Of Weddings and Empires · 10:32pm Feb 13th, 2013
Yesterday, I was hanging out with a friend I converted to bronyism at the end of last year. Is bronyism a word? I don’t know. Anyways, we were talking about random episodes, and “A Canterlot Wedding” came up. Now, the first time I—
Hang on, let me hide in my bomb shelter.
Okay. The first time I saw this episode, I didn’t really like it.
(Waits for bombardment to end.)
It’s not that I hated it or anything, there were just some parts that rubbed me the wrong way. Granted, I did see it at about 2 a.m. after watching about two-thirds of season 2, so that may have had something to do with it. I’ve watched it a few times since then, and I’ve warmed up to it, but there are still a few things that just bug me.
A lot of people really love it, though, and I can see why. It has a great villain and fun songs, and it’s a bit Disney-esque, which hits us older fans right in the nostalgia. I think that’s part of the reason so many were dissatisfied by “The Crystal Empire.” It was following a great episode, and it was even written by the same writer. How could the person who brought us a great royal wedding go from that to… well, King GRRRCrystals Sombra?
Looking at the two, though, I’m not sure it’s such a stretch. I think both episodes share some common weaknesses manifested in different aspects of the writing, and I think it’s interesting that those differences made such a difference between the much-loved “Wedding” and the much-maligned “Empire.”
Now, I’m only going to be looking at “Wedding” and “Empire,” not McCarthy’s other episodes, though there are several. The reason is that her other episodes are the usual 20-ish minutes, and I don’t really have time to analyze all of them. “Wedding” and “Empire” are both two-parters, which means McCarthy had twice as much time to fill. I think this is a key point, and I’ll come back to it later.
So let’s start with “Wedding.” Twilight and her friends are invited to assist in the wedding preparations for Twilight’s brother, Shining Armor, and her former foalsitter, Princess Cadance. They arrive in Canterlot to find security has been seriously beefed up and Shining Armor occupied with the defense of the city. Twilight also finds that Cadance is not the kind pony she remembers and thinks she’s become nothing but a jerk.
This suspicion eventually alienates her friends, brother, and mentor, but—surprise surprise—it turns out Cadance has been replaced by an evil twin. The real Cadance has been locked in the crystal caves beneath Canterlot. Twilight and the real Cadance escape and expose the fake Cadance, who turns out to be queen of a changeling hive with the goal of harvesting ponies for food in the form of love.
After a fight sequence and a desperate attempt to reach the Elements of Harmony, Twilight and her friends are captured along with Cadance and Celestia. Twilight frees Cadance, who in turn frees Shining Armor, and together they cast a spell that expels all the changelings from Canterlot. The wedding proceeds, and our heroes are able to enjoy a great wedding after all.
Probably my favorite parts of this episode are the villain and the music. Chrysalis takes an active role in pursuing her plans, and though she foolishly reveals herself at the wedding, she comes pretty close to achieving her goal, which in itself pretty believable and makes sense. The songs are not only well-written but contribute a lot to the story. “This Day Aria” helps us get to know the real Cadance and the yet-to-be-revealed Chrysalis while moving the story along, and “Love is in Bloom” is catchy, upbeat, and just makes the end feel like an end both of the episode and the season. “BBBFF” does such a good job of establishing Shining Armor and his relationship with Twilight, and why is there a bubble around Canterlot?
Yeah, maybe I’m alone on this, but when I first saw the episode, I missed the second half of “BBBFF” because I was trying to figure out why there was a giant bubble shield around Canterlot. Was that always there? Why is it there now? More importantly, why don’t any of the characters seem to notice it? It takes quite a while for the bubble to be acknowledged, and it’s not even explained until we meet Shining Armor. Twilight knows what the spell is; she uses it herself in “Ponyville Confidential.” It seems odd to me that she would just accept the fact that her hometown, which is home to her mentor, her big brother, and presumably her parents, is now completely enveloped in a massive shield spell. Would it really be so hard for someone to acknowledge it? Even a, “I wonder what that shield spell is?” “Oh, the royal guards are probably just running a drill” would be better than silence.
This highlights what I think is the episode’s biggest weakness—a lot of new things are thrown at us with little explanation. We have Shining Armor, who for some reason was never mentioned before despite being Twilight’s only friend before she came to Ponyville. We have Cadance, another very important pony in Twilight’s childhood. We have an entire race of shapeshifters that feed on love. While I don’t think any of these things are terrible on their own, throwing them all at us in the course of two 20-ish minute episodes felt like too much to me. I’m pretty sure I groaned when Chrysalis was revealed because it was just another new thing that felt thrown in because it served the plot.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I still like the episode. Chrysalis is still a great villain, the story is great as well, and it just resonates with my Disney nostalgia. I just feel like McCarthy was trying to do a little too much with the time she had, and I think that’s why I had a lukewarm reaction the first time I saw it.
Then we have “The Crystal Empire.” This was the first episode I saw live (and by “live,” I mean “on YouTube the same day it first aired”), and my expectations were high. What we got was… well, “The Crystal Empire,” which is not one of my favorite episodes.
So the Crystal Empire returns from some kind of magic void after a thousand years. Cadance and Shining Armor go to check it out while Celestia calls in Twilight and her friends to assist her. Celestia tells Twilight the backstory of the Empire and its evil ruler, King GRRRCrystals Sombra, and after singing a song about how she feels unprepared for the task, Twilight meets up with her friends, and together, they head to the Crystal Empire. Shining Armor meets them at the station, but they are attacked en route by a giant black cloud of evil, which temporarily takes away Shining Armor’s magic ability. They find Cadance struggling to keep the evil black cloud out of the Empire, and the six friends set out to find a more permanent solution.
After some investigation, they discover the Crystal Faire and decide it’s the best way to cheer up the crystal ponies and thus protect the city. Unfortunately, they don’t realize until after the faire begins that the crystal heart, the centerpiece of the faire, is actually an artifact with magical powers. Twilight and Spike set off to find the heart while the others try to keep the faire going. Twilight and Spike go through several challenges, including the Door of Darkest Fear (yes, I just made that up), and eventually find the heart at the top of a tower.
Unfortunately, King Sombra has set a trap, and Twilight is stuck in a ring of crystal. Meanwhile, Cadance’s power runs dry, and Sombra enters the Empire with the intention of… enslaving the ponies, I guess. Twilight tells Spike to take the heart to Cadance, which he does in a roundabout sort of way. The crystal ponies use their good feelings to charge the heart, Sombra is expelled and presumably destroyed, and the heroes return to Canterlot in triumph. Twilight even passes her test by proving that she will put the needs of others over her own.
So, what do I like about it? Well, the Empire got a decent explanation, and I liked that Cadance and Shining Armor returned. They easily could have let the two fall to the side like so many other characters, but McCarthy brought them back and gave them important roles. I also like that the Elements of Harmony weren’t the solution to the problem. I like how McCarthy forced the characters to come up with another solution that involved characters besides the mane six. I also really liked the lesson for this one, and the songs weren’t bad, either.
Unfortunately, the episode does have its weaknesses, the chiefest being King Sombra himself. He gets almost no character development, his goals are vague, and his motivations are vaguer. He wants to take over the Crystal Empire because… power? Crystals? Eventual takeover of Equestria? Is he motivated by greed, lust for power, or insanity? Or is it something else entirely?
Some argue that Sombra is meant to be more of a symbol of fear than an actual character, and I can kind of see this perspective. The crystal ponies are obviously still terrified of the mere memory of their enslavement, and the Door of Darkest Fear is pretty cool. But throughout the episode, the constant threat doesn’t come from the fear he’s instilled in his former subjects, but from the imminent (and vague) threat he poses to the Empire. If Sombra’s true threat is the fear his subjects still feel, why does he make an appearance at all? If the threat is fear, why is the urgency driven by a race against time before he’ll be able to break in and do… something, instead of, I don’t know, the risk of the crystal ponies being overcome by their own memories without the magic of the crystal heart to cure them? As it is, Sombra seems to be set up to be a villain like Chrysalis or Discord, but he just doesn’t get the kind of development he needs to stand on par with them.
There are other random things, like the crystal heart itself, Twilight’s sudden ability to use black magic, or the random gravity reversal spell. Like “Wedding,” I feel like “Empire” is trying to do too much in its 40-odd minute run time. There’s just not enough time to give all the elements the attention they need to be effective, and both episodes suffer a bit because of it.
So, back to the original question. Why is “Wedding” put on a pedestal, while “Empire” is sent to the moon? I think it really boils down to which aspects get the attention they need and which ones get shorted. “Wedding” has better character development with some plot holes and sudden revelations, while “Empire” does a better job of explaining things at the expense of a strong villain. Speaking for myself, the characters are one of the things that hooked me, and I think a lot of people feel the same way. I’m more willing to accept the sudden appearance of Shining Armor, Cadance, and the well-written Chrysalis than a bland and forgettable villain with a slightly better explanation.
I think McCarthy’s weakness in both these episodes is a false sense of space. Having twice as much time doesn’t necessarily mean you can do twice as much stuff and still have it all work. I don’t think she’s a terrible writer, of course, nor do I think these episodes are necessarily terrible. I just think they have similar weaknesses expressed in different aspects of the writing, and one of them happened to work a lot better than the other.
And that’s why I think it’s not such a stretch that McCarthy wrote both.
So, yeah. One of my coworkers is telling me to stop writing 2K word essays about ponies and do something productive like lay out a page or something, so I’d better go do that.
Cheers!
~Scribblestick
B-But I LIKE your two k word essays!
I didn't much like either of those episodes (because of this looming sense of kinda-"deus ex machina" that pervaded my watching them), but I see your points. Maybe I'll try rewatching them with a more open mind.
Well said. You should do this more often
Me: Ditto.
Scribblestick: "Ditto?" "Ditto," you provincial putz?
Of all the two part episodes, I feel that "Return of Harmony" is the best. Why? A strong villain who gets lots of screen time and hence development. Oh, and it helps that it is really 'Q'
The point at which he say 'Yes!' when he breaks Twilight made him the guy to hate-love for me. As for both of the Cadence/Shining episodes: I hardly revisit them, but 'Wedding' wins fractionally.
And please, keep cranking out these insightful blogs.
824669 I definitely agree with the deus ex feeling, which I think is worse in "Wedding"--at least the heart had some kind of buildup (as in, it was mentioned before the last twelve seconds of the episode).
824701 Thanks! I'll see what I can do.
824736 Discord's one of my favorites, too. I think the main reason I like "Wedding" is for the Disney feel. Right in the childhood, as it were. And I do like Chrysalis as a villain because of just how good she is at what she does (infiltration and deception) and the reasoning behind her actions, even if the changelings came completely out of nowhere.
Can we talk about the photo-montage in the ending sequence? That was basically "wouldn't it be great if this was a three-parter where we could show spikebelle raripants and soarindash"?
I feel like a lot of the "is canterlot wedding rushed" discussion glosses over this whole sequence that says, "yes it is rushed, just look at what we had to cut"
1292934 Hmm. I think I see your point, but I don't see it as a montage of "things we had to cut." I see it more as a montage of "fun things that happened that night that we'll remember." Maybe that's just because I'm not that interested in shipping anyway.
But hey, we can sure talk about it.