S04E16: It Ain't Easy Being Breezies

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Re: S04E16: It Ain't Easy Being Breezies

Postby PonyHag714 (?) » Thu Mar 06, 2014 3:47 am

Mir wrote:So question for everyone.
What if the portal closed behind them at the end and the mane 6 got stuck in Breezie world for an episode? An unofficial two parter. What would have been your reactions?
:gotcha:


I would have worried about them...heck, I was concerned that Fluttershy wouldn't make it out...even though I knew she would. :dreamworks:

I'd be curious if they'd have to maintain thier Breezie forms while in thier world or turn back to pony form. Spike playing a key role in opening the portal again and rescuing them would be a win for me. :spike101:
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Thu Mar 06, 2014 4:01 am

Wayoshi wrote:Both of these cases were probably to highlight the Hasbro mandates, which couldn't be incorporated into the story well. Can you really call this a positive?

We know that Twilight getting wings was Hasbro's fault, but do we really know if that's the case with the Breezies? We've seen two toys featuring any Breezies so far and neither of them were transformed versions of the Mane Six. Consider also how this episode came in the middle of the season and hardly had any hype behind it, whereas ACW, TCE, and MMC (all big toy-sellers for one reason or another) were either premieres or finales and were three of the show's most heavily promoted episodes. I think that if this really were a big deal on Hasbro's part, they would've crammed this episode down our throats a whole lot harder.
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Postby Passport Clean (?) » Thu Mar 06, 2014 9:39 pm

Fizzbuzz wrote:We know that Twilight getting wings was Hasbro's fault, but do we really know if that's the case with the Breezies? We've seen two toys featuring any Breezies so far and neither of them were transformed versions of the Mane Six. Consider also how this episode came in the middle of the season and hardly had any hype behind it, whereas ACW, TCE, and MMC (all big toy-sellers for one reason or another) were either premieres or finales and were three of the show's most heavily promoted episodes. I think that if this really were a big deal on Hasbro's part, they would've crammed this episode down our throats a whole lot harder.


Yeah, considering this evidence, I'm inclined for the moment to believe that if the breezies were indeed a Hasbro request they were probably a brief note on a long checklist. As in, "Find a way to incorporate the breezies this season, whatever seems right to you, figure it out."

And maybe, just maybe, the transformation sequence really was there just because the crew thought it would be fun? To show off some cool animation/visual jokes, cute alt-form mane 6, a pretty fairyland, Twilight's power?

Does every script always have to be as efficient as possible? Why do some well-regarded action movies have ten minute action sequences when a thirty second duel could convey all the strictly necessary story information quicker? If we can excuse spectacle in that context can't we excuse spectacle for the sake of cute and pretty?
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Postby Equilux (?) » Fri Mar 07, 2014 1:26 am

Couldn't help but immediately seeing the Breezies as the pony versions of the Nac Mac Feegle :gotcha:

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"A hat full of Sky Shy" :allears:

Sea Breeze's accent and color scheme certainly helped.
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Postby Passport Clean (?) » Fri Mar 07, 2014 4:13 am

Well, I feel relieved, but in the most sheepish way. :modesty: Because it is kind of silly to feel relieved over what I'm about to share. But hey, it's mellow, so I'll post it anyway for anyone who wants another interesting take on this episode and to complete my thought from an earlier post.

Mysteriousmrenter, the only reviewer I really trust (and it should be known he has torn episodes I liked to shreds so I'm not cherry picking) gave this one a passing grade:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjUasOK8 ... hnqMOOYfXQ
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Postby ZamuelNow (?) » Fri Mar 07, 2014 5:27 am

Ehh...while he's far better than most, he's got enough flaws and annoying quirks that I long ago stopped watching him. As noted earlier in the thread, rather actually have conversation than have a guy talk at you.
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Postby Homeswirl (?) » Fri Mar 07, 2014 2:18 pm

I got a really strong Gen 1 feel from this episode. Some completely random one-off magical creature issue comes up, the rationale for their problem is kind of weakly established, the obvious problem lingers for a while, and Twilight pulls off some deus ex machina magic to help fix things in the 3rd act. Plus, the poofy hair, colors, and androgynous look of the breezies really harkened back to the 80s.

That's not to say it was bad. I thought it was enjoyable enough. The moral & Sea Breeze's personality both were unexpectedly well done and had real depth, but the whole episode felt kind of loosely tacked together. Overall, as enjoyable as 80s saturday morning fluff, but with some nuggets of substance thrown in.
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Sat Mar 08, 2014 3:21 pm

Watching this again just before today's episode, I really think it's better on rewatch. Knowing both Fluttershy's and Sea Breeze's motivations really makes things more relatable overall.
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Postby Wildfire (?) » Sun Mar 09, 2014 7:40 am

So someone did make it. Just needs to be the Breezie though:

:yay:
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Postby The Doctor (?) » Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:30 am

Wildfire wrote:So someone did make it. Just needs to be the Breezie though:

:yay:


We already did that in the Fluttershy Goes With Everything thread. :twiright:
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Postby doodlesplat (?) » Sun Mar 09, 2014 12:10 pm

Given the size and appearance of the flower, it looks to be a Forget-me-not :allears:
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Postby The Doctor (?) » Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:14 pm

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Postby londonarbuckle (?) » Tue Mar 11, 2014 7:12 am

I don't think I ever said what I thought about this one. Mostly because it was weird and kind of blah. :pinkieshrug:

The only thing that stands out in my memory is a moment near the beginning where Fluttershy raises both of her forelegs and flaps her wings for a second to lift her front half up. It seems like when ponies do particularly human poses like that where they stand on just their hind legs they usually just have them defy gravity, so I thought the wing flapping was a nice (also cute) detail. It also looked so organic and seamless, just the way body language should. Though maybe they've done that before and I've just never noticed.

Yeah, I've really got nothing on this one. :spoiler:
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Postby Grue (?) » Thu Mar 13, 2014 7:08 pm

Ok, I finally went through this episode with a fine toothed comb, and here is my opinion of this episode: it's fucking awful. Along with "Daring Don't" it takes a firm place at the bottom of the S4 pile, and maybe the all-time pile as well.

The writing is nothing short of dreadful. I could spend hours listing all the problems with it, but that would be a waste of time, so I'll be quick. First the worldbuilding. The explanation of wind somehow protecting the pollen doesn't make any sense (there was no wind in FS's cottage, and they didn't need it before Ponyville), but whatever. The problem is that the writer was constantly shoehorning this nonsense in great detail throughout the entire episode, so I had to constantly marvel at how idiotic it is. The language: apparently they all can understand it but can't speak it? That's highly suspect at best (and one of them who isn't Seabreeze shouts "Amazing!" at one point). But then, Seabreeze delivers his final speech in English for some unexplainable reason. Ok, I get it, because kids are dumb and need to be told the moral of the episode twice! Speaking of that, there's just too much repetition in the script. I think Rainbow Dash visited Fluttershy's cottage to ask her about Breezies like 4 times, I lost count honestly. Breezies are nothing more than a blatant product placement. They sounded like goddamn Chipmunks, so I hated their voices too. The episode had one of the worst Twilight Ex Machinae since that one episode with Diamond Dogs. She just so happens to read about the spell, are you shitting me? And she just instantly brings it up, without even thinking!

Ok, I'm done here. There are a few good scenes, but unfortunately they are surrounded by a sea of suck, like that peanut butter scene in MMDW.

I wish this was the only bad S4 episode, but oh well... At least AKR is still as good as ever... When is her next episode again?
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Postby fenster (?) » Tue Mar 18, 2014 4:25 pm

This is an old ass response that I've been sitting on but never got around to posting. Oops. :v:

Passport Clean wrote:
And maybe, just maybe, the transformation sequence really was there just because the crew thought it would be fun? To show off some cool animation/visual jokes, cute alt-form mane 6, a pretty fairyland, Twilight's power?



I'm fine with the breezies, but I honestly think that if the transformation sequence wasn't Hasbro Mandated and was, in fact, a sequence entirely contrived by the show crew, it would have tied in closer to the actual emotional arc of the episode of "Fluttershy's kindness works against her", because that's the kind of flow that we normally see from this show. There's always a possibility of "Well maybe for this one time they wanted to do something different", but there's nothing else to back up that explanation so that excuse just puts an end to the conversation with nothing to gain. As it is, no matter of how "good" the sequence is, it's out of place for the core character plot and serves only to fill up 6 minutes worth of time to complicate a magic solution that didn't really matter. You have to look at it like, "Did this really need to happen? Why would be lost if the pegasi would've just normally be able to finish that breeze without complication?"

If the transformation sequence had tied closer to the emotion of the episode, or the episode in general was more adventure-y like the first episodes of the season instead of feeling like the typical slice-of-life that we've had since, then our perspectives and expectations for the episode and the sequence would've been totally different. If this occured in something like "Princess Twilight" or any of the other adventure episodes, yeah maybe it would've still been obvious as potential Toy Fodder, but it would've tied stronger to what those episodes try to do since the strength in those episodes IS mystical weird worldbuildy stuff like what we could argue this is. But you wouldn't want to put Queen Crysalis in Look Before You Sleep, because LBYS's strength is in it's small scale that's directly about the core character's feelings for one another, and if putting in some piece of mythology in doesn't support that conflict/resolution it'd be out of place for what that particular episode would need.

If the crew wanted to do something fun and different, I don't think that's a bad thing at all, but if they do it has to be something in a way that makes sense for what the episode is going for. Consider some of the bigger examples we know of episodes that did something different, like Canterlot Wedding or something stylistically like with what I would compare with Maud Pie. In these episodes, I feel like they did something different but they executed them solidly with what they were going for. The transformation sequence feels like it could have been part of a different episode entirely because it was so at odds with what the rest of the episode was doing, which was more of a low key character conflict between Fluttershy vs Sea Breeze vs the other Breezies. And it's tough to really get a good way to fit these things together because they are so fundamentally different, a literal Square Peg for a Round Hole, where they'd have to drastically change one side or the other to "fit" together better. At best I could say the first 1/3rd of the episode was Adventure-y, but honestly it feels more like setup (which even low key emotional episodes have) than anything else in specific so I never felt it contributed anything deep to the episode's theme.

I really like everything else in this episode, I really do, but this sequence really added nothing to it and only perpetuates fear in the fanbase that Hasbro is throwing more and more control into the show than before.

Grue wrote:The explanation of wind somehow protecting the pollen doesn't make any sense (there was no wind in FS's cottage, and they didn't need it before Ponyville


The explanation for wind and pollen was literally magic, so thats about as far as that goes. They weren't carrying around Pollen in FS's cottage, so there wasn't any danger or need for any breeze there, as they said they only need the breeze to protect the pollen. I guess there are a couple spots in the writing that makes it ambiguous where if they need the breeze to actually MOVE to the portal or to just protect the pollen, which is bad, but for the most part it does seem to be on the level for protecting the pollen (until the ending).

Grue wrote: The language: apparently they all can understand it but can't speak it? That's highly suspect at best (and one of them who isn't Seabreeze shouts "Amazing!" at one point).


Is it? It's not uncommon when I encounter people who can understand english but don't speak it well. Hell, I can understand Spanish decently but even at my best in school I was never able to speak it well. :pinkieshrug: (the amazing bit is funny though, but I don't remember that at all)
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Postby Weird Autumn (?) » Tue Mar 18, 2014 4:35 pm

fenster wrote:Is it? It's not uncommon when I encounter people who can understand english but don't speak it well. Hell, I can understand Spanish decently but even at my best in school I was never able to speak it well. :pinkieshrug: (the amazing bit is funny though, but I don't remember that at all)

Yeah, this kind of thing is actually pretty common. Lots of people will speak to each other in different languages because they can both mostly understand the other's language but aren't fluent enough to speak it themselves. As for one of the other Breezies saying "Amazing!", loanwords are a pretty common thing too. It's like how characters in ~the Japanese animes~ will occasionally bust out a random English word because they think it sounds cool, or how English speakers will use words like "haute couture" and "schadenfreude."
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Postby Sailor Yue (?) » Tue Mar 18, 2014 4:37 pm

I KNOW A GUY WHO can read english well enough to understand it, or atleast if you dont use strange phrases like "perish the thought" :v: but when he trys to write english to us, the syntax is beyond confusing :pinkieshrug:
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Postby Pocket (?) » Tue Mar 18, 2014 4:41 pm

You know, maybe the reason for the turning-into-breezies thing and the fact that this episode felt G3-ish in general is because Levinger is a G3 fan herself.
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Postby Wylie (?) » Tue Mar 18, 2014 5:34 pm

Opposing Farce wrote:Yeah, this kind of thing is actually pretty common. Lots of people will speak to each other in different languages because they can both mostly understand the other's language but aren't fluent enough to speak it themselves. As for one of the other Breezies saying "Amazing!", loanwords are a pretty common thing too. It's like how characters in ~the Japanese animes~ will occasionally bust out a random English word because they think it sounds cool, or how English speakers will use words like "haute couture" and "schadenfreude."


Also Fluttershy's entire deal is that she can understand and be understood by animals without actually speaking their native language, so that complicates things a bit.
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Postby The Doctor (?) » Tue Mar 18, 2014 5:48 pm

Pocket wrote:You know, maybe the reason for the turning-into-breezies thing and the fact that this episode felt G3-ish in general is because Levinger is a G3 fan herself.


While I didn't care for them turning into Breezies, I'm more inclined to believe something like this than "buy our toys!" We've seen breezie toys, but not mane 6 breezie toys.
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Postby ShieldedDiamond (?) » Fri Mar 21, 2014 5:00 am

Finally saw this episode. And geez, I kind of regretted actually feeling I needed to watch it. :-/

I first off was confused by the timeframe. Why were they in a rush to get them to go? They seemed like they spent some time with Fluttershy. I thought they were on a tight schedule, yet there was time to make that little mini amusement park, rescue that other breezie, and still travel across apparently such large distances?

Also, they clearly could hold onto Fluttershy. And she was clearly able to hold them all. Why couldn't she just fly them to their needed location? She could probably travel faster than they could by mere size alone.

Why did there need to be a magic portal, just to make a sense of urgency? Was that even needed?

I think the biggest thing that annoyed me about the episode was the need to randomly turn the Mane 6 into breezies. It served no point, and I'm really getting tired of Twilight's "spell for everything". I feel like when they wrote it they said "Well we need to fill that last 5 minutes somehow..." If it was from the start, alright. But crammed in at the end? Seemed more like a way to fill time.

All in all, I'd say this was the weakest of the key episodes, even after Rainbow Falls. Makes me concerned for the next two, as we have two wonderful episodes, Rarity Takes Manehattan and Pinkie Pride, and two "eh" episodes, Rainbow Falls and this one.
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Postby SlateSlabrock (?) » Fri Mar 21, 2014 6:26 am

ShieldedDiamond wrote:Why were they in a rush to get them to go? They seemed like they spent some time with Fluttershy. I thought they were on a tight schedule, yet there was time to make that little mini amusement park, rescue that other breezie, and still travel across apparently such large distances?

Also, they clearly could hold onto Fluttershy. And she was clearly able to hold them all. Why couldn't she just fly them to their needed location? She could probably travel faster than they could by mere size alone.

I think these are related: The Breezies are slackers, and given the opportunity to just hang out with a pony babysitter, they totally will, even if it means not getting home. Fluttershy has to be the one to push them out of the nest, and until the end, she's not willing to do so. At the end, they're doing everything by the book for the Breezies' sake. Otherwise, why not just have ponies ferry them back and forth every year? The Breezies would probably be totally fine with that, but then one year the ponies don't have the time, and Breezy World starves.

Why did there need to be a magic portal, just to make a sense of urgency? Was that even needed?

As strange as "magic portal!" is, you're right that it gives us a sense of urgency. The new Thundercats did a similar episode with a race of flower people who live their whole lives in a day, but that's probably too morbid for TV-Y. Otherwise, you have to come up with something totally different than pollen-carrying, or you have to drag the timeline of the episode out much longer.
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Postby Amethyst_Gem (?) » Thu Apr 10, 2014 11:14 am

The most appropriate Seabreeze comparison!Image
kureel seabreeze.jpg

Kureel, leader of the Chosen Eight, hunters of the Glider tribe in the long running Elfquest series.
He’s arguably nastier than Seabreeze ever was, though.
The symbol above his head (along with the ’speech’ bubble), is known as a ’sending’, a kind of selective emotional telepathy between elves in the series.
If you know who that is standing next to Kureel, you win a free trip to the Palace of the High Ones! :gotcha:
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Postby Sailor Yue (?) » Wed Apr 16, 2014 3:37 pm

It's been too long since I read EQ :pinkieshrug:
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Postby Mordja (?) » Sun May 11, 2014 7:28 pm

Not a whole lot to say again. Like Simple Ways, a perfectly serviceable ep, like Simple Ways, carried by a few standout aspects, in this case, Seabreeze's charmingly acerbic demeanor. While the Breezies' designs were actually pretty cool, the Mane 6's transformation was weird and toyetic. All in all, a step down for Levinger, since I thought PAP was just wonderful.

Highlight of the episode: Fluttershy casually checking underhoof to make sure she hadn't squished Seabreeze into a fine, colourful paste. :gotcha:

One thing to note is that IAEBB was a "key" episode, so I figure I might as well say my piece on them here. All told, while they were obviously needed for the season long subplot, they quickly became too predictable and tended to be weaker than a standard showing of MLP. Pinkie Pride being the obvious exception. I suppose writing a script to match a character's element was just too restrictive for a bunch of freelancers. That said, I do hope s5 continues the idea of a season long mini arc; I'm sure the team can only do better next time! :yay:
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Sun May 11, 2014 10:30 pm

I think the trouble with the key episodes wasn't so much that they were writing episodes to match a character (the show has done this dozens of times now) so much as they were writing five episodes with nearly the same structure and basic resolution for each. Sure, each episode found a slightly different way to do it, but in the end it was a case of each one of them bringing some sort of inspiration to a new friend after having lost true sight of that virtue herself. This may not have been so bad had all of these been separate, unconnected episodes spread out over the entire series, but with all of them in the same season it did get a bit repetitive.
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Postby Venusy (?) » Mon May 12, 2014 5:07 pm

While the formulaic nature of the key episodes does cause a bit more problems with being able to guess the resolution, I don't think it's the root cause of the problems with Rainbow Falls and this episode. I think these episodes could have been better while still fitting in the key episode framework.

The bigger problem with the key episodes for me was that, because these episodes were flagged as special, I had higher expectations for them. They should be the best (or nearly the best) of that character's episodes. Rainbow Falls certainly wasn't anywhere near my top Dash episode, and Filli Vanilli is the most :allears: Fluttershy episode - Breezies just can't compete. Rarity Takes Manehattan, Pinkie Pride and Leap of Faith are - if not that character's best this season, good enough.
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Postby Wonkadoo (?) » Tue May 13, 2014 12:50 am

I think the big problem with Rainbow Falls was that it was trying to do too much. It had to follow the friendship key formula while also setting up the absurd Ponyville relay team for Equestria Games and bring back Derpy on top of that. With that many balls in the air, it's not surprising that it fumbled a few.

(And yes, I think Equestria Games was written first.)

This episode, on the other hand, struck me as not having enough story to fill out its running time. I do like that it had a little bit of a twist on the friendship key concept -- Fluttershy doesn't forget her element or get pulled away from it, but overindulges in it instead.
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Postby The Doctor (?) » Tue May 13, 2014 1:01 am

Wonkadoo wrote:I think the big problem with Rainbow Falls was that it was trying to do too much. It had to follow the friendship key formula while also setting up the absurd Ponyville relay team for Equestria Games and bring back Derpy on top of that. With that many balls in the air, it's not surprising that it fumbled a few.

(And yes, I think Equestria Games was written first.)

This episode, on the other hand, struck me as not having enough story to fill out its running time. I do like that it had a little bit of a twist on the friendship key concept -- Fluttershy doesn't forget her element or get pulled away from it, but overindulges in it instead.


I agree with you on the filler. A lot of people screamed "toy mandate", but given that we have seen no toys of Breezie Mane 6, I am inclined to think the Breezie ending was tacked on to fill the runtime.
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Postby Strangest Letter (?) » Tue May 13, 2014 1:35 am

The Doctor wrote:
I agree with you on the filler. A lot of people screamed "toy mandate", but given that we have seen no toys of Breezie Mane 6, I am inclined to think the Breezie ending was tacked on to fill the runtime.


Or maybe they wanted to show cute things happening in the cute pony cartoon. :pinkieshrug:
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Postby The Doctor (?) » Tue May 13, 2014 1:39 am

They're adorable ponies. They're always cute. :gotcha:
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Postby diribigal (?) » Wed Jul 09, 2014 11:26 pm

I finally got around to watching this. I'm not vitriolic about it, but I didn't enjoy it too much. and everything they were trying to say/do with the plot was muddled a bit. Also, while the designs of the breezies were okay, the mane 6 breezies looked more like bugs in a way I did not like.
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Postby Dexanth (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 4:37 am

Welcome to Week Fifteen of Let's Re-Watch, where a random episode from the pony pantheon is chosen to be the episode of the week! This week I am really on the ball! Woohoo!

The basics :
1. Threads will go up on Thursdays! Re-watch day is Saturday. You can obviously join in sooner or later, but the first two days are more for reminiscing, while Saturday-Wednesday is for fresh eyes! Sometimes I put this up early on Friday cause it's still Thursday as far as I'm concerned.
2. Each week is a random episode. All episodes are now fair game, except repeats!
3. This is fun, and totally random - I literally roll the episode moments before making the thread. Two-parters are combined so technically have a double chance of being chosen but hey! More fun!
4. :dwi:

Week Fifteen is where Fluttershy learns that when you have houseguests crashing on your couch, you often need to kick them out the door or they'll eat all your Doritos.

Week Fifteen is

It Ain't Easy Being Breezies!

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It Ain't Easy Being Breezies is the sixteenth episode of the fourth season of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and the eighty-first episode overall. In this episode, Fluttershy finds herself catering every whim upon the request of the Breezies. The title may be a reference to the defunct Cheetos slogan It ain't easy being cheesy.
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Postby InsertAuthorHere (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 5:05 am

Before we get to rewatching, allow me to sum up my feelings for the episode coming in:

Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to hate this episode since it began to air. There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill my complex. If the word 'hate' was engraved on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of miles it would not equal one one-billionth of the hate I feel for this episode at this micro-instant. Hate. Hate.


This episode might possibly be the worst episode of season four, and that's only because Three's a Crowd also aired this season. To be more specific, there are two reasons I despise it so:

A) The episode is boring. The jokes are stale, the pacing is languid, and the Breezies are annoying little snots. The only times I ever smiled was when Fluttershy did her bee dance and Seabreeze (the only redeeming factor to the Breezies) swore like a one-eyed carpenter in his native tongue. And what makes the boredom worse is that there are the pieces of a wonderful episode here. Fluttershy learns that kindness can have negative consequences, and that sometimes you have to do something hurtful so that those you care for will be better. As the song goes, "You have to be cruel to be kind, in the right measure." That scene where she ushers the Breezies out, and then breaks down once they're gone over being so mean, would have been a wonderful lead into the coda, but...

B) THE LAST FOUR MINUTES OF THIS EPISODE ARE AWFUL. It not only uses one of the worst cliches in the show (Twilight has a book/spell/whatever that can instantly solve the problem), but the Mane 6 turn into Breezies. This is not only right the heck out of nowhere and incredibly cheap, but it reeks of the worst kinds of product placement. And yes, the show is a big commercial anyway, but that never stopped He-Man getting a new friend/vehicle/what-have-you every week and then never seeing it again any less jarring. The voices are also very annoying; I have never liked super high-pitched vocals, and the same is true here, especially since you know how the ponies are supposed to sound.

Oh, and Seabreeze's big reason for wanting to get home was because he had a wife and child. Meaning that the other Breezies were willing to cut him off from home for potentially years and trap him in a hostile and dangerous world because they're lazy freeloaders with no mind for their own families. That's despicable.

But here's the kicker, and what I think puts this episode over TAC in terms of badness for me. The latter episode is full of poor attempts at humor, filler gags, character derailment, and redeemed!Discord, but it's ultimately inconsequential to the grander plot. This episode is Fluttershy's key episode. You can't ignore it. You have to watch it to see where she got that flower from. It's officially part of the season's story arc.

Maybe when I rewatch on Saturday I'll be more positive. As it stands, this is a bad episode.

PS: Is it a bad sign when one episode you hate serves as rough foreshadowing for another episode you end up hating?
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Postby Discord (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 5:31 am

In my mind, a pretty solid episode. I find the conflict develops well enough, Seabreeze is an A-grade guest character, and the dilemma works really well. The Breezy transformation is awkward, but the payoff of seeing Breezy land is pretty cool. Nothing spectacular amongst pony episodes, but enjoyable enough and over hated in my mind (the collective fandom seems to despise this episode).
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Postby The Doctor (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 5:33 am

I liked this episode until the end. I did love the gag with Fluttershy thinking she stepped on Sea breeze.

Unlike others, I didn't really see it as a "buy our toys!" moment, and more a "script is 5 pages too short" moment. In the end, this episode ranks as pretty average, and one of the weaker key episodes.

The episode did bring us this...



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Last edited by The Doctor on Fri Aug 22, 2014 5:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Stargazer (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 5:40 am

What IAH said really just reaffirms how bad this episode was to me. I forgot just how much I disliked it. I think Simple Ways still takes the cake for my personal least favorite ep, but this one... :gonkity:
InsertAuthorHere wrote:This episode might possibly be the worst episode of season four... there are two reasons I despise it so:

A) The episode is boring. The jokes are stale, the pacing is languid, and the Breezies are annoying little snots. The only times I ever smiled was when Fluttershy did her bee dance and Seabreeze (the only redeeming factor to the Breezies) swore like a one-eyed carpenter in his native tongue. And what makes the boredom worse is that there are the pieces of a wonderful episode here. Fluttershy learns that kindness can have negative consequences, and that sometimes you have to do something hurtful so that those you care for will be better.

Yes. Thank you for putting this into words. This is possibly the greatest lesson Fluttershy learns on the show, and it's totally overshadowed by how annoying the breezies are and how annoying everyone except 'Shy in this episode is. And it just feels like a random episode. It doesn't contribute anything to the storyline except "hey, this is one of the best friendship lessons ever, also Fluttershy is adorable!" Which seems a bit cheap.

(Also, I just really didn't like the Breezy concept. They look like gnats with really long legs. And they're pretty terrible creatures, aside from Seabreeze.) I'll re-watch it soon to see if I'll find redeemable qualities, but it ain't easy seeing Breezies...
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Postby Marioland1 (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 5:47 am

This one was fairly bad in my opinion. It was poor in terms of writing. There were a few places where I could only facepalm and look anywhere besides the computer screen I watched it on as everyone missed the obvious route the story would ultimately take. The whole thing just seemed to drag its long legs on the ground. We still don't know why they needed to be in Equestria to begin with anyways! Surely it isn't just pollen. Their world has plenty of pollen!

It's not uber bad, but it hits pretty low. At least I liked the design of the breezies, so there's that. A good species is nothing without good writing though, which is why it fell through.
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Postby Wayoshi (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 6:12 am

A very troubled episode still, I think. Had a good premise moral-wise, just very clunky story-wise and a bit too cutesy.

So while I agree with IAH on most points (but not to those extremes), I still think this is a decent episode. The fact it's a key episode shouldn't really enter the equation. (By the way, IMO, I doubt "all the Breezies look like hateful beings in retrospect when Seabreeze's family is shown" was ever noticed in writing or editing. Wrong or not, it's a minor point that kids won't notice, there are much bigger flaws to point to.)
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Postby ROBOT B9 (?) » Fri Aug 22, 2014 6:20 am

Well...Tailspin should be happy. :v:

Anyway, I think my main problem with this is...wasted potential. The storyline could have turned out to be good, if only they put in a little bit more effort. While it's not terrible and had some cute moments like Flutterbee, it just seems like such a letdown. I like the breezie designs but they just seem so flat as characters.

...The Main Six breezie transformation didn't bother me as much as everyone else though.
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