Episode Re-Review: She's All Yak · 5:09pm Jul 9th, 2021
Season 9 seemed to go back to Season 7's first half's quality of up and down writing. One episode would be really good, and then the next would be really forgettable at best. That seemed to be the case when we went from the pretty good "The Beginning of the End" to the lackluster rehash of "Castle, Sweet Castle" that was "Uprooted", and then went from the amazing "Sparkle's Seven" to the medicore "The Point of No Return", before getting back to a good level of quality with "Common Ground" that saw the return of Quibble Pants. And now we come to this episode, the final episode to be penned by Brian Hohlfeld who had previously written two of Season 8's better episodes. But most don't seem to think very highly of this final episode from him? Is there a reason for that, or is this perhaps a hidden gem given that it's one of only two episodes in Season 9 to focus directly on the student/young six? Well, let's find out.
The episode begins with Twilight putting up posters announcing a new dance coming to her school, the Fetlock Fete, which she is renaming to The Amity Ball since it'll be open to everyone and not just ponies. There's even going to be a lucky pot dinner. And apparently, Gallus is interested in going with Smolder due to said dinner.
As the others go away, Sandbar approaches Yona and asks if she wants to be his "pony pal" for the dance, even entering a dance contest that will be held to determine who the best "pony pals" are. Yona agrees, and Sandbar leaves to "get the tickets". Notice that throughout this all, Yona mentions being a yak and not a pony because this will be important later on. Then, in an odd detail, Rarity bumps into Yona with a frazzled mane and tail while mentioning sewing dresses for the dance. Yona then goes to see Rarity at Carousel Boutique, asking for Rarity's help to fit in. Rarity agrees without hesitation, and begins to teach Yona various things. First among them is apparently how to talk properly, which involves sticking brussels sprouts in your mouth to learn how to "articulate". I mean, there's apparently a spell that can do that, but I guess this is the proper way to do it.
Soon afterward, we get the song "Fit Right In" that oddly enough at one point reuses an image from "Friends Are Always There for You" from the end of "The Cutie Re-Mark, Part 2". Rarity also at one point rejects a hairstyle for being "Too Twilight", meaning Twilight is no longer just a verb but also an adjective.
As for the song itself, "Fit Right In" seems to mostly have been made to give Kazumi Evans one last solo song. It's alright, but it lacks a certain charm and flare to it, and kind of makes the episode seem like it's Rarity not so subtly telling Yona she needs to completely change who she is in order to be a part of pony society. That's not intentional, but it's still there. Anyway, the song ends as Rarity realizes she needs to teach Yona how to do dances. To that end she brings in Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy who are specialists in the two traditional dances always done at the Fetlock Fete. First is the slow dance that Fluttershy specializes in, but it involves a lot of complicated steps.
Rainbow Dash specializes in the fast dance which is all about getting with the flow. But Yona's natural clumsiness causes her to make a mess of the gym before she's done. From there, we transition to Yona meeting Pinkie Pie and Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres, mostly to hear exposition about the lucky pot dinner. One commentator mentioned that at this point it looks like they ran out of ideas for what Yona could do. And it does show here seeing as not much really happens aside from Yona continuing to screw up. I mean heck, they have Pinkie Pie quickly skim through how to make cupcakes, even though this could've been a golden opportunity to call back to the song from "Call of the Cutie".
Eventually, through a montage Yona starts to do better and manages to master the dance steps and the proper way of speaking. This leads into a quick reprise of "Fit Right In", which just throws the rest of the mane six (minus Twilight) in. We then cut to the night of the Amity Ball and see that weirdly enough no one seems to be dressed up for it, aside from Sandbar wearing a bowtie. The rest of the student/young six proceed to mention how they've learned about Yona taking "lessons" and how Yona has been going "full pony" just for him. I do enjoy the teasing, especially from Gallus and Smolder. It's the sort of "I know you too well" kind of teasing that only friends can do.
However, Yona then shows up in an overly lavish dress and wig as Silverstream mentions how weird Yona looks. We then see that Rarity is the only other one who bothered to dress up. I don't know if this was intentional or not, or if the animators just got lazy and didn't want to add dresses to everyone, but it kind of makes Rarity look stupid for wanting to dress Yona up for something where formal attire is not required. We then see Twilight serving as MC for the ball, while Spike is serving as a dj called DJ Scales and Tail.
It seems to go well at first, before we learn that Yona apparently never practiced dancing or moving in her dress and the wig gets in her way. This causes her to panic and run loose, making a mess of the ball. She is then seen sulking to herself in the Treehouse of Harmony, which replaced what remained of The Castle of the Two Sisters at the end of "Uprooted".
Sandbar soon finds Yona alone and confronts her, causing Yona to tie herself to one of the pillars as she refuses to come down from the treehouse. Sandbar tries to claim "it wasn't that bad", which Yona doesn't buy. But when Yona asks Sandbar to name two ponies worse than her, he replies with "Cozy Glow and Sombra".
However, this mostly leads into the "Be yourself" message that was already done to great comedic effect in "Simple Ways" and to great emotional effect in "Discordant Harmony". And while I'm sure it was a spur of the moment decision at the end, the fact that we would see Yona and Sandbar together at Carousel Boutique during "The Last Problem" makes it odd that we don't see Sandbar and Yona do more than hug each other. It seems like only canonical couples were allowed to kiss.
The two then go back to the ball where we see the mane six were busy cleaning up. But they all claim that they were worried about Yona, even though none of them actually went to look for her. Twilight might be excusable to an extent since she was MCing the ball, but you'd think Rarity at least would try to set things right after her mistake. This really reeks of "Show, don't tell".
And to cap off the episode, Sandbar and Yona win the pony pals award despite not participating in the contest simply because Twilight opts to change the rules. It is nice to see all the students want to learn how to dance like Yona though, and even Rarity joins in. Interestingly, it was confirmed later on that when they originally finished this episode they jokingly set the last scene to "Let the bodies hit the floor".
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Quite honestly, it was alright through the first two acts despite drifting about with no real direction and clearly running out of steam. We've seen Rarity make this mistake before of giving someone what they think they want even if she might know better. Yona came to her for help instead of the other way around, and clearly believed she needed to be a pony given her earlier conversations with Sandbar. Rarity helping Yona to do that is not OOC. And it was nice that we got to see the mane six actually act like teachers for once, something we were denied the opportunity to really see in Season 8 unless it was show how unqualified they actually were to teach. But when the third act comes along, a bad case of "Third Act Stupidity" comes into play just like it did in "Daring Done?" and I might argue that it's worse here. Apparently, Yona never practiced dancing or moving in her lavish dress that is completely unnecessary for the ball. And while her professors claim they were worried about her, none of them go to look for her when she runs away in distress. Yet Twilight changes the rules to reward Yona just because she can. And the moral is one the show had already done twice, once comedically and once seriously. That meant that this time around it was impossible for the moral to stand out no matter what they did. Despite all of that, I can't think of anything major or offensively wrong with the episode. But it can't get a grade above a C- because it's just not that good.
There really isn't anything new to say about "Frenemies", even with the Grogar twist it's still a good showcase of the villain trio for an episode focused entirely around them. And I don't have anything new to say on either "Sweet and Smoky" or "Going to Seed", so instead we're jumping ahead to "Student Counsel" which thankfully avoided being a rehash of "Every Little Thing She Does".
Student Counsel.
Gah.
I'll be honest with ya, I don't like Trixie and that episode is nothing but gasoline for my already burning opinion on Trixie, lol
Will you be re-reviewing “The Last Crusade”?
5552432 Yes.
This was a decently fun episode with a really good song.
5552435
Thank you.
First we had Gallus x Silverstream, and now we have Sandbar x Yona. I know some people ship Smolder x Ocellus just so they can "Pair the Spares" among the Young Six.
Also, Silver Quill brought up in his review of Uprooted that he believes Sandbar may have started taking an interest in Yona after she saved him from being crushed. Would you agree?
I love this episode and is one of my top 10 favorite episodes in show. Is its prefect, no, but it better to watch than most episode in the My Little Pony and I love the Sandbar and Yona ship
5552471 When did she save him from being crushed?
5552499
When a broken piece of Smolder's statue was rolling towards him in Uprooted.
I find this a very cute and enjoyable episode with a great lesson.