The Twipocalypse has come! · 9:52pm Feb 16th, 2013
I've watched the season finale twice now, and it's time to tell it how I see it.
This episode was a train wreck. As many have observed, the pacing was terrible. It should have been a two-parter. In addition, the opening song really wasn't necessary for this story -- it was a good piece, but it could have opened some other episode that had time to fill, instead of one that was already crowded. (Of course part of the pacing problem can be blamed on a short season. With only 13 episodes, a two-part opener and a two-part finale would have left only nine regular episodes!)
The whole first half, about the cutie mark mixup, seemed to defy everything we've been told and shown about cutie marks for the last three years. They're supposed to indicate a special talent, not a "destiny" that compels the pony to work in a particular job. (If that were so, then Rarity would have been working the gem mines from the beginning!) And what did the rest of the Apple family think about Pinkie Pie suddenly turning up on their farm? And why was she so awful at it? She grew up on a rock farm, she should know how to work.
Twilight's response to her transformation was not in character. It should have been a confusing and frightening thing for her. Putting her and Celestia together for a confab on the etherial plane (or wherever) just seemed like a writer cop-out to me.
Aside from the whole toy-driven aspect, the ending seemed like it was meant to be a series finale, not merely a season finale. I can't help thinking this was produced during a time when they didn't expect there to ever be a Season 4. And now they're stuck with it. I saw the tweet from Meghan McCarthy (by way of EqD) where she said this episode was effectively the first of a three-parter. My interpretation is that it'll take the writers two more episodes to do damage control and get the setting, characters and story line back onto a track that they can work with.
What really worries me is not so much one episode that I didn't like. That's happened before, I shrugged it off and waited for the next one. What worries me is a string of horrible decisions come out of Hasbro's management. They stripped Derpy of her name -- even though Disney have had "Goofy" around for many decades without any problems I'm aware of. They killed the fan-made fighting game -- which I personally had no interest in, but it sure ticked off a lot of folks. They put wings on Cadance. They put wings on Twilight Sparkle. And now they're apparently doing the whole "Equestria Girls" show, which seems to be based on the worst fanfic concepts they could find.
These are the same guys who thought "Battleship" would make a great movie. So... Not a bunch of geniuses over there. At least the IDW comic book is fantastic -- for now -- but I assume eventually it'll have to follow whatever lead the TV show sets.
That's unlike me. If I wasn't sure before, now I'm more happy than ever to stick with the world of "FiM Classic" for my fics.
You are not alone to think that way.
For me, the last episode did not happen.