S8E1 and 2 School Daze Review · 12:31am Mar 25th, 2018
Hype train, all aboard!
So we open on a damp note where the show reminds us the movie exists and is definitely canon, after S7's finale pointedly didn't mention Star Swirl's dimension hopping mirror in a story all about different dimensions. Okay not gonna hate on the movie, I've grown apathetic to it. I do like this though, the map expanding the world out to these new areas.
And now bookhorse is becoming bookteacher. God help us all.
Chancellor Neighsay. That is all.
Wait, hang on. I know that voice... OH MY GOD. MAURICE LEMARCH, VOICE OF BRAIN FROM PINKIE AND THE BRAIN!?
*kneels to pray* "Dear Celestia, I thank you for this voice actor and the role you have chosen him to play in this episode. Truly he will provide great fodder for jokes and image macros!"
Also, orange magic aura, I don't recall seeing that before.
Guideance Councillor Starlight... okey dokey.
And now, send in the tokens! We have the token griffon, the token changeling, the token yak, the token pony, the token - wait.
Yaks. Rutherford.
Fuck this I'm out!
.... I only continue watching so I know how much I should hate this.
Okay I know this isn't a big deal but that dragon has the exact same colors as Scootaloo and it's kind distracting. "Hey, Spike, come meet Smolder. I'm kinda old for you to bone for another ten years or so, so I figured I'd set you up with someone closer to your age."
Song is okay, has a very Disney-esque vibe to it but it's just kinda eh.
To the shock of no one, Twilight insisting on her friends doing this by the book frustrates them and doesn't work out. Didn't we have this aesop multiple times already? But at least the students including the Tokens (my chosen name for the group because I doubt the show will give us one) seem to be warming up the school and are having fun. And, like, what does a school of friendship teach, exactly? I also won't get into the logistics of how the Mane Six all teach classes here when I'm pretty sure at least four of them have regular day jobs already.
I have a rant about this entire episode but I'll save it for the end of Part 2 to see if I'm proven wrong by then.
Spike steals the show here.
Okay, the changeling gets a good bit here impersonating Rarity. I have to wonder how the directing for this scene went. "Okay, Tabitha, we want you to be an exaggerated parody of yourself." "Don't we do that every episode?"
As the six play hookie Twilight meets with Neighsayer to show him around school, telling him about the virtues of Harmony they teach while the six demonstrate understanding of them on their day off.
Derpy cameo spotted.
So the Tokens accidentally ruin the meeting of friends and family and show off Neighsayer as a racist against non-ponies. Like, seriously, kinda uncomfortably racist. Like talking about the other races the way the Mane Six talked about Zecora in her debut. And so the Tokens all leave and Neighsayer shuts the school down.
Ep 2, Twilight is fun. I love how Spike just flops down on the pillows after confirming she's under them.
Why did Rarity think dressing Twilight up like a jester would cheer her up?
And here we appreciate how Starlight offers a dynamic with Twilight that none of the Mane Six really do - tough love.
So Twilight decides to reopen the school and sends the others to get the Tokens back, but they're missing.
At Canterlot we see the throne room now sports it movies design with two thrones. I approve but still am annoyed this will not be addressed in-story. Also, the intro wasn't updated either. They all argue with each other here and I like that Ember accuses Thorax of evil and Thorax is like "wut? Aren't we friends?"
So, here's an awkward question... what are the Tokens to the species reps here? Is Smolder Ember's daughter, sister, cousin, niece, or just some random young dragon she picked out of a crowd? The hippogriff mentions that the... Token Hippogriff, is Novo's niece, fine. But this creates a disconnect when we don't know why we should care about these new characters.
The Mane Six go to find the Tokens sands Sandbar, who I guess is a pony so he isn't important. Starlight mentions they may have used some sort of spell to disappear, unlikely none of their species have innate magic. Sandbar comes in and awkwardly picks up five dozen cupcakes. Sounds like a normal Pinkie order to me. The Mane Six piece together the answer to the mystery with all the slow agony of a dentist appointment.
Oh hey, the Castle of the Two Sisters is a thing. Remember back in S4 when they made a plot point of renovating it for a few episodes and then forgot about it again? I had a theory it would end up being rebuilt as Twilight's castle.
"I found stairs!" Um, you spent at least a few days at Twilight's school. And have already been in this castle. All of which have stairs... wut?
The group is attacked by a group of fuzzy monsters that are apparently a G1 reference I don't get.
"Is that professor Egghead?" Rainbow actually introduced herself this way. I love it.
Twilight says buck the rules and reopens the school, but Neighsayer shows up to be a jackass again. Twilight doesn't care if the EEA approves of her school, she's still opening it.
So, this premiere was... lame. Not horrible, but very, very lame. To begin, they're BORING! This two-parter is boring. The conflict is Twilight keeping her school open and the Tokens being allowed there except this plot development is so rushed and the Tokens are so unengaging that we don't care. Neighsayer has a great VA but he's wasted on a dull villain who is a one-dimensional hate sink. The school plot point comes out of nowhere and doesn't gel well with, well, anything. The map is expanding and this gives Twilight an idea to... open a school? And teach friendship to a single member each of the non-pony races of Equestria? How does this accomplish anything about spreading friendship in any way more effective than the Cutie Map?
But, the major failing of the episode is the Tokens. And to discuss them I have to go back to that rant I mentioned. I sat through the two parter before writing it to see if I was proven wrong. Instead, I was proven more and more right. What is my rant?
This two-parter wanted to be a redo of the series premiere.
This premiere hits the same notes as "Friendship is Magic" - introduce the villain, meet the heroes, villain enacts a crisis, heroes go on adventure where they bond and become friends, villain is thwarted. The problem is that this episode completely bungles that concept. Neighsayer is a lame villain and his "defeat" is Twilight just saying "screw the rules, I'm royalty bitch."
But the real downfall is how it handles the heroes. Going off the first episode again, Twilight was introduced and was the viewpoint character we followed throughout the episode as she met each of the Mane Six in turn, then all six of them went on their adventure where each of the Six demonstrates their personality and skills. Here, however, the Tokens have all their bonding mostly in a montage or off-screen. So we have no investment in their supposed friendship or what they do to keep it together.
We know nothing about them as individuals. Smolder, Gallus, and Yona can basically be summed up by their species - they're a dragon/griffon/yak and basically act the same way those races always have. Sandbar was just boring and unmemorable, Ocellus is just kinda there, and Silverstream is very, very annoying. All six of these characters are some shade of annoying, jerks, or annoying jerks. We have no concept of them of them as characters yet except "Ocellus is shy, Silverstream is perky." Again, it's the Mane Six introductions done wrong, the characters given one personality trait to work with for the entire two parter. And in place of an adventure where they all get a character moment to stand out and be cool, they just go hang out together, are attacked, and are saved by other characters.
This episode SHOULD have been all about the Tokens and trying to sell them to us as interesting, unique characters, like Friendship is Magic did when it kicked off the series. But it was actually about the school of friendship and the Mane Six's roles in it, also starring the Tokens as supporting cast. We should have had the Tokens convincing their leaders to let them stay. We should have had the Tokens go to Twilight or Neighsayer and tell them what the school means to them and please don't close it. We should have had the Tokens each talking about which instructor they liked and why. But we don't. They are minor characters in their own introductory episodes. And for it, I just don't care about them. I wanted the premiere to be a rehash of Friendship is Magic because it would have been thematically appropriate and a nice homage. But no. We get this.
Season 8 is off to a very poor start, my friends. I would love for S8 to end with me talking about how cool and interesting the Tokens turned out to be once they got time to develop and get spotlighted in episodes. But this was a very, very bad first impression for them.
Gen 5 hype! All aboard! :D
Do they also steal from Solomon Linda?
The tokens aren't the stars, they are just supporting characters but you seem to be upset that they aren't taking over the show. They will get focus throughout the season but the show is still very much about the main 6 and as far as I know we won't get any episodes with the kids that don't have them paired up with one of the other characters.
The season is more about the main 6 as teachers rather than the students they teach.
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No, I'm upset they didn't get to be the stars of their own intorductory episode.
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Yeah but it's weird to try and compare this to the season 1 premier. These kids are not the new main characters they are only important because it wouldn't be interesting to have the Main 6 teach a bunch of faceless students with no personalities. We will have all season to get to know these characters we did not need to give them complete focus in the premier.
4824660
Except yes, we should have, this was their first impression and it was a bad one. Look at Starlight. Yeah, she has a fair fandom now and she's grown on me too, but she had an uphill battle over six seasons to get to that point and she still has a lot of detractors. We now have six characters starting off in an even worse position than her (no backstory or personality at all, Starlight had S5) and have to accomplish the same task.
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I feel we know enough about them to get started, Gallus is sarcastic, Ocellus is shy, Yona is a clutz, Silverstream is excitable, Sandbar is probably the most open to new experiences and Smolder is the tomboy (basically Scootaloo the dragon). It's not perfect but it's enough for a starting point. Like I said they aren't the stars so they don't need to be fully fleshed out coming out of the gate, we have all season to develop their characters.
Eh, I can live with the tokens not being the focus here, especially since the school's going to be part of a more overarching narrative for the season. There's plenty of time to get to know these students more in depth.
Finally got into watching this, and I was sold on it. Honestly, I have no idea what you're talking about with your reasons for hating this. I thought the tokens had plenty of development time to show how they all are. I really don't understand what you were expecting out of them. They're all children. If you were expecting them to accomplish something on the level that the Mane Six accomplished in their debut, you were expecting WAY too much out of children.
I'm just really glad they didn't completely write the Mane Six out of the picture and make it so all of a sudden, these brand new children characters can for some reason accomplish things that even the Mane Six couldn't do. And if they got too much focus, I feel that's exactly what would've happened.
(Reason it took me so long to start watching these was because, it took me forever to get the Movie and I heard this episode had spoilers to the movie.)
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4866932
They're just children. That is expecting too much out of them. Plus, they had a bad first impression on the school. Why would they want to tell their species they don't want the school closed down, or talk about who was their favorite when they found it boring in the first place?
4866950
the song montage had them enjoying it until Twilight stuck her nose in.
Also, note. Spike and the CMC are kids too, and look what storylines and character beats they've had.
4866956
They don't know the position that Twilight and her friends were in. They came in expecting to enjoy it. It looked good at first. But in the end, they left hating it because it was so boring.
Yeah... don't compare them to common kids. If you think every kid should be like them, then you're basically saying every character should be like the Mane Six. And if that was the case, nopony would even need Twilight or her friends since Season 1, otherwise ANYPONY could've harnessed the Elements of Harmony and defeated every single villain up to date.
Besides, what exactly did they do in their first debut? When was the first time either of those 4 have done something truly spectacular?
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But again that doesn't work. Lots of characters have established memorable and interesting personalities in one ep. Gabby, Tender Taps, Coloratura, Sassy Saddles, Quibble Pants, Pharynx. One ep was all they needed.
The eps pushes these six characters into the spotlight and gave us no reason to want to see them again. I have to struggle to remember most of their names.
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I really don't get how their's is any different. Gabby was a complete Mary Sue, Quibble Pants was essentially a jerk, (And I want to forget all Daring Do episodes. Daring Done pushed that final straw.) Sassy Saddles, and Pharynx, I don't remember their names at all...
The only thing I remember of Tender Taps was that he was the first colt Apple Bloom helped to teach in what his Cutie Mark was, something to do with dancing. Nothing I remember about Tender Taps specifically. Coloratura, if that was Rara, was a similar case. She was an old friend of Applejack, and Applejack had to teach Rara what was going on with her career. Her manager was a jerk, similar to Coco Pommel's case.
I think all except one of those aren't even kids anyway, and the only kid I only remember his name, nothing about who he is other than Apple Bloom helped him dance.