|
>>
|
No. 2516171
Continuation from >>2516170
This episode feels like a movie to me. I mean, I've considered all two-parters to be "movies" but this has a real feel of one. I don't know what exactly makes it so. It might be the abundance of songs, the background music, the fact that this doesn't play out like normal episodes, having a villain like this, I don't know. What I do know that had this been a full length movie I would have enjoyed it a lot. I also know that the team has the potential to make a great movie if they ever choose to do one!
Now onto some other points, like the fight scene. As I mentioned, I liked it and didn't like it at the same time. The fighting scene was well done, maybe even a bit awesome and I did like seeing the ponies could actually fight. However, there's one issue. The ponies actually fought the changelings. Like, physically. Kicking and stuff. I'm not sure I like that. That's not friendship. Yes, there was the dragon from Dragonshy and the manticore from Elements of Harmony but those fights weren't resolved by violence, it actually just made things worse. Here they won the fight and resolved the conflict by bucking their enemy into submission. Sure, they got caught after that when reinforcements arrived but... Fighting was a viable choice that paid off. I'm not sure if I approve.
One of the things I liked was the fact that the Elements were never actually used. They were mentioned and the Mane 6 tried to get to them but they didn't use them. Of course, according to my headcanon on how the Elements work they wouldn't have worked here because Chrysalis and the changelings weren't really a threat to harmony and balance at large. However, that's just my headcanon and they didn't get to the Elements anyways. I liked the fact that love has actual power in Equestria like it does in many other stories. Then again, love is sort of a friendship and friendship can fire lasers of rainbow... As much as I didn't feel the love Shining Armour and Cadence had I do think them defeating Chrysalis was right.
Speaking of Chrysalis and the changelings. I love love love their design. No, really, I like it. I wonder what kind of magic they have, other than transformation and using it to power up their divebombing. Oh, and that sticky goo where some guards and Cadence were trapped was apparently one of their abilities, too. Chrysalis seemed capable of other spells, too, like the beam she used against Celestia and mind control. And apparently healing headaches... I really wonder if that headache was the result of Chrysalis doing something or was it really the shield. Shining Armour didn't seem mind controlled before the wedding so I don't think that's it. And weren't the changelings supposed to feed on the love of ponies? If you used mind control the victim wouldn't really love you and if it worked she wouldn't have had to go through the wedding plan at all. Oh, and as I mentioned earlier, how were they supposed to feed on the love of scared and fleeing ponies? Anyways, I think they make a fine addition to Equestria's list of monsters and a pretty terrifying one at that.
Moving on, I find myself wondering what the alicorns really are. Celestia and Luna are at least a 1000 years old. Celestia looks like she hasn't aged at all in about 200 years if Granny Smith's flashback is to be believed and she actually is that old. Cadence on the other hand has visibly aged from the flashback of Twilight's where she was some sort of a teenage pony and is now, likely less than 20 years later, seemingly an adult. Either alicorns stop aging as grown-ups or Cadence isn't such a long-lived one, making the two sisters even more special. Cadence was also a foalsitter for multiple foals who apparently weren't royalty (I don't think Twilight was royalty even though they had such a fancy house) even though she was a princess. That makes me wonder, if she was a princess in Canterlot, where has she been? In the same place Luna has been hiding all season? What about other alicorns, how are they born, how rare are they actually? I know Cadence wasn't originally designed as an alicorn and I hope they are planning to explain alicorns in season 3 because this change isn't a small thing. I assume the team knows of what importance this is for the world. If alicorns are just like other ponies then where are they all hiding? If they are special then where did Cadence come from?
And from Cadence to Shining Armour, Twilight's BBBFF with whom she was so close. Who wasn't present at Twilight's entrance exam, hasn't written Twilight letters or the other way around, who wasn't in Twilight's flashback in The Cutie Mark Chronicles, wasn't present at the celebration in Return of Harmony (though neither were her parents). Brother of Twilight, who apparently never had friends before (actually, Cadence is a problem here, too, as she and Twilight seemed sort of close, maybe they were even friends). The thing is, it is sort of understandable that he hasn't been mentioned before as it's not like it has been a relevant plot point in previous episodes. Still this seems like it comes out of nowhere and is a bit annoying. I so hope he's going to be mentioned in season 3 at least at some point...
Anyways, to actually talk about the episode itself... I liked the story. As I said, it could sustain a longer "movie", easily. I liked the expressions of the characters. Mostly. I still don't really like the look of ponies' faces from the front and I'm not a fan of that grin that shows upper front teeth. Especially accompanying evil laughter! Twilight had lots of great faces in this episode, from crushed to having her eys go all *insert sound effect* to happy. Rarity had some great faces too, as did Pinkie. Celestia at one point looked like a dog. I didn't notice animation errors, other than Lyras and Colgates all around when they were semi-important characters (which I suppose isn't really an animation error) and of course there seemed to be some alicorn guards in one of the flashbacks.
Actually, speaking of Twilight, this was a lot like a Twilight episode. Lesson Zero, to be exact. Twilight's friends don't take Twilight seriously when she sounds like she's crazy/is upset for no reason and things go bad. Although this episode did have a lot more going on than just Twilight's friends not taking her seriously as it was just part of the story I still made that connection. I was also sort of hoping to have a Mane 6 episode as the finale but then again, it was Twi's brother getting married, it is understandable why she was the focus. And of course her friends all got to do something. Kick some changeling butt at least. And wear pretty dresses, too (I need fanart of Fluttershy with that manedo, maybe in that dress).
Personalities of the ponies were portrayed like I think they are. At least I didn't notice any glaring problems with any of them. Pinkie was pretty "normal" in this episode, which is something I liked. Well, as normal as a pony who sneezes confetti and pulls out her party cannon from who-knows-where can be.
All in all, I liked this episode. It was a definitely a good finale for this season. I'd like to mention that even though I wish it was longer I think what they managed to do with just 2 episodes is great. There were some things I didn't like that will drop the score a bit mainly the fact that I didn't feel the love, the ponies used violence as a solution and that Chrysalis was dumb. I know bad guys are supposed to be defeated but it could have gone some other way. Fluttershy in a cute dress ups the score a bit, as it's based on my personal enjoyment. Another thing that ups the score is the fact that when I watched this the third time and took notes I at some point forgot to take notes for about 7 minutes or so just because I watched the show go on. Therefore on a scale from 4 to 10, I think this episode deserves 8½.
|