MLP Episode review: Canterlot Wedding Parts One and Two · 12:08pm Apr 14th, 2016
Before I begin, this is a collaboration with Little Jackie Papercut. His part of the review is posted with permission and unedited. Thanks, Jackie.
And in case you’re wondering, yes, I am still working on destroying that waste of ink called Nightmare Rarity.
And there was much rejoicing! :D
Okay, time to end the season. How do we end it? On a schmaltzy, girly and kiddified wedding. Oh, this will be so dire and dumb. Won’t it. (Evil laughter intensifies) Get set, get the rice and get ready for…
Oh, come now, Striker, why so melancholy? A wondrous two-parter lies before you. You, the destined viewer of a charming fairy-tale wedding. Behold!
But it’s gonna be bland and dumb!
A Canterlot Wedding, part one
We open on a picnic. It’s idyllic, it’s gorgeous out, as Rarity repeats several times, but Spike runs up, out of breath. He spits up a scroll. It’s from Celestia and it’s about a wedding. Wait, wedding? What wedding? Fluttershy’s bird choir will provide music. “Pinkie Pie, I can think of no one more qualified than you to host the reception.” Celestia, I got a list a mile long of people more qualified. [/dead_serious] Applejack will do the catering, okay. Dash will perform a sonic rainboom at the end of the ceremony… and I don’t like the sonic rainboom being reduced in importance or difficulty to pull off.
A glorified firework. Apt, in my humble opinion.
Rarity will design dresses for the brides and bridesmaids, and Rarity goes wonky. No, Wonko the SANE!
Beast Wars joke. We’re walking, we’re walking…
Twilight gets the job as organizer. Okay, but who’s getting married?! Spike shows her another scroll, the one he should’ve given her first. It’s Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and… her brother?!
Brother Chuck has returned to us, as has long been prophesied!
Now I wonder if Shining Armor’s come down any sets of stairs...
Cue credits! Cue the skip button!
Back… and wow. Okay, no confusion from Applejack, just congrats. Holy shit, I was wrong. Twilight is pissed he didn’t tell her personally and uses a sandwich to mock him. It’s actually pretty damned funny. We also get the BBBFF abbreviation. Before she came to Ponyville, Shining Armor was her only real friend. Well, him, Cadance, possibly the Canterlot Six… but we’ll get to that later. ;)
They don’t exist yet. Don’t worry about it. Although it does pose a problem for my story about Twilight and Trixie as roommates, and Trixie’s jealousy over Twilight being Celestia’s personal student slowly boiling over into unbridled passion...
I look forward to that story...
We get a nice song and flashback to Twilight as a filly interacting with Shining Armor. It’s lovely, heartwarming. I legit love it. We also see him wanting to get into the Royal Guard. No, Shiny! Go for the Tank Corps! You’ll meet Big Mac and you’ll fight at the Battle of the Triple Hills against the Griffon Empire!
Applejack thinks he sounds like a real good guy. Rarity realizes it’s the wedding of a princess and captain of the Royal Guard. So she faints. Natch. :D Next thing we’re on the Friendship Express to Canterlot. Spike says he’ll be planning the bachelor party… but doesn’t know what that is. Personally, I’ve only been to one bachelor party, and that was going to Worcester Massachusetts for a Star Trek convention. Twilight’s despondent/angry/mocking. Nice to see Applejack being supportive. Makes sense, too. She’s got an older brother.
At Canterlot, there’s a large, pink shield surrounding the city. That’s a problem. Too much pink energy is dangerous! And lots of guardsponies. Not that it matters, they all suck.
Conservation of Power. The bigger the army is, the weaker they all are. Think of them as ninjas. Shining Armor is the badass ninja who stands out from the rest, so he’s the most skilled. The others are all simply forgettable cannon fodder.
Probably not a good thing to use ninjas. ;) One of my favorite scenes in the movies is from the very first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie. Raphael gets isolated by the Foot Clan, who proceed to destroy him, finally tossing him through a skylight into April’s apartment. They then use their superior numbers to overwhelm the Turtles and nearly kill them in a great fight.
Besides, I’m not one of the badasses. In real-life, I’m not Max Rockatansky. I’d be one of the skulls in the pyramid, so with very few exceptions,I doubly-hate it when I see cannon fodder like that.
I’ll get to that later. Pinkie… sneezes confetti and streamers. Okay.
Back from commercial we see Celestia on top of a tower looking down through a telescope. Is she gonna spot a supposed murder taking place in an apartment and investigate?
It’s symbolic of how she looks down upon her subjects from her lofty position. Down with the sun! All hail the New Lunar Republic!
We finally see Shining Armor in the flesh, directing traffic and being all military. Snazzy armor, too. Yeah, nice being leader of the loser legions… reign it in, Striker, pun not intended. Twilight marches up, mad enough to boil an egg on her forehead. Shining Armor says there’s been a big increase in security, due to some unspecified threat.
Yeah, yeah. Blah blah blah, death to Canterlot, who cares. Can we move on to the real wedding action?
EPIC VOW EXCHANGES!
We also see he’s the one providing the shield over the city. Pretty impressive. “The burden of keeping Centerlot safe and secure rests squarely on my shoulders.” Well, considering how much the Royal Guard sucks, yeah.
Remember: Ninjas.
More like nonjas.
Twilight gets it, but still is mad about the wedding. Shining Armor wins her over by asking her to be his Best Mare. And we learn Mi Amore Cadenza… is Cadance, her old foal-sitter. We get a rather cool iris into another flashback, and we see Cadance, an alicorn.
It’s horrible! It’s dumb!
Ah know! That’s not how ya spell Cadence! It doesn’t even work as a diminutive for “Cadenza”! Stop screwin’ around with continuity, Hasbro!
It goes against mah headcanon and… I can’t keep it up. :D Ah, guess what, folks? There was nothing that said Celestia and Luna were the only alicorns, at least in the show, and for me, that’s what counts.
Yes, well, it just means one more ineffectual authority figure in Canterlot.
Oh, I dunno. Cadance overall has probably been more effective than Celestia. She protected the Crystal Empire from Sombra for a while and there’s no evidence she’s been a bad ruler there.
It’s another heartwarming flashback, and we get the Unicorn Shake. Although we also see her using her ‘Love Magic’, and no two ways about it, I do find it disturbing, no matter the context. “How many unicorns can just spread love wherever they go?” Now we know where Twilight got the idea for a number of her screwed-up spells…
And a grown-up Cadance comes in, sounding… pretty snippy, actually. Twilight bounces over and does the Unicorn Shake and… I have seen this on a number of PMV’s with ‘Baby Got Back’. I would not be surprised if this was the start of any number of adult writings. Cadance wanders over to Shining Armor and he bedroom eyes. And my god that stare.
We see Applejack doing the catering. Applejack, the ice sculpture’s gonna melt there. Cadance comes in, using green-tinted magic. To quote AlchemyStudent, “Foreshadowing, oh noes!”
The ice sculpture is clearly symbolic. As the heat of a summer’s day melts the ice, so too will the passion of the newlyweds, um… melt? Oh, did you mean the magic? I’m not sure how that qualifies as foreshadowing. She has green eyes, and magic often matches the pony’s eye color, does it not?
The green magic. In flashbacks, it was pink. :)
She says she loves them, and it’s about as sincere as Megatron at the end of Dark of the Moon. In other words, not at ALL. Applejack gives her some for later, which are promptly thrown out.
She’s a monster!
In the next scene, we see Celestia at the telescope, Shining Armor doing his shield, the Twilight and Rarity. Then in comes Cadance and… holy shit, it’s Lyra, Minuette and Twinkleshine!
Now that’s foreshadowing.
Rarity sucks up a bit, but Cadance brushes past her. Rude. It’s a very nice dress, but Cadance wants more beading and a longer train. Rude, much. And the bridesmaid’s dresses should be a different color. The bridesmaids speak up, and holy crap it’s weird hearing them speak. Cadance does a backward glare and they shut up. “Gee, maybe her name should be ‘Princess Demandy-Pants’.” Ooh, burn! :D
Later that day, and I like the darkening sky. Pinkie shows her plans for the reception. It’s a board game and a record player playing the anti-parasprite song. I am… not impressed. Cadance says it’d be perfect for a six-year old’s birthday party, and Pinkie… is oblivious. I am torn. On the one hand, Cadance was rude. On the other. It is a poor reception.
The sad thing is that what she said was actually, literally correct. This is the master party planner? I’d be angry with Celestia at this point. Clearly she’s promoting a favorite pawn instead of being at all concerned about the actual quality of her services. At least Applejack was clearly competent enough in her field that pretending to like her food was the better choice.
Even with my admitted bias, you’re right and I agree. All the others are doing their damned best and I wouldn’t really object. Here, though? Bad form, Pinkie!
Now at night, Luna flies in and takes over Celestia’s peeping-tom duties. “Rest, my sister. As always, I will guard the night.” Well, except when you went crazy, turned into Nightmare Moon, tried to blow a hole in your chest and cause Eternal Night, then got banished into the moon for a thousand years.
But other than that, always!
What about that time a giant star bear attacked Ponyville at night? Where was Luna for that one?
She was probably learning how to operate a microwave oven. Progress for the win! :D
Down at an open-air cafe, Twilight is pissed off, and rightfully should be, concerning Cadance. Rarity says Cadance is an absolute gem. The same Cadance who was pretty jerkish to you? They’ve got explanations… but it rings pretty hollow overall. Twilight’s known Cadance longer than them together times thirty or so. And remember ‘Lesson Zero’, ladies?
Lesson Zero, where Twilight delusionally thought Celestia was going to send her back to kindergarten for being late on an assignment and didn’t think to just fake it? Yes, I can see how that should have established her credibility.
Well, establish, “Listen to Twilight instead of dismissing her claims.” And here, she’s got more than a leg to stand on, especially when compared with last time. She’s known Cadance a long time, after all.
She also hasn’t seen her in a while, at least long enough not to know that Cadance and Shining Armor were getting married—or even that they were interested in each other, presumably, since she didn’t immediately think of Cadance when she heard about Shining Armor’s wedding. So it could simply be that Twilight is fixating on idealized memories of someone she used to look up to. And people do act differently when they’re under stress—an approaching wedding counts for several different kinds of stress. It could very well be that Cadance is just breaking down, and maybe Twilight should go ask about that before jumping to conclusions. And besides all that, Twilight was clearly bitter about being left out of the whole thing until the last minute, which is valid cause to doubt that her judgement is spot-on.
But they still don’t know Cadance as well as Twilight, even with nostalgia goggles. They didn’t even give her the benefit of the doubt. Eh, agree to disagree on this one. I just think they dismissed her claims way too quickly.
Also, Pinkie and Spike playing with the wedding toppers? Makes me laugh. :D Twilight blows up and stalks off.
At some house, possibly Twilight’s family house, Shining Armor’s getting a dress uniform on. Just before Twilight says anything, Cadance comes down. She’s like Batman, except pink.
That one actually happened.
She leads Shining Armor off and we hear some muffled arguments about him wearing his favorite uncle’s… uniform? Emblem? Not sure, but that means Twilight’s got an uncle!
Spoiler alert: It’s Uncle Orange.
*Gasp* They’re all related to the Apple’s!
Anyway, during the argument, Shining Armor goes all dizzy. And Cadance.. Fires a magic beam at his head. His eyes spin, go green and holy shit, that’s nuts. Twilight gallops off, Luna playing truancy officer in the tower. She runs to what appears to be Canterlot Castle, but inside, the others are in… dresses? And are the new bridesmaid? Okay, that took a left turn. A clever left turn. Got them into her good graces.
At the rehearsal, it’s going fairly smoothly. Except for Spike. :p Twilight barges in and goes all Phoenix Wright on Cadance. Cadance turns on the waterworks. It’s Super-effective! Holy crap, two video game references in a row. :p Twilight is pleased as punch, but Shining Armor is pissed as all hell. He explains Cadance has been using healing magic on him, not ‘casting spells’.
This is what happens when you present the wrong evidence.
Good point. Although it also shows Chrysalis has all her bases covered.
The bridesmaid were in the wedding to meet royalty, and she’s been jerkish because she’s had to make all the decisions about the wedding. Game, set and match. He sends her packing, then her friends ignore her. And finally Celestia brushes her off. Wow, okay, that is TOO far, folks.
Twilight is doubtful of herself and remorseful. We get a sad reprise of the earlier song. :( Cadance walks up, doing a symbolic trampling of Twilight’s imagine spot. Twilight tearfully apologizes, Cadance’s eyes flash green…
HOLY SHIT GREEN FLAMES AND TWILIGHT IS SENT TO HELL!
Ah, the good old days when villains could actually do that.
Cue happy ending theme!
A Canterlot Wedding Part Two
And from the cliffhanger out of nowhere, we first get the standard recap. Then Twilight is alone in some sort of cavern. We get creepy laughter, about a .6 on the Joker scale. Cadance shows up in the reflections, and we learn these are caverns beneath Canterlot, and greedy unicorns wanted to claim the gems inside. Nice little history.
I am the Lorax, I speak for the gems.
Cadance taunts her and Twilight fires off a magic beam, but it reflects and she almost blows her own head off. She blows up one crystal and… it’s Cadance? Looking like she’s had a bit of a rough time. Twilight tackles her and is about to straight up murder her, but a reciting of the Unicorn Shake convinces Twilight it’s her. Yay. :D And yes, it’s a faaake. Thank you, Senator Vreenak.
Up in Canterlot proper, the… okay, we all know who it is and it’ll be confusing otherwise. Chrysalis begins her villain song. It’s really great, and of course Cadance does her own counterpart down below. I don’t have much to say, other than great singing and just great visuals. I honestly love it. And of course, Temple of Doom mine cart ride. :D
I, on the other hoof, have many things to say. This song is one of the moments that absolutely make this two-parter. We’ve had a sinister villain in Nightmare Moon, we’ve had… whatever Discord was, but this? This is truly classic. This is someone who is not only winning from the beginning, but is also enjoying every moment. Nightmare Moon could ham it up, but she was doomed the moment she started placing childish traps instead of confronting the insects trying to stop her outright. Discord was in control, but he seemed bored of even that within minutes. Chrysalis has done it all, and none of her enemies even know she exists.
Damn, that’s some good observations. Something else I thought of reading this. She’s doing her gloating and villain song in private. A little indulgence that’s not gonna damage her in any real way. Chrysalis really shows how devious, how smart she can be here. She’s got Canterlot wrapped around her horn.
Up above the CMC are flower girls? Okay… also, Trixie is one of the trumpeters. :D Twilight finds a hole in the ceiling, but the bridesmaids are now Brides of Chrysalis! So, so creepy. At the wedding, mawwiage! But Twilight barges in! And then Cadance. And mirror dance? Also, the bridesmaids made lousy guards, but good players at fetch.
Chrysalis reveals herself, and Cadance says she’s a changeling. Wait, where’s Celestia? She kinda disappeared. They replace ponies and feed off love. And god, Chrysalis’ design is damned creepy when you get down to it. Holes in her legs and wings, bent horn, the fangs.
And the hellfire!
And brimstone… it’s Kane, bah gawd!
She says Equestria’s got more love than any other place she’s encountered. Cadance counters with Shining’s Shield, but it’s not super-effective any more. Chrysalis has been feeding off Shining’s love, making him weaker. He’s also now fully under her control. Again, cree-py. We then zoom up and see changelings bouncing off the shield. It’s… really silly-looking. And does no one see them doing that?
And finally Celestia shows back up. We get a beam-of-war, which Celestia loses. This… does not sit well with me. I’ll get back to it. But I do love that Chrysalis had that, “Holy shit, did I do that?!” look on her face afterward. Celestia tells them to get the Elements, and we have a cute spot of them ditching their dresses and rarity collecting them. :D The shield shatters in a rather nice effect, and the changelings dive in as kinetic-kill weapons, with very nice shields around them.
They’re surrounded, and Dash says they’ll have to do this the hard way. And she… bumps into herself. This actually reminds me a bit of the Patty Duke show, and now I’m sad concerning Patty Duke’s recent passing. :( I loved the Patty Duke show, one of the first sitcoms I ever saw, even if in reruns.
The changelings turn into copies of the Mane Six. And it’s a fight. First action, several changelings approach Fluttershy. And she… fools them. Rather easily. Score one against hive mind. She runs into a pack of Dash’s, but the real Dash is among them and kicks their butt. She picks up Fluttershy, and their lips come close and there’s a smooch sound effect and holy shit they kissed and there’s nothing you can do to convince me otherwise. :D
In retrospect, that probably didn’t help matters. You know, sharing a moment of passion in the middle of a swarm of love-eaters… or does it have to be directed at them?
Oh, so that’s why the changelings were so hard to beat in the next round!
Applejack is piled on by a bushel of herself, and Twilight saves her. “Real me! Real me!” Pinkie tells one to do her… again, perfect intro for an adult fic.
And he was forevermore known as… Doomy.
“I’ve seen better.” She then grabs Twilight and uses her like a .50 caliber machine gun.
I like this new weapon. Killing you is full-time job now! Keep crying, babies! ...and other TF2 Heavy quotes.
We get a montage of the Mane Six winning. They go for the Elements, but they’re blocked. Wait, why not continue fighting? You kicked ass earlier!
Law of threat escalation. The second wave will always, always be harder to defeat than the first.
And they may be tired, while the others are fresh. Okay, I can let this one go.
Anyway, back from commercial, and Celestia is in a cocoon. Cadance is defiant, and then the Mane Six are brought in. Chrysalis gloats that Twilight was the only one to see through her deception. Applejack apologizes, and twilight says she fooled everyone. Well, except you. We get the Perfect song, and we see the changelings running amuk, including one shot of the Royal Guard tied up. In other words, completely useless.
Niiiiiiiinjaaas.
While Chrysalis is gloating, Cadance is freed and goes to Shining Armor. She hugs him, her horn sparks, and it turns out the Power of Love is a curious thing. It makes one mare weak, but makes another stallion strong. More than a feeling, it’s the power of love!
Also, Huey Lewis and the News is a highly underrated band.
Chrysalis pops back in, though. Twilight says to perform the shield spell, but no go. Cadance says her love will give him strength, and Chrysalis… mocks that. Ah, Cryssie? Remember the whole ‘love-fueled beam of war’? Ah, I can forgive this. It’s been a great two-parter, and villains can be shortsighted and egomaniacal. But the love works and their horn sparks up. Shining Armor is doing it all for his Cadie, because she’s as fine as she can be! It’s like the end of G-Gundam and they’re Domon and Rain. Sekiha Love-Love Tenkyoken! It blows away all the changelings, sending them away into the air.
And… it’s wedding time! We get a cute montage of prep, followed by the wedding itself and reception. Celestia apologizes to Twilight, thank goodness. Lune shows up, which takes me out of the scene a bit as I wonder, “Where the hell were you?!” Vinyl Scratch cues up the music. We get some odd snapshots. Not much to say overall, except Rarity shoving the bridesmaids out of the way for the damned bouquet like that legit pisses me off. No excuse, at ALL.We get ‘Love is in Bloom’, and I’m overall happy.
Thoughts
Let’s get the bad out of the way, first.
1. The Royal Guard being completely useless. Okay, here’s the deal. I understand the ‘redshirt army’ trope has its uses. I don’t mind it… sometimes, like in Godzilla movies. But here, no. I’ve never liked the Royal Guard being useless. Not here, not ever. It doesn’t make the changelings look badass, not the Mane Six badass for beating the changelings. It looks like a group of clowns beating up on another group of clowns before being beaten by civilians.
And no, them being ‘the Mane Six’ or Rarity or Rainbow Dash knowing martial arts doesn’t matter to me. I’ll take trained soldiers over them any day of the week. Because, you know, trained soldier! It’s a fashion designer and weather manager.
You forget Rainbow Dash has the power of hype. One day, when that fails…
Mick Foley said in I believe his first autobiography, that in a promo, you shouldn’t make your opponent out to be nothing. If you do, and you beat him, you’ve beaten nothing. If you lose, then a loser just kicked your ass. That’s what happened here and every other time the Royal Guard is seen to be useless. It makes me wonder why the hell they’ve even got them around.
I have to say, the Royal Guard losing also reflects poorly on Shining Armor. As Captain of the Guard, he should have some responsibility for the condition of his troops—their training, their fitness, their general preparedness. When they lose, it also devalues him as a leader, which makes his happy ending feel more unearned. He’s an incompetent authority figure. Normally that would make him the butt of jokes at best, and should really get him deposed.
Hmm, I never thought about that angle, but again, you’re right. If he’s in charge of the Guard, and the Guard sucks, what’s that say about him? Not anything good, that’s for sure. It’s probably why in the Hasbroverse, not only is the Royal Guard a part of the overall Equestrian military, but Shining Armor was put in charge specifically to whip them into shape.
2. Celestia being taken out like that/Luna no-showing. Now I’ll admit, I’ve grown to… sort of hate Celestia after season three, and this one’s kinda iffy, but Chrysalis taking her out like that just didn’t sit well with me, nor Luna just disappearing like that. I actually hate her being made out to be useless, like the Royal Guard.
I sort of agree, but not because of what it does to Celestia’s reputation. It was just anticlimactic. Oh, look, an angry god is about to smite the villain—whoops, no, it’s already over. Maybe if Luna ever bothered to show up for royal events like she’s supposed to it would have lasted a little longer.
Yeah. There was an idea floated about when this episode came out. Have Celestia and Luna engage in a running battle with Chrysalis. She’s just too fast for them. That way, not only is Celestia not made to look weak, not only does Luna get some cool screentime, but since Chrysalis isn’t around when Cadance and Shining Armor do their love-fueled shield, she doesn’t look dumb for dismissing it. Three birds with one stone.
3. Twilight’s concerns being dismissed so easily. I think Foals Errand and I summed it up one time on Skype. “Hey, everyone. Twilight’s suspicious of Cadance. Now, she’s known her longer than all of us put together, multiplied by twenty, and we have an object lesson about not listening to her in ‘Lesson Zero’. Still, let’s just make excuses for Cadance and brush off Twilight’s concerns. Okay? Okay!”
They were caught up in doing their own things and in a situation that should have been perfectly safe. I wouldn’t really say it’s that absurd.
Not too safe. There was that threat they knew about.
But… other than that, I loved this two-parter. I loved the subversion of it being a wedding and gonna be all sorts of cutesy and then BAM! Changeling invasion! Epic fights! Badassness abounding! I love the worldbuilding. Twilight and Shining Armor have an uncle. Where is he?!
I love the changelings. Oh, god. So much potential, so many questions. Where did they come from? Do they have to suck love dry? Can they eat? How far can their shapeshifting go? Is Chrysalis’ group the only ones?
Chrysalis is magnificent, as well. Oh, there is so much to say…
Alright, let me start with this. Because very little is actually given to us about the changelings, there are multiple interpretations for everything. Chrysalis, herself, has two common interpretations:
1. The monster. Chrysalis is an unfeeling, uncaring brute, which may reflect on all changelings (or they could all be rainbow sprinkle happy-dappies who would be perfectly sweet darlings if not slaved to a hivemind or suffering under an incompetent ruler). She’s a feral monster, and the changelings are (probably) a swarm of insects who are best treated as such.
2. The mother. Chrysalis is just a poor, mistreated mom trying to feed her kids, and we should all sympathize and feel bad about the implicit damage done to the changelings by expelling them from Canterlot.
Most people tend to select one of these and run with it. And frankly, I hate both. They limit Chrysalis and the changelings and take away what was so amazing about them all. No, Chrysalis is a queen, and just the fact that she took that mantle sets her apart. She is everything a queen should be, regal, powerful, and wise. She is regal enough to have a commanding presence even when surrounded by enemies who she knows should be able to defeat her. She is powerful enough to stand and face the full might of the sun head-on. She is wise enough to set everything up so well that even with advance warning, nobody could touch her. And she commits everything she has to her role as a ruler. The invasion of Canterlot was exactly that; an invasion.
The way they did things isn’t even consistent with just wanting to feed. After all, the episode clearly shows that they can simply assimilate into pony society and subtly feed off those around them. An invasion would make that harder to do, not easier. So what was their real end goal? Well… to invade. To gain territory, resources. The same things real wars are fought over. That tethers the changelings to reality and reminds us that they’re more than just leeches. It was one sovereign power against another. We want what you have so we’ll take it. It failed, and at the end of the day the changelings will have to pony up war reparations...
By the way, Striker, I’ve had something on my mind for a long time now. Everyone thinks of changelings as insects, but that doesn’t make much sense to me. I mean, yes, I can see they have chitinous wings, but so do fairies, and that makes a lot more sense, since the name “changeling” comes from faerie lore and shapeshifting is a common fey ability. What’s your take on it? Personally, I feel like faerie connections open up a whole world of characterization possibilities. It allows the changelings to be monstrous without being monsters, and gives them the beauty and danger of something utterly alien.
Hmm, intriguing idea. I like it, actually. That’s one of the fun things concerning changelings. We have just enough info to hook and reel us in.
Concerning Chrysalis, you’re right. She’s powerful, and she knows it. She’s smart, conniving and can think on her hooves. This wasn’t some personal plan. It was what she felt was best for her people overall.
As for the changelings, fairies? That actually makes a lot of sense. Hell, maybe they do the whole, “Switch babies at birth,” thing so their infants can soak up parental love, then switch them back before anyone notices anything. I do vastly prefer that idea to them being hive-minded insects or other fanon ideas I’ve seen. And as we saw in ‘Slice of Life’, the 100th episode, being a changeling doesn’t mean you’re automatically evil.
Suck it, Fiendship is Magic!
“Well, the comic-”
No.
The comic and cartoon are separate continuities, and quite frankly I loathe the origin given to them in it.
I may have to move “Fiendship is Magic” up in my review queue. This indignity shall not stand...
Oh, where’s that GIF of Michael Jackson eating popcorn when I need it?
The Hasbroverse has its own origin for them, and it will be a majestic and regal origin. And it will not condemn an entire species for being born.
Anyway…
I love Cadance and Shining Armor. I love her being an alicorn. :D Ah, as I pointed out, there was NOTHING that said Celestia and Luna were the only alicorns. Shining Armor comes off as a good guy. Not much personality given to either of them here, but considering the circumstances, easily forgivable.
Chrysalis is a deliciously evil baddie. Oh, how I love to hate her. :D And unlike Discord, not ruined by subsequent appearances! A minor misstep at the end, but again, one I can overlook.
So, yeah. With the exceptions listed, I really love this. Probably my second-favorite season finale, right behind Twilight’s Kingdom.
So, stay tuned for my thoughts on season two overall, and then, season three. Or as I like to think of it, “The season I lost all my trust in Celestia, and my hate for trickster mentors solidified.”
I don’t believe in M.A. Larson.
Neither do I. And thank you Jackie, for doing this. :)
See you then. :)
Mendacity is a magnificent example of a story with fae changelings.
As for this episode... My biggest problem with Chrysalis is that her plans run entirely counter to her race's strengths. When given a species of love-eating, shapeshifting infiltrators... she goes for a direct assault. Yes, her own infiltration went well, exploiting ponies' eagerness to give the benefit of the doubt. But when the time comes, she exposes the existence of her people to all and sundry, sows fear rather than love, and incapacitates one of the world's celestial mechanics. That doesn't really show a lot of long-term planning.
Pretty good analysis. Yeah the episodes while good did have issues... And if I dam ever get around to it will try to write my take on it which will try to increase the competency of the Royal Guard ( they held into most of the city and kept the invaders contained) and make the Changelings smarter as well ( Chrysalis hedged her bets by moving the wedding to a Full Moon and slipped the Sisters a magic sapping toxin) and giving them a reason for an invasion.
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Got an idea about that
I have a serious soft spot for this two-parter. This was the episode that brought me into the fandom. The fandom has since made clear its flaws, but it still holds a special place in my heart.
And Season 3. Ugh, Season 3. Easily worst season, though it did have its good moments.
To be fair, the Royal Guard were outnumbered at least 20 to 1, possibly much more, by an enemy they hadn't anticipated - and maybe hadn't known existed - and whose leadership had direct knowledge of their deployments via unlimited access to their CO (and who might have disrupted things further at the command level, such as deploying them in ways to make it easier for them to be defeated in detail). Judging their competence from this action is like judging Starfleet's performance in battle by Wolf 359.
Yeah, This Day Aria alone justifies the whole two-parter. Not that the other songs are bad -- they're really good! But this one just blows them out of the water. Chrysalis is a really good and creepy villain overall, and I can totally forgive her lapsing into monologue at the moment of her apparent triumph.
I'm one of the people who liked Shining Armor and Cadence right from the moment they were introduced, and have only grown to like them more as the show goes on. Best Royal Couple ever.
As for Celestia losing to Chrysalis, my headcanon is that as the Princess of the Sun, Celestia doesn't have that many weapons in her arsenal for close-range combat with lots of squishy mortal flammable ponies in a
flueconfined space, so its basically either hoof-to-hoof brawling, or beam-of-war... which she loses, to everyone's surprise. (Including Chrysalis', as you point out!)Anyway, I agree with you completely on this being an awesome two-parter episode! And the best thing is, it was such a big surprise! All the pre-episode hype had been on the royal wedding thing, paralleling the British one, and Part One seemed to be setting up a pretty standard Aesop about Twilight being possessive and, frankly, jealous about her brother etc., and Part Two would have been her making it up by somehow fixing things. Only we get False!Cadence, the circle of hellfire sends Twilight into the gem mines, and the whole thing moves to entirely different but extremely awesome tracks.
Eh, I don't really care which version of Chrysalis people pick- as long as she's with Fluffle Puff, they keep each other in check. She did try to take over after she met Fluffle, but it was pretty much a dud....
Depending on how you feel about Star Trek, that's either really lame or really awesome.
I'm in the middle.
I keep hearing that song everywhere these days for some reason. It was even worked into a Legend of Korra fanfiction I read recently.
I think to this day, "A Canterlot Wedding" remains one of my favorite finales. It's second to "Twilight's Kingdom" in my opinion.
Concerning Magical Mystery Cure, it's worth pointing out that to a large extent, the episode Larson wrote is not the episode that aired.
There needs to be a scheme where Celestia wins the beam-o war, as Chrysalis intended, and nurses Chrysalis back to health.
I believe Chrysalis was doing all this out of revenge for the love poison thingie. Or at least that's one the headcanons I have.