S01E01-02: Friendship is Magic

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S01E01-02: Friendship is Magic

Post by The Doctor (?) » Sat Nov 04, 2017 8:44 am

:party: The great episode rewatch project begins. Most people wanted 4 episodes a week, so we're going to do that.

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Friendship is Magic

Airdate: October 10, 2010
Writter: Lauren Faust
Under Princess Celestia's instructions, Twilight Sparkle goes to Ponyville to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration and make some friends. However, Twilight is preoccupied with the impending return of Nightmare Moon from her thousand-year banishment.
Last edited by The Doctor on Sat Apr 28, 2018 2:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Friendship is Magic - Season1: Episode 1 & 2

Post by Fizzbuzz (?) » Sat Nov 04, 2017 9:06 am

Um, what rewatch? I thought we were going to organize a time for this on the Pasture?
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Re: Friendship is Magic - Season1: Episode 1 & 2

Post by The Doctor (?) » Sat Nov 04, 2017 9:22 am

Fizzbuzz wrote:
Sat Nov 04, 2017 9:06 am
Um, what rewatch? I thought we were going to organize a time for this on the Pasture?
I was under the impression the first pasture rewatch would be happening this weekend. I know not everyone will be able to make those, so I planned to start the threads every weekend.

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Re: Friendship is Magic - Season1: Episode 1 & 2

Post by Adiwan (?) » Sat Nov 04, 2017 10:26 am

Aaaah... the episode that started it all. It lured me in with "to be continued" after the first episode, making me thirsty for a conclusion. How could I judge this series when the first story wasn't completely told? And then it lured me more into the pony trap thinking it was a continuity-heavy series. On the one hand it was false for the moment but on the other hand later it grew and grew into the behemoth it now exists.
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Re: Friendship is Magic - Season1: Episode 1 & 2

Post by Soft Snow (?) » Sun Nov 05, 2017 9:12 am

When do these start?
:rariwhat:
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Re: Friendship is Magic - Season1: Episode 1 & 2

Post by The Doctor (?) » Sun Nov 05, 2017 9:51 am

Given the interest in the original thread, but lack of responses in them, I think I might have jumped the gun. I'll hold off on posting more until we find out when the Pasture Stream is happening, so we're all on the same track.

Feel free to discuss these first few episodes now though, since the threads are made.

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Re: Friendship is Magic - Season1: Episode 1 & 2

Post by Swift (?) » Sun Nov 05, 2017 11:32 am

For me, I'm just waiting to see when the stream will be.

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Re: Friendship is Magic - Season1: Episode 1 & 2

Post by Applepie2017 (?) » Tue Nov 07, 2017 3:50 am

I did not know about FiM until one year later.
But...
This one's too young

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Re: Friendship is Magic - Season1: Episode 1 & 2

Post by Bremen (?) » Sat Nov 11, 2017 4:54 pm

It's amazing how well I remembered this episode considering I don't think I ever rewatched it.

IMHO, the pilot is... not the best. It's extremely predictable (I think deliberately so), and kind of, I dunno, cringeworthy. I don't hold this against Lauren Faust, though; pilots are often rough, and this one forced them to cram a lot into 44 minutes. They didn't have a lot of time for subtlety or complex plots. On the plus side, my favorite thing about the show has always been the characters, and this serves as a good introduction to them.

Favorite scene: It has to be when Twilight charges NMM, and it looks like they're going to gore each other with their horns. Then Twilight just teleports past; a great lesson that she can be a badass despite appearances :p

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Re: Friendship is Magic - Season1: Episode 1 & 2

Post by PonyHag714 (?) » Sat Nov 11, 2017 5:20 pm

It was a good way to introduce the main characters and how they all first got together. Not as polished as it would become, but pilot episodes of series never are.

I'm glad they dropped the weird front face view of Celestia.
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Re: Friendship is Magic - Season1: Episode 1 & 2

Post by Highbrow Dash (?) » Sat Nov 11, 2017 8:13 pm

Live thoughts as I watched it on my own:

-There's the intro. I didn't make it past it my first time around :-P
-The voices are noticeably different. I knew Dash and AJ's voices had changed cause that was super obvious, but I forgot just how different Twi and Spike sound now.
-"Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle". I've missed that :allears:
-They never went back to this all-night, pre-Summer Sun celebration rave :v:
-I love old Pinkie. She's great nowadays, but she isn't this hyper nowadays, and it's great.

Part 2:

-"It ain't natural". AJ you're a farmer you should know how nature works.
-Just noticed that extra line at the base of the horns. It looks pretty weird now.
-And there's that time Rarity killed a dragon.
-What was Nightmare Night's plan if RD decided to join the Shadowbolts? I'm not sure she thought this through.
-"Huh Twilight, I thought you were full of shit but I guess this stuff is real after all"
-Yeah right Celestia, this all went according to plan. Maybe you should've told Twilight to make some friends earlier instead of waiting for the very last minute.
-Fuck my friends in Canterlot, I have new better friends.


I never liked the pilot that much, but it remains a great introduction to the characters :-P

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Re: Friendship is Magic - Season1: Episode 1 & 2

Post by SlateSlabrock (?) » Sat Nov 11, 2017 8:36 pm

Highbrow Dash wrote:
Sat Nov 11, 2017 8:13 pm
-What was Nightmare Night's plan if RD decided to join the Shadowbolts? I'm not sure she thought this through.

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Re: Friendship is Magic - Season1: Episode 1 & 2

Post by The Doctor (?) » Sat Nov 11, 2017 8:41 pm

As pilots go, this was a good one. Introduced the characters very well, and I thought it was a pretty fun adventure episode. The trip through the forest is the worst part for me, but all of episode 1 and the stuff once they get to the castle was great.

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Re: Friendship is Magic - Season1: Episode 1 & 2

Post by Perrydotto (?) » Sat Nov 11, 2017 10:13 pm

It's definitely a solid pilot. It accomplishes what it needs to do, and it sells the show decently well (though episodes like Applebuck Season and Suited for Success truly highlight the actual characterizations and show how both funny and resonating Friendship is Magic can be). It's just really strange going back to the comparitively simple animation after all the ways they pushed the style in the years since season 1.
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Re: Friendship is Magic - Season1: Episode 1 & 2

Post by Fizzbuzz (?) » Sat Nov 11, 2017 11:26 pm

Perrydotto wrote:
Sat Nov 11, 2017 10:13 pm
It's just really strange going back to the comparitively simple animation after all the ways they pushed the style in the years since season 1.
What I find remarkable is how the art improved so gradually over the years. Though you could generally see some improvements from season to season (particularly S4 to S5, with the backgrounds and all), it was never enough at once to feel major. Yet, going from S7 back to the very beginning feels almost like I'm watching an entirely different show.
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Re: Friendship is Magic - Season1: Episode 1 & 2

Post by Bremen (?) » Sun Nov 12, 2017 1:17 am

Fizzbuzz wrote:
Sat Nov 11, 2017 11:26 pm
What I find remarkable is how the art improved so gradually over the years. Though you could generally see some improvements from season to season (particularly S4 to S5, with the backgrounds and all), it was never enough at once to feel major. Yet, going from S7 back to the very beginning feels almost like I'm watching an entirely different show.
It might be weird but I kind of miss all the ponies having the same models. The new ponies with non-standard models, often very different models, feel kind of strange to me.

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Re: Friendship is Magic - Season1: Episode 1 & 2

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Sun Nov 12, 2017 1:41 am

Bremen wrote:
Sun Nov 12, 2017 1:17 am
It might be weird but I kind of miss all the ponies having the same models. The new ponies with non-standard models, often very different models, feel kind of strange to me.
I'm reminded of "South Park" in this regard. In older seasons they usually used the same template for the kids (it was a bit more varied with the adults, but they still had the general simpleness in the design). In later episodes the designs are more varied, with details. It gets jarring whenever the newer characters are seen together with the characters who were around in the beginning.

Art evolution will always happen if something runs long enough, I guess.

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Re: Friendship is Magic - Season1: Episode 1 & 2

Post by princess spaceship (?) » Tue Nov 14, 2017 4:59 pm

As promised, I watched this with my almost 4 year old, then asked her questions about it afterwards. She seemed to like it, but found NMM to be a little scary at times. I tried asking questions about why she thought X happened, etc. but those seldom got an answer. Hiding the interviews to save space. Side note: she believes that AJ and RD are both boys.

S01E01
:allright: (Me): What did you think of this?
:sweetiefrown: (Daughter):It was too scary!
:allright: :did TS make any friends?
:ohboy: :Yes. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, ... that's how much friends she made. (whispers) what was the little tiny dragon's name?-- Spike!
:allright: :Which pony did you like best?
:ohboy: :The purple one... the purple dragon one!
:allright: :What did you like about him?
:ohboy: :Uh, he's color.
:allright: :What about the other ponies?
:ohboy: :AJ- Uh, he's hat
I like the color of her hooves (rarity)
RD- he's hair
PP- her color
FS- Uh, her wings
that's all I want to say.
:allright: :Why did TS go to ponyville?
:ohboy: :Because she wanted to make friends
S01E02
She loved the song, giggled along with it at times.
:allright: :What did you think of that one?
:good: :Uh, not very scary
:allright: :Did you like the ending?
:ohboy: :Yeah, I did like the ending.
:allright: :What kind of element of harmony would you have, if you were a pony? (this is one she told me to ask her)
:sweetiebot: :The element of bringing back life
:allright: :Which pony was you favorite this episode?
:ohboy: :Sssssssspike and Rainbow Dash
:sweetielarm: (singing):"the elements of harmony ... but the sisters will happily live again. & I heard music, my sister said oh i love that, so i go on another episode, that was too scary, she said, no thank you big time. i was a baby but no one else.all of us were a baby but no one else too... etc/" (there was more, but I couldn't type fast enough. Maybe next time.)
It was interesting to see these characters at their earliest, knowing how they would grow and change over the years. TS was more cynical than I remembered, especially in her treatment of Spike, but it makes sense given how stressed she was & her general disdain of friendship at the time.

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Re: Friendship is Magic - Season1: Episode 1 & 2

Post by LingEarth (?) » Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:08 pm

Ah yes, the first two episodes. There have been many better episodes since, but these were good enough to make me say "Yeah I think I like this show" when I first watched them. Still holds up pretty well, IMO. It's a different perspective, looking back at this seven seasons later. So much has happened. :allears:

Random observation: I'd forgotten Celestia never actually appears in episode 1. All of Twilight's communication with her is via Spike.

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Re: Friendship is Magic - Season1: Episode 1 & 2

Post by Frith (?) » Sat Nov 18, 2017 9:16 am

The pilot served its purpose in that it introduced the characters and their world rather well. The story was rather rough and especially the elements were really hammered in (AJ's trial didn't make any sense).

But pilots ususally are clumsily written and overall this was a decent start for the show.

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