The weird 'Fluttershy Abomination' reminds me of Zalgo... o_O

Getting back to the question of "what would be good starter episodes?" Personally I'm gonna start my friends off with:

Swarm of the Century - For reasons stated earlier.
A Dog and Pony Show - Some might argue that you need to know Rarity, but I think the basic idea of "horse annoys her captors" is basic enough to understand.
And I was going to go with Green Isn't Your Color but on second thought, Feeling Pinkie Keen might be better since its more humorous and has less obviously "girlie" themes.

Personally I'm holding my breath about the introduction of a recurring Big Bad. This show, honestly, does not need villains, and I wouldn't really enjoy seeing the ponies as defenders of justice who use the Elements of Harmony to fight evil. We have enough Good vs. Evil cartoons as it is, so that whole angle is better off forgotten.

I just hope the introduction of a Big Bad doesn't devolve into the "Big Bad has the heroines at his whim for 90% of the episode before being outsmarted in the end" routine. I personally wouldn't mind a villain who while not very intelligent, is still very competent. Hopefully, this Big Bad only shows up every so often so we can have episodes where the mane cast can have more interactions with the locals.

Eh, this might be personal, but I really liked Winter Wrap Up. It had an awesome song, but it might be hard to explain to people that the ponies control the weather.

I hear Sonic Rainboom and Swarm of the Century pop up often when people discuss what episodes got them into the series. (Pinkie Pie with a tuba was pretty amazing after all.)

A Big Bad like Nightmare Moon might be interesting to see again. I always wanted to hear a bit more about the "four stars that would aid in her escape."

edited 28th Apr '11 12:00:26 PM by PrincessGwenevere

I just started from the beginning. But I'm boring/anal like that.

Same here.

If you ask me, it's probably best to start at the beginning. Of course I'm a huge Nightmare Moon fanboy, so, meh.

I've always held it's best to start from the beginning because it gives the best introductions to the characters, which is probably the most important thing in a character driven show like this one. After that, I'd say fall weather friends, maybe? It's a pretty funny episode, and not at all girly.

I really liked the beginning..i don't get why people don't, contrived coincidence or not. but then i'm extremely forgiving over contrived coincidences anyway.

I liked the pilot myself, though I would say that I like the later Slice of Life episodes better.

Don't remember if anybody's shared this, but oh well...

Remember the Pony Polka video? Here's the sequeal:

I must say, of all the people I expected to be Slim Shady, Photo Finish certainly wasn't one of them.

The primary reason I'm reluctant to start a newbie off with the actual first episode is because of the Genre Shift that the series goes through immediately following. If I can talk them into watching three episodes, that's okay, but if they'll only watch one or two then that can be a problem.

edited 28th Apr '11 1:53:19 PM by MoeDantes

I started on "Stare Master."

Nobody should follow my example.

I started with Bridle Gossip. I found it to be quite funny, but not funny as it should have been as I didn't know what the mane cast was like.

Could anyone give me a non-youtube link to where I can watch every episode? The channel that used for eps 1-6 got suspended and for seem reason I can't navigate the Hub at all and have only found little clips.

http://www.youtube.com/user/MAST3RLINKX

Has all the episodes except the newest one, though some of them are in a weird order.

Crap, you said non-youtube. Uh, sorry, not sure.

Edited again! This thread has download links for the episodes.

edited 28th Apr '11 2:36:35 PM by Crowfall

Thanks! Its not that I have a problem with youtube, its just that there's always a risk of the channel being closed before I watch everything.

@Pony Paradise

Why are Rainbow's legs so long? (At least they look abnormally long to me.)

edited 28th Apr '11 2:46:03 PM by AnonymousUser

re Youtube

That's why you need to know keepvid-dot-com. Every time I find a Pony episode there, I download it.

There's one account whose name I forget (something like Menlo Marseilles) who I like because he uploads the full ep as one video, not broken into parts like everyone else.

If you're a legal eagle though then I've heard that episodes become available on iTunes soon after they air.

I think you are referring to this guy.

Sometimes I use the "YouTube Video Download" Greasemonkey script to get MP4 versions of the episodes to use on my iPod.

Not often, though, 'cause I only have a Nano and who wants to watch ponies on a 2-inch screen, you know?

I have a Touch and don't want to watch video on tiny screens either.

A Touch I'd watch it on. I think.

Hey, so we might actually learn a bit more about Pinkie in this episode!

I feel like she hasn't been given the best characterization, so...this'll be fun!

She is, at least to me, the least defined of all the main characters.