Review/Analysis: Friendship is Magic Part 1

When I started getting into Pony, I decided to try watching and analyzing the entire series. Real life got in the way, so I only got as far as episode three... but I kind of like what I did write. so I thought I'd copy those reviews and commentary over to this site.

---

Friendship is Magic: Part One

"Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria..."

Friendship is Magic begins with a series of fairytale-like illustrations, accompanied by a narration by Princess Celestia. The prologue provides the audience with the backstory for the episode, as the voice slowly morphs into Twilight Sparkle, with the reveal that the legend of the Mare in the Moon is a story from a book she's been reading. Twilight concludes the narration by musing about the McGuffin the story introduced: "The Elements of Harmony... I know I've heard of that somewhere before", before the theme song for the show kicks off.

It's a short, effective introduction, packed with information. A lot of viewers- certainly the older audience attracted by the show- will find themselves in the same situation as Twilight, with the whole thing having a sense of familiarity to it. While it may not have (at least pre-FiM) the same merchandising and marketing giants as Transformers and G.I Joe, My Little Pony is still a familiar brand name for a lot of people. The soft, lilting tones of the theme song echo that recognition, with the familiar My Little Pony jingle, before tearing it apart and going in a completely new direction with the song. The theme alone puts the audience in Twilight's (horse)shoes; we've heard this music before somewhere, but never reinvented, and as energetic, as this.

The prologue also plays with expectations in a similar way. Friendship is Magic is a contemporary of the Avatar series, so the concept of living in Harmony was already present in pop consciousness; it's an awareness which justifies the existence of elements of Harmony. The prologue also mixes a few different cultural touchstones; the fairy tale opening words, the yin-yang symbol the illustrated Celestia-and-Luna form, the epic myth of the Sun defeating the Moon and restoring balance. It's not a "girly" opening; it's a creation myth to match that of most epic fantasies.
In fact, I'd argue that epic fantasy of the Way of Kings, Lord of the Rings and Wheel of Time constitutes a decent strand of FiM's DNA, a point that I'm going to cover whenever it's relevant. For now, the important thing is that in the first five minutes, the show has broken out of the pre-conceived notions of what it's going to be "about" by embracing cultural and genre from across the world. It really is a well-done opening.

After the opening, we rejoin Twilight in mid-gallop, another point that separates her from the previous generation of ponies. Our heroine is doing things, rather than just waiting for things to happen to her. She also isn't a "perfect" character; one of the ponies she brushes off comments disparagingly that Twilight is more interested in books than friends. It isn't a shaming of nerd culture- since literature is important both as part of the show and within the show itself- but it is the first hint at Twilight's flaws. As the first season goes on, she never loses her love of reading and books, but she does learn to better balance her private life with a social one.

Which is something she desperately needs; whenever she crashes into the library, she not only bulldozes over Spike without apology, she ruins his present to Moondancer in the process. Twilight is our hero, and she's a "good" pony... but it's already pretty obvious that she's also a flawed character.

(And as an aside... Spike getting a present for Moondancer is interesting to me, and just screams of fanfic potential. The only pony he really lavishes such gifts on in the series proper is Rarity, making me rather curious about what kind of history he might have had with Moondancer).

Creating the letter has a series of childish humor (like Spike not knowing how to spell), but it also establishes the stakes and the roles of Twilight and Celestia. It also has my favorite blink-and-you-miss moment in the pilot as Twilight, discussing the threat of Nightmare Moon, walks in front of an hourglass... and the statue of a unicorn behind her is transformed into Nightmare Moon. It's a rather nice piece of animation, and, along the mare-in-the-moon motif that reappears later, helps make Nightmare Moon a more concrete threat; it isn't just Twilights ramblings, it's a real terror, one which permeates all of Equestria.

Celestia's response is to send Twilight to Ponyville, with the purpose of making friends. Again, there is a moment which may seem like a criticism of nerd culture- "you really must get out of those dusty old books"- but given how the second episode (and later ones) play out, I'm inclined to dismiss that as just a bad line, albeit it one which establishes something else about Twilight personality. She isn't just a reader; she a connoisseur of literature, delving into works that other characters have forgotten about or dismiss.
It's a comment that will actually become more important in the second season and beyond, since one of those "dusty old books" was most likely written by Starswirl the Bearded, making this the earliest hint at the arc that will appear in the later seasons.

For now, though, Twilight has to meet the rest of the cast. It's a pretty stock plot line; Twilight goes to one place, meets someone, moves to the next. It's simple and predictable... which makes the fact that she meets Pinkie Pie first all the more hilarious. Because Pinkie Pie will demonstrate cartoon physics as the series goes on, and break the fourth wall on multiple occasions; she's the Deadpool of the MLP-universe. So, naturally, her first response to seeing a stock plot is to break it, by saying nothing and running off-stage.

It's a sign that ends up running through the other meetings with the rest of the mane cast.

Applejack's sequence highlights her emphasis on family (with the extended Apple family), and her simpler "rustic" values by banging on the triangle. As a meta-point... AJ will end up being the least developed of the mane six, to the extent that "Applejack is my favorite background pony" is a fandom joke. It obviously isn't intentional- no one creates a character to be superfluous- but in the wake of Pinkies reality warping, it's amusing to consider that AJ's first appearance features her as part of a background crowd of characters.

After AJ, it's Rainbow Dash, a meeting which is caused by Rainbow shoving Twilight in the mud and showing off. We get a little more about Equestrian society with the mention of the Wonderbolts (and Rainbows desire to be one) which leads to Rainbow's meme-generating boast: "I can clear the sky in ten seconds flat". She not only does it, but she does it accompanied with a guitar sting totally unlike any other piece of music in the episode to date; Rainbow Dash doesn't just have an unconventional personality for a "girls" show, she breaks the score and replaces it with her own, awesome "guy" music.

Of all the ponies introduced so far, it's Rarity who is the most "girly", with an introduction decorating the town hall, and dressing up Twilight. Like Rainbow, Rarity's introduction plants the seeds for her story arc over the series, her fascination with Canterlot: "The glamour! The sophistication! I've always dreamed of living there!". The first episode sets Rarity up as a very superficial character, and even a tad flighty, as evidenced when she presents a dress then leaves to switch it out a moment later, asking herself what she was thinking, but the second part of the pilot (and the rest of the series as whole) will dig into who I consider to be the most complicated character on the show.

Fluttershy's introduction is something of an extended punchline, with her mumbled responses of her name as contrasted to her enthusiastic talking with Spike. She's clearly a character who is more comfortable with animals than with people- she even has a choir made up of songbirds- and while her ambitions aren't as clearly stated as Rainbow and Rarity, we again see the course her character arc will take; growing more confident around her friends and strangers over the course of the series... though again it's not something which is particular developed here.

The cast is rounded out with Pinkie, who, in another sign of her fourth-wall awareness, has managed to fit an entire party inside Twilgihts house... the house she had no way of knowing belonged to Twilight. And the members of this party not only include a lot of background ponies who will go on to have their own sizable fandoms (hey there, Derpy!), it also includes the other ponies who make up the mane six... including Fluttershy who, literally seconds ago, was locked out of the house by Twilight. Pinkie Pie explains her motivations, concluding by saying that this way, Twilight can have lots of friends, a statement which is obviously directed at the mane six rather than the town as a whole. Pinkie Pie's fourth wall awareness lets her pick out the main characters of the show and lump them together already.

The interesting thing about all this is how, despite the friendly overtures the others make, the audiences sympathy is always directed at Twilight. In a more traditional show, the other characters may be shown to be kind to Twilight's dismissive attitude, generally winning her over. Here, Twilight is stuffed with food (to the point of pain), shoved in mud, rainblow dried, dressed like a doll against her will, enduring Fluttershy's (clearly uninteresting) conversation, and tops it off by setting herself on fire.
The rest of the cast don't come across as jerks, but Twilight maintains sympathy from the audience. She has her priorities, and while we know, from a meta-sense, that friendship is going to be important to saving the day, it's impossible not to empathize with her, trying to save the world while being bothered by everyone.

Spike tries to get Twilight to relax, reminding her that the Mare in the Moon is just an old ponies tale, and that she should be enjoying the party... which Twilight refuses. She can't stop herself from staring at the mare shaped blotch on the moon, a reminder of the looming danger of Nightmare Moon, and a hint for viewers at Twilight's personality. She's an anxious person; it's a trait which will reoccur throughout the series.

Everything comes to a head at the Summer Solstice celebration, when Princess Celestia goes missing. In her place rises a dark smoke which takes the form of a dark pony in armor with an ethereal mane. Once again, Pinkie's fourth wall awareness drives her to undermine the situation by guessing names for the new arrival, but this time she is silenced by Applejack. There's a time and a place for Pinkie's antics, but this, the showcase moment of the pilot, isn't it, and the narrative intervenes to stop her from derailing things completely.

And I call it the showcase moment, because Nightmare Moon makes one hell of an entrance. She has the voice and mannerisms of a supervillain, including the great supervillain laugh right at the end; she's grand, dramatic and threatening. She's the first alicorn we see in the series, and she looms over the other characters, giving her an aura of danger. At the same time, her initial moments are closer to that of a bully, flicking Rainbows muzzle to get a response, and her dialogue speaks to the tragedy established in the prologue. Her dialogue- "Is my crown not royal enough for you?"- speaks to that isolation that drove her to become Nightmare Moon in the first place. There's even a degree of satisfaction in her tones when Twilight says she recognizes her. That recognition is going to play a minor part in the next episode, and it forms an important part of Luna's personality as the series goes on.

The episode ends at the height of the drama; Nightmare Moons mane grows into a rising vortex, and she makes her villainous proclamation, that the night will last forever; cue 'To Be Continued' sign.

Conclusion:
I love this episode. I really do think it's a great piece, both as an episode in it's own right, and as the starting of the series. It introduces the characters (bar Celestia), kicks off the character and story arcs which are going to be carried for the rest of the series... and I think that it does a good job of drawing in new audiences. There is a real feeling that the creators are trying to convinced you that this version of MLP is something new and exciting, and I genuinely believe that the set up for this is every bit as epic a fantasy as the sources I mentioned above. As it turns out, I don't think the concluding part of the pilot really lived up to it's expectations- but it was ambitious in a way that no one could really have expected a show based on plastic pony toys would be.