S08E01-02: School Daze

[PonyHag714]

I'll give Ember the benefit of the doubt and say she was upset and not thinking rationally. I'm sure she apologized later.

Hey, Thorax, I got a little crazy back there. Can you forgive me?

Sure. Buy me an ice cream sundae?

I'll buy you two.

[Octavia]

Poor Steve.

He cried for three days straight.

Nah he's fine

[PonyHag714]

He is best, most adorable dork bug.

But Ocellus may give him competition.

[Octavia]

I want more Thorax and Ember episodes. His dorkiness and her casual racism make for great comedy.

[PonyHag714]

Agreed.

I think dragons are aggressive by nature, so they instinctively lash out when they get upset, even at those they consider friends.

[Adiwan]

I rather want to see both of them in a comic mini-series in the vain of Friends Forever, just a little odder.

[Soft Snow]

I'm curious on how their education system works. Is Cheerilee's school under the rules of the EEA? What are the grades Cheerilee teaches? Was Twilight ever under the EEA before she was under Celestia? She did go to magic kindergarten.

I wonder if Twilight just created the first college in Equestria...

[Auxiliatrix]

I was left fairly confused by this season opener, despite it having some positives.

I disagree with this story needing a single episode to resolve itself. If anything, I feel like this story was trying to do way too much. There are so many new elements being introduced to the show in this story, and while I understand that some of them (such as the new characters and the specifics of the classes) will be developed more in time, I felt that the general establishment of the school was handled poorly. The key was to handle everything gradually, but with so much to establish and several elements to the story, I ended up feeling lost as to the purpose and basis of the school, beyond that it's supposed to teach "friendship".

Yes, we hear about the purpose of the school from Twilight, but we rarely see any example of how things are going to be put into action except for brief snippets that don't explain much of anything. All I know is that the school was going "by the book" the first time and the school was being taught in each of the Mane 6's "own ways" the second time. If Twilight had ran through an overview of what each pony was teaching, or if, perhaps, we had time to experience a little bit of each class without the context of the musical number, it might've worked better at establishing some of the preliminary ideas surrounding this school and how it works.

(Additionally, I didn't like the song/songs much, even without the context of the images. It felt tired and without much direction; however, it may grow on me with time. We'll see.)

Everything surrounding the school feels so hastily constructed, from the motivation to the setup to the classes and distinctions between EEA schools and Twilight's school. It might not matter that much in some stories, but in this case, part of the entire storyline relies directly on the success of this school. If I'm not convinced the school is successful (as in purpose; not in practice), or don't know much of anything about the school, I'm not going to be that invested.

Fortunately, I think the establishment of the six new "teen" characters was handled well, as they each have individual moments. I'm not fully on-board with them right now, but I didn't expect this premiere to do that; all it needed to do was introduce some of the core traits of these characters and give us a reason to like to like them, which "School Daze" certainly did.

As for the antagonist, while the voice-acting was great (as expected), he was certainly quite a stereotypical character, and I'll probably forget about him soon (unless he reappears at some point). The story itself did have too much going on, but it wasn't bad, as the messages throughout are all very good. The "racism" element was a bit odd to me at first, but I think it was handled okay. Perhaps, had things been established better, the episode could've devoted a little more time to this message as well. The only thing that really didn't need more focus, to me, were the new characters.

I do think "Part 2" was superior to "Part 1". "Part 1" focused mostly on the school, while "Part 2" had a lot more character moments, including the best part of the episode (for me). The first three minutes of the second part, in which Twilight has to combat her disappointment at the school's failure, was really powerful. I especially like when Twilight admits that the gifts of her friends won't fix the problem she's facing. Material items may make somebody temporarily happy, but it's true discussion and acceptance that allows you to keep moving forward.

That's why, and you may never hear this again from me, but... I think Starlight was the best part of this episode. Her talk with Twilight was inspiring, and I think the scene was handled beautifully. For a story crowded with so many characters and ideas, having two characters simply have an honest conversation with each other worked brilliantly. This might be my favorite Starlight appearance ever; that's how great I think that scene was.

Anyway, I think I've covered (almost) everything. Future episodes are most certainly going to delve deeper into how this Friendship school works, so it is very possible that this opener will appear a bit better after we've seen the whole season. Still, it should've been the job of this episode to establish most of the basics, and while the primary elements of the new characters were explored well, several of the episode's other focuses suffered as a result. I'd personally put it among the more mediocre episodes of the show.

Regardless, I'm excited to see where the next few episodes go, and if they improve/expand upon the many ideas in "School Daze".

[Headless Horse]

Thoughts:

- Hippogriff designs are super cool.

- Maurice LaMarche is only going to be hired to do his Orson Welles / Brain voice ever again, isn't he? I remember meeting him back in like 1995, and it was the breakout voice that got him his big score, but the man can do impressions like nobody's business. I heard his demo tape which was just him doing every president in living memory, it was unreal.

- Wondering though, would they have tried to get Alan Rickman if he were still alive? Or would that have been too on-the-nose? (Not like they don't have precedent after all... )

- Have they still not run out of fantastical beasts to toss into the mix? God damn.

- The stairs business was funny but I feel like they were trying to go for the same kind of humor Ariel was given in The Little Mermaid, nerding out over mysterious land-dweller artifacts, but they couldn't quite do it without making a more direct reference.

- Overall the thing that irks me most is that humor in general is pretty lacking these days. Isn't it? I got a couple of sensible chuckles out of this (mostly character-driven things like the Rarity impression), but this is a far cry from M.A. Larson's heyday, or really anything from S1/S2. It felt almost ... tedious.

In fact, when Celestia started talking about the EEA and the logo popped up by her head I was like, uhhhh... what is this, a corporate training video? Did DHX hire out to shill for Boole & Babbage or something?

[Highbrow Dash]

- Overall the thing that irks me most is that humor in general is pretty lacking these days. Isn't it? I got a couple of sensible chuckles out of this (mostly character-driven things like the Rarity impression), but this is a far cry from M.A. Larson's heyday, or really anything from S1/S2. It felt almost ... tedious.

Eh. It's always varied from episode to episode.

I mean just last season had Parental Glideance, A Royal Problem or It Isn't the Mane Thing About You. Yeah not every episode is a comedy, but I wouldn't say I've noticed a pattern there.

[Frith]

Pretty good season premiere. Its purpose was to introduce the school of friendship and the Young Six and in that sense the episodes worked pretty well. I'm interested to see where they go with this school concept and these new characters.

[Auxiliatrix]

Eh. It's always varied from episode to episode.

I mean just last season had Parental Glideance, A Royal Problem or It Isn't the Mane Thing About You. Yeah not every episode is a comedy, but I wouldn't say I've noticed a pattern there.

I not only agree with you, but I'd argue that Season 1 might be the least humorous season, next to maybe Season 3 or Season 5.

This episode in particular was fairly lacking in terms of effective humor, but for the most part, I've felt like the last two seasons have put a lot of emphasis on jokes. New writer Josh Hamilton's episodes ("Parental Glideance", "Triple Threat", and "Secrets and Pies") have been some of the funniest I've seen in the show (despite my issues with "Triple Threat"), while episodes like "The Gift of the Maud Pie", "Buckball Season", and "Top Bolt" from Season 6 have great comedic moments.

Personally, I feel like the humor is mostly just lacking in Season openers/closers nowadays. I can't remember a single joke from "The Crystalling" or "Shadow Play". Otherwise, I feel like the amount of humor has done nothing but increase slightly, really.