Mini Re-Reviews: "Luna Eclipsed" - Season 2 Episode 4

TWILIGHT: "You see, Princess Luna? If you just show other ponies the real you, they'll learn to love you all the same!"
LUNA: "If you say so, Twilight Sparkle. And perhaps then we might enjoy the same level of popularity that you generate amongst your fans?"
TWILIGHT: "Huh? Luna, haven't you been on the internet?"
LUNA: "What is this 'In-Ter-Net' of which thou speakest? Is it some kind of net where fans gather?"
TWILIGHT: "...eh, close enough. And don't worry - I think you'll have plenty of fans..."

Isn't it a jot to be in Season 2? It's an era of many shows, but this one in particular, where it's still early enough that there's room for fresh directions, surprises and new ways in which to take viewers, but it's also where, having figured out what works with the show and what doesn't, the show staff have ironed out the kinks that naturally pop up in Season 1. This is something that is very much present in Season 2 of MLP, and especially so in today's episode, "Luna Eclipsed." Ironically, it DOES have two questionable continuity things, one of which is easily hand-waved away given an explanation from Lauren Faust the the fandom at large accepted. The other requires a bit more hand-waving, but I find it doesn't affect the episode's quality at all, really. But we'll get back to that.

"Luna Eclipsed" has many important and trivial but fun firsts to its name. As is apparent right away, it's a Halloween episode, but it is also where the trend of Earth holidays happening in Equestria under a different name and lore got its start (a trend Season 2 uses thrice altogether, each one alluded to in future episodes and returning for re-use in seasons down the line). It's also the first mention of a certain Star Swirl the Bearded, with Twilight being constantly frustrated that no one recognises her obscure choice of historical figure for a costume (a fact that doesn't fully sit with future episodes making him out to be more famous, but let's not hold that against this one). On Twilight, I just want to say that, following a portrayal of her going bat-shoot crazy last episode, M.A. Larson absolutely nails her in this one. He strikes a perfect balance between her being level-headed but having plenty of adorkable moments all her own (her remarking on the costume being hoof-stitched and that being enough to clue others in is pure gold), and the storyline and comic potential resulting from putting Twilight and Luna together in an episode is clear as crystal from this episode. Not only do they have the connection of Twilight saving her back in the pilot, but they're both sort of smart her awkward in different but similar ways, it's great.

Speaking of Luna, how about the Princess of the Night? In lieu of any show material to work with for a year, the fans had dreamt up all sorts of headcannons around her for a whole year, to the point that more then a few fans were, apparently, not entirely pleased with this episode for disrupting those same headcannons. It happens, I suppose. More pressing, perhaps, it her different design, though like with many things, I confess my initial binge of the show meant her initial smaller lighter blue design barely registered with me, though I gather many others ran with it before this episode came out. The comics using it in bits and pieces in the early days is enough of a clue to that anyway. Besides which, apparently Lauren Faust had left the show by the time this new design came to her attention, though she later came to add an explanation of Luna needing to rest for a while to regain her full strength, with their earlier form being a de-powered version of her. It's something the fandom largely accepted as basically canon, and similar application of this have popped up in not only fanfiction, but also the comics themselves (typically in flashbacks to the early days of the royal sisters).

But Luna her, oh, what a delight she is! The concept and application of the Royal Canterlot voice is glorious, and her learning to drop it is just as good (alongside which it plants a hilarious bit of lore about Fluttershy spending Nightmare Night locked away, which would later be mined as the basis for a Season 5 episode). As there's plenty of fun in Twilight trying to integrate Luna into Ponyville, we also get to see a sadder side to Luna, convinced her subjects will never quite like her (why yes, numerous fanfics have run with this, why do you ask?) as they never quite did in the first place. Which is, you know, how she became Nightmare Moon in the first place. With every attempt by Twilight and later Applejack thwarted by Pinkie's played overreactions, Luna eventually just breaks, and following one last failed attempt to win the favour of the people, she decrees the holiday in her name is over indefinitely (which flies far better in this early era when so little past Ponyville has been explored - an episode in the West, 2/3's of an episode in Clousdale, most of the gala episode and chucks of a few others in Canterlot, and various other locations in flashback of "The Cutie Mark Chronicles"; other then that's it's been all Ponyville to this point).

Truth be told, the final resolution of the episode is perhaps a bit rushed, but I do so applaud it for revealing the rarely-acknowledged truth that kids like being scared. They're resilient little suckers, capable of taking it to a high threshold as long as you don't step past it. The implication that Pinkie is kind of trolling Luna flies fine in the implication of it being in the spirit of the holiday. And the end result leaves us with a Luna who still very much has some flaws and adjusting to do to modern society, but with not only a desire to improve but also a new sense of when to play along with such things and when to have fun. I'm an not anywhere the kind of fans that goes nuts everytime Luna steps onscreen, but I do of course like her more then her limited screentime throughout the series would suggest (it is easy to see why she commands such attention).

Oh, the other continuity thing about the episode is the fact of everyone knowing about Nightmare Night and the Mare in the Moon herself within that context, despite having such limited knowledge of her returning or indeed anything to do with Nightmare Moon in the show's pilot. Still, it's easy to take it as the holiday's origin becoming blurred and forgotten about over time (quick - how much do you know about the meanings and origins of Halloween?), so there is that, even if it's obvious this episode was thought up long after the pilot's script had been sent off to be animated. It's also quite easy to compare what's going on with Luna showing up to when a convicted felon returns to society: even if they've completely reformed and have every intention of doing good for the future, the stigma is still very much there.

Anyway, Luna Eclipsed may not be quite the top of the peak standard of the past three episodes this season, but it's still unquestionably a high tick in Season 2's favor at this point, scoring what feels like a mostly effortless 9/10 by this point. Four episodes this strong in a row - what's next?

STRAY OBSERVATIONS
- I didn't really find much space in this one for openly discussing the comedy, but rest assured, much of it works, from Spike's twice-repeated gag about Mayor MAre's rainbow wig killing and scare credibility her tales might have, to the various creative costumes about, to a lot of Chicken Pinkie.
- Tabitha St. Germain's performance as Luna is not being called into question here, but it is clear that she was still adjusting to the role; a few lines notably bleed over into royalty, especially the "we won't even bother with the traditional royal farewell!" and the proceeding lines.
- M.A. Larson's comments that he can only really write awkward Luna trying to readjust struck me as odd. Was this the only Luna-centric episode he wrote? Turns out it was, but then I remembered that he story supervised the first half of Season 5, which "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" fell into, being episode 13. Even if that one is about her feeling guilt about her past actions, her dialogue with the others is perfectly normal and non-awkward by that point. But, nope! Turns out M.A. Larson only story supervised 10 episodes from the season's first half - the "Cutie Map" two-parter and then Episodes 5 through 12, culminating with his magnum opus, "Amending Fences", which it's well known he kept pitching throughout the years and only got to make once he was story supervisor for a spell. So he missed supervising another Luna episode by a hair, it would seem. Hey, I found all that interesting.
- This early on, Zecora hadn't been completely sidelined, and seeing her trusted enough in the time since her debut episode to lead the kids around is an especially nice touch.

Comments

[JimmyHook19]

More pressing, perhaps, it her different design, though like with many things, I confess my initial binge of the show meant her initial smaller lighter blue design barely registered with me, though I gather many others ran with it before this episode came out. The comics using it in bits and pieces in the early days is enough of a clue to that anyway. Besides which, apparently Lauren Faust had left the show by the time this new design came to her attention, though she later came to add an explanation of Luna needing to rest for a while to regain her full strength, with their earlier form being a de-powered version of her. It's something the fandom largely accepted as basically canon, and similar application of this have popped up in not only fanfiction, but also the comics themselves (typically in flashbacks to the early days of the royal sisters).

Not me though. Her S1 Design made her much more special...... ;-;