Talk About It: Tell Your Tale · 8:49am May 6th, 2022
Hey Folks!
So, Tell Your Tale (TYT?) has been going on for a while, and I’ve been watching the episodes as they came out. I don’t make it a point to watch it, I just happen upon the episodes as they release. I personally consider it attached yet very unrelated to FiM as the show itself has been making quite clear, so I don’t really have complaints in that aspect.
I’m very apathetic toward it I suppose. I watch it, and I get opinions while watching it, but I don’t care enough to talk about it. I don’t remember anything from the series Ike I do with FiM. Heck, I don’t remember any of the "key" moments of any of the episodes. Only thing I do remember from these last few episodes is that one scene with Sunny looking at the picture of her and her father, that cute flashback of Zipp and Queen Haven, and that weird one song from the first released short, I remember nothing of the song, I just remember it existed. Frankly, Tell Your Tale hasn’t hit me the way FiM has, but it’s something.
'Cause I've been uninterested in involving myself in the Tell Your Tale series, I haven’t talked about it, but the recent short made me think other wise.
And here I am.
Again, I don’t care for TYT. It exists, has characters I like to some degree, and it’s related, somehow, to FiM. I’m more or less watching it to honor G4 and to see where exactly the writing staff want to take this story. I'm not gonna say I’m invested, 'cause I’m not, but I’m still watching it for some reason. Before it came out, I thought I’d just learn stuff from spoilers and not actually watch the shorts at all, but as they did come out, I got a little curious, and checked them out. They exceeded my expectations only because my expectations were below minimal.
I mean, from the screenshots and clips we got as teasers, I wasn’t very hyped, to say the least.
First few episodes were nothing special to me. You know, my first episode watching was the nightmare roommate short, and the lesson was evidently "Honesty's the best policy". I kinda got this weird internal feeling that they should do the rest of the elements of harmony as lessons. Like, I dunno, you gotta be generous, or how to make your friends laugh, or something along those lines. But, that little theory lasted a day, so, hm.
Aside from that, I didn’t care. Until now, that is. The new episode has caught my attention, to the point where I wanna talk ‘bout it.
I’ll be frank, it’s really nothing new. I’m trying to stop comparing this to FiM, buuuut, this lesson sounds an awful lot like Applebuck season's. Know what I mean? I don’t think I have to elaborate.
This episode caught my attention for two reasons. One; the main duo in this episode. Evidently, the main duo of this episode is Zipp and Hitch, with Hitch taking the center focus. I was a big fan of the duo. They remind me of a certain other duo that I can’t help but mention everywhere/anywhere. I mean, I’m not the only one who noticed their (Zitch - Zipp x Hitch's) similarities to the AppleDash paring. The flight obsessed pegasus with the orange, hard working earth pony. No surprise I like these two a lot. While, yes, Hitch isn’t my second favorite G5 pony or anything, he is definitely a character I enjoy seeing on screen. At least, a lot more so than his deputy, that’s for sure. And his relationship with Zipp (platonic relationship) is cute, and wholesome.
I’m not gonna add anything to that.
And two; the fact that Sprout is not the deputy anymore. The fact that Sprout is actually facing consequences and was fired from the deputy role and his wrongdoings aren’t just forgotten off as if they were nothing but simple little boo-boos is just amazing. That's just something we don’t see very often with this franchise. Any villain that’s forgiven is not, by any means, held responsible for their actions. Take Midnight Sparkle for example. Sunset explicitly says that what happened in the Friendship Games was NOT Twi's fault, and that it was the magic that TWI let out that did all the harm.
I’m not elaborating further.
So, at least, hearing Sprout had a punishment for his world-domination plans is just so refreshing to me. That actually makes this entire episode for me. Not the characters, not the plot, not that weird rap song thing. Nope, none o' those. The thing that made this short for me was the fact that Sprout had his dreams ripped away from him by his own consequential actions.
I don’t believe this is anything spectacular, or anything close. The moral was delivered in a rush as it was expected form like a five minute short. It was predictable as per usual, and the song was… nothing spectacular. Hitch never actually gets a deputy, either, and the set up was… mm… something but not something amazing.
Mint rant: Why were we given literally no context about Hitch's "Favorite things"? Like, it’s as if we’re expected to know all these things about this character we only met like a few months ago for a little more than an hour. When Zipp comes in and tells Hitch about these things being his favorites, I feel like she was talking to us and not him. As if she was telling us, the audience, "Oh yeah, these are his favorite things. Didn’t you know?". How was I supposed to know that this pride-driven sherif of this little town secluded from all other races really, really liked the Pony equivalent to the Mona Lisa?! (the Pona Lisa?
) Not that I don’t like this or anything, it gives good character depth, i guess. Its just that, it would’ve been cool to have been told this information a little earlier on in the short, instead of when we did find out. I feel like we were supposed to be on the same page as Zipp when she saw Hitch behind bars, and not with Hitch on this one. But time is really something that’s not on their side, I suppose.
Anywho.
Speaking of Zipp. She’s my second favorite part of this short, as she has been for nearly every short she appeared in so far. She isn’t a major player, but her appearances; checking on Hitch every now and again, pointing out his favorite things (we should’ve known about that before
) and helping him figure out what the moral was was wholesome and sweet of her. (Even though he should’ve found out the moral on his own) One of my favorite scenes was that little eye roll she did when Hitch ran off babbling about justice.
Zipp's my favorite, surprisingly.
Funny thing, comparing this to AppleDash, there is a massive table turn that has been done. With Zitch, the flight-obsessed pegasus is the one with her head on her shoulders, and the hard working, orange earth pony is the one that goes on these crazy antics. I like this switch up a lot, it keeps this separate from other, G4, parings, and adds a tint of uniqueness to this paring. (Romantic or other wise)
Anyway, this is my favorite short so far, and that’s not saying much, frankly, but it is what it is.
I would also adore a little background appearance of a certain sparkly-maned earth pony, but I think that’s asking for too much here.
Anywho.
What do you think of this episode? Or just TYT in general? You guys invested? Or just steering clear of any new G5 stuffs?
MSz Out!
Like you said, the main problem with TYT is that it's too short. It would be so much better if the episodes could be eleven minutes and not five. And a couple episodes were kinda eh. Still, it has it's moments. It is definitely better than Pony Life, which actually makes me hate Pony Life even more.
And as for Sprout, it looks like he's on a wanted poster outside the police station. I'm not sure how much, of any, of TYT will be cannon, but like you said it's nice to see that the writers are avoiding FiM's "instant forgiveness" trope.
Oh, and Rainbow as the scream was a nice touch.
5655748
Oh! I didn’t notice the Rainbow in the painting! I was too focused on the song/rap. Geez, that’s an amazing touch. The more Rainbow the better.
I hope they at least keep the Sprout no longer being deputy part as canon, if nothing else, 'cause if they don’t and end up making him completely and utterly forgiven, I might just loose my mind.
5655749
Agreed. There’s nothing wrong with redemption arcs, but if we don’t show that actions have consequences, then the whole thing feels a little disingenuous.