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| Remember when this scene was used to "prove" FlutterDash? |
Written by Dave Polsky
25 Mar 2011
My original rating: N/A
IMDB score: 7.3
The one with horse-drawn horse-drawn carriages.
Thoughts: Main complaint first: the moral equivalence drawn here is just bad. This is clearly buffalo land that's been invaded by Appleoosan ponies, yet by the end of the episode we're fed the idea that both have equal rights to it. I get why this show does it this way, and I think it can be risky to equate Equestria to Earth. But the resonances here are too much to ignore. I understand the show engaged a Native American consultant, and as like most English people I've never so much as met a Native American in the flesh, I'd be well out of my depth commenting on that. Well, beyond perhaps to say that Rainbow Dash is interesting in her full-throated conversion to the buffalo cause. So, to other matters. The episode is really rather funny. I've always liked the stallion-hauled train (more so than the cutesy Friendship Express). Braeburn is good value. Little Strongheart is a nice character. I like that a non-pony (Spike) gets on better with the buffalo. Pinkie's song is nicely done, given it's in-universe terrible. The pie fight, absurd and somewhat unPony as it may be, is entertaining. Both Thunderhooves and Silver Star are shown as personally brave leaders. And of course there's that lovely-looking candlelit scene on the train, where Fluttertree was born. This could easily have been a strong(heart) three for me, but I just can't ignore the basic unfairness of it all. That knocks off a full star.
Choice quote: Twilight: "Well, that was kinda huffy." Fluttershy: "Huffy the magic dragon."
New rating: ★★
Next up is "A Bird in the Hoof", which I have long considered an underrated episode. Yes, Fluttershy has something to do with this, but it's not just because she's in it. Honest, guv!
For me, I get what they were trying to go for with this episode and both parties felt that they were right and the other were wrong. This portion of the land belonged to the Buffalo first and foremost and then some group of strangers come along, claiming it for themselves and not even bothering to ask if it was okay (Course, I bet even if the ponies 'did' Thunderhooves would've initially said 'no' anyway). The Settlers, on the other hoof, they wanted a place to call their own, to expand their businesses, raise their families and to pursue a new life and didn't think they were hurting any creature. But the thing about land is that it's been around for billions and billions of years and even back when the earliest creatures roamed the land, there was no 'ownership' we just used it to fit our needs. While I do appreciate the need to show equality, how they can learn to 'share' the land and not fight like children over it, I'm just not sure if the emotional value was all there (Hence it's no wonder the buffalo make any further appearances before eventually get shafted by Yaks... Which I'll get to later).
ReplyDeleteAll flaws and questionable tactics aside (Like how no creature was willing to listen to the Mane Six), the episode itself is still pretty decent. We get to see Rainbow Dash see first hand what the land 'does' mean to the buffalo (Proving her loyalty is not just restricted to ponies), we see Spike interact nicely with said buffalo, we get to see more of Equestria with Appleloosa, the horse-drawn 'train', the new characters were enjoyable, and even the action sequences were fun (Like the pie fight and the train robbery). Even though some folk weren't crazy about 'Pinkie's Song', I did understand what she was trying to do in getting the message across but either it was orchestrated at the wrong time or it just wasn't rubbing well for either the ponies or buffalo.
Overall, this episode is not something I'd call 'perfect' by any means but I still think it's at least 'passable' in terms of whether folks would watch it or not.
I think this one may suffer a bit because of the generally very high standard of the episodes around it. I'd rather watch any of episodes 16 through 18, 20, 22, 23, 25 and 26 than this. (Although of course the later ones haven't been reassessed yet, so it's possible my feelings on those may change.)
DeleteYeah, this has always been tainted by the uncomfortable parallels it draws with real life history. I actually can't believe they had any kind of consultant; that's the first I've heard of it and goes to show that you can't get a group's consensus from a single voice.
ReplyDeleteAnd that tainting has always been a shame, because the opening sequence on the train is one of the funniest in the show's entire run. Just nonstop gags, the kind of thing Polsky was always good at. Plus no one ever remembers weaponized pastry was a thing. :(
The info about the consultant comes from a book I found on Google Books called Orienting Feminism, which itself quotes a Lauren Faust DA comment from 2011. Here's the Google Books link.
DeleteI'm not sure I agree with its conclusions, but that essay link is fascinating!
DeleteIsn't it? A shame a couple of pages are left out of the preview, though I can hardly object to that! And it's nice to have a rather more recent look at MLP than the 2012-vintage ones we tend to get. I don't think I've seen an essay like this refer (albeit very briefly) to a Season 7 episode before!
DeleteThe other reason it's a shame is I actually wanted to see more the buffalo. Like, them, the Diamond Dogs and zebras, I was really hoping we'd see them in the School of Friendship, but no, they're inferior beings who do not deserve to bask in the light of pony civilization.
DeleteI mean, I can see why the show runners would be like, "We are pretending the buffalo never happened," but c'mon. :B
One of my fondest unfulfilled wishes was for us to see a visit to the zebra homeland, and for them all to be just like ponies, with mundane day jobs and shops and whatever, and they'd all talk normally, and when Rainbow or whoever asked them about Zecora they'd say "oh, you mean that weirdo hermit that only spoke in rhyme and went out to live in the forest?"
DeleteI don't intend to go into an exhaustive list of reasons why, but (mainly because I generally see so much dislike for this episode) I'm just going to pin my colours to the mast and say that this was one of the upper tier episodes of season one for me. A shame some of the characters never got an encore performance, but given how that went for some of the characters who did, maybe that's for the best! But yeah, this one is a whole lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteYou're not the only one who likes this episode. Mike regards it fairly highly, though with some reservations.
DeleteI didn't find this episode distasteful, just really boring, so I don't have much to say about it. It's a shame that yet again, we get world-building of another race that never appeared again, even though they visited southwest locales more than once after. Furthermore, unlike the diamond dogs, we even got a named character this time. But alas, no Little Strongheart ever got used in another episode.
ReplyDeleteWe did at least get the odd buffalo in the background (eg in the rodeo crowd in "Appleoosa's Most Wanted"), so I suppose that puts the buffalo slightly up from the diamond dogs. Not by much, though, I'll grant.
DeleteEven without the casual, condescending racism, I'd dislike this episode for all the awkward nonsense Polsky shoe-horned in just for the sake of cheap gags.
ReplyDeleteThis is the episode that almost made me give up on the show. I filed it away under "Dumb-ass Crap for Kiddies" and assumed the couple episodes I thought were brilliant had been aberrations. If my friend who had introduced me to MLP hadn't forced me to sit down and watch the rest of Season 1 with her, I'd never have gone on.
There was a Native consultant? Really? Well, I hope he enjoyed his paycheck... and choked to death on an apple he bought with it.
So, yeah... -5 out of 5 from me.
If I'm interpreting Faust's comments correctly, the Native consultant was reactive more than proactive. She talks about revising the script in light of the notes he provided. I'm not qualified to comment properly on this subject, of course.
DeleteYour apple comment reads as though it's a reference to something specific -- but if so, I'm afraid I don't know it.
Wow! You meant it was even worse?
DeleteApples are red on the outside, white on the inside.
I suppose the original script is probably somewhere in that mass of leaked/hacked documents, but I don't really have any inclination to look at it.
DeleteEvery so often, you have that episode of piece of entertainment that you enjoy/like more then it deserves, or where there are issues and you're very much aware they are a thing, but they just don't affect your enjoyment of the episode. For me, "Over a Barrel" is one of those episodes. Like Logan, I live in a whole different world for which Native American exposure go about as far as occasional glimpses in media like this, so while I acknowledge the issues some how, they just don't affect me.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I just don't think this episode is that offensive at all. The consulting work is clear to me in the treatment of the buffalo from a character standpoint, where there are no major hiccups, and while the story makes some unwise decisions that certainly stand to trivialise decades/centuries of the real-world events it's alluding to (and as Logan said, the buffalo did have far more rights to the land, no two ways about it), it is simply nowhere near the episode-damaging problem that many claim it is.
A pity the buffalo portrayal, theme and moral have overwhelmed most people's opinions of this one, because I think it has a lot going for it that the series, if I'm being frank, often stumbled on in the future. Our first episode outside of Ponyville fully and our first adventure episode since "Dragonshy" 14 episodes prior uses a rarely-used-since Splitting Up The Party plot direction to great effect. Having smaller groups of ponies allows for them to actually get chances to fully matter to the proceedings and not just "be there", as we will see time and time again with most two-parters in the future. Yes, Rarity and Fluttershy are largely trivial to the plot, but they're still fine and get funny moments throughout, especially their standout moments at the non-sequitur sequence at the start. It's an episode with a lot of characters that matter, so balancing 5 of the Mane 7, Braeburn, the Sherrif, Little Strongheart and Chief Thunderhooves should be commended, even if the episode does wrap up a bit quickly as a result of that. Toss in Rainbow Dash being awesome and probably Spike's best role to this point, and it's a subtle character winner in its own way for me.
I also think that in terms of episodes where our Mane 7 (or some of them) go to a far away location to help or to fix a problem, this one just makes it feel so much more organic then the plot device that was the Cutie Map. What's curious about this episode is that the Mane 7 sometimes feel tangential to the issue, but in a way that actually strengths the plot - this issue between the settlers and the natives has being going on for a while, it isn't just going to shift everyone's focus to the interlopers as soon as they arrive. Really, were it not for this episode's portrayal and moral problems it would be an adventure episodes for the ages. Add in a fun Western town (that appeals to me despite not normally liking that sort of thing), even if its trappings tend to be diluted in viewers' eyes by the other things in the episode, and plenty else I didn't mention, and it's just an episode I like a decent bit more then most.
I am fair enough to admit this episode's problems, be they actual ones or ones blown out of proportion by others, do place it in the season's bottom half, but this IS Season 1. And despite me being objective and giving it a 7.5/10 as a result, there are many 8/10 episodes I'd be less likely to reach for a rewatch then this.
Truth be told, I just miss the days in entertainment when something like this, that is not that offensive but which some people automatically assume it is based on the premise and illusions therein, could get made. What a creativity-stifling PC culture we live in. God it makes me feel weird even saying that - this is why I stay away from politics, I'm way out of my depth here. Better stick to analysing cartoons.
The offense comes from analyzing the outcome of the pie fight in terms of actual American history. :B It's not great, but also not something I'd expect a non-American to really be invested in.
DeleteCredit where it's due, you make a really good explanation of all the parts of this episode that DID work. Even if I will never forgive the Wild West puns. >:V
@Mike Cartoon Karma -- Well, I must admit I expected more negativity about this episode than I've actually seen. I knew iisaw hated it, but I thought one or two others might dislike it that much too. In fact, most people have a somewhat mixed view of it -- which also ties in with its mediocre-but-not-awful IMDb rating.
DeleteHaving read all these comments now, I'm fairly sure in my own rating. Unlike iisaw, I think quite a few of the gags are genuinely funny. But unlike you, I think the way the moral is presented hurts the episode overall quite a lot. So two stars seems about right.
Not going anywhere near your last para! I talk a lot about political stuff... but not generally here. :P
@Present Perfect: Terrible puns are a glory and should be encouraged. :P But yeah, the distance we have over here from American history is inescapable, especially as there's really no parallel to it. The Roman invasion in the first century is about the closest (despite obvious differences) I can think of in British history, and that's not exactly a live political issue these days...
"I live in a whole different world for which Native American exposure go about as far as occasional glimpses in media like this."
Delete"I just don't think this episode is that offensive at all."
These facts may not be unconnected. :/