Pony Venting Thread

Nothing wrong with liking S1 and tea parties, dresses, etc. It obviously got me into the show and my opinions are completely subjective and limited to myself. But it’s completely unwatchable to me now after the vastly expanded world we got later on and I can’t even sit though a season one episode anymore aside from Sonic Rainboom. That of course is personal preference; anyone is absolutely free to happily enjoy S1 as much as they like, and develop whatever equally subjective opinions they wish.
 
I indeed vastly changed my opinions on seasons in retrospect. Nothing wrong with that.
 
I quite like slice of life episodes, perhaps even more so than the adventure ones, but slice of life with well established adult characters as per S2+. I’d quite rather see the adult mane six, say, try to reconnect with their younger siblings a la later season episodes, or a standard day in the life, instead of acting like they don’t even know each other.
 
All opinions are subjective of course but the art quality no one can deny improved as the animators gained more experience.
 
I woulda liked to see more arcs that didn’t involve saving the world from the monster of the week in all honesty but something with more depth than an annual gala dress party at a castle anyone could visit anytime they wished.
 
Then again, that’s probably asking an unfair lot from a kid’s show that is perfectly acceptable for its corporate target audience no matter what it did.

@Latecomer  
Suit yourself

@EquusStorm  
I can definitely attest to that first part, but I wouldn’t say unwatchable. I remember when me and my friend rewatched the whole series to get ready for Season 9, and let me tell you the experience indeed was very jarring as someone who’s used to the later ones. With that said, I did like a bunch of episodes on second viewing and I found flaws and problems in hindsight so it was definitely an experience.

@EquusStorm  
For me, many of the show’s attempts at worldbuilding were so half-hearted compared to fan ones that I can’t help but wonder if they would have been better off leaving them alone. (I call this the Griffonstone Effect.)
 
My opinions of seasons tend to be pretty fixed - might tie in with my lack of rewatching. (Sonic Rainboom I actually found a relatively weaker episode at the time - Rarity’s performance really seems OOC.)
 
And I think that some plots are naturally suited for different parts of the show - you couldn’t do Forever Filly in Season 1 or even 2, and you couldn’t really do Dragonshy or the first part of Griffon the Brush Off in Season 4+. (Some later plots do feel like they should have come earlier - sometimes it works anyway and other times it doesn’t.)
 
And the art quality certainly improved… but the show looked pretty good from the beginning. (One thing I don’t miss is background clones, though.)

S1 of pone is better than the entire run of most shows so I ain’t complaining that much. I actually hate comparing seasons as a whole since there are plenty of episodes that feel way more suited to another season than the season they’re in. There’s a good bit of individual character development in S1 but going back from now to a season with basically just the main cast, a few now-regulars as one-offs, and few episodes outside of immediate Ponyville still feels a little odd. Reminder that the first season started more than a DECADE ago lmao
 
A lot of the ‘unwatchable’ is due to being burned out; I hit pone soooo hard in 2011 that I watched the first season five or six times waiting on S2 and got so burned out that I still haven’t recovered. Complaints about the overall direction of s1 in retrospect still stand but again, it was good enough for me to watch it enough to be permanently sick of it so that’s an accomplishment lol

@EquusStorm  
You have to start somewhere. And while later seasons grew in some ways, I felt they also lost a great deal.
 
And yeah, I’m thinking burnout might be key here. Wondering if I should try it again - is there some convenient place to stream the episodes?

@Latecomer  
Seasons 1-8 are on Netflix, while Season 9 is on Hulu.

@Penguin Dragneel  
Hmm… might have Netflix somewhere.

I get/watch eps on some random streaming and hosting sites but due to legality concerns I don’t feel it wise to mention where in public.
 
I really feel like there are two extremes and only a few people between, on the opinion of S1 versus latter seasons. I would like to see opinions unclouded by both burnout and nostalgia goggles but unfortunately that’s essentially impossible. The 2011-2012 era was pretty damn magical and I don’t think that feeling can be recreated again, which casts anything beyond that in a bit more of a wistful and pensive shroud.

@EquusStorm  
Well that’s true - and of course, the show raised it’s own expextations.
 
I do find many later season episodes to transcend Season 1 in quality, if it helps. It’s just there’s maybe one or two seasons where even being as good as the average S1 ep isn’t a minority, and a whole lot more sucky eps.

Oh yeah that I definitely agree with, S1 was pretty consistently quality while later seasons swung wildly with absolutely terrible episodes and brilliant episodes to a bipolar degree. Sometimes it’s certainly better to have a whole season of good episodes instead of one where every other episode is awful but with some absolute gems scattered in. My faves 5 and 7 have some real big time clunkers.

@EquusStorm  
7 and the first half of 5 are my other favorites. But there’s not one episode from the beginning of the show to Sisterhooves Social I really find even mediocre, let alone bad. And for judging a season, as opposed to episodes, I find that sort of consistent quality a big plus.
 
(It is possible that Season 1 does benefit from lower expectations… but is it so bad to want the show to improve rather than worsen?)

@Latecomer
 
I know the buffalo episode got some flak and a lot of people didn’t like the song from the talent show episode but I never felt that way about them. Even so that’s still a step up from bad, which later seasons definitely had. Consistency is certainly a benefit

@EquusStorm  
Then what about the later seasons leads you to rate the higher while considering the consistently good first season virtually unwatchable?

Going back to what I said about fans projecting things onto Season One. Revisiting it made me realize that not only was it definitely not this lore-rich high-fantasy epic, but that it didn’t need to be in order to be worthwhile. Where Season One really shines is as a character study, and in how deliberate and purposeful everything is.

@DerpyFast  
It has the seeds of a fantasy epic in there, for those who like them tk griw their own - and many did, unconstrained by the limits of television. By the time the show got around to doing the same within those limits, it was competing against it’s own more specialised offspring.

@Latecomer
 
It’s only unwatchable to me because I burned myself out beyond repair lol
 
I rank s1 near the bottom personally because despite there not being any truly awful episodes, none of them are even in my top 30 or so; even s3 had far more episodes I rank higher personally. Sonic Rainboom and the CMC Chronicles are about all that might crack the top 40.
 
S1 did a good job of introducing the basic aspects of the characters and setting the stage for expansion later, but again, I haven’t been able to watch it since I burned out a decade ago. S2, however, was absolutely phenomenal.

@EquusStorm  
Well, I’m starting to think the problem might be with you and not S1. Never did a top 30 or anything, but I expect it would get a decent share of it.
 
S2 I can’t say I love so much - the first bad episodes came along, and there wasn’t even the greater ambition and complexity of later seasons to offset it. It’s just a bunch more pony episodes of wildly varying quality.

@Latecomer
 
Well to each their own, you’re free to like it and I’m free to never have to watch it again. It may be an unpopular opinion but I’m positive that I am not the only one that ranks s1 near the bottom.
 
I have to say I’ve almost never seen anyone complain about S2, assumed it was pretty much the pinnacle season by most people’s standards.

@EquusStorm  
Huh. Not really sure why it would be… and there was quite a bit of complaining at the time. The first real big fandom blowips were about Derpygate and Cadance, weren’t they? And even mentioning Merriweather Williams…

@Latecomer
 
Mare-Do-Well was not that well received but the Derpy drama was related more to corporate than the episode itself, which was fine. The S2 finale was one of the most universally praised in the series as far as I know, though moreso for the Chrysalis surprise than anything. Pales in comparison to the drama a season later with EQG and Twilicorn tho.

As someone else said, fans projected their own expectations onto the show’s early seasons and later on when it came time to deliver it stumbled and disappointed.

@EquusStorm  
Yeah, that was bigger, but the wedding drama wasn’t small, and I recall a much more mixed reaction - maybe that was just me, though.
 
I guess I just really don’t see what’s so great about it as a season? Lacking both a lot of what made S1 special and not having started to grow beyond it either… it feels like a bit of an awkward limbo in retrospect.

@Latecomer
 
I can’t remember any drama of it moreso than the people complaining they were introducing another alicorn but then again I didn’t interact as much with the fandom back then. Just mostly kept to myself.
 
Without nostalgia goggles and in retrospect I don’t see what’s so special about S1 beyond the feeling of novelty it gave back in the very early days of the fandom. Which, I give more credit to the fandom itself for than the show. I’ve always felt like S2 perfected the formula S1 was trying but failing to achieve before the show started branching out shortly thereafter but guess it could just be me.

@EquusStorm  
Well introducing another alicorn was a pretty big deal back then - especially a pretty wedding princess of no apparent cosmic significance. And Twilight’s out-of-nowhere brother was the icing on the (wedding) cake of controversy.
 
And I feel Season 2 is where Season 1’s sucessful formula started to break down… but that might just be me. Would be nice to hear some other peoplw’s takes…