Twilight's Kingdom (Obvious spoilers) · 4:46pm May 10th, 2014
It's been a while since I did one of these. Mea culpa.
Starts out strong by directly addressing the questions we've been asking. Huzzah!
So, the Martonia reps bow deep to Celestia, who gives them a nod, but it's reversed for Twilight and the Maretonia reps. Methinks she needs to be given more etiquette lessons...
Dat singing though.
..Holy continuity batman.
Mary Poppins Discord. Delancy is in fine form. And the conversation between Tirekand Discord is fantastic. Muuuch better villain than Sombra.
The bit of a clip show was not unexpected, and admittedly kept to a minimum.
The key transformations were fantastic.
"We must rid ourselves of our magic." Celestia, you're so hardcore. Also that's, uh, some energy sphere.
Ahahaha, Twilight trying to control the sun and moon.
And then, combat. Holy shit combat. Fighting for dayyyys.
The rainbow transformations were as hideous as expected though. I did like the earth pony -> Earth pony, unicorn->unicorn, pegasus->pegasus restore though.
Twilight's castle though. Holy shit. Do want.
And I like the emphasis on "role I choose." Making it choice rather than external destiny is something I really really appreciate.
"Where's my throne?" "I don't think you're quite there yet." Haha. Perfect. And Spike gets a seat right next to Twi. Oh hey cameos!
So anyhow - hell yes that's how you do a finale. The pacing was pretty well perfect throughout all of it, and though there are some various narrative niggles (especially re: Discord) I liked it. Of course it doesn't much fit with my Apotheosis-verse but that's okay <.<
Tirek was bit flat but delivered very well (Also makes you wonder what happened to the other demon-y thing), and basically his whole story is explained despite the fact that we get maybe five minutes of backstory, and his talent makes him an actual credible threat to a magical universe. Celestia is, as I said, pretty hardcore and I like seeing the princesses doing hard things rather than smiling and waving though TBH I'd still like see Tia being badass. The song was amazing. The actual combat we saw was amazing and is basically what I imagined Twilight would do (lots of teleportation). Narratively I feel Discord's friendship...ness... was really the weakest part, but oh well.
Tirek.
And yes, the singing was fun. Luna's voice...
2096011 Thanks. I couldn't actually parse the name, obviously D:
I mostly agree with what you said. I get what you mean by Tirek. His was one of the better villain presentations I feel though, especially that intro of his
! I was totally like "damn..."
I agree with your thoughts on the restore thing and the whole rainbow transformation. I also like how Ditzy Doo, or Derpy, whichever people prefer, got a good bit of screen time, but not too much.
I like how Twi finally got her castle and has her friends as her advisory council of more or less equals at the very least. This could definitely be used for story elements in Season 5 (which is Confirmed in case people didn't know.) I really did think it was a very well done Finale. Even if it quickly became obvious the triangle necklace would be the last key.
Yeah, I really enjoyed this. The nightmarish SPECIAL EDITION HARMONY POWER FIGURINES OUT THIS SUMMER transformations aside, I loved the way they did everything.
Twi setting the moon and raising the sun was amazing.
Going all DBZ didn't work on Tirek, so they had to go all Sailor Moon instead.
Celestia said Scorpan went back to the lands Tirek and him came from and ruled.
So, I want to see this finale, but I kiiind'a haven't actually seen any S4 episodes since... uh, episode 6? The one with the magic comic book, lol. Would I be missing super important context?
Discord's role in the episode would have sat better if his intent all along had been a faux betrayal, possibly keeping Tirek off the princesses and away from Ponyville long enough to open the box. His marking the journal entries that set off Twilight's understanding of the keys doesn't sit well with him actually turning sides.
My understanding of Equestria's history will need some reworking now, but otherwise yes, 110% hyped.
2099732 Not particularly. All you need to know is the rainbow power items exist and how they're gotten, and even that is recapped via clip show.
2100080
Yeah. Some parts of Discord's behavior seemed to be long-gamed for Twi's key and rainbow power, and other parts were just him being him. His narrative was as usual muddled and compressed - they do know what to do with Discord, it's just that they do it in one or two episodes rather than spread out over a full season or something.