Slightly late today, for which apologies, but here's Text Review Roundup for the latest episode. As I've already mentioned, I will be sticking to the US Discovery Family schedule for these, and not taking any notice of the early Italian releases. Since I'm not at a convention this weekend (boo!) I should be able to get back on to my usual timetable next week. On the plus side, Dark Qiviut is back! Yay!
The reviewers were all over the place this time. Broadly speaking, if you disliked this, you probably really disliked it – there wasn't a "slightly negative" to be seen. Actually, I was probably the closest to that! Several reviewers really enjoyed it, though there wasn't total agreement on what the moral actually was. Also, yaks are still base breakers. I wonder how this episode will age?
Cuddlepug
– positive (graded A-; "a heartfelt and sweet episode, and one that shows that chivalry isn't dead ")
Note: most of the rest of Cuddlepug's review is distinctly NSFW.
Dark Qiviut – very positive ("it’s a sneaky great one [...] a whole lot of really good comedy [...] The primary lesson from She's All Yak is not to feel like you have to erase your own identity to belong[, which is] not the same [as simply "be yourself"])
DrakeyC
– very negative ("The yaks are not funny. Yaks acting like yaks is not funny. Yona acting like a yak is not funny. Stop trying to make yaks happen, they're not gonna happen.")
Dramamaster829
– fairly positive ("while the plot formula is very familiar to the fans (Especially if they’ve
seen ‘My Fair Lady’) and could’ve used a more thorough conflict, to me I
still consider this a fun episode")
JDPrime22
– fairly positive (rated 7/10; "All the wacky antics can get a little old, but that single moment where
Sandbar meets Yona in their little clubhouse was just perfection.")
Lightening McQueen – very positive ("It was really good! [...] The story just sounds so heartwarming [...] Sandbar even did so well to comfort Yona after she felt humiliated")
Louder Yay – mixed (rated "a high" 2/5; "Not up to the standard of Hohlfeld's other two eps, thanks largely to
the unoriginal plot and moral, but fairly watchable all the same [...] But you really do need to like Yona.")
Mike Cartoon Pony
– very negative ("Honestly, in the 33 episodes I've been following the show, plus the
various specials and shorts, there hasn't been an episode that appealed
to me less then this.")
MLEEP Reviews
– positive (rated 9/10; "despite having a story and moral that we've seen numerous times before, 'She's All Yak' was just the rebound that Season 9 of My Little Pony needed in order to get back on track again...just like Yona, it proves that being yourself can truly help you to go far no matter how popular you are.")
Present Perfect – very negative ("there was so much blushing in this episode, I could cover a football field in angry puke [The students] aren’t used well, the story is cliched, and it’s based on a terrible, stupid, upsetting idea.")
The Railfan Brony – fairly positive (rated Good; "a nice, charming little episode, but the regurgitated storyline and overused moral bring it down for me. And yet the character moments and development just barely manage to salvage the whole thing.")
TheDragonWarlock
– fairly positive (rated 7.5/10; "[The song is only average and the] plot is predictable as they come, but the episode still delivers some fun [and] gives some character development for Yona and Sandbar [and] some shipping fuel")
I'll say one thing for this episode: It made me realize, if not why people like Yona, then at least why she's objectively the best character in the Student Six.
ReplyDeleteI'm serious.
See, Sandbar aside, the Students represent two things: characters who can learn the same friendship lessons the mane six, Discord and Starlight learned years ago, and in-universe diversity. It's that latter point I want to focus on.
Now admittedly, this mostly comes down to "the show runners don't utilize other species well and never have". I mean, look at Ocellus. There are stories that could be told about a shy, nerdy girl who has the ability to look like anything she can imagine, but there hasn't been one. Mostly because she hasn't had her own episode. But the scenes that focus on her outside of her introduction are either about new changelings in general, or her turning into a giant bug or something and fucking everything up. Ignoring the fact that she's had little in the way of character development, there's nothing really inherently changeling about her. She might as well just be a shy pony with a crazy special talent.
The same can be said for Smolder, Gallus and Silverstream. The episode about inherently hippogriff problems focused on Silverstream's brother. She's just a flibbertigibbet who can sometimes turn into a fish-thing. And so far, when she does, nothing really comes from it.
Likewise, for Smolder and Gallus, their major character traits -- being tsundere, grumpy jerks -- can be linked to their species, but nevertheless is not exclusive to them. They're basically just big jerk ponies in weird fursuits. Even though Smolder's deal is continually defining what is and is not "dragon", there's nothing any more inherently "dragon" about her than there is "griffon" about Gallus.
And if you think I'm going off the rails, compare them all to Yona. Being a yak is central to her character, yet neither is she archetypal of her stupid, stupid fucking species. I've said before that I won't argue with those who call her "best yak"; she's the most likely to claw her way out of the cultural cesspool she calls a home.
Yona is a yak on her own terms, but she's still a yak. She grows and changes while the rest of her kind remain one-note foreigner jokes. She's got a reason to exist in this cast, a reason to be her own character, and this episode was all about the mane six blithely destroying that.
I don't know what these people want anymore.
I never thought about it that way. I don't know how many people realise all that on a conscious level, but I'm sure some of Yona's fans feels all that, in a vague instinct sort of way. And I can see not just the "best yak" thing, but also why those who tolerated the Yaks, or didn't like them before at all, could and have warmed to her greatly. She has potential, like most of the Student 6 (well, Sandbar excepted). And this episode is the polar opposite of that. Even apart from what the Mane 5 almost did to her this episode; it portrays her as having a serious Yak identity crisis. Even if she's more open to Pony ways then the rest of her species, she wouldn't have that. There would need to be a balance between her keeping to her roots and embracing Pony ways. Would that be an interesting episode? Probably not, but it wouldn't be outright character assassination like this was.
DeleteYou're so right about Ocellus; early on, I thought she showed the most potential of the Student 6, being a peculiur mix of Twilight's studiousness and Fluttershy's timidness. And the changeling backdrop. But like you said, outside of infrequent gags and her segment in What Lies Beneath (arguably the most out-of-nowhere of the ones there) she could easily be a pony. Doesn't help that that potentially interesting mix of Fluttershy/Twilight was so diluted down after School Daze as to only inform her in the most scattershot of ways thereafter; shift out School Daze, and she's the one with the least distinctive personality after Sandbar.
Well, at least that's two episodes of this season (presumed) Student 6 quota filled. Can't be even a few left. Though if they make them the new Elements of Harmony... [shudders]
If they were gonna do that, they were gonna do it at the end of S8. And they honestly should have instead of teasing it, then pulling the punch at the last second. That was just stupid, like anti-fan-baiting because they knew people would be mad. There was just no reason for them not to come together in some kind of new magical macguffin with those relics.
DeleteTell me about it, so true. And here's the kicker - that couldn't have been a reaction to the Student 6's tepid reception, because since episodes are written between a year and a half to a year before airing, that finale's script would have been in the can right when the Movie was coming out, a full 5 months before Season 8 debuted and any viewers first experienced the Student 6.
DeleteThat said, its script would have being finalised around the time they got the word from Hasbro that Season 9 was the last. So maybe they decided to scrap a Student 6-heavy Season 9 in favour of bringing it back to the Mane 7 again, to go out with a bang? Being the first time they would have known next season was the last and all.
Other theories I have had have to do with the toy industry crash; the School of Friendship and the Student 6 were probably green-lit before that, and then that crash happened (hence so little merch of either the school or the Student 6; Hasbro refocused mostly on Marvel and Star Wars). I'll bet the news came to the staff that the goal of those things wouldn't help toy sales after all, and that the staff were free to deemphasize them. So they did just that in School Raze to allow for a Season 9 where they were less pivotal.
Or maybe they just realised as Season 8 was progressing and animation was coming in that the Student 6/school weren't working at all (pity that didn't happen at the writing or animatic stage...), and decided to pull the plug on them becoming successors to the Elements.
I realise these answers are all very cynical, and there are probably better ones. But so much of what happens in Season 8, especially regarding the Student 6 and the school, or frustrating beyond belief. It defies explanation.
It's even worse than that. No hyperbole, man.
DeleteIt's a fancy occasion, a celebration. Yaks may not be ponies, but they have to have those sorts of things, too. They absolutely must have some sort of fancy-dress costume, and special little ceremonies that are congruent to what the ponies are doing.
They could have made it a lesson on how different cultures might clash a bit, even when they're aiming at the same goal. (And yaks would have been fantastic for this!) The Young Six learn how to make it all work out in the end... maybe even teaching their elders something about cross-cultural appreciation.
There is a tiny bit of that at the end with the students doing the yak dance, but it's too little, too late. And the half-dozen idiot/insensitivity balls that were handed out to the Mane Six to set up the "conflict" were... *sigh*.
The worst for me is that this was a terrific opportunity for a really good and rare Aesop that was missed by a mile.
Now, I'll be the first to admit I still have not warmed to the Student 6 nearly as much as most. And I can see how people have warmed to Yona especially.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm still flabbergasted this episode's general reaction wasn't substantially weaker. Sure, it seems to be a near-consensus peak for 2nd weakest thus far this season after Uprooted, but still... I look at all the above reviews that are positive, and even if many of them are mild or with reservations, I'm still as stunned as a ghost. Even IF a plurality of people freely admit Yona makes the episode that much better for them, it still comes across as giving it a free pass.
Applejack and Spike are my favourites of the Mane 7, but that doesn't mean I'm more indisposed to episodes featuring them. More indisposed to wanting to like them, yes, but I'll be the first to admit both those characters have wobbly track records as leads, and even are intricately not well-suited to being leads in the first place. So I judge them as I would any episode.
I do not envy those people their enjoyment. It honestly is a comfort to know lots of people had a decent-to-good time with this. I just honestly don't see it, not when episodes I consider far, far stronger get similar reception. I guess what I'm saying is, most of the time the fandom's collective response makes sense, even if you as a viewer don't agree with it. I still feels School Raze is a mess, but I can see why fans enjoy its kitchen sink approach. But this... I remain floating and flabbergasted in stunned silence, my friends.
I think there's a receptive audience for a simple "Be yourself" message (with the reservation that Dark Qiviut didn't see it quite that way), plus another receptive audience for Young Six shipping/shipteasing, plus another receptive audience for pretty much anything Yona.
DeleteWow, it looks like this ep's received more positive rating than I expected, Yona must be the factor.
ReplyDeleteI think there's probably some truth in that, yes.
DeleteLike Mike above, I'm really surprised this wasn't the consensus pick for "Worst of Season 9 To Date".
ReplyDeleteI understand Yona's natural likeability carrying a lot of the weight, and on rewatching it a few more times, the Sandbar/Yona scene in the treehouse is a real keeper (because I'm a total sucker for just seeing these characters hanging out together). Another good thing that really resonated more when I rewatched: it's Yona herself, not Rarity or the others, who first posits and then doubles down on specifically wanting to be more like a pony in order to fit in - which the Mane 6 in "helper mode" obviously do their best to facilitate, much like the CMC with Gabby. Their fault is not trying to turn her into a pony, but failing to point out to Yona that it's totally unnecessary and also a stupid idea. Rather than being blithely unaware of their cultural whitewashing, they're only TOO aware of it, and the idea they're all faintly uncomfortable with the concept all along, as Rainbow Dash all but voices at the end, is a nice one.
But the rest... meh. Another thing that jumped out on rewatching is Spike's DJ Scales 'n' Tail bit falling into what I'm going to call the Ragamuffin Zone; the script either expended too much, or not enough, screen time to develop the bit, and ended up just being faintly annoying.
It's really interesting to me that so many of the reviewers specifically mention My Fair Lady, but not She's All That, the fellow Pygmalion adaptation which is also the episode's namesake, and which is *much* closer in plot terms. (Maybe because My Fair Lady is amazing and She's All That is pretty poor, but still.)
Also, right, getting something off my chest here... I liked Uprooted, and I don't like how it's apparently becoming just an accepted fact that it was the weakest episode of the series. I liked the students' dumb ideas and their bickering, I liked Yona being the voice of reason and the emotional anchor, I liked Thorax emphasising Ocellus' status as an ambassador. The bit where the new treehouse appears, and the Messenger explains what happened and what it's for, legitimately made me tear up, and my children were genuinely awestruck. I'd take that one over five of these.
/rant over
Another excellent and fascinating roundup, Logan, thank you for your time and effort pulling these together!
I wasn't that fond of Spike's scenes, even if I did pick one as a screenshot. As for She's All That, it's probably simply that fewer people have seen it. I haven't, for one.
DeleteAlso, right, getting something off my chest here... I liked Uprooted, and I don't like how it's apparently becoming just an accepted fact that it was the weakest episode of the series.
Yeah, it's always irritating when this happens to an episode you like. (I liked "Flutter Brutter" far more than the consensus, for example.) I'm afraid "Uprooted" might be only just above "She's All Yak" for me, though.
I'm putting this one down as another fantastic opportunity for the Young Six to make some solid and valuable observations on cross-cultural friendship while also showing their character growth... that was completely wasted.
ReplyDeleteThat's what makes it such a bad episode for me; not that it's just a dumb and trite story that can be summed up in a shrug and a "meh", but that it could easily have been incredibly good!
I wonder whether "meh" might actually be the best summing up of my feelings towards it. I didn't hate it, really I didn't, but nor did I get excited about it.
DeleteI've now seen episode 8, however... though I'll say no more on that until I post my review!