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?