EquusStorm 
Flop it to the princess
After all the large-world and big picture adventures from what I assume are adults, rewatching season one gets you... an overarching plot the whole season about looking forward to dresses and a party in Canterlot. Ok sure that's fine for a kid's show but that's a really lame thing to build up a whole season for.
My suspension of disbelief is strained, for one thing, in that Rarity owns her own business but for some reason has never been to Canterlot which is like a quick easily affordable train ride away if she really wants to go
But yeah a lot of S1 episodes show the main cast in a weird light that seems incredibly jarring against the later seasons. To be fair the (excellent) Rarity/RD reconciliation episode in s8 has kind of the same spirit, and it can certainly be justified by them only beginning to learn to be friends, but it's definitely clear S1 was intended to entertain children rather than build the world for future seasons more than a basic amount. That's perfectly fine, and it obviously got me into the show, but it's held in very high reverence by people who probably haven't rewatched it recently and imo doesn't hold up in objective quality compared to s2+ despite being very good quality compared to the average kids show of its time
My suspension of disbelief is strained, for one thing, in that Rarity owns her own business but for some reason has never been to Canterlot which is like a quick easily affordable train ride away if she really wants to go
But yeah a lot of S1 episodes show the main cast in a weird light that seems incredibly jarring against the later seasons. To be fair the (excellent) Rarity/RD reconciliation episode in s8 has kind of the same spirit, and it can certainly be justified by them only beginning to learn to be friends, but it's definitely clear S1 was intended to entertain children rather than build the world for future seasons more than a basic amount. That's perfectly fine, and it obviously got me into the show, but it's held in very high reverence by people who probably haven't rewatched it recently and imo doesn't hold up in objective quality compared to s2+ despite being very good quality compared to the average kids show of its time