She's All Yak Review · 4:42pm May 11th, 2019
So, after a disastorus first outing for the student six this season, we've got our first solo focus episode for them. This one focusing on Yona, and Rarity. Considering the most we got a season ago was Spike and Smolder hanging out in two episodes, this is long overdue. Also, first and foremost, this episode review is dedicated in memory of MythrilMoth, a FiMFiction user famous for his OOCST blog postings among other things, who sadly passed away sometime between last Sunday night and Monday morning.
Now, onto the episode itself, for the writing we have Brian Hohlfield. Last season he wrote two episodes "Surf and/or Turf" and "The Hearth's Warming Club" which were among the better episodes of Season 8 simply because of their world building and focus on the student six, as well as giving Twilight a chance to shine in a season that was intent on turning her into a bad parody of herself. That being said, he's never done a Rarity episode before and he only joined last season, so this is his chance to show if in a season that looks to be better, he can keep his quality writing streak going. Let's find out.
We begin with Twilight putting up flyers around school announcing a dance. It's not the Grand Galloping Gala, it's an old Ponyville dance that we've somehow never heard of before (was it originally going to be the Grand Galloping Gala? I don't see why they couldn't have handwaved it as Twilight requesting a change in location.). In addition to dances, there's a potluck dinner where everyone brings something, and a special trophy for the best dance pair. Smolder invites her friends to come with, and Gallus is the first to accept. I know it's probably not intentional, but are they suggesting he's looking into a three way relationship between himself, Smolder, and Silverstream? Because given developments last season it really like he and Silverstream were meant to be a couple.
Sandbar asks Yona to the dance as more or less his date/plus one (he even acts shy and blushes around her). Yona accepts, but quickly realizes she doesn't know anything about pony dances or pony customs. She's wondering what she's going to do, when she gets run over by one of Rarity's dressing racks. That gives her the idea to ask Rarity for advice, so she goes to Carousel Boutique. It doesn't take long for her to lay out her demands to be a proper pony, and Rarity agrees to teach her. She starts out with this weird brussel sprouts ritual where you put them in your mouth and they're supposed to help you articulate. Of course, Yona turns out to be clumsy and very barbarian.
Rarity doesn't give up though, and this leads into the song "Fit Right In" where she more or less tries to give Yona a makeover. At one point she tells Yona that a hairstyle is "Too Twilight". So now Twilight isn't just a very but an adjective as well.
The makeover goes nowhere, so Rarity enlists Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy to help teach Yona how to dance. When that doesn't work out too well (Yona runs free and messes up the dance floor), she takes Yona to Sweet Apple Acres to work on her contribution to the pot luck dinner with Applejack and Pinkie Pie. Yona quickly settles on applesauce. And from there, she slowly starts to get better at dancing and gets a makeover. She also starts changing her language so she sounds more formal. It's not bad, and I wish we hadn't seen it solely in a montage because we really could use more mane sixxstudent six interactions. Anyway, Yona is ready for the dance, and Spike is djing (I guess Vinyl Scratch was too busy).
Yona is accompanied into the dance by Rarity, just after Sandbar's friends point out he should've told Yona not to worry about the dance so much (except he kind of did before he left to get the tickets). No one really seems to notice aside from how dressed up Yona is. But Yona never practiced dancing with a dress on (for some reason) so she stumbles and almost spills the punch. A short time later, the wig she's wearing on top of her head falls down and blinds her, and she goes berserk. She promptly thrashes about and topples the pot luck dinner, causing a huge mess.
Horrified and humiliated, Yona runs off. She goes to the new Treehouse of Harmony, singing a sad song to herself. Sandbar soon comes to find her and Yona insists she's never coming out, even tying herself to one of the pillars and insisting no one bring her food or water. Sandbar talks her out of it, and Yona declares herself worst pony. Sandbar corrects her, saying there are worse ponies (Cozy Glow, and I forget who else), and that he wanted Yona to just be herself, a yak. He also mentions that no one really noticed what Yona did, and that the dance is over (except it isn't). He convinces Yona to come back to the dance with him as herself, and Yona accepts.
Going back to the dance we learn that the main six were all worried about Yona, though none of them bothered to go after her (Twilight I can understand, she was MCing the dance. The others had no real excuse, Rarity in particular since she dressed up Yona). Rarity and the others apologize for messing up, even though it was Yona who came to them for advice and insisted that she be taught how to be a pony. Then Yona gets the dance trophy that's now a friendship trophy (a participation award), and it turns out that everyone wants to learn that dance she does. So Yona agrees to teach them, so long as it's what they want and her friends support her. A nice ending, just wish they'd left out the whole trophy part or had that come later.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, it suffers from bad timing. We just had an episode last week with the moral being "Be Yourself", so having this episode come directly on that one's heels just means it's going to look weaker and rehashing by comparison. Plus, we've already had this moral in "Simple Ways" and "Discordant Harmony" and both were definitely better (the former for its comedic charm, and the latter for its surprising emotional moments). The few bits with Sandbar and Yona were nice, though they didn't really add anything to Sandbar's character. We didn't get to see nearly as much one on one interaction between Rarity and Yona, or Yona and any of the mane six as we should've gotten. The best parts were wasted on a montage. It was nice that Sandbar came and talked to Yona after the dance, but having the very next scene state that the mane six were all worried but none of them went off to look for Yona undercuts the whole thing. If the only way you could make Sandbar look good was if you wrote out the mane six, at least have a better reason for it or just don't include that line at all. Yona is definitely what carries this episode. This is the first time we truly see her insecurities for more than a few minutes, the first time we truly see her vulnerable and afraid with no one to turn to. Her making the effort to completely change who she is to please Sandbar for the dance is nice, and her singing along with Rarity during "Fit Right In" is a nice touch. In the end, I give this episode a B-, putting it above "The Point of No Return" which was just rehashing "Amending Fences" but below "The Beginning of the End" which had more put into it.
Well, next week should be quite interesting, we have the episode "Frenemies" (not the most original title) in which Grogar sends his Legion of Doom on a team building exercise, and it works too well, they start to actually become friends. Are they gonna start singing the F.U.N song, and is Grogar going to take it as a betrayal?
I thought it was a fun little episode, though I do agree it's not great.
When I saw the synopsis for this episode, I too was nervous until after I saw it. It was great to hear another Rarity song and it was also surprising to see Yona talk fancy. Although the episode’s plot seems like an overused one, the episode turned out fine. It was actually better than “Hearts and Hooves Break Up” as it also involved an overused plot. I also liked that the Mane Six apologized to Yona even though they actually didn’t cause much of the damage.
It was cozy glow and Sombra
I ship Yonabar, and there were some parts of the episode that probably didn't need to be in it.