by ph00tbag » 06 Jul 2015 14:32
As far as Party Pooped is concerned, I liked it, although I would say the two main themes of the episode were buried under a bit of fluff. The main thrust of the episode was that, when a person from another culture comes to you for cultural exchange, they don't want your feeble attempts at mimicking their culture; they want to experience yours. After all, your mimicry will not be an adequate simulacrum of their culture, but your authentic representation of your culture will be the best representation of it they've ever seen. The Yaks' violent preoccupation with perfection made this point rather hard to miss.
Under that, though, there was an interesting point about expectations placed on people that do a certain kind of work, and how things that one may think are simple are actually really difficult. A friend of mine at one point had her own freelance webdev business, and she would have amusing anecdotes about clients that would flippantly ask for a particular service on their webpage, and when she came back with a quote for that service, they would be totally blindsided by the fact that that service was a lot more work than they thought, and thus a lot more expensive. This episode reminds me of those stories. Pinkie's friends all tell her, "This task of keeping the Yaks from destroying Ponyville by providing an authentic experience for them should be simple for you because you're so good at keeping people happy!" But they don't really understand just how much work goes into just keeping people happy, nor do they understand how much harder it is to provide an authentic experience of a culture you've never experienced. This thread dovetails into the other thread when Pinkie realizes it really would be a hell of a lot easier just to give the Yaks an authentic Ponyville welcome.
I actually found the gag, that Pinkie somehow manged to get to Yakyakistan by going south to Dodge Junction, stopping in Manehattan, and going through the entire career of the Beatles all in the span of an afternoon, to be fairly amusing. If you're paying attention early on, the part where Pinkie Pie lampshades the absurdity of it is kind of satisfying.
I also really liked the "so do we just walk up the slide, or what?" bit from Fluttershy to be the highlight of the episode, partly because Fluttershy, of all ponies, was the one to finally say what they were all clearly thinking. As though the prospect of not knowing was more problematic for her rat's nest of anxieties than anypony realizing she didn't know.
Amending Fences, on the other hand, was a fantastic episode.
It's really neat how, in their youth, both Twilight and Moondancer were terrible at communicating effectively about emotions and feelings, and so kept sending extremely ambiguous signals back and forth. Twilight was actually not very shy, and could fake a public face if absolutely necessary, and would make appearances if she couldn't come up with a good excuse. I think she was also more confident about her value because she had a huge affirmation of that value in being Celestia's protégé. In the long run, she avoided interaction with others because she didn't think it was worth her while. Moondancer on the other hand, was very shy, and craved some kind of affirmation from other ponies. It took years of cajoling for Minuette, Twinkleshine, Lemon Hearts, and Lyra to get her to throw a party that she actually did, deep down, want to throw. Moondancer avoided other ponies because she didn't have the confidence to cope with even the possibility that they may reject her.
When the two of them get put together, the results were bound to be cataclysmic. Moondancer clearly enjoyed her interactions with Twilight in a way she couldn't really get out of other ponies, and the two were definitely on the same wavelength as far as motivations and intellect, so Twilight's affirmation in particular became something Moondancer wanted to hear. But for Twilight, friendship was something that was of equally insignificant value no matter whom it came from, and she was oblivious enough in those times to be completely unaware that she could have made somepony else's life a little easier by just acknowledging them. At the same time, Moondancer was not equipped to talk about her particular fondness for Twilight. This is ultimately what led to Moondancer's disastrous party.
And this highlights Twilight's growth over this time: Back then, Twilight couldn't have seen the importance of that one party. She was totally oblivious. But now, she's learned so much about interacting with other ponies, and about the subtle ways emotions are expressed, that she could see the continuity of Moondancer's slow opening-up, and sudden reversal, and how it all pivoted around that one moment. Admittedly, she was being a bit self-aggrandizing by suggesting to Minuette, Twinkleshine, and Lemon Hearts that she had hurt them terribly by leaving so suddenly, but in this case, she pretty much hit the nail on the head, because she had actually been important to Moondancer, and it really did hurt Moondancer deeply that she had been so callous. The other three ultimately shrugged it off because, in each other, they had developed a strong enough support structure to bounce back from it. Moondancer didn't have that, so her entire sense of self-worth kinda crumbled.
In this context, I loved the climax of the episode with the piñata. There was a lot of resentment and pain in Moondancer, and because she'd never really worked around other ponies for so long, she didn't have the equipment to know where the pain was coming from, and where the resentment was directed, and so she was just generally a bitch, but when Twilight gave her the stick, it kinda put everything into focus. She figured all of her shit out as she was saying it, and I think just being able to let all that anger and sadness out was what she needed, more, even, than Twilight's apology. She also needed to realize that she did, in fact, have that support network to help her deal with the rough times in her life. The maelstrom of emotions in that scene is so... cathartic. It's just perfect to me.
Heading into this episode, I kinda wondered if it was going to be about Twilight not knowing how to deal with the fact that, no, her leaving had literally made no difference in the lives of the other ponies she had called "friends." I'm glad, on the one hand, that the show didn't really shy away from the fact that, yes, you'll probably grow apart from your childhood friends, and no, for the most part, it won't really hurt all that much. And moreover, I'm glad that it didn't have Twilight go through any unnecessary pathos when she learned that she hadn't been the center of these ponies lives back then. Honestly, I would really have expected her to be relieved. There was, actually, a little bit of a missed opportunity in the fact that she wasn't visibly relieved when Minuette said it hadn't been that big of a deal.
Speaking of Minuette, I absolutely loved her in this episode. She was simultaneously, the most doggedly optimistic go-getter, but also the most lovably incisive bitch. Everything she said had some kind of subtle, deep-cutting jab layered in there. In particular, "It's not like we weren't used to that from you," is probably the nicest way of saying, "yeah, you were actually a heinous bitch back then, so we were totally unsurprised when you hung us out to dry," that I've ever heard. That Twilight lets this pass without getting a little stung either shows how self-aware she is, or how obtuse she is. Minuette delivered lines like this regularly, but with such carefree zest that you're so busy saying, "oh she's so happy and adorable," that you miss the part of you that says, "wait, what did she just say about my mother?" I want more of Minuette, because this was just too much fun.
The library scene was another great scene, just for all the gags with Twilight trying to get through to Moondancer somehow. I also enjoyed the awkward dinner conversation. Finally, I love love loved the accordion music at the end. I'm having trouble putting my finger on why, but for some reason, it is the absolute perfect music for ending this episode, and it honestly brings a tear to my eye. William Anderson really is one of this show's unsung heroes.