Decennial, Decennial: Ten Years, Ten Eps · 12:56am Nov 11th, 2021
Blog Number 168: Ultimate Edition
🕛 Zero days to go! 🕛
Neatly, this is ten years to the day I first watched the show (not ten years to the day I joined this site: that'll wait till December). Very, very neatly, I really did watch exactly ten episodes that day! How about that? 
WARNING: Gonna be a LOOONG one.
CONTENTS
Friendship is Magic - Part 1 / Mare in the Moon
Friendship is Magic - Part 2 / Elements of Harmony
The Ticket Master
Applebuck Season
Griffon the Brush-Off
Boast Busters
Swarm of the Century
Dragonshy
Look Before You Sleep
Bridle Gossip
So let's talk ep!
A brief recap of what I was doing that day:
- Trying and failing to write
- Browsing TVTropes
- Wondering about all the pony references
- Reading its article
- Fairly and honourably looking up episodes on a reputable website... no sorry, can't say that with a straight face
- Watching YouTube
- Watching YouTube
- Watching YouTube
- Hooked!
A not-so-brief recap can be found here (thanks, 2017-me!):
Because what we're going to do now, see, is return to those ten episodes and enjoy the highlight reel, something of a cross between a show review and a personal "look how far I've come!" nostalgia-fest. If you find that boring... well, tough, my blog, nyah nyah! 🤳
With that said, and to get an idea of how my particular ride sort of started, let's delve into the early eps of Season One: in all honesty, my favourite season of the show. ❤💛💚💙💜🖤
Friendship is Magic - Part 1 / Mare in the Moon
Friendship is Magic - Part 2 / Elements of Harmony
IT'S BEEN DONE!
As odd as this sounds, the premier that kicks off the entire series is among my favourite two-parters in the whole show, whilst at the same time being one of the weakest.
What's particularly interesting is that, despite the focus on Nightmare Moon's backstory and the reveal and redemption, Princess Luna isn't actually all that relevant to the main thrust of the plot.
Think about it: the origin story takes up a minute (maybe two) at the start, and Luna being welcomed back into Celestia and then Equestria's open arms (well, quadrupedal forelimbs, but you know what I mean) doesn't take much longer at the end. Literally that whole detail could be removed - Nightmare Moon could be vaporized like a Sailor Moon flunky - and all you'd lose is some worldbuilding window-dressing.
In the name of the moon, I shall punish you... Moon!
Heck, it basically establishes that Celestia - not Solaria or Helia or something like that, we're talking cosmic-scale Celestia - can handle sun and moon quite fine on her own.
Being made redundant is always traumatic. Hope there's a job centre in local orbit!
I don't say this to dismiss the Luna. Luna's backstory has a nicely mythic ring to it, an echo of Titanomachy and other godly disputes which almost completely disguises the fact that - behind the larger-than-life context - we're watching mundane family drama. It's a tale of simple everyday frustration and envy translated through the lens of a world where royalty, magic, cosmic balance, and the forces of good and evil lend their impressive imagery.
No wonder the fandom devoured it there and then, and no wonder they got annoyed by the fact that we don't even see Luna again until basically Hallowe'en next season... and then she goes AWOL for another round of eps.
I do say this as a sort of pushback to the overwhelming emphasis she got (and to a lesser degree still gets), as if she were the only thing that mattered here. Because like I said, the opening two-parter wouldn't change much if she were written away. No, the focus is elsewhere, and personally I think that's where the true charm of the two-parter lies.
Want your mind blown? Paint her in different colours, and she'd be A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CHARACTER!
Most of the first episode goes through a checklist of our future main characters, illustrating their specific quirks and strengths through the eyes of a newcomer. In a way, and appropriately enough considering who worked on both, it reminds me a lot of the pilot movie for Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends: there, we're also introduced to the main characters of a largely slice-of-life show via a newcomer's eyes, thus also getting an idea for how this world works without being spoiled right away.
And to further the parallels, the climaxes of both involve those characters showing off their individual strengths and talents against a one-off foe who is largely just an excuse to escalate the plot.
Admittedly, the comedy in Foster's was less... awkward.
Which is arguably just as well, because if we examine the actual thrust of the obstacles put in our heroines' way... this two-parter is very weird.
I'm not even talking about the moustache-deprived sea serpent.
Really? Nightmare M., I know you love Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and all, but you're basically trying to defend yourself with Hallowe'en lawn ornaments.
Really, when you consider the implied scale of the threat - and that's even discounting Faust's later claim that we're talking apocalyptic mass extinction, since "eternal tyranny" is quite serious enough - the overwhelming sense I get is that this was rigged hard. Some of that is because of Celestia's offscreen chessmaster approach, as that's all but spelled out by the episode itself. Less obvious but more curious is the fact that Nightmare Moon should realistically be able to wipe the floor with Twilight Sparkle, to say nothing of her barely magical friends.
Now, not everyone has missed this detail, and various theories have been put forward to account for it. My own take is simple: Luna was influencing Nightmare Moon from within. I mean, think about it: unless we're committing to the idea that Luna herself is a mad and dangerous criminal - which makes the sudden turnaround and redemption at the end untenable (either because a dangerous criminal gets a pardon without a trial, or because we're watching someone get brainwashed for the greater good) - then the Nightmare Moon influence has to be at least something along the lines of a Two-Face takeover, like a second personality accidentally created from self-repression and then fighting for control.
🌝🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑🌚
I know it's popular to downplay or deny this for the drama points of Luna being 100% responsible, but I don't think it's worth the effort. Besides, later canon establishes that magical transformations are very much like being possessed by a demon, so it seems a reasonable theory in context.
And like I said, it's just as well, because between the downplayed stakes and the way you pretty much have to assume the whole thing was rigged behind the scenes, we're free to appreciate the character-first approach of this opening two-parter. That does more to set up the rest of the season than any amount of epic questing (it's also impossible to ignore how future two-parters often do it the other way round, placing plot ahead of character, and that goes some way towards explaining why I'm less fond of them).
This is the quietest single stretch of the entire series. Fluttershy! Turn your silence down!
If I had to sum up the appeal of this two-parter - despite its ornamental worldbuilding, its lacklustre obstacles, and its inevitable sense of going through a character checklist (twice!) - in one word, that word would be:
Twee.
I don't mean that pejoratively, mind. If anything, the gentle fairy-tale influence is very much in its favour. Easy-going, pleasing to the eye, not falsely exciting as such (which is refreshing, in a way, as it means we don't have to pretend we have no idea how this'll end), but very, very content.
In another comparison, it's a lot like Spyro the Dragon.
Later instalments to the original trilogy would ramp up the sidequests and plotting, but the first entry has an enchantingly simple charm all of its own. Listen to shiny treasure go ting when you pick it up, fly around big, softly coloured magical lands, occasionally flame or headbutt a mildly annoying enemy.
Challenging, it ain't, but a more complex plot or gameplay mechanics would actually go against its tone. Somewhere between the almost-Ghibli-esque pleasure in being for being's sake and the sense that the sky's the limit in this wonderful world, some kind of alchemy of the soul happens and it just gives you... bliss.
That's what I feel when watching this opening two-parter. Without nail-biting stakes or drama, we're pleasantly introduced to six mares and a dragon as if we're about to have tea and scones with them, and then join them on an evening walk through the countryside. Even our villain of the week, and the supercharged final blow that nails her like a fly under a magnifying glass, are notable more for their elegance and beauty than for looking Totes Awesome. More like using opera glasses to fry a butterfly.
Pictured: Cosmic Pest Control.
Although that said, the Luna story works well in that context anyway, softening up the villain further and ending the story on a heartwarming note: "she's come back to us!" rather than "ding dong, the witch is dead!"
Lastly, while I'm singing this two-parter's praises (oh, and on that front: the manticore channelling Androcles' lion and Steven Magnet's... Steven Magnetism are probably among my highlights, because blissful tone or not, me like monsters), I'd be remiss if I didn't say that this is the single best character arc Twilight ever gets.
That's kind of a big claim considering the world-changing stuff she goes through later, but hear me out. In Season Two, the closest thing she has to an arc is going crazy a few times ("Less Than Zero", "It's About Time", and "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1"), and in none of those cases does anything really come of it beyond her just getting over herself or - more extraordinarily - being outright vindicated. Seasons Three and Four have her (in)famous ascension, but if we're brutally honest, that's not an arc so much as a change in social position and friendship scope. A career advancement, sure, but hardly deep character drama (if anything, I'd argue they mostly achieved a sanding-off of her character, to the point she largely becomes the blandest of the cast).
Whereas here, Twilight has her worldview radically altered as a result of the quest she (intentionally or unintentionally) ends up on. She starts off as a super-serious, slightly smug stick-in-the-mud stuck in her almost literally ivory tower, gets subtly humiliated and not-so-subtly frustrated by all the friend-making, and then finds when the chips are down that five strangers she just met are more than happy to throw in their lot with her. Each draws out - some convincingly, some not - a different aspect to the pleasure of having friends around, and we're right there alongside her seeing the results for ourselves.
To that end, it's perfectly understandable by the narrative flow that she forms such strong bonds in less than a day. This is basically her social awakening, and to someone completely new to that, it's all the more powerful for being unexpected. It's a delight to watch, and her overly sappy friendship speech at the end feels well-earned by two episodes' worth of demonstrated and experienced insight.
In other words: "Welcome to the Herd, Twilight Sparkle."
This is the most profound and personal change Twilight ever goes through, something highlighted much later on in "Amending Fences". Everything afterwards is basically just escalation of the same - gold heaped upon more gold - but it's here we see the transformation of base metal into gold. All the more miraculous for being quietly humble in its power, and I contend it's one of the lovelier and more show-consistent shakeups in the entire series.
I could go on, but... whoops! I got nine more of these suckers to look at! Best get a move on!
The Ticket Master
I promise I won't gush quite that much for the next few eps, but let's see where the muse takes us.
So, "The Ticket Master". Full of early instalment weirdnesses like self-levitating tickets, Applejack being open to help before it became a character note not to be, Twilight's teleportation being able to fry bystander dragons, and Spike being very "BOY!" in case we missed it that BOYs don't like GIRLY-GIRL because, seriously, what else are we going to do with an incongruous dragon born and raised in a society composed entirely of another, more vulnerable species, allied with one of the most powerful sorceresses of the realm, able to use his breath in magically unusual ways, and yet automatically more social and outgoing than his all-but-adoptive bookish sister? I just can't see the dramatic potential there at all.
And yes, this ep does suffer from taking one simple conflict and stretching it out to fit twenty minutes.
I still think it's good.
As much as it feels like Moral Dilemma 101 - Let's Consider An Unwinnable Situation For Twenty Minutes And Then Let You Off The Hook Anyway... I think it works well as a Twilight ep.
Consider: Twilight is completely new to this whole friendship thing, but she's an academic. It's oddly very fitting that her first (airing order) test is to have a simple classroom-level moral dilemma dumped on her lap and then watch her struggle with it. There's her trying and failing to reason through it on the one hoof, whilst on the other hoof fearing her friends' reactions, because she feels so strongly about their bond to her that the mere thought of upsetting them is some serious high-stakes drama in her mind. When she breaks down at the end admitting she just can't do it, wow do I feel for her.
It also repeats the checklist approach of the two-parter, and while I'm not going to praise that as the Best Structural Approach Ever, it at least makes a kind of tidy sense that we get a whistle-stop tour of our main cast's motivations and goals. Feels like a coda to the season premier, in a way.
Even if Rarity could and would do better later on.
Something else I forgot to praise the two-parter for, but which I will praise here: the occasional reminders that these are horses, with all their horsey quirks. Little details like the chariot-pullers in the first ep making, well, horse noises, and Twilight eating the flower petals at the restaurant here, are not essential at all, but they give the world a thematic quirk that made it more than just "cod-medieval human world but everyone walks on four legs".
Oh, and for the record: Applejack and Pinkie. Although Fluttershy gets points for asking politely.
Applebuck Season
A.K.A. "You thought Applejack was the sane one? Ha ha, we fooled you!"
Pictured: genius at work.
Also, we get the debut of a pet here - Angel appeared last episode, but this is Winona's first time in front of the camera, and no offence to the fluffy entertaining jerk, but I love dogs, so: WINONA 4 EVA!
We also get the debut of the Flower Trio's "The Horror! The Horror!" which suggests either Discworld-level cross-dimensional influences are a thing here too, or in this world Daisy, Lily, and Roseluck really have read something like "Hart of Darkness". The implications... oh deer.
Jane Doe: Deer in the Headlights!
Admittedly, I hit a problem in that these early eps don't have a ton to talk about. Brutally honestly? Season One kinda starts off slow. Learning that Applejack is crazy committed to a solo act is a great character note, and watching her go slowly cuckoo over it for twenty minutes is fascinating in a "this is so wrong" kind of way. It's also interesting how she knows ahead of time she's biting off more than she can chew (that worried gulp before the titles play is not the gulp of a mare ready to cash in her legs on her mouth's say-so), which makes her later aggression towards a surprisingly polite and restrained Twilight a bit more nuanced.
But again, it feels a tad stretched out for twenty minutes, and most of it falls for the same trap of repetitive episode structure. There aren't many twists and turns, is what I'm getting at.
Oh, and we also get the debut of talking cows and a mule who I will stubbornly insist is called "Nuntaken". Poor chap has an incorrigible speech disorder.
He's also cursed to be immediately teleported whenever someone needs a sight gag.
Griffon the Brush-Off
I like this episode fine. Ten minutes of Pinkie and Rainbow bonding over pranks is nice enough. This episode really gets its edge, though, when Gilda arrives, and wouldn't you know it, the soundtrack suddenly revels in electric guitar when she does (I think... I'm not good at judging instrument by musical note).
As much as I like "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone", I don't think Gilda needed to be softened up quite that much there. She's an entertaining character even as a teenage rebel jerk, obsessed with cool - and possibly with Rainbow Dash, so take that as you will - ironically a griffon given their mythological animosity to horses, and quite a nicely cathartic pratfall target in the climactic welcome party (geez, how often do you get to say that?).
The funny thing is that Pinkie gets a couple of occasions to show emotional depth, but both are subverted. Twilight floats the theory that Pinkie is expressing severe possessive jealousy over the fact that Rainbow has a new girlfriend - as in, friend who is a girl - in town, but we see for ourselves that this is just Twilight piling on in all her naive naiveness. Then Pinkie ostensibly Looney-Tunes the booby-trapped party as a comedic revenge against Gilda... except no, she didn't, that was actually a combination of Rainbow's direction (something very easy to spot on a rewatch) and sheer writer's contrivance dumb luck.
Isn't Pinkie perfect? She doesn't get jealous and she doesn't have an ounce of guile in her at all.
Heh, that's a cute gag, Pinkie, ho ho -
- HOOOOOOOH HOLY F***!
Lastly, Rainbow calling out Gilda's behaviour seems fair to me. The evidence weighs in favour of Gilda being more interested in chasing the in-crowd of coolness than in Rainbow's actual happiness and welfare, though we do indeed get a couple of hints to the contrary here and there (Gilda going along with the junior speedster's chant, for one thing). And yeah, Gilda's frustrated by the universe deciding to dump on her, karma notwithstanding, but sheesh, her tar-brushing response was overkill. I don't blame Rainbow for no longer wanting that in her life.
So yeah, another nice-but-not-revolutionary episode.
Boast Busters
...and while we're at it...
Swarm of the Century
Surprised? Let me explain.
I don't like these two eps.
What? I don't. You can't please everyone.
I haven't been dwelling much on my change in opinion over time, largely because it doesn't actually happen all that often. Yeah, I'll soften up on an aspect after maybe reading some fans' alternate interpretations of the same (for instance, all that I said about Rainbow being justified in chewing out Gilda? I can be persuaded that was a bit overkill too and there's hope for Gilda yet, even ignoring the fact that "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" made that happen in canon), but for the most part, eps I like stay liked and eps I dislike stay disliked.
The other reason I don't dwell on this much is because, when my opinion does change, it usually changes for the worst. In this case, from "eh, I didn't love it, but I watched it fine" to "hell no, keep it away from me".
We're not entering a debate here, but suffice it to say that ten minutes of Trixie being a jerk - like, not even a jerk I find entertaining in the same way the Flim Flam brothers and Iron Will were next season, just... a jerk - followed by Snips and Snails being idiots is not my idea of a good time.
"For the love of God, someone please kick her ass!"
To say nothing of the subsequent souring of my opinion after initial arguments with the sort of people who think Trixie was 100% in the clear, you guys, really, she did nothing wrong whatsoever, even though the episode's story literally makes so little sense it's anti-sense if you go too far down that road. I just flat-out dislike this ep, for reasons within the ep and for reasons around it.
But anyway, I'm supposed to be in "highlight reel" mode, so:
This is the ep wherein we get our challenge-encouraging canonical confirmation that unicorns are specialists - literal one-trick ponies, if you will - and Twilight's uniqueness is a result of her specialization being magic. An element that will be shot to hell in future continuity, but nuts to that rubbish.
This is the ep where we get Ursas Major and Minor. I seriously love the celestial bodies they possess and the twist at the end, so kudos to the episode for bringing me something I can appreciate. Twilight's pacifistic approach towards the bear's rampage is a nice sequence too.
In fact, this is the ep where you can pretty much love Twilight in her nervous meekness. Spike being the aggressive promoter in her stead works well as a foil, and Twilight is almost painfully endearing here: "Please, please don't hate me" has stuck with me for a reason, and for that I am mucho grateful.
"Here's a door, Spike..."
"...don't let it hit you on your way out!"
And Trixie was later actually a tonic in the series' worst half, and especially good as Sunset's sidekick in "Forgotten Friendship", so there's that.
🎵 "I have DEEEEEEEEEP psychological PROOBLEEEEMS..." 🎵
"Next."
As for "Swarm of the Century", which I'm getting out of the way now because I don't want to end on that, and because it fits this current theme of episodes I don't like.
When I first watched it, I didn't really have any problems with it. That might have been mostly because I binged the series, so if there was an adverse reaction from me, it was almost immediately glossed over by something I did like. Since there was more of that, the overall impression was favourable (I'm speculating because it's been ten years and I'd be hard-pressed to tell you what I was doing ten hours ago).
That said, let's just get the negatives over with. I don't like Pinkie in this one. The attempt at making her the Creator's Pet was one reason it took so long for me to be able to say I liked an episode wherein she was the focus, and even now she's still my least favourite of the Main Six.
Thing is, the moral's fine on paper; it's just the execution is less "Pinkie knows what she's doing, but the others brush her off unfairly" and more "Pinkie, stop being a bloody random babbling moron and just explain, explain for God's sake, what in the hell you're doing". Like, it's not as if the Main Six are brushing her off because of prejudice: she really is acting like a cuckoo idiot, and has been established to act like a cuckoo idiot (and an outrageously inconsiderate glutton, come to that), and it is not fun to think we could have avoided all this if she hadn't taken her stupid suddenly-can't-communicate pills that morning.
And for the love of Celestia, don't feed me that tautological "she's just being Pinkie" as if it were some kind of excuse. It's handwaving like that which made me dislike her favouritism in the first place.
Pictured: genius at work.
The other negative - which also makes the prior frustration worse - is the trashing of Ponyville. Especially having grown fond of the setting over the course of several years, the cynical final note makes me deeply unhappy. Like yeah, whoopsie-daisy, isn't Pinkie's trumpet funny? Never mind the dozens of innocents who just had their homes ripped apart and their property vandalized; you gotta laugh, right?
F*** me, this ep's third act is a trial.
That said...
Positives, positives...
A good Star Trek "Trouble with Tribbles" reference in the parasprites, which are also designed simply, cutely, and deceptively innocently. The shenanigans in the early going are fine enough - even Fluttershy's idiot moment works (for one thing, it's an in-character one-off, and for another, no one pretends it isn't dumb in-universe) - and Celestia's reaction to the parade is a good part.
And speaking of good references... Blazing Saddles, anyone? 
"Where da white wimmen at?"
And now, ladies and gentlemen, we come to my favourite episodes of the first ten! (Much as I really like the premier). A straight run of some of the best material the early show has to offer. Yes, I give you...
Dragonshy
You remember The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien? Domestic peace-lover surrounded by creature comforts ends up whisked away by extraordinary companions - all or nearly all of them short - to a distant mountain, has many episodic mishaps along the way, confronts a dragon who endangers the realm and his pots of gold that one of the party gets sick with greed over, and against all the odds proves to be an adventure-suited hero after all with their own special talents and stout bravery?
"But I... I don't want to go on adventures... they make Angel late for dinner..."
This is like that, but without the riddle scene.
And with smoker's cough.
"Dragonshy" is my personal pick for the first episode in the series that unequivocally pleases me. I mean, I really like the season premier, but part of its handicap is that it feels a tad out-of-sync with the later series (for instance, how Nightmare Moon is a bit underwhelming as an actual threat compared with juggernauts like Discord, King Sombra, or Tirek). It feels classic, but partly out of contextual obligation, if you see what I mean? Whereas "Dragonshy" is the first episode I'd declare a classic and which I love to watch over and over.
Part of the appeal is obvious: as the animal-appreciating bag of nerves trying to be nice to everyone, Fluttershy is insanely relatable to me. In spite of the fact the later episodes would hammer away too much at one single dimension (her fear) at the expense of others.
(Like, how many eps do we get of her with fellow fashion-conscious Rarity? Dealing pest control for AJ? Emotionally supporting Rainbow instead of the other way around? I could go on).
This is one of those things that simultaneously makes me sympathetic towards her and - ironically - makes me appreciate the nuances of her character a bit more. I mean, sure, "face your fears" is largely the theme a bit too often, but each such ep also plays out differently in various contexts (compare, for instance, "Putting Your Hoof Down" with "Hurricane Fluttershy" with "Filli Vanilli" with "Scare Master": that's everyday handicap, bullying trauma, a love-hate hobby, and the empathic fear of scaring others).
Needless to say, her standing up to the dragon like a strict but fair mother is one of the crowning moments of the series.
"If you don't tidy up your cave right now, Mister, I'll come down there and rub your smoking nose in it!"
And let's talk about that dragon!
It's easy to forget these days, what with social dragons who maybe have a bit of an edge but otherwise seem like big ponies under another skin. Early on, though? Dragons were massive, feral, had no real hints at a society beyond their generic ability to talk if provoked, and were so rare and dangerous that one taking a nap in pony territory was deemed a national emergency.
I mean: geez, Spike, tone down the snores a bit.
With his red scales and hoard of gold, the dragon is an almost dead ringer for Smaug, except where Smaug was cruel, malicious, and basically death on wings, his parodic counterpart here is little more than a grouchy neighbour who happens to be twenty storeys tall. It's another bit of Ghibli-esque softness that we learn he's just a big softie, really, and Fluttershy's awesomeness is practically motherly in how she talks him down.
To be fair, Smaug was never a morning person either.
Not just the dragon: despite the escalation to urgent questhood, really the whole thing is treated as a sort of lark. All the girls except Twilight seem to be in "roadtrip" mode (Pinkie and Rarity have some fun moments throughout, including Pinkie's dragon impersonation and impossibly good winning streak). Also, despite Fluttershy accidentally endangering their lives in the avalanche zone - yeah, life endangerment, kinda iffy - her presence is treated more as a pitiable nuisance than as a serious liability. Which, again, means the avalanche scene is a tonal mismatch, but it otherwise seems to fit the pattern.
Funnily enough, the urgency of the quest reinforces that rather than contradicts it. Namely, the stakes are long-term and theoretically salvageable, with the mission explicitly being more one of careful negotiation than one of desperate battles and life endangerment. But it also lurks in the background - literally, as smoke - and contributes massively to the tension in their early attempts and to the climax when Fluttershy shows her true colours. It's a balancing act between the show's gentle nature and something truly exciting, and for my money it pulls it off admirably.
Plus, there's fun stuff on the side.
Spike versus Angel: somewhere, a Buffy fan is laughing their head off.
Other little details I like too: the Charlie's-Angels-type montage of the girls gearing up; the goat-fainting; Applejack being best Team Mom and guiding/dragging Fluttershy round the mountain; Rainbow's open skepticism next to Twilight's more hesitant optimism; and, of course, the parallel to a certain episode of Samurai Jack.
Gosh, there are a lot of references in these episodes, aren't there?
Look Before You Sleep
Let's talk about shipping.
"DId you say 'shipping'!?"
A lot of it just plain baffles me, to be honest. Like, it was astonishing for me when I started out in fandoms at all and realized just how much of it is about shipping. You go on most YMMV pages on TVTropes, and I swear half of it is just shipping tropes.
In fact, it often feels like 90% of fandom stuff is shipping one way or the other, with everything else - character interpretation, world-building, and so on - just squeezed into the remaining 10%. Heck, it took me years to realize there was a genre specifically for what seemed to me like normal business: "genfic", which apparently means "any fic that isn't shipping". Ye gods, it's insane.
And that's just the quantity. As for the logic behind it... It really is as if people are desperately, almost indecently eager to twist any relationship - including friendship - into one involving either snogging or sex. I remain permanently confused by some people's ability to look at two characters smiling nicely at each other and then immediately think: 🎵 "YYOOOOUUUUU'RRRRREEEEE HHHHHEEEEEERRRRRREEEEEE!" 🎵
Not to say I've never written romance, but even then I'd be hard-pressed to say I was committed to it. Half of it was just an excuse to do something else (the Sunset ones I've written could be replaced by "friendship" and you wouldn't notice), and half of it was just me filling in workable blanks for background characters. As far as, say, Main Six shipping goes, I don't have one.
But yes, there is a specific one that I don't have. 😜
And hence we come to "Look Before You Sleep", which involves loads and loads of RariJack.
Of all the eps so far, this one is arguably the most simplistic in its structure. Twilight is worked in as slumber party host - a sweet reminder that this is someone who has recently discovered the pleasures of society and is naively weaning herself from books to experience - but the bulk of the episode is basically Rarity and Applejack sniping at each other until the inevitable happens and they get together in bed learn to work with each other rather than against.
This happened onscreen.
Since I've mentioned Twilight, a brief bit about her here: Spike is written out... not elegantly, but serviceably, so this is all on her, and I do like how she plainly does notice the squabbling but does her best to muscle through it until it's unavoidable.
Twilight-appropriate, too, are the little mini-educational snippets sprinkled on, like how Applejack questions the wisdom of tree-houses in lightning storms, and why cucumbers are so essential to a facial mask. Yeah, remember when the show did stuff like that early on? It's corny and a bit forced, but I kind of appreciate the gesture (studio-mandated or not). It's about on par with the "Dear Princess Celestia" moralizing at the end, for me, and often a little more interesting (hey, I like learning, so sue me).
"Books solve everything... Books solve everything..."
Anyway, back to Lady Rarity's Lover sorry, the rest of the episode.
I think a massive part of the appeal is the unspoken class conflict. It's framed here as meticulous Rarity versus pragmatic Applejack, but a farmer and a lady-wannabe setting aside the ol' Slobs Versus Snobs issue and just hanging out with each other is a classic odd friendship scenario. The episode plays diplomat and acknowledges the strengths and weaknesses of either approach - albeit weirdly once the tree bursts in and gives Twilight a convenient concussion - making their transcendence of petty squabbles feel all the more earned.
The truth is it also gives us an excuse for role-reversal. I dare you not to love this shot.
There's little details sprinkled around the ep highlighting their differences too, though not usually all that subtly. Their approach to etiquette when entering a house, makeovers and s'mores, sleeping habits... domestic details that aren't going to blow anyone's mind anytime soon, but which add to the cosy flavour of the ep.
At the same time, that enjoyably spicy prickliness never fully goes away. In future episodes, these two will get spiky and short with each other from time to time, vitriolic best buds of the best kind where, even as they're arguing, you get the sense they'd never really do without each other.
It's one of the more sophisticated and - I won't say "realistic", but - authentic compromises between character flaw and the theme of friendship, so it only feels natural they start off on the wrong foot and establish that, yes, this friendship had to be forged rather than assumed.
It's hard to explain the appeal to someone else, because when you get down to it, the episode really isn't all that complicated even by Season One standards. Certainly, it's not the most exciting. The whole thing rides on how much Applejack and Rarity's chemistry sparks for you, and that's not everyone's cup of tea.
For me, it just is. Again, the episode is so easy-going and unapologetically small in scope - the reverse strategy of the previous ep, to the point that the tree drama feels a tad overblown - that the focus on these two feels more like we're eavesdropping on a loving couple's brief spat rather than Delving Deep Into Psycho-Drama. The niceness of the ending feels a bit more earned than, say, Rainbow and Pinkie quickly figuring out they like pulling pranks together: these two had to work a lot of inevitable culture-clash frustration out of their systems first, and it's a nice finisher that they briefly dip into a petty argument before breezily deciding that, yeah, they're still friends.
It isn't spiced coffee that burns your tongue. It's just a mug of hot cocoa in front of the fire. Helps that the episode is shut away in a cosy, warm-coloured home for much of its length.
Also helps, of course, that the voice-acting is top-notch. I can practically imagine Ashleigh Ball and Tabitha St. Germain trying to one-up each other in the recording studio, and the idea makes me giggle. It's just an extra level of appreciation.
So there you have it. To Rarijack, the best ship that never was! 
Oh, go on then. Twilight can join in.
Bridle Gossip
You know, it's going to be bloody difficult to talk about this episode without nodding at the show's later treatment of discrimination. I'll try not to dwell on it, but you've been warned.
Unexpectedly, this is our Apple Bloom ep before we get the official Apple Bloom ep, and for a second impression (she first appeared in the premier, basically as a cute line and a cute face), she acquits herself very well. Other episodes will emphasize her love and admiration for her big sister, so naturally the angle here is that she feels stifled and frustrated by Applejack and relishes the chance to strike out on her own.
She's innocent and passionate enough to get onboard with Twilight's skepticism, but still nervous at the prospect of going up and talking to Zecora, because no one gets over ingrained cultural suspicions that easily. Brave but not completely so, surprisingly open-minded and outspoken if a bit reckless: if it wasn't bettered later by her keen social embarrassment and desperation for maturity, I'd say this was a great introduction to her character.
Our brave hero, ladies and gentlemen.
The only two off-notes do hold it back a little, though. The first is that her befriending of Zecora happens offscreen, since the bulk of the episode's POV is stuck with the Main Six and therefore that needs to be a surprise.
Less forgiveable is the second: Apple Bloom at one point abandons her shrunken sister in the freaking Everfree Forest. What the hell, kid!? I mean, Applejack nearly gets swallowed by Rainbow Dash later, and being found by a friend first was the best case scenario.
After Apple Bloom, Twilight is our main focus here, as we get another understandable culture-clash. This time, it's in Twilight's favour as her broader education makes her immune to the insular prejudices of the townsfolk, (and speaking as someone who values education, let me just take a moment to say, "Thank you!").
Pictured: genius at work.
As much as I haven't been talking about it, there is plenty of fun in Snarky Twilight (Twilight Snarkle? Focus-test it. Send a memo to Spike and have his people call my people) as reliable comedic fare, and we get plenty of doses in the early going.
Inevitably, of course, I'm faced with the question of why the discrimination angle works here. Or doesn't, because part of the problem is that Zecora becomes a fifth wheel after this. She's briefly remembered to exist a couple of times, but for all the mystery and build-up here, you'd think she was going to become a major player further down the road.
Then Hasbro apparently found the idea embarrassing and dropped it. Now she's basically a freelance poet who shows up once this season to tell Twilight she's doomed.
It also limits the impact of her zebrahood, because we have no idea if she's an outlier or if all zebras are supposed to be like this.
What's her faraway land, anyway? Zebrica? Zebrabwe? Tanzebria? Zebrocco? Asininia? Turkey?
That said, Zecora is essentially a fanficker's goldmine, because there are plenty of mysteries surrounding her even unto the end of the show (unless you read the comics presumably... which I don't). Willingly lives in the eldritch Everfree Forest, knows her herbs, brews up potions in her spare time, doesn't do much to dispel the unfriendly reception she gets yet happily helps strangers in need at the first opportunity, speaks in rhyme...
Admittedly, she comes across as a bit too flawless, but then the emphasis I think is supposed to be on how, apart from a few eccentricities, she's just another neighbour who likes to keep to herself. She has a nice rapport with Apple Bloom already, though it isn't until "The Cutie Pox" that we see them casually interacting without the Main Six's input.
Part of what makes all this work is the reputation around the Everfree, which itself is a no-go area. We finally learn here that there's more to it than "Forbidden Forest from Harry Potter". What particularly unnerves the ponies is how the natural elements work without ponies shepherding it along, a nice bit of culture clash between them and the audience. That's very clever, though this aspect is readily ignored at other times.
I mean, the writers readily forget there are things like this in this forest. Lucky... them... 😨
Less appreciated, this: another part ofthe episode that works well is the fact that it serves as a sort of complicating characterization for the town of Ponyville itself.
So far, it's mostly been presented as a tight-knit community that shows the urban newcomer the True Way. But in the real world, tight bonds within a group often go hand-in-hand with suspicion of outsiders, and someone as bizarre as Zecora was bound to run right into that. This puts a somewhat critical eye on the non-Twilight Main Six too, as they're quite prepared to exaggerate and slander Zecora's faults to monstrous proportions based on guesswork and distrust.
Remember, we already know the Main Six aren't bad ponies. This isn't discrimination because Pinkie randomly wants to be a musical jerk. But we see how their world operates on different logic to ours, and mere association with something as ironically otherworldly as the Everfree spills over into suspicion of anyone who willingly lives there.
Mere innuendo, association, and cherry-picking of evidence (something Twilight becomes guilty of later) taking the place of logic, evidence, and an actual fair assessment: gee, it's almost as if we're getting a subtle insight into how even good people become prejudiced in the first place, isn't it? 🤔
Incidentally, am I the only one who gets serious "Scout Finch" and "Boo Radley" vibes from Apple Bloom and Zecora? Southern girl in a small community takes an interest in a local recluse with a heart of gold, most educated person in town agrees with her, at the end of the story the recluse performs a heroic act that confirms their good intentions. It's probably just coincidence, but: am I reading too much into this? Or is this another of the show's light references?
"Shoot all the blue jays you want, but remember...
...it's a sin to kill a mocking bird."
Never mind.
Best of all: there's more fun stuff going on along the way. This is pony first and foremost, not propaganda. The double-moralizing with the figurative and literal book covers is more cute than necessarily clever, but I like some story tidiness, so it gets a thumbs-up from me.
Then there's... well, the basic silliness of the Poison Joke and other gags and grace notes.
An odd little detail you might have missed: the Flower Trio's florist's...
...is also Twist's home in "Call of the Cutie".
There's also Flutterguy's reprise of Pinkie's anti-Zecora song, teeny Applejack sight gags such as her bravely wrestling an ear, the subtle detail that Rainbow's wings are actually drawn upside-down, Spike being more concerned with dumb nicknames than actually solving anything, the contrived coincidences that somehow convince Twilight that Zecora is eeeevil: the list goes on.
All in all, for another low-stakes mini-quest (sort of), it slips in subtle complications as a counter to too much idealism (after all, individual and community flaws don't go away, even in happy fantasy land) but never does so to a self-contradicting degree. The discrimination as presented here is more like a thoughtful expansion pack and brief dissection of this insular community's less commendable side. It even shows how that peer pressure can be a corrupting influence on stalwarts like Twilight.
By its conclusion, though, it continues the ongoing Season One theme of being ultimately welcoming, agreeable, and cheery. After all, it's plucky, friendly Apple Bloom - inspired by Twilight's (prior) example - who is vindicated, and thus Zecora becomes the latest friend Welcomed to the Herd.
In a way, it's appropriate to begin and end with these particular episodes. "Friendship is Magic" and "Bridle Gossip", I mean. Both involve a misunderstood but knowledgeable newcomer gradually being accepted, both involve a "curse" coming true and turning out to have more harmless origins, both involve consulting a book for the magical solution, and both end with the once-reviled "enemy" being reintroduced as friends to get to know better, who then subsequently vanish for most of the series.
I could go on, but it's honestly exhausting just writing about these first ten episodes. Hopefully, by now you appreciate why I quickly grew to like this series so much. While not the most complex or dramatic or intricately woven of TV shows, its secret weapon is a charm that doesn't patronize the viewer, but simply lets us savour the childlike exploration of a bold new world. One that's also cute as hell and happy to be silly and lightweight.
It also has a simplicity that's disarming in its sincerity, and an unapologetic femininity reminiscent of the optimistic side of the magical warrior girl genre. All mixed with a Disney-esque fairy-tale fantasy, imbued with a literally playset-like backdrop where there's a surprise round every corner, and finally told through the eyes of a cast so colourful and vibrant that lots of people can identify with and enjoy them and their company.
Ten years has been pretty good. Here's to ten more!
🎵 "You've got a friend in me... You've got a friend in me..." 🎵
Well, that's all for now and I hope you enjoy this, my overlong ramblings, because next month I'm intending to do something different for another decennial: the tenth year of me joining this site.
Till next time! Impossible Numbers, out!
Holy guacamole, sacred salsa, and other consecrated condiments: this was tiring. I was originally going to do a second post for the next sixteen episodes, which I binge-watched ten years ago too. But... no, I think that's overkill.
In any case, I want to set blogging aside and go back to writing fics now. I hope you understand.
Nice writeup! When people go back and rank their favorite seasons and episodes, season one manages to slip several in no matter what the category. Even if the finer details about the world hadn't been ironed out yet, it still gave viewers and writers plenty of material to work with. I mean, just look at how this brand new fanfiction site exploded in popularity and is still trucking along to this day.
There must have been some magic in that pony filled world that we found.
Ticket Master and Applebuck feel more like pilot episodes to me. I've always wondered if the series would've launched with a two part sorta movie if the Hub hadn't needed mini events like that. Also Transformers and MLP being the two biggest brands Hasbro wanted to push the hardest that year, and all.
Given that we know she doesn't shy away from violent threats, (the manticore and the collapsing cliff for example), my personal guess is that she was conserving as much energy as possible for the fight against Celestia, and in typical villain fashion, underestimated the Main Six's ability to hurt her.
It's the only thing that still makes any real sense to me, given what we know about Nightmare Moon's "character".
Best description of this scene ever!
Supposedly, but it feels much less convincing these days then it used to, especially given how limited Celestia's powers of precognition were reveled to be by later episodes.
In the case of Nightmare, and the magical transformations from EQG, the character's goals never change. Their perception of reality, and how far their willing to go for those goals, is what changes.
Nightmare still wants to establish the moon as the dominant Celestial body, as did Luna. Glorissa does everything she does throughout the movie for Camp Everfree. Twilight Sparkle wanted to discover magic, and as Midnight, she continues that trend.
Juniper Montage still wants to be noticed, even after her transformation, and Sunset Shimmer has more or less the same general vibe of wanting to own everything, just ramped up significantly.
I feel like it's more of a chemical high that alters perception, and stunts inhibitions myself, given that the characters remain more or less true to who they used to be. In which case, the sudden turnaround could be comparable to a particularly powerful detox.
Agreed. I really like Twilight in some of the middle seasons ("Twilight Time" comes to mind rather immediately) but this is certainly one of the best done episodes in terms of her development in the show. The fact that it mostly sticks is a added bonus.
Yeah she could've been more well rounded as a character (although I'd still take that over her portrayal in the last two seasons).
Plus it helps that she's more adorable than most dogs have any right being.
When it comes to MLP, wasted potential is practically the byline of the day.
I felt tempted to point out that she ends the show single. Then I realized that unless you really wanted kids, there is a case to be made that being single is better. Choices, choices, choices.
I really enjoy the idea that ponies have a core ability they are good with but are only good at specific things relating to that ability.
Makes the whole thing more interesting then rock, paper, scissors. Pity that Magic Duel retconned it though. And that Twilight breaks the rules, while still not being that great at magic anyway, to the point that she wound up being irrelevant, both in most big scale conflicts, and most small scale ones.
She's powerful sure, but if you can't predict what effects your powers will actually have, anytime you do anything more complicated then move x, track y, or warp to B, there comes a point when the question must be asked, how useful said magic actually is. At least the others in the main cast can have some confidence in their abilities.
I'm not sure about that whole being a tonic in the last half thing, but I did enjoy her in "Forgotten Friendship". Of course it's obviously down to emotional manipulation by the writers, but at least they were competent.
It's kind of hard to be properly mad at Pinkie Pie for a failure to communicate, when most of the characters where never great at communication to begin with, just so the plot can happen.
Obviously Pinkie Pie isn't blameless, but I'm less bothered by her being a enigma, than I am that Twilight's plan to corral them doesn't work, and they don't try again because "reasons".
I get that the show is called "Friendship is Magic", but is too much to ask that a lead character solves their own problems for once? Is Rarity the only one capable of solving problems, without a chronic need for input from a third party?
Or eccentric wizards, crazed dwarfs, rampaging goblins, magic doors, creepy settings, expansive caves, disturbing enchantments, escape via a underwater tunnel, a competent Smaug, or a epic quest to reclaim one's homeland. If anything it's surprising how easily everyone (including Fluttershy) justifies kicking the poor guy out of his home.
A hundred years? All of Equestria? Laying it on thick aren't we Celestia? Incidentally, this would mark the first time of Twilight immediately taking what Celestia says at face value, regardless of how ridiculous it sounds.
Although in fairness that smoke is pretty dense, I still say the way the caves direct it is the biggest problem.
You can tell by the way the smoke shoots straight out of the side. I mean seriously have none of the girls heard of a chimney?
She's is pretty great. Even if I no longer love her the way I used too, I can still appreciate how unique she used to be, as well as her better moments in the show.
Or the caretaker angle. There's only so many times I can watch her act as Discord's mommy, before I come to the conclusion they they wasted the character.
At least the episodes focused on her fear gave us background trivia on her, as opposed to having her act as a supporting character, with little to no history.
Yes, exactly. So many things just dropped out of the blue, so she could support Discord. Seriously, there is no variety in cartoons anymore.
Well we really only see them during bad mornings. In the book, Smaug is quite the conversationalist with Bilbo at some points, and is only really riled up when his treasure is at stake.
The most overused character arc in the show. Two people have difference of opinion. Two people argue difference of opinion, over and over again.
And they said Flutter's shyness was repetitive.
Not to mention even good fics with a otherwise solid premise feel a need to force in some convoluted romance because "reasons".
Not to mention your average writer will never mix up the formula.
I can appreciate a well written romance as much as the next person, but if I've come for action, I don't particularly need or want the character who always follows the main lead around, because they saved the person's life and "they are now eternally indebted".
Which then preceded to be the majority of Applejack's relationships. Arguing with everyone around her, and never having anything different to say.
Only because I dig that dress on Applejack. Role reversal isn't really part of it.
Again, overdone, even if it weren't the bulk of Applejack's episodes, and even if she didn't already have way too many of them with Rarity.
It's not a complete wash for me. There's a lot of great worldbuilding here, even if it's never used again. A storm not behaving entirely conveniently, Rarity using magic to apparently heal trees. A lot of great stuff, that's never actually used again.
And that of course is the problem. When everything is inevitably compared to a romance, romance will be all anyone wants to write.
camo.fimfiction.net/RkO1ilsViNouskmWxT4jp3KWoDuRnoMkPUY-cLRTAfg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.wikia.nocookie.net%2Fmlp%2Fimages%2F1%2F11%2FApplejack_and_Rarity_laughing_together_S1E08.png%2Frevision%2Flatest%3Fcb%3D20140529234625
Rarity in curlers is pretty cute though.
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I mean I would read it, but I get why you don't want to write one.
You do what you got to do.
Not having rewatched these episodes in a long time, this highlights reel was a fun look back! I share many of your opinions here, including appreciation of the horsey mannerisms and mini-educational moments in the early seasons, and the bewilderment at the overwhelming interest in shipping. Can easily envisage how tiring this post must have been to write, but I'd read more like it if you ever feel so inclined.
I go, I come back.
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For me, my introduction to the show was - to an extent - a double whammy of binging Season One and jumping on during Season Two (it was with "May the Best Pet Win" that I caught up with the airing regimen). I love Season One to bits... well, for the most part, anyway... but I have nice things to say about the other seasons, and could criticize this one (for instance, Season Five does a ton of things that interest me from its premier onwards, in a way that I don't think Season One could have managed).
But yes, there is something about Season One that I find more enchanting, and that's a big part of why it appeals to me so much.
5605807
They do have a certain primitive feel to them that's lacking in later episodes, though I think the same can be said for most of Season One's milder fare. Looking ahead, for instance, "The Show Stoppers" feels pretty straightforward in its treatment of the CMCs crusading, in a way that the more perfunctory or roundabout tie-ins in later episodes didn't.
It's like I said in the OP: premier aside, early Season One in particular feels like a slow start compared with its own later successes. I love both episodes regardless, but Rarity in "Suited for Success" is much more fascinating than Rarity in "Look Before You Sleep".
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Oh gosh: just saying up-front I won't be replying to all of those points. Some admittedly I don't need to beyond "I agree", others I simply don't know how to follow them up. But I'll zero in on the ones that catch my eye.
Celestia to me has always seemed to be a victim of writerly whim more than anything. For the Nightmare Moon incident, her having a grander plan seems plausible to me both because she had the means (a thousand years to prepare, after all) and the motive to do so (saving your beloved sister is a pretty compelling motive). For most of Season One and some of Season Two, she gives off the serene air of someone who's got life figured out.
It's really during Season Two that the halo effect starts to wear off, between how she's downplayed in the two-parters (understandable in Discord's case, a tad egregious in Chrysalis') and some of the more irreverent jokes (the cake joke). She vaguely keeps to the "all-knowing chessmaster" vibe during Three's larger arc and at times in Four, but she's effectively redundant by Five. As for what happens to her after that, well, I expect you know what I think about the second half of the show anyway.
I think the main problem was that her role as the paragon and mentor conflicts with the storytelling priorities of the Main Six and especially Twilight, meaning she either has to be allowed to solve the plot by herself or get nerfed. It's a shame because it shouldn't take much thought to keep her relevant without letting her take over the story (I mean, it worked for Gandalf in The Hobbit). Basically the Spike problem again: potential not utilized.
But my point isn't that there's overlap between the two personas: it's that the one is radically different enough from the other that it makes more sense to treat them as separate. I mean, if Alice is bad-tempered and resentful but Beatrice is an outright vindictive thug, the fact that they have overlapping traits doesn't mean they're both equally moral or responsible.
That has major moral implications, especially in Luna's case. Because if we conclude that Luna and Nightmare Moon are effectively the same person, then Luna simply cannot be let off as easily as she is.
To be fair, it's a bit of a case-by-case basis. Sunset as a demon is basically more aggressive but otherwise seems the same, whereas Sci-Twi so radically does a 180 in boisterousness and sociopathy that it's impossible to think of the magic as anything but an overwhelming influence in her case.
(I got nothing to say for Juniper Montage because she's a rotten little brat either way
.)
For me, the main problem with Twilight's treatment over the seasons (apart from her immediate spotlight-takeover in the two-parters at her friends' expense) is similar to Spike: by rights, she has enough individual elements to use as fantastic drama, but the show doesn't stretch itself far. I've said before it comes off more like she's being converted into a bland Celestia 2.0, and that's even before what literally happens in the final season.
Good for fanfic fuel, though.
That's what I said. I repeat: "Rarity could and would do better later on."
It's a stance I firmly adhere to in my fanfiction, that (beyond basic telekinesis) unicorns are specialists. Minuette, for instance, I assume won the supernatural lottery in being intrinsically gifted at time spells, but at the same time she can't do diddly-squat anywhere else. Trixie I stubbornly insist is more about trickery and a few small-scale illusions than genuine power (the only thing I think she does explicitly uniquely is manipulate a rainbow and a thundercloud, but I think that could be wrangled as a form of advanced telekinesis with a dab of teleportation).
As for Twilight... well, nerfed for the sake of the plot, I guess?
I mean that she was usually a reliable source of entertainment in episodes I otherwise didn't like, if only as an unsympathetic comedy protagonist. Granted, I'm mainly thinking of Season Six there, when I was starting to majorly fall out with the show. I don't say anything about whether it also regresses her character or not, seeing as I start pick-and-mixing my "canon" around that point regardless.
This is interesting to me, because I get the impression my take on "Swarm of the Century" in particular is the opposite of everyone else's. I'll try to explain, but I'm not 100% sure about my hypothesis.
Apologies in advance if this gets too ranty.
What particularly annoys me about Pinkie's non-communication in this one seems to me to be two-fold.
One, she's not the sort of character I find particularly relatable to begin with. It's hard to describe, but the rest of the cast seem so grounded and flawed and real to me. But given Pinkie's wild antics, overly extraverted motormouth personality, and tendency to look a bit too perfect (I'm not fully joking re: "Griffon the Brush-Off", as nearly every potential source of Pinkie character drama ends up defused there), I find her a bit... alien, I suppose is the word I want. Like, at least Rainbow's impulsive tendency to put her hoof in her mouth at least makes her seem like a real person to me, in a way that Pinkie doesn't.
Not helped by her getting so popular and being so often promoted as sort of the "face" of pony early on, when to me she's arguably the least compelling character in it (at least, for the most part: ultimately, I can point to a lot of eps where she shines). So in the broader context, I'm biased against Pinkie to begin with.
Two, the way she fails to communicate here (in my mind) negates the episode's attempts to spin her as much smarter than she looks. It's fair to call out the rest of the cast for not stopping to wonder if there's method in her madness, even though I personally think they're somewhat justified or at least understandably disinclined given the evidence.
However, in that case, why isn't the same standard applied to Pinkie, who had at least three golden opportunities to explain what she was doing, and wastes them prattling like a childish lolrandom moron? If the Main Six had brushed her off even then, I'd understand it, though given they later have an explicit interest in getting rid of the parasprites (and live in a world of fantasy creatures), I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that they'd at least consider her straight suggestion.
But the minor issue of underestimating Pinkie somehow eclipses the much more obvious and incriminating issue that Pinkie sucks so badly at the most rudimentary aspects of communication. So to me, that means she's more culpable when things go disastrously wrong, because she had the solution from the start and sat on it without so much as a token attempt to explain her randomness to everyone else. Literally the whole plot could've been avoided instantly if Pinkie wasn't a dumbass.
It ties back into the Main Six looking more understandably human than the supposed genius Pinkie Pie. To me, the episode has it backwards. The Main Six get burned and Pinkie gets off scott-free, despite the fact that her lack of communication is the biggest reason this plot spins out of control in the first place, and meanwhile she's rambling like a self-absorbed child, and GAH is she frustrating! 🔥
Look, I'm not saying "if you like Pinkie here, you're a bad person". It's just that Pinkie is almost tailor-made to be the sort of character that annoys me. Even by "spinning out the plot" standards of poor communication, she takes the cake, and I want to push back against the tendency to pin the blame on the rest of the Main Six.
I blame early instalment weirdness for this. In Season One, so little was known about their eccentric biology that it seemed plausible enough to me one dragon could prove a major environmental hazard to the country. It's with Season Two onwards that dragons become more numerous and less threatening and mysterious.
I personally really like RariJack, even if the majority of its development was confined to the first two seasons. Sometimes, character chemistry just clicks for me.
You'd be surprised how many people like Rarity's wet mane look.
It's one of those types of blog post where I'd need a good run-up. Odds are I'll end up looking at particular episodes further down the road, but I wouldn't bet too much on large multi-ep reviews like this one. It's just exhausting, you know?
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Heh, thanks.
I'd really love to delve into more episodes, but I'm thinking if I do, it'll be more on a case-by-case basis than as a single massive blog post. So who knows?
It's funny, in some ways, because the overall commitment to horse-ness isn't something I'd rank high on my list of reasons why I enjoy the show, but I still prefer it to the more generic "hoof" puns that the show later defaulted to. Just seems to make the world more lived-in and unique.
I think that'll do for now. Thank you all for your comments: they were fun to read, and had plenty of interesting points too. Always a pleasure to hear from people again!
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In fairness Tolkien eventually had Gandalf leave the group in order to investigate Sauron, in order for Bilbo to shine.
One solution would be to have Celestia sacrifice her time onscreen to engage Discord in "endless" combat.
Maybe have her and Discord come back after the events School Raze because of magical nonsense, if you really wanted to go there. Still, hindsight is 20/20.
However Gandalf made plenty of mistakes*, which is the problem with Celestia. They originally framed her as not having any, and it was only latter seasons which showed her as flawed.
They built up a expectation for her, only for latter seasons to rip it away. The same thing happened with reformations come to think of it.
Problem is how do you know Beatrice's behavior isn't just Alice's temper taken to it's logic conclusion? Violence does stem from anger, and without self control, it can explode outward in a deadly fashion.
It's likely a big reason why damage to the judgment center of the brain leads to such a huge personality shift. That behavior was always inside them, but now there aren't enough docile parts of the brain to hold it back.
They are the same person, but they act differently, think differently, since a key component of their former thought process is missing.
So it would still be a case of insanity, merely a different type.
Perhaps. But if a loss of inhibitions is at play here, it is worth noting her pony counterpart has gotten this manic before when it comes to her passions. (Lesson Zero) (Trivia Trot)
Of course she's the only one who overcame her magic infection, without being blasted by Harmony magic.
Honestly, I think that as you pointed out, Twilight's own personal character conflict was mostly resolved in the final.
There are a few good episodes that could've stretched her growth out further (Pinkie Sense being a prime example) but for the most part, there wasn't much there to begin with, unless you wanted to get truly academic about the world ponies inhabited. And whatever else may have been, it was obvious early on that the show didn't have the patience for that level of world building.
I mean that would be bad enough (so were Rainbow Dash and Rarity after all) but Twilight (outside of a few standalone episodes) doesn't really do a whole lot with her magic, and when she does, there's often some really absurd limitations, or side effects to it. (See "Stop The Bats!" for the best example.)
Despite my mixed feelings about Starlight, she's at the very least inventive, with side effects and limitations that oftentimes feel much believable then the spontaneous failures of Twilight's performances.
The one time Starlight's power is limited, there's a explanation for it that actually makes some sense (at least as much as anything does in the show).
So did you actually find her funny, or was it a love to hate thing?
I actually really love "Griffon the Brush-Off" proberbly for the same reason you disliked it, because she was so responsible in that episode, as opposed to others.
I used to love Pinkie Pie, because I convinced myself she was a more complex character then she actually was. There a few lines in "Smile" that made me think she was smarter then she let on, such as her reminiscing on what it means to have a bad day.
I loved episodes where Pinkie was showed to have responsibilities that she didn't muck up, because that was a side of her we didn't get to see very often, and which went against my preconceptions of what people like her would be like in real life.
Yet even when Laura Faust was in charge, Pinkie was mostly treated as a joke, and it only went downhill from there.
Personally I don't think she was respected enough. Had they bothered to give her some character depth, instead of being a random idiot, she would have been loads more tolerable.
I wanted to see signs of a more of a responsible Pinkie Pie, perhaps with some burnout and image issues on the side, from playing the party pony all the time, despite not always feeling like it.
Had Season 8 done that in a serious fashion, I may have ended up liking it. Instead we got Pinkie Pie being even more ridiculous than usual.
Technically she did immediately set out to solve the problem, although it could've been better had she explained to her friends what was going on.
She's agitated and impatient though, and proberbly didn't consider asking them for help because she hasn't actually known them for too long. That being said, things would proberbly been easier had she asked them for help.
Yeah there's some weird blame shifting logic throughout MLP.
For me Rarijack is a bit like Sparity. A relationship that was mostly toxic from the beginning, and blocked out other character relationships that were actually more interesting and positive, like RarShy, ShySpike, PinkieSpike.
Am I the only one who notices how good Rarity and Spike are at bringing Fluttershy out of her shell? How about the fact that Pinkie Pie can entertain Spike almost effortlessly in the few episodes their paired together?
Wasted for the sake of drama. And not even good drama, like having friends have believable disarmaments.
Bad drama where two people who have nothing in common and actively hated each other in the past, make up and get along because the plot said so. Looking at you FlutterCord.
Ah but Rarity is at least clean. If Applejack wanted role reversal, then Rarity should at least have some dirt on her.
* It's just now occuring to me that a major difference between Celestia and Gandalf, is that Gandalf actually apologies for his mistakes, where as Celestia spins it as being part of her plan all along.
Well that, and Gandalf tends to be right about most things, where as Celestia hasn't had a win since Season 1 or 2.
And the fact Celestia uses dangerous situations as entertainment, where as Gandalf stays firmly fixed on treating dangerous stuff as dangerous.