Episode review: "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies" (S4E16)

Talk about eye candy!

Ooh, what do you know, another Fluttersode! It's rather hard on the heels of the last one, but I suppose it's not the first time that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has done such a thing: in Season 2, "Putting Your Hoof Down" and the legendary "Hurricane Fluttershy" were only three episodes apart. This time around, we have Natasha Levinger on writing duties. She produced an outstanding debut in "Pinkie Apple Pie", so if she could come anywhere near that then we were going to be in for a treat. After the break, you'll find out what I thought.

This turned out to be an episode full of surprises. For a start, there was the moral. I've hoped for quite a while that this show would address the fact that sometimes you have to learn how to say goodbye – but I wasn't expecting it to happen here. Fluttershy really has grown as a character since S1, albeit in rather subtler ways than some of her friends. She realised, in her "key" moment, that being kind isn't always the same as being nice, and that sometimes you really do have to be firm to help others.

Sea Breeze in one of his better moods

Then there were the much anticipated Breezies themselves. They turned out to be a far cry from the simperingly sweet G3-alikes many people thought they might. In particular their leader, Sea Breeze, was quite a complex character. He was an absolute pain at times, but he had a real reason to be so upset as we saw later on: he was genuinely scared that the portal to the Breezies' world would close and that he'd lose contact with his family. Their "Swedish chef" accents, though, were... interesting!

Talking of which, that was quite a bit of world-building! In "Three's a Crowd", the mention of Fluttershy going off to see the Breezies led me to believe that they simply lived in a far-off part of Equestria. Instead, it seems that they only come into Equestria at all for pollen-collecting season, and that they live in a quite different magical world all their own. Unless you count Maretropolis, and I suppose the (unseen) Tartarus back in S2, this is the first time we've actually travelled to a completely different world in FiM.

Rarity can maintain her false eyelashes even as a Breezie!

There were some funny little touches in this episode. The cold open was pretty much a repeat of "Sonic Rainboom" but done in reverse. Fluttershy's "yay" at the end was so perfect. The Breezie saxophone was amusing, and the Doctor (with 3D glasses!) and Rose was a blatant but funny reference. No more of those for a bit, though, eh? It was also nice to see a couple of the athletic Pegasi back, in the form of Flitter and Thunderlane. They didn't do a lot, but never mind.

This wasn't a perfect episode: the biggest problem was the suspiciously convenient way in which Twilight just happened to have learnt a new spell that just happened to be the one they needed at that very moment. It was reminiscent of the clunky scene in "A Dog and Pony Show" wherein Twi realises, prompted by Spike, that she can copy Rarity's gem-finding spell. Still, at least this time round we got a payoff, in the shape of the Mane Six as Breezies! Toyetic? Absolutely: the toys already exist. But so what?

It's somehow worrying that this is a reference to an episode called "Doomsday"

I also felt that there was rather too much exposition at times. That was particularly the case at the start of the episode, though I'm not someone who sees "Show, don't tell" as an inflexible law so it's not a huge problem. The scene with the bees also seemed slightly off: suddenly producing a huge costume out of nowhere is Pinkie territory, surely. This was nevertheless still an enjoyable episode: not as good as Levinger's debut or Fluttershy's last, but I suspect it will grow with rewatching.

Best quote: Rainbow Dash: "So, uh, I've always kind of wondered what it would be like to be a griffon." Twilight: "Not a chance!"

Yays

• A surprisingly deep and complex moral
• Sea Breeze's multi-faceted personality
• World-building reinforcing that this is a fantasy world
• Rainbow Dash begging to be a griffon
• "Sonic Rainboom" in reverse during the cold open
• The Doctor/Rose reference: fun if a bit blatant

Neighs

• The way-too-convenient spell Twilight used
• A little too much exposition at the start
• Rather blatant background pony reuse in the crowd

7.5/10