S08E21: A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

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S08E21: A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

Post by Wayoshi (?) » Wed Aug 22, 2018 5:29 pm

When Rockhoof, heroic Pillar of the past, is having trouble fitting into the modern world, Twilight and her friends strive to help him find a new purpose.
This thread is for discussion of the episode. This episode airs at 8:25am AEST on Saturday, August 25 / 6:25pm US EDT on Friday, August 24 on Boomerang in Australia!

Speculation about the episode is OK to post. Spoilers from the Swedish release are NOT OK to post.

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Re: S08E21: A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

Post by The Doctor (?) » Wed Aug 22, 2018 7:34 pm

I thought Rockhoof was one of the less interesting pillars. Maybe it will surprise me.

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Re: S08E21: A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

Post by SigmasonicX (?) » Thu Aug 23, 2018 10:14 am

The OP mentions Sweden, but it's worth mentioning this was already shown in French too.

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Re: S08E21: A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

Post by The Doctor (?) » Fri Aug 24, 2018 8:42 pm

OK episode.

There was a good amount of Yona, so that was a plus.

The biggest revelation in this episode is that Twilight totally sucks at teaching her students history, and has been teaching them that it was a special spell that turned Discord to stone, and not the Elements of Harmony.

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Re: S08E21: A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

Post by PonyHag714 (?) » Fri Aug 24, 2018 11:35 pm

I thought it was a nice change of pace.

I got a kick out of the idea of Stygian writing books about the Shadow Pony.
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Re: S08E21: A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

Post by Adiwan (?) » Sat Aug 25, 2018 12:29 am

This episode came really close to a discussion about suicide. :-I
That was totally unexpected.
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Re: S08E21: A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

Post by Wayoshi (?) » Sat Aug 25, 2018 4:13 pm

The Doctor wrote:
Fri Aug 24, 2018 8:42 pm
OK episode.

There was a good amount of Yona, so that was a plus.

The biggest revelation in this episode is that Twilight totally sucks at teaching her students history, and has been teaching them that it was a special spell that turned Discord to stone, and not the Elements of Harmony.
wasn't it a special spell back when Celestia/Luna did it the first time? or was it the EoH then?

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Re: S08E21: A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

Post by The Doctor (?) » Sat Aug 25, 2018 6:11 pm

Wayoshi wrote:
Sat Aug 25, 2018 4:13 pm
wasn't it a special spell back when Celestia/Luna did it the first time? or was it the EoH then?
They use their horns at the end, but it's the same reainbow beam Twilight and Co. used.




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Re: S08E21: A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

Post by Adiwan (?) » Sun Aug 26, 2018 2:32 am

I don't have a problem with that wording.
It's like a magical item in an RPG that can cast a spell when used.
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Re: S08E21: A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

Post by Fizzbuzz (?) » Sat Sep 15, 2018 12:28 pm

Have I ever mentioned that I love how ponies take the weird stuff in stride? For us, successfully reviving a famous figure from a millennium ago would've changed everything, but after the return of the Crystal Empire I suppose that's practically old hat, assuming even that ranked versus the fated return of Nightmare Moon coming true, for instance. :allears:

It took me a little while to get the moral of this one, since as I saw it, it was hard to say anyone in particular was in the wrong. Even as I write this, I still find myself pondering it; should it be solely on Rockhoof to change and adapt to the world as best he can, on Twilight Sparkle and everyone else to recognize and accommodate at least one aspect of his special talent, or perhaps both? For maximum harmony, I feel the majority of it falls on the side of the community, since to require newcomers to virtually erase who they are would be doing a great disservice vs. finding a way to help them give whatever they can of themselves and their experiences.

I hope that's a lesson that comes through, especially past how shocking it was to hear Rockhoof say he'd be better off as a statue. This episode leaned hard into having him think of it more as a job for him, of sorts, instead of anything suicidal. But even allowing for magic stuff in Equestria being impermanent and also weird and different from what we have, it's still hard to not make that association. I think the episode successfully steered the narrative away from that, but that's still a highly sensitive topic that requires care in even approaching, enough to where I wonder if it's better for future episodes to stay well away from it entirely.
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Re: S08E21: A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

Post by Aramek (?) » Sat Sep 15, 2018 1:36 pm

He's an old hippie,
And he don't know what to do.
Should he hang on to the old?
Should he grab on to the new?
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Re: S08E21: A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

Post by SlateSlabrock (?) » Sat Sep 15, 2018 10:31 pm

Good episode. They haven't done much with the old heroes, except for Starswirl a while back, which made me wonder why they brought them back in the first place. It's a decently mature subject, and they even managed to find a role for Yona beyond "Yak smash."

The place they found for him isn't bad, but I was wondering if he'd wind up resettling in Yakyakistan, since he'd fit in a lot better there.

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Re: S08E21: A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

Post by Fizzbuzz (?) » Sun Sep 16, 2018 7:36 am

SlateSlabrock wrote:
Sat Sep 15, 2018 10:31 pm
The place they found for him isn't bad, but I was wondering if he'd wind up resettling in Yakyakistan, since he'd fit in a lot better there.
Rockhoof visiting Yakyakistan seems like a really obvious plot hook for an episode in S9, the way things have been set up as they are now. I think having him go there so soon would've been the show overplaying its hand.
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Re: S08E21: A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

Post by SigmasonicX (?) » Sun Sep 16, 2018 12:58 pm

I enjoyed the stuff with Yona, and it was nice checking in on the other Pillars, but this was pretty repetitive, and it was annoying that the obvious solution of "do the story telling you were doing before, but in a less crowded place" turned out to be the answer. Sending him off to Yakyakistan was also an obvious solution that no one considered for some reason.

Really, any of the solutions they provided could have worked fine, but they just didn't for reasons, and then they tried one of the older solutions again and it worked. This story would have been much better if there was less padding. The reason why he left the school was also weird: seeing fire coming out of a window isn't a bad reason to panic. Maybe if we saw Twilight telling him beforehand that the dragons were practicing their firebreathing and he just forgot, that would make more sense. Come to think of it, him not being used to other species living with ponies should have been a greater focus. Heck, in his time, it should have been unusual for different pony types to live together.

While I liked that we saw what the Pillars were doing, they also got way less focus than I would have liked. Stygian in particular felt like he wasn't in the original script and they hastily added him in. Somnambula was also a disappointment with her continuing to not have any of her traits from the comics.

Rockhoof wanting to be turned to stone was pretty morbid. I'm not sure what they were really going for with that.

Like I said, I enjoyed Yona looking up to Rockhoof. They should have done more with that in the middle of the episode. I also liked Rockhoof scooping creatures up.
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Overall, meh episode. I was pretty surprised when I saw some people give it positive reviews, but I can see how Rockhoof's situation can connect to people more than me.

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Re: S08E21: A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

Post by The Doctor (?) » Sun Sep 16, 2018 2:11 pm

Yona is so happy to be shoved and tossed.

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Re: S08E21: A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

Post by SigmasonicX (?) » Sun Sep 16, 2018 10:14 pm

Also Silverstream instinctively sitting down.

Quick update, after rewatching the episode, I enjoyed it a lot more. My issues weren't as big, particularly the Pillars not doing as much as I would have liked, and I felt for Rockhoof more.

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Re: S08E21: A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

Post by Applepie2017 (?) » Fri Sep 21, 2018 3:53 pm

The Doctor wrote:
Wed Aug 22, 2018 7:34 pm
I thought Rockhoof was one of the less interesting pillars.
Me too
But...
This one's too young

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Re: S08E21: A Rockhoof and a Hard Place

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Sun Nov 18, 2018 12:59 am

Okay, so I’m not expecting to love this one because the Oldsters of Harmony are, by and large, not super interesting to me. Just laying that out there: ball’s in your court, show! Now dazzle me! :party:

• Although I do like Rockhoof’s voice and I do like the fantastical weirdness of hanging around your own hometown’s archaeological dig.
• He should go hang out with the yaks, they’d get along like gangbusters.
• Yona agrees with me!
• Suddenly a few smashed desks are a PROBLEM. Man, remember when Ponyville used to get demolished every other episode?
• I don’t care if the dragons do it all the time, that fire-breathing competition was clearly a fire hazard and it should’ve been stopped. Like, I don’t think the school has magic anti-fire protection or anything. I’m on Rockhoof’s side here.
• Hi Blossomforth!
• He’s good-hearted but clumsy, and needs a place to belong. That’s every ‘90s Disney protagonist and they all turned out OK!
• Never ever thought I’d see Applejack getting into meditation.
• “Coltic” :lol:
• Respect his petrification fetish, Twilight! Quit kinkshaming!
• Spike is best substitute teacher.

Yeah, that was pretty good. Nice ending and Rockhoof is a cool dude, and that carried it. :good:
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