I went looking on Only Comfy for signs of meme-twiley, but the overlap of "twilight" && "earthpony" in the realm of scenery, came up almost exclusively with Appilight.

In thinking about suggesting, since the board is so slow and there's no civil war going on that we rev this back up, that *I* always felt season one was the weakest. At least the first half or so because the voice actresses had absolutely no chemistry, and the doubled up voices weren't well delineated yet.

Lesson Zero was amazing though. I guess I just like ponies being creepy. Cue 3rd image.

I am providing the necessary tools for synchronizing this and perhaps, a sticker should be set as a starter pack for getting the complete experience (almost all the links have been taken from /mlp/´s fan site general):

>Overview:
https://altboorus.org

>Streaming site (in case that one wants to become the host for watching the episodes together)
https://cytu.be/

>Video sites (for MLP episodes and more stuff)
https://pony.tube/

>Downloads (episodes, comics, DVDs,books,past generations…):
https://yayponies.no

>General purpose boorus (for downloading images)
https://rainbooru.org
https://ponybooru.org
https://ponerpics.org
https://twibooru.org
https://booru.bronyhub.com

>Specialized boorus:
booru.foalcon.com
lyrabooru.org
bronibooru.com
onlycomfy.art


>Greentext sites
https://ponepaste.org
https://bin.bronyhub.com
https://poneb.in

>File sharing
https://smutty.horse/

For this thread, you only need two sites: pony.tube and cytu.be (or even the brony streaming sites). However, I would use aid of boorus for finding images of any particular episode much quicker (or basically anything in general)

I would add archive.is to this list considering that there isn´t any archive on Endchan but that´s not MLP related (even though for a meta perspective, it´s the essential tool for saving a copy of these threads). Maybe this list should be discussed as well and we´ll have to see how one should organize this.

As for now, I am simply providing a provisional list for everything that might be required carrying out a more synchronized project among users.

We could try to arrange with a certain drinking channel/site, but there are always (still) quite a bit more than three there. And there would be drinking.

Magic duel is upward of forty calls to drink, IIRC. As an example.

But with a few days planning they could be talked into an agreed-upon ep. Especially if it was mid-week at four-PM EST or something awkward like that.

This thread is now starting for real. Somewhat closer to 5050‘s initial (anons watching along separately together and discussion afterward) proposal, albeit, slower and I am only going to start and try to get through Season 1 and see how it goes from there. Progress will be slow, like, maybe one episode review two weeks, every month. Considering how anemic the board is at times, this might be a comfortable pace for anyone interested, at least when starting out and testing the waters. Maybe every week if things are really going good. I have toyed with this for awhile, but life has always gotten in the way.

Hence why I am being very conservative with it and setting a realistic goal of Season 1 because if life does get in the way, I think I can still trudge through and finish that. I do hope to go on longer (Season 3) and if things go well and I end up being able to maintain it (or this thread suddenly for some reason exploded and had some other anons take the lead) it. Otherwise I assume that it’ll be my responsibility to set the tempo for this.

Any anon is welcome to join in and review or talk about it in whatever style they please. You don’t have to follow my lead on that and the quality and experimentation will probably be in flux on my end as well. If nopony does, that is alright too. Or if we get a poster or two sometimes. I think overall I will enjoy it as a exercise and a trip down memory lane.

>>8890
My favorite scene was always in this episode is Pinkie Pie’s party for Twilight at the Golden Oaks Library. The place is just so comfy and I find Twilight alone in the bed looking up at the looming threat haunting.

But upon watching this again for my review here: my new favorite scene is the one back in Twilight Sparkle’s tower at Canterlot Castle. I still love Golden Oaks as a whole, but this place also feels comfy yet spacious and I really found myself lost in the background more than I expected. I liked little details like the hour glass being animated and Twilight’s and Spike’s antics as she dictated the letter.

Speaking of the hour glass, Duh duh duh, Nightmare Moon! That is another thing that elevates this scene. A nice ominous little Easter Egg. I imagine most here would know of it by now but I didn’t know about this for years and I still have seen people who have been newly introduced to this recently. Feels like it should be included in a fic somehow (and probably has).
Note: the gif is of relatively low quality. For some reason ffmpeg wouldn’t let me generate a custom color palette. I could’ve sliced off a video but I felt a gif was better here. Alas, short on time, so this big gif is what everyone gets.

Another bit of interesting trivia: they had originally decided for the CMC not to be in this shot here and would’ve put a couple of placeholder fillies. Now, I had always heard this was Sun Umbridge (a Sweetie Bell lookalike from Season 1) and Archer (A Scootaloo lookalike but a earth pony, also Season 1) but when I revisited the topic I did not find full confirmation of this...

Rainbow Dash’s introduction in this episode. Her initial interaction with Twilight feels... I don’t know. Very organic as a person bumping into another person with slight awkwardness. Almost feels uncharacteristically reversed and normal despite her brashness still shining through here. I say this in praise as I think this vocal delivery feels very believable in IRL person sense. Maybe I am overthinking it.

‘’‘The stars will aid in her escape.''’ I still wonder about this. Most discussion focuses on the idea of Twilight Sparkle’s cutie mark or the Mane 6 being the stars but on screen the stars themselves move to free her (or so it appears) and I wonder how you could fit the stars as some sort of entity or power unto themselves. Even in a very conservative view of canon I do feel it is a question worth asking of what that was. Link to a fic that tried play with the concept of stars that I wrote once (and with somewhat poor formatting at points I admit): >>5108

>>8891
This episode I think is where the series starts to show some of the ways it stands out.

I'm going to do something a bit different here. I want to go through each of the Mane 6‘s manifestations of their elements:

Honesty
Applejack, arguably the weakest and weirdest. Her line, ‘’Now listen here. What I'm sayin' to you is the honest truth. Let go, and you'll be safe.'’ feels... odd. Why couldn’t she just say that Twilight Sparkle would be caught by Fluttershy? Feels more fitting for her to have been the Element of trust, faith, or as I have heard Faust wanted, integrity. Even then, this test felt like they could’ve built something a little better here. She would’ve had no reason to lie here. It doesn’t really show her character other than prove her general competency and being a dependable friend and ally.

Kindness
Fluttershy’s moment was much stronger. The ponies were all ready to fight. Though she was shy and timid to a fault Fluttershy asserted herself to stop the fighting and help the Manticore with a nightmare thorn in his paw. Overcame her stereotype some.

Laughter
Pinkie Pie’s too was a strong character moment. I always liked her song here but her actively helping organically and defeating the “nightmarified” trees with laughter I feel is underappreciated. Why I mean by that is...

Generosity
Rarity, as vain and looks obsessed and she could be (and certainly played up later in the show) was willing to cut off her tail to restore the sea monster (whom we’d later know as Steven Magnet). This moment might be a bit weird and oddly specific in a similar way to Applejack’s but I think it works better because Rarity defied her archetype and did so selflessly.

Loyalty
Rainbow Dash’s I can see being laughed at a bit too. You’re in a emergency and you don’t find these strange shadowy ponies in the Everfree Forest, the spooky place supposedly nopony goes into, and you don’t imminently see this as a red flag!? Though I still think it holds for the stories purposes. Rainbow Dash’s archetype would call for her to have a easily flattered ego (which she does) and the temptation is there, but she still easily resists and sticks to helping her friends. I do admit that it would be insane otherwise but still I think this fits for the theme they were trying to go for.

With the exception of Applejack, what do these moments have in common? That each of the mane 5 defied, to varying degrees, their archetypes and in so doing, ‘’became characters.'’ (Applejack still proved herself in action of course, not to be too hard on her, but the writing here was weaker).

‘’‘Magic'''
And Twilight Sparkle realizes that in a sense. Each of these ponies proves themselves and showed her the magic of friendship. In this she casts aside her eschewing of friendship and chooses to embrace it. Therefore growing herself.

This is where the archetypes became characters. Friendship is Magic, Part 1 gave us archetypes , but Friendship is Magic Part 2 is what gave us characters and the first sense of something deserving of more respect than anyone would’ve expected going on. This introduction was a worthy start to the show, even if it still shows some weakness here or there. My thoughts on rewatching is for this review that the level of writing on display here is relatively complex and did a lot, mostly correct, with very little time.

7.5/10 is my rating. Not the greatest but underappreciated at what it did do. The range is more above average to outright good tier this time.

[This is the 4th time I've posted this post due to errors in bold formatting, if this fails I just give up and continue forward.]

>>8895
Rarity’s scene I think might be the strongest when it comes to defying her archetype as I think she had the most “negative” stereotype with baggage to overcome. Heck, I remember her being still pretty disliked by a lot back in the earlier days even though she had her defenders because of being perceived as a selfish, [aspiring] spoiled rich girl and what have you. It is not that her or the other mane 6 don’t have charismatics and negative traits of there archetypes, but they (to varying degrees) can move past and aren’t totally defined by them is the point.

I want to highlight some of the animation ad effects here. I think even in Season 1 there is still some things of interest. Like the camera lens focus affect with Rainbow Dash looking at Twilight Sparkle . Twilight Sparkle’s small moment coming out of a teleport in her fight with Nightmare Moon really impressed me and I made a crappy video highlighting it. Excuse the black bar in some of this. I was using a very old copy of Friendship is Magic Part 1 and 2 that I found in a USB I had. It had some weird issues with a black bar ‘’sometimes'' appearing, along with other stuff. (It is also not HD). Still, point is, I think even in this very early part of the show the animation was still showing that extra effort. From little moments like that to just how more alive the backgrounds felt (which of course helped spawn our background ponies!). It still was more rougher and some different things were being tried at times (like the mostly coffined to Season 1 sidemouth expression).

One thing that I do find honestly haunting about this episode is how many stories were and are being told using it or playing around with its concepts. Especially around the scene with Nightmare Moon’s fight with Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the Mane 6. Think about it, how many times we have seen this be broken down and sometimes picked apart in fics and artwork. Over analyzed to death from poorly made Youtube theories to various arguments on forums and imageboards over the years. Or even just messing with and splicing that fight itself with a PMV set to a different song a choice of either Twilight’s destroying Nightmare Moon or sacrificing herself to save Luna. The people who made this did not know how important this would be and it is weird to think about how many other stories and such spring from this one episode and especially that fight. It ‘’might'’ be the most retold and analyzed part of Friendship is Magic though I might be getting ahead of myself there as I can think of other episodes that still might eclipse it; Season 2‘s intro and outro two parters for sure might.

I tried isolating the music from the to be continued recap at the bargaining. Me having no idea what I am doing and a couple audacity plugins probably don’t produce the best results. I haven't paid attention to the background music much but for some reason it has stuck out to me more on this rewatch.

>>8891
>but when I revisited the topic I did not find full confirmation of this...
...and I spent waaaaaaay too long looking for some of this information manually when I could’ve gone to the FiM wikia and just found this.

The Friendship is Magic Wikia actually had a pdf backup of the form post where one of the layout artist does talk about that error. (the form does appear to be online but good on them for having backups). I don't always like the wikia much but will go ahead and link and highlight this PDF. Fully quoting here:
> actually posed out that scene... so I guess it's my fault. I didn't know they hadn't met yet when I worked on it.

>Story time. When I get a scene, it comes with the storyboard, audio and the character/bg files needed. On this particular scene, the storyboard clearly had the CMC drawn there, but the characters sent to me weren't them. I assumed I was just sent the wrong characters and matched the storyboard. I didn't realize until later that I was sent different characters because of the events of the 'Call of the Cutie' episode later in the season. Either way, the scene was approved and ended up playing out as fun foreshadowing for our adventurous trio.

>To sum up, at first it was the CMC, then it was changed to not being them, then I changed it back.... /derp

Considering the presence of Sweetie Belle briefly in Call of the Cutie in Sun Umbridge place, while not (that I've seen) directly confirmed, I'd say it is almost certainly these two fillies here.

Link to PDF:
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/f/f6/Nayuki_layout_artist_CMC_mistake.pdf/revision/latest?cb=20111108124609
(also posted)
Note: haven’t checked if this form thread is intact but I assume so.

>>8890
>I went into this far from blind but having not watched it through in at least... what four years?
Ah, covering similar ground! I deliberately didn't read these posts until after watching just so my rewatch was completely fresh.
>One thing I will note is that we get to see all the Mane Six and a basic idea of their ‘’archetypes'’ but not there ‘’personalities'’
Something I noticed was that the opening here serves more of a purpose than it does for future episodes - by seeing that Twilight eventually befriends these six and sends letters to Celestia from Ponyville, the audience naturally infers that the foreshadowed threat of Nightmare Moon will be overcome with the help of these new friends, which I think helps to get people rooting for them to get along. It's a bit of a 'wink-wink' that somewhat gives a clue to Twilight's later revelation in part 2 about the element of magic/friendship, which I think is more satisfying if one's anticipating it.
>Speaking of that, that cliff hanger! Nightmare Moon’s introduction was pretty dramatic and had a air of her threatening and villainous nature even if it wasn’t a standout for the show’s later standards or the standards of younger kids TV before things got really dumbed down.
My memory is that Faust grew up with gen 1, right? I saw some of that when I was a very young kid with some female cousins, and I do remember the monsters being both pretty scary and captivating. I feel like that may have been a big inspiration for Faust's approach, since my recollection is that gen 2 and 3 had very little in the way of big threats or fantasy worldbuilding. The approach syncretises the goals in my view - gen 1 presents a dangerous threat so you root for the ponies, gen 2 and 3 focus on lessons, so gen 4's innovation is to make the solution to the dangerous threat into the lesson. And thus you get the core thesis statement of the show: much as Middle Earth is a world where morality has a real, tangible existence, in Equestria the values of friendship translate both literally and figuratively into magic. We also have here the beginning of redeeming the villains, which didn't always work fantastically as the show would go on but for the introduction to the show is another fantastic innovation. From what I recall of gen 1, minor villainous henchmen would sometimes be redeemed but never the main bad(s), so again this is an innovation for the franchise which drives the message home even further. As an episode I agree it's not the greatest, but in terms of being an introduction and a thesis statement for the message and values of the show, it's tremendously well put together and cleverly thought out.
I'm sure people have said all of that before, but it's what came to mind while watching it.

>>9763
That's my more review-y perspective, I'll get more wishy-washy from here on. So something I find quite compelling is the comparison of Twilight and Nightmare Moon - I don't think it's deliberately present in the episode (if it is I'm impressed), but I was thinking about how loneliness essentially drove Luna to become Nightmare Moon. The ancient castle of the sisters is in the Everfree forest, which makes me think that a thousand years ago, Ponyville was the site of the original capital of Equestria - which implies to me that the Everfree is essentially the remnant of how Nightmare Moon destroyed the old capital. She uses elements of the Everfree to hinder the mane six, so that makes sense to me, and so the night and the Everfree go hand in hand for me as her vision of the world under her rule. Since Nightmare tries to use the Everfree to drive the friends apart, I think of both it and the night as extensions or manifestations of her loneliness. The fact that ponies mostly slept at night made Luna lonely to begin with kind of establishes that already. So Twilight's lack of friends in some ways parallels the environment that created Nightmare Moon I think, except Twilight hasn't realised it yet, given she's merely disinterested in friendship and not beyond the point of being able to make friends yet. Since she's in the middle between accepting or denying friendship, I was kind of thinking that it's not only that if Twilight fails the world will fall into darkness, but also that there will be individual consequences for her, that if she doesn't learn the lesson then she might end up like Nightmare Moon eventually as well. Again I'm near certain this was not an intended idea, but I like thinking that the stakes are personal as well as world-affecting. Plus it makes for a perfect thematic jumping-off point, where Twilight was at this crossroads in her life at the beginning of the show, and in this first two-parter chooses her path, and then the rest of the show follows that to the end. We already know what the other path would look like because we're shown via Nightmare Moon.
Other paths were something I was thinking about a lot watching this. What if the prophecy really hadn't come true, for instance? What if the Sun Celebration simply went ahead as planned? What would happen to Twilight? It also made me think: there's been 1000 years since Nightmare Moon last kicked about, and then in the relatively short number of years that the rest of the show takes place in, quite a few ancient threats resurface. I wonder if Nightmare Moon's return influenced that? Anyway, it makes me think that somehow, if the celebration had gone ahead as planned, if Nightmare didn't show up, then it would lead into this weird alternate timeline where we didn't get Discord, or Tirek, or any of those major threats resurfacing.

>>9819
>I'm really sorry for forgetting this, but what do you go by again? I remember L23's name but whenever I think "I should check back on end/pone/ again" I can't remember yours.
>buuuut it's all related to a wordfiltered pony so I didn't want to risk breaking rules or alienating others by using those images
Is it with pick related? Nah, she is not contraband in the slightest In fact, Dolores Umbridge is actually the traditional board mascot (alongside Princess Candace) and the source of what I am most often called around here, bridge/bridgefag. A previous board owner had made that world filter in a negative sense but we ended up having a lot of fun with it and kept it. I took the bridge in Umbridge literately and memed the heck out of that, hence my name and the weird bridge motif that sometimes pops up around here.

Also, no sorry needed, names can be confusing already enough IRL and in place like this without visiting very regularly I can see anyone forgetting.

>I happened to know one, a friend of my father. He just wholeheartedly converted to the new Brony culture essentially, but it gave my father the confusion that the term Brony predated G4, since he'd known that his friend was into ponies wayyy before G4.
Interesting.I mean, statically there would be some fans who were male of those older generations but I don't here about it too often. Also brings to mind this one comment I saw on some website 10(?) years ago that claimed that bronies predated G4 and that the current gen fans hijacked the term.

> I rewatched a bunch of G1 recently, it's weird that Twilight and Spike actually debuted together right at the very beginning of MLP in general, not just G4.
Though I have seem some argue that Twilight shouldn't be counted as the same as Twilight Sparkle, their is a shared enough basis there that... yeah, it is weird to think about. And not in a hilarious Rainbow Dash being the Rarity of G3 kind of way.

>so at this stage I've got three possibilities.
I actually think I disagree with all of them, but, that is also from future context. More on this later...

I always found it a little odd that Ticket Master was the second episode of the series – the first if you exclude the pilot. The conflict relies on the friendship between the characters being established, and it seems to me that it would be a little more concretely established if a different episode was between the pilot and this episode. It also provides foreshadowing to a future event, which also feels odd to set up immediately at the start of the show – though perhaps at this stage in the show, they weren’t actually intending to show the Gala and it was meant to be implied that it happened offscreen? Unsure. Perhaps though, they did want to test the Mane 6’s friendship early on so it could get stronger. Interpersonal conflicts are the heart of the early series, as is appropriate for a show about teaching friendship, so I guess a ‘make it or break it’ moment early on makes sense. It also occurs to me that the catalyst for the whole conflict is technically Spike saying he doesn’t want to go, since clearly the second ticket was intended for him, and had he hung onto it then Twilight’s friends would just have been mentioning that they would ideally want to go too and so Twilight would probably just write to the Princess about it to begin with and avoid the whole mess. In effect it’s really a big misunderstanding, although it is one which serves to illustrate the exclusivity of the Gala, and how generous Celestia is (I’m not sure where she got those other tickets. Did she take them from the invitations of others she was going to write? Was she planning for Twilight to go through a Friendship lesson and had them put aside? I think most likely she just clone-spelled a bunch of tickets, either way it’s a neat little show of her social power, since we’ve already seen some of her magical power). I don’t have as much to say about this episode in general compared to the pilot – I could watch these characters do absolutely ANYTHING and find it entertaining (which is often my measure of good characters, at least in my estimation. Just as I could happily watch Kenneth More’s Father Brown take a trip to Tesco, I could be entertained for hours seeing the ponies check out furniture at IKEA or something) BUT my eye is more tuned for details like worldbuilding, or at least it is in terms I find easy to express. There’s only so many ways I can say that I loved ponies doing pony, but theorising about fantasy worlds is easy. While I still forgive the later seasons a lot, I think it’s quite a bad mark against it that I so much prefer the earlier seasons in spite of the buffet of worldbuilding we get in those later seasons. But anyways – I moreso just noted innocuous details in this episode that I found interesting.
Rainbow Dash peeking through the clouds is probably the most screenshotted scene from this episode, but something I forgot about it in the actual scene is that Dash is framed with the sun behind her head like a halo as she professes innocence. That’s quite blatant for a children’s show, even though the religious imagery is just being used for a lighthearted gag. It just took me a little by surprise.
Spike’s outfit put me in mind of a young Charles II. There might be a more obvious historical or fashion allegory I’m missing, but it made me think of Rarity’s accent and whether the equivalent of England in this world would be wherever the ponies came from before settling in Equestria. Where was that, anyways?
And I don’t have a screenshot of it, but I found it neat that the tickets levitate for even the non-unicorn ponies. I don’t recall any other objects doing the same, but I’d hope such things would become more common in Equestria in future, it would make tasks like writing potentially much easier for non-unicorns.
I have some more bits and bobs saved, but it’s all about the library, so I’ll save it for later.

>>9808
>some attempts I do recall of merging and mixing elements but it was infrequent from my recollections.
I feel like that is essentially what the show is. Now, personally I disliked the Lego Movie (I was a Clutch Powers kid and resented the success the dumb non-canon film had over the REAL Lego experience) but the approach of focusing on the world created with the toys was interesting, and I think that's essentially the jumping off point here, with Faust inspired by the much more interesting childhood games she'd invent with her G1 toys than what the actual show offered. I plucked one of picrel from the wiki, not only was the original plan to basically just literally resurrect G1 Twilight, but if you look closely she's basically just a tone-inverted or darker coloured version of G1. G1 ponies in general tend to go for light manes, darker coats, shetland style. Humans tend to have darker hair than their skin, so I think G4 taking the opposite approach helps to humanise the ponies more. Certainly there's an 'off' quality about the G1 ponies, particularly their colour scheme.
>>9834
Ahh I see. I remembered the Bridge pun but not that it was your name.
>Is it with pick related?
No, the *other* bridge. The one that turns into a Monster High student. I'm not sure whether Egg Quest reeeee girls are allowed here or not!
>Though I have seem some argue that Twilight shouldn't be counted as the same as Twilight Sparkle
Well, it's true that most G1 named ponies are totally unrelated, coming off of that pre-approved Hasbro name list, but given that Faust originally designed Twilight with Twilight's G1 cutie mark and colour scheme... I just don't buy it personally. She is different, but she's basically Faust's childhood toy come to life at the beginning of the show so it's not really fair to say she's separate from G1 Twilight since Faust's toy was a G1 pony.

A bit "late" but here is mine.

This episode is one that I have sometimes seen be called a bit boring or weak, but I overall liked it. The conflict was entertaining and certainly relatable enough to FiM's child demographic (of which we all were). Twilight Sparkle might be a "goody horseshoes" as Rainbow Dash put it, but her interactions and attempts to escape her friends were funny. This episode I don't have too much to say on the main conflict and I feel I have more to say on the various little details I noticed that I didn't remember (like the chase sequence, didn't recall seeing that). I think simpler episodes like this can give a very comfy and cozy vibe that really sticks with me sometimes.

Overall, my rating for this episode is a 6/10. Might not be my personal favorite but I liked it well enough.

Odds and Ends
Of anything that stood out to me, the most was little touches of detail that surprised me. Even with the consideration of them reusing assets, it seems like a lot of work to make the first three, uh, how would you say, imagination sequences that the mane 5 had. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie's standout for animation and random asset usage. Rarity is the only one that feels like they "cut corners" being a slide slow of still images that may not have been fully rigged flash assets. I suppose if they had fully planed from the get go to have the gala as a story arch such planning ahead make sense (I mean, all the core conflicts of the Best Night Ever were introduced here), but it still stuck out in what I would think be a "low budget" secondary episode.

Speaking of effort, bees! I don't think I ever noticed them being animated in this episode. Another one of those little touches that makes the world feel more alive.

Worldbuilding, interesting to think that with earlier episodes like this tiny thrown away lines had more impact (like Twilight Sparkle's sandwich preferences) than in later episodes. Something I will note at this time in the fandom a lot of folks strongly insisted on the world being pretty medieval/only limited magical tech but I think Granny Smith needing hip replacement surgery do suggest more things that were close/trying to be something approaching our modern world in some capacity even if we couldn't infer the existence of modern electricity and things like thatched roofing certainly suggest some "low tech" features. (I naturally prefer things to be somewhat high fantasy, my stance on pony tech I'll go more deeply in later).

My first thoughts watching this episode were that this would make a better first episode than Ticket Master. Applejack is the first of the Ponyville ponies that we’re properly introduced to in the pilot, and it would make sense to have an episode about her come first too. But also, given that we have a conflict affecting just one character rather than all of them at once, it gives breathing room to fit in other character building too. Twilight’s stack of cue cards and Pinkie’s reaction to the stampede are both great little moments that say quite a lot about who they are, and I just feel like there wasn’t as much room for that in Ticket Master. And naturally the episode establishes a lot about Applejack’s character – though I will say it’s maybe easier to see the issue as being more balanced if you watch Ticket Master first, as if you see how hard Applejack has to work to keep the family farm going… Well, I’d certainly say it makes a strong argument for Applejack needing the money from the Gala stall. The cows being intelligent was an interesting detail that many people have noted before – since we know the ponies use milk, my interpretation is that the cows are allowed to pasture near Ponyville in return for donating their milk. It does raise a question though that I’ve considered before – is Ponyville an agricultural village, or a small town? The only farm I recall being in Ponyville is Sweet Apple Acres, but by that same token I’m not sure what else their economy would be based off of, being a mainly Earth pony community. Perhaps it’s a situation where it began as a farming village and is in the process of growing into a small town, attracting Pegasi residents and most recently Unicorns, and with new shops like the bakery and Rarity’s boutique opening. I live in a town a bit like this irl, but the thing is that our economy is not insubstantially boosted by tourism (and in fact recently with tourism dropping, something like half the shops in town have closed, and most of the office buildings too) but Ponyville doesn’t seem like it’s much of a tourist stop – at least not at this point in the show.
I also have questions about this “Prized Pony of Ponyville Award” – is it a regular award given out annually? The implication seems to be that the award ceremony was planned in response to Applejack saving Ponyville, and not just coincidentally coinciding. So I guess it’s something like a Mayoral medal of honour? It also makes me wonder if any other ponies have received the award. Surely all 6 of the Mane 6 have received it? And frankly Dolores Umbridge and her wife Trixie Umbridge would be highly eligible too, after saving Equestria from the Changelings.
Another interesting detail I noted is after all the ponies who ate Applejack and Pinkie Pie’s botched cupcakes get sick, Nurse Redheart mentions that she asked for Twilight and that they need all the help they can get. Does that mean that Unicorns are regularly asked to help with medical emergencies, owing to their special skills, or is it Twilight that’s uniquely qualified in medical spells, OR is it just that she’s essentially a Civil Servant, such that notifying her is like notifying the government? The last one fits with her role giving a speech at the award ceremony earlier – certainly whatever Twilight’s role is in Ponyville, she’s more important than just the average pony.
The last detail I noted is that both this episode and Ticket Master end with a “gross little brother” type gag with Spike – in Ticket Master it’s Applejack thinking that Spike’s pretending to feel sick at the display of emotions, and in this it’s his proud declaration that he dug the cupcakes out of the trash and all the Mane 6 going “ewww”.
Overall, very solid episode, good clear lesson. I'm not great with ratings but this is where the show is starting to feel like it's getting into the swing of things.

Oh yeah - and why do all Applejack's barrels/buckets have a hole in them?

Alright, would've been here sooner but have been a bit sick.

What can I say about this episode? I enjoyed it much more than last week's. It got me to chuckle more than once and I actually outright laughed twice. Applejack's flinging Rainbow Dash into the horizon and her baking the cupcakes with Pinkie Pie. The hardest I laughed so far (however early this might be in) this rewatch of Season 1. I think this episode struck the right balance between having the point of view primarily being Applejack with just enough Twilight Sparkle as a side plot of her reacting to the aftermaths of their antics and trying to intervene. The lesson is also solid. Take it from somebody who has this mentality. I.. I actually can't believe I have never thought of this before. I am Applejack when it comes to work sometimes (and their is something of a country connection, my late grandfather was also like this) and yeah... sometimes would bite off way more than I could chew from a sense of duty.


Solid 7.1/10 from me.

Odds and Ends
There is a lot I could point out here but I am going to make it brief. One thing that stood out to me was how many times that I saw many faces from this episode in screencaps and covers. I guess a lot of Season 1 and Season 2 were like this and this one was no different.

What about all those relatives that I met when I first came to Ponyville, can't they help? Twilight Sparkle said this here and it got me wondering, how long has Twilight been in Ponyville at this point (some potential context in Season 2 I won't get to yet). I think more likely than not it wouldn't be more than two or three months but the way this line was said feels like she has been here longer than a few weeks.

...speaking of time, one week we have confirmed passing in this episode alone. This is one of those things that probably should have not much thought put into it (one episode set in winter, another not) but I still like too.

Cows, we don't have much of an idea of Cows' relationship to ponies yet. From here:
>Sentient
>Seemingly somewhat free roaming

Mules! Our first siting! I know, just the but of a joke, but I could run with questions:
>Mules, hybrid between donkey and a horse, (maybe pony?)
>Who was that particular mule on Applejack's property? Farm hand?

>>10046
>As for the point on Ponyville's pony populace. It was something in later portrayed as somewhat unique but we have seen a few other places. Maybe proximity to Canterlot means it gets a little bit of business and passersby and some decide to settle down even if it isn't an active tourist destination?
Ok, so - I've been looking into background ponies on the wiki as I've heard that was a big part of the early fandom was watching the background ponies. I was curious about the three on the way to give gifts to Moondancer, who have the first dialogue with Twilight in the show back in episode 1. I'd always assumed they were Canterlot ponies, friends of Twilight and Moondancer back in the city that Twilight left behind when she went to Ponyville. However, as it turns out, the trio of Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine and Minuette all go on to become background ponies in Ponyville!
I was puzzled by this and trying to figure out a reason why this would be outside of the fact that there were limited resources for background characters - I wanted to think of an in-universe reason. This bit you said here gave me the 'lightbulb', at least for a direction of a possible headcanon. In the UK, around London there's various suburban towns and villages that are populated in large part by people who work in the city, and who will ride an hour or more on the train to commute to London just so they can live in a semi-countryside pleasant environment. I wonder if that's what happening here - if these three work in Canterlot and get the train there, but live in Ponyville. Since Ponyville is very near to Canterlot and has a train station...
And since they know both Twilight and Moondancer, and given that all three are unicorns, perhaps it's some sort of academic position or perhaps government job involving magical studies. Who knows! But I like the idea of it.

The Gilda episode! I watched this one twice, this is where the show really starts picking up in quality for me. A few things stand out to me in the first part – first of all, what are those scrolls Spike’s getting? It seems like he’s getting them out of what I assume is the town hall. Maybe it’s mail for Twilight? And also, when the first scroll that Spike accidentally sends to Celestia appears in her chamber, she seems surprised. The only reason I can think of for why Celestia would be surprised by this would be that Twilight only sends her letters on certain days. I looked up a few airdates for the episodes, they seemed to mostly be on various different weekendish slots – Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday, but I don’t know if there’s one in particular the episodes usually aired on. But it ties back in to that theory I had with the timeframe between episodes in Applebuck Season. At least so far in the show, my running theory is that it’s within a given week and the letter-writing portion at the end of an episode falls on a Saturday in-universe. I’m sure this will get disproven later but I like to think of it as being the case ‘for now’. It would mean Twilight’s been in Ponyville for 5-6 weeks, which feels right – she’s got a fair amount of background characterisation in this episode, where she’s reading books throughout. She reads one on the bench, she’s reading one whilst Pinkie talks to her, a theme which comes up next episode too. In addition, I’m interested that Twilight tries to give what SOUNDS like good advice but actually in the course of the episode turns out to be mistaken, showing she’s kind of trying to demonstrate almost to herself that she has learned a fair bit about friendship already but she hasn’t actually learned all that much yet, and in the next episode she has another misunderstanding about friendship in a similar vein. It makes it clear in both episodes that she’s taking her studies seriously, but hasn’t quite found her footing yet. Another thing I’m wondering about is what she was studying this episode – in the next one she tells us, but here it’s not clear. After reading through some books clearly to the exclusion of her concentration on other things – in both instances someone is talking to her and she’s only half paying attention as she reads – followed by this chemical experiment she’s doing. Is it somehow related to her friendship studies? Who knows, I’m probably going to keep pondering it though.

The other thing which stands out to me is the careful emphasis on SAFE pranking. When Spike’s hiccuping, Pinkie Pie is cautious to ask if he’s alright before laughing at the situation, which is frankly such superb characterisation that it actually makes me feel a little depressed at how the later seasons treat her, I think I’m beginning to see some of the pain the Pinkiefags were going through – steadfastly ensuring that she never laughs AT someone but always laughs with them is both a genuinely empathetic trait and a subtle one too, something which I think quickly got forgotten from her character. And of course there’s the relatively famous part where Pinkie doesn’t want to prank Fluttershy as she’s too sensitive, and Rainbow Dash veeery reluctantly agrees. Aside from characterisation, it’s also a good lesson to communicate, especially since it’s not even the main message of the episode. It is hard to distinguish between jokes which are harmless and jokes which are hurtful sometimes, especially for kids where so often it straddles the line between friendly joviality and bullying, pretty nicely demonstrated there with Rainbow Dash filling in for the potential bully role, even if it makes her seem strangely mean.

And I haven’t even gotten onto the lesbian bird yet!

>>10206
It’s been commented on to death, but there’s just no way for an adult to watch this episode and see Dash and Gilda’s friendship as platonic, I reckon – at the very least it’s an angle I can’t imagine the creators being unaware of, even if it was accidental or unintended in some way.

Anyways. I like that Pinkie Pie actually tries to take Twilight’s advice to heart as she watches Gilda in the market, attempting to judge her favourably. Taking advice is another thing that I feel like Pinkie increasingly does less and less and time goes on. Granny Smith's reaction to Gilda's tail was odd - does it ever come up that Granny has bad eyesight? Or do some snakes in Equestria really look like that? It has a weird parallel in the next episode too. I was also fascinated by the line “She’s also a thief! ...No no no, maybe she’ll give it back later.” and uh – Pinkie, she ate it! She ate the apple whole, even the core! Reminds me of that bit from the Boondocks about borrowing a french fry – you gonna give it back? Also it occurs to me that Gilda’s confrontation with Fluttershy was kind of set up earlier in the episode where Pinkie says that Fluttershy’s too sensitive for pranking. And it’s also the part where Gilda exposes herself as a New Yorker.

The party is a little weird – Rainbow Dash says she set up all the pranks, but clearly the electric buzzer Pinkie uses is something Pinkie was aware of. Dash also says not all the pranks were specifically for her, which seems potentially true, but some are definitely intended for her. The presents, for example – presumably those are all for Gilda, so naturally that prank was intended for her. The candles are an obvious one too. I find it hard to believe that someone so detail-oriented when it comes to parties as Pinkie could be unaware of the pranks Rainbow set up, so I find it tricky to believe that she was as unawares as she claimed to be at the end of the episode. If I were cynical I’d even say she might have suggested the idea to Dash, but who knows, Pinkie’s mind works in mysterious ways.

I was also intrigued by the fact that at the end of the episode, Celestia begins writing out a reply to Twilight. Does she reply to all Twilight’s letters? In effect that would make it a correspondence. It’s also something left out when the journal gets published way later in the show, it occurs to me. The religious significance of the Princess in Equestrian society is overblown in the fandom, but it is based on existing themes within the show, and it makes me wonder if under Twilight’s reign as Princess, the journal and her correspondence with Celestia all get compiled together into a kind of Princess-endorsed philosophy on friendship, which, after all, we eventually find out is not just friendship as we understand it, but a kind of model of social harmony that makes Equestria both successful and free from creatures like the Windigoes. It’s the kind of book I could see future Equestrian colts and fillies having to learn in school. It’s interesting to think about, but for now I’m watching mostly without thinking about the fact that Twilight’s going to become an Alicorn, except for these posts. It is an interesting idea – basically you get to see over the course of the entire show what kind of life experiences go into making a Celestia-type figure (they say later on that Cadance’s daughter is the first naturally born Alicorn, so part of me assumes that far back in the distant past, Celestia began as someone very much like Twilight, and had a similar path to her ascension, probably with Starswirl as her mentor).

This is the first episode that I think I have a substantial criticism to so far in this rewatch, even if I did enjoy it.

The set up is strong enough, and while it took them awhile to introduce Gilda I don't think that was them meandering like I have felt sometimes in later episodes (or maybe I am just biased). Really did enjoy them setting up Rainbow Dash's and Pinkie's friendship here and it felt like a good character building moment. Gilda too, she is a alright character, I liked her slightly more than I recalled. I found her line:
Now make like a bee and buzz off!
Child appropriately cruel and mean spirited in a good way.

To my slight surprise, I take issue with this episode's moral. Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Gilda all work as characters but the moral lesson feels a little lacking. How do I put this? Either Pinkie Pie should've been wrong about Gilda being a mean (or have partly misjudged her) OR the point of view should've been on Rainbow Dash and have Rainbow Dash herself casting off Pinkie Pie because Pinkie Pie is "uncool." That second idea feels like a episode that would apply widely to kids and would be a great lesson. I am not sure how bad I would describe this lesson. Perhaps Gilda is unfairly antagonized. What drove her over the edge wasn't Rainbow's friends so much as all those pranks and feeling targeted, even with her previous behavior (even if it was supposedly random, and some of it was). It is good to show a tough cool person not being a push over to peer pressure when it comes to dealing with a jerk and I think you could still work with that, but it feels like it needs some smoothing over. Not that I think was/is going to be a major bad influence on kids or anything.

I am split on how I feel and this split feeling carries over to my rating. Honestly, I still enjoyed this episode, and I am not the type of person to really care that much on a bad lesson or two like how I recall some would back in the day. 6.5/10 is my rating for the episode, at least provisionally. Lesson wise, this episode is a 5/10.


Odds and ends:
Stupid things that I notice and pay attention to. Twilight Sparkle used her muzzle to turn the page of a book in the opening shot with Pinkie Pie but later in Golden Oaks, uses magic.

Ponies having limited interactions with outside of Equestria races shows up here. From Rarity's "oh there quite rare". To Pinkie's remarks on having never met a Griffon. Wonder if this is more of a Ponyville or Equestria in general thing (and a context that probably changed as the seasons progressed).

I love Celestia being a second hand victim to Rainbow and Pinkie's Spike prank. Felt like a smart way to include her.

First off, I like how ‘Boast Busters’ is a double pun. It seems a fairly obvious pun but I can’t imagine it was all that easy to come up with, unless the title came first and the episode was built around it. Or maybe the showrunners were just better writers than me. I’m intrigued by the fact that Spike refers to Twilight’s moustache spell as ‘growing magic’, and that it’s one of ‘25 tricks’. I assume he refers to them as tricks because Trixie’s magics are also ‘tricks’ later in the episode, but it seems kinda weird to refer to them as that all the same, and I don’t think there’s much reference to spells as ‘tricks’ later in the show. I also ponder whether by ‘growing magic’, Spike really does mean magic that makes anything grow. Growth is a potential future state of a given object, so presumably that means that Spike already had the potential to grow a moustache of his own accord in the future. Does future Spike shave? See I’d assumed this the other way around – when I saw ponies with moustaches, mainly upper class types from Canterlot, I assumed they had theirs done via magic. Then again we have people like Starswirl and such… But dragon facial hair we’ve seen even less of, if any that’s naturally-occurring. Anyway, just a little nitpick.
Spike later follows this up by saying that most unicorns only have a small repertoire of magic that matches their particular talent, so that lends support again to the idea that this really was an example of Twilight mastering growth magic in general, as a category.
Trixie’s fireworks caught my attention. I was wondering how she sets them off, and assumed she used magic, which made me think – maybe her big hat is to hide when she’s using her magic? I suppose that could help make the act more interesting in a world where people know how magic works already – kind of like how you look for where the switch is in a sleight-of-hand, ponies might look for where Trixie might be using her magic in a given trick, even though in both cases the audience already knows in advance the general idea of what kind of trick will be done and the rough outline of how.
Then there’s AJ and Trixie’s competition – I don’t really understand what was going on with Trixie’s half. AJ’s watching the rope move about, and it’s not like she’s not used to seeing things moved around with magic, so why is she so distracted by it? Is Trixie using magic with like, an attention-grabbing property to it? Though sometimes it seems like the magic ‘glow’ is more for our benefit as an audience, and I’ve toyed with the interpretation that the visual glow is shorthand for the ponies being able to ‘sense’ the presence of magic – I guess this either confirms that the glow is in-universe as well, or AJ was distracted by a wiggling rope for some reason.
When Twilight runs from the show with the excuse ‘I think I hear my laundry calling’, it made me think – in this world, laundry would be done by hand, right? Well, by hoof. Unless she means it was hanging up to dry. Or maybe, being Twilight, she used a spell to get it to do itself.
Also intriguing was that Snails had trouble using his horn to light up the cave, whilst Snips didn’t even try at all. I took away two things from this: first, I guess light is more necessary for finding snails than snipping things, so Snails probably has this ability whilst Snips can’t use lighting magic at all, and secondly, given that Snails is so slow, I wonder if magical ability is tied to intellect. Now, that’s a fairly obvious seeming conclusion, after all Twilight spends so much time reading and learning spells, but I mean that if it’s so hard for Snails to even use his magic at all, perhaps raw ability is tied to raw intellect too. It seems fairly obvious for unintelligent characters to be less good at magic, but it hadn’t occurred to me to concretely tie the two together.
Anyway I like this episode probably the best so far, first we get to see Twilight do something really cool, and she starts to really properly find her place fitting in with Ponyville.

I think this is a lesson here is underappreciated. Yes, this episode had a bit of a uniquer take for the time (compared to at least what I recall) that was more positive and affirming of talent, but they also did this while providing a character who is an example of a braggart and show off in a negative sense (beyond the point of being a mere charming sometimes flaw like with Rainbow Dash) I think is very clever and gives a balance that maybe is lacking in our current era of online hype culture. Two lessons in one? I disagree with the issues some had with Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity challenging Trixie. Trixie directly invited them to it and acted pretty antagonistic. This isn’t Griffon the Brush Off where the logic feels a bit weird (even if I don’t take it to where some do) and there is no way that this would be a negative influence on kids. I am not a “it’s just a kids show, don’t think about it” kind of guy but I am the kind of person that thinks that shows of this nature do deserve a higher suspension disbelief and we shouldn’t judge the character’s actions in a fully adult rationalist perspective which would go against many moral examples (and the whole setting of this being magical ponies!).

Speaking of an adult rationalist perspective…
‘’Please don’t hate me…’’
Twilight Sparkle quietly pleaded this after she removed the Ursa Minor from the town. Rationally, as a adult, this monster was threatening the town and actual lives, at least to some extent. Of course her friends wouldn’t hate her for this and it is almost absurd for her to think otherwise. Especially after what happened with Applejack and the town with the stampede just recently. Now, this is a area where I think the lesson reigns supreme and deserves to, but it does feel a tiny bit weird for her character as presented on screen. I think what Lauren Faust said on this ancient QaA on her Deiavrtart is worthwhile before criticizing it though:
https://www.deviantart.com/fyre-flye/journal/FAQ-276161988
>The ponies' ages were left intentionally undefined. I like to think of them as having maturity levels anywhere between 12 and 18, (but remember that maturity is different than age. You can be a 10-year-old with the maturity of a 15-year-old, and you can be a 35-year-old with the maturity of a 15-year-old.) For story telling purposes, ‘’’they needed to be able to live independent of parents, but innocent enough for the type of lessons they learn at the end of the episodes.’’’ Since horses are full grown around 5-ish, I guess I sort of justified it in my head that they could be childlike young adults. I know this answer is frustrating for some people, but it happens often in cartoons. How old is Bugs Bunny? Mickey Mouse? Sponge Bob? I don't know either.
Still, I like to think of this from an in-universe perspective as well. Perhaps it shows how little social experience she does have?

This episode is 8/10. Solid/Great!!!!! This is my favorite episode of this season so far.

I love Fluttershy’s whole setup for the animals with the birdhouses and burrows everywhere. Particularly I like the pier she’s made for the ferrets, where their tunnel opens out onto it from under the bridge. Making comfy places for animals to inhabit is something I loved to do for my cat growing up and seeing this all makes me feel like I understand her a little bit. I also love how the cold open does both an establishment of theme with beginning on Fluttershy and her fear of the black smoke, but also a switcheroo where you think it’s going to be about Fluttershy taking care of critters only for the dragonsmoke-from-the-mountain reveal. I also love the cut from that dramatic reveal straight to the theme song, possibly the most hype I’ve felt for the theme song out of the episodes so far as it feels a bit like “hell yes, they’re gonna go and face a dragon” affirmation. Also it struck me both from Angel’s actions in the cold open and seeing him in the opening that as much as he’s a controversial comic relief character, he’s also just a very odd creature. Reading the show more literally (I think a totally literal interpretation might be impossible given some episodes), my reaction is something like “maybe Angel’s a reincarnation of a pony, or a pony’s brains stuck in a bunny, or something?” which again I’m sure is a fan theory somewhere. Another curious detail is Twilight saying “smoke is covering all of Equestria” – naturally at this stage Equestria as shown has just been Canterlot and Ponyville, with the Appleloosas having their colony out in the west, so it makes more sense and even feels a bit gen1-ish, where a lot of the conflicts in that show between the various magical creatures were over small fields, forests and otherwise small plots of land. Now that I think is the real reason, but we could probably say something like this is a district called “central Equestria” or something and so it’s called Equestria for short. You could replace Twilight’s mentions of Equestria with the word “Ponyville” and it’d probably still make coherent sense as an episode, maybe somewhat confusing to some viewers as Celestia can clearly see the smoke perfectly well but as we discussed previously, Ponyville seems very nearby to Canterlot. And that sort of conflation could probably satisfactorily explain Twilight’s use of the term with regard to the later show.
However, I have an additional pet theory. It’s one which it’s just occurred to me as a result of this exact conundrum now to apply it, and honestly I’m only going to half-entertain it as a sort of “possibility”. I may have to return to the episode review in a second post as this is going to derail my post completely!
So, this pet theory of mine is carried over from another show I watch, Doctor Who. In particular I love the old black-and-white episodes, they have an inexplicably comfy-yet-uneasy quality to me. But there’s a lot of contradictions with the later show as it goes into colour broadcasting and then later is rebooted in the 2000s, and these are very much considered just par for the course for a show about such chaotic time travel. However, I had this idea one day reading about the original pitch for the show wherein the Doctor and his granddaughter are fleeing from these particular aliens, who have never shown up at all in the show and the reasons for their flight are still unrevealed to this day within canon – and it made me think of Stein’s Gate, and how in that show they drift across timelines such that eventually they end up in alternate universes and realities. It made me wonder “what if they were fleeing something so threatening, they had to escape via time distortion of constant time-and-space travel that they ended up in a different sort of universe altogether?” or to put it another way, the canon of the show with regard to the past AND future changed as it went along. This would mean that things said early on in the show that are later contradicted are still canon, just as the contradiction is canon. It basically fixes the fundamental paradox of the show.

>>10499
In MLP there isn’t so much time travel shenanigans going on, but there’s interesting elements, like the magic of harmony, the presence of discord, the alternate universes Twilight and Glimmy fight in, and the gradual return of both ancient threats and ancient heroes later on into the show. I’m not sure how specifically it could be applied or even if it really fits, but part of me likes to imagine just from that line Twilight mentioned in passing that at this point in the show, the canon really is that Ponyville and Canterlot alone are more or less the entirety of Equestria, along with other things like currently Celestia’s wiser and more powerful than in later seasons and is still effectively a goddess. I wonder if other fans have something akin to this, maybe headcanon/au setting type of things where it’s canon, but canon as it existed in this or that season as the fans at the time understood it. I don't remember the season 3 finale all too well, but I vaguely remember it being quite reality-bending which would fit in perfectly with this theory.
Anyway that’s the pet theory.
Once the gang get on their way up the mountain, I love the incidental adventurous violion-and-glockenspiel music that accompanies their journey. Feels very suited to a small, pony-scale adventure like this. The background music often gets overshadowed by the proper songs in this show but the background music here and the music in the pilot both stand out to me as quite enjoyable, at least to my ears. As far as the climax goes, I think it’s another example of mixed messaging with the lesson. I suppose the lesson in light of the climax is that you shouldn’t underestimate shy people like Fluttershy, but the lesson up till now to me would seem to be don’t force people to take part and then be cross at them for not participating effectively enough.
>>10459
done!

...while half asleep from muscle relaxers edition.

Alright, this maybe more rambly than normal but that is the /endpone/ way so here we go. This was a cute adventure and I also really liked this, comparable to Boat Busters.

All the way through I enjoyed this one, from the set up, to the little obstacles that they faced. Little things like Pinkie's song and the brief joke of Pinkie and Rarity playing Tic Tac Toe. Lots of little details in this episode I think make this show's world really feel alive. You see this whole little journey. I think that is my favorite aspect of this; a low stakes and comfy adventure. If there is anything where I find the newer seasons lacking a bit it is in that category, but bleh, not gonna go too much into detail with that.

Never lose faith in your friends
Alright enough of a lesson, albeit within the episode Twilight didn't lose faith in Fluttershy so much as Fluttershy overcame her own fear to protect her friends if I was going to take a way a lesson from that.

Overall rating, 8.5/10. Liked this one a lot and is a contender for a top fave this season.

Permanent name change, I don't know? I just felt like calling it that today over "Odds and Ends."

One thing I do remember from the episode is this little shot of Rainbow Dash rolling. It is one of the things that feels short of primitive and cheap in the animation, they are just rotating the model. This is not a complaint but a observation. It doesn't bug me in the slightest but as the show dragged on this is one of the things that feels a little janky.

...and a lot of the animation is a little janky at points, but I think where this show stood out even then was that it had, especially for a show of its budget and target demo, girls/TV Y, a lot of stuff going on. Like, look at this little clip that I labeled "Camera Effects" or whatever I called it It is Did they have to have two separate animation rigs for the front and side profile? They also make a effort, constantly, to have the effect of a camera moving around. Animating details in the background like the smoke here or the bees back in Ticket Master (>>9869). Yes, with flash you can reuses stuff again afterwords so a lot of these little assets stack up but it still seems to me that even here an extra effort was being made compared to a lot of other shows

...speaking of that, Perspective shots, camera effects. The show would sacrifice artistic perfection (lines on characters or objects looking unnaturally big, some art looking weird) for this, and later got better at hiding those little imperfections. Like the storm clouds, I think such efforts were worth it and the imperfections that do show up from that give it a bit of charm to me. I feel like this is something I need to better show from another episode then this one one.

Slumber party! I only ever had one and it wasn’t a great success, but I love the idea of slumber parties, and from my memory going into the episode, I thought I’d be in for a comfy time. The opening did not disappoint as I love cold, grey days, and the lampposts dotted around this sort of parkland-area of Ponyville had a nice contrasting glow against the clouds, reminding me of the sort of grey sunsets that happen here where the sun is not visible but it’s still just lighting up the sky, and the lampposts come on. Moments like that are so irresistably comfy to me that I’ll often dash out for a walk, even if it’s well past my bedtime.

The episode sets up the slightly petty conflict in a way that I found somewhat believable, which passed my notice at first, but I was thinking to myself that I feel like I’ve seen this sort of argument done before all over the place, but annoying and blown out of proportion. Compared to other shows, this toed the line quite nicely, and though I obviously think Applejack’s being more rational, I’m not annoyed or perplexed by Rarity’s perspective either. The trading of insults was very schoolyardish, and we’ve discussed previously the slightly childlike behaviour of the ponies, at least compared to humans, and how perhaps it stems more from innocence than from being less intelligent or adapted, and this here is a great example. The two take issue with eachother and butt heads angrily, but unlike irl where two adults in this situation would probably quickly resort to swearing and personally insulting one another, Applejack and Rarity don’t even seem to think of going to genuinely hurtful insults. They’re cross enough that I believe they would, I don’t see much restraint here, I think it’s moreso that it simply does not occur to them to do so, the kind of mindset I would expect from members of a polite society where scathing insults are rare, unlike our species where scathing insults are even part of everyday ordinary conversation. Not to say the pony way is better as such, you’d certainly have to watch your mouth quite consciously as a human visitor, but it contributes to the comfy atmosphere for sure, especially in this example.

Seemingly the library faces out onto this park sort of area – in my mind I envision the street leading to the library going around the edge of the park. We usually see the library from a front-angle, so I could see the park being hidden from view a lot of the time. I was a bit annoyed seeing Applejack fumble with the hose at first, as I’ve always subscribed to the “suction cup hoof” theory, but then it occurred to me that it may be that she’s trying to keep mud off of the hose. All the same, there are moments where the show canon either works with the theory or works against it, and I think the latter is more common, so it does make sense that people continuously joke about Earth-ponies comically having to make do with their mouths, even if every time I see it I want to shout “SUCTION CUPS! SUCTION CUUUUUUUPS!”.

On a similar note – the mud masks. This is where I’m thinking, right, does mud rejuvenate even furred/fuzzy faces? Like, through the hairs, or even of the hairs themselves? Do the ponies even have fur on their face? Moustaches seem to suggest otherwise, as well as pony appearances generally, though tufts of fur appear in the film and on some character designs. Perhaps it’s regional hair growth? So the moustache and tail on one of our fancy Canterlot ponies would simply be where hair grows naturally on an otherwise hairless body, for example, and for later ponies with fur around the chest and legs, those are simply other areas where hair can grow but doesn’t always do so. Would hair blend in that well with the skin tone though? It stands out more on humans thanks to hair being a different colour I guess. Maybe it’s like a plush surface, or something like skin but not quite the same as it? I’m not really sure of the solution here, but I did like the marshmallow pony theory back in the day.

Rarity refusing to shake Applejack’s hoof when she spits on it made me chuckle. As the episode moved on, I thought to myself, would I do the same? I’ve never had someone spit into their hand before offering it for a shake – apart from the disgust, my secondary concern would be correct protocol. I’m quite aware of where I stand with an ordinary handshake, but with the spit involved, am I supposed to spit into my hand too, or simply take their hand with their spittle? It doesn’t seem an equal exchange with just one person’s spit, but on the other hand I hardly wish to impose my spit upon someone when I myself don’t wish their spit imposed upon me. And I’ve no idea whether the shake is done with the same force or length in it’s “spit-n-shake” format. Perhaps the rules are identical, but with such a strange and alien custom, I don’t feel safe to assume.

Anyways, that moment of surprising relatability in Rarity for me leads straight into a comfy outdoors shot of the storm, then the hair rollers, which sets off a feeling of sympathy for Applejack rather than for Rarity. It’s becoming a sort of see-saw episode. Whilst the overall atmosphere is still comfy, the idea of mud masks and hair rollers being fun rather than tortuous just doesn’t compute for me. It’s surprisingly rare that gender cultural divides crop up in MLP for me really, considering this scene – I don’t get the appeal of what they’re doing in this moment, and yet it stands out. Whereas in a show such as, say, Totally Spies, the “girly” activities are much more prominent and so they don’t stand out so much to me. In that show, I take it as a given that I would not want to live anywhere near where it takes place owing to factors like that, among other things. So once again I appreciate what seems like the relative uniqueness of MLP, a comfy fantasy slice-of-life in spite of, and not because of, it’s demographic (maybe worded a little harshly, but you get what I mean, I hope!).

As we get into the ghost stories, I’m realising that this dynamic is working perfectly for me. I love seeing Applejack and Rarity compete, it’s delightful to see them try to get one up on eachother for some reason, and this is balanced nicely with Twilight being blissfully unaware and just very adorably enjoying the slumber party. Moments like her getting way more into telling the ghost stories than the other two and her enthusiasm to break out one of her childhood books are particularly cute, and I think work well in making me both want to see Applejack and Rarity’s competition escalate whilst also not wanting them to burst Twilight’s bubble, which is also what Rarity and Applejack are wanting in the episode. The lantern being filled with fireflies is an interesting touch – though I have to wonder how it’s turned off, exactly. Obviously the fireflies sleep at some point – if they sleep during the day then that’s probably good enough, could always put a blanket over it or something if need be I suppose. I was thinking about how they eat, but perhaps with creatures as small as bugs, an enchantment could keep them sustained and also extend their lifespan a little so the lantern doesn’t conk out within just three days or something. Assuming, of course, that they are actually fireflies! Perhaps these are cousins of the magical Parasprites, Glowsprites if you will. Since ponies effectively engineer nature itself here in Equestria, it makes sense to me that domestication could lead to results that are almost like planned evolution.

I love the way the resolution is executed. First Twilight’s bubble is popped with the argument over the bedsheets, and it seems like that’s the worst it’ll get, then we’re hit with the tree branch disaster. Whilst ideally it wouldn’t take adversity to bring people together, given that stories thrive on conflict it works perfectly here I’d say, and Applejack gives an excellent example of a genuine and sincere apology, which I think is useful since they’re very hard things to do irl and often I find myself not knowing what to say where a genuine apology is needed.

Spike’s suggestion that the town might be empty because of zombies seemingly came back in later seasons, as I’m sure it’s been pointed out elsewhere. So, with some episodes, the lesson sneaks up on you, but before the theme song even plays here I’m sure every viewer has pretty much guessed what the lesson will be, that fearing people who are different is bad – the interesting thing to me is the mixture of what exactly this difference is. On the one hand, Zecora is a witchlike figure, as well as the kind of creepy odd recluse that children tell rumours and tall stories about – and on the other, she’s a Zebra, with rather obvious connotations given the accent and the witchdoctor stuff. But I feel like the message is a little mixed up with this in mind. See, if you’re going to do a… Well I hate to even say it, but a “racism bad” episode, then you need the ponies to actually be scared of the Zebra specifically for being a Zebra. But they’re not, not really – if a pony was acting like Zecora, they’d be scared of that pony too. After all, when Gilda came to town a few episodes ago, the ponies didn’t all run away and hide. It’s essentially that this is a provincial, superstitious rural area and the population therefore has a somewhat innate fear of “witches”, which I mean in the sense that even people even today will regard certain creepy old people as being “witches”, not that Ponyville has a distinct idea of what a witch is per se. Honestly, I would prefer if Zecora had been a Pony and not a Zebra, as not only would it make the message clearer, at least in my view, but it would also, at least I hope, keep the show somewhat more pony-centric. I dislike open and transparent analogy to the real world in general, really, particularly in my comfy Pony fantasy world where it’s chief atrractive element is it’s separation from the real world.

When Pinkie Pie sings her song, and Twilight says “Wow, catchy” – I genuinely wasn’t able to discern if Twilight was being sarcastic, or genuine. It’s clearly not especially catchy… At least to me. I don’t know, but it puzzled me a little.

The blue plants, I wonder if Zecora is immune to their effect, or if the cloak protects her, or if she’s simply very careful not to let them touch her. I also assume that they must have misheard Zecora as her warning is really quite clear, though perhaps one might think she summoned the blue plants or something.

Twilight comments that there’s “no such thing as curses”, another interesting little tidbit about the magic. I think I discussed with the gala tickets in a previous episode whether magic is something that can produce permanent effects, or if it’s always temporary, and notably here curses are typically expected to be quite long in duration, if not infinite in duration. However, since I concluded from said tickets that these lasting enchantments are possible, I think it most likely has to be some other aspect of curses that makes them impossible. A lot of the offensive magic we see in the show seems like alternative uses of otherwise peaceful magic, so perhaps the form of a spell can’t be intentionally harmful, with energy beams perhaps being something separate. Plus it could be another case of this season’s canon. In addition, we get a little clue about spells when Twilight describes curses as requiring incantations, suggesting the wording of a spell does not mean it needs to be chanted or spoken aloud.

When Spike comes up with nicknames for each of the afflictions, I wondered whether they came up with the afflictions first and simply were able to think of nicknames that fit, or whether they planned the afflictions around the nicknames. And Rarity’s long hair and fur here lends more credence to the ponies having fur.

I also like more of the innocent Pony culture on display at the end when the group go back to town with Zecora. Everyone runs and hides, but Daisy still answers the door when Twilight knocks on it. She’s too polite to not to answer even when she thinks she’s in danger!

The first thing that stuck out about this episode too me was how this episode feels very much like... how do I say? Young kids show. Now, MLP is a young kids show, but certain aspects of this feel more on the nose and toddler than what the average baseline that was established later. Applejack questioning Twilight Sparkle on trees not being safe before she tells them of Golden Oaks' magical lightning rod really putting that feeling home for me, (among other things, like Twilight Sparkle for sure). I don't think this is bad though. Just Season 1 for ya. Honestly, I can find it a bit charming in a way.

Sheltering inside during a storm in an unexpected slumber party made for a comfy setting. Applejack's and Rarity's bickering I found humorous enough. Twilight Sparkle acting like a little girl who never had a slumber party is childish, but fitting for a character who was extremely anti-social. They had Twilight Sparkle distracted trying to have the perfect by the book slumber party and that being the excuse for her not noticing her friends tension; this is a fine enough excuse on its own, but, I think having her realizing there was tension to the point of calling them out only to retreat back into distracted book mode when the tree had befallen her house felt a bit like her holding the idiot ball. Of course, they had to do this so it could be Rarity and Applejack who saved the day themselves. This is at most, a nitpick though. It doesn't bug me and I could see a possible defense being made of Twilight Sparkle's sometimes neurotic personality retreating back to the book as a means of trying to find order amidst an unfamiliar situation.

I don't have much to say on the lesson this time around. I thought it was fine (maybe kind of clever). Brain is still scrambled some by medication.

As for right now, my rating is 7/10. Another winner.

Now back to being called Odds and Ends for the moment.

Overthinking magic:
1) Rarity trying to pretty up and fix the tree. Applehjack still pulls it down and based on her dialog when the other tree gets struck by lightning. It seems to imply there is limits to Rarity's magic reattaching the tree branch.

I would like to say that Rarity's transformation of the tree into several small statutes/decorative shrub whatevers. The mass of those clearly is not the same as the tree that was. I'd like to say that a lot of that mass was used to fuel the spell itself but Twilight conjuring a door just two Episodes ago, if even Rarity's own previous use of this ability this episode probably dispute this.

Spike's on "royal business." I know it was just an excuse to not have him there but this line I have always remembered. What sort of business was he on? Considering how they have usually acted with Spike being a child (relatively responsible to be entrusted with some duties) I wonder what he would be up too and traveling alone, if even to a safe trip to Canterlot for.

Animation, not too much stuck out this time, lol. That is a given with a episode inside a house. Oh wait, one thing that I didn't screencap!

When Twilight Sparkle is telling her ghost story, the lamp disappears when it zooms out from Twilight's head!
(Or considering how fast Twilight got that sheet on in a lightning flash may mean Twilight did something with it if I want to come up with an inunverse explanation.)

The lamp is using lightning bugs and I know that Faust wanted to avoid too many references to an advanced industrialized society so I wonder how much lightning bugs would have been a necessity versus a novelty in this situation? It also seems like Golden Oaks has light switches/some sort of powered light source that can turn on and off given the sound effect of a light switch.