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| "Er, Twi? You sure about this new spell o' yours?" |
Written by Dave Polsky
11 Feb 2011
My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 7.2
The one with Pinkieus Pieicus
Thoughts: Dave Polsky makes his debut, completing the S1 lineup, and he does so with an episode that was an early source of significant brony controversy. You can see why some fans felt Pinkie's eventual convincing of Twilight over Pinkie Sense felt a bit like a "faith beats science" moment, though I've softened a little on that since Polsky's BUCK 2014 panel inluded a spirited defence of the episode. (I was at that talk, and a lot of attendees were impressed.) It still doesn't quite feel right, though at least we get plenty of good ol' Snarky!Twi first. We also get the series' first out-and-out fandom nod, with Derpy – now with deliberately derped eyes! – prominent in the aerial removals squad; the ep also sees Gummy's debut. Plus a good, fun – that fourth head – and dangerous monster in the hydra, though it was barely seen again. (Fluttershy didn't know how to calm it, either, though at least she remembered how to hop, skip and jump later.) We didn't see much more of Twi's basement lab, for that matter. Oh, and the episode also featured Twilight's well-remembered Rapidash moment. Plus she did charge the hydra, consciously channelling Rainbow Dash's bravery/stupidity, something worthy of note. While the episode does still rub me up just slightly the wrong way at times, there's a good deal of fun to be had here. Enough for three stars, when once I'd probably only have given it two.
Choice quote: Spike: "Can you do that? Can you explode twice?"
New rating: ★★★
Next up is "Sonic Rainboom", an episode I like – after all, it gave this blog its name! – but not one I adore as much as some of the fandom. Will that change this time? Wait and see!
It doesn't matter how many times people have reinterpreted the moral for me, how many times I've tried rewatching it with an open mind, or how often I try to convince myself there's some neat stuff in this ep (which you yourself highlight). I loathe this episode's entire existence. If you'd given it one star, I'd still think it was too favourable. Now I wouldn't rewatch it if you paid me.
ReplyDeleteWithout going into a long list of what this episode gets wrong, I think even its fans must admit there's one conspicuously big problem: it's so egregiously one-sided. From the moment the conflict is set up, Twilight the Skeptic is 100% Wrong and Pinkie the Believer is 100% Right and the entire episode's stock Believer-Versus-Skeptic plot gives us, on one side, a suddenly jerkass Twilight who get abused by the cosmos for daring to not take what appears to be a superstition despite her being educated in freaking magic at an academic institution (because if there's one thing the world needs, it's more anti-intellectualist snobbery), and on the other side, a Purity Sue Creator's Pet Pinkie Pie who, when she's not more charmless than the Road Runner, is spouting "belief" and "leap of faith" wisdom that'd sound cloying in a religious propaganda movie.
Problem number two is confusing epistemology (what is true, what is a real phenomenon?) with ethics (what is right, what is the correct way to behave?), and that's a philosophical no-no. Twilight's attempts to study the phenomenon, even if she does it in a way that's against the objective scientific spirit, is equated with her being a relentless jerk towards Pinkie personally, such that she stops investigating completely the moment she has her epiphany. So "Pinkie Sense" is introduced as something that breaks established world-building laws, is only ever used as a joke occasionally thereafter, and Twilight's character development, apparently, consists of just leaving it untouched and unsullied by scientific attempts to incorporate the phenomenon into a fuller understanding. Come on, people: do I really have to explain why this rubs people the wrong way, or is a horrible idea to propagate?
And even allowing that the moral of being open-minded is a good one (though fuck the way this episode teaches that), what really sticks in my craw is the mean-spirited way the episode enforces that. It's apparently not enough that the cosmos hates Twilight for Not Believing, screws around with her by being coy when she's actually in her science basement trying to get data on this thing, and even physically abuses her to the point she's in a wheelchair by the end of it (Twilight's pissed off for much of this episode, and after the crap she's put through, I'm not fucking surprised), the episode has the gall to suggest a skeptic changing their mind is a bigger "doozy" than nearly getting eaten by a rampaging murder-beast.
This episode can fuck right off to Hell, and I don't say that lightly. It is by far the worst episode of Season One, possibly of the entire show. If Polsky wants to defend it three years after the fact, he's four years too fucking late as far as I'm concerned.
Not really much point in my replying to that as such, but I will say that I read every word. I always do.
DeleteAfter reading this comment, I look at A Trivial Pursuit and think, "So Twilight's just always been a dick to Pinkie specifically, then."
DeleteI gotta say... I don't disagree with you.
DeleteDespite an okay episode (or two?) later on, Polsky gave us the two episodes I loathe the most out of the whole run of the show... and in the first season, no less!
The worst thing about his writing was that he was so out of tune with the show as a whole. He threw in random crap that like pies as weapons, salt as alcohol, "Heap-big" buffalo, and ponies pulling locomotives that were wisely ignored by future writers. But unfortunately, some of the things he started got traction.
I hate to be so negative, but he really IS a classic example of a "turd in the punch bowl."
*looks up what the other S1 Polsky episode is* Ah. That's going to be a slightly weird one for me to write about, for reasons I'll get into when we get there.
DeleteAnyway, I'd like to point out at this juncture that -- in spite of how it probably feels just now -- I'm not actually alone in thinking "Feeling Pinkie Keen" is other than a disaster. I refer you fine people to Mike Cartoon Pony's review. He is considerably more positive about this episode than I am!
Incidentally, I'm curious about that summary of other people's reviews you used to post. For the more recent seasons. You thought of doing that for this retrospective too?
DeleteYou mean Text Review Roundup? I did briefly consider doing something of the sort, but I ran into the problem that there really aren't many reviews still around from the early days -- and most of those that are left are buried deep in the archives of forums and, a bit later, Fimfiction. Being completely honest, digging them out seemed like it would be more work than I really wanted to put in. Even doing TRR weekly was fairly hard going at times, and I'm doing MLR several times a week.
DeleteYup, them's the ones. I used them when judging which episodes might interest me in season eight especially.
DeleteOh, it's perfectly understandable if that's the case, especially the practical problems involved. Just thought it'd be an interesting add-on.
It's not like I didn't try to enjoy this episode. Lots of people insisted it's not as bad as I thought. But I just kept finding it unpleasant and hard to get into, doubly so when I felt I then had to explain to people that I was not getting what they were getting. I almost didn't post this comment at all. I didn't think it'd be received well.
ReplyDeleteI definitely apologize for the excess and gratuitous swearing, though. That was uncalled for. Is there any way to go back and edit my comment, maybe tone it down a bit?
Impossible Numbers
I'm not at all personally offended, so please don't worry about that. I'm sorry if the briefness of my own comment gave you that idea. There's actually an episode coming (much) later in the series where I may be almost as negative, albeit less eloquently than you.
DeleteAs to your question: Blogger doesn't have an edit function, not even for blog owners, something that's irritated me for quite some while. You can either leave your comment as it is, or delete and repost from scratch. I'm perfectly okay with either option, so it's up to you.
Well, I loved it because it eloquently expressed my own hatred for the episode.
DeleteEr, well so long as the qualifying message is here too, I think i'll leave the original up as a cautionary reminder to myself not to get so heated again. I don't like the idea of burying my mistakes.
DeleteBesides, I don't know how to delete it either. :/
Isn't there a "Delete" link beneath your post, at least when you're logged in? If not, I can delete posts, though except in extreme circumstances I never do so without being asked by the poster. But since you've decided not to go down that route, that's academic now anyway.
DeleteIt's cool, man. I spent years spouting vitriol about the show to little or no effect, sometimes you just gotta go off. :B We've all been there, is my point, don't feel bad.
DeleteI'm not going to deny that 'Pinkie Keen' wasn't one of my favorite episodes of the season, suffice to say not one of my favorite episodes in the entire series. In some ways, I get where the controversy is coming from as the way they taught the moral of the story is about 'Having faith for things with little to no rational explanation' and I know a ton of fans who can take that lesson a little "too" seriously. But at the same time, the episode is a bit funny especially when Twilight tries to orchestrate the scientific approach to Pinkie's little 'quirks' only to be at the blunt end of the punishment in classic 'slapstick'/Wile E. Coyote scenes (Without the falling over the cliff bit, of course). Although Fluttershy could've at least "tried" to reason with the monster like she did with the Manticore (To be fair anyone would be scared of a giant multi-headed hydra if 'Hercules' is any consideration) or if Twilight could've tried to 'understand' Pinkie instead of proving her wrong about her 'Pinkie Sense', maybe this episode could've been better.
ReplyDeleteSuffice to say, Pinkie's abilities to predict future events would not be a one-shot deal. It would be a trait that carries on through the rest of the series, actually proving useful in some episodes though not often used. So in a way, while I may not be a fan of Dave Polsky episodes as flawed as some of them may be, if I were to mainly focus on the episode's humor and not attempting to find a 'story' to it... It is a pretty standard cartoon episode that will make people laugh to some degree.