S01:E01+E02 - Friendship is Magic

[CypherHoof 26,483]

QDiscord reached back in time and pushed them together in the pilot episode.....

[Jokuc 8,173]

I still did not finish season 5 but compared to this, pinkie pie feels more and more like comic relief in the later episodes

[qib 695]

Definitely a good start, not enough to get you hooked, but definitely a good start. 

Seeing the cute ponies but good writing at the same time sets up a stage where you understand that yes, it is a show about little ponies, but if you stick around, the writing will get better and better 

Although, if it was my decision, I'd have twilight already know the rest of the mane six (for some reason, has to stay in Ponyville for a couple of months) and this be the last episode of S1, as they each are shown to posses a certain element, but the episodes following applejack can't be honest? (applebuckseason) and Twilight doesn't want to show off her magic? (Boat busters) Thats literally they're elements, they should be quite strong or else the defeat of nightmare moon isn't as significant! 

[Jedishy 3,548]

4 minutes ago, Kitty Rose said:

applejack can't be honest?

How do you figure she cant  be honest?

4 minutes ago, Kitty Rose said:

Twilight doesn't want to show off her magic

Not wanting to show off is not in any way a detriment to her element. One does not have to want to boast about their element to embody it

 

[qib 695]

8 minutes ago, Jedishy said:

How do you figure she cant  be honest?

She doesn't want to tell her friends that she needs help, you must remember that if she cant even tell her friends that she needs help then

1. she isn't actually that honest, and if thats the case, it makes applejack way less special as a character because any pony who tells the truth once could've been the element of honesty

2. If she's not actually that honest, then nightmare moons defeat is not even that special, if she's been waiting to take over the land for over a thousand years and yet get beats by a pony that is only 'slightly' honest, then why are we following these ponies adventures, their elements aren't even that personal to them

Overall, I've already wrote that this would've been better suited for Rarity

 

9 minutes ago, Jedishy said:

Not wanting to show off is not in any way a detriment to her element. One does not have to want to boast about their element to embody it

Yet, at minimum all her friends knows she's the element of magic, meaning that she should be quite good at it - yet she's embarrassed that she's good at magic? She is the element of magic, I'm sure that means she's a good at magic, if thats not the case applejack should be the element of magic too 

[Jedishy 3,548]

12 minutes ago, Kitty Rose said:

24 minutes ago, Jedishy said:

How do you figure she cant  be honest?

She doesn't want to tell her friends that she needs help, you must remember that if she cant even tell her friends that she needs help then

Except this requires she is being dishonest rather then actually believing she can do it all by herself. She flat out believes that it will be hard but she can do it. The second she realizes she only got half done and really can't do it alone she asked for help.

13 minutes ago, Kitty Rose said:

Yet, at minimum all her friends knows she's the element of magic, meaning that she should be quite good at it - yet she's embarrassed that she's good at magic? She is the element of magic, I'm sure that means she's a good at magic, if thats not the case applejack should be the element of magic too 

There is a difference between being good and being a show off. And she thought trying to show somepony up would make her a show off just like Trixie. She is not embarrassed about being good at magic. She is just afraid of rubbing ponies noses in it and goes too far due to that fear. 

[qib 695]

1 minute ago, Jedishy said:

Except this requires she is being dishonest rather then actually believing she can do it all by herself. She flat out believes that it will be hard but she can do it. The second she realizes she only got half done and really can't do it alone she asked for help.

I'm sorry but I just have to disagree, she was worked so hard that she struggled to even understand what Twilight was telling her, thats not 'trying your hardest' thats just being dishonest with your friends that you need help, if her becoming disillusioned with reality is just her 'working hard', she needs some serious help because thats not right

Furthermore, the point I'm trying to get at is Applejack shouldn't just be 'honest', she needs to be honest to the highest degree (like Pinkie is fun to the most extreme) or else a pony who's been planning her revenge for over thousand years got beat by a kind of honest pony, which makes it really underwhelming and makes you wonder if any six ponies could've done it

6 minutes ago, Jedishy said:

There is a difference between being good and being a show off. And she thought trying to show somepony up would make her a show off just like Trixie. She is not embarrassed about being good at magic. She is just afraid of rubbing ponies noses in it and goes too far due to that fear. 

Same as my last point, she HAS to be SO good at magic that she gets the element of magic, if not, why doesn't rarity have the element of magic? or fluttershy? All her friends should know that she's so good that she's worthy of the element of magic, so her being afraid just made no sense

[Jedishy 3,548]

45 minutes ago, Kitty Rose said:

hat she struggled to even understand what Twilight was telling her, thats not 'trying your hardest' thats just being dishonest with your friends that you need help, if her becoming disillusioned with reality is just her 'working hard', she needs some serious help because thats not right

In what way does any of that prove dishonesty. People can be stubborn and truly believe they can manage more then they are really able. And in fact she did manage to get it all done herself. At least the half that she originally thought was all she had to do. So in no way was she lying. She was indeed a leader to do what she initially thought was the full task by herself.

Further they are not perfect ponies and all of them have flaws hers  is being stubborn and working too hard. And at no point is she shown disbelieving she can do it. Should she realize its unhealthy? Yea but that is not lying.

 

47 minutes ago, Kitty Rose said:

Same as my last point, she HAS to be SO good at magic that she gets the element of magic, if not, why doesn't rarity have the element of magic? or fluttershy? All her friends should know that she's so good that she's worthy of the element of magic, so her being afraid just made no sense

What does any of that have to do with her fearing looking like a show off? Everyone knew Bruce Lee was good but if he randomly challenged amateurs to fights he would be seen as a show off.

Further you are expecting fear to be rational and a pony who is consistently shown to be socially oblivious to accurately predict how her new friends will see something. She is not a socially savvy pony and thus has irrational fears about losing her brand new friends

 

The song flawless was written for exactly these type of things. 

[CypherHoof 26,483]

7 minutes ago, Kitty Rose said:

Same as my last point, she HAS to be SO good at magic that she gets the element of magic, if not, why doesn't rarity have the element of magic? or fluttershy? All her friends should know that she's so good that she's worthy of the element of magic, so her being afraid just made no sense

I am not convinced it happened in that order.

All the evidence seems to point she was desperate to be good at magic, she studied hard, she worked at it, and.... she wasn't actually that good as a filly. By contrast, GlimGlam seems to have been a natural.

She was just about to flunk her magic test then.... the Rainboom event happened. overwhelmed by magic she couldn't control, Celestia herself had to step in and get her to throttle it back.  Yes, after the event, she was a powerful young unicorn, star pupil to Celestia and no doubt spent her every waking moment trying to be a better unicorn, but the question is - but for the Rainboom event, would she have flunked and went back to her family home broken by her failure?

I like to think that when the Tree was selecting its new element bearers, it saw Twilight's determination, and chose her, giving her incredible power (for a young filly) and helping her earn her cutie mark, even as it bound six young fillies together into a destiny that would shield equestria time and time again from peril.

 

Why the others were chosen for their respective elements was rather strange too though.

Rarity's event started long before the Rainboom, dragging her across the landscape to be in the perfect position for when the rainboom shattered the rock. Her special talent though is finding gemstones... but she isn't as good at it as maud (who, to be fair, comes from a rock farm, and has many years of dedicated study, not just a little magic related to a special talent).  She was *sorta* being generous to her friends, trying to jazz up their costumes, but not to the extent she was a shoe-in for Generosity.

Pinkie... well yeah. pinkie. lets not try to explain that, its pinkie.

Dashie was *sorta* loyal to Fluttershy, but.. not a great link either.

AJ, as we find out in a few other places, isn't quite as honest as she wishes to be seen as. She uses bluntness and uncomfortable truths where a white lie would be acceptable, but clearly lies to herself about some things, has openly lied to others in the past, and struggles to avoid lies of omission.

Fluttershy, again, sorta. She is gentle and reassuring to her new animal friends, and as a special talent is a powerful empath - not only able to read the feelings of those around her, but project those feelings overwhelmingly onto those she targets with her "stare".  With few exceptions she uses her talents only to help those around her (which is pretty normal for an empath; any bad feelings you induce come back to you tenfold).

Don't get me wrong, I love our Little Ponies. but the justification for their elements is laughable.

46 minutes ago, Jedishy said:

Further they are not perfect ponies and all of them have flaws hers  is being stubborn and working too hard. And at no point is she shown disbelieving she can do it. Should she realize its unhealthy? Yea but that is not lying.

It's possible she was lying to herself though. And as for the evidence of her "honesty" in S01E02, it was pretty crappy - a trust fall? seriously?

 

[CypherHoof 26,483]

8 minutes ago, China (100% NOT China) said:

I think one can conclude she wasn't able to be honest with herself.

I agree, but Dashie is also overconfident (not all the time, just 99.9%) so perhaps there is a bit of wriggle room there.

[qib 695]

1 hour ago, Jedishy said:

In what way does any of that prove dishonesty. People can be stubborn and truly believe they can manage more then they are really able. And in fact she did manage to get it all done herself. At least the half that she originally thought was all she had to do. So in no way was she lying. She was indeed a leader to do what she initially thought was the full task by herself.

Further they are not perfect ponies and all of them have flaws hers  is being stubborn and working too hard. And at no point is she shown disbelieving she can do it. Should she realize its unhealthy? Yea but that is not lying.

Being stubborn and believing you can do something that you can't is something completely different to working so hard that you become delusional and struggle to jump on a target accurately, maybe, just maybe I'd accept your conclusion if this was over the course of a day, but from what I can see, it took a couple of days to do at the least, and if she got up one day not being able to even understand what people are asking her to do, thats not working hard, thats working yourself to death, I know some stubborn people but dying of exhaustion isn't being stubborn, its being outright dishonest

1 hour ago, Jedishy said:

What does any of that have to do with her fearing looking like a show off? Everyone knew Bruce Lee was good but if he randomly challenged amateurs to fights he would be seen as a show off.

Further you are expecting fear to be rational and a pony who is consistently shown to be socially oblivious to accurately predict how her new friends will see something. She is not a socially savvy pony and thus has irrational fears about losing her brand new friends

But her element is literally magic, that like if a baker pony was too afraid to bake because she didn't want to look like a show off to her friends, EVERYONE knows your a baker, the sam as EVERYONE knows Twilight is the element of magic, being too afraid to isn't a character flaw, its just being stupid 

[Jedishy 3,548]

14 minutes ago, Kitty Rose said:

I know some stubborn people but dying of exhaustion isn't being stubborn, its being outright dishonest

Um no its not. Did she get what she said she could get done, done? Yes she did. So she was 100% honest that she could do it with no help. Go on explain the lie that was told when she got what she thought she had to do done. 

 

 

15 minutes ago, Kitty Rose said:

But her element is literally magic, that like if a baker pony was too afraid to bake because she didn't want to look like a show off to her friends, EVERYONE knows your a baker, the sam as EVERYONE knows Twilight is the element of magic, being too afraid to isn't a character flaw, its just being stupid 

Again no. This would not be her being afraid to use magic. Its her afraid to show somepony else up with magic. To COMPETE with magic. This is not a baker pony afraid to bake. Its a baker not entering a baking contest. Big difference. And being afraid of losing your friends because you are socially awkward due to never really having friends before is indeed a flaw. 

Again flawless was written exactly because of this. 

[CypherHoof 26,483]

2 minutes ago, Kitty Rose said:

But her element is literally magic, that like if a baker pony was too afraid to bake because she didn't want to look like a show off to her friends, EVERYONE knows your a baker, the sam as EVERYONE knows Twilight is the element of magic, being too afraid to isn't a character flaw, its just being stupid 

Not convinced that is true either.

Twi hasn't really used her magical abilities in front of anypony by E06 - she harvested a few apples, and that's about it. Everything about the exchanges at Trixie's show reenforced to Twi that her friends disapproved of showy displays of magic. Had one of them suggested she face down Trixie, then that might have happened, but their surprise after the incident with the Ursa suggests that they didn't understand just how powerful she already was (although it would take her gaining Alicorn powers before she would rival Starswirl himself)

They may have nerfed Twi a litlte to make the plot, but her mental quirks are a mainstay of the show.

[Denim&Venöm 18,955]

Rewatched the first episode for the 10th anniversary, and I get Twi's frustrations. Not necessarily the dread NMM brings, but just at not being taken seriously. She's dismissed by her mentor and shuffled into a job she doesn't want made difficult by a bunch of strange ponies who are more than a little forward for someone as asocial as Twi to deal with. Though Twi doesn't quite get off complexity either as she's a bit rude and abrasive, especially towards Spike. 

On a side note, it's interesting to hear how different AJ and RD sound compared to later seasons. Even NMM's delivery was more subdued that Luna was in S2. The animation also holds up quite well, though it's also different because of how basic Flash animation was at the time. Yes, lots of still shots and layered backgrounds, but also different types of facial expressions for the characters that we wouldn't really see again. In some ways it was a slight downgrade from the animation we saw in Gen 3's Twinkle Wish Adventure less than a year earlier. 

This was an interesting rewatch in retrospect. Doesn't really hold up because that brilliance the show would be known for hadn't kicked in. This was just an intro for the target demographic. They had higher ambitions in later episodes, but here they just wanted to get the basics done. Taken at face value, a first episode of a children's show, it did okay.

Fun fact: Tabetha St.Germain's first part in the show was actually Granny Smith. 

[moh310 23]

man it was a trip to watch the first episode since I've been watching season 9!I really wish nightmare moon was more recurring , something about her villainous laughter and her story was always so intriguing

[Tom Gallagher 33,588]

It sure is fun looking back on this episode and seeing how far we’ve come! 

[Cloud5001 20]

OK so I really need to defend this two parter, people give it unnesscary hate. I was a huge mlp skeptic but as soon as I saw the pilot I was hooked on the show. Part 1 was such a big breath of fresh air a generic cartoon would've gotten the main charachters all together within five minutes with no actual relationship building which is what mlp used to be guilty of. However that does'nt happen here each main charachter is given a good chunk of the episode to be properly introduced and show the audience who they are. They all meet Twilight but NOT each other which is also improtant, i was amazed that they were taking their time and by the end of the first part i was geniunely excited to see how it would resolve. This did come at the cost of making Nightmare moon an easy villian but i've always been ok with that. She's like the first boss of a video game, your likely going to curbstomp her but you won't forget her either. 

 

This is not the best two parter this show ever had but it is pretty good and did exactly what it needed too to hook the stubborn people like me into giving the show a shot. That's not to say all my doubts were washed away but I was invested enough to keep watching and thank god for that. This ended up being one of the best cartoons I've seen and really gave me new perspective on storytelling in general. 

[Astralshy 26,653]

Rewatched this episode some days ago.

I think this is a good start to the series and holds a lot of what makes the show great. I think I even liked it more my second time watching this. I especially adored the sound effect when Twi makes involuntarily new friends. I smiled every time xD And yes, this is not best of season 1 and the later seasons even got much better and also yes this was made for much younger audience but I also think this can also be watched and enoyed by older folks.

But one particular thing I noticed through the whole episode was the animation quality. It sure has evolved a lot from start in season 1 to the end of season 9. It’s not bad just not as a good as later season. But this is also due to the technology and as I said it's still very good

Well, there is on little details which looks for me at like a small plot hole. In the scene where Nightmare moon appears in the town hall the CMCs are sitting together in fear. In episode 1x12 “call of the cutie” the show formerly introduces Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo not only to the audience but also the Apple Bloom. So, I think this is a small plot hole? It’s not bad or hampers the episode or the show in any way but something I’ve noticed my second time watching this.

And why the hay is spike so bad at spelling words when he is the one who is doing the writing

 

On 2020-10-11 at 8:11 AM, Denim&Venöm said:

Rewatched the first episode for the 10th anniversary, and I get Twi's frustrations. Not necessarily the dread NMM brings, but just at not being taken seriously. She's dismissed by her mentor and shuffled into a job she doesn't want made difficult by a bunch of strange ponies who are more than a little forward for someone as asocial as Twi to deal with. Though Twi doesn't quite get off complexity either as she's a bit rude and abrasive, especially towards Spike. 

On a side note, it's interesting to hear how different AJ and RD sound compared to later seasons. Even NMM's delivery was more subdued that Luna was in S2. The animation also holds up quite well, though it's also different because of how basic Flash animation was at the time. Yes, lots of still shots and layered backgrounds, but also different types of facial expressions for the characters that we wouldn't really see again. In some ways it was a slight downgrade from the animation we saw in Gen 3's Twinkle Wish Adventure less than a year earlier. 

This was an interesting rewatch in retrospect. Doesn't really hold up because that brilliance the show would be known for hadn't kicked in. This was just an intro for the target demographic. They had higher ambitions in later episodes, but here they just wanted to get the basics done. Taken at face value, a first episode of a children's show, it did okay.

Fun fact: Tabetha St.Germain's first part in the show was actually Granny Smith. 

I also picked up on the different sounding voices especially for AJ. But I think is normal for a VA to find and evolve a character/voice over time. And I agree with you the show getting even better (mes top three fav seasons are 7,5,4).

@Cloud5001Well, I don't hate it I just think it's not the best what show has to offer

 

Edited March 5, 2021 by Astral Soul

[Gorgan 33]

lol saw 9 episodes in a row! great series !

[anjathepegasister 11]

I kinda like those episodes. They‘re very nostalgic when I look back at them now. The plot is amazing and the defeat-scene makes me tear up.

 

[JMTV99 1,353]

Ah yes. The first episode that started it all. Such a classic and it still holds up 10 years later. The pilot episode pretty much set the standard on what Lauren Faust was trying to shake-up the franchise and shared her own childhood experiences with MLP out there to the world and it became a massive success because of it. If only Hasbro give her more creative freedom.

[Reality Check 632]

I think I'll write about my opinion of this episode, since I'm here.

This episode, to me, is a good start to a series of episodes later on down the line, it gives us a quick look into each of the mane 6's personalities, talents, jobs, etc. Not to mention that at the very start, we get a bit of insight on Equestria's history and why the villain known as Nightmare Moon came to be. Though if I have to point out what I don't like about the episode, it's that Spike feels like he's a bit under-used, like there are a bit more opportunities for him to show his personality aside from being Twilight's assistant and have a crush on Rarity. That and the elements of harmony felt like a plot device for the episode, though at least, in a way that doesn't feel like it's there just for the sake of this episode only. Even with all that in mind, I enjoyed this episode as a start to a fantastic series later on down the line.

Edited June 4, 2021 by Dusky Wings

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

hmmm I think it's about time I gave my opinion to the show..... since I've watched it 7 times already....

season 1 episode 1 huh.........tried it when there where like..... 18 episodes just aired?around 2010 or 2011 and my friend who was into guns and blades and chaos was into this weird show.

the opening of princess Celestia and story was truly captivating. but twilight's bit was a bit mehh for me from my first watch..... the magic of friendship didn't woke me up yet at the time.

( and soon enough I would stop watching this show at episode 7 or so and rediscover this 2019 Nov. or December? when the show actually ended.)

my second and fourth run I was more knowledgeable and enjoyed it more.

fifth until seventh, the fandom and burn kinda ruined it a bit for me.... but the burn and fandom influence creeps up greatly in season 8 to 9.

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

episode 2..... hmmm  a ....hmmm......mmmm?

rushed for me but it ain't bad and somewhere near Good for me.( mlp is always good at intro and rushed at the ending.... it ain't an mlp if it ain't felt rushed at the end)

.... that s my new saying now... I'm copyrighting it...

[phantompone1148 126]

This was a good way to start off such an amazing show. We are introduced to the characters we would eventually come to know & love. It’s predictable but still good in my opinion.
 

7.5/10

Edited January 2, 2022 by phantompone1148