S01:E03 - The Ticket Master

[qib 695]

I loved this episode! My favorite so far, I loved how even though I believe Rarity's reason was the greatest (all of the "meeting him" stuff was just part of her character to sometimes be overdramatic) as in the first episode she even mentioned how much she wanted to go to Canterlot, they all had good reasons

 

All I have to say though is, I think AppleJack needs some lessons in business as with that many apples, she must be selling them cheap to not be able to afford to fix the barn 

[HedonismBot 239]

On 3/14/2020 at 4:28 AM, CypherHoof 🐎 said:

Fluttershy could just ASK Twi to take her to meet the animals in the palace grounds - after all, she is Twi's friend and Celestia owes her a bit of a reward for, you know, help save all of Equestria from the return of Nightmare Moon. She could have an entire day there, while the grounds aren't overrun with snooty partygoers.

There's something I noticed as well - Celestia met all five of Twilight's new friends at the end of the previous episode, and was fully aware of the role they played in dealing with Nightmare Moon. Yet she only sent one extra ticket. The only logical explanation there would be that it was some sneaky test of character.

 

On 6/12/2020 at 2:25 PM, Kitty Rose said:

All I have to say though is, I think AppleJack needs some lessons in business as with that many apples, she must be selling them cheap to not be able to afford to fix the barn 

Farming in real life isn't particularly lucrative - many independent farmers live near the poverty line. Selling value-added products (in AJ's case, baked goods and cider) is a good way to make more money than from selling raw crops, but there are probably better places to do so than a catered event (with what would likely be much higher quality food than AJ could produce) where guests can eat for free.

[BeepThePony 24]

This was always one of my favorite episodes as a kid, and it still is to this day! I absolutely love the story behind it, and it really does bring out some good lessons when it comes down to situations like these! This episode will always hold a special place with me, and it’s one of my favorite episodes to rewatch just for old time’s sake!

[Reality Check 631]

I like this episode. It address how sometimes you don't have enough presents for everyone and choosing who to give it to can be very hard and painful for not just for others, but the person themselves. Not just that, I find it kind of interesting that everyone of the mane 6 has their own reasons to go to the Gala, closely relating to their gimmicks. I also gotta bring up Spike, especially how he's like some people, is not exactly one for sentimentality or one to openly show interest at the Gala.

[JMTV99 1,352]

I love this episode so much! It was able to use the old "2 tickets, 3 friends" cliché, and turn into a memorable, cute, and funny episode with a really good message.

[Astralshy 26,442]

Good episode in my book. I don't feel nostalgia for it because I'm just got into a MLP half a year ago.

The story is indeed a bit cliché here and it was quite apparent with the first minute from this episode. But I think it made something out of this.

When I first watched this episode I was asking myself why Celestia has not given Twi seven ticket in the first place. One answer is of course there would have not been a plot for this episode. The second answer is for Celstia training Twi.

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

one of the rare episodes that shows the mane 6 dynamics. especially twilight's. everyone here got a good line to say and introduction to them more.

definitely a good episode with good characterization. they actually made twilight's character here too good... making her questionable in later episodes.....( like lesson zero.)

[Cash In 22,230]

Ticket Master is the first slice of life episode and it's alright. Like the first two, I don't think this episode is amazing, but I can find a lot of enjoyment in it. The plot is rather predictable and cliché, but the story it tells is quite fun. At this point in time, Twilight is still a newbie to the whole friendship thing, so I find her struggle of choosing between her friends quite logical and it also gives us some decent insight on her relationships with them. I do really like how this episode is kind of a build up to the season finale. It makes this episode feel like it has a lot more meaning and I always appreciate having continuity in an episode that isn't a premiere or finale.

The Benny Hill sequence also got a laugh out of me on my first viewing.

I'll give this episode a 7/10.

Edited February 26 by Cash In
Updated thoughts

[Rosy Moonlight 369]

I think that Applejack had the best reason to want to go to the gala, even if it wouldn't have gone that well either way.

Her reason was out of necessity, rather than desire.

[FloppyPony 1]

Yeah I'm not the first one to do this and isn't super complex or well written but I felt like reviewing episodes and sharing my opinion as I rewatched the show from the beginning just for funsies. Posting per episode so I don't have a post too long. Some may be longer than others depending if I have something to say or not. Hope you enjoy and remember its just my opinion and if you disagree its ok. I would love to discuss in the comments about what you think to. <3 Also bare with me as I might have grammar issues here as I do have some learning disabilities.

 

Not sure if it needs to be said but obviously SPOILERS FOR MPLFIM SEASON 1.

 

EPISODE SUMMARY

Twilight recieves a gift from princess Celestia of 2 tickets to the grand galopping gala, a big party which is well known and a big fancy popular event everyone wants to go to. Twilight spends the whole episode trying to decide who to share her tickets with as she has too many friends to share them with and make them all happy. Then her friends try to do her favours to get the ticket from her. Eventually they apologise and twilight says she doesn't want to go if they can't all go. Then Celestia sends them all tickets and all is well.

 

MY THOUGHTS

This is one of my least favourite episodes in season 1 which is sad considering the strong start that came just before it. To be honest, this episode feels like it should have been shown a few episodes later than this as it feels like it would make more sense if these characters had got to know each other more first and we got to know them more first before this type of friendship problem and I feel this actually affects the episode a bit badly because of it. I mean one thing that is clear in this episode is that the characters are behaving badly and out of character even if it is for the sake of the moral directly. However, this doesn't make much sense if we haven't even had a chance to see what they would be like IN character and behaving WELL yet other than that one episode. It's probably not the creators fault episodes got mixed up but this is a perfect example of episode placement in a show like this being important not to mess up sometimes.

 

sorry for the little tangent. let me get to the episode itself. This episode has several typical cartoon tropes in it which are kinda cringy and annoying for me but it is a kids show so take that as you will. Maybe it doesn't bother you but typical kids slapstick humour is a personal hate of mine so I found the slapstick gags like her being chased around town and using disguises to get away from all the ponies of town to be just annoying but that's probably just me. They are over used tho so I doubt many kids would like it much either.

 

I also feel like the characters in this one are a little too mean spirited and end up being kinda jerks a little too quickly and easily for my taste. If you have watched later episodes of the show then you would know they have done things better than this later but of course this was early days in the show so you could argue it is excusable at this point but there is also the point that its kinda bad having such an early episode after they just made friends with her having them squabble and be bit nasty to her over something so small. It just feels wrong to me.

 

But its not just the fact they end up being mean to Twilight but also HOW they do it that I think bothers me even more. For example, they don't just do the typical thing of doing forced favours to get Twilight to give them the ticket but Pinkie also tries to socially manipulate Twilight by pretending she thinks she already has the ticket so it would be harder since Twilight would have to directly disappoint her by saying no. That just feels too mean and manipulative for a show ABOUT friendship for a character to do in my opinion especially since it is literally seconds after she finds out about the tickets.

It's also clear to I think anyone that someone like Pinkie just feels wrong to be so manipulative in this way. It can't just be me who thinks this right? I mean Rarity makes sense in some ways but Pinkie? It just feels wrong to me how such a happy pony could just turn like this on a friend for something so small. And that's what I thought when I first saw this episode before any other episodes were released.

A matter which makes this worse is also how it tries to treat the problem with logic by Twilight saying she should give the pony who has the best reason to go the ticket. This seems reasonable but when you think about it, it would have been better not to mention this idea as a solution as this causes a problem. This means that Twilight has to see all the reasons as the same value for this to work but unfortunately they are NOT equal because ONE pony has a very good reason above everyone else. can you guess who? Applejack! The reason why her reason breaks this episode in my opinion is that she is the only pony with a unselfish reason to go.

 

She doesn't just want to earn money at the gala to get luxuries for herself but she want's the money to get her grandma a NEW HIP! You can't say that a dream of meeting a handsome guy is at the same level as giving an important surgery for a loved one! This completely distracted me for the whole episode coz the whole time I was thinking. GIVE IT TO APPLEJACK! This is a bad oversight and tbh I think it was a bad idea to introduce this solution in the first place as it is a bad thing to teach kids. I mean do you really expect young kids to know which reason has proper priority over another? To have this mentioned but then not properly gone through I believe will lead to problems for some kids watching this as it just makes the whole thing more complicated and confusing. Then again, maybe I'm wrong. what do you think?

 

Overall, the humour is old overused cartoon tropes, the characters are unlikable and too mean in some ways and the overall moral is flawed. Leaving this to be an episode I didn't like at all.

[LonelyYugi 59]

Bad episode.

All Twilight had to do was ask Celestia for more tickets from the beginning, and this whole thing could have been avoided.

Edited July 16, 2022 by LonelyYugi

[StarHeart333 1,764]

I love the meme for this episode.

Celestia: * knows Twilight has five friends....

"Let's send her two tickets..."

 

*Grabs popcorn

 

[RDDash 19,168]

this episode where the princess troll sends two gala tickets to Twilight right? I think this episode was pretty forgettable, to be honest

[HeavenSunset 1,867]

I knew from the start that if she just asked Celestia for more tickets, she would give them

Still like the idea of the episode though, and the idea that we shouldn’t pressure people too much into decisions

[Hadrien 950]

The one thing that very jarring for me in this episode is the fact that Twilight just doesnt even try asking for more tickets. They go through all these shenanigans, manipulation and backhandling for those tickets, and at no point does Twilight even entertain the idea of asking her mentor for more. But hey, those antics were fun.

6/10

Edited October 20, 2023 by Hadrien

[ZiggWheelsManning 10,021]

Twilight, 2 tickets, 5 of her friends, what could possibly go wrong?  

[Azure Dawn 186]

Okay but how do the tickets float on top of each pony's head at the end, as if everyone could levitate their own things?

[LittleEpona 34]

Not my favourite, but I enjoyed watching this episode. 

[Rafa Stary 2,894]

On 2024-07-03 at 10:39 PM, Azure Dawn said:

Okay but how do the tickets float on top of each pony's head at the end, as if everyone could levitate their own things?

Still an eternal mistery 

Anyway I love this one, for me it's one of the perfect episodes to demonstrate how silly the early seasons were, I really like that, they made very fun and memorable episodes with very dumb or simple plots, something I rarely see in the later seasons, I feel that the show becomes more mature, which is great but I love how simple it was in the beginning 

[Snow 7,004]

Coming from the high that was the first two episodes I find this one to be a little bit of a low, not a bad episode per-se but I didn't really enjoy the overarching conflict, it could have been easily resolved if Twilight simply reached out to Celestia  though that'd be a pretty quick episode wouldn't it

5/10 it was ok review

[lunarwing 69]

5/10. I don't dislike this episode per say, but you can feel the series transition here from adventure to slice of life a little sharply. It's hard to follow the premiere episodes and I think this episode wouldn't have suffered so much if it was put a little further out in the season. It doesn't land as well as the others in my opinion due to the placement and the fact that this is their first season and there are bound to be struggle episodes trying to find their feet. Having said that, it's not a bad episode at all, just not as hard hitting. If they would've leaned into Celestia being a troll IE Celestia sitting in the castle, with popcorn watching a playback of this episode I would've lost it. I feel like A Bird in the Hoof would've fit better as the second episode but that's just me.

[Antiyonder 1,114]

YouTube upload of the episode:

[Pixi-Pie 51]

There's a moment when Twilight and Spike are backed into a corner and a background pony offers to do Twilight's taxes...