The Crystal Empire... · 9:47pm Nov 10th, 2012
Ah, the long-awaited Season 3 opener! Here are my impressions...
King Sombra is the most nothing villain ever. Even MLP G1 villains had more personality. Sombra is basically just a scary-looking menace with ill-defined powers lurking somewhere in the background through the whole story. Compare with Nightmare Moon. Compare with Discord. Compare with Chrysalis. They all have some easily recognized personality traits, easily categorized powers, and some interaction with the rest of the cast beyond simply "I'm a threat, be scared of me".
The whole precept of the Crystal Empire reappearing after 1000 years (Wait, it disappeared two years after NMM was banished? How often does this sort of thing happen?) is contrived and awkward, yet another case of "Who ordered this?" Oh yeah... The toy department ordered this! Of course. Better get used to that.
HOWEVER, these two episodes were still a lot of fun to watch. We got a couple of fun songs. We got a lot of the Mane Six being themselves as they interact with one another and the crystal ponies. We got to see Twilight Sparkle freaking out under pressure once again. (She almost seems on the verge of self-parody, but that's probably just because I've read so many FANFICS where she behaves in exactly this way.) We got pony jousting! We got a subtle but worthy lesson at the end. It was enjoyable.
My only gripes are from the viewpoint of a fanfic author, because this story gave me nothing that I care to work with. But maybe that's just as well. I already have a full plate of stories in the works, and Season 3 hasn't yet thrown any huge monkey wrenches into them, so... Fair enough, I say.
