EP 3: The Ticket Master
Rating: 4 4 3
We start the episode with AJ talking about how if she gets all the apples in the barn by lunchtime, Big Mac will walk down a street in one of Granny Smith's girdles. This will not be the last time the concept of Big Mac cross-dressing occurs. Then Twilight receives the tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala on the 21st of some month. We will get back to that date later when I try to find the timeframe and dates to certain things. The camera also pans up revealing Canterlot past Ponyville which shows that Sweet Apple Acres is south of Ponyville.
Then the theme song starts and I just want to point out Bon Bon and Minuette in the background here. What are these little ponies doing? Look at them, they're having a grand ol' time.
So when the episode resumes, Twilight and AJ are bouncing with excitement at the Grand Galloping Gala. Spike is unamused like a little boy having to listen to their mom talk to her friend she just saw in the store. Then Twilight says "I've never been to the Gala, have you, Spike?" implying there's a possibility that Spike, this child dragon had an opportunity to attend such a seemingly prestigious event not even Celestia's own student has attended. Twilight tells Spike "a dance would be nice". Don't give in Spike, reject 6 girls if you have to.
AJ then discusses her plans for the Gala that being to make money. Rainbow Dash then crashes down from a tree she was apparently napping in right above Twilight and Applejack. We also see that pegasi can hover upside-down.
We then see two animation goofs. First, after RD lands, she flaps only one wing while the other stays stiff in the air and then for a few frames, we see a wonky rigging of her body. I think that's the term.
She flaps only one wing.
Wonky rigging.
Rainbow Dash then reveals her plans for Grand Galloping Gala. Rainbow Dash and Applejack hoof wrestle and neither wins showing that both possibly have equal foreleg strength. Rainbow Dash after Twilight talks about who should really go mentions "A chance to audition for the Wonderbolts?" implying that she never actively tried to get into the Wonderbolts like stated in the previous episode.
Next scene, Pinkie fucking launches right at Twilight and Spike and we hear her plans and get another song. The lyrics also imply that galaxies exist.
Then we hear Rarity say "society" and spout her crap. Flutters is next. Rarity is an ass to Fluttershy aggressively surprised that Fluttershy would want to go to the gala. Then everyone gets angry and argues with each other.
I love in the next scene while Twilight and Spike are ordering food, Spike just throws the menu behind him and no one cares. Twilight then knocks the vase and flowers away uncaringly. Twilight also has a yellow magic aura around her sandwich she levitates. This was made before the magical aura thing was fully figured out as we will later learn but it's still strange to see Twilight with yellow magic.
RD shows up calling Twilight her BFFIEEH. We also get a cute Dashie.
Rarity finds Twilight and brings her to her Boutique. Twilight then shakes her wet mane onto Rarity which she deserves for being a cunt to Fluttershy.
Rarity then makes Spike eat his own knuckle sandwich and emotionally abuses him by dressing him up in a frilly dress. What is this bitch's problem?
Applejack's kiss-assery is next and now Twilight is upset. Then Fluttershy does the same but at least she's honest about her intentions. Another Pinkie song is next and is even more explicit with her intentions. Pinkie then reveals to the whole town that Twilight has an extra ticket to the G3 Plan and now all the townsponies are hammering her offers like noobs in a video game after Christmas hammering high-levels for crap. Fun fact: once a Christmas noob tried hammering me for free money in GTA which is literally impossible to give away and he eventually even offered nudes of some girl he knew. I fucking hate Christmas noobs. Pretty sure I griefed him.
We get a stereotypical cartoon chase sequence next and Carrot Top trips and eats shit. Then Twilight's friends apologize and Twilight sends back the tickets. Celestia then sends them all tickets. The end. I find it weird how at the end while it's shown that Twilight is levitating the tickets, we get a shot AJ's ticket just moving along with her despite Twilight already having walked away offscreen.
This episode was entertaining enough but didn't have that many funny parts that I remember giving it 4 EV. The reason for the 4 VB is because it shows that being a kiss-ass makes you an annoying cunt and I have written in my notes "crony capitalism metaphor?". Someone else can deep dive into that, it's been like 2 hours writing this and I'm done with this episode. DV is 3 because nothing really happens that develops anything other than that this is the start of the Grand Galloping Gala arc but the show hasn't revealed that this will be a continuity thing yet so I'm not counting it.
EP 4: Applebuck Season
Ratings: 6 3 4
Applejack's got a lot of work to do. Applejack refers to herself as "the loyalest of friends". The writing just wrote those old jokes didn't they? Those that know, know.
After the theme song, we see a stampede of cows nearing Ponyville. Everyone then loses their shit. Applejack then reroutes the stampede saving Ponyville. One of the cows then speaks showing that cows are fully sapient and capable of language which introduces a weird relationship between cows and ponies. It's also revealed the cows are Canadian and the reason the ponies were terrified wasn't because the stampede was about to destroy Ponyville, it's that Canadians were about to enter and that's horrifying.
The Ponyvillians throw a party for Applejack. We then see that Twilight has a fat stack of Nightcoin.
Next we get Rainbow Dash's Why Wub Woo face.
/)^3^(\
Pinkie Pie then declares AJ is helping her cook and that everyone will get a sample. Pinkie Socialism. Twilight then knocks Pinkie to the ground. Then Flutters comes up from underneath to announce how Applejack's helping her. So finally after dealing with everyone's bullshit, Twilight is relieved that she can finally continue her speech only for Mayor Mare to come. I thought this moment was pretty funny.
So then Applejack, the pony this celebration is for, tiredly walks up to the stage, thanks "Miss Mare" and pushes her off the stage. AJ then sees her reflection in her trophy and Pinkie joins her.
The next scene it is revealed ponies can sleep standing like real horses. Twilight then mentions Applejack's relatives which is a continuity callback. We learn that Applejack's extended family lives all across Equestria.
Next scene we get one the most hilarious moments in this show. Rainbow Dash wants Applejack to jump off a ledge onto a seesaw thing to launch RD into the sky to do tricks. Applejack goes up to the ledge and we see a side view of the contraption. Applejack then jumps, misses and fucking dies. When I first saw this, I burst out laughing and I still find this moment hilarious watching as a write this. Even just repeating the footage over and over, I still find this shit hilarious.
Two scenes later, we're at Sugarcube Corner with Pinkie Pie. We get a cute Pinkie face.
Pinkie Pie is watching you forever!
So then Pinkie and AJ make muffins that are made of chips, soda, lemons, and earthworms, a classic British dish. This results in many ponies being poisoned and hospitalized.
Applejack is struggling.
We learn mules exist in Equestria. Applejack then creates a bunny stampede. This results in three melodramatic ponies fainting.
The episode ends with Applejack learning to take help from her friends after thinking she bucked all the apple trees, only to discover there's still another orchard left. We also see Rainbow Dash buck a trees knocking off most of the apples showing she has at least decently good hindleg strength. The final moments of the episode with Spike and the muffins is pretty funny.
This episode was amazing. It was hilarious throughout. Truly deserving of 6 EV. It lacks in vibe though with a generic 'accept help from others' message and there's nothing to really vibe with. It only gets 3 VB. Because there's a continuity callback but nothing really else in terms of development other than AJ's lesson, this episode gets 4 DV.
EP 5: Griffon The Brush Off
Rating: 4 4 4
We start this episode with Pinkie cutely being hyper over Rainbow Dash in front of a disinterested Twilight until Rainbow Dash actually appears flying above them getting Pinkie's attention. Pinkie chases after a disinterested Rainbow Dash until RD crashes into a cliff.
RD's trying to hide from Pinkie and Pinkie finds her leading to RD flying away and I love how Pinkie just bounces casually in her direction each time. Rainbow Dash finally succumbs and accepts doing a favor for Pinkie. The next scene RD is doing the favor and Pinkie mentions both inches and centimeters revealing that ponies use both imperial and metric measurements. They then troll Spike. Afterwards, RD tells Pinkie she's not as annoying as she thought revealing that RD beforehand probably found Pinkie genuinely annoying to be around.
Both Rainbow Dash and Pinkie then troll Rarity by giving her flowers laced with anthrax.
Then they troll Twilight and Applejack. RD wants to troll Fluttershy but gets trolled herself.
We now meet Gilda, Rainbow Dash's griffon friend. Pinkie states that she doesn't know what a griffon is which implies Ponyville's seclusion from the world again.
Next couple minutes is Pinkie trying to talk to Rainbow Dash and Gilda only for Gilda to be a bitch towards Pinkie Pie. We also see that gyrocopter technology exists in Equestria.
Twilight tells Pinkie she's just jealous of Gilda after Pinkie tells her everything. Gilda then trolls Granny Smith, tells a pony her produce sucks, steals an Apple, scares and berates Fluttershy then leaves. Gildapilled.
Also I noticed that Pinkie says "She might give it back." in reference to Gilda stealing the apple and eating it. Like bro, how Gilda gonna borrow an apple bro? How she gonna give it back if it already ate?
13:57 Pinkie says "no one" twice. She decides to throw Gilda a Pinkie party. This is when we get Fluttershy's "I'm a year older than you." comment. We also get to see an angry Flutters.
Gilda then proceeds to get trolled epic style. Applejack says "month" at a point. Gilda then loses her shit and flips out on Pinkie. She tries to leave with Rainbow Dash only for her to reveal that she was the one who trolled her. The episode ends with Rainbow Dash telling Gilda to fuck off if she's gonna be cunt. We also see Spike doing whatever this is to a pony.
This was an alright episode. It was entertaining enough for 4 EV. It also gets 4 VB for its message saying that your friends will hang out with dipfucks but not to let it affect you and whoever's a true friend will reveal itself. I can sorta vibe with the message since most friends and associates I've had in my life, I've usually been what I can only best describe as 'the other one', the secondary fucker to dick around with when the primary friend group isn't around. The message isn't exact enough to my experience for a higher rating though. It gets 4 DV because we get to see a new sapient race that being griffons.
EP 6: Boast Busters
Rating: 5 5 4
We start this episode strong with Mustache Spike.
After Spike talks about impressing Rarity, Twilight says "sorry, Romeo" implying that Shakespeare or some equivalent exists in Equestria.
So after the theme song, Spike and Twilight literally confirm my theory about the limits of unicorns. Spike says "I thought unicorns were only supposed to have a little magic that matches their special talents." and Twilight responds "True, for ponies whose talents are things like cooking or singing or math...". I bring this point up in my article Unicorns Aren't Master Race. Little did I know I'm proven right in the 6th episode of season 1. Cope and seethe, unicorn supremacists, cope and seethe.
We meet Snips and Snails boasting about a powerful unicorn. Next scene we meet the Great and Powerful Trixie.
Rarity and AJ talk about how show-offs are annoying and Rainbow Dash proclaims herself as better than the rest of them. Twilight reveals her insecurity about showing off. Trixie talks about vanquishing an Ursa Major in Hoofington but the official map of Equestria has no Hoofington which may mean Trixie made up this town.
Trixie then challenges Ponyville stating anything they can do, she can do better. I also love her voice. Trixie then proceeds to outdo Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity. Also, Applejack presumably lies to Rarity.
After Snips and Snails play kiss-ass to Trixie, Spike confronts them and after they tell him about her feats, Spike asks "Where you actually there?". This can be applied to so many things and is why I'm skeptical of stuff like research and studies and most definitely news. There's a whole discussion to be had relating to these words but this is a My Little Pony commentary, not one of my society articles so let's continue.
Twilight continues with her insecurity. Snips and Snails set loose an Ursa Major. They get Trixie and she pussies out. Trixie tries to stop the Ursa Major but miserably fails and Snails has a Canadian moment.
Eventually Twilight steps up with a combination of spells one of which involves milking the Canadian cows. Twilight's insecure again and we learn it was actually an Ursa Minor. Trixie runs away and Spike gets his mustache. The end.
Pretty entertaining episode, gave it 5 EV. 5 VB for the Great and Powerful Trixie and the message being decent saying don't be an insecure little shit about your abilities. 4 DV for showing the Ursa Minor and Trixie being a great character.
EP 7: Dragonshy
Rating: 4 3 4
First 3 seconds and we see Fluttershy cutely jump into a river. We also see Fluttershy feed animals some fish so either Fluttershy is fine with killing fish or she's fine with buying fish that were killed. Angel Bunny is an ass to Fluttershy and after Fluttershy notices there's a bunch of smoke in the air, Angel Bunny then assaults Fluttershy with a carrot giving us a Flutters that looks like she just heard the animals speaking Vietnamese. We also see implication that Fluttershy's cottage is south of Ponyville like Sweet Apple Acres which we also can seemingly see.
Fluttershy tries to warn the townsponies who are all having fun but no one listens. Then Rainbow Dash comes in bouncing a ball which is used in the shitty ball bounce minigame in the MLP mobile game. Pinkie is watching and wants to celebrate Rainbow Dash's yet-to-be record. Pinkie really seems to like Rainbow Dash a lot. Then we get to see Lyra sitting weirdly.
Pinkie ruins Rainbow Dash's record and she gets pissed and launches away with Pinkie chasing after her. Twilight comes explaining the smoke being a dragon. Back at the library, the Mane 6 scheme to deal with the dragon and Rainbow Dash gets a little rambunctious and knocks herself into a bookshelf. As she's upside down after crashing, she flicks her tail a few times which I thought was cute.
We then get a compilation of the Mane 6 preparing for the journey to the dragon and in Applejack's, we see Big Mac struggling to help AJ with her pack. Even the big, strong Big Mac can barely handle a woman's luggage. Twilight then goes over the plan with everyone and Flutters tries to get out of going and after failing, she let's out the cutest little noise.
They arrive at the mountain the dragon's at and walk up an extremely steep slope. Flutters tries to fly up with the rest of the Mane 6 but gets scared of the dragon causing her to fall into a bush unharmed revealing that bushes prevent fall damage. AJ splits to guide Fluttershy around the mountain to join them later.
Next scene, we see that Pinkie has beaten Rarity at tic-tac-toe 35 times in a row. This reveals that Pinkie probably has a higher IQ than Rarity and significantly at that. AJ and Fluttershy join back up. Pinkie sings about a hop, skip, and jump to help Fluttershy cross a ledge. Fluttershy then nearly gets everyone killed. Applejack saves Twilight and then Twilight nuzzles her. This is very cute.
They then finally make it to the top of the mountain outside the dragon's lair and hear faint German yelling. Twilight gives the plan to dealing with the dragon. After Fluttershy cowards out, Twilight tries to push Fluttershy towards her duty but we get a pony pileup instead.
Twilight and the others try individually confronting the dragon and fail resulting in Rainbow Dash becoming a bowling ball and getting a strike on the other four. The dragon's now pissed and hits a critical on all five. However, Flutters was hiding so she still gets a turn and chooses negotiation and chastises the dragon which works. The dragon then leaves, leaving his treasure behind. In Twilight's letter to Celestia, she refers to Equestria as a country.
So something I noticed with this episode is that the animators seemed to be testing out a different way to do facial expressions. Pay attention to everyone's faces especially after they get to the mountain, the mouths sort of float around the face a lot. We never see this again so I guess it wasn't good. I didn't like it. Also, a useless detail I noticed is they changed the typeface for the credits starting with this episode going from a serif typeface to a sans-serif one which I'm pretty sure is Arial.
4 EV 'cause it was entertaining enough. Definitely the weakest 4 so far. 3 VB because of the generic "trust your friends" message. 4 DV because we see a giant dragon for the first time.
MLP Commentaries IndexWritten 2024-10-12 Published 2024-11-1