Pick a Flaw: S1, E1 & 2 - Friendship Is Magic, Parts 1 & 2

[Dark Qiviut 22,433]

Opening Note: Be advised that discussing the main flaw(s) does NOT mean he or she hates the episode. These topics merely direct its discussion in a different light, and there's a high chance of an episode's weaknesses, flaws, or objective quality being critiqued critically and/or severely.

 

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Friendship Is Magic is a widely popular cartoon series with millions of bronies young and old. Part of what made this show popular and good is the high-quality storytelling and execution in the form of innocently minded characterization, worldbuilding, and humor. However, this show isn't perfect. Each episode is flawed, but some are worse than others. Not every episode is good, and sometimes the flaws determine the outcome of its quality.

 

The two-part pilot is one such example. While it introduces the series to the audience, there are many critiques in its presentation and execution. Faust has a brilliant mind, but the two-parter she wrote is often not recommended, not even by Faust herself (admitting her favorite episode was Fullerton's Suited for Success at BronyCon).

 

Over the past several weeks, @@Doctor XFizzle posted several "Pick a Flaw" threads asking people to discuss the ONE flaw or weakness that sticks out to you most. There's a list followed by an "other" option if none of the above are applicable. I followed that with a "PaF" thread for Trade Ya! But instead of confining the threads to just the latest Season 4 episodes, it's time to use Fizzle's concept and go down to memory lane and critique — if not slam — past episodes.

 

And what better than to begin with the two-part pilot. The same standard applies: What was the one weakness or flaw that you saw that bothered you most? Click the option of your choice (if it's not any of the five, choose "Other"), and explain thoroughly below.

 

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Edit: Based off @'s post, I decided to add a new option to the poll: mechanical dialogue.

Edited April 23, 2014 by Dark Qiviut

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,331]

Defiantly the lack of subtly. Seriously, it was so predictable, I predicted the mane six elements the first time watching not to mention the dialogue was kind of corny.

[silvadel 1,393]

It holds up very well even after four full seasons.  Every time I try to pick the first couple of episodes apart I come to the conclusion that if you "improve" on it you end up hurting it.

[Scootalove 10,689]

I felt that the pacing was a bit rushed and the episode was predictable.

[Yellow Diamond 7,569]

I'm going with the dialogue. The formulaic plot is excusable in a pilot, I think, because it needs to introduce so much in a limited amount of time. "Friendship Is Magic" wasn't intended to re-write how children's shows should be pitched; rather, it was an important exercise in world building. In that respect Lauren was at her strongest as a writer.

 

As far as dialogue goes -- Lauren is not nearly as strong in that department. I bet we all cringe just a bit at Twilight's mini-speech to Night Mare Moon about the Elements of Harmony. The dialogue has a lot to do with the feeling of the episode lacking subtlety and finesse. Spike probably has the best lines as the deadpan snarker, but most of the other lines and pieces of dialogue aren't really all that memorable.

[ghostfacekiller39 23,860]

admitting her favorite episode was Fullerton's Suited for Success at BronyCon.

I dare say that Miss Faust has an exquisite taste in MLP episodes. Bravo

 

Faust's favorite episode is a Rarity episode. That makes her a Rarity fan. Rarity confirmed for best pony.

 

 

As for me, there isn't much wrong with this episode. I'm going to go with "other" because, while I thought the dialogue of the mane cast (Well, the only dialogue I can think of off of the top of my head is Rarity's...which, I liked.) was excellent, Nightmare Moon as a villain just irritated me. Her lines felt forced, her evil-ness felt forced...just, everything about her was bland, mechanical, meh. Her only redeeming qualities were her character design and her backstory. Other than that, she was irritatingly robotic and bland with her lines, scheme, everything.

 

Also, just let me add in that I think Luna is best princess Just Nightmare Moon was worst villain.

Edited April 23, 2014 by ghostfacekiller39

[Megas 27,697]

The mane 6's trials, RD's in particular imo needed a better trial all together, because the one she got doesn't feel as significant or meaningful compared to the rest, it just shows that she has common sense

 

Other than that, there's not really much to say, it was just a typical pilot, but it started everything

[DryGuy84 (Inactive) 927]

I hope I don't get flak for this, but I didn't like the first three episodes of the series much at all. For this poll I chose the execution of the trials, though a few choices could make my list. It was mainly AJ's trials that irritates me to no end, because to me that prove that she was honest it only proved she wasn't an asshole. Think about it what would any one of the Mane 6 do in that situation? Let go so the pegasi can catch her? Well yea, she didn't really have any other options if AJ couldn't pull her up, Ugh! It's just so sloppily executed, and as such it's one of my least favorite scenes in the entire series.

[Pastel 7,630]

Wow, hard to remember, but:

I felt that the pacing was a bit rushed and the episode was predictable.

This.

[Rainboom Dash 1,056]

I feel it was very rushed for a two-parter and the characterisations weren't settled in yet. Friendship is Magic was the first story I ever watched so it felt odd compared to the episodes I watched later on.

[Dark Qiviut 22,433]

Since I posted this topic, I might as well.

 

The quality flaw to stick out the most in the two-parter, particularly the second, is the lack of subtlety. Quite simply, the foreshadowing is poor. Right in the beginning, you pretty much knew who were the bearers. Only who held which?

 

That was answered thanks to a zoom out of the animation; as Twilight recited the five known Elements, you saw the characters who were going to hold them, and the timing was no accident. Even the trials didn't hide it so much. By being this predictable, you risk sucking the investment out of the audience. Sure, you got the foundation down for your viewer, but the pilot gives the show a first impression. There's a reason why the pilot isn't often recommended: it's very weak, and one big reason is the the execution of the foreshadowing. At least there was definitely plenty of heart, which the audience spotted…but it could've been SO much better.

[Sir Wulfington 276]

I think it was really really silly that each of Twilight's soon-to-be friends proved their elements by each doing one single element-related act. I only forgave Twilight for coming to the conclusion that each of them represented the elements of harmony because of that spark in her eye right before, as if to imply some sort of mysterious caused her revelation. Because otherwise, I wouldn't buy it, due to the fact that complete strangers doing one thing that relates to an element of harmony is insufficient evidence, on it's own, that they represent said elements.

 

But I believe this was all due to the obviously rushed pacing of the episode, I recall reading that Lauren Faust originally wanted the Nightmare Moon arc to last all of season 1, but hasbro refused. This would've been a much better idea, but it'd have robbed us of all the great slice-of-life episodes that season, unfortunately, so I suppose it was a necessary evil.

Since I posted this topic, I might as well.

 

The quality flaw to stick out the most in the two-parter, particularly the second, is the lack of subtlety. Quite simply, the foreshadowing is poor. Right in the beginning, you pretty much knew who were the bearers. Only who held which?

 

That was answered thanks to a zoom out of the animation; as Twilight recited the five known Elements, you saw the characters who were going to hold them, and the timing was no accident.

 

Ya, that too.....like seriously. I hate when stuff like that happens in fiction, not just because it destroys any twist it could create but also since I'm left waiting for the characters to finally get it, which is annoying. Personally, I'm shocked that the show developed a fandom from the pilot, I'm guessing people had their expectations really, REALLY low and these first two episodes looked really good by comparison to what they expected.

Edited April 23, 2014 by Sir Wulfington

[mars 4,862]

Everything. I actually didn't like the first two episodes, and nearly stopped watching the show because of them.

 

It was the obvious foreshadowing, the mane six's trials, dialogue, and pacing.

[Sir Wulfington 276]

Everything. I actually didn't like the first two episodes, and nearly stopped watching the show because of them.

 

It was the obvious foreshadowing, the mane six's trials, dialogue, and pacing.

 

 

I heard such bad things about them that I didn't even watch them for a while, I started watching the series with Party of One, which immediately made me fall in the love with the show (and Pinkie). I don't remember how long it took me to finally sit down and give them a chance.

 

As far as dialogue goes -- Lauren is not nearly as strong in that department. I bet we all cringe just a bit at Twilight's mini-speech to Night Mare Moon about the Elements of Harmony.

 

Ya, I don't know why I find that to be cringe-inducing. Something about yelling out which elements they each represent in with a straight face put me off. I guess it's for the same reason I hate when characters yell out the name of each spell they're about to use (which, fortunately in FIM doesn't happen), because it just seems unnecessary and sounds ridiculous as a result, I suppose.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Sir Wulfington

[PoisonClaw 8,164]

I'm actually really hard pressed to find anything wrong with these two episodes. Maybe that's because they were the episodes that started this whole thing and thus hold some significance, but even looking back on them nearly ninety episodes later they still hold up.

 

Most of my complaints for episodes are null and void here; I can't talk about characterization because there was no characterization yet. Yeah, I could see why the pacing could feel a little off for many but they had to introduce a cavalcade of characters and world concepts in order to fully set the scene and I didn't find the dialogue that bad either, at least as far as most children shows are concerned. It wasn't Shakespeare, but it was still decent enough to still be memorable.

 

If I really had to come up with something, it would be Nightmare Moon was ultimately a let-down as a villain. All the build-up in the beginning as this embodiment of evil and she ended up feeling more like a minor plot point than a legitimate threat (which may have been the point now that I think about it, but that's besides the fact.)

Edited April 24, 2014 by PoisonClaw

[OptimisticNeighsayer 478]

Although I consider these episodes passable today, it's only because 1) pilots can be given some leeway since the show is just getting its feet wet, and 2) there was some good humor and memorable lines throughout.

Otherwise, I almost didn't believe the hype about the show when I first watched the episodes.  The pacing was slow, the music was corny, and all the characters except Twilight were a bit annoying.  (Actually, it wasn't until January of this year that I saw the second part of this two-parter.)

 

The second part is definitely the weakest of the two.  Not only do you have Twilight's new friends helping her out for no apparent reason, it equated honesty with trustworthiness (separate deals, really), and had a very, very corny dialogue for Twilight's speech and Celestia's explanation.  But the real killer?  Celestia's whereabouts were never explained at all.  She just appeared out of the blue after Twilight and her friend's defeat of NMM, apparently as if nothing happened to her, giving the impression that this really all was just a set up to force Twilight into studying the magic of friendship, greatly diminishing the impact we are supposed to garner from that scene.  All of this makes the first two episodes, especially the second part, seem very contrived in plot and lacking in coherence and inspiration.

Edited April 30, 2014 by OptimisticNeighsayer

[FlutterDash4072 189]

The dialogue was terrible and overly childish. For instance, the word "friend" was heavily abused. And like others have said, the foreshadowing was pretty bad too. Instead of letting you guess, it all but states what's going to happen. Faust seems like more of a big picture type than an episode writer, but I haven't seen anything she's written for other than MLP.

 

Honestly, the pilot is so bad that if I hadn't been told to watch about four episodes before deciding whether the show was good or bad, I wouldn't have joined the ride.

Edited May 1, 2014 by FlutterDash4072

[shocker1991 32]

The dialogue is pretty cliched and forced when I look at the pilot now. I think nightmare moon had the worst since most of her lines make me think of some of those cartoon villains from the 80s/early 90s.

[LZRD WZRD 1,929]

Other: Nightmare Moon was incompetent. Those trials were the best she could do to stop the mane six? Kinda lame, although I understand why they did it like that. Eh, it's the first episode I watched and it was good enough to make me spend 30 some hours of my life watching the entire series so I can't complain too much

 

Also I can't help but laugh when Celestia walks up to Luna and dramatically says: "Will you accept my friendship?"

Edited May 20, 2014 by LZRD WZRD

[Pinkiesister75 92]

Personally, I had no problem with it, except for where the heck Celestia went. When Nightmare Moon took over, where was Celestia? I'd imagine she was imprisoned (to be instantly freed when N.M. was defeated) somewhere but that's never touched upon. As for the pacing, I didn't mind because it's two half-hour cartoons. Actually, I thought much of it was pretty darn good, the big scenes with Nightmare Moon were pretty cool in an epically Disneyesque way, animation-wise but I agree she was a bit rushed and didn't do enough villanry. True, it was kinda quick but overall, no probs. I just had a problem with where Celestia was imprisoned, now that's a big detail not looked at.

 

That said, it's what started it all and I'd say it was pretty good for a start.

Edited July 6, 2014 by Pinkiesister75