Season One Revisit Thread

Discuss the show and the fandom during the Season One era.

So I just got done watching Friendship is Magic part 1. It’s time for some early instalment weirdness.
 
Maybe it’s because I watched it a million times during the Synchtube era, but it wasn’t quite as nostalgic as I expected. Let’s start with the legend of The Two Sisters. Before rewatching, I was going to call this the most misleading intro of all time. However, I think there were early signs that our expectations weren’t exactly in line with what the show stood to deliver. One was what a big deal we made out of the world’s backstory. Both it and the prospect of a vengeful horse god captured our imaginations, but the speculation we did was WAY darker than anything the show would ever do, and the backstory may as well have not existed for the remainder of the season. Bothering to have a backstory in the first place, and the inclusion of the Yin Yang symbol were what really impressed me.
 
Now for the characters. I remember immediately liking Twilight and Spike. They had a good dynamic, and I always enjoyed seeing more of it. Now that I think about it, Twilight was more of a butt monkey than Spike was in this episode.
 
Applejack wasn’t terribly interesting, but I still find the Granny Smith joke cute. Her voice is WAY higher here.
 
I immediately remember why Rainbow Dash was an early fan favourite. And I don’t just mean for the shipping fodder. She was the troublemaker who meant well. It was interesting how Ashleigh Ball hadn’t quite separated her Applejack voice from her Rainbow Dash voice yet.
 
No real commentary on Rarity yet.
 
I also immediately remember why people loved Fluttershy. She was the cute one, and promised to do interesting things once she came out of her shell.
 
Pinkie was sort of annoying at first, but she became my favourite in later episodes.
 
The animation was not as jarring as I expected. The quality was lower, but the aesthetics were still there, and that’s where the charm was. There were a lot of duplicate ponies on screen.
 
Spike mentioned that he hatched from a purple and green egg, but I went ahead and looked up screenshots, and his egg ended up being two shades of purple. These days, that would be an offence worth ten lashings.
 
Lastly, there’s Nightmare Moon. I remember being really impressed by the idea that the villain was an evil my little pony, and she looked genuinely threatening. This was before “ow the edge” became the default response to anything that looked even remotely dark and threatening, and I still think her design holds up. She could turn into a cloud of shadows and summon lightning. I can’t wait to see all the cool stuff she does in part 2…
 
Overall, it was not amazing. But the novelty of it being My Little Pony and actually having interesting characters and a bit of lore made it worth paying attention to.
 
I watched part one back in early October of 2010, but didn’t stick around for the early threads on /co/. A few months later, I decided to browse /co/ again, and found that the Pony threads were still going. I realized that I hadn’t seen how the premier played out, and watched part 2.

I just watched Friendship is Magic part 2, and it was actually pretty good.
 
I think the three best challenges were Kindness, Generosity, and Loyalty, in no particular order, because they tell us something about the characters and help round them out. Rainbow Dash is an egotistical trickster, but she’s ready to do the right thing for her friends. Rarity’s challenge tells us that she wants to make others feel good about themselves. Fluttershy is quiet and meek, but she’s capable once she opens up. I also like how both Rainbow and Rarity have to make some kind of personal sacrifice.
 
On the flipside, Applejack’s challenge remains weak to this day. There’s no test of character, and there are words she could use to explain her plan. There’s also the question of why Twilight didn’t just teleport to the bottom of the cliff.
 
Somewhere in the middle is Pinkie’s challenge. I like the way it characterizes her as someone who knows more than she lets on, but there isn’t an actual obstacle to overcome.
 
There’s also the problem that Nightmare Moon isn’t threatening during most of the episode, and it’s a bit contrived that each of the Mane Six just happen to get an obstacle that lets them demonstrate their Element. However, the opening for the first episode tells us that the show is meant to be interpreted as a fairy tale, and scenarios that exist only to symbolically test characters are a staple of such stories. My personal headcanon is that Luna knew what the Elements were, and was deliberately setting up obstacles to allow The Mane Six to free her.
 
I feel like these two episodes set the stage for what to expect with the rest of the show. The Elements of Harmony are a nice idea, but as early as the second episode it’s already struggling a bit to incorporate them into a Mane Six adventure story while also having a threatening villain. It’s not necessarily bad, but the weaknesses of the premise are already showing.
 
I imagine this episode gets better after Amending Fences, since we now have better context for what Twilight was like before moving to Ponyville. This gives her speech about caring for her friends a lot more weight. I still genuinely like the third act of the episode. Twilight uses her wits to get close to The Elements. Blasting Nightmare with rainbows. The reunion between Celestia and Luna. Twilight staying in Ponyville. Pinkie breaking the fourth wall for the first time. It ended up being more heartwarming than I expected.
 
And that was it. It wasn’t this high-fantasy epic, but it was cute, fun, and charming. The general feeling was that the show would be amazing if the kid gloves ever came off, but on revisit, I can see it struggling against having to give six characters an equal contribution to the plot. It’s funny how they wouldn’t use characters demonstrating Elements as the plot of a two-parter until Shadow Play, nearly seven years later.

It should’ve stuck to slice of life without any adventure season finales.
 
Even though I want the opposite.

So I just watched The Ticket Master, and it’s not great.
 
On my first viewing, two things stood out for me. The first was that these weren’t boring, goody-two-shoes characters. They were allowed to be kind of selfish. That this was enough to impress me speaks to the low standards we had for the show back then. The first time I watched, I was expecting it to be about Applejack and Rainbow Dash competing for the ticket. I predicted that the resolution would have Twilight giving up her ticket so they could both go. But then they had the rest of the characters try to get in on it. The second thing that stood out was that Twilight actually mentioned the solution I thought of.
 
Other than that, the episode felt very stilted. This is partly due to early instalment weirdness, but it’s still a really generic episode. Everything in Season 8 has been better than this episode.
 
With the exception of Fluttershy and Twilight, we now have a sense of the characters’ goals. This episode would end up being oddly prophetic, as the characters don’t have clearly defined arcs laid out for them, and their goals are things that will just sort of happen at some point. On the other hand, it does give us a better sense of who these characters are.
 
Applejack’s voice is at least an octave higher than what we’re used to. I wonder when it drops down again.

Just watched Applebuck Season, and it’s even better than I remember.
 
This episode is a prime example of how fandom attitudes have changed over the years. If it came out today, it would be despised. When asked about why the ponies keep cows, Lauren jut made up an explanation. If a writer tried that today, they’d get called a hack. Applejack gave a bunch of ponies food poisoning, and there are zero consequences for this, or indeed anything she does. When Applejack fails to land on the catapult, Rainbow Dash is more concerned with not getting launched than with her own safety. Applejack spends the episode screwing up and being punished for being helpful and independent. If a fraction of this happened now, people would take it to mean that the writers hate these characters.
 
But back then, the defence of “it’s a kids’ show” still applied to this kids’ show. Maybe someday I’ll find out when it stopped applying.
 
Anyways, I think this is around where I decided I liked the show. It’s certainly where the show really starts to come alive. The jokes were good, and it does a good job of creating a sense that these characters have things going on in their lives. It begins the trend of showing the strengths of Applejack’s character before moving on to the lesson she needs to learn. This is also around the time Pinkie’s antics became my favourite part of the show. If I didn’t have to work, I’d have thrown on Griffon The Brush-Off right away. Lastly, this is where I started noticing subtle references to other things, such as the reference to the stampede from The Lion King.
 
Overall, this episode is a classic.

Just rewatched Griffon The Brush Off, and it was so good.
 
The fun of this episode is seeing the chemistry of Pinkie and Rainbow, and discovering what great prank buddies they make. This is a magical point in the show, where friendships between the characters form for the first time, and it’s basically impossible to recapture without introducing new characters. There are only 15 possible bonds that can be formed within The Mane Six.
 
And therein lies a problem. Pinkie and Rainbow bonding over pranks is only enough to fill up one act of one episode; its not a premise with a lot of mileage. Discovery itself is also a one-shot thing. Once you’ve established something, the joy of discovering it has been used up, and you either have to actually use it, or establish something else. I think the show is better at establishing things than it is at using them.
 
As for the episode itself, they nailed basically every gag. I had honestly forgotten just how funny this one was. It’s also where they really refined Pinkie’s character, as well as expanded on the extent of her cartoon powers. At the same time, Rainbow Dash not being an entirely wholesome character played a big part in my interest in the show. This also lets Gilda be a good foil for Rainbow Dash; she’s what Rainbow might become if she ever went too far.
 
This was another episode that blew the starting whistle for rampant speculation. What were the griffon lands like? What other mythological creatures would we see? Of course, a rainbow-haired tomboy having a really butch friend led to its own kind of speculation. I wasn’t in the fandom yet, so I have no idea if the whole “lesbian” thing had taken off yet. But if it hadn’t, this certainly would have done it.
 
Overall, this is one of those episodes that isn’t spectacular, but gets all the little things right. Definitely a Season One classic.

@Goobington  
I think it the point where the average person might’ve liked the show, if they could. The antics are more in line with a typical show so there’s a sense of familiarity that’s essential for most to start to like it.

The Ticket Master and Applebuck Season are both my guilty pleasures, as almost everyone else seems to hate them. The pilot episode didn’t really impress me that much (and still does not, but I like it now more than seven years ago), but TTM and AS did.

@JP  
I mean, Ticket Master isn’t bad. It establishes a lot of information, and gives both the characters and the series a goal. I just don’t think it has the same spark as ABS or GTBO.

I just rewatched Boast Busters, and it’s not very good.
 
The story structure works, but I think the moral is confused. Trixie lies about defeating the Ursa, but when she has to actually prove her ability, she can’t, and suffers the consequences. That would have been fine on it’s own. The whole thing about not bragging in general felt tacked on and inconsistent. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Twilight seemed to be in the minority when it came to caring about Trixie’s bragging; the audience loved it. I feel like this episode was written to be an 11-minute episode, and they had to find a way to pad it out; the conflict between The Mane Six and Trixie lasted a lot longer than I remembered. The problem with Trixie’s wagon being destroyed is that while it’s a logical consequence, it’s not an organic one. If Snips and Snails hadn’t gone into the woods to get an Ursa Minor, Trixie would have just left, no harm done. A better story would have been if a nearby town was being threatened by an Ursa, and Trixie suddenly had to put her money where her mouth was.
 
The scene of Twilight returning the Ursa to the cave still holds up as one of the show’s great moments. Unfortunately, it throws out any possibility of the show having a well-defined, balanced magic system. Rules, limitations and Twilight’s abilities would come and go as the story requires them. This should have been the sign that we weren’t getting Avatar: The Last Airbender. Which is fine, because the show was never claiming that it would be, and if kids are old enough to genuinely care about the inconsistencies, that’s how they know it’s time to seek more challenging materiel.
 
I was never a huge fan of Trixie, but I was still excited for her to return in Magic Duel. I do like her, and I liked how she continues the trend of the characters not all being perfectly wholesome.
 
Overall, I found the episode to be a bit too mean-spirited and padded for my tastes, even if it’s redeemed somewhat by the third act.

I’m really liking these reviews.

Just rewatched Dragonshy. I was expecting it to be good. I wasn’t expecting it to hold up as one of the all-time best episodes.
 
It’s our first adventure episode since the premier, and it’s funny how the natural hazards of a mountain feel more dangerous than Nightmare Moon. Steep cliffs, dizzying heights, Twilight nearly being crushed by a rockslide.
 
Speaking of the premier, it makes a huge difference in storytelling when every character isn’t obligated to contribute in a specific way. Applejack is at her best when she’s supporting in subtle, understated ways. She escorts Fluttershy up the mountain, saves Twilight from a boulder, and is ready to serve as backup rather than engaging the dragon directly. Pinkie is comic relief, but still helps Fluttershy cross the gap. We’re still at the point where Rarity is shallow and materialistic (can’t wait for Suited For Success), but to her credit, she very nearly gets the dragon to leave before greed gets the better of her. Rainbow Dash acts like an impatient jerk, ends up making things worse, but gets her comeuppance in the end. Twilight acts as the leader. So the rest of the Mane six fall into what would become their usual roles, and are kind of one-note.
 
And yet it works. I’m going to digress for a moment and coin a term called “The Mane Six Conga”. This is where something happens, and each member of The Mane Six does a bit in response to it, usually to fill up time. The episode works because it avoids this. There’s a goal, and a clear sense of progression towards it. The writers get what they can out of the moment before moving on. And it shows in two places. One is that they land every gag in the episode. The other is that where Boast Busters felt padded, I got to the end of this episode and couldn’t believe it was only 22 minutes.
 
Having not seen this episode in over half a decade, I’d forgotten just how scared Fluttershy used to be. It’s a good source of humour, and it makes it all the more satisfying when she steps up and talks down the dragon. That scene was even better than I remembered. It also makes Fluttershy the character with the most potential for growth, both from a character perspective and a writing perspective. We know she has courage and assertiveness in her, so the writers can modulate how much she’s grown by how much of a push it takes for her to bring it out.
 
Unless I’m mistaken, the reference to the time Fluttershy tamed the manticore is the first instance of continuity of the series.
 
Lastly, I wanted to talk about the visuals. Visually speaking, this was the most ambitious episode yet. There were interesting camera movements, and this episode would require a lot more environments than usual. A lot of effort went into this one.
 

 
Overall, this was an excellent episode, and I would encourage anyone to go back and watch it again.
 
@Mildgyth  
Glad you’re enjoying them!

I just rewatched Look Before You Sleep, and it was actually pretty good.
 
After a big episode like Dragonshy, you need a smaller episode like this one to balance things out. It’s a very lean, efficient episode. It only has three characters, and only has two locations. Rarity and Applejack are opposites, but they each share a trait with Twilight. Rarity and Twilight are both detail-oriented, while Applejack and Twilight are both practical. Like Dragonshy, the characters have to work towards a goal, but where Dragonshy has the clearly-defined goal of convincing the dragon to leave, Look Before You Sleep has the very open-ended goal of having a successful slumber party. However, they approach storytelling the same way; they have a scene that’s in service of the goal while letting the characters bounce off one-another, and then they move on before the scene can overstay its welcome. This is the polar opposite of Boast Busters, which has no goal and overstays its welcome. It’s nice that Applejack and Rarity are able to compensate for each-others’ flaws (let’s ignore how Applejack wouldn’t realize that she’d drag the tree into the room).
 
I think this episode marks a turning point. It’s where things from present episodes help to justify things in past episodes. Both Rarity and Twilight are detail-oriented, sometimes to a point where it interferes with their abilities to prioritize. If Twilight wanted to have a slumber party so badly, why didn’t she just hang out with the ponies in Canterlot? Because she struggles to prioritize and make time for friends. Where Rarity seemed a bit shallow before, it now feels like she places value on aesthetics, but struggles to shift the focus away from that when appropriate. It becomes a legitimate character flaw for her. If they had established that in the first episode, we would have the same amount of information on the character by this point. However, the order in which we’re given information lets the show feel more complex than it actually is. It’s the kind of thing you can only do once, and it requires some planning to achieve.
 
Another thing the episode reveals is that Rarity has a competitive streak, which gives her something in common with Applejack (and also Rainbow, but that’s not really relevant here). This means that each of the three characters has something in common with the other two. Again, this is the sort of thing that can only be achieved by establishing new information, and there’s a limit to what can be established.
 
A few stray thoughts:
 
The pillow fight was fun and creative. It’s nice to see that an earth pony and a unicorn are evenly matched.
 
This is the first time pegasi controlling the weather has been a plot point since the premier.
 
The aesthetics are there, it’s only episode 8, and I’ve been spoiled by later seasons, but the animation on the background ponies continues to be a noticeable downgrade.
 
There are two early examples of them not hammering the logic of the show too much: the lights going out after a flash of lightning, and Twilight saying she can “turn the heat up”. Those didn’t affect my enjoyment of the episode, but I figured I’d mention them anyways.
 
Overall, this episode had a lot more going on than I realized. It falls into the category of “Not amazing, but it gets the little things right”.

@Goobington  
LBYS is probably the first episode in the sequence that I really like much (I’m not much of an s1 enthusiast).

Ah, miss the good old days, where all characters are introduced and have their personality developed until now
 
The one that started it all.
 
Damn, it’s been eight years

I just rewatched Bridle Gossip.
 
The nice thing about stories is that they can be used to teach morals. Anyone can simply state that something is a good or bad idea, but the events of a story can actually demonstrate why a certain behaviour is good or bad. The fox and the goat jump into the well for a drink without having a plan to get back out again, which demonstrates the moral of thinking ahead, or “Looking before you leap”. The idea that you can learn from the mistakes of fictional characters instead of having to make your own is a pretty remarkable thing when you really think about it.
 
I think there’s a key mistake one can make when doing a story about racism, or indeed discrimination in general. This mistake is being more focussed on assuring the audience that they’re not a bigot, than in making meaningful commentary. This mistake shows up in two ways. The first is in not humanizing the bigots in question. In doing this, the creator creates a strawman that they can attack to show how progressive they are. The second is in not humanizing the minority in question. In doing this, the creator objectifies the minority, reducing them to a victim so that the writer can pounce to the rescue and show how progressive they are. For all the good intentions, neither of these things create any meaningful commentary or change people’s minds. They’re just stating a viewpoint that some people already agree with and others don’t.
 
Minorities aren’t just victims that only exist to be helped in order to alleviate a sense of guilt. They’re real people with their own things going on in life. They might not even want or need help. Bigots aren’t just a bunch of irrational meanie-heads. Like anyone else, their perspectives are the product of what they’ve been taught and their own life experiences. They might otherwise be perfectly reasonable, decent people aside from this one thing.
 
And those two things are what make the episode work. We know The Mane Six. We know that they’re flawed and make mistakes, but are still good people. The episode takes us inside their heads, and shows how good, rational characters can have experiences that would lead them to “racist” conclusions. Then it shows that while it’s bad, it’s not the end of the world, and it doesn’t make them horrible, irredeemable people. They realize they misjudged Zecora, and they apologize.
 
Speaking of Zecora, what makes her work is that she isn’t a victim. Not being welcomed in Ponyville is more of an inconvenience than a legitimate problem. Her hut is smashed up by an out-of-control Rainbow Dash, rather than anything malicious. On top of that, she’s a character with an actual goal and motivation other than “not be discriminated against”. One of the central themes of the show is “sharing what you have to offer”. The worst part of discrimination isn’t that it’s mean (although that’s certainly part of it), it’s that it causes people to lose out on a chance to share what they have to offer with the world. Hats off to the show for having such a positive message.
 
With all that out of the way, a few stray thoughts.
 
It’s nice to see Applebloom get some development.
 
The first part was a bit annoying to get through, but once the poison joke kicks in, they nailed all the gags. You know a joke is good when you can see it coming, but you still laugh. Flutterguy’s rendition of Evil Enchantress is still one of my favourite jokes in the entire series. The french version is even better.
 
Overall, it’s really funny and it has a great message without being preachy. Sometimes that’s all you need to be a classic episode.

Watched Swarm of the Century. It’s the debut of M.A. Larson, and it’s hilarious.
 
There’s really not a lot here to analyze. The entirety of Ponyville being destroyed is played for laughs. The conflict isn’t actually resolved and is never brought up again (something Larson would repeat in Fame & Misfortune). All Pinkie had to say was “That’s a parasprite. They multiply quickly and will devour all the food in Ponyville. I need musical instruments to lure them away.” BAM! Story over.
 
And yet none of those things bother me. Pinkie not communicating her plan helps cement that she’s on a different wavelength from everyone else, but also that knows what she’s doing. Discarding the actual consequences of Ponyville being devoured in favour of playing it for laughs feels very in-line with how Pinkie works. On the subject of taking liberties with story logic, Twilight suddenly has the ability to mass-brainwash the parasprites. I actually think Larson found the best way to use Twilight’s magic; as a device to create “Be careful what you wish for” moments. I mean, there aren’t any real limits to what Twilight can do, and the show is more about tests of character than ability, so they may as well take it in that direction. On top of that, the show was still trying to discover itself, so a little early experimentation is fine.
 
On the subject of character usage and experimentation, after Pinkie, Rainbow Dash and Applejack do the most the most to solve the problem. Twilight and Fluttershy make things worse, and with Pinkie off gathering instruments, Rarity shifts to the role of comic relief. I think this speaks to the flexibility of these characters, although these days it might fuel theories about which characters the writer secretly hates.
 
Continuity-wise, the rest of the series mostly pretends that this episode didn’t happen, considering Ponyville is still standing. Conversely, it’s nice to see both Zecora and pegasus weather control reincorporated so quickly. One detail to note is that the Gala dresses can be seen in Rarity’s boutique. I forget if this is an easter egg or just an oversight. Lastly, this is the first time we’ve seen Princess Celestia since the premier.
 
Speaking of things that stood out, the animation felt a lot more ambitious here, especially during the parasprite-rolling scene. The music was also really good. I still want to get my hands on the Parasprite Theme.
 
Lastly, this has to be the most I’ve laughed out loud so far during this revisit.
 
Overall, this episode is a bit of a black sheep. It’s weird even for its time, and with its total disregard for consequences, it definitely couldn’t be made today. But I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Watched the very first episode.
 
the mane six was born, and the show started  
I love all character introductions and their subsequent personality development. Twilight being an antisocial is the best part in the beginning, and slowly making friends as the episode progresses
 
My favorite part is the linking of Elements of Harmony to each of the Mane Six, second only to the Luna reunion scene
 
Story-wise, S1 (and S2 to a lesser extent) is a “pure” My Little Pony slice-of-life experience, bearing similarity to older generations where popular culture references are yet to be cemented into the show

Watched Winter Wrap-Up. It’s a nice, wholesome episode, but there’s not a lot to say about it.
 
It’s a world-building episode. The ponies have to clean up winter manually, and Twilight’s attempts to help take us on a walking tour of the different scenarios that entails. It doesn’t reveal a whole lot, but the fact that each of The Mane Six have a role in the event makes the world feel lived in.
 
There’s just a couple of details to touch on. It makes sense that Fluttershy wouldn’t be the leader of the Animal Team at this point, considering how anxious she is. It’s also a nice detail that Rarity is such a perfectionist that she can’t move on from fixing the one nest. Obsession over details seems to be a recurring trait in unicorns. Speaking of details, this is where Twilight’s attention to detail and ability as a leader really get to shine. This gives her character more strength in a show where ability is less important.
 
In talking about details, it would be remissed to not mention how when Twilight woke up, all the snow was missing. I feel like the audio commentary has the story behind that.
 
This is the show’s first full-blown musical number. If I recall correctly, the song and video were leaked a few weeks before the episode. They start out so small.
 
To this day, I still find the montage of everyone coming together and things working out to be one of the most heartwarming scenes in the show.
 
Overall, there’s not a lot going on under the hood. It’s just characters showing up and doing their jobs. It’s less “Slice-of-Life” and more “Slice-of-an-Event”. And I think it’s a solid, enjoyable episode.
 
 
@RhodieNite  
Season One is packed with references . They’re just more timeless. As the show went on, the show would mix in more contemporary references. I think Return of Harmony had a Minecraft reference.

Rewatched Call of the Cutie.
 
This is around where I joined the fandom. Call of the Cutie was the first episode I ever saw live. Someone who actullay had The Hub pointed a camera at the screen and streamed it.
 
Anyways. There’s not a ton going on in this one. This is the first episode to exclusively star a non-Mane Six character, with Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight shifting to the role of mentor. We also get our only recurring villains, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. They’re still fairly generic bullies at this point, but we want to see them defeated, so they work. Lastly, we get two new main characters, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Their voices have changed so much since their introduction.
 
There was a lot of creativity with the jokes in this episode. A literal dark cloud hanging over Apple Bloom. A jump cut joke without the jump cut. An in-universe record scratch. The continuity gag with the burnt cupcakes. This is also where alcoholic Berry Punch first became a thing.
 
The last thing to talk about is continuity. Up until this point, cutie marks were just sort of there. One could probably deduce that that they represent what a pony was good at, but Cheerilee’s lesson meant that actual thought went into them, at least as far as named ponies went. It also meant that there might be deeper meaning hidden within cutie marks. This would end up being the case for several of The Mane Six.
 
Twilight’s, whose mark is a star surrounded by five other stars, represents her five friends.  
Rarity’s, which foreshadows her gem-finding magic, as well as her commitment to beautification.  
Pinkie Pie’s, which represents parties, but also how she lifts the spirits of others.  
Rainbow Dash’s, which represents her weather duties as well as her love of speed.
 
Suddenly, the episode teases that there’s a story behind each of their cutie marks.
 
On the subject of continuity, if you go back and rewatch the premier, you can see Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo huddled together. This acts as foreshadowing, and is later justified by the moral of The Cutie Mark Chronicles.
 
On it’s own, the episode isn’t all that special. However, the details it reveals went a long way in making the show feel deeper and more complex.

@Goobington
 
Also, a scene that launched a whole ship:
 

@Mildgyth
 
Pinkie Pie’s first boyfriend

Excellent unbiased reviewing. Very well-done, and it gives me a lot to think about. I could never do something like this because of my own issues with S1, namely having burned out on it long ago and finding it hard to re-watch. I joined the fandom early in the S1-2 hiatus and, out of sheer exuberance and excitement over the show and its exciting new fandom, watched the only 26 episodes in existence at that point probably nearly a dozen times each in the months before S2 began lol. I can’t rewatch it painlessly, much like I can’t listen to certain songs I made myself sick on. My fiance and I actually attempted to marathon the show from the first episode to the latest a couple of years ago, and we both agreed to skip to S2 about halfway through the season for the sole reason that we were burned out on it.
 
The season isn’t bad, objectively; after all it got me hardcore into the show and fandom, but I do have some minor issues with it looking back past all that’s happened since. Some of them are acceptable and normal due to being the show’s very first season, the typical early installment jarring differences from later seasons. It’s pretty easy to tell it is the first season since all the characters are learning basic lessons, and it’s kind of strange to look back from the vastly expanded world of recent seasons back to a show focusing on a tiny cast with few supporting characters. We’re royal-connected friendship ambassadors to all races now, but back then the core cast would argue at sleepovers and have to learn super basic information about each other - that’s fine because it’s an awesome building block toward character development, but it’s hard to go back from even S2 and its expanded world to a much simpler time if you’re burned out on it AND it’s missing a lot of the characters and places from even S2 and S3.
 
Those are fine because it’s a show’s first season while we’re still defining characters, but some other things I notice on re-watching that are slightly problematic to me (and I’m really just nit-picking) include the noticeably more crude animation, which again is fine because of how early it was, but I notice it all too much and it detracts from the experience. How many of us remember when the S3 preview clips came out for the season opener and the fandom was in awe of the small scene of Twilight’s mane flowing in the wind? Animation like that is dime a dozen in later seasons as the animators gain lots of experience, but the fact that said scene was such a big deal shows how far we’ve come from even S2. Not that taking it to meme-face extremes of late is a particularly good thing, but the animation has improved so dramatically imo. Another thing obvious on a re-watch is the shoehorning of Twilight into every episode because it had to have a friendship lesson, BY Twilight. It worked pretty well as an overarching theme for the season but it seemed forced even then, in a few of the episodes. Another big thing is how most of the background characters are copy and pasted with little thought, sans a few standouts they re-used. The crowd shots in early seasons versus now are dramatically different with much more variety. Again, though, this is nit-picky because many cartoons do this so I can’t single out pony.
 
S1 isn’t bad, not by any means. I don’t re-watch much of it simply mostly because I am still burned out, but those things above don’t help the matter much. I also get so annoyed by those that still whine about Faust leaving and clinging to S1 because of some ridiculous insistence on only the stuff she had to do with being worth watching. I am also frustrated by the almost holy and untouchable status some put the season on, saying it’s vastly better than - and whining about - all later seasons past the second, when I feel that that really isn’t objectively the case. That being said, many of the episodes are classics and were very well written. Look Before You Sleep, Sonic Rainboom, Suited for Success, and the Cutie Mark Chronicles are among my favorites.
 
_{Good god, sorry for the text wall and hijack, easy to get carried away}

@Goobington  

 
Ah, so that’s how they were done back in the day.
 
Nothing has changed, because this is how Bronysate does it now: they have a streaming program playing DiscFam and they use a separate screen recording program stream that to us. :-) You can see them moving the window around sometimes and adjusting volume and stuff.