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| "It was one of Sugar Belle's rejected suggestions..." |
S7E11: "Not Asking for Trouble"
My original rating: ★★
IMDb score: 6.7
Thoughts: I didn't dole out two-star reviews all that often back in 2017, but "NAfT" managed it, and I can't say I'm more appreciative of the first of May Chan's two FiM episodes today. I'm hardly the first to say this, but it's just not very interesting. Because, at least until Yona gets here next season, the yaks aren't very interesting, even when we see some of their own culture. Prince Rutherford's attitude is more tedious than amusing, frankly. True, Pinkie has quite a decent episode – certainly compared with one or two of her own future efforts – and she definitely tries hard; but while that does help a bit, I don't think it helps enough. Also, the latter part of the ep is another example of "We are ponies, we'd better go and civilise these poor non-pony barbarians". (Okay, not quite, but there's a little hint of it.) Still a two-star episode, I'm afraid. It's just not interesting enough to get more.
Choice quote: Prince Rutherford: "Pink pony ask too many questions."
New rating: ★★
We've reached the S7 mid-season hiatus. If we ignore Australian TV's decision to push ahead with the season, it would be two months before the next episode went out. This was the generally quite well received (including by me) "Discordant Harmony". A Fluttershy story, you say? Don't mind if I do!
I just finished watching this episode, and I'm straining to find much of anything to say about it. Okay, that's not completely true: Pinkie is in pretty good form here, and even more so than usual, Andrea Libman clearly had an absolute ball (her deep voice when impersonating/reciting yaks is just as charmingly cheesy as it sounds). But really, in a season that has its fair share of "oh yeah, I guess that episode happened", this may be the most forgettable of them all. I dare say, even when most people strain, they don't remember anything beyond "Yaks refuse to ask Pinkie for help despite clearly needing it".
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to say this is because the yaks were always a hopeless case, but I'll say this in "Party Pooped"'s favour – they were meant to be a joke there. This episode does a weird thing where all the lore regarding them there is played straight here, as are all the new aspects, even though it feels like it should be mined for jokes. Seriously – no one comments on the yak's inability to deal with an avalanche the Mane 6 sort out in one night, despite this being their natural habitat, or how this kingdom turns out to be a village with a population of a dozen (budget doesn't excuse this, DHX has well conquered large crowds by now).
And with this weird reluctance to do anything with the yak's oddities except just present it as-is, and have Pinkie react totally straight-laced, the events just sit there, from the long eight minutes before the avalanche taken up with activities that aren't even weird, just sad. Ditto for the following eight where even the other Yak's clearly wanting to ask for help barely registers.
It's one of the few episodes where I really don't know what the point of it is. The ostensible moral of Rutherford wanting help but being too proud to ask for it doesn't really fly, what with the script not having him phrase a sentence to imply that he will accept help, he just won't ask for it, and Pinkie just misses it. You know, what this moral-centric show would absolutely do and you probably presumed this episode did without rewatching it. Also, the conclusion after the Mane 6 have tidied the village is brushed by so quick I checked the pre-animation script to see if there were time cuts, but nope – it's exactly as lightning quick there, just 24 pages total. So we really are only left with "ponies can do anything better than non-ponies". Which is uncomfortable as always, but the episode cares too little about that for it to feel intentional either.
All these weird decisions don't work for those viewers who liked the yaks before, and they sure don't work for those who found them irritating before either. Given they were joke characters, it doesn't feel like a betrayal and doesn't actively irritate, not like some other ones this season. But with weird choices not played for comedy, and more lethargic and lopsided Season Seven pacing (like others, the third act occupies like a quarter of the episodes), to the point you could quite easily squeeze it down to 11 minutes, it's just there. Shy of handpicking some good gags (and even the good ones fall shy of their potential – the opening "Pinkie send lots of letters pestering for an invite" bit is both overplayed and underplayed in a way that cancels itself out), it's a real nothingburger, and in the most nothingburger season of the show, that's saying a lot.
"...this may be the most forgettable of them all."
DeleteConsidering I had forgotten the episode existed, and even after Logan's review, couldn't quite remember what it was about, I'd say that's a pretty good call.
I completely did not remember what this episode was till you mentioned yaks, at which point all I can say is... ugh, yaks.
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna be the odd one out and say that I liked "Not Asking For Trouble" waaaaay more than "Party Pooped". Like, the comparison's not even close as far as I'm concerned.
ReplyDeleteThe reason being: that ep made the yaks vicious ingrates and sent Pinkie on a nonsensical journey that was more confusingly awkward than remotely funny; this ep at least makes the yaks likeably pally in the first third (look, Rutherford has a sense of humour!) and Pinkie actually takes to it like a duck to water (so there's a real connection between her and them established before the crisis hits).
None of this changes the fact that the yaks become stubborn idiots who either should know how to deal with native avalanches or should have gone extinct from starvation centuries ago. Nor does it change the deeply uncomfortable overtones of the ponies swooping in, the apparent lesson being that you should disregard people's consent and they'll secretly be grateful for it (yeah, because that's not asking for trouble, is it?).
But by god, I'll take "self-harming stubborn fools" over "dangerously aggressive selfish babies", and especially "help people who are too proud to help themselves" over "suck up to the bullies who trash anything you do to welcome them, and trash it on the weakest technicalities". I mean: likeable yaks; Pinkie being given any personal reason and rapport to care about; silly comedy (Pinkie's obsession with horn bumps single-hoofedly trumps any of the tryhard attempts at comedy in the prior ep, in my book) over jerkass or random "comedy"; a moral that is slightly less toxic and backhanded than the last one; at least attempting to build a proper yak culture (e.g. how much they love to tell self-aggrandizing tall tales) instead of making them one-note bad jokes with no charm...
It is far from being "good", much less "great", but I'll take "Not Asking For Trouble" if it's on, at least. Which is more than I can say for many Season Seven eps.
Not the odd one out -- Chris (below) enjoyed this episode too!
DeleteWell, this is the end of where I watched up to; for scheduling, interest, and life-getting-crazy-at-the-wrong-time reasons, I never picked FiM back up after that hiatus.
ReplyDeleteInteresting too, that we should leave off on two episodes you and I disagree so much about, especially considering that your opinions and mine are usually so in sync! My opinion about the Starlight/princess episode was well-enough documented at the time, and although NAfT did indulge in some unfortunate shortcuts, I still really enjoyed it, and might even call it my favorite of my last (half) season.
In both cases, of course, I was very much an outlying opinion, which in this case almost certainly means my opinions are wrong -- okay, "idiosyncratic"-- and yours are right.
Anyway, I'm really only commenting here to say that I enjoy reading these re-watch takes, even if I rarely comment, and that even as you move into wholly unfamiliar-to-me territory where I DEFINITELY won't have anything to say, I plan to keep reading them. Don't take my silence for disinterest, please!
-Chris
I'm glad you stopped on an episode you liked, at least. A bit of a shame in a way, in that I at least find the next two episodes good-to-great and the one after that at least wasn't boring. Still, you might have thought very differently.
DeleteThank you for the kind words, too! It's nice of you to carry on after the end of "your" FiM, but you'll certainly be most welcome even if you remain silent. :)
It says a lot about the quality of the first half of season seven when the first bad episode shows up at #11. Even All Bottled Up isn't really that bad; with a few tweaks, it could be good. Great, even!
ReplyDeleteAs for Not Asking for Trouble, this one was so forgettable I don't remember much about it. It's really dull throughout, and I don't really know what the message is, nor do I care to find out. Overall, skippable.