Season 1 Wrap-Up

  

Season 1 Wrap-Up

Man, it has taken so long to get here. Partially my fault, but...eh. Anyway, I finished the entire first season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Over the course of season one, my opinion was mostly consistent, then a later...episode...kinda crushed my lil' reviewer's spirit. It wasn't easy to get back on the horse, so to speak, but I powered through and finished it. So where does that leave my feelings about the show now? Well, that's below the break. 

S01 E26: "The Best Night Ever"

S01 E26: "The Best Night Ever"

FUCKING FINALLY

Oh my God, it's been a whole fucking year as of this writing [ED Note: April 4th], but I've finally, finally finished the first season. It's been a long road getting here, and that's mostly due to procrastination, so I hope you weren't expecting something inspirational or some shit.

 

As for "The Best Night Ever?" It was good! Good. Even the intro teaser was jam-packed with sight gags, mostly related to the fact that the entire main cast and most people in Equestria are, in fact, goddamn horses. At one point I was wondering if this episode was actually produced earlier in the season and the producers realized that they kinda blew their cleverness wad early, thus choosing to move "The Best Night Ever" to serve as a season finale instead of after "The Ticket Master". Probably just me, but that would have made more sense thematically. 

 

Speaking of continuity, there is a metric fuck-ton of it in this episode. There was a musical number that irritated me, but even that was basically an extended screed about the main cast's primary motivations that were established throughout the series. And to top it off, they were wearing their gowns that Rarity designed way back in "Suited for Success"

FOR THE LOVE OF THE DIETY OF YOUR CHOICE, KEEP FUCKING DOING THAT

 

The entire premise of the episode centers around the Hexa-ponies going to the Grand Galloping Gala. Each of them have expectations of how exactly the night will be awesome for them personally while Spike tries and fails to encourage them to spend their time in Canterlot with them. Of course, they don't get what they want, quite the opposite in fact. The episode goes through the usual montage thing of each ponies whatever is going on in the episode, but Fluttershy's attempts at trying to charm the animals and Pinkie Pie's annoying attempts to spice up the festivities were the only sequences that are actually remotely funny. 

All of this culminates in the Gala being ruined by their trying-too-hard. Twilight is mortified about it and worried that Princess Celestia will have them drawn and quartered (not really, but HA! if she would have), and of course Celestia is all amused and shit. Barely anything phases her and i'm starting to wonder if her horn is made out of magic Prozac.

 

Final Thoughts

Overall, as I said earlier, a GOOD episode. Not great, not life changing, but genuinely entertaining at times, though not consistently. All I can really say that is this is any indication of what the show will be like next season,  with continued improvement, it's looking good for it's chances of me finding it to be legitimately entertaining instead of anywhere between watchable and eye-gougingly terrible. 

See you next time for the Season 1 Wrap-Up!

- Apathy Pony

S01 E25: Party of One

S01 E25: Party of One

Well...here we are: the game changer. Ever since I started doing this series, Party of One has been the episode that a lot of people say is the turning point for the whole franchise, in regards to quality anyway. Does it live up to the hype?

Not really.

Long story short-- Pinkie Pie throws an afterparty for Gummy the Alligator, and none of the other main ponies wanna go, what with having attended the actual birthday party for Gummy the previous day. Understandable? Yep, but Pinkie Pie tries to figure out what's so important that one of her signature parties is being ignored; once she accepts that nobody is coming she descends into madness and throws a party for a bunch of inanimate objects.

Rainbow Dash tries to get her to come see something in Applejack's barn, but Pinkie Pie is insanely (GET IT?!) resistant, at least until she gives in. Turns out the others were throwing her a surprise party for her birthday. Insert moral here.

The scene with Pinkie Pie snapping and throwing a party for a bunch of inanimate objects is genuinely creepy in an amusing way, but the rest of the episode contains all the standard interactions necessary to give everyone their screen time and push the contrived plot forward.

Personally, I'd have started the episode with nobody wanting to come to Gummy's party in the first place, then had Pinkie Pie show up to see that even the guest of honor had abandoned her. The twist that she had forgotten her own birthday at the end of the story and Pinkie's insanity would have made more sense if she was busy trying to throw a justified party instead of just wanting to throw another one for shiggles like what happened in the actual episode. Of course, an addition to the twist would be that Gummy was helping the others with Pinkie's surprise party, which was actually for both of them.

But that's just me.

Final Thoughts

So after all that bitching and moaning was it even good? Well...yeah. I mean, the episode wasn't bad, and well above the worst the series has to offer so far, but outside of the Pinkie goes bug-fuck crazy sequence? Nada. There wasn't anything to the plot, animation, or characterization that stuck out to me compared to anything that's come before. That being said, the episode's sole highlight was pretty well done. I particularly liked how they depicted Pinkie's madness with warped facial expressions, jump-cut edits, and Pinkie's hair going from bouncy and curly to straight and limp.

That...that's about it really.

Oh well! See you next time for The Best Night Ever!

- Apathy Pony

S01 E24 Owl's Well That Ends Well

S01 E24 Owl's Well That Ends Well

And a fifth blog appears! After this one I've only got two left in the season. The next one is supposed to be a game changer according to the people I've talked to about it, but I'll reserve judgement. As for Owl's Well That Ends Well? It was mostly boring.

Although the episode looked fine and the chase sequence near the end with the dragon was well done, there wasn't much else to praise in this episode. Most of the humor came from bad puns and telegraphed slapstick gags you can see coming from a mile away if you're older than 8. No surprises here, and that's what hurt this episode in my eyes. Oh well! 24 down and 2 to go...

Choice Moments

03:19 I think this is the exact moment that I started to notice just how overblown all the Spike-praising was. I mean, it was obvious before in the teaser, but this is when I started to become actively annoyed by it. I actually kinda liked Spike, don't make him annoying!

04:55 "And the punch has been...'Spiked'!"

* * * 

05:53 So Twilight's parchment gets blown away by the wind and she just watches it float away before saying "Oh, this is a job for Spike! If only he were awake!"

IF ONLY YOU HAD MAGI-KINESIS AND YOU COULD HAVE GRABBED IT IN MID-AIR WITH YOUR FUCKING THOUGHTS

07:31 "I'm gon' steal yo' mothafuckin' job."

08:58 Owloicious got Spike salty as fuck, tho

10:52 YOU HAD ONE (of two) JOBS!

11:58 So are dragons pyrokinetics, or...

13:27 literally twirling his moustache 

WE GET IT, HE'S BEING A DICK

15:25 "Toooooooollld yaaaaaaaaa..."

17:13 "How was I supposed to know a cave full of precious stones would be a dragon's lair, I've never heard of a situation like that before in my life!"

* * *

18:02 This chase sequence is admittedly well animated, though they go a little overboard with the speed lines.

19:55 [insert logical conclusion here]

In Conclusion

See you next time for Party of One!

- Apathy Pony