And so it begins.

"I am the Bad Wolf..."

"Friendship is Magic" Written by Lauren Faust

Bit of weird start for this blog, this will be. The purpose of my reviewing the series episode by episode is to both practice writing critiques and to dispense my personal opinions on FiM so far, but I really don't have any especially strong opinions on the series's pilot.

The best way to describe this episode is that it's a G1 special if it had better characterization. It definitely has that feel, right down to Nightmare Moon, who has the same M.O. as the very first MLP villain, Tirek.

Yeah, there's some weird moments here and there, but the majority of that comes out of this being the pilot. Otherwise, it's a decent introduction to the series's story and characters, though I wouldn't exactly say it's a good introduction to the attributes that make the show great.

Man, it's strange to come back to this after three seasons The animation, while good for a flash animated show, is pretty simple in comparison to the later seasons (most of time, the ponies are standing parallel to the screen as opposed to standing at much harder to animate angles), there's some continuity errors that they have to retcon later, and the VA's haven't 100% found their voices yet. AJ sounds especially off, like someone doing a southern accent as opposed to the completely natural accent we hear later on.

If I did have any serious criticism, it'd be the pacing in the second half of the story and the effects that has on the story. The episode had to take the time to demonstrate why each character is the embodiment of their Element, to show Twilight's growing acceptance of her new friends, and to have all that villainous Nightmare Moon stuff and her redemption. And all in 22 minutes.

Suffice it to say, it's rushed to hell, but again, this is excusable (at least for now) due to the episode being a pilot. That said, the obstacles that the Mane Six have to overcome, the ones that are suppouse to reveal that their very souls are the Elements of Harmony themselves are kinda...weak.

First there's the business with the cliff where AJ tells Twilight to let go so she can be caught by Fluttershy and Dash. Not exactly sure how this demonstrates honesty. Because she didn't lie when she said Twilight totally wouldn't fall to her death? She could have just flat out told her that they were there to catch her instead of being ambiguous about the whole thing. I guess she was too busy making a cute face to think about it.

Hnng.

The next bit with the manticore and Fluttershy works better, though I think one would not have time to consider using kindness when you're being attacked by a monster right out of nowhere. Also, i find it hilarious that Nightmare Moon turned into a thorn and stuck herself into the thing's paw.

The Pinkie Pie one also sorta works, but the point becomes mute when you remember that the tress posed no threat to them at all. Cute little song there, though I'm not sure its message applies in all situations.

"Oh crap, it's the Thing! Quick, laugh in its face!"

"Which face!? It's litterally made of faces!"

"AIEEEEEEEEE!!!"

Then Rarity's test of character comes up, and there's Martian Short, and I don't even. My favorite part of that scene is when Dash remarks how utterly pointless and weird the whole obstacle is. I'm right there with you, sister.

But then her test comes, and it's the dumbest test ever. Seriously, Dash? This is an actual decision that you're giving any thought to? Forget the loyalty thing, it's just common sense. If somebody was dumb enough to actually trust the evilest looking sports team ever (who just randomly appeared out a forest that's infamous for its strange going-ons) and obey their weirdly evil sounding demand, all while on a mission where you know you're being hounded by a dark force that can shape-shift, then it'd be best that we allow them to do so. Any other outcome would make Darwin's ghost weep.

But as dumb as some of that stuff is, it's still decent entertainment. And while I don't think anyone will be sold on the show just by watching this, I can see why the initial viewers decided to give the net few episodes a watch too. The visual design is great (it'd just take a while for the animation to catch up), the characters are fun and have their occasional funny line, and Nightmare Moon is pretty cool, but to be honest, that's not so much because the character herself is cool (she's quite bland actually) but mostly because her back story is brilliant and leaves a lot of room for expansion.

She got awesome later, but we'll get to that, um, later. All in all, it's just decent.

Two down, sixty-three to go.

7/10

Random thoughts.

This is basically the part of the blog where I dispense some sort of aside or random note that doesn't fit in the review that I'd like to bring up. Nothing to really mention this week, though, except the fact that no one knew anything about the Elements and the fact that Celestia is Nightmare Moon's sister is odd. The latter point, especially. So did no one notice that Celestia has been alive for 1,000 years? And if they did, how hard is it to connect the dots? This is why I wouldn't take anything in the pilot as completely concrete canon outside of broad strokes.