Not Asking for Trouble Review

I was hearing that this episode was mostly medicore, so I decided it was best to watch it early and see if that was true. This is currently the last episode that has been released early, but apparently Australia will be getting episodes 12 and 13 later this month. In any case, if you're still waiting on the official U.S. release:

This episode was written by yet another new writer, this one being May Chan. And I need to correct something on Becky Wangberg who wrote "Hard To Say Anything". Becky wrote for The Fairly Odd Parents (though I don't know for how long or for what seasons) and more recently Butch Hartman's newest show Bunsen is a Beast (haven't seen it and probably won't see it, doesn't look like it'll be bad but at the same time it doesn't seem like it has the same charm as Butch's other shows), whereas May Chan is the one who wrote for Avatar: The Last Airbender, Phineas and Ferb, and Voltron: Legendary Defender, so with a resume like that you'd expect May be to well qualified for this show, even though the last write for Avatar: The Last Airbender didn't do so hot. But was that actually the case? Well, let's find out.

We begin with Pinkie Pie racing to the castle while screaming her head off, though thankfully the scene is over quickly. Pinkie has been invited to Yakyakistan for one of their special holidays (she sent 17 letters to Prince Rutherford asking if she could come). She gets Twilight to make her an official friendship ambassador to the yaks, and then Pinkie sets off with Gummy in the hot air balloon. She passes the time with a game of "I spy", which of course Gummy doesn't answer since he doesn't use his tongue.

Pinkie arrives in Yakyakistan and meets Prince Rutherford, quickly learning about the yaks' home, and their traditions and customs. Pinkie shows a great deal of respect and maturity for the yaks' customs, and all goes well. That is, until all the stomping from the yaks causes an avalanche, which buries the village.

The yaks quickly set to work on digging themselves out and Pinkie joins in without hesitation, convinced it'll be cleared up soon. But as night falls the village is still buried, the yaks are exhausted, and their digging only makes the situation worse. Pinkie immediately decides the smart thing to do, is go back to Ponyville and bring her friends along to help. But Prince Rutherford refuses, claiming they can wait for the snow to melt. Pinkie reluctantly agrees, even though she doesn't think waiting is an acceptable answer. However, when she notices that the yak children are starving while their village remains buried, she decides that she needs to convince Prince Rutherford to accept outside help. She does so, by telling a story about goats who lived in a dessert, who had their village buried by a sandstorm.

Unfortunately, Prince Rutherford still doesn't want to admit he needs help, and even revokes Pinkie's honorary yak status. Furious, Pinkie flies home, though she quickly realizes that being angry won't solve anything. She instead ropes her friends (but not Starlight, at the least she could've been in the background like she was for "Fluttershy Leans In") into a covert mission to clear the snow from Yakyakistan under cover of darkness, and we get a forced line from Rainbow Dash about how she's awesome (kind of feels like they just threw the mane six in there to be there).

Prince Rutherford and the yaks wake up to find the snow has melted completely (it's worth mentioning that earlier on Prince Rutherford tried to tell a story about how he got stuck in a hole buried by snow, and dug out on his own when the snow melted, but Pinkie saw through it) and boasts that the yaks were patient enough. But then he spots Pinkie trying to leave and hide her actions, and at first glance he seems to be mad. But then he claims to be proud of Pinkie since she didn't ask for his help or wait for his permission, she got help anyway, which apparently is something that can happen in real life. He gives Pinkie her own yak horns, which are quite heavy, and the episode ends there. Look, I know it can be hard to ask for help, but I always resent the idea that doing so means you're weak, especially if asking for help could ease the suffering of those around you.

And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, it's in the same boat as "Fluttershy Leans In" and "Parental Glideance", it's a victory lap for the character it's focused on, but not much else really goes on. I appreciate what the moral was trying to teach, but in real life such a thing could very easily lead to cultural insensitivity and create more problems than it fixes. It doesn't help that we have a situation kind of like this at least in the U.S., people who still won't admit they're wrong and need help, even when they see the consequences of their actions right before them. I think there's a reason why there's the saying "You can't help someone who can't help themselves", if someone refuses to accept help even if doing so would be the right thing to do, then in most cases even if seems wrong, you're supposed to respect their wishes (though in my case I'd add a warning "Just don't come crying to me when something bad happens to you"). A better moral probably would've been if Prince Rutherford realized that asking for help isn't always a sign of weakness, especially if you've already tried to do things on your own and/or you're in over your head. As the old saying goes "Pride goeth before a fall.". There are some good jokes here and there, and I appreciate the added moral with Pinkie about how getting frustrated won't solve a problem, but it can't make up for the questionable execution of the moral, and are we just going to ignore the fact that there were children starving because of Rutherford's decision not to ask for help?! So in the end, I give this episode a borderline C+/B-, putting it just above "A Flurry of Emotions" which was predictable to a fault (Starlight really should've been in that episode, not Twilight), but below "Parental Glideance" which despite its execution I could at least appreciate the moral they tried to teach.

Now, I should mention that I've bumped "A Royal Problem" down to third place behind "Hard To Say Anything", it's in the same boat as "Celestial Advice". Yes, the royal sisters stuff was great and if that was all the episode were focused on it would be perfect, but I have to look at the whole product and there are some questionable decisions and writing choices that hold it back (at least the CMC attoned for what they'd done wrong and seemed to learn their lesson, whereas Starlight basically got rewarded for doing something that she used to do when she was evil simply because that time it luckly worked out for the better), I do hope that we can get a full on royal sisters episode someday with no one else, because even the expanded media has shown that they can make the princesses the star characters and people will be interested in the stories, so I don't see why they wouldn't think to just have the royal sisters hold an episode on their own, unless they're testing the waters to see if said episodes could work in future seasons (please don't let this be a one season thing). And as for the episodes, well for right now Discovery Family is putting the show on hiatus, and chances are that they'll be unlikely to air new episodes until the fall. Meanwhile, I'm willing to bet Treehouse T.V. in Canada will get the new episodes first (starting with episode 14), so I'll probably watch them when they first come out there. Discovery Family's summer hiatus seems to be so that they can air the Equestria Girls specials, which were supposed to be Netflix exclusive. My guess is that they were originally supposed to be for Netflix only, as evidenced by "Legends of Everfree" debutting on Netflix long before it aired on Discovery Family. But Discovery Family got wind of this plan, and probably issued a demand to Hasbro to let them air the specials first, or they'd pull the agreement that lets Hasbro air their shows on Discovery Family. In all honesty, Hasbro should've called Discovery Family's bluff and stuck to the Netflix exclusive plan. Discovery Family's advertising has once again gone back to practically no promotion at all for the only thing keeping their network afloat. If MLP left their network, I gurantee you that practically no one would still watch Discovery Family and the network would go under (the entire reason Discovery partnered with Hasbro to form The Hub, is because Discovery was in a rut at the time from which they couldn't climb out, and Hasbro was bitter over Cartoon Network's treatment of Transformers: Animated. But I'm guessing Discovery got jealous of Hasbro's success and were frustrated that the network wasn't turning a profit, so they thought they could do a better job on their own and broke off the partnership). Netflix would afford the show more time and space to flesh out ideas, and could easily serve as a launching point for that spin-off show Equestria Girls is practically begging for at this point. If Hasbro is worried about toy sales, they could easily just distribute one or two episodes a week to Netflix, there just wouldn't be any hiatuses. But the Equestria Girls spin-off show could easily help fill the gap between seasons. But I guess for whatever reason, they just don't want to give up on Discovery Family, even though they're shopping around in other countries for better markets. Anyway, I'll review the Equestria Girls specials when they come out (the first one is slated for release on June 24), same goes for the episodes. Here's to hoping the second half of Season 7 will be stronger than the first half (though we still have two more episodes to get through before we can see how the first half truly stacks up).

Comments

[superfun]

This is a nice low-key episode, but it's the third weakest of the season, ahead of only Honest Apple and Fluttershy Leans In

[Osakayumu]

My ranking:
1. Celestial Advice
2. Forever Filly
3. A Flurry Of Emotions
4. A Royal Problem
5. Honest Apple
6. All Bottled Up
7. Not Asking For Trouble
8. Parental Glideance
9. Fluttershy Leans In
10. Rock Solid Friendship (last ten minutes bring it down)

PileOfShit. Hard To Say Anything

[LionelCorp315]

Too bad Egypt didn't have the same outcome. And now look what happened.

[StevieBond]

I got around to watching this one and once again, I found it above mediocre at best. The second half has got to be better because this Season has been a big let down so far.