Retrospective Review · 6:45am Sep 29th, 2020
Thinking about watching the whole series and reviewing it. "Now that we know everything that's going to happen in the series, how does this individual episode hold up?"
For example, Episode 1 makes no sense, unless Princess Celestia is a total troll. If your whole plot is to have your chosen student form a connection with ponies that embody the virtues that are the Elements of Harmony, so that your sister can be saved from madness, shouldn't said student know about the Elements of Harmony, so that she would know what to look for?
An alternate approach would be for Twilight Sparkle to be a jaded Canterlot resident: "Princess Celestia always taught me about the importance of honesty, generosity, kindness, loyalty, and laughter, but there's little honesty, generosity, kindness, loyalty, and laughter to be found in Canterlot." Then, when she's in Ponyville, she'll recognize these virtues on display.
Episode 2 was very important, showing the world that this was not your mother's My Little Pony, leading to adult and male fans following the series. But the one part that always bothered me was the honesty challenge. Just how hard would it have been for Applejack to say "Your friends are ready to catch you."?
What I really pick up from Episode 2 is why Dungeons & Dragons campaigns don't have races that fly. Because Episode 2 is filled with the obstacles you'd place in front of a low level adventuring party, but certainly two, and up to four, of the obstacles could be avoided by flying over them. A raging river and chasm with a missing bridge? Have the flying members of the party ferry the rest over. The cliff and manticore could also be arguably bypassed in the same way. In D&D, when you're around 9th level and find a suspicious bridge to cross, a couple of the characters start flying.
I am entirely in favor of a full-series retrospective. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if a certain anonymous alicorn donated the Ponyville Library's copy of The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide a week before Twilight moved in.
Yeah, it was less of an 'honesty challenge' and more a trust fall. :B
I actually do not believe that Twilight would have been helped by knowing about the Elements of Harmony. I believe that Celestia probably felt that knowing about the Elements would have led to Twilight trying to force insincere friendships that would have hindered her
We saw in Lesson Zero what Twilight is like when she thinks she isn't completing a lesson