Thoughts on the FINALE of Season Sicks · 4:34pm Oct 7th, 2016
It was an episode, I'll give it that much.
... Oh, more depth? Alright then. It had an okay premise and a decent flow. Didn't feel rushed and it was nice to see Starlight showing she now fears being put in charge out of worry she'll let it get to her head. I've gotta admit, after the train wreck that was Season 5's finale, I like some of the things they've done with Starlight recently.
I said back then that, after establishing Starlight's motive being so petty, they had better stick with this character. And actually, they have. We saw in that one where she had to tackle multiple problems (forgot the name) that she overreacted to such small and petty issues by using powerful, forbidden and immoral magic. Not only that, she didn't see anything wrong with it until it was explicity spelled out by Twilight.
This actually somewhat improves the S5 finale by showing Starlight is indeed crazy and prone to overreacting at tiny matters, and they elaborate on it here by showing she IS trying to improve, but that effort of self-improvment is preventing her from taking certain chances, such as hanging out with her friends or helping to organise the Sunse Festival.
(By the way, the banner totes should've had a Sunset decal on it)
Trixie was awesome too, but so what else is new? Trixie and Twilight's little stealth-battle near Starlight was nice XD Those two really need to just buck it out at some point.
And I'm impressed that FOR ONCE Hasbro doesn't just ignore the fact that Discord is a Deus ex, but actually explains why he CAN'T be one this time around. In a way that also explains why Equestria couldn't just send forces after the changelings, either. Nicely done, Hasbro.
But nowwwww come the negatives:
1) Dream-walker Luna... I just hate the whole thing. Anyone who knows me well knows that I hate the way they handle it. She's a princess who spends most of her time telling kids not to be afraid of the dark, or to make up with the siblings, or to stop worrying about the thing they're on-and-off worried about all the time. At least this time it was actually dealing with a pony that IS mentally unstable, but even then, it just reinforces the idea to me that she never appeared to help out Trixie on the lead-up to Magic Duel. Either that or Trixie surprisingly had no nightmares during that dark time of her life. And even then, we have therapists for a reason, Luna. Let them do their damn jobs and you do yours, okay? Okay.
2) How the fuck did the changelings capture all those ponies so easily and stealthily? If they could do it so easily, why not do it sooner? Like, at the wedding? In fact, with Celestia, Luna, Shining and Cadance, and the M6 out of the way, why not just ATTACK Equestria? I assume she was going to, why wait?
3) The changelings transformed after GIVING their love, not after receiving more. Does that mean that they look like that only when starved of love? If so, I hope to see them back in their original states in future episodes... Not a fan of the new forms.
4) Why didn't Chrysalis accept Starlight's offer? I mean, her motives were pretty clear: she wants love, and she wants to be in control. She would get all the love she needed if she accepted, and frankly, I'm pretty sure her subjects would admire her all the more for it. Just seems that Hasbro REALLY wanted to keep Chrysalis a villain, almost as bad as they REALLY wanted Starlight to reform, and it just makes too little sense.
5) The biggie: WHY ARE CHANGELINGS SO DUMB? Hey, news flash: being friends with someone makes them like you more than attacking and threatening them does! Also, the sky is blue, and RARITY HATES DIRT!
Honestly, I was expecting some kind of reason WHY the changelings couldn't be friends with the ponies. The love had to be forced out, or the ponies were afraid of the changelings because of how they looked and their abilities (would even fit the whole xenophobic thing they got goin' on), the changelings were simply afraid... Any of these, no matter how cliché, would have at least worked. But nope, apparantley the changelings just... never used their brains. Even Thorax couldn't seem to figure out his lack of hunger and his friendship with Spike were connected.
Do they even know what love is? I don't think that they do.
So yeah, I think this finale is about on par with the S5 one. It didn't end QUITE as badly as S5 did, it was still a lot better simply because it wasn't quite so weak and lazy and forced, but admittedly S5's lead-up to the climax was a lot more awesome, so it balances out.
And, hey, might just be tiny nitpicks on my part, but to me it does seem like they just wanted to make the changelings friendly and Chrysalis an enemy, and weren't sure how to do it so they just slapped some ideas together. And again, not a fan of the new look. Hell, I'm half-tempted to argue that it's telling us only beautiful things can be accepted as friends, if it weren't for the Thorax episode we already had.
As I said, Starlight's development was nice, as was her interactions with Trixie, and Trixie's own development herself. Discord was also super fun this episode even without his chaos for the most part, and I loved how he reacted when he hard that Fluttershy was gone.
tl;dr - liked some stuff, didn't like other stuff, final rating: 6.5/10
For me, I actually like how the changelings look now.
Plus, while I love every bit of the season 5 finale, I also love every bit of this finale.
But I give the edge, and the title of best finale, to this one, for two things:
1. More of Starlight being the hero.
2. The humor, when it was there, was spot on.
Trixie was made of win these two episode. :D
As for the changelings? Too neon/bright. The general shape, fine. But the colors? Blegh!
...because that's dumb? They have much more benefits staying shadow generals than losing love M6 and Princesses receive on daily basis. Sombra could benefit with fear and hate, but not changelings.
They need to do more worldbuilding with Changelings. And Griffons. And Zebras. And...actually why do the writers insert these cool species when they aren't going to do anything with them?
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Toys, and toy SALES :D