Thoughts on "Yakity-Sax" · 3:44am Jul 23rd, 2018
Can I just pretend that this episode is just a bad fan fiction and is therefore non-canon?
You know, I always find it funny whenever I could compare an episode to a similar thing that happened in my fanfic 'verse(s). For this episode, the fact that we have a story of a party pony who gets upset over an instrument and ends up running away for reasons related to it is something I do find kind of funny. The case of Cheese Sandwich and his broken accordion was one of my earliest fics, and had just a later expansion on why it hit him hard. So, yeah, while there are different circumstances that do make the stories ultimately their own entities, I do find those little similarities a little amusing.
Doesn't mean I find the episode itself amusing. It has a few little moments, like the apple-solutely bit which I chuckled at, but I was either baffled or angered by how events unfolded. Pinkamena was clearly shoved in there for fanservice, and that appearance very much undermined the episode and Pinkie's character. The only good thing about it was that it was a reminder that Pinkamena is NOT Pinkie's psychopathic side, rather a depressed state she enters when hit with a major emotional blow.
Hence why Pinkamena not only undermines the episode, but also Pinkie's character: she gets depressed because her friends tell her that she's not good at the whateverphone. All right, I will concede that they could have worded it better to direct her to get formal lessons or just tell her that it's loud, distracting, and disrupts everyone's jobs and is making them unhappy. But that still doesn't excuse how the episode goes out of its way to show that the whateverphone is the only thing that makes Pinkie happy.
Yeah, screw parties! Screw baking! Screw all the other instruments that saved Ponyville from parasprites! And screw all her friends and family! The stupid whateverphone is the only thing important in life! She only picked it up recently and it's clear that it's her true passion! Might as well just change her cutie mark to the bagpipes' louder cousin.
It would be better if we got a concrete reason as to why she was treating it like a lover (Bedroom eyes? Waxing poetic about it? What the crap?). Like, say, it was a gift from a Yak friend and she promised to cherish it, or maybe FanOfMostEverything's idea that she's trying to distract herself from a harsh fact of life (like a death in the family).
Seriously, the way she was acting in this episode was reminiscent of a bratty toddler; doing whatever she pleases, regardless of anyone else's business or feelings, and then throwing a fit when told "no". Going Pinkamena in this instance--when she didn't when upstaged by Cheese Sandwich, or whenever she thought her bond with Maud is ruined--makes her look incredibly shallow when episodes before showed that she isn't. The fact that she packs up her things to send to the rock farm and then runs away to Yakyakistan only makes this worse.
And let's not forget that they gloss over the whole deal with Pinkie being outright disruptive of everyone in Ponyville's lives just to say that she should do what makes her happy, skill or even consequences be darned. Sure, we could have had a "practice leads to improvement" moral, or a "getting a formal tutor" moral, or maybe a "not disrupting anyone's lives with your hobby" lesson, but nope, they had to go with the most selfish and stupid of the morals, where the others have to learn the lesson of letting Pinkie do as she wants or else she throws a fit.
I cannot be sympathetic toward a Pinkie who made Rarity ruin a dress, disrupted a Wonderbolt Derby, woke up Fluttershy's animals, and utterly destroyed Applejack's harvest, all because of a stupid musical instrument, and yet never acknowledges or apologizes for her actions and strives to do better. She is such a spoiled and selfish brat here, that it's boggling how no one in the staff thought this was out of character. I know she gets carried away in her own excitement at times, but forgetting about her more considerate side is a crime!
And thus, I think this may actually dethrone Somepony to Watch Over Me as my least favorite episode of the show.
Good golly, I need to go back and watch some of my favorite episodes to wash this bad taste out of my mouth.
Yeah this was a pretty bad episode as far as characterization and moral go.
I know...the only part of the episode I liked was the apple-solubtely. That was cute