Thoughts on the season finale. · 7:18pm Feb 16th, 2013
Spoilers
I know everyone has different opinions on episodes but dear jebus, depending on who you talk to, you'll either hear that this episode is great or that it's the worst thing in the history of forever. Personally, I fall in-between the two.
Pros:
- The songs. I haven't been a big fan of the songs this season. I disliked the ones in the Crystal Empire episodes, and Babs Seed was just alright. These songs though were amazing. I particularly liked Twilight's, Rarity's, and Rainbow Dash's parts.
- Animation was superb. Especially in that... place. I'm not sure what to call it. That higher plane that Celestia and Twilight were on.
- Derpy. I'm not as huge of a fan of her as others are, but I do like the idea of a where's Waldo-esque character, and it's nice that she's back.
- The ending. After this long as shitstorm, the fact that it ended on Twilight saying that everything will be alright is pretty awesome.
- That this specific storyline is going to be continued. According to the head writer, this is more or less the first part of a three parter, the next two likely being the debut of season 4.
Cons:
- It was rushed. This is the number one issue a lot of people will have with it.
Overall, I'd give it like a 7 out of 10. Not the greatest episode but pretty solid. Now for a couple of side notes:
- Alicorn Twilight will be in Kinds of Love. Not in any of the clop scenes because I dislike incest most of the time. But, she'll play a major role in at least one of the chapters.
- This is just a bit of thinking about loud, or in text in this case. There are times when I think I really view this show differently than many others. I really don't ask that much out of the series. Give me memorable characters, cute moments, a few witty lines, a few laughs, and/or the occasional heartwarming. So far, it hasn't failed to do that. In the end, it's a comedy, slice of life cartoon and I'm not going to give it some higher standard than I would for any other cartoon in that general genre (Spongebob, Rocko's Modern Life, Fairly Oddparents, Power Puff Girls, etc). Honestly speaking, those cartoons you grew up on, regardless of your age, were guilty of everything people complain about in some MLP episodes but we let them slide just because we were kids when we first saw them.
It wasn't the worst episode, but solid isn't the word I'd use. My main gripe was the interesting concept of the identity switching wasn't explored far enough. It didn't feel like it was a big issue because it was solved with practically no effort right off the bat. The pacing was faster than a bullet train, and before we knew it the plot had moved on and Twilight was in spaceland/limbo.
With a sudden and brief explanation, she was then an alicorn and a princess and everyone lived happily ever after. All in the space of 22 minutes.
Personally, I think they overdid it with the songs. One author compared songs to ice in a drink:
Basically how I felt, but I've never really been a fan of musical numbers.
It would have been a lot better if it were a two-parter and the first concept received a little more love. I guess we'll just have to wait until season four to see if they can do better.
Oh man, I cannot disagree with you more on the songs.
They have that "generic song from a musical" sound to them; way too much whismy. That, and there were something like seven of them? That lead to the pacing being bad, which you mentioned as a con.
The spell Starswirl was making rubbed me the wrong way mostly because it had vauge poetry as the method of casting, which completely ignores previously established rules for magic and how it's cast.
I'd let more things slide too, but the show has started having just enough serous moments to kinda ruin the usually good excuse of "it's a comedy." I just can't let things go like I can with Gravity Falls, if you've seen it.