MLP episode review: Friendship is Magic part one. · 4:22pm May 12th, 2014
This is a copy/paste from an rpg.net thread here.
WARNING ONE!
I've seen all 91 episodes, own the first three seasons and Equestria Girls on DVD. There will be heavy spoilers throughout this. If you want to avoid those, avoid this thread. Personally, I like spoilers, and hate the term used. I mean I kinda want to know what the heck I'm getting into with whatever media/toys beforehand. Limited time and money, after all. ;)
WARNING TWO!
If you want some actually good reviews, check out Stryke's reviews or Sun_Tzu's current threads and backtrack from there.
WARNING FIVE-NO, THREE!
I always do that Monty Python joke. :D *Ahem* Anyway, there will be episodes I don't like that everyone else does, and vice versa. I'm not gonna hold back if I see something that I think is wrong. And I will rip into the worst character on the show. That's right, I will not spare my wrath concerning...
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Between those two flat things we might have a full character.
Raise your hand if you thought I was gonna say Pinkie Pie. :p
WARNING FOUR
If you make some sort of video game reference, there's no way I'm gonna get it. Hell, there's a lot of current entertainment I don't follow at all. Just a warning.
WARNING FIVE
I hate protagonist-centered morality and the whole 'Canterlot populace/nobility are complete scum' fanon thing is seriously starting to piss me off, considering aside from a tiny portion they're no worse than Ponyville residents. And I will be taking apart Boast Busters almost scene-by-scene. I'm also pretty not too fond of the chessmaster/trickster mentor/related term archetype. *Glares at a certain alicorn*
WARNING SIX
I am about 75=80% a Doylist. What that boils down to is...
This is not a Force kick. It is a bad camera angle.
Anyway, I have a Sailor Moon Figuarts zero statue on my left along with a Trixie and Ditzy large doll and Classics Optimus prime and Megatron. So...
Here we go!
*****
Friendship is Magic Part One
We open with... a book opening. Okay, clever. We zoom in on Equestria and hear what I believe to be Celestia's voice saying that the eldest of two sisters uses her unicorn powers to raise the sun, and the youngest raised the moon. I love the visuals and old-timey imagery. As for Celestia's pink mane, it's faded ink or just simply authorial interpretation. And Luna gets jealous as the ponies... live life in an agrarian society. You know, going to bed at night for protection against predators. So she kept the moon up one night. Celestia tried to reason with her... but Luna was now Nightmare Moon. She'd gone to the Dark Side of the Force. Oh, yeah. Celestia tried to reason with her before she turned into Nightmare Moon, for the record.
We get our first shot of the Elements of Harmony, and she's banished into the moon. Celestia now works a double-shift, hopefully getting overtime. The voiceover changes to our primary protagonist, Twilight Sparkle, sitting on the grass and reading the book. And she wonders where she's heard of those Elements before.
Cue season one intro!
Twilight is... not galloping. Hmm, I remember her galloping. Ah, well. She runs across three ponies who invite her to a party by Moondancer. She turns them down and they're miffed with her. I can see both sides. Twilight looks snobbish, but for me in RL, after a couple of hours in any social environment I have to leave or I start getting... antsy. And now she's galloping away. She passes Sparkler and Lyra, who wave but are rebuffed. She goes into what I think is either her apartment in the Royal School for Gifted Unicorns or her home. And she opens the door... and knocks Spike away.
Ah, Spike getting abused and treated like crap starts from his first scene! Yeah, not happy. She calls for him, ignores him being on the floor and runs for a book. She notices his destroyed gift for Moondancer and... I'm not liking her attitude to him. Very abrasive here. And not in any way amusing for me. She looks for the book with her TK, but Spike finds it for her... and it TKed to the floor. Not even a 'thank you'. She finds the myth of the Mare in the Moon while Spike tries to reshelve the books. And she finally says 'please' for him to write a note to Celestia. She warns her about Nightmare Moon while Spike stumbles over some words. Cringing a bit here. We get that cool shot of a statue head turning into Nightmare Moon's head. Cool. Spike sends it by using his fire breath to burn it and the ash flies off. We also learn the Summer Sun Celebration is coming up and more Spike abuse! She's also pretty damned smug about Celestia listening to her.
He burps up a response. Celestia... tells her to stop reading dusty old books, go to Ponyville, supervise the prep for the Celebration and make some friends. We cut to them flying along and landing in our primary locale. Twilight still doesn't care about friends and says she'll obey the letter of the command, if not the spirit. Shot of Big Mac! "But the fate of Equestria does not rest on me making friends." Famous last words... They land, she is actually polite and... here comes Pinkie Pie.
Yeah, not gonna lie. There are times I love Pinkie, there are times I hate Pinkie. This is... not a time I hate her? Twilight says hi. She jumps up, gasps and runs off. Twilight snarks and they walk off to find Sweet Apple Acres and Applejack, bucking a tree and kicking the apples down. Twilight says hi and Applejack nearly shakes her leg off. Spike laughs and I laugh with him. Applejack rings up the family and we get a rather good intro of everyone there. The last three are Big Mac, Applebloom and Granny Smith, the regulars. Twilight spits out the apple, tries to move on but Applebloom flashes puppy-dog eyes. Twilight tries, but eventually relents. Heh.
We cut to her walking along with a stuffed belly. They look up and see the sky still cloudy, because rainbow Dash, the next to be introed, hasn't been doing her job. She swoops in and crashes into Twilight, sending them into a mud puddle. She laughs, but at least tries to help Twilight out. She's a jerk, but with a heart of gold. Ego the size of a small planet, mind. ;) Dash expodumps about her dream to join the Wonderbolts. Twilight turns that against her and... Dash states she can clear the sky in ten seconds flat. She then clears the sky in ten seconds flat, subverting the magic clock.
For the record, I was the first to add that to the MLP trope page. :D Twilight is left in suitable awe. "I'd never leave Ponyville hanging." Dash says she wants to hang out while Spike laughs at Twilight. They go to Town Hall and Twilight is impressed with the decor. Spike, however, is impressed with Rarity. It's love at first sight.
Okay, the whole 'Sparity' ship? I dunno. He's a kid and she's this world's equivalent of an adult. There's draconic aging and... it's just a bit odd for me.
Anyway. Rarity sees Twilight and is aghast with Twilight's mane. She grabs her, hauls her off to Carousel Boutique and... Fashion! turn to the left. Fashion! Turn to the right! Twilight says she's from Canterlot and Rarity fangirls about it. She's a diva, but a good diva. :D Twilight is freaked, and while Rarity runs off for rubies she hauls flank. And finally...
Fluttershy and her bird chorus. It is adorable. Twilight startles her and they fly off while Fluttershy goes into shutdown mode. Twilight is... awkwardly adorable, too. That final squeak by Fluttershy at the end is quite cute and makes me wanna hug her. Twilight turns to leave, but Fluttershy sees Spike and goes all 'cool!' Spike gets some much-needed respect and Fluttershy is adorable. Twilight tries to run off, but Fluttershy follows and Spike tells her his life story. He says he started as a purple egg, and then continues. Twilight finally reaches Golden Oaks Library and tries to get rid of Fluttershy, knocking Spike about. Fluttershy tries to help him, but Twilight shoves her aside, turns the light on...
And PARTY! Nice brick joke with Pinkie Pie. Twilight is... not pleased. To be fair, neither would I. But Pinkie's heart is in the right place, and she's not causing property damage. Nor is Twilight actually saying to her to get out. We also get our first shot of Ditzy/Derpy/Bright eyes/Bubble Butt/Muffin Head/Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV.
...
Now I wonder if there are Cowboy Bebop ponies. Ah, well!
So, yeah. Twilight is not pleased because she needs to do research. Pinkie is... Pinkie, a motor mouth. Again, heart in right place. Twilight tries to get drunk while Pinkie gathers the Mane Six together. But it's hot sauce. Pinkie likes it on cupcakes! Hmm, there was this guy at a restaurant I worked at who used to take Tabasco sauce, mix it with rice pilaf, put it in those little coleslaw cups and basically do Tabasco sauce/rice shots with them.
We cut to Twilight and it's night. Spike comes in, lampshade on head. Twilight's pissed. I do love her 'meemeemee' in the background when Spike leaves. :D She sees the moon, repeats the prophecy and the stars begin moving. Spike invites her to Town Hall and we go there for the Summer Sun Celebration. The bird chorus sings, Mayor Mare introduces Princess Celestia and... we see the head-shaped shadow on the moon disappear. And Celestia... no shows.
Uh, oh.
"This can't be good."
Pinkie Pie tries to... keep ponies calm while Rarity announces she's gone. Hmm, forgot she was up there. A dark cloud rises up and... Nightmare Moon appears. We have a brief CMC foreshadowing while Nightmare Moon does an evil villain monologue, Dash tries a frontal attack, Pinkie Pie does a name-guessing game and Applejack, caught in the middle, tries to decide which one to kill. ;) She finally stuffs an apple into her mouth. Good call. Nightmare Moon is creepy to Fluttershy and Rarity, while down below Twilight confronts her. The ponies gasp and Nightmare Moon says that, yup, this day was their last. "The Night! Will last! Forever!" And cue thunder and lightning. And 'to be continued'.
Thoughts
Okay... it's a good sign when the worst I really can say is, 'it's a little rough due to it being the pilot'. No, seriously. This holds up quite well. Twilight is a bit of a jerk... which makes sense, since this is before friendship. I will admit I'm not fond of Spike's treatment, but that's probably because of how the next four seasons treat him. It's not something that sits well with me. Good worldbuilding already, nice, fleshed-out characters, yeah. This is still pretty damned good.
I can't promise new pics every new episode, but...
The outers plushies behind my laptop, a small arsenal of Ranger Weapons, a classics Grimlock, and three figuarts of the senshi...your point?
How it all started for me. Seeing that little mare talking to the unicorn, if I had known what that lead me to...I would've worn a jacket.
And of course, I love the first appearence of Nightmare Moon
What I can't help but love about this first part is how easy it is to meet all of our protagonist and how it makes for an easily adapitable script (The use of so many verses proves that)
thanks for not mentioning Pinkie Pie as the worst. That's my favorite pony and I have a plushie of it! It's so huggable...
It really is a pretty great opening episode, effectively easing us into Equestria.
Interesting note. I recently rewatched the first episode (I have the Friendship Express DVD they put out a few years ago, and more recently got my hands on the complete Season One on DVD, which I still need to rewatch) and I actually did a count. Dash actually beats her own prediction. Clearing the sky in nine seconds, not ten. But in either case, she definitively proves her credentials when it comes to raw speed.
I could see why enjoyed my review of "Twilight's Kingdom". I also put a Monty Python and the Holy Grail reference in there. I like the Star Wars references here. Why can't there be Force Kicks?
Ah yes, I remember the days when I first started watching MLP. Good times. You know it's interesting how you pointed out that Rainbow was kind of a jerk because I thought she was kind of a jerk the first time I saw the first few episodes. Her line in "The Ticket Master": "I was busy... Sleeping" kind of cemented it for me, but she's grown on me in the time since.
I never quite understood Sparity either. But then I came up with a headcanon that ended up implying that ponies and dragons could breed with each other, and then I started thinking... Maybe.
You know it's Apple Bloom right.
I feel I'm going to enjoy reading your opinions on all the MLP episodes so far.
Unfortunately, I'm not too familiar with Transformers: The Movie. Is that Unicron standing behind Princess Luna?
Great review, it's always interesting to see how some people have a different persective on things I enjoy and why (that, and I've known for a long, long time via rpg.net your...dislike of how Pinkie Pie and Princess Celestia are used).
More, please!
[quoteRaise your hand if you thought I was gonna say Pinkie Pie. :p]I thought you would say Chrysalis.
About the whole sparity thing, I always thought about it as a childish crush, it's not the first one I see in fiction.
2104653
Since I had no point to begin with... none?
LOL, and yeah. That first appearance was awesome. :D
2104684 Hmm... word of legit advice. Avoid my reviews of 'Luna Eclipsed', 'A Friend In Deed' and 'Filli Vanilli' off the top of my head, then. To be honest... I'm not gonna be kind. Sorry.
2104722 Yeah, just enough to set the scene, but leaves you wanting more.
2104776 Ah, I kept having to glance between my watch and the screen. good catch, then.
2104801 I did not know it was Apple Bloom. I am... now a bit conflicted if I should go back and change every instance of her name as Applebloom. That is Unicron, and good you're not familiar with it. I am... really starting to really dislike the 1986 Transformers movie.
2104944 You know, honestly... I think I actually like Pinkie Pie about 65-70% of the time. It's the other percentage that she irks me and seems tailor-made to hit my rage buttons. As for Celestia... it's season three.
2105025 No, Chrysalis has more character depth in her appearances than Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon combined. Pathetic, isn't it?
2109463
2109463
...Reh, figured as much. I mean, I like Pinkie Pie. I really do. But while I liked Filli Vanilli, she was just... bad... in that one. Just so insensitive, I mean, fuck...
2109519 The short story... start here and just keep reading. The long story... I find it to be a jumbled, incoherent mess that is more two movies barely joined together. it treats characters with total disrespect in such a way that even on the 25th anniversary edition the people behind it admit they screwed up on. And the new ones they introduce are very stock. 'Rule of Cool' can only carry something so far, and it fails with this movie. I'm sorry to say, but I cannot watch it with any sort of enjoyment anymore.
2109520 Yeah. I like her about 65% of the time, but those other instances... not gonna be pretty.
2109463 Full agreement on Season 3, and we've seen Celestia's trollish instincts in at least a few episodes prior (*cough* A Bird in the Hoof *cough* The Best Night Ever *cough*). But, then again, it's the Primary Audience Issue (PAI)-it's a show for young girls and kids do perceive parents as pulling this kind of thing ("Why do I have to go to school/eat brussel sprouts/go to a town in the middle of nowhere and make friends?" "Because I'm your parent and I say so and it builds character."). Or, it's bad/lazy writing to fill a half-hour slot and keep within Standards and Pratices. Could be both.
And, Pinkie Pie either is perfectly used, or makes me want to encase her in concrete and toss her in a volcano. On Io. There isn't a lot of middle ground here...
2109580
Enh, to each their own. I still love the original flick.
2109907 Fair enough. Agree to disagree and all that. ;)
2111119
Indeed!
Speaking of G1 though, I'm on the edge of my chair for the next chapter of United We Stand.