Not Asking For Trouble · 2:19am May 22nd, 2017
Friendship is Magic first impressions review: Not Asking for Trouble (s07e10)
by Obake
(SPOILERS!)
There's not a lot of substance to this one, so a review will be brief. Pinkie visits the yaks during Yakslubert Fest (I hope I spelled that right), a sacred holiday. The day consist of smashing logs, swaying to music, and sleeping.
The yaks were low on my list of returning characters, but they are at least more tolerable here than in Party Pooped. For one, they do things besides smash property. Their personalities are still very basic, save for their leader, Prince Rutherford.
Commotion during one of their stomping ceremonies creates an avalanche, apparently a yearly occurence. Rutherford won't accept outside help in clearing the village of snow. The yaks are left to sleeping with no shelter and having no food until all the snow is dug away or melts. Much time is spent on Pinkie's attempts of persuading Rutherford to let her friends come and help clean; she asks directly, casually directs the conversation towards her idea, and even tells a parable on why accepting help is good. Rutherford rejects her every time.
Pinkie and friends eventually go and clean the village in secret. The yaks wake up believing the snow melted, but Rutherford catches on that Pinkie was behind it. He is overjoyed at her and her friends aid, despite having clearly and vehemently rejected all previous offers. He says the difference was that Pinkie helped without asking, which is 'the yak way.' Except Pinkie asked a lot, so this ending is a complete and bogus heel turn.
There's not much else to say. The episode has a few amusing moments, and a really dumb ending.
Extras:
*The parable Pinkie tells is set to different animation. Though it is honestly cruddy and cheap looking, without the charm of, say, the felt bit in A Friend in Deed.
*The tour of Yak Yakistan does have charm. I like that the yaks have huts for each activity, one for music, sleeping, etc.
*Speaking of the sleeping hut, there's a bizarre joke that I don't get. Pinkie, in mid jump onto a bed, changes her position. Pinkie's always had gravity defying abilities, and the joke here seems to be her changing position to emulate how the yaks sleep. Except she lies on her back, while the yaks are sleeping on their sides or stomach.
*The young yaks (yaklings?) are still really cute. Speaking of which, so is Gummy, who gets a more prominent role, which is welcome.
*Pinkie uses her hair as a drill, which reminds me of Tunneler from the Puppet Master series.
