The support means the world to me, and thanks to your kind contributions I was able to go and visit my boy in Britain. I'll try and mock up a proper recap blog—though I am notoriously terrible at doing those, I don't think I've ever managed a proper recap blog for any of the various conventions I've gone to over the years. I guess there wasForeigners Are Brutes: The Episode [SPOILERS, but not like you'd care] · 3:54am Jun 29th, 2015
Pinkie: I joined a traveling band, played some shows here and there, got popular, almost made it big until creative differences tore us apart... and THAT'S when I knew I had to get back on with my journey to The Crystal Empire... THE GATEWAY to Yakyakistan! And so, here I am: it was a major adventure that took almost all afternoon. Know what I mean?
(Princess Cadance shuffles through pictures of Pinkie Pie and her band with a look of disdain on her face)
Pinkie: Uh... Princess?
Princess Cadance: The fact that so many books still name the Hoofbeats as "the greatest or most significant or most influential" rock band ever only tells you how far rock music still is from becoming a serious art. Jazz critics have long recognized that the greatest jazz musicians of all times are Duke Foalington and John Coltrane, who were not the most famous or richest or best sellers of their times, let alone of all times. Classical critics rank the highly controversial Beethoofen over classical musicians who were highly popular in courts around Equestria. Rock critics are still blinded by commercial success. The Hoofbeats...
What the fuck
Okay, so this episode was all over the place. It's not as bad as Princess Shit Spike, but honestly... what the fuck? This episode was all over the place. It's not a bad episode, but it's a few good scenes thrown together with a ton of mediocre ones, connected by a plot thread that's more tangled than a Bob Marely's dreads.
The yaks were really portrayed as just giant, whiny babies. I did like how the episode finished up with what I had original complaints about when first watching the episode (five minutes in: "you should be showcasing them Equestria, not giving them what they already know!" 18 minutes in: "Oh, okay...")
but I mean... this was just very poorly thought out. The random Cherry Jubilee made zero sense, and if I recall... she and the mane six weren't exactly on good terms when they rescued Applejack from her cherry farm. The Beatles thing kinda made me smile, but it seemed really odd that it would be included (and, as you can tell from the intro to this blog, brought out my inner Scaruffi). This episode was dripping with "I don't have to explain shit because pinkie pie", and that's one of the laziest things this show does. Sure, it was funny, but for how long can you ride on that merit? There was no substance behind it.
Cadance out of nowhere made me giggle, but that was just out of the sheer absurdity. And the whole thing up in Yakyakistan... Pinkie mentioned back home in Equestria that she made a mistake and ended up back home, unable to do anything with Yakyakistan (what a cocktease, by the way, I was looking forward to that)... but she really didn't make a mistake. It was just a cruel coincidence.
Pinkie's hair periscope/sensor thing was cute and made me smile, as did her party cave. However, the conversation in there, while rife with humor and charm, did sort of... irk me. It seemed like the episode was trying to shove two lessons into one, and I feel like the overworking Pinkie Pie lesson would have made a much more interesting and entertaining episode. The yaks didn't need to be in this at all; that whole thing could have been trashed in favor of everyone taking Pinkie Pie's shit for granted. Basically like Applebuck Season, but with Pinkie. It may have not been original, but I feel like it would have at least been SOLID, which this episode was anything but.
Also, the one time in the episode where there could have been tension, what with the threat or war and everything, was completely wasted. Twilight just casually mentioned "oh, I fucked up, woe is me! Boo-hoo, pity me! Princess Celestia will be so disappointed! oh yeah, and we might go to war with huge northerners"
The yaks seemed more like a cross between Vikings and Mongolians than anybody from the -stans. Maybe Kazakhstan? Who knows.
Fluttershy's quip about the slide, Twilight's quesadilla fear, and Celestia's face of horror about the war that was almost had were priceless, though, and I believe were honestly the high parts of the episode. The faces we got here were excellent, but it's a bit of a bad thing when that's the BEST part about the episode.
I dunno; it's just a whole lot of nothing. Hardly memorable. I knew this season was going too well... I think we've hit a slump. I pray to god I'm wrong and the next episode is more like the earlier ones, but...
guh.
At least we got this:
The Cutie Map pts 1 and 2
Slice of Life
The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone
Make New Friends But Keep Discord
Castle Sweet Castle
Appaloosa's Most Wanted
Tanks For The Memories
Party Pooped
Bloom and Gloom
Princess Spike
I agree with you on the best parts of the episode. Except random Cadance always makes my day. For Reasons.
Reasons.
3191108 reasons = your dick
I want the next episode to be the origin of Twilight's quesadilla fear.
3191219 fuck, that was unintentional
this fandom has poisoned me
Looks like someone doesn't like the
BeatlesHoofbeats.Yeah, I agree it was another meh episode. Most episodes are like that to me, but this one especially. I found myself actually skipping ahead just to get through the plot. I did that too in the Maud episode because of the smart idea to have the Yaks go from main character to main character and repeating the exact same thing. Pony tries, Yaks don't like, Yaks destroy. I think they wasted some three minutes on doing that.
3191233 I actually don't have any issue with the Beatles except for how people act like they're the greatest band of all time. It shows no real musical knowledge and panders to the opinions of people who are older and have already said their piece of mind.
3191252 Same here. I'm a Beatles nut, but I'd be the first to admit a lot of their songs are experimental garbage. Have you seen a site called the truth contest floating around? It (almost) literally worships them and claims they were wise prophets of society.
3191259 Truth contest ends up in the comments of pretty much every youtube video. It's lame as fuck.
Also, ain't nothing wrong with experimental garbage. Experimental garbage is what gave us shoegaze
3191273 Every youtube video? Tell me about it.
And should I be ashamed that I have no idea what shoegaze is?
I agree with you, but one thing: Why is Tanks For The Memories so low on the list? I'm a bit new.
3191279 nah, shoegaze is just another genre of music
it's stuff like Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Ride...
3191305 here's my review of it: Tanks Fr The Mmrs (Even If They Weren't So Great)
3191409 then who was the fourth Hoofbeat?
Man, Applebuck Season, but with Pinkie would be great.
Instead, we got The Last Roundup, but with Pinkie, and it was terrible.
3191520 Not even that! And hell, I liked the last roundup.
3191912
Point being, I didn't like Applebuck Season much, but I loved TLR, so since adding Pinkie to that made it worse, obviously the reverse would be true with the other. :V
3191917 Ah, okay. To me, the only parallels seem to be that Cherry Jubilee is in both. I don't see how The Last Roundup and Party Pooped are similar beyond that.
3191252 Spoilers, the "greatest" rock band of all time is probably not one you personally think is the greatest.
Or most influential, for that matter. Modern rock has deeper roots in the Velvet Underground than the Beatles, though the latter's impact on how music is even made and distributed is undeniable.
Is it a crime to think highly of both bands because their output was so damn strong?
3191929
Cuz Poopers is about Pinkie going off on a trip by herself without telling anyone, which is pretty similar to "AJ isn't coming home and hasn't really told us why".
Okay, really it's just the (inexplicable) presence of Cherry Jubilee that makes me think they have anything to do with each other. :B
3191964 Well, now, I would argue that The Velvet Underground is one of the greatest rock bands of all time. The Beatles were important, surely, but not the greatest simply due to their level of skill compared to their contemporaries.
However, people like Pierro Scaruffi (who I quoted at the beginning in my little joke at the top of the blog) usually disregard The Beatles in favor of trash like Trout Mask Replica (which is only taken seriously at all because Captain Beefheart was pals with Frank Zappa), so whenever people such as myself mention that The Beatles are massively overrated, we appear to be contrarian.
And with the exception of four albums, The Beatles' output was mediocre, to be honest. Abby Road, Revolver, The White Album, and Let It Be are all excellent records, but half of their shit is trite pop and the rest is overinflated "experimental" music that still sounds exactly like their other music, just with an extra instrument or two.
It infuriates me to no end that people generally consider Sgt. Pepper's to be the best album of all time when it hardly compares to things like The Velvet Underground and Nico and Wish You Were Here and Unknown Pleasures/Closer.
I thought we would see what Yakyakistan actually looked like.
Fuck you too, writers.