brendala

Day 2 - Favorite and least favorite episode?

Favorite episode

Hard choice. But I think I'll have to go with Cutie Mark Chronicles. It had a good pace. It featured a lot of characters without feeling cluttered. And it gave the audience a LOT of important background details about the mane 6. And the warm, fuzzy group hug at the end just makes me feel happy

...even if grumpy little Scootaloo thinks it's gross.

The Gala episode is a close second. I loved the "romance" between Rarity and Prince Blueblood (the scene where she crushes the glass slipper never fails to crack me up and it cemented her as my favorite pony)! And the ending with the girls, Spike, and Princess Celestia chilling out at a blue-collar coffee shop in their fancy ballgowns is just really cool.

Least Favorite Episode

None of the episodes of this show are "bad" in the sense that they're unwatchable and/or make you angry at the writer(s); but I had some issues with these three episodes....

1. Over a Barrel (aka The Native American Buffalo episode)
Even if you ignore the EXTREME simplification of the violent and complex historical conflict between Native Americans and Western Settlers (which some fans rightfully found offensive); the episode still has major problems....

--While other episodes managed to seamlessly merge the "moral of the day" into the story without feeling preachy or condescending; this episode hit you over the head with it's moral with all the subtlety of a brick to the face.

--The reason for the conflict was stupid and the way they settled it didn't make sense.

--Pinkie Pie's song was awful. But I guess I can give the show creators some leeway on this because I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be bad. One of the few cool parts of the episode was when both sides agreed that Pinkie's song was so atrocious it warranted a race war. XD

2. The Discord two-parter: Maybe it's just me; but it REALLY bugged me that the girls' fighting and bad attitudes were triggered by Discord scrambling their brains with a magic spell instead of actual conflicts amongst one another. It was a cheap cop-out that Twilight should have seen through and fixed within 5 minutes. I mean, the fact that her friends were acting clinically INSANE and changing colors didn't make her question if they were under mind control or evil clones or Discord in disguise something? Seriously!?

And it's not like you'd have to stretch that far to make them fight without magical brain scrambling. The mane 6 were under a lot of stress and it wouldn't be hard to believe that Discord could make them angry at each other by pushing their psychological buttons. Hell, I'm surprised Pinkie Pie and Applejack didn't get pissed when the other girls reacted with horror when their wings and horns were taken away and they were reduced to mere Earth Ponies!

It's just...the whole first season was all about these girls learning to get along despite being extremely different from one another. This episode was a good chance to test their friendships (and teach the target audience a lesson about getting through MAJOR fights with your friends) and instead the writers copped out by saying "they only fought because some douchebag used magic to turn them into crazy, Bizarro versions of themselves".

3. The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well:
I may have liked this one better if it didn't come directly after another episode about Rainbow Dash being an arrogant jackass. :P

I would have preferred it if Mare-Do-Well had been someone besides Rainbow Dash's friends (either a new pony or a pre-existing background character). That way, Rainbow could have learned her lesson without all her friends coming across as jerks. Plus, we'd have a badass new superhero pony character to save the suddenly accident-prone citizens of Ponyville!

Also, this episode opens up a lot of uncomfortable questions about Ponyville....
--Are the citizens always getting into that kind of danger? Or were they just having a REALLY bad week?
--Is that one big, perilous hill the leading cause of infant mortality in Ponyville? Is so, why isn't there a fence at the top?
--What will the citizens do now that the girls aren't playing superhero anymore? And what did they do BEFORE Rainbow Dash decided to start playing Superman!? O_o

The other days...
Day 1 - Favourite character from the mane cast?
Day 2 - Favourite and least favourite episode?
Day 3 - Favourite cutie mark?
Day 4 - Favourite background pony?
Day 5 - Favourite animal featured in the show?
Day 6 - Least favourite from the mane cast?
Day 7 - Favourite and least favourite song?
Day 8 - Favourite cutie make crusader?
Day 9 - Which pony do you relate to the most?
Day 10 - Best and worst trait of Twilight Sparkle?
Day 11 - Favourite Twilight Sparkle scene?
Day 12 - The first episode you saw?
Day 13 - Favourite cutie mark story? (from Cutie Mark Chronicles)
Day 14 - Favourite quote?
Day 15 - The best lesson Twilight has learned?
Day 16 - Best and worst trait of Rarity?
Day 17 - Favourite Rarity scene?
Day 18 - Best and worst trait of Rainbow Dash?
Day 19 - Favourite Rainbow Dash scene?
Day 20 - Best and worst trait of Applejack?
Day 21 - Favourite Applejack scene?
Day 22 - Best and worst trait of Pinkie Pie?
Day 23 - Favourite Pinkie Pie scene?
Day 24 - Best and worst trait of Fluttershy?
Day 25 - Favourite Fluttershy scene?
Day 26 - What are your views on the Friendship is Magic fandom?
Day 27 - How has the show helped you?
Day 28 - What would your cutie mark be?
Day 29 - Would you be an earth pony, a unicorn or a pegasus?
Day 30 - Thoughts of the show in general?