My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - "Look Before You Sleep" - Talkback [12/03]

[The Huntsman]

Today @ 1:30 PM ET on The Hub

Well, Rarity finally gets an episode, shared with Applejack, but better than nothing. She’s growing on me as a character, but she hasn’t really had much time to develop properly. Oddly enough, despite encompassing the element of generosity, she has since behaved rather selfishly in many episodes. It seems that the elements of harmony thing is a non factor outside of the two-part premiere, but maybe they’ll show up again sooner or later.

Rarity and Applejack have a disagreement at Twilight's slumber party.

[Mandouga]

I'm not sure about this one. It was essentially the typical "odd couple" plot in which Applejack and Rarity are portrayed as not seeing eye to eye, with the moral of the story being about two people (or ponies in this case) trying to get along despite being total opposites.

Also, while watching this episode, it dawned on me that this show might be relying too much on "spotlight character" episodes. I don't think even the original show relied exclusively on that. If this show keeps it up from that angle, it might be bad for the show in the long run. It wouldn't really hurt the show if they also try doing ensemble episodes every once in a while.

[Mesousa]

Meh one this week. The highlight was mostly Twilight being a bit more kookier than usual. (remember, she was meant to be the most sane character of the show, but I'm actually glad they didn't continue on that path)

So Applejack and Rarity have an episode-long whining contest to each other. Come on, the writers can do better than this. I guess this is meant to be a very passable episode. The reason why they have the slumber party was pretty odd, though, a rain shower that didn't happen the previous week has to be made up with a storm?

Going back to Twilight though; her being odder than usual worked until the end. Girl, a big tree is inside your home, and all you care about are is if it's in the rules of a sleepover? Is that even possible? She didn't even get called out by Applejack on this, she just...watches.

[The Huntsman]

The reason why they have the slumber party was pretty odd, though, a rain shower that didn't happen the previous week has to be made up with a storm?

It made sense to me. The series has stressed the importance of harmony, and since the pegasus’ are in charge of the weather, missing a rain shower meant that a bigger one had to take place. It keeps nature in balance. Regardless, despite being an Applejack and Rarity episode, Twilight Sparkle stole the show. You may think she behaved oddly at the end, but the girl is lacking in social experience and she wanted to throw the perfect slumber party. She had apparently been studying that book for a while and was relying on it to determine what should be done, so when the tree smashed through the window, she had hoped that it would provide a path forward.

[Zam]

Be a good Bronie, and vote for MLP as show of the year

http://www.nickandmore.com/2010/12/0...of-2010-top-3/

[TheGunheart]

I don't know, Twilight felt more out-of-character this episode than anything. Like the part was written for a different pony but was switched to Twilight somewhere along the way. The need to do the whole thing by the book was about the only thing that really felt in-character compared to previous episodes.

That said, Applejack is starting to grow on me as one of my favorites. Though Rarity is starting to make me wonder if the Elements of Harmony are simply big on irony. For what it's worth, though, only the first two episodes were written by Lauren Faust.

[SigmasonicX]

I'm currently rewatching the series between the end of season 2 and the start of season 3, with two episodes per week, adjusting as an actual start time for season 3 is announced.

“Look Before You Sleep” is generally considered to be a pretty unremarkable episode, and is the first episode concept that really screams “cartoon aimed at girls”. Though the end of the episode had too much giggling over stuff that wasn't actually funny for my taste, it's still a pretty enjoyable episode.

I was first exposed to this show through gifs that people were using as avatars on other forums. In particular, I recall seeing gifs of Twilight being thrown into the air by Pinkie's mob in “The Ticket Master”, and gifs of Rarity and Applejack going “oooo” after their “ghost stories”. I found Rarity's gif in particular to be adorable, and it is probably one of the things that got be to start watching the show. I do recall that I actually thought Rarity was the main character, and that Twlight was a Team Rocket-style ineffectual villain, due to their color schemes.

I really like Twilight's “adorkable” moments in the show, and this episode is full of them, of course. This episode still portrays Rarity as being generally how you'd expect her to be, and we don't really get her more likable aspects in these episodic stories until “Suited for Success”, which is halfway through the season, so I'd generally say that season 2 has been better at handling her character in a way I like.

People like to mention the technological inconsistency in season 2, but then this episode managed to have both firefly lanterns and regular light switches in the same scene, so it's not really a season 2 thing. It was only really bad in “Mare-Do-Well” in any case. The series has generally been pretty good about keeping non-Twilight unicorn powers consistent, in the sense that they usually just know telekinesis and spells related to the unicorn's cutie mark, with Rarity also knowing instant-dress spells, but I don't think turning large amounts of wood into distinct objects is really part of Rarity's skill set outside of this episode.

Probably a coincidence, but when Twilight is reading out of the index of her book, she lists “BFF” followed by “Brother”. It is strange that Spike was allowed to go to Canterlot on his own, but he didn't really have a place in this episode.

I do like how this episode was able to show a different aspect to Applejack's character. While she acts as a calming influence on Rainbow Dash, she actually becomes the brash and impulsive one when paired with Rarity.

The moral is kind of strange, in that the moral of people being able to get along even if they aren't alike is perhaps the main moral of the entire series, yet it's also the moral of this specific episode. In that sense, I'd say episodes like the introduction and “Griffon the Brush-Off” actually do a better job of showing this moral than this one, since Applejack and Rarity don't seem to get along that well even by the end.

Overall, it is still an enjoyable episode, but still one of the weaker ones.

[Juu-kuchi]

If anything this episode at least gave us the ever adorkable Twilight hoof clop.

In a way while this episode is weak, you can at least give it some credit of attempting to be something more than it is. If it were a previous generation MLP episode, the plot would've been just having the sleepover, but instead here it's the backdrop for a character study between two unlike ponies who learn how to get along despite their differences. It had a nice easy-going, unambitious feel for the episode, and it was done in a way which makes me wish it is done once again in a better fashion.

Yeah Rarity still wasn't my favourite around this time. Shame really this happened before she was fleshed out as a character than after. Probably would've improved the episode exponentially. Of course any episode with New Rarity would be improved exponentially.

[King9]

Yeah Rarity still wasn't my favourite around this time. Shame really this happened before she was fleshed out as a character than after. Probably would've improved the episode exponentially. Of course any episode with New Rarity would be improved exponentially.

I agree for the most part, but I think Rarity playing off Applejack gives her some really great lines.

[Juu-kuchi]

I agree for the most part, but I think Rarity playing off Applejack gives her some really great lines.

Oh yes i don't discount that. Throughout some of the earlier episodes it does feel like they were trying to get a feel with her and allowing Tabitha to work with the performance, they just did not release all of the valve quite yet is all.

[King9]

Oh yes i don't discount that. Throughout some of the earlier episodes it does feel like they were trying to get a feel with her and allowing Tabitha to work with the performance, they just did not release all of the valve quite yet is all.

Word. I was watching some season one last week and man the ponies evolved a lot since then. Fell into their right niches. Voices and personalities.

[TnAdct1]

In a way while this episode is weak, you can at least give it some credit of attempting to be something more than it is. If it were a previous generation MLP episode, the plot would've been just having the sleepover, but instead here it's the backdrop for a character study between two unlike ponies who learn how to get along despite their differences. It had a nice easy-going, unambitious feel for the episode, and it was done in a way which makes me wish it is done once again in a better fashion.

Another thing to point out: this is the show's real attempt at doing a storyline that limits the amount of "Mane Six" characters involved here (as in actually appearing in the story; Boast Busters does featuring all six ponies, but the ones voiced by Andrea Libman were more background characters here). While the first attempt may not be the rest, the results do improve as the show progesses (thanks in part to viewers being comfortable with the idea that not every Mane Six pony has to be in each episode and the fact that characters get more developed as the show progresses).