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