046 Frenemies Talk: Party Pooped feat. Miss Spectrum · 8:56am Jun 29th, 2015
046 Frenemies Talk: Party Pooped feat. Miss Spectrum
What do you do when the episode's title strongly suggest a party is going to happen? You call Miss Spectrum, the apparent party-episode expert in our blogs! She helped us a great deal when Fluttershy and Discord were having fun in Canterlot, so please welcome her as we take a closer look at another episode - this time involving Pinkie Pie and special guests from up north. Onwards!
Spoiler warning no perfect. Spoilers to S05EP11 inside. Please no smash.
Greetings, oh great Prince Rutherford, immortal emperor of the mighty Yak Empire! Your hooves shatter walls of cities, and your voice brings despair to your enemies!
Prane: What a bunch of lazy ponies, just look at them! Instead of going out there and spreading their friendship teachings like a good advocate of ideological reform would do, they sit in their cozy castles and wait for some would-be friends to come to them. That’s not how you impose your beliefs on others! You have to train missionaries and send caravans to them (or wait a couple of turns for that Great Prophet to spawn). Of course having Pinkie or anypony else go beyond Equestria would ultimately make the episode too similar to the Griffonstone one, so points for not reusing that particular way of presenting the friendship vs. a non-ponyfolk dilemma.
This time, the said non-ponyfolk took shape of mighty Mongol-like yaks, who were not only interestingly designed but hilariously portrayed. Mind you, across all of the fantasy and sci-fi worlds I’ve been to I usually do not enjoy races which act, well, erratic to say the least. You’d find me amongst those pretentiously dignified, mysterious jackasses who think they are superior to humans (because they are, duh) - that’s why I absolutely despise W40K’s Greenskins, for example. When I first heard those broken sentences spouted by Prince Rutherford, the Orks were the first thing to come to my head, and I braced myself for the worst. Luckily, in the pastel brightness of Equestria there are things other than war, so even the simplistic personalities of the yaks and the following destruction turned out pretty entertaining, and those short musical cues whenever they rage out made it even better.
Discuss yaks, the Yakyakistanian addition to the Equestrian bestiary!
Miss Spectrum: This episode was not what I was expecting, what is pretty cool! This is the episode where I was expecting to see again Cheese Sandwich, but I think we will see him later. But we got Yaks! They’re… How can I say without being rude at them? Well, I can’t. So they’re jerks. They like to smash thing up and the only thing I could imagine during their scenes was… Like Hulk in form of pony smashing things everywhere. Yes that’s weird, but is true. Yaks are peculiar, what makes them jerks, but at same time interesting to learn more about. They seen to be a race that doesn’t have advanced methods like ponies. Plus they want every single thing to be: PERFECT. Goddamn Yaks! The only good thing in this situation was seeing Nervous Twilight again, she is so cute when she’s like that!
Gulheru: Yaks. Yaks from a secluded kingdom in the Far North, a place that was without touch with Equestria for generations. Not what I was expecting at all, to be fair. And not something I’ve enjoyed as much as I would like to.
To be honest, I have found the yaks too ridiculous to be believable as a nation and race. Alright, yes, you are very traditionalistic, patriotic, you have a major diplomatic penalty with factions not sharing your culture, whatever. But random outbursts of murderous rage? Come on! This is too bizarre. And without a good explanation. Sorry, but “If things not perfect, yaks get mad. Yaks always get mad when things not perfect!” is as artificial as it can be.
As a world-building writer I find the yaks falling in with the category of what I call a “utility race”. They are created not to make the world richer with new civilizations, but to fulfill a specific role, to create an issue to be solved by the protagonists. They are made superficial, “cardboard” if you please, and hence why they cannot be taken seriously by me. There is a lot of potential for writers to flesh out their nation and create a country of stout tradition, rigorous beliefs and lasting tradition of glorifying strife, perfection and the uniqueness of Yakyakistan, but until I see someone forging a well-composed compendium I shall make only a footnote in my bestiary about them.
Also, as to refer to the, aforementioned by Prane, Orks: “Oy, ya yak-lovin’ gitz, I’z not afraid of dose furry-boyz!”
:cough:
And I am not impressed.
These sheep must be considered sacred in Dodge Junction. That, or all non-essential characters in Equestria are too dumb to just kick them off the tracks.
Gulheru: It is time for our hosts to entertain the guests and, oh surprise surprise, they fail in a variety of ways. It results in the yaks receiving a stacking “Rage at Imperfection” buff, increasing damage dealt out. (Ridiculous, as pointed out above.) Still, let’s try to discuss it reasonably. We all know that our heroes are quite apt at what they do, I believe that is the whole reasoning behind cutie marks, but it appears that talents and abilities are not enough to impress the Prince and his two meatheads. How come? Surely a collective effort from our heroes must have been at least somehow impressive.
Seems not. Someone demanded otherwise. The Great and Dreaded Plot, the Old One, demanded a declaration of war! Fhtagn, it could have been an intriguing turn of events!
And so I ask, what’s your view on the storyline in the episode?
Prane: It’s true that the gang all tried to entertain the yaks to the best of their skills, and they all failed miserably because the plot demanded it. Amongst them, I would like to point out Spike as the one who we all believed - for about twenty seconds - was the closest to soothing them. We’ve seen him at the piano back in Season 1 in Appleloosa (You Got to Share, You Got to Care song), and there is no reason to assume he wasn’t the one playing it. Just think how great character development it would have been if he had actually played the song to the yaks! I don’t care Derpy dropped an anvil on Prince Rutherford after that to ruin the show. We could at least say that Spike is good at something, that he is actually useful!
But no. Sorry, Spike fans. It has been decided that his role in the series is to be a bumbling sidekick. This is why we can’t have nice things.
Miss Spectrum: When the Yaks got to see the little cute animals from Fluttershy I got really worried. I knew they were going to smash them too… *sigh* But Flutter was there to save her babies at least! But the Yaks are such jerks they want snow to taste like Yak Yakstain snow. SNOW. Snow doesn’t even have a taste… well, normal snow. And with this Pinkie tries to save the day going to Yakstain, I knew since the start wasn’t going to end well.
You wake up in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a bunch of pretty mares/handsome stallions and a truckload of cherries. What is your first thought?
Miss Spectrum: Cherry Jubilee! We are really getting characters from season one and two right? I love Cherry and I really loved when she appeared again. Also Pinkie just made part of band during like… hours. And they make a damn tour in Equestria. DURING HOURS. Not a day, not a week or a month. Hours. Sometimes Pinkie’s way too much random for us! And this band was basically ponified Beatles. Welp.
Also Cadance is appearing more this season, even if a little it’s already good. I really think she should get more character development, then I shall stop thinking she’s a Mary Sue. Also that little Yak was so cute! At least he don’t wanna smash things. We also know now that Pinkie has a damn Party Cave. Yep, Pinkie Pie is confirmed Batman!
Gulheru: I see Gummy filling the role of Alfred, now that we know he is actually a hidden intellectualist. I did understand his tongue gesture towards Pinkie as an: “Pardon, madam, but I need to force you to cease talking for your own sake. Could you not simply travel to Yakyakistan to solve the issue? I am certain you shall be able to reach it in no time.”
As the episode was centered around Pinkie Pie we should have expected something random, but the musical career of one afternoon did take me by surprise. I see in it the veiled critique of “one-hit wonders” that we suffer from time to time in public entertainment. Perhaps I am going too far, but I could break into an hour-long rant about the state of music nowadays and saturation of the market with cheap ideas, and bands that have no comprehension of true and transcendental art, and singers that dissolve into debauchery and degeneracy and—
Anyway, we are lately experiencing a heightened chance of peripheral and secondary characters returning. That’s a good thing, it makes for a sense of continuity for the show. As long as they do not end up falling into ravines, that is.
Remember – never drive when tired. Never.
Prane: First, let’s put aside logic and ignore the impossibility of making such a journey across Equestria in one afternoon. Just… don’t think about it, for our own sake. Just a note: nice to see Cloudchaser still going strong at the Wonderbolt Academy - you’re gonna go far, girl!
Now, it’s reasonable to expect Cadance help out when Pinkie stopped by the Crystal Empire, and I was glad to see her. However, that particular scene missed a royal touch. Cadance is a princess, so where were her guards? Where was the chariot she and Pinkie arrived at the border? Even if Cadance tapped into the magic of the Crystal Heart and just teleported them to the snowy wastelands, there should have been some protocol employed as to where a ruler can go on her own. Adding Flash Sentry or some other guard would make the scene a tad better.
The Party Cave took me by surprise. I always assumed she keeps everything in that pocket dimension hidden between the strands of her mane, but it seems she has a secret base of operations. Unless she can reach the basement through her mane! Her files on what kind of things her friends like and dislike seemed to be pretty detailed and well-thought, and thanks to that Pinkie has earned my respect as a character. The best thing about the Cave scene though was Fluttershy’s inquiry as to how the slide works. Perfect delivery on this one!
Holy blueberry muffins, Pinkie! Someone hacked into the Piecomputer and stole your contingency plans on how to defeat each of us should we ever go rogue!
Gulheru: To sum up, I find the episode entertaining but without a certain polish that would make it stand out from the crowd. Sure, we’ve had an issue, a crisis, heck, even a war looming over, but… everything is fine once more. Again. Superb. Fantastic. Ecstatic, even. I wonder how long shall it take the writers to mention the yaks again. Considering the only reason for their existence was to create a Friendship Problem and it has been dealt with already, I think a year at least…
As a personal highlight of the episode, though, I save for myself the pleasure of witnessing that one confused expression from Celestia. Hilarious. I need to tell Her Royal Majesty Princess Luna about it right away.
Miss Spectrum: The episode was good not super amazing, but good. Pinkie Pie’s episodes are always awesome or good, so I knew we could get something fun to see. New characters and old ones, I love that! Next week we will see ponies from the first episode! Wow! And with that we see more background character development and… COLGATE! (Minuette if you prefer so) I say it’s going to be awesome! I’m really excited for that one and the Luna one. Now I must go, my people need me. Allons-y!
Prane: Although it had a bit too high level of freaking out on the ponies’ side for my tastes, the yak adventure definitely goes to my personal “good episodes” pile. It had enough worldbuilding bits and pop culture references to keep me entertained, it brought back Cherry Jubilee and Dodge Junction (no big deal, but nice callback anyway), and, most importantly, it presented Pinkie to be more than meets the eye while not instantly turning her into a loud, obnoxious pink ball of randomness. It was nice to see how they employed two perspectives simultaneously by jumping from Pinkie’s quest to Ponyville and throwing mini-cliffhangers within the episode itself.
Finally, let us not forget about our new friends from up north. Now that the fandom stopped writing about Luna struggling to adapt to modern times, we can safely reroll this trope for some yak exchange student who fails to learn the basics of savoir-vivre at Rarity’s tea party. Or something.
And to think that for a brief moment they were at war with Equestria! I wonder if at some point Twilight began calculating how to efficiently crush them beneath her hoof? If finding herself in such a state hasn’t hardened her to her role of a princess, then I don’t know what else will. I bet we’ll have to wait for the season finale to answer that!
That's a wrap for today! Two weeks I mentioned that I was working hard on my thesis. Today I am pleased to announce I've written the damn thing and that in a 1-2 weeks time I'll be posting a blog dedicated to where I stand in my writing. It'll then probably take some time before I get back to it (over a month of writing no-fun non-English non-fiction has to leave its mark), but still, I'm getting there.
Your panelists for today (drop by their profiles/stories/blogs and say hello!):
- Miss Spectrum
- Gulheru
- and yours truly.
See you!
~Prane
