Friendship is Magic Episode Analysis

It has been my experience that character introduction episodes are always kind of slowly and fans seem to have a problem with them. This is true for the first episode (I'm counting the first two as one episode) of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It does a great job of interviewing the mane characters and aspects of their personalities as well as some important back story. Everything starts with the legend of the pony sisters, Nightmare Moon and the elements of harmony. Flash to Twilight Sparkle, the over eager student of Princess Celestia, the ruler of all Equestria. She has read in a book (as it is implied that she always does) of impending doom and notifies her teacher. Her teacher, however, instead of going "Maybe I should look into that" tells poor overly anxious Twilight to go off and prepare for the big Summer Sun Celebration and make friends (an obviously completely pointless task). Of course poor bookworm is all pissed off cause her teacher, who has been known to listen to her before, COMPLETELY ignores everything she just said and now has to hang out with people while being mocked by her dragon assistant Spike.(EEEWWW! PEOPLE!!)

Once in town, Twilight meets a host of strange ponies, starting with an all pink one (later discovered to be Pinkie Pie) who gasps dramatically at a simple Hello, followed closely by a pushy apple loving farmer and her family (Applejack), a rather obnoxious pegasus who seems to love to gloat while being lazy (Rainbow Dash), another pushy pony who seems to be obsessed with fashion and Canterlot (Rarity), and finally a super shy pony who only perks up at the sight of Twilight's assistant (Fluttershy). Desperate to get back to her library to do more research, she's beyond surprised (tehehehe) to find a party has been thrown for her. Still harping on the impending doom, she skips the surprise party and instead sulks in her room.

Flash to the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration and the great reveal of the princess and... *GASPS* she's vanished and been replaced by that old mare's tale Nightmare Moon! No one could possibly have ever seen this coming!!! (I know, children's show. I just like being sarcastic.)

Pinkie Pie *GASP!*

The Apple Family

Rainblow Dry (Rainbow Dash)

Rarity

A Baby Dragon! (Fluttershy)

NIGHTMARE MOON

Cue the closing credits and the dramatic wait for the next episode.... which I will start recapping now!

Previously on the episode of MLP that we just finished watching (though it was almost two weeks in between broadcasts... wonder why they don't do that anymore... ANYWAY) A LOT of crazy shit happened that I'm not going to talk about again cause I just did. Cut to Twilight frantically running to the library for a book (wow, what a shocker) and Rainbow Dash being highly suspicious. Magical, all the ponies show up and AJ is (as she will be most of the time in the future) the voice of reason. "She ain't no spy, but she sure knows what's going on." Good old AJ and surprisingly it's Pinkie who finds the book needed. (Twilight isn't a very good librarian.) Well, everypony has to go into the Everfree forest in order to get all the elements and stop Nightmare Moon from bringing on an eternal night. (Makes sense since she's the moon pony and all.)

So everypony travels through the forest and shows off what their element of harmony is. AJ saves Twilight from falling and reassures her that by letting go she'll be okay. (Honesty) Flutters is super nice to the mean old Manny Roar, who is just grumpy cause he has a thorn in his paw, and no one has to get beat up. (Kindness) Pinkie breaks into song to get rid of the spooky trees. (Laughter) Rarity chops off her tail for ease Steve Magnet's major mustache freak out. (Generosity) Rainbow Dash tells the Shadow Bolts to f' off and fixes the fallen bridge to help her friends get across. (Loyalty) 

Manny Roar

Giggle at the Ghosties

Steve Magnet

The ShadowBolts

FINALLY they get to the old castle of the pony sisters (which looks WAY different in the season four opener, but we'll go into that later) and the stones that are supposedly the elements are right in front of them. Everypony leaves Twilight to concentrat (totally not a plot device..) and, of course, the bad guy shows up, takes the elements and Twilight while the other ponies stand around going "TWILIGHT!" (Where's Shining Armor and his Twilly when you need him.) Twilight discovers the "spark" to summon the other elements after the girls find her, everyone gets pretty new jewelry, saves Princess Luna and everypony lives happily ever after... right?

Celestia and Luna

Over all, I really like this two part episode, but I've always been the kind of girl who likes history and character introduction. (It's why Fellowship is my favorite LOTR movie.) However, this doesn't exactly paint the girls in a positive light. Rarity, AJ and Rainbow all come off as being pushy, overbearing and downright rude. Pinkie pie is... well Pinkie and Flutters seems like a pony with a split personality. Twilight is quick to accept people as friends that she just met and willingly trusts them not to get her killed even when going into the Everfree forest a place where no pony knows what goes on when just five minutes ago she was all "friends are stupid." It is at this moment that I have to remember that this is a show for children, not everyone always makes the best first impression, first episodes aren't always that good, and there is a MAJOR time constraint. I wish they could have made this a three part episode; so much more character development and back story could have been done.

Now, here are my thoughts on a few things that have been discussed before. First off, as I have said in a previous post, I see Celestia as a Dumbledore like figure. That whole "I knew you could do it line" really put it over the top for me in seeing her in that light. Second off, I think the reason Luna was locked away in the moon instead of cured is because Celestia was not able to completely control the elements of harmony alone. Knowing she wouldn't be able to truly help her sister herself, she makes the toughest choice of her life and locks her sister in the moon until somepony else can save the day. Also, to all the Princess Twilight haters, there is heavy foreshadowing of her being a princess in this episode. I mean, she has a grown and everyone else has a necklace? How is that even fair? See! Foreshadowing. Of course it is always easier to see something like this in hindsight, but whatever. I'll end this with a funny story. When I first watched this two-parter, I remember coming downstairs and telling my sister (who is my Twilight) "The story is kinda meh but it's too damn cute! I have to watch the next one!" So, that's the end of it. I think a solid 7/10 for the series opener. Thanks for reading and don't forget to comment. I like answering questions and all that good stuff. I have NO idea what to do tomorrow yet, so maybe some suggestions. I know you ponys are reading this! I see the hits! LOVE ME!!!!

Sorry... wrong episode...

OH! I almost forgot everypony's favorite walleyed pegasus filly. Though... she really didn't start out that way, but it would be wrong not to include her, so here's Ditzy. Oh animators. The things you do. (I don't like Derpy. Makes her sound stupid and I just think she's a bit clumsy and forgetful. There! I said it!)

Non Walleyed

Walleyed