Thursday, 25 May 2017

Episode review: S7E11: "Not Asking for Trouble"

Gummy, Pinkie and Prince Rutherford in the snow
"YAK FOURTH WALL SMASH!"
It strikes me that, in just three days' time, those of us on the Canadian schedule will be halfway through Season Seven. It's going by so fast! Still, the only way I could avoid that would be to move to the US schedule, and for a variety of reasons I'm not going to. So, episode 11. We had yet another new writer in May Chan, about whom I know nothing. After the break, a short review. I just don't have much to say about this ep.

It's always hard for an episode if it comes straight after a work of genius. I'm fairly fond of "Wonderbolts Academy", but it pales beside "Sleepless in Ponyville". As such, anything other than Celestia-tier stuff for "Not Asking for Trouble" was going to struggle – and so it proved. This isn't a bad episode, and I've certainly had worse 22 minutes,  but it's not on the same plane as its predecessor.
Pinkie accidentally damages a yak hut
You do wonder how those fires stay alight in that place
The best thing about "Not Asking for Trouble" is Pinkie Pie, which is fortunate as she's the central pony character. We've all seen Pinkie written as a bubble-headed idiot, and it's annoying as hay, but not here. In this ep, Pinkie is thoughtful and sensitive while still being the smiley mare she should be. The lengths she goes to in order to fit in with the yaks and not offend them (much) are very Pinkie.

The yaks are the problem, though. I didn't like them in "Party Pooped" and I don't much like them now. Yes, it's good to see a little more of their home village and mildly interesting to get an insight into some of their culture. The trouble is that it's mostly variations on the same joke. I'm not entirely keen on the slight undercurrent in the final third of "let's use our superior pony culture to help these poor savages".

Pinkie, in Spy outfit, and the rest of the Mane Six
Rarity is convinced that's going to fly into her face any minute

Best quote: Prince Rutherford: "Pink pony ask too many questions."

Yays
  • Pinkie is written pretty well
  • Good to see more of Yakyakistan and yak culture
Neighs
  • I still don't find the yaks very interesting characters
  • A slight hint of pony cultural superiority
★★ (almost a three due to Pinkie, but not quite)
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8 comments:

  1. Oilyvalves25 May 2017 at 12:57

    That caption on the last image made me chuckle.

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  2. iisaw25 May 2017 at 17:12

    It's a three-star for me only because yak foals are adorable!

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  3. Lambdadelta26 May 2017 at 06:55

    Pinkie is perfect in this episode but, unfortunately, she is not in the right episode, hope they still keep this Pinkie and place in better episode.

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  4. xjuggernaughtx26 May 2017 at 21:53

    I kinda don't get people's deal with the yaks. Yes, they're one note jokes stretched across the episode, but so were Rainbow's parents. I guess it comes down to what kinds of personalities you like, but the setup is similar.

    Not a classic, but I did like this one. It did its job entertaining me.

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    Replies
    1. Present Perfect27 May 2017 at 00:36

      My problem with the yaks is they're completely unreasonable. You say one thing wrong, do one thing wrong, even the tiniest little bit, and they declare war and knock your house down. There's no way to really deal with them on a rational level. And this is supposed to be a culture, which is kind of insulting to, like... culture?

      Delete
    2. xjuggernaughtx27 May 2017 at 00:59

      I don't know. I feel like it's ONE yak who is entirely unreasonable. The others just sort of go along. If and when they appear again, it'll probably be slightly easier to deal with them.

      If they were just as unreasonable as their first appearance, I'd probably be annoyed. I didn't really care for them in Party Pooped, but I thought they were fine here. Sure Rutherford is unreasonable, but it's not like declaring war-level unreasonable. I mean, he's certainly not being more unreasonable than Rainbow was about Tank hibernating or Twilight refusing to accept that Pinkie had some innate power she'd never heard of.

      Delete
    3. Present Perfect27 May 2017 at 01:22

      I just never found the original joke funny, and overall, the yaks are exasperating.

      Delete

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