S1E1 Revisited: All The Ponies In This Town Are Crazy · 11:33am Jul 26th, 2019
There's a mare in the moon, but she won't be for much longer.
A solid setup. The fairytale opening is still magical. I may have been somewhat ruined by all the 'alternate Mane 6 vs. Nightmare Moon/Daymare Sun' fics I've read, but the rewatch value was pretty low, aside from noting the smaller details I'd completely forgotten over the years. (Remember Twilight eating hot sauce by accident? A perfect and iconic gag, but somehow I forgot about it entirely.)
Everyone's voices sound subtly different than they do in more recent seasons; testament to the VA's performance shifting as they got more comfortable with the characters. The Spikeabuse is a bit eyebrow-raising. And sure, the circumstances were part of the reason for her harsher attitude here, but I still miss that Twilight could be this sarcastic and jerkish along with her more adorkable tendencies. Character development I guess, but I personally just like her having a bit more bite like this. Iunno. Rest of the cast is set up pretty well; even if they're mostly still pretty one-note, that's alright.
Some of the scenes also helped to establish better the capabilites of the three main Pony races, or just other little details about the setting that would come into play eventually. (And I continue to love how the mere existence of Amending Fences gives a minor offhanded scene a whole ton of interesting context and emotional baggage that makes this episode a tad bit richer than it was before) All in all, the production is definitely rough around the edges in a lot of ways, and the writing extremely straightforward, but it's all more than charming enough to make up for it.
We never did learn what the deal with the four stars was, unless there's something in S7 or S8 I don't know about, but somehow I doubt it. Yet, I kinda like that, keeps at least one aspect of the whole Nightmare Moon mythos still feeling mysterious and mystical. That scene is probably my favorite from this episode, just so very atmospheric.
Did I enjoy it? Yes.
Do I consider it well-made? Mostly.
Would I recommend this? Yes.
ARBITRARY NUMBER SCORE: 4/5*
ARBITRARY NUMBER SCORE meanings:
5/5: This is an episode that is either really great or I just really love.
4/5: Has some definite drawbacks, but is memorable and above average.
3/3: Perfectly average, but not in a bad way; just kind of the baseline for an episode.
2/3: It's not terrible, but it definitely has some big, distinct flaws.
1/3: Either is more-or-less objectively bad, or I just personally hated it.
Yeah, good ol' Jerklight Sparkle is one of those things you tend to forget ever existed, this far into the series. :)
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Yeah, really. She still has her moments in what I've seen of the more recent seasons, but other times she kinda feels like this...
en.spongepedia.org/images/3/3d/Normal.jpg