I showed my sister, a MAJOR TNG fan, The Return of Harmony.

She instantly called Discord "An amazing villain"

Actually, Return Of Harmony might be a good bet now that I think about it. I need to show him an episode that has as little "girliness" in it as possible (I'm fine with most of the girliness, but I know he won't be)

An episode where most of the focus is on a decidedly entertaining villain and walking shout out to STTNG like Discord might be perfect

edited 8th Nov '11 3:31:16 PM by gingerninja666

... You might be right, putting it that way.

@Ginger who wants to show his dad an episode:

I'd say that there are plenty safe bets, but you have to make sure that you can dive in on this one without too much information on the characters. Party of One and Lesson Zero draw most of their humour from how unusual the focus characters are acting compared to all other episodes.

The first two episodes can be effective, but are not safe bets if you only got one shot.

I'd say The Ticket Master or Swarm of The Century would be a good idea. Especially the latter, if the guy enjoyed Gremlins and Looney Tunes.

EDIT: also, there are no episodes without enough girlishness to chase away anyone who cares about that sort of thing. If you know that he'll go "GAAAAAYY" at the slightest mention of feelings or pink, it's never going to work.

edited 8th Nov '11 3:36:12 PM by Kayeka

You can show him Fall Weather Friends it have least of girliness in all non action episodes.

And no showtunes

Why not just show him the first two episodes?

Because the guy who's getting an episode showed to him only gave in to curiosity after his son just couldn't stay quiet about it. The man seems to have a bit of a problem with girlyness and, if I'm guessing, already seems primed to dislike it.

The first two eps are good, in a way, but aren't really indicative of what the rest of the show is like, and are also not particularly strong compared to some of the later episodes.

So yeah, some selection will be required.

1. No guarantee he'll stick around for both parts.
2. The pilot episode is good in part 1, but it goes to hell in part 2.
3. The whole friendship speech and "girls using magical jewelry to defeat Queen Beryl Nightmare Moon" might be a turn-off.
4. It doesn't give the viewer an accurate representation of the rest of the series.
5. Because Pinkie Pie runs around naked throughout. That might be a huge turnoff to conservatives.

That's about it.

In the first two episodes they take out a manticore, evil trees, avatars of temptation AND an evil sorceress. That's pretty manly for a bunch of ponies. He'd also get to see a good bit of introduction for every character instead of being completely lost if you just jump into the middle of the series.

Then again, knowing how trying to introduce my parents to anime went, I suspect that this is not going to go well in general.

Eh, I wouldn't go with the pilot for this; the whole "power of friendship" thing is a bit cheesy, and there isn't as much humor as in most of the other episodes.

We're not talking about a Tolstoy novel. The series is pretty much designed so you can jump in and still get what's going on.

Unless you're banking on him loving Fluttershy though... I still think her introduction is one of the cutest scenes in the show.

For what it's worth, my intro episode was "Griffon the Brush-Off, " but I wouldn't recommend it.

I don't know, my mum genuinely enjoyed it, even though she seemed poised to dislike it herself. My dad is obviously intrigued by the large male demographic, so I think he's willing to be at least A LITTLE open minded.

edited 8th Nov '11 3:57:21 PM by gingerninja666

I don't like Magical Girl show but I liked pilot of MLPFIM , part two even more. Until Cutie Mark Chronies it was best episode.

Give him Suited for Success.

...

Troll? Where?

The pilot for definite is out. I myself feel the need to skip Twilight's "Spark" speech whenever it starts up

I suppose the universal suggestion is Sonic Rainboom

Why does Over a Barrel get no love? I never see anyone bring that one up unless Braeburn entered the discussion somehow.

I'd say Swarm of the Century is perfect. It invokes Looney Tunes tropes, can work as an introduction to the characters, and isn't quite as anvilicious as some other episodes can get.

I'd better make that the last thing I say on this subject.

@Ginger good luck with yout father I hope he enjoys the show.

Braeburn?! WHERE?! Where's that sexy hunk of a stallion?!

edited 8th Nov '11 4:15:20 PM by gingerninja666

Over a Barrel is my favorite episode, thank you very much.

I've never been that big a fan of "Over a Barrel", mainly because I feel like the mane cast is only tangentially related to the plot. Not to mention that (I'm going to get shot for this) I actually found Braeburn a little grating. I've never reacted all that well to enormous amount of unbridled enthusiasm of that sort.

I didn't really like Over a Barrel. Can't really say why, but I just didn't.

I would make a remark about Pinkie there, but I'm not going to.

Actually, come to think of it, the mane cast only made things worse

edited 8th Nov '11 4:20:30 PM by gingerninja666

Over Barel can work to. It is wester with ponies, most of them are badass, pink pony was dressed like showgirl.