S04E16: It Ain't Easy Being Breezies

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Re: Let's Re-Watch Week 15 : It Ain't Easy Being Breezies

Postby Perpetual Lurker (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 6:23 am

I actually loved this episode :fluttersmith:

I thought the Breezies were just as adorable as the show made them out to be, and Seabreeze is absolutely my favorite one-shot character in the history of the show. I never noticed any pacing problems, and in fact, I found the emotional moments to be incredibly effective as a climax.

But, to each their own, I suppose.
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Postby Skipper (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 7:17 am

I liked this episode.

Then again, I've never disliked one either, and sometimes I feel bad about that. Like, "damn, Skip, develop some critical thinking skills, will you!" And then I'm like, "OK, yeah, next time!"

But then I watch me some pone and go all :-D
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Postby PaulloDEC (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 9:28 am

My rewatch notes:

I wrote:Evolutionarily speaking, I'm pretty sure the Breezies should've died out a very long time ago. Amid the dozen or so that get stranded with Fluttershy in this episode, precisely one of them isn't a complete fucking moron. Seabreeze gets reprimanded for criticising the others by Fluttershy, but the truth is that he's absolutely right. Left to their own devices, that pack of mindless idiots would've been left stranded in Ponyville where they'd probably have been eaten by birds or crushed by acorns (had it not been for Fluttershy's unflappable kindness).

Seabreeze is a boss, by the way. It must suck to the be only Breezie with anything approaching a normal level of intelligence in the pack. His little Swedish/Scottish/Other(?) accent was great too.

So Levinger, I see you're one of those writers huh. Oh, something needs to go wrong does it? You need some character to be the cause of it? Who could you possibly choose for that role? Yup, it's Spike, as usual. First he's the one knocking down the leaf, then later he nearly causes Fluttershy to sit on a bunch of Breezies due to his overzealous apologising. WHY YOU DO THIS LEVINGER?

Super-easy fix. Instead of climbing on the branch and knocking the leaf down, how about he climbs on somepony's back, sees the leaf shake free in the breeze and tries to grab it? He could even leap across a few backs to try and get it, adding a little heroism to the mix. If you wanted the later scene with the rest of the gang, you could have him feeling guilty for failing to grab the leaf (rather than being the cause of it). Totally simple, and it makes Spike admirable and relatable, rather than just Ponyville's go-to klutz. Hell, even just leave him out entirely!

Toys. Pretty unsubtly, this is one of those lovely To Sell Toys™ episodes. The Breezies themselves were handled pretty interestingly, that being said. I liked the dynamic of the clueless herd mentality represented by the group versus the frustrated leadership Seabreeze offered. It got a little goofier when Twilight suddenly knows a super-convenient "turn everypony into breezies" spell though, not to mention the fact that the three pegasi (three isn't a lot) can't seem to handle a light breeze. Whatever though, we got that nice little Breezie Dimension scene out of it, so I can't complain much. Oh, and Rainbow Dash wanting to be a griffin, that was cute.

General note to writers: beware of catchphrases. We all know Fluttershy said "yay" that one time and it was really cute, but when you call that shit back it becomes a lot less special. Just sayin'.

Oh wow, just realised that Levinger wrote Pinkie Apple Pie too. This is definitely a step down from that one, but I'm guessing the toys thing was kind-of a tight reign on this particular script. Still not awful, just unremarkable and a little awkward overall.
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 11:37 am

I'm still not convinced that the transformation scene was there to sell toys, considering the fact that Hasbro has completely failed to deliver on any toys of the Breezified Mane Six, as well as hardly any toys of the Breezies at all. I really would like to know if it was an aborted toy mandate or if it was just something that Meghan and the gang thought would be cool.
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Postby Space Ghost (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 11:49 am

ROBOT B9 wrote:Well...Tailspin should be happy. :v:


I swear I have a Taily Sense for people mentioning my name. Something compelled me to look into this thread.
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Postby ROBOT B9 (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 12:14 pm

Maybe it's your superpower. :v:
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Postby Headless Horse (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 1:39 pm

I can't disagree with any of the criticisms that have been leveled against this one here already. It's just not a very good episode. Still, what I think separates this from, say, MMDW is that this one knows it's bad. It had the cards stacked against it from the beginning. (And for the record I'm going with the theory that it was a Hasbro mandate that they just failed to follow through on; Hasbro no doubt tries to sow all kinds of seeds here and there and only has the resources to take advantage of some of them down the road.)

I have the feeling that there must have been a lot of "one-two-three-not-it" in the writers' round table. They knew they had to do it, and maybe Levinger got it because she was the newbie, or maybe she volunteered because she wanted to tackle something challenging. But either way I think she took what she knew was a bad situation and made the best of it, by coming up with a reasonably engaging premise with some pretty good details and some good pony writing (notwithstanding the kinda-clever-but-not-awesome-enough-to-justify-the-cheapening-of-the-original "yay" callback that PaulloDEC rightly cocks an eyebrow at)—she just didn't really follow through very well with it, and probably because there's only so much any one person can do with this kind of situation.

Ultimately I just don't care about bugpones. And that's not because they're stupid assholes; I can care about stupid assholes if they're presented well enough. But these ones just don't seem to want me to care about them. And part of that may be the premise of getting them out of the picture as soon as possible. It's like the script is saying to me "Just tough it out, they'll be gone soon".

If Levinger (or the rest of the team) had cared about making the Breezies into a thing, I feel sure they would have put in the effort to come up with a less glaringly contrived and gratuitous final scene with the Mane Six Breezies or Twilight's ass-pull means of bringing it about. By that point they were positively telegraphing that they didn't want to be doing what they were doing, that this was just a thing they had to get through on the way to better episodes later. You win some, you lose some. It's the nature of the beast.
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Postby ShieldedDiamond (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 1:54 pm

This episode I felt was the weakest episode of the "key" series, and one of the worst episodes of the season, next to Simple Ways. I don't remember everything I didn't like about it, but I do remember there were so many things that bothered me about the episode.

First off, agreeing with what IAH, I am so sick of "Twilight's magic spell that saves the day!" It's awful, and cheap writing. That whole thing also felt shoved in and crammed for "We need to kill time." As a result, it's these kinds of episodes that make me doubt if the writing staff is really as good as we think it is. Because if this were the first episode I saw, I probably wouldn't be watching the rest of the show.

I also agree that it wastes great potential. Applejack's didn't make much sense to me, but that aside, all of them had their element being brought into question, and doubting it. I still hold Rarity Takes Manehattan as the best episode as the season, because I feel it handles that deal flawlessly. (Pinkie Pride was really good and silly, but I feel RTM portrays the lesson better.) In RTM, Rarity's generosity is taken from her, her fabric is stolen. Yes, Suri was a jerk, but here's th difference between RTM and IAEBB. In RTM, the episode isn't about Suri being a jerk. It's about Rarity's reaction to being taken advantage of, and how it blinds her entirely of what's going on. And in the end, it doesn't make the episode about Rarity getting revenge on Suri. Heck, despite not winning, Suri still gets away clean and free, not caught using stolen material. As a result, this episode is about Rarity. For IAEBB, this episode really puts more focus on the breezies, and as a result, it isn't about how Fluttershy handles this, but "Wow, the breezies are jerks, how will they get what they need?" So it's hard to see the lesson Fluttershy learned, when the episode is all about trying to get the breezies from point A to point B.

Fizzbuzz wrote:I'm still not convinced that the transformation scene was there to sell toys, considering the fact that Hasbro has completely failed to deliver on any toys of the Breezified Mane Six, as well as hardly any toys of the Breezies at all. I really would like to know if it was an aborted toy mandate or if it was just something that Meghan and the gang thought would be cool.


I think it was something Meghan and the gang are to blame for. Not everything in the show is inserted for toy mandate. If anything, maybe Hasbro said "We're making breezy toys." Then they said "Alright, we're going to make a whole episode about it."

Headless Horse wrote:(And for the record I'm going with the theory that it was a Hasbro mandate that they just failed to follow through on; Hasbro no doubt tries to sow all kinds of seeds here and there and only has the resources to take advantage of some of them down the road.)


I personally disagree with this, for as Fizzbuzz mentioned, there aren't Mane 6 breezie dolls, and so far, there are only 2 breezie toys, neither of which appear to be Seabreeze. There are plenty of toys that aren't in the show. Most recently, for example, Pinkie Pie's helicopter and Rarity's dress that turns into wings. If Hasbro is really trying to push toys in the show as much as people claim, wouldn't these be in the show too?

This is where I feel Hasbro is treated very unfairly. Whenever a bad episode pops up, most likely one of the first reactions is "Hasbro probably made them do it." But when it's a great episode, it's always "The writers did a great job." Are the writers never at fault?
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Postby TheNegaverser (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 2:30 pm

Skipper wrote:I liked this episode.

Then again, I've never disliked one either, and sometimes I feel bad about that. Like, "damn, Skip, develop some critical thinking skills, will you!" And then I'm like, "OK, yeah, next time!"

But then I watch me some pone and go all :-D


I can relate. :twasnothin:

I can't say I disliked this episode. At the same time, I liked it considerably less than most others. Bad writing and poor execution aside, I just didn't find this episode to be very interesting. For me, the vast majority of pony episodes are both enjoyable and memorable. This one was an entertaining an twenty minutes - nothing more, nothing less.

But at the end of the day, it's still pony. It still features the characters I know and love so much. It still takes place in the world that I find so fascinating. And it was still a pretty decent 20-minute chunk of my existense. And I'm OK with that!
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 2:33 pm

ShieldedDiamond wrote:First off, agreeing with what IAH, I am so sick of "Twilight's magic spell that saves the day!" It's awful, and cheap writing. That whole thing also felt shoved in and crammed for "We need to kill time." As a result, it's these kinds of episodes that make me doubt if the writing staff is really as good as we think it is. Because if this were the first episode I saw, I probably wouldn't be watching the rest of the show.

To be fair, every season has had a couple of episodes that the fandom generally considers to be stinkers. In fact, I think that's the case for pretty much every television show ever. I certainly don't think that Meghan McCarthy is receiving scripts on stone tablets inscribed by the hand of God or anything.
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Postby ROBOT B9 (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 2:37 pm

Yeah, probability alone dictates that there's going to be at least one bad episode in the show. But hey, some people like it and that's their thing. :pinkieshrug:
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Postby Big Boss (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 3:39 pm

It wasn't exactly a great episode, but it's worth it for Seabreeze alone. It could have used some of that "you sneeze like a kitten!" Gravity Falls sensibility. Definitely on the C-list.
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Postby Wayoshi (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 4:22 pm

Fizzbuzz wrote:I'm still not convinced that the transformation scene was there to sell toys, considering the fact that Hasbro has completely failed to deliver on any toys of the Breezified Mane Six, as well as hardly any toys of the Breezies at all. I really would like to know if it was an aborted toy mandate or if it was just something that Meghan and the gang thought would be cool.

I got the sense from a con that Levinger was a big G3 fan and really wanted it
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Postby Headless Horse (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 5:46 pm

By the way

Stargazer wrote:I'll re-watch it soon to see if I'll find redeemable qualities, but it ain't easy seeing Breezies...


:gotcha: Nice.
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Postby ROBOT B9 (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 5:48 pm

Ha, didn't catch that to begin with. :v:
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Postby Mechanical Ape (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 5:55 pm

I enjoyed this one overall -- maybe more than most, from the looks of it. It had a lot of problems, absolutely. But I liked the design of the Breezies (and Breezified ponies), their weird Scot-Norwegian accents, and admittedly I'm always a sucker for helium voices. :lol:

That said, I was expecting some sort of reveal on the Breezies' motivations which never came. Like, we'd learn that their homeland is actually a horrible oppressive place which they're scared to return to, and also scared to mention directly. Instead it's just, nope, they really are just too dumb to know what's good for 'em. :v: Which I guess is fine in a way, because people are all too often near-suicidally stupid about what's good for them. It also gives Seabreeze the necessary third-act audience sympathy. Still, the episode seems structured in such a way as to anticipate some big reveal that explains the Breezies' behavior, and the non-reveal of "they're just dumbasses, apparently" is a wet fizzle.

At least it can't be said that the episode Mary Sues the Breezies too much. I like that we're introduced to this unbelievably adorable race of magical fairies, and then the next 20 minutes is all about how irascible, foul-mouthed and dumb they are.

Episode loses a point for wasting the first five minutes on clunky and unnecessary exposition (a flaw it shares with Simple Ways), but I did enjoy the cold open as a knowing inversion of the Sonic Rainboom opening. It also served well to show how the other ponies just don't function on Fluttershy's level and weren't going to be of much direct help in the plot. And I always like it when Fluts' quiet demeanor is shown as an asset in certain circumstances. :allears:
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Postby ShieldedDiamond (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 8:49 pm

Fizzbuzz wrote:To be fair, every season has had a couple of episodes that the fandom generally considers to be stinkers. In fact, I think that's the case for pretty much every television show ever. I certainly don't think that Meghan McCarthy is receiving scripts on stone tablets inscribed by the hand of God or anything.


I know every season has its stinkers, I was just saying that if this was one of the first episodes, along with any of those others, I'm just trying to say that this show is never always perfect, it definitely ranges.
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Postby RainbowDoubleDash (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 1:24 am

This episode makes my Top 5 worst episodes of the entire series' run. I think it is exceeded only by Spike at Your Service, and in a dead heat with Keep Calm and Flutter On.

Basically InsertAuthorHere and Stargazer covered why it sucked, so I would prefer to focus on the intensity of it sucking.

It sucked SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH. It is atrocious, and far beneath the standard of quality that I have come to expect from DHX when they are required to shill out for a toy, and even considering that this is a children's TV show and I am not the target audience. Its suckage, were it to take physical form, it would be that of a vacuum cleaner co-designed by Hoover and Dyson using blueprints provided by Satan himself. It would be an industrial-grade Infernal Machine that would be capable of sucking up and retaining the filth of even Nurgle's demesne, and then there, deep within its core made of depleted uranium, would it refine that filth into an ingot of pure Suck that could be used to power the whole of the Earth for a thousand years, at the cost of everything sucking for that age - the Age of Suckiness, where All Scream for Naught.

That is how much this episode sucks.

...

...but I will agree that Seabreeze was cool. Thus proving that nothing is completely without redeeming value.
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Postby InsertAuthorHere (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 5:06 am

Fizzbuzz wrote:I'm still not convinced that the transformation scene was there to sell toys, considering the fact that Hasbro has completely failed to deliver on any toys of the Breezified Mane Six, as well as hardly any toys of the Breezies at all. I really would like to know if it was an aborted toy mandate or if it was just something that Meghan and the gang thought would be cool.


It's not just if a toy has actually materialized, but rather how the scene appears and plays out that makes it feel like product placement.

Going back to the 1980s, when cartoons did not even bother hiding their toyetic natures, there was a very common type of scene or episode. A character, whether it be a hero or villain, is introduced to the series. The episode then makes sure to hype up how awesome and capable they are, even at the detriment to the heroes. The plot essentially becomes about them for those thirty minutes. And when it's over, they're gone. They might get another episode or two just to keep them in the public eye, but eventually their toy will be retired and they'll vanish altogether.

That's what the episode felt like to me. The Mane 6 got shoved to the side very quickly so that they could hype up the Breezies. We got constant reminders of how amazingly cute and awesome they were. And then, just to close things off, the episode ends with the Mane 6 all becoming Breezies because it's so cool and wonderful. And then we never see the Breezies again outside of a quick cameo at the end of the season.
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Postby PictishBeast (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 5:39 am

This isn't a bad episode at all, it's just kind of mediocre. Think they could have improved things by making the Breezies' dilemma a bit clearer--the "magic portal is closing" plot motivator didn't feel like it made sense other than as a plot motivator.

Still, good stuff from Fluttershy and Seabreeze. Surprised this one gets so much hate.
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Postby The Doctor (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 5:45 am

PictishBeast wrote:This isn't a bad episode at all, it's just kind of mediocre. Think they could have improved things by making the Breezies' dilemma a bit clearer--the "magic portal is closing" plot motivator didn't feel like it made sense other than as a plot motivator.

Still, good stuff from Fluttershy and Seabreeze. Surprised this one gets so much hate.


:twiright: The magic portal makes perfect sense when you account for Time Turner and Rose being there.
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Postby Space Ghost (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 9:48 am

RainbowDoubleDash wrote:This episode makes my Top 5 worst episodes of the entire series' run. I think it is exceeded only by Spike at Your Service, and in a dead heat with Keep Calm and Flutter On.

Basically InsertAuthorHere and Stargazer covered why it sucked, so I would prefer to focus on the intensity of it sucking.

It sucked SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH. It is atrocious, and far beneath the standard of quality that I have come to expect from DHX when they are required to shill out for a toy, and even considering that this is a children's TV show and I am not the target audience. Its suckage, were it to take physical form, it would be that of a vacuum cleaner co-designed by Hoover and Dyson using blueprints provided by Satan himself. It would be an industrial-grade Infernal Machine that would be capable of sucking up and retaining the filth of even Nurgle's demesne, and then there, deep within its core made of depleted uranium, would it refine that filth into an ingot of pure Suck that could be used to power the whole of the Earth for a thousand years, at the cost of everything sucking for that age - the Age of Suckiness, where All Scream for Naught.

That is how much this episode sucks.

...

...but I will agree that Seabreeze was cool. Thus proving that nothing is completely without redeeming value.


The episode wasn't bad at all.
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Postby Skipper (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 9:55 am

Also, isn't DHX just the animation studio, therefore having about 0.0% to do with the narrative content?
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Postby Space Ghost (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 10:33 am

Skipper wrote:Also, isn't DHX just the animation studio, therefore having about 0.0% to do with the narrative content?


Pretty much. The writers are hired on a season to season basis.
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Postby PaulloDEC (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 10:44 am

RainbowDoubleDash wrote:This episode makes my Top 5 worst episodes of the entire series' run. I think it is exceeded only by Spike at Your Service, and in a dead heat with Keep Calm and Flutter On.

Basically InsertAuthorHere and Stargazer covered why it sucked, so I would prefer to focus on the intensity of it sucking.

It sucked SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH. It is atrocious, and far beneath the standard of quality that I have come to expect from DHX when they are required to shill out for a toy, and even considering that this is a children's TV show and I am not the target audience. Its suckage, were it to take physical form, it would be that of a vacuum cleaner co-designed by Hoover and Dyson using blueprints provided by Satan himself. It would be an industrial-grade Infernal Machine that would be capable of sucking up and retaining the filth of even Nurgle's demesne, and then there, deep within its core made of depleted uranium, would it refine that filth into an ingot of pure Suck that could be used to power the whole of the Earth for a thousand years, at the cost of everything sucking for that age - the Age of Suckiness, where All Scream for Naught.

That is how much this episode sucks.

...

...but I will agree that Seabreeze was cool. Thus proving that nothing is completely without redeeming value.


Wow, when you hate something you really hate it! I don't think I hate anything in life as much as you hate "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies"!
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 10:55 am

Skipper wrote:Also, isn't DHX just the animation studio, therefore having about 0.0% to do with the narrative content?

The writers, the animators, and the producers are so intertwined on FiM that distinguishing differences like this mostly just feels like splitting hairs. (Besides, the animators have contributed to the story as well, such as when Peewee's fate was explained in the intro to JFS.)
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Postby Skipper (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 10:59 am

I didn't know that. I'm very unfamiliar with how everything is organized behind the screens. It was just a question. :pinkieshrug:
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Postby Dexanth (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 12:40 pm

The animation studio has a decent amount of content control - yes, they don't do the scripts, but the directors do things like choose what material gets cut for time (RIP Princess Luna's Nightmare Night costume), the storyboard artists have a lot of freedom in building background detail / throwing in gags (Peewee, or the entire Star Wars segment in RoH), and so forth. It's very much a team effort.
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Postby RainbowDoubleDash (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 1:46 pm

Tailspin wrote:The episode wasn't bad at all.


I respectfully disagree. Fervently.

PaulloDEC wrote:Wow, when you hate something you really hate it! I don't think I hate anything in life as much as you hate "It Ain't Easy Being Breezies"!


And like I said, it still beats out Spike at Your Service.

Though, I'd like to clarify that I only hate it so intensely by comparison to other pony stuff, including all episodes, movies, fanfics, fanart, etc. From a larger perspective, it's simply not a good episode of an otherwise very good TV show.
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Postby PictishBeast (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 1:53 pm

RainbowDoubleDash wrote:And like I said, it still beats out Spike at Your Service.


Man I hope Spike at Your Service comes up in the randomizer because it's one of the better episodes of the show.
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Postby ROBOT B9 (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 1:58 pm

I liked some of SAYS but I thought it was kind of lacking as well. :pinkieshrug:
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 2:01 pm

PictishBeast wrote:
Man I hope Spike at Your Service comes up in the randomizer because it's one of the better episodes of the show.

I could have sworn that it already came up, since I remember rewatching it recently, but apparently not. I guess I watched it during the Hub's marathon a couple of weeks ago.
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Postby RainbowDoubleDash (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 2:09 pm

Fizzbuzz wrote:I guess I watched it during the Hub's marathon a couple of weeks ago.


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Postby ROBOT B9 (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 4:42 pm

Hey, if Fizzbuzz likes the episode, that's their preference. I like some scenes in SAYS too, like the entire Timberwolf sequence near the end. :pinkieshrug:
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Postby ixnay (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 6:10 pm

This episode was such a weird one that back when it first aired I woke up early, watched it live, went back to sleep afterwards, and then wasn't sure if it actually happened or if I dreamed it.
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 7:37 pm

ixnay wrote:This episode was such a weird one that back when it first aired I woke up early, watched it live, went back to sleep afterwards, and then wasn't sure if it actually happened or if I dreamed it.

I think this weirdness describes it well, really. It doesn't feel like the sort of thing that FiM would normally do, and that's because it isn't. The story was pretty much resolved and the lesson given by the beginning of the third act, with the rest of the episode consumed in the process of breezification. MMC is the only other episode that's really been like that and it suffered for that, too.

I'm also inclined to compare this to Keep Calm and Flutter On, another Fluttershy episode that also had a good moral and also had a mixed reception among fans. Between the two, I think KCaFO is better, since it wasn't as rushed (while it suffered from the pacing problems endemic to most of S3, that wasn't as bad as what happened here). KCaFO also didn't have to be a key episode, which by this point in S4 had gotten a bit stale in structure.
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Postby ROBOT B9 (?) » Sat Aug 23, 2014 7:51 pm

Yeah...I think they tried making it more whimscal then usual and it backfired.
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Postby Dexanth (?) » Sun Aug 24, 2014 2:43 am

Is this the best episode? No. Did I enjoy it on re-watching it? Yes. It's silly, it has some fairly glaring weak points (Mane Six Magical Mystery Transformation Breezies YEA!), but Sea Breeze is awesome, Fluttershy has a fairly believable inner conflict, and really the only big flaw is Spike is used as the muck-upper again. But like the Quieter cheer? Silly-cute revamp of the famous Louder-Yay-LOUDER-yaaaaaay from Season One.
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Postby RainbowDoubleDash (?) » Sun Aug 24, 2014 3:50 am

Fizzbuzz wrote:I'm also inclined to compare this to Keep Calm and Flutter On, another Fluttershy episode that also had a good moral


That is highly debatable.
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Postby Bremen (?) » Sun Aug 24, 2014 5:15 am

Count me in as another person who thought the episode was kind of forgettable, but not bad :pinkieshrug:

So that this post has some actual content, I will say that I agree the last 5 minutes felt tacked on, but they seemed like harmless fun rather than in any way harmful. Plus I figure it's the kind of thing they wanted to show the target demographic, so I don't begrudge it.

And in the episode's favor, I thought Fluttershy's lesson and Seabreeze having a family were handled well.
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