S4 Premier, First Impressions (Spoilers) · 4:33pm Nov 23rd, 2013
That. Was. Brilliant.
That made me scream out aloud. But enough of the hype; what did we actually get to learn about the world and its characters?
First of all, it is important to notice that there acutally was no villain in this episode, no embodiment of evil or the Other. It was nature itself that turned against the ponies of Equestria, not a self-conscious being. Granted, it turned out that Discord was behind all the commotion, but still, he clearly wasn't the antagonist here. He was there mostly for the fans to cheer, I find.
I interpret the episode as follows: Celestia and Luna broke the symbiosis that had characterized the relationshsip between the ponies and their environment, because they needed some extra punch to defeat an external enemy. An analogy for exploiting natural resources? Perhaps. This is the first time we have really seen some discontinuity between the ponies and their world's nature.
That was the most important point that struck me as I muffled an enthusiastic scream, one after another. Other noteworthy observations: the plot writers are ready to at least hint at some darker themes (the short scene where Twilight cries by the supposedly dead Celestia). They also continue to define Twilight's flaws in terms of neurosis, even though she's supposed to be a demigod now.
As a final note I wish to state the obvious and predict that we are going to see a massive explosion of fanfics inspired by S4. They sure weren't economical with the hooks with this one.
