bigbertha

Wow. What a snorefest. The first act at SugarCube Corner was mildly amusing, but everything else just dragged on and on. The Benny Hill gag was already done better in "The Ticket Master" and no other jokes stick out except Philomena bursting into flames. That was hilarious. Score: 5/10

This is another guilty pleasure. I know the story is a mess and can't be applied to the corresponding real world situations, but this episode was funny. I love when Pinkie randomly started singing and that's what started the buffalo even though it's so stupid. The entire episode is really strange and stupid, but that's what makes it so funny to me. Score: -8/10

This is simply a strong episode. There's not much else to say aside from there were a lot of great jokes and Rarity was awesome. Score: 8/10

This episode's problem can be summed up in one sentence; the CMC are annoying. That's all there is to this episode. I could say that Twilight was forced into the story, but it wasn't as bad here as in other episodes. The only other thing to say is that the design of the cockatrice is underwhelming, especially compared to the hydra in "Feeing Pinkie Keen". Score: 3/10

This episode is very mixed. On the one hand, I really like how Rainbow Dash's story was handled and seeing her perform the rainboom at the end was great. On the other hand, Rarity war really annoying getting so caught up in her wings that she joined the competition. I do think that there is more good than bad here, but the bad is really annoying to me. Score: -5/10

The moral of this episode is a mess but everyone already knows that. Instead of saying that you should just believe anything you can't understand, it should've something similar to having an open mind and not just trying to prove that you're right with minimal evidence. Outside of the moral, the episode is hit or miss. There are some iconic scenes like the exploding twice exchange and the bunch of stuff falling from the sky and crashing on Twilight, but there's a lot of badly timed slapstick and jokes that fall flat. I also really don't like that through the entire episode, Twilight is abused until she finally gives in and stops trying to understand Pinkie Sense. The hydra was pretty cool though. Score: 3/10

This is a highlight of season 1. Everything about this episode works incredibly well. The story is really well done and I really like how the mane six all represent different kinds of customers artists get. The ones who are too vague, the ones who are too specific, the ones who are too practical, the ones who act like they know your job better than you, and the ones that just don't know that they're talking about. The song is fantastic, the comedy is strong (20% cooler may be a dead meme, but it was a really great joke in the episode), and the animation has some really great moments specifically near the end of the song and during the second fashion show. Score: 10/10

I really enjoyed this episode. The rivalry between Rainbow and Applejack felt like an actual friendly rivalry and not like they wanted to kill each other(CoughNon-CompeteClauseCough) and there were a ton of great jokes. Score: 8/10

This is a pretty good episode. It's simple, but it's also charming and has some solid jokes. It's really interesting looking back and seeing how young the CMC sound compared to their much deeper voices now. Score: 7/10

The best thing I can say about this episode is that the song is great. This was my first episode and the song was the only reason I kept watching. The rest of the episode was boring. Unlike other simple season 1 episodes, this episode doesn't have the humor and charm to back it up. This results in a dull episode. Score: 5/10

The issue of Pinkie not telling the rest of the mane six what the parasprites are doesn't bother me as much as it used to, but it still keeps this from being as strong as it could be. It also messes up the moral because Twilight and the others weren't wrong for not listening to Pinkie. It's not like she was telling them anything that would help the situation. Fluttershy's actually more annoying than Pinkie for keeping one of the parasprites after they were rolled out of town. What keeps this from being a bad episode is the comedy. This is a pretty funny episode with special mentions to Twilight's mini breakdown and Celestia's appearance. Score: 6/10

This is a guilty pleasure for me. The story is barebones and there are unfortunate implications with Apple Bloom running off to a stranger and being put in the right. But, the comedy is good enough for me to overlook all of that. There's a ton of great gags like Flutterguy and Twilight Flopple. The episode is one of the funnier ones of season 1. Score: -8/10

Simplicity is not always a good thing. Season 1 is the most simple season, and that can be seen as a positive or negative depending on the episode. Here, it's a negative. Rarity and Applejack's argument is so childish and annoying to watch that it makes the episode difficult to get through even though it's not at "Show Stoppers" levels of tedium. The episode doesn't have much else to it aside from their argument and while it's nice to see them make up, the journey getting there was too annoying for me to like the episode. Score: 3/10

This episode is okay. There are a of things that I don't like, but there are other things that I really do like. For the things I don't like, Raiinbow Dash and Fluttershy were both annoying. Rainbow Dash acted like a jerk and Fluttershy's shyness was exaggerated so far that it got annoying. Also, Rarity's bit with the dragon did not make her look good. For the things I like, Pinkie was pretty funny in this episode and just the comedy in general was really strong. It also has that early show charm that just makes you feel good watching it. Score: 6/10

I have nothing to add to this episode. All the problems people say this episode has, I agree with. The only thing I can add is that Trixie got a lot better as the show went on and Snails also got a good performance later... for some reason Score: 2/10

This was a surprisingly fantastic episode for early season 1. Gilda may be simple and one note, but her character does work for the story being told and she's definitely a better antagonist than Trixie. Pinkie is also a highlight here and really shows why she's so much more tolerable in early seasons compared to the newer seasons. I mean, just listen to how easy on the ears her voice is here compared to her current screechy voice. This is the first time we really get to see inside of Pinkie's brain and it's done really well. That party idea is so wonderfully Pinkie. The comedy is better here than in any of the episodes before it. I especially love Pinkie's line, "Can't you watch me like a griffon?" The only thing keeping it from a 10 is that the episode doesn't do anything exceptionally well. It just does everything pretty well. Score: 9/10

This episode has a better sense of humor than the pilot, but the comedy is still a mixed bag. The story is kinda stupid. Not all of the mane six's reasons to go to the gala were equal. Applejack clearly had the best reason to go. Also, the story is made pointless with Celestia just giving all of them tickets at the end. Applejack also has a strangely sexist line near the end and I have no idea why it was there. Even still, the episode isn't offensive and it is a little charming to see such a simple episode. Score: 4/10

It's not a surprise that the first 2 episodes don't hold up. Once Twilight runs into each of the mane six, they all immediately insist on being her friend despite barely knowing her. The friendship between the mane six here is not well established at all. They only become friends because the story says they need to be friends. The antagonist is also the weakest antagonist of the first 3 seasons. Nightmare Moon is laughable in her attempts to stop the mane six. A lot of the dialogue feels very clunky and unnatural. When Twilight is falling off a cliff and hanging off of Applejack's hooves, all Applejack needed to say was that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were going to save Twilight if she let go. That still would've been honest. Technical aspects are also rough with the animation being very stiff. Despite all of this, I do respect that this was the first episode and similar to the rest of season one, it has a purity newer seasons lack. The song was also nice and I liked the sea serpent. Score: 3/10

I hate this episode so much. No other episode has been so pretentious, so cheesy, so much like a Lifetime original movie. But It's not a parody of these kinds of movies, IT PLAYS IT COMPLETELY STRAIGHT! The entire thing boils down to "be yourself" and "don't let others control you". Wow, so original. The episode doesn't even put a unique spin on it. Everything about this terrible story is a cliche. There's the evil manager who's controlling the one who was once so pure and perfect, but who has now been corrupted by capitalism. Luckily, their friend is there to show them to be themselves. If you're going to play a story like this seriously, you shouldn't have the most stereotypical over the top caricature as your antagonist. It makes the entire story seem so shallow, like there was no effort into creating a subtle or nuanced message. This episode also has the worst writing in the entire series with the line, "This song may be familiar, but yet it's totally different. Kind of like me: Rara", being the worst line of dialogue of the entire show. The comedy is almost nonexistent and the jokes that are there are incredibly unfunny (A straw named Fernando? What?). The song at the end is by far the worst thing I've ever heard in this show. It's just as bland and poorly written as Rara herself. It's like the show lost all self awareness it once had to create this piece of garbage. Score: 0/10

This episode is a beautiful mess. So much here represents the best and worst of the first 3 seasons. On the one hand, the animation and music are the best they've ever been. On the other hand, the pacing is atrocious and the story makes no sense. This episode runs on emotion instead of logic so your enjoyment of the episode depends on if you buy the emotion. For me, I loved this episode. The songs were powerful and everything made this episode seem like the end of an era. The entirety of the first 3 seasons were building up to this moment. I get chills every time I watch the end of "True True Friend". Score: -10/10 (negatives mean guilty pleasures)

This is still the best episode of the show. The fact that Twilight went so insane yet we still sympathize with her is amazing. It works because the entire episode is from Twilight's perspective. We see her entire process and thus still understand where she's coming from even during the climax. The satire was fantastic and very true. You shouldn't try to force a moral into every episode of a show, because sooner or later, you'll run out of compelling lessons and jump the shark trying to find one. The animation and music really helped to sell both Twilight's craziness and a lot of the jokes. I think this episode has the best facial expressions of any episode. They're not too over the top to be gross, but they still push it just far enough to be funny. There are a lot of other little things like the sun ticking like a clock, Celestia being threatening for once, and how well portrayed Spike was. The voice acting was better than it usually is too with Tara Strong and Tabitha St. Germain being standouts. There were also two great morals with taking friends' fears seriously and not making a mountain out of a molehill. The only thing I can nitpick is that the episode tells us the morals twice first in front of Celestia and then as a letter to Celestia. The latter felt a bit like filler. Even still, this is the best episode of the show and I doubt any episode will be better in the future. Score: 10/10

I think this episode is pretty good. It's very simple, but I think it works here. This could've been really boring if it put too much focus on Twilight's fears, but the episode works because most of the focus is on the rest of the mane six and Spike. The jokes aren't hilarious, but I was smiling throughout with a few good chuckles. The episode falls flat when it tries to be emotional. The scene with Twilight and Spike in front of the destroyed library felt really out of place and forced. Also, I forgot there was a song in this episode, for good reason. Score: 7/10

This is one of the most boring episodes of the show. The entire episode is just the CMC fumbling around not being funny for 22 minutes. The only reason this isn't one of the worst episodes of the show is because the song at the end was really funny. I really like cringe comedy and I think it was done pretty well there. Score: 2/10

This episode was okay. It had a much better sense of humor than the previous episodes, but it relied too much on "wow look at how crazy Applejack's getting" jokes. It was funny at first, but by the time it got to Fluttershy's bunny census, it got old. Also, the episode really dragged whenever Twilight went to talk to Applejack. Their interactions were all the same with Twilight saying Applejack should get help and Applejack saying she didn't need it. That said, there were some pretty funny jokes like the entire scene where Applejack gets her award and the catapult scene had some good slapstick. Score: 5/10

This is one of my favorite fanfictions!