Mariusioannesp Reviews Silly Filly Studios' "Fall of the Crystal Empire" · 10:59pm May 24th, 2014
I hath returned! But this shall be brief though. I've taken some time out of my break to review the newest fan animation from Silly Filly Studios Fall of the Crystal Empire. This is something I've been waiting for since Silly Filly Studios released a teaser roughly a year ago.
I also feel a bit indebted to Silly Filly Studios as my story based on their last fan animation Snowdrop is the reason I have most of the followers I have. So, here we are.
I will forgo my usual spoiler warning and instead post the video here so those who haven't seen it can do so.
Basically, we have here an expansion of what the show showed us of Celestia and Luna's final showdown with King Sombra, the King of Shadows. But in the midst of the battle, Celestia is incapacitated, and we see the beginnings of another villain that would change the fate of Equestria forever.
So, what’s the verdict?
This was pretty good.
There are quite a few things to like about this fan project. We open a thousand years in the past with Celestia and Luna standing before the Crystal Empire barricaded by Sombra’s black crystals discussing their options. They’re like wearing this really cool armor. Luna’s in particular seems reminiscent to Nightmare Moon’s. Celestia has resolved that their only option is to go in there themselves and use the Elements of Harmony against Sombra. Luna questions what they’ll do if suppose the Elements fail. Celestia answers that is why she brought her magic golden poleaxe. I like Luna’s characterization here. She seems to be a realist more inclined to use force.
So, Luna and Celestia burst through one of Sombra’s stained glass windows and blast him in a manner reminiscent to what was seen in Celestia’s hologram of the past in Season 3's “The Crystal Empire”. Luna wonders if it is over already, but then Sombra rises up on a pillar of black crystal and knocks Luna to the ground with a great black scythe. Luna is also armed with a magical blue sword. That’s the best part of this fan animation. How they all fight each other with blade weapons floating in their magic. I don’t know where this whole depiction of Celestia and Luna fighting with magical swords comes from exactly. I know it plays a big role in AestheticB’s story The Immortal Game. I think the earliest story where I’ve seen it is actually Pen Stroke’s story Past Sins. Either way, it’s really cool to actually see Celestia and Luna fight with magic swords.
So, Sombra manages to imprison Luna in a pillar of black crystal and fails to do so with Celestia. Celestia manages to stab him, but Sombra just taunts her, saying that even though she’s a god, she’s not pure. He can taste her wrath. Sombra manages to use his nightmare magic on Celestia. The same nightmare magic Twilight encountered in that door in “The Crystal Empire”. Celestia finds herself in her worst nightmare: Luna shrouded by the darkness turning against her. Sombra is about to strike Celestia down when Luna escapes from her crystalline prison and duels with him. Sombra manages to get Luna caught in a black crystal cage kind of like the one Twilight found herself in at the end of “The Crystal Empire”. Sombra tells Luna that he understands why Celestia fears her. Sombra tries to tempt Luna to join him, telling her that Celestia doesn’t appreciate the night like he does and that together they can show the world what it means to fear the night. Luna refuses, and she breaks herself out of Sombra’s cage. They fight once more, and Sombra uses his nightmare magic against Luna.
However, Luna gets up and her eyes become like turquoise snake eyes. She tells Sombra that he is nothing compared to the darkness that she deals with everyday. Darkness that escapes the light by receding into her apparently. During their conversation, little by little, Luna turns into Nightmare Moon! She picks up Sombra’s scythe, and finally corners him. Sombra fearfully asks her what is she. She merely says she’s a nightmare and then vanquishes Sombra.
Some time later, Celestia wakes up wondering where they are, and there’s Luna returned to normal. Luna explains that Sombra was vanquished and was about to say more as well, but Celestia presumes that Sombra did something to make Crystal Empire disappear. Celestia decides for them to head back home and flies away. Just before Luna follows, her eyes turn briefly into Nightmare Moon’s.
I really liked King Sombra’s characterization in this fan animation. Since Sombra was more of a presence than a character in “The Crystal Empire”, I’ve always felt that we Bronies have an opportunity to fill in his character. Here he’s arrogant. He’s clearly powerful enough to almost subdue Princess Celestia. He’s messed around with dark powers beyond his ken. I really loved how he tried to convince Luna to join him. I like villains who do that for some reason.
This fan animation depicts what I and many of my fellow Bronies have come to suspect that King Sombra is somehow responsible for Luna becoming Nightmare Moon. I even alluded to it in my story “Snowy Night”. However, it’s not exactly clear how Luna became Nightmare Moon. It does happen after Sombra hits Luna with his nightmare magic. But then Luna starts talking about how she faces the shadows from which Sombra got his dark magic everyday, and she implies that these shadows escape the light by hiding within her. So does that mean the Nightmare was already in Luna before she faced off with Sombra and his nightmare magic just switched it on? It’s just not that clear. Then there’s the implication at end that it was Nightmare Moon who banished Sombra and cursed the Crystal Empire. But then Luna could have just been trying to explain to Celestia how she turned into Nightmare Moon.
A few random things I liked. I liked the fight sequences. Their battles are actually kind of “bloody”. Luna gets cut up, and Sombra bleeds black smoke. I imagine we won’t ever get anything like that on the show itself. Sombra in the midst of their fights raises up pillars of black crystal. Kind of reminded me a bit of Avatar: The Last Airbender. There are also these circles with strange symbols that appear at times when Celestia and Luna use their magic. It was a nice touch. The background music was also pretty good as well.
It does of course have its flaws though. One problem in particular, and it’s one I’ve seen in other fan productions, is that in the beginning the background music is too loud and it kind of drowns out the dialogue just a little. It wasn’t as exciting or epic as I hoped it would be. It was kind of underwhelming. Snowdrop really hits you with the feelz. Fall of the Crystal Empire fails to do that with the corresponding action/adventure-y feelz. It’s also rather short at 10 minutes compared to Snowdrops’s 15 minutes. Though I’m not sure if this really needed 5 more minutes to tell the story it did, and I’m not certain more time would really have clarified the things I found unclear.
Overall, Fall of the Crystal Empire was another good showing on the part of the fandom. I’m always impressed by what some of us can do, especially animation-wise.
What did you all think of Fall of the Crystal Empire?
I'll be back on my break for another week to finish up some stuff before I go back to blogging again. See you all then.
God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless Equestria.
I really enjoyed it too and I didn't even know about it until I came across this new blog post of yours. So thanks for pointing me in the direction of this really good fan film!
2142628 You're welcome!
I have to say that, story-wise, this was a tad short on the emotion Snowdrop conveyed but but epic and slightly grandeur the plot seems to be its strong point. Animation wise, it was a bit clunky at times, I mean in Snowdrop there were slow and steady movements but here it would've been fast-paced and harder to animate, and it definitely ain't no Jan Animation but it is pretty good considering how it makes up for the story.
8.5/10
Evidently, SillyFillyStudios could have used mine help with how ponies spoke back then.
I like it. So, the Mare in the Moon, NightMareMoon, banished the Crystal Empire.
The NightMare already infected Princess Luna, but Sombra destroyed her resistance, making Princess Luna become symptomatic.
2143051 Oh that makes sense.