticking by your friends, because they matter. If they're wrong, stick by them and help them be right. If someone is wronging your friends, stick by them and make it right. In Gilda's case, she used to be a friend, which creates the conflict of old friend vs new. But the episode showed that she clearly had stopped being a friend. Cutting her loose wasn't being disloyal. It was a realization that it matters that you stick by your friends, that doing so is important, when you can contrast it with the ones, like Gilda, you don't stick by.
Even though it was the right thing to do, it bothered Rainbow Dash. You can see how it affected her still in Griffonstone. It was an important event. That she had to cut ties with Gilda was important, because Rainbow Dash values loyalty so much.
The chase sequence between Pinkie and Dash in the beginning was actually a nearly shot-for-shot recreation of a Pepe Le Pew cartoon. That's why it feels so "classical".
As for Rarity's love of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey", there were a lot of such childish things in the early seasons, before the show and its characters grew up a bit. One or two episodes after this Rarity and Applejack are scared witless by a silly bedtime story, and two seasons later they're comforting their baby sisters when they get scared by them, completely unaffected themselves.
they sort of matured once the writers got wind of the more mature fanbase the show was accumulating. The characters were a lot more childish in the early days.
"I never liked the idea that the land was ruled by a nigh-omnipotent, godlike figure. Just turns me off, and always has."
Don't you mean neigh-omnipotent?
3136940
I've never seen a griffon. This is Equestria. Gilda's species could have adapted omnivorous habits at some point in their evolution. If not, Gilda's an idiot for not packing some food for herself.
3136895
1. If I knew my friend was a prankster? I would be neither upset nor surprised.
2. I would try to be friends with someone who wanted to be friends with me.
3. Gilda committed two prosecutable offenses-property damage and theft. Pinkie could have had Gilda arrested.