Dark Qiviut

Rewatching Look Before You Sleep for the first time in a while after becoming adapted to season 5 and beyond is a whiplash, no similar to rewatching Read It and Weep. The latter seasons are cleaner, more sophisticated, and maturer, but this is the opposite. This was when DHX & Top Draw were still getting used to Flash. Not till Suited for Success did the show begin to really push it.

Pluses:

1. Story’s very character-driven. Takes advantage of characterizations and interactions with each other to advance the conflict.
2. Twilight isn’t anywhere nearly as absentminded here as I believed. She was quite aware of the tension between them and used the slumber party to try to connect a Rarity and Applejack.
3. There’s a lot of really nice comedy, aided by the lighthearted tone. Best moments were AJ and Rarity getting scared from the Headless Horse, Rarity and AJ tussling over the blanket, AJ eating cucumbers meant for her eyes, AJ wearing the frou-frou dress as payback, and Twi getting nailed with the pillows.
4. Surprisingly, the dialogue aged well. “It. Is. On!” remains a classic.
5. Yes, Applejack and Rarity acted like children when they ran their own businesses. But looking at the whole picture, their argument makes sense. AJ’s trying to clean the town square and didn’t take Rarity’s prettifications seriously, Rarity wanted to preserve and recycle the branches. Their stubbornness caused them to not compromise on anything.
6. Adorkable!Twilight debuts. Talk about cute and adorable! <3

Minuses:

1. In Season 1, continuity was much looser. But because an arc was established in The Ticket Master and characters learn and grow following each lesson, continuity matters despite not being as waist-deep. Although Twilight was lovingly adorkable, the pilot established her original, long-time preference to be more around books than people for company. For her to openly admit that she “always” wanted to do a slumber party with other ponies comes out of left field.
2. At times, Rarity and AJ got too petty and mean with each other. AJ dared Rarity to stand out in the thunderstorm, putting her in harm’s way (with Twi sticking to the “rules” and not coming to her defense). Rarity literally ejected AJ from the bed for messing up the blanket.
3. AJ pulling the burnt top of a nearby pine tree into the library was colossally stupid! She accidentally put Rarity and Twi in harm’s way and needed to suck up her pride to get Rarity to help her clean up the mess. At least afterwards, they began to get along quite well and joke about their brief fight.

LBYS is much better than I once thought. Simple, doesn’t take itself seriously, and establishes important connections between three leads.

Grade: C —> B (#138 —> #93)