MLP Episode Review: Magical Mystery Cure · 10:00pm Apr 28th, 2016
And now... the finale.
Magical Mystery Cure
We open in on a zoom to Ponyville, and Golden Oaks. Twilight is singing and happy! She's tempting fate so much she might as well say she's two days from retirement while showing a picture of metaphorical grandkids. And at the apex of the chorus, she gets water dumped on her. She calls out Rainbow Dash, but Rarity's voice is heard. We see her on a bridge, with Dash's cutie mark. Ho, boy...
After commercials, the clouds are in a checkerboard pattern. Rarity's getting her head chewed off by the townsfolk as it starts snowing. She goes to see Dash, who for some reason lives at Fluttershy's cottage. And we get the Cutie Mark song. And she's got Fluttershy's cutie mark?! And what's this about 'cutie marks' and 'destiny'? That's not how they've been seen to work! At Sugarcube Corner, Fluttershy is trying-and failing-to entertain ponies there, and she's got Pinkie's cutie mark. At Sweet Apple Acres, Pinkie, or Pinkamena, is trying-and again failing-to do Applejack's job. She also has a bit of an accent. And finally Applejack at Carousel Boutique. And like a broken record, she's trying and failing. Finally back to Rarity, and wash, rinse and repeat.
Back at Golden Oaks, we get an explanation. And ho boy it's a doozy. We get a flashback to last night. She got a delivery from Celestia. It was Starswirl's journal, and one last unfinished spell. Celestia believes Twilight is the only one who can finish it. "I cast the spell so I could find out what it was." Yup, cast it. Her own words. She had no idea what the spell was about, but cast it. And then she didn't even look around, but just yawned and walked off.
TWENTY-TWO!
The spell fucked with the Elements, and by extension, their Bearers. Spike says to cast a counter-spell, but there is none. The memory spell from Discord's first rampage won't work either. Apparently it's their 'destinies' that have been screwed with, as little sense as that makes. Zecora's cutie pox cure won't work, either. "They're not who they're meant to be anymore."
Okay, confession. I am really not too fond of 'destiny' or 'chosen one' tropes. The idea that only THIS person can do it, or that you're 100% locked into a path, does not sit well with me overall. I don't like it here, either! Twilight, to her credit, doesn't try and foist the blame. We get a montage of Ponyville basically falling apart, which is another thing I don't like. The town's happiness depends on these ponies and ONLY these ponies? Pull the other one! There's an entire weather team for the clouds!
Spike gives her a pep talk, and she gets a revelation out of nowhere. She grabs the Elements and hauls tail out of there to help them remind each other of who they are. First is Fluttershy, who's gonna move back to Cloudsdale. Twilight asks her to go to Dash and help out. At the cottage, Dash is about to be fucking cooked alive! Fluttershy steps up and manages to get the animals to calm down. She glows and her Element glows and her eyes do a slot machine of memories. "What happened?" Twilight cast an unknown spell with no safety precautions, did no checks afterwards to see if anything had happened, and then went to bed. :p
We get a montage. Dash helps Rarity. Rarity helps Applejack. Applejack helps Pinkie Pie. And as she does the rest of the Apple clan finally shows up. Where the hell were you earlier?! Applejack helps Pinkie Pie. Because Pinkie is the only one who can entertain ponies.
Twilight suddenly gets another revelation about the spell. She goes there, writes in the book. As soon as the period lands, the Elements all light up. They hit Twilight... and she's gone! All that's left is a burn mark.
"Twilight Sparkle was killed yesterday afternoon when she cast an untested spell again and was blasted to atoms."
Okay, that's not how it ends. But considering how that spell's been acting and how she treats magic... :p
After commercial we come back, and Twilight is in space. Celestia comes up and congratulates her. Unlike Starswirl, who couldn't understand friendship like Twilight, and that has never sat well with me, she did. She's proven she's ready. She has? News to me. They walk past some big screens showing Twilight's life. Big Celestia is Watching. Twilight loved Big Celestia. And yes, Celestia's been watching her. Some... globule of magic shoots out of Twilight's chest, surrounds her and she floats up. I'd be freaking out by now.
It's now night in Ponyville, when it was afternoon when we last left them. Good lord her friends must be messed up. Twilight's cutie mark flares in the sky. It descends, and turns into Twilight. And she's an alicorn. Whoopedy-doo. Dash has a new flying buddy. Fluttershy says she looks like a princess! Celestia shows up and says she is.
Wait, why?! She's displayed the... leadership of a true princess. How, by managing Winter Wrap-Up? Celestia says she'll be there to help and guide her. If I may be blunt, Celestia, you really didn't do all that much over these three seasons. Twilight freaks out, natch, and asks for a book.
So, coronation. I'm gonna skip over this for the most part. Lou Gehrig speech, liquid pride, Twilight flies into the camera.
Thoughts
Okay... This episode is so rushed it's ridiculous. We have what could be a two or three-part episode crammed into the first half, with the rest devoted to Twilight in the void, and the coronation. It's insane. You could get whiplash.
Now, I'm gonna say something about change. What is change?
Change is not good.
Change is not bad.
Change is, in and of itself, a neutral action. A transition from one quantum state to another. Season four, Twilight as a princess kinda grew on me. Here, though...
Okay, those numbers in bold? That's every time Twilight's screwed up magically. Twenty-two times over sixty-five episodes. Hell, there were times I decided not to count something when I was waffling on it. So a little over one every third episode. That's not as bad as I thought it'd be, but that's not 'good'. She has continually proven to be reckless, book-smart but common sense-poor and has an inability to think the consequences of those spells through. Here is the penultimate example, but it's not the last. Oohai, BATS!
Lemme go through some of the arguments I've read concerning her handling of the spell...
1. She was ordered by Celestia to do it: Yes... but that doesn't mean she can't seek out more info, ask what it's supposed to do, not cast the spell immediately after getting the book, go down to the basement, read some more of the journal, do some research!
2. Celestia wouldn't send her anything dangerous: Eh... mileage varies on that. And quite frankly, even if it was to change the color of someone's mane, it'd still be dangerous how she handled it.
3. The spell auto-cast: No, it didn't. Twilight specifically says she cast it. No auto-cast.
4: How was she supposed to think it was so dangerous: We have the unfinished masterpiece by the pony equivalent of Einstein/Edison/Merlin/Gandalf. Take some damned precautions!
So Twilight almost ruins Ponyville and almost destroys the lives of her best friends through some damned careless spellcasting. She fixes it, fine, but it shouldn't have gotten to the point it was at in the first place!
As for being a princess, no. I really don't see 'leading five other ponies' and 'fixing Winter Wrap-Up' as huge qualifications for that. Sorry, Twilight, but you can really freak out and have shown some very skewed priorities. And I don't even know how solving this spell somehow makes you qualified, or is some 'apotheosis' as others have called it.
And finally, Celestia. you sent Twilight a spell, didn't tell her anything about it, or your plans for her, and then spring, "surprise, you're a princess!" on her. Yeah, not a fan of that. Strike three, Celly. You're out.
This episode, in a nutshell, is a rushed mess and took something that could've been great, Twilight's ascension/coronation, and basically ruined it.
Ah, always loved the 'Here I am Fate! Hit me!' song that started that episode. Because, really, I cannot, for the life of me, think of any character than tempted fate that badly. I mean, Ponyville was already the town where disasters happen frequently.
I'm afraid this episode was the product of the time. From what the fans have been able to gather, MLP:FiM was going to end here. So season 3 was kinda the "tie up loose ends" season.
Of course, that didn't happen, and I've been pleased with how Twilight's growth has been handled since then. A little dodgy in some places but respectable none-the-less. We shall see how she continues to grow with the new episodes.
The thing with spell was also changed in the final script. Once again, M. A. Larson had his original idea swerved into something different. I think the original intent was to have Twilight finish a powerful spell that not even Celestia could accomplish. That would have been enough to ascend her.
Now to see if a fan favorite gets her due this weekend!
Hiding!
This episode was absolute ass. Twilight is given the ultimate reward for casually disregarding the safety of everyone ever. And yeah, it was probably the start of an alarming trend where the writers can't make up their mind what a cutie mark is or does. There's really not much more to say about it than that.
"Applemena" was pretty cute though.
Yeah, if Season 3 weren't the 13-episode rush job it was and got a proper 2-part finale, this episode would have been so much better. That was an impression I had the first time I saw it, and nothing since has changed that perception. Now, it would still have had problems, but what episode doesn't?
Edit: also, God, this season went by fast. I just spent five minutes double-checking to make sure you hadn't missed any episodes. You haven't, the season's just that damn short.