Why was Best Night Ever the only one part season finale?

[ggg-2 3,553]

(I'm not counting Magical Mystery Cure, since season 3 was only a half season anyway and wasn't long enough to warrant a two parter) Best Night Ever was, beside season 3, the only 1 part season finale whereas every one that followed was a two parter. Moreover, Best Night Ever currently is our only season finale to be a slice of life episode rather than an adventure one, at a period where Lauren was wanting a more adventure oriented series. (not sure what to classify Magical Mystery Cure as)

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,554]

It was mostly likely due to it being the only Slice of Life finale, if we don't count MMC. There wasn't any action, no major threat of any kind and as such, the stakes were nearly non-existent, except for the ponies trying to have the best time ever. Really feels so different compared to all other finales or premieres in the show.

[cmarston1 5,959]

From what I heard from a few others, The Return of Harmony was originally planned to be the season one finale, instead of the season 2 premiere.

[Sidral Mundet 1,666]

Because it was the only one to understand the show. Also because Return of Harmony was originally slated to be the finale. So far it's been the best finale of the show. Fuck, it's the only one that decided to have the Mane 6 actually take part in it instead of it being the Super Magical OP Unicorn hour with the Remane 5 as cheerleaders at best and utterly worthless at worst.

Edited December 2, 2016 by Sidral Mundet

[Foxy Socks 2,599]

Since it was the first season, they likely didn't have a standard format for it. It makes quite sense to me honestly.

[Will Guide 21,360]

From what I heard from a few others, The Return of Harmony was originally planned to be the season one finale, instead of the season 2 premiere.

^^^

I've been saying exactly what he said for a while now.

[Silver Letter 1,832]

I don't know. Maybe they hadn't gotten the hang of how a season finale should be done at that point and sort of made it up as they went along. Perhaps that's why the season one finale is not exactly special.

[Marimo 555]

Because the writers were still getting used to the series and weren't even that familiar with adventure-styled episodes. It was easier for them to do slice of life. Plus the gala was the only thing they had as story arc for that season, so it would be fitting to save that for the finale.

 

And it was probably only 1 part because that's all the story really required for it if the story they had come up for it was simply making it not as good as they thought it was going to be with no actual antagonists to deal with.

 

From what I heard from a few others, The Return of Harmony was originally planned to be the season one finale, instead of the season 2 premiere.

 

Also because Return of Harmony was originally slated to be the finale.

 

^^^
I've been saying exactly what he said for a while now.

Return of Harmony was never meant to be the season 1 finale. Both Lauren and Larson have said that it was always meant to be the season 2 premiere, it just got animated with the rest of season 1 because they wanted to get it done early and with as much of the season 1 animators as possible before possibly losing them in-between work on seasons.

 

 

Fuck, it's the only one that decided to have the Mane 6 actually take part in it instead of it being the Super Magical OP Unicorn hour with the Remane 5 as cheerleaders at best and utterly worthless at worst.

Though when you think about it, all the other 5 did was screw up the gala for everyone else attending it. Twilight was with Celestia the whole time, where she was just helping greet ponies.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

Because hasbro had NO IDEA that the show was going to be half as financially successful as it was, and so there was no pressure to do a big two parter finale: remember that Faust originally wanted to do alot more adventure episodes in the show's normal seasonal episodes but that was deemed to be too much work/Too risky and so the show was pushed to be more slice of life focused instead.

 

So the S1 finale being a one parter isn't really surprising, hasbro didn't want the staff investing lots of extra time and money making Big episode two parters at that point in time; It took until S2 for hasbro to pick up on how successful the show was and react accordingly. (I mean, look at the amount of effort they put into the S1 Toys and the amount of effort they put in later down the line)