I didn’t really feel like having that last thread be the last discussion thread, so I’m doing one this week, anyways.

I’m not sure if I’m going to do this every week, and it’s possible that it might not always be me posting them, too, as I could see alternating with others on this. (And I kinda went overboard. A couple paragraphs is more likely then several pages...)

This week, though, I rewatched the first two episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, “Friendship Is Magic 1 & 2”.

Oh, and I watched “Escape From Midnight Castle 1 & 2”, too. It was this whole thing with Megan and Rainbow Dash Firefly and Twilight and Applejack and a few others. Bowtie? Tirek was trying to capture four ponies to turn into monsters and use for his chariot up to the moon, I think, to make the night last forever? Scorpan was helping him, and seemed to be best buds with Spike.

So they went across rickety bridges and met sea ponies and such, and fought Tirek, and countered his Rainbow of Darkness with a Rainbow of Light, with some help from Scorpan and Spike, who switched sides, a bit of fast teleportation by Twilight, and so on.

But enough about Midnight Castle. Let's talk about the original two-parter of Friendship is Magic. What are your thoughts? I'll be posting mine in a second comment, 'cause I kinda started going scene by scene...

--Sweetie Belle

So were we are, Lauren Faust’s Friendship is Magic. The book sequence is still good. The eldest used her “unicorn powers”, huh? They are both called unicorns again, too, despite being alicorns. Early series weirdness strikes again.

“The bitterness in the younger ones heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness, Nightmare Moon! She vowed she would shroud the land in eternal night!” Dramatic.

Nightmare Moon was actually originally named “Night Mare”, back when it was Queen Celestia and Princess Selena, btw. Nightmare Moon sounds better, tho’.

And there’s the setup for Amending Fences. We’re immediately told that Twilight likes books more than friends, and we see all her books and her magic, setting her up as a bit of a Hermione Granger type off the bat.

And we get Spike, with the stuffed bear he got for Moondancer and being bossed around by Twilight. And he can’t spell precipice. I think I liked Spike almost immediately. Not to mention I always liked the whole sending letters by dragonfire thing.

You know, if the sand were red, that huge hourglass could be like the one the Wicked Witch of the West had…

Okay, Twilight, enough babbling about Nightmare Moon. Go off to Ponyville and make some friends. And Spike knows what makes Twilight happy. Libraries.

“I am her student and I’ll do my royal duty, but the fate of Equestria does not rest on me making friends.” What a long way we’ve come.

Oh, Pinkie…

And off to Sweet Apple Acres, with Applejack and the whole apple clan.

“Aren’t ya gonna stay for brunch?” Apple Bloom was so good at being cute and laying on the guilt…

This is a scene that’d benefit from a remaster, as the apple family looks awfully generic with lots of repeated ponies, and not looking all that much like the apple family we see later, though the ones we actually are introduced to stay.

And Rainbow certainly makes a comedic entrance. She does clear the sky in 10 seconds flat, though.

And Rarity is immediately Rarity, and Spike is smitten. They actually do a pretty job of giving a good impression of what the characters are like, which is part of the first episodes job. Everyone is interested in being friends except Twilight.

It’s interesting seeing how much Fluttershy has changed, with her barely being able to talk to Twilight here. And she was immediately very interested in Spike, which they never seemed to bring up again.

“Well, I started out as a cute little purple and green egg… and that’s the story of my whole entire life! Well, up until today. Do you wanna hear about today?”

You know, it just occurred to me that the first thing Pinkie Pie says other than gasping was “Surprise!”. And she, of course, was based on Surprise…

“Here I thought I’d have time to learn about the Elements of Harmony, but, silly me, all this ridiculous friend-making has kept me from it!”

Did they have to rhyme Celestia with Equestria?

“Oh, my beloved subjects. It’s been so long since I’ve seen your precious, sun loving faces.” How times have changed. And there’s the CMC, all together despite not meeting each other until several episodes in the future!

Interesting that Mayor Mare is the one with enough presence of mind to try and arrest Nightmare Moon.

And Twilight looks through books while Rainbow Dash accuses her of being a spy, and Applejack tries to eat her tail. Again.

“Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide!” “How did you find it?” “It was under E!” “Oh.”

And you’ve got to love how Twilight reads off the elements, with an audible sound on each element as the camera passes over that particular element bearer. They tell you who represents all the elements here! And Twilight is in focus while talking about the sixth.

Applejack’s demonstration of honesty here is so contrived…

“Take that, you ruffian!” Rarity knows kick-fu.

I love all the little horse noises and touches, too. You get all of that in later seasons.

I do like Fluttershy and the manticore.

And Pinkie’s song. It’s a shame later episodes establish that everypony drops into song at the drop of a hat, because here’s it’s just that Pinkie is silly and wacky enough to start singing randomly.

And we have Steven Magnet and his beloved moustache. Yay! He’s such a drama queen… which is why Rarity gets to deal with him. “I simply cannot let such a crime against fabulousity go uncorrected!”

And Rainbow Dash ain’t afraid of no ghosts! Kinda weird that Nightmare Moon can disguise herself as three sports ponies at once.

And Twilight tries to activate the elements as all her friends leave her alone to try it all by herself.

“You’re kidding. You’re kidding, right?” Nightmare Moon is always great.

But it’s time for Twilight to give a superhero team type introduction, and wrap her in Rainbows. (Honestly, they probably could have given us who was what element one less time…)

“Why Rarity, it’s so lovely.” And Rarity immediately assumes Fluttershy is referring to her tail, and shakes it all about.

About that time, I think Celestia finished with the cake she’d been eating, and showed up to make an appearance as Glenda, good witch of the north. She was probably waiting to see if Twilight was able to deal with Nightmare Moon herself.

And Princess Luna is back, at her cutest and most cuddly, so they hug¹, though Celestia seemed to be thinking about turning into a swan instead.

And Celestia told Twilight to make friends in Ponyville, and knows she succeeds, but then suggests she should be happy about returning to Canterlot and leaving them behind, before going back to what was obviously already her plan to give Twilight the library and have her stay in Ponyville after all. Whose library was this, anyways?

That was fun rewatching, and really reminds me why I liked the show to begin with. I think it was actually pretty solid. Of course, the next episode is weaker, and was actually the first one written. They weren’t sure originally if the episodes were gonna be 11 minutes or 22, so it had to be lengthened, and it really showed…

Didn’t expect to write that much, but what are everyone else’s thoughts?

Sweetie Belle

1. It has been a thousand years since I’ve seen you as cuddly as this…

7027919
I think rehashing the episodes is a great thing, and I'm glad somepony thought to do it.

I actually watched Season Two's Luna Eclipsed before I saw any other episodes. I found Pinkie to be annoying at first, but I thought Twilight was quite interesting if a little one-dimensional. I was also drawn to how cute the characters all were.

When I did go back and watch the first two episodes, I thought they were very juvenile. I was very much aware I was watching a children's show, so I expected everything to be tied up in a neat bow at the end, with no one getting hurt and some sort of moral. But for all that, I liked what I was seeing. The characters lost that one-dimension quality and showed themselves to have fuller personalities. I still hadn't warmed up to Pinkie, and I thought her song "Giggle at the Ghosties" was corny and silly, but not in a good way. (Incidentally, here's that song in D minor. Very creepy!)

I don't think I even liked Pinkie until Party of One and heard "Smile." She's now my Favorite.

Basically, I found each pony to be intriguing in their own right, so I kept watching to find out more of them. I thought the whole notion of friendship between such diverse characters to be something I wanted to be a part of. And here I am, nine years later.

These characters have become my friends, and I'll always treasure them.

7027919

One thing I rather regret is the immediate loss of a villain with such excellent stage presence. Chrysalis was always a bit too psychotic, Tirek a bit too brutish, but Nightmare had style.

The fan community has done a wonderful job exploring her, I just wish she'd gotten the chance to be more than the introduction-to-the-setting crisis.

7027925

I think rehashing the episodes is a great thing, and I'm glad somepony thought to do it.

Thanks! I thought it was a good idea, I just wasn't sure if I should be the one to do it. But, you know, the easiest way to make sure something happens...

I actually watched Season Two's Luna Eclipsed before I saw any other episodes. I found Pinkie to be annoying at first, but I thought Twilight was quite interesting if a little one-dimensional. I was also drawn to how cute the characters all were.

Yeah, Pinkie was irritating in that one. Must have been weird seeing original Luna, having seen later Luna first, too.

When I did go back and watch the first two episodes, I thought they were very juvenile. I was very much aware I was watching a children's show, so I expected everything to be tied up in a neat bow at the end, with no one getting hurt and some sort of moral. But for all that, I liked what I was seeing. The characters lost that one-dimension quality and showed themselves to have fuller personalities. I still hadn't warmed up to Pinkie, and I thought her song "Giggle at the Ghosties" was corny and silly, but not in a good way.

You know, for the rewatch, watching G1 first might have been a good thing, because it was rather more juvenile than G4 was, even the first two episodes. Of course, it was juvenile, but still darker. You saw ponies in chains and turned into monsters, and I'm not sure Tirek survived that episode...

I don't think I even liked Pinkie until Party of One and heard "Smile." She's now my Favorite.

Basically, I found each pony to be intriguing in their own right, so I kept watching to find out more of them. I thought the whole notion of friendship between such diverse characters to be something I wanted to be a part of. And here I am, nine years later.

These characters have become my friends, and I'll always treasure them.

Yeah, they came up with a great cast you wanted to learn more about, and had a great setup where you could just pick two ponies, and there was your episode, at the start. I was pretty much sucked in and watched everything in order up to where the show was at. Though I might've seen some clips first and parodies and things. Can't really remember.

I'm also kind of appreciating when episodes are laying good groundwork for everything after it. I'll probably talk more about that around Showstoppers...

7027926
Nightmare Night was a great villain who it would've been nice to see more of.

Of course, now when I think Tirek, I'm thinking G1 Tirek, who was a bit of a better villain than G4 S9 Tirek.

--Sweetie Belle

7027918
Hope you were sitting in comfiest chair and sipping red wine (or grape juice) as you reminiscent. That's what I will do.

I remember watching first episode all those years ago and... actually not being that impressed. I do love introductions to all our favourite ponies, even more with hindsight. But Nightmare Moon part started a precedent for introducing villains and throwing them away as soon as they appeared. Maybe I would have liked Nightmare if she appeared more, or had real minions to interact with instead of just popping up to monologue twice.

Oh and Gen 1 Tirek is better, as such was the way of 80's villains. Underappreciated now sadly.

I remember watching the first episode, trying the find out what the fuss was over a kids cartoon was, and at first I was unimpressed and considered dropping the show there, and then Nightmare Moon entered the show. I remember how I loved her design and the impression she gave off and watched on to see more of her. Sadly, she was "kill off" after the second episode but I saw enough the I wanted to see more.

I guess now what we are talking about the old episode I'll need to rematch them, great idea by the way.

7027919
My fiancee and I are gonna watch the whole show in a few months. Is it cool if I bump this thread with my thoughts then, when I get to see the opening two-parter again?

7027918

Applejack’s demonstration of honesty here is so contrived…

It's really more of a blind trust exercise. You know "Fall and I'll catch you" that's supposed to be done with couples and close friends? Not exactly the sort of thing you wanna pull on someone you just met.

The eldest used her “unicorn powers”, huh?

A clue to the Hearth's Warming tale I bet no-one picked up on.

And Pinkie’s song. It’s a shame later episodes establish that everypony drops into song at the drop of a hat, because here’s it’s just that Pinkie is silly and wacky enough to start singing randomly.

I think they kept it to her long enough to be a character beat, but I wouldn't give up all the awesome non-Pinkie songs for it. Might have emphasised her being the main diegetic singer, though.

“Take that, you ruffian!” Rarity knows kick-fu.

She was pretty capable back in S1. And I do love this first real fight scene in the show more than many more "epic" ones later.

7028069
Sure, feel free to bump this thread and other episode discussion ones when doing a rewatch!

--Sweetie Belle

7027942
7027976
It was a pretty comfy chair.

It would've been nice to have Nightmare Moon as a recurring villain... but I wouldn't trade that for Princess Luna, ultimately.

G1 Tirek was pretty good.

7028097
Yeah, one day after meeting Twilight is kinda early for that.

7028098

I think they kept it to her long enough to be a character beat, but I wouldn't give up all the awesome non-Pinkie songs for it. Might have emphasised her being the main diegetic singer, though.

Yeah, I wouldn't trade all those songs for it. Seems like a character trait that is was a shame to have drift off a bit, though.

She was pretty capable back in S1. And I do love this first real fight scene in the show more than many more "epic" ones later.

I think it helps that back then they were trying to have the characters be more horselike, and later on, they didn't really try to do that much. And the increasing power level made fights tend to go to unicorn/alicorn dominated things with blasting things with magic, too.

--Sweetie Belle

7028129

I think it helps that back then they were trying to have the characters be more horselike, and later on, they didn't really try to do that much. And the increasing power level made fights tend to go to unicorn/alicorn dominated things with blasting things with magic, too.

A real shame - especially since the magic got a lot less creative, too.

Overall, I do still love this opener (I say without rewatching it). Sure, the whole thing is a bit rushed, but we do have a lot to establish.

I actually speculated in the past that Luna and the Elements might be late additions to the plot, due to their lack of presences in other S1 episodes.
The new leaks seems to have disproved such a connection, though.

7028117
Awesome! Looking forward to it.

7028129
Woah now, lets not summon the lunar inquisition! I didn't mean to say no Luna, just that Nightmare Moon needed more screen time. Like, imagine if she was introduced in the opener and then saved at the end of the season because Twilight realized what Luna's real worries were instead of instant fixing with orbital friendship laser. Though I do love orbital friendship laser....

7028098

A clue to the Hearth's Warming tale I bet no-one picked up on.

Actually alicorn is a fanon word that got incorporated into show. It first appeared in the show in season 3. Though funnily enough alicorn word in reality means unicorn horn. For all intended purposes Celestia was basically winged unicorn at the beginning.

7028216
I wonder if they call it that in Equestria too?

And I also wonder if anyone thought that the unicorns might once have moved sun and moon when they heard that.

7028218
They probably call unicorn horn just unicorn horn. They don't use our naming conventions anyway, or else pegasus would be called winged horse since Pegasus is a proper captalized name and not actually species of the famous Greek winged horse.

And don't know about ancient fanons but maybe someone did. Though think idea that Celestia was faking it was more popular.

7027918

And Princess Luna is back, at her cutest and most cuddly, so they hug1, though she seemed to be thinking about turning into a swan instead.

And for me, that's my preference for Lulu: In her rightful and true S1 Design because it is the real her <3

7028228
I dunno - we have "fingernails" while animals have "claws" after all. (Though they're the same in Japanese.) But they do just call it "horn" in the show - dunno about what it's made ofo, though.

And yeah, I remember those theories - at what point did they die out?

7028243
Fingernails, claws, hooves etc are technically same thing just different forms (also I thought monkies had fingernails too). But I just think that ponies wouldn't use alicorn word for unicorn horn since it's Latin and not English and word is already in use.

And I don't think those theories really ever died out. Merely stopped being interesting.

I only read the first post, but here are a few things I remember from when I saw the pilot after other parts of the series. I've seen the pilot about 5 times, 4 of those in English.

Three familiar blank flanks can be seen cowering from NMM early on; they later act as if they don't know each other in another episode.
The story feels rushed, probably because it was meant to be a whole season story arc.
Apple Bloom's filly legs look particularly stubby after seeing her in later seasons (starting in S2)
It takes me half a season to believe in Unicorn Twilight (I anticipate wingless Spike will cause a similar reaction).
There's no train in the theme (Added after Discord's debut; likely won't be as noticeable after getting used to S8-9 theme).
(Big culture shock) Mayor Mare tries introducing Celestia as bringing the sun and the moon.

7027918
Why would you do this? Why would you kill me with feels?

Like a lot of pilots for TV shows, this pilot was written by Lauren Faust and aside from being a co-writer on “The Ticket Master,” she hasn’t proceeded to write any further episodes since, also like very many creators of TV shows. Given how bad the Powerpuff Girls episode “Equal Fights” was received from feminists, I was skeptical when approaching this episode. Did this episode succeed in drawing people in? I’m pretty sure the bronies would tell you so, but for me, this pilot episode has several problems.

First and foremost, the episode starts off with this exposition dump about how Princess Luna became jealous of Princess Celestia, and her jealousy consumed her, turning her into Nightmare Moon. Because of this, Celestia had no other choice but to banish her sister to the moon for a thousand years. Unfortunately, the exposition doesn’t stop there. Whatever story the writer seemed to be trying to tell here just seemed to put on hold so that the characters could spout more exposition. Here’s the problem with that: prelude and exposition are not story.

While it may seem as if I’ve been nitpicking so far, I really can’t do anything else. The story elements of this pilot are so insignificant and so disjointed that any comment you make about them is going to seem like nitpicking. I say this because there’s no story here; it’s just exposition. In fact, if you think about it, this whole pilot was entirely exposition. It’s like:

"Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn; the younger brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies. But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon."

"There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. It is said, the last known location of the five elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters."

"The book said: when the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth Element to be revealed."

I mean, it just goes on and on like this right to the end. I don’t understand why they decided to cram all of this exposition into two episodes. This would have been a lot better had the writer made this a season-long story arc. Each character could have their own episode, discovering the Element of Harmony that they represent along the way, and then for the finale, they could all come together to take down Nightmare Moon. Hmm, come to think of it, that would probably make for a good fanfic.

Another problem with the pilot is that a lot of things just felt contrived, from the Summer Sun Celebration being held in Ponyville to all of the future bearers of the Elements of Harmony being in Ponyville and Twilight meeting all of them within one day. I can buy all of them knowing each other seeing as how they all live in Ponyville, but what are the chances that they would all become best friends and learn that they all represent an Element of Harmony? That’s a lot to buy, especially for a pilot.

7028505

Three familiar blank flanks can be seen cowering from NMM early on; they later act as if they don't know each other in another episode.

A dark alicorn does tend to command one's attention.

The story feels rushed, probably because it was meant to be a whole season story arc.

How, exactly? Would NMM just not appear until the finale?

(Big culture shock) Mayor Mare tries introducing Celestia as bringing the sun and the moon.

All ponies knew for a thousand years - imagine their shock.

7155273
I don't remember how it would have been exactly, but I'll come up with how I would have written it.

Part 1 plays out the same: Celestia's protege organizes the Summer Sun Celebration in the backwater town of Ponyville, but Nightmare Moon crashes the party and kidnaps the princess. After some legwork, Twilight and the local organizers work together to temporarily banish the monster of old and rescue Celestia. Celestia assigns Twilight to Ponyville and tasks her and her new friends with finding the elements.

Over the course of the season, background events clue observant viewers as to the true history surrounding Nightmare Moon while the Mane 6 locate the five elements one by one. Finally, they are ready to face Nightmare Moon once again on the next Summer Sun Celebration, where Twilight pieces together her sixth element just in time to purify Luna instead of banishing her again.

It could just as easily could have been cut off when NMM smashes the elements and the M6 restore the five known elements over the season. So, basically Season 4 happens a few years early.

7160650
How would they get rid of her in the first place, though? And I don't think the first season was allowed that much of an arc.

7160658
I tried to leave it open ended. I didn't have anything in mind.

Like a lot of pilots for TV shows, this pilot was written by Lauren Faust and aside from being a co-writer on “The Ticket Master,” she hasn’t proceeded to write any further episodes since, also like very many creators of TV shows. Given how bad The Powerpuff Girls episode “Equal Fights” was received from feminists, I was skeptical when approaching this episode. Did this episode succeed in drawing people in? I’m pretty sure many fans would tell you so, but for me, this pilot episode had several problems.

First and foremost, the episode starts off with this exposition dump about how Princess Luna became jealous of Princess Celestia, and her jealousy consumed her, turning her into Nightmare Moon. Because of this, Celestia had no other choice but to banish her sister to the moon for a thousand years. Unfortunately, the exposition doesn’t stop there. Whatever story the writer seemed to be trying to tell here just seemed to put on hold so that the characters could spout more exposition. Here’s the problem with that: prelude and exposition are not story.

While it may seem as if I’ve been nitpicking so far, I really can’t do anything else. The story elements of this pilot are so insignificant and so disjointed that any comment you make about them is going to seem like nitpicking. I say this because there’s no story here; it’s just exposition. In fact, if you think about it, this whole pilot was entirely exposition. It’s like:

"Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn; the younger brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies. But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon."

"There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. It is said, the last known location of the five elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters."

"The book said: when the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth Element to be revealed."

I mean, it just goes on and on like this right to the end. I don’t understand why they decided to cram all of this exposition into two episodes. This would have been a lot better had the writer made this a season-long story arc. Each character could have their own episode, discovering the Element of Harmony that they represent along the way, and then for the finale, they could all come together to take down Nightmare Moon. Hmm, come to think of it, that would probably make for a good fanfic.

Another problem with the pilot is that a lot of things just felt contrived, from the Summer Sun Celebration being held in Ponyville to all of the future bearers of the Elements of Harmony being in Ponyville and Twilight meeting all of them within one day. I can buy all of them knowing each other seeing as how they all live in Ponyville, but what are the chances that they would all become best friends and learn that they all represent an Element of Harmony? That’s a lot to buy, especially for a pilot.

7224353 Well, Lauren Faust did originally want the show to be more action oriented.

7224353
Opening episodes have to do a fair bit of exposition, especial when this story is tied to events which happened long ago. And IMO it helped provide a certain epic feel. (As for doing iv as a seasonal arc, that might have been nice but just wasn't on the cards.)

As for the coincidence of all the Element Bearers living in Ponyville... well, it depends how much you consider them the sole and destined bearers. If you lean hard on the one side, then of course they're going to be in the right place at the right time, because well, destiny. Whereas if you believe the Elements aren't that picky, then it's not so implausible that they could use them. It's only in the middle that you might have some issues.

7224377 And she got her wish in season two, which had considerably much more action in it than season one did.
7224378

As for the coincidence of all the Element Bearers living in Ponyville... well, it depends how much you consider them the sole and destined bearers. If you lean hard on the one side, then of course they're going to be in the right place at the right time, because well, destiny. Whereas if you believe the Elements aren't that picky, then it's not so implausible that they could use them. It's only in the middle that you might have some issues.

The show kind of goes both ways in that regard. "Celestial Advice" seems to imply that they were destined to become the new bearers of the Elements of Harmony, yet seasons 8 and 9 seem to imply that any group of friends can use the Elements as long as they represent the spirit of the Elements.

7224468
Well I suppose it could go both ways. If one says that, say, Booth was destined to shoot Lincoln, that's true even though anyone can use a gun... in ani case, enough destiny can justify ani amount of coincidence.

7224468 Considering that by this point we'd learned that the Elements of Harmony were originally tied to the pillars of legend, who most certainly wouldn't have even known each other if not for Stygian bringing them together, I think it's more that the elements themselves are bound to those who embody the virtues that power the elements.

7224483 Which is pretty much exactly what I just said.

7224526 You're implying that the show initially hinted the mane six were destined to be heroes, before it then said that their connection wasn't anything special because the elements could be wielded by others. Just because a new breed/generation takes over doesn't mean the old guard wasn't special or necessary, or that what they had wasn't unique.