The Jakeinator: From a standpoint of making me care, the story and villain succeed in making me not give a damn about the Crystal Ponies or the Villain.
However, I did like Spike's role, everything else he's done I felt was just boring and didn't compare to episodes about the girls, but now I couldn't help but like his role.
Same for Cadance, now I'm actually interested in her character as the Crystal Princess or whatever. I'm going to be sorely disappointed if they don't elaborate on what this means, but at least now Cadance isn't just looking like the retarded cousin at the party when compared to actually interesting characters like Celestia and Luna.
By the way, for fucks sake, Hasbro, you have a chance to make something great and moving with Celestia and Luna's backstory. For the love of God, tell this story.
Other than that, I'm just perturbed by a lot of plot holes I noticed, or just little things I noticed that bothered me, and the fact that this is the THIRD GODDAMN TIME the show has used the "Great evil locked away for an extended period of time" formula.
GildaTheGriffin: They should have given me more back story and personality of Sombra. Also, it feels rushed because the story felt jumpy and out of place. I like Season 2 and Season 1's opening episode way better.
The worst thing is at the beginning the guard rushes in and goes, "He's returned!" And Celestia is like, "OH... MY... GOD!" In expression. I was like, "Who? What the fuck are you even talking about? And how did you know from... 'him' did you get King Sombra?"
Hasbro was to dramatic in this and it ruined my experience of the story and the characters. Even the objective.
To Hasbro - LEARN TO NOT RUSH!
This.
Also, bloody hell, remember when the songs were good, and catchy, and were there to tell a story or convey emotion while being good or catchy like practically ALL the songs in season one? The second song was good, but the thing is, season one didn't have a song EVERY THREE BLOODY SECONDS, so it was a nice surprise, now I can just tell when the next song's going to pop up.
I'm still being failed to be impressed, song writers. But you can figure out more in my upcoming Youtube series.
I'm not too impressed this time around. Everything was quite lackluster, and the good outweighed the bad in my opinion. I'm not angry, just disappointed. If it sounds like I'm complaining, I am, it's just I'm too sodding tired to make all this jangle into constructive criticism and it'd probably end in a wall of text anyway.
Well a bigger one.
But keep in my that I just want the show to get better, I love the bloody thing, therefore, I must criticize it.
I'm not butthurt. Also, who cares about the catchy little songs?! When I watch a show I like to have some background and a story with objectives that ties itself with it. Season 1 and 2 where good, because Discord and Chrysalis talked and gave you the point of why they were the evil characters. Sombra, he did nothing but ride in on a dark cloud and make threatening growls like little puppy.
A song never reveals a story, it a stupid tactic people do so kids watch the cartoon. Though we are older and must be entertained by story and action.
Every big song is there to either tell a story or convey emotions in a gimmicky and perhaps even shorter amount of time it would take to use dialogue.
Besides, the songs just felt bigger in season one, since they more seldom happened they just seem to have more time and effort put into them, and they actually bloody sing, not just talk on rhythm.
You may not noticed it, but songs like Art of the Dress or Winter Wrap Up were not thrown in just to keep your attention, but they both showed how Rarity and Twilight were feeling about the situation they were in and explaining why they are feeling such a way. And Winter Wrap Up gets bonus points because it foreshadows what to expect in the coming rest of the episode.
Season two only accomplished this with about two or three songs, from what I've studied from them, and from what is from my humble opinion.
The Jakeinator: but at least now Cadance isn't just looking like the retarded cousin at the party when compared to actually interesting characters like Celestia and Luna.
Cadance was handled excellently in this episode. I was dreading having to the pink ex machina again but, no, she was just fine. No problems with her.
The Jakeinator: By the way, for fucks sake, Hasbro, you have a chance to make something great and moving with Celestia and Luna's backstory. For the love of God, tell this story.
If you'll remember, the backstory of Celestia and Luna is "once upon a time, there were two princesses who had everything they wanted. Except one was less popular, so she decided to freeze the world into darkness out of jealousy."
While it seems like every fanfic writer has cut their teeth on an elaborate reimagining of "how Luna became evil", the official story is still the first few minutes of Episode 1. There are several ways to wrangle that into a decent episode, but my gut tells me it'll be a straight up condemnation of Luna and celebration of Celestia. So, I'm not particularly looking forward to it.
If you'll remember, the backstory of Celestia and Luna is "once upon a time, there were two princesses who had everything they wanted. Except one was less popular, so she decided to freeze the world into darkness out of jealousy."
While it seems like every fanfic writer has cut their teeth on an elaborate reimagining of "how Luna became evil", the official story is still the first few minutes of Episode 1. There are several ways to wrangle that into a decent episode, but my gut tells me it'll be a straight up condemnation of Luna and celebration of Celestia. So, I'm not particularly looking forward to it.
Now there's no reason to make such a disingenuous assertion. What would be the point of making an episode about it if the episode already explains what we know?
I myself, after watching that episode a second time, felt there was always something else to the story that wasn't there. And I wouldn't have to say anyone has to cut their teeth to elaborate on that, since you know, there are bajigillion of interpretations.
On a side note, this one's my personal favorite;
See GildaTheGriffin? That's what I fucking mean by a season one song.
Verkula: Im not sure why they make Rainbow Dash to be a bigger and bigger asshole with every episode since season 2.
Flanderization, and that is a problem I had with this episode. None of the characters in the mane six felt "human", they all seemed to be there to portray their trait and nothing else, they really need to undo this change.
Villain was good, I felt that it was a nice change to the Saturday morning cartoon villains we have seen in the past. This guy was a looming presence and was ruthless, the first time we see him he tries to KILL the mane while they ran away, no self-indulgent speech or anything. The Eye of Sauron comparison is very relevant but I felt him more to be like The Moon in Majora's Mask, becoming ever closer by the second.
The continuity was lovely, alot of references to past episodes and characters and is what made the episode for me.
Twilight was a massive problem for me, she didn't seem to care at all about the Empire and was more worried about her test than anything. I wanted to punch her every time she mentioned her test and say "Yo Twilight, there is an evil force outside the barely stable barrier that wants to kill and enslave everyone inside, stop thinking about your fucking test!"
Songs were really forced, 3 songs were not needed and could of been taken out for more character development, they were really lacking in quality but I am trusting Daniel Ingram to do better in the future.
Overall 6.5/10
Not the strongest episode by far but definitely watchable, I feel the first half was better but pretty solid overall. If there is an overarching story that involves the Crystal Empire and Sombra I will likely increase my score.
Veylon: There are several ways to wrangle that into a decent episode, but my gut tells me it'll be a straight up condemnation of Luna and celebration of Celestia. So, I'm not particularly looking forward to it.
Now there's no reason to make such a disingenuous assertion. What would be the point of making an episode about it if the episode already explains what we know?
I myself, after watching that episode a second time, felt there was always something else to the story that wasn't there. And I wouldn't have to say anyone has to cut their teeth to elaborate on that, since you know, there are bajigillion of interpretations.
Because fan service. Fans have been clamoring for an episode on this subject since Season 1. As far as I can tell, the main draw for such an episode is the (allegedly) awesome confrontation between Celestia and Nightmare Moon. More draws include the desire to see Equestria one thousand years ago, Celestia with a pink mane, and an episode with high stakes, even if the outcome is preordained. And the safest and easiest way to wrap this up and ship it out to applause is to simply retell, in a longer form, the first five minutes of the opening episode.
Personally, I'm one of those people who thinks there almost has to be "something else" to the story. Luna certainly doesn't come across as reckless or selfish and ruining the world is something one would only do out of the utmost rage and despair. It's hard to see how she'd get to that point when she has Celestia, who's always been portrayed as loving and supportive, there to help her at all times.
Now, my gut's been wrong plenty of times before. I wasn't expecting the Royal Wedding to go the way it did. The direction they went with Luna in Luna Eclipsed was much better than anything I would've anticipated. So maybe a flashback episode about the rise of Nightmare will be fantastic and I have nothing to worry about.
Veylon: There are several ways to wrangle that into a decent episode, but my gut tells me it'll be a straight up condemnation of Luna and celebration of Celestia. So, I'm not particularly looking forward to it.
Now there's no reason to make such a disingenuous assertion. What would be the point of making an episode about it if the episode already explains what we know?
I myself, after watching that episode a second time, felt there was always something else to the story that wasn't there. And I wouldn't have to say anyone has to cut their teeth to elaborate on that, since you know, there are bajigillion of interpretations.
Because fan service. Fans have been clamoring for an episode on this subject since Season 1. As far as I can tell, the main draw for such an episode is the (allegedly) awesome confrontation between Celestia and Nightmare Moon. More draws include the desire to see Equestria one thousand years ago, Celestia with a pink mane, and an episode with high stakes, even if the outcome is preordained. And the safest and easiest way to wrap this up and ship it out to applause is to simply retell, in a longer form, the first five minutes of the opening episode.
Personally, I'm one of those people who thinks there almost has to be "something else" to the story. Luna certainly doesn't come across as reckless or selfish and ruining the world is something one would only do out of the utmost rage and despair. It's hard to see how she'd get to that point when she has Celestia, who's always been portrayed as loving and supportive, there to help her at all times.
Now, my gut's been wrong plenty of times before. I wasn't expecting the Royal Wedding to go the way it did. The direction they went with Luna in Luna Eclipsed was much better than anything I would've anticipated. So maybe a flashback episode about the rise of Nightmare will be fantastic and I have nothing to worry about.
It would be a great episode. It would be simple too. All they would need to do is have the cutie mark crusaders get curious about the whole Celestia vs Nightmare Moon thing (maybe they write a history report about it i dunno) and have them go find someone who knows about it to tell them the story. Or better yet have them go find some dusty old forgotten book and have them read it, which then turns into the episode. There are a lot of ways to go about it.
I enjoyed it quite a lot. I feel that they tried to tell a story that was a bit too ambitious for a 44-minute time slot, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment too much. Other than that, Sombra wasn't the best villain in terms of character development, but I feel that he made up for it by his sense of presence.
Veylon: There are several ways to wrangle that into a decent episode, but my gut tells me it'll be a straight up condemnation of Luna and celebration of Celestia. So, I'm not particularly looking forward to it.
Now there's no reason to make such a disingenuous assertion. What would be the point of making an episode about it if the episode already explains what we know?
I myself, after watching that episode a second time, felt there was always something else to the story that wasn't there. And I wouldn't have to say anyone has to cut their teeth to elaborate on that, since you know, there are bajigillion of interpretations.
Because fan service. Fans have been clamoring for an episode on this subject since Season 1. As far as I can tell, the main draw for such an episode is the (allegedly) awesome confrontation between Celestia and Nightmare Moon. More draws include the desire to see Equestria one thousand years ago, Celestia with a pink mane, and an episode with high stakes, even if the outcome is preordained. And the safest and easiest way to wrap this up and ship it out to applause is to simply retell, in a longer form, the first five minutes of the opening episode.
Personally, I'm one of those people who thinks there almost has to be "something else" to the story. Luna certainly doesn't come across as reckless or selfish and ruining the world is something one would only do out of the utmost rage and despair. It's hard to see how she'd get to that point when she has Celestia, who's always been portrayed as loving and supportive, there to help her at all times.
Now, my gut's been wrong plenty of times before. I wasn't expecting the Royal Wedding to go the way it did. The direction they went with Luna in Luna Eclipsed was much better than anything I would've anticipated. So maybe a flashback episode about the rise of Nightmare will be fantastic and I have nothing to worry about.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
No.
Fan service is never, ever, EVER a reason to ever, EVER do anything, ever, because it always bites you in the ass at the end, the only way that this episode will come out is if a competent write wants to do it, and then does it, and just so happens to be the person hired to write the next episode.
Now will that writer do fanservicy stuff, we won't know until it happens, huh? But unless Hasbro pulls a "Royal Wedding" card, it's not going to be done unless a writer wants to do it, or Hasbro wants them to do it.
You got to remember, timeline wise, they'd be at least 1000 years younger than they are now, a lot of personality changes could happen in that time, but I can't properly discuss it since I'd be talking about something that I have no information about, so fuck.
Eh, they were okay, like most of the episodes. It's a pretty decent cartoon, not some marvel masterpiece of modern television. Getting your hopes up is silly.
I'm not butthurt. Also, who cares about the catchy little songs?! When I watch a show I like to have some background and a story with objectives that ties itself with it. Season 1 and 2 where good, because Discord and Chrysalis talked and gave you the point of why they were the evil characters. Sombra, he did nothing but ride in on a dark cloud and make threatening growls like little puppy.
A song never reveals a story, it a stupid tactic people do so kids watch the cartoon. Though we are older and must be entertained by story and action.