My Little Pony Revisited: Season 2, Episodes 1-7

We've finished up the first season of the show, so now it's onto the second season, which many fans claim to be the best of the show. Does it really hold up as well as it did then?

The Return of Harmony

Written by M. A. Larson

When I did first review the episode, I thought it was good, but nothing special. Rewatching it, however, I thought for a premiere, it deserved more. Though there are a couple of sticking points I want to get out of the way.

The first is that the Crusaders come off as interchangeably mean-spirited to one another in the cold open. Yeah, it sets up the main story, but they were never this petty with one another before or since, making it feel jarring.

The second is less a writing problem and more a placement problem; The Return of Harmony does not really feel like a premiere at all. If anything, it should've been season one's finale instead of The Best Night Ever which, as I said, felt like a generic episode. By the time season one had come to a close, you've very much grown to like the Mane Six as characters and got to know them well. That way, when Twilight loses faith, it should've left a bigger impact than it did, but because it was made the premiere, it hurt the tension by quite a lot. Again, that's not Larson's fault since he doesn't have any control over what airs when (Fame and Misfortune was a season five script that ended up two seasons too late, for example).

Anyway, the episode on its own merits is fun to watch and shows how, even then, what the animators were capable of. I don't bring that up since it's usually a standard at this point, but still. Key points go to how the Mane Six first dealt with the unusual weather and how, through Discord's manipulation, they end up losing their color. It's certainly is, and always will be, far better than how The Mean 6 handled an anti-Mane Six.

Speaking of whom, yes, it's Discord alright. He's a far more entertaining antagonist than Nightmare Moon was because you can see what he's truly capable of, and the hell that the Mane Six are put through show that he isn't to be messed with. Seriously, Rarity being obsessed over a rock called Tom is just ridiculous, but it works so well. Meanwhile, the worst Nightmare Moon did was capture Celestia and make it dark out of pettiness. Discord doesn't really need a motivation; chaos is his one and only goal. Also, is it just me, or did I make some comparisons to Heath Ledger's Joker?

It's also rather funny and ironic how Fluttershy is the first of the Mane Six to befriend Discord in future episodes, and yet was initially scared of him, was the trickiest for him to manipulate, and even called him a big dumb meanie.

Discord's defeat is a bit on the anti-climactic side. He doesn't really make an attempt to fight back. He just stands there screaming whilst he's turned to stone. Then again, it might be considering that A) he believed the Elements wouldn't work against him after their first failed attempt, and B) he was overconfident that he'd be alright, so maybe that can be excused. And that's not even mentioning how deserved his defeat was.

Nitpicking aside, I feel I understated this episode. It's one of the show's most important, and gives us one of the show's most memorable antagonists to date. It even helps that they brought in John de Lancie along to be his voice actor. If Discord is left out of the reboot, I wouldn't mind too much; there's no way another actor can try and match de Lancie's performance.

Rating: Excellent (9/10)

Lesson Zero

Written by Meghan McCarthy

So now we come to an episode that, at one point, I called the best of the show. I'll admit that statement has aged since - mostly due to lots of future episodes being great - but I still think the episode holds up.

Whether it be Twilight freaking out about being late for Princess Celestia and her paranoia about being sent away (it's foreshadowed by her excessively removing the frosting from the batch of cupcakes Mrs. Cake make for their picnic), and of course, Rarity's "worst possible thing" line, the episode never stumbles with its humor. I mean, seriously; Big Macintosh with a doll - where have we seen that before?

But the episode shines through with its double message; don't freak out over little things, and be more sensitive to other peoples' feelings. The rest of the Mane Six learn the latter message, and Twilight the former message. Both of which are very important to learn.

It's also nice that this episode would result in the writers being given more creative freedom in who can focus on, especially after season one was basically Twilight spam. The episode overall is funny, has a great lesson, and is deservedly one of the show's best. You really can't ask for more.

Rating: Excellent (10/10)

Luna Eclipsed

Written by M. A. Larson

Remember in my revisit of The Cutie Mark Chronicles in which I laser-focused on one issue and how it brought the episode as a whole down? Consider this round two; I know what the intention is meant to be, but it's the execution that comes first, and the way it presented the episode is just mean-spirited.

For starters, how is it that Pinkie, Fluttershy and Applejack forgot that they were present when Luna returned to normal? Hell, why is everypony except Twilight afraid of her? I know this doesn't affect the main plot (no, I'm not commenting on the redesign issue), but you'd think they'd at least have the common sense to know she wasn't a threat to anypony anymore. Even if it was on Nightmare Night, it doesn't work any way it's sliced.

Then there's Pinkie. She is utterly annoying and unlikable here, almost to the point of being a bully to Luna. All the princess wanted to do was have fun on Nightmare Night, and she didn't do anything to deserve this cruel treatment! And that's before we get to this line of dialogue:

"Sometimes, it's just really fun to be scared!" - Pinkie Pie, 10/22/2011

This is not Pinkie emphasizing the fun of being scared. This is her excusing her cruel treatment towards Luna! In fact, it's probably the episode where her idiotic nature stems from, and this would eventually lead up to "classics" like Secrets and Pies and Yakity-Sax, eventually morphing her into Equestria's equivalent to Peter Griffin. And believe me when I say this is not the only time in season two that she acts like this.

Back to the episode, and Rainbow Dash doesn't serve much of a point beyond scaring others for personal amusement. Sure, she got her comeuppance for her pranks, but that should've been directed at Pinkie Prick for upsetting Luna! (And, by extension, for causing her outburst to begin with.)

I hate this episode, and it showed me a few things:

1. Not every character is destined to get lead roles (worse was to come for Luna).
2. Halloween-centric episodes are poorly handled in My Little Pony.
3. This is a bad rip-off to SpongeBob's Scaredy Pants, which did this plot way better, and in half the runtime.

At least Twilight was true to her character here.

Rating: Terrible (-3/10)

Sisterhooves Social

Written by Cindy Morrow

This is the first episode of the series that we see the relationship between Rarity and Sweetie Belle; the younger sister is a bit reckless but is willing to do anything to please her older sister, but she keeps getting on her nerves without meaning to. Meanwhile, Rarity is rather fussy about things being perfect, and it can be hard to watch for some people (especially if they have siblings) when they get into a fight. And it's especially heartbreaking when Rarity comes to realize through her little sister's arts and crafts project that she messed up and wants to put things right.

There isn't much to say, but this is one of season two's best episodes with its funny moments, heartwarming bits, and a fantastic message to top things off. I can't do a full review to do it justice; just see for yourself!

Rating: Excellent (10/10)

The Cutie Pox

Written by Amy Keating Rogers

Even less to say about this one. All that happens is that Apple Bloom gets desperate in getting a cutie mark and ends up getting multiple cutie marks with some gags along the way. That's pretty much it. Apart from a few funny moments like Rainbow Dash's cloud being cut into a circle, there's nothing to talk about story wise. Even the theme about patience doesn't really give the episode much weight. It's kind of sluggish to sit through.

Rating: Okay (4/10)

May the Best Pet Win!

Written by Charlotte Fullerton

I like the concept this episode has about Rainbow Dash wanting to get her own pet; she has specific requirements about what she wants, but the pet she gets isn't what she wanted but still keeps him anyway. What makes the episode fall flat, however, is that as soon as Tank enters the picture, it does become obvious that he's gonna end up living with Rainbow. Not helping is his constant presence in all of the competitions that border either on cruelty or ridiculous, depending on your love for animals.

Don't get me wrong, stories based on the "tortoise vs. hare" fable can work, but the hare loses because of its overconfidence about beating a tortoise and losing because it fell asleep in the middle of the race. Sure, they do something similar with Rainbow constantly putting the tortoise (not yet named) down and commenting that he doesn't have a chance, but there's not really any tension or doubt that he ends up being her pet.

Some things I liked were Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy's dynamic, especially with the latter helping the former in finding a pet through a song, which was great, despite, you know, killing the tension. And the opening sequence with Dash and the Mane Six's pets being one creature was kind of fun. Disturbing? Sure, but it drives home the point she's sort of left out until the end. Though something that was rather off was Fluttershy showing apathy to the animals being put through dangerous stunts. Why didn't she call it off before Rainbow put anyone into harm?

This one was difficult to re-rate, but thinking about it more, I decided that for a cornerstone episode, it's underwhelming. Not as bad as The Cutie Mark Chronicles, but the outcome is still obvious and the tension non-existent. There are funny moments and the song, again, is great, though there's only so far they can take a story with an obvious ending.

Rating: Bad (2/10)