Episode Re-Review: The Crystal Empire Parts 1 and 2 · 7:21pm Mar 11th, 2021
As the gap between Seasons 2 and 3 stretched on for a while, the Brony fandom took off in full steam. Anticipation and speculation ran wild about could possibly be in store for Season 3. The show's future looked bright. But as time went by with no news of a Season 3 on the horizon the fans started to grow worried. And then rumors started circulating that Season 3 would be the final season, the show would end with Twilight Sparkle becoming an alicorn princess and other controversial changes. Information was scarce even though small clips started surfacing. At last, it was confirmed that Season 3 would indeed be a half season though no confirmation of the show's cancellation or conclusion was given. And so Season 3 finally arrived with a two parter written by Meghan McCarthy. The dust had settled on "A Canterlot Wedding" by this point and Meghan at least had emerged unscathed. Heck, Meghan was herself promoted to story editor after Rob Rezentti decided that he wouldn't be part of the show now that Lauren Faust was no longer involved. So, with this abrupt changing of the guard for a half season, was Meghan up to the task of keeping interest in the show alive? Well, let's find out.
Part 1 begins in Canterlot with Princess Celestia holding court, when suddenly the throne room doors burst open and a royal guard reports that "it" has returned. Somehow, Princess Celestia knows what "it" means without asking for clarification and instructs a royal guard to find Shining Armor and Cadence. Then she writes a letter telling Twilight to come to Canterlot immediately. We cut to Ponyville where Twilight is running about, convinced she's going to be taking a test of some kind and Spike tries to tell her to calm down. This ends up setting Twilight off, but Applejack (who is there alongside Rarity) comments that Twilight seems to be taking it pretty well. I guess it's an improvement over what happened the last time Twilight was worried about something.
Twilight actually gets so mad that she manages to make the entire library shoot off the ground and crash back down (somehow not injuring or killing anyone). Then we cut back to Canterlot as Princess Celestia and Princess Luna vaguely talk about something and Princess Luna expresses her desire to go, but Celestia refuses and says that Twilight will be adequate. Luna is anything but pleased by this and even seems to scowl at Twilight upon seeing how "prepared" she is for a test. Strangely enough, this is the only time we ever see this sort of behavior from Luna towards Twilight. If anything, considering Twilight helped Luna out you'd think Luna would be a little bit more optimistic and encouraging.
Celestia, meanwhile, reveals that Twilight's "test" will be a bit different from normal. She exposits about the Crystal Empire, a long lost civilization that was once ruled by an evil and greedy king named Sombra. He actually enslaved the empire's residents (for reasons unknown) before he was defeated by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna (without the aid of the Elements of Harmony it would seem) and banished deep beneath the ice and snow of the surrounding tundra. However, Sombra was able to cast a spell just before his downfall that made the empire vanish along with him. Why is this empire so important though? Because according to Celestia, the empire reflects love and light across all of Equestria, and if fear and hatred take hold that will be reflected across Equestria as well. So basically Equestria is annexing a sovereign empire, albeit because it has strategic value (like how the U.S. originally annexed the Hawaiian islands before they were eventually made a state).
So Twilight's "test" is to aid Cadence and Shining Armor in defending the empire. And if she succeeds she'll prove that she's ready to take the next step in her studies. However, Princess Celestia warns Twilight that in the end she must be the one who does what needs to be done. It's likely this too is part of the "test" but the idea of using the invasion of an empire of strategic value as a test does make Celestia look kind of bad, especially when she's unintentionally (or perhaps intentionally to see the reaction) planting a seed in her student's mind that she alone should ensure it is protected. At no point do we know that Celestia has a back-up plan in mind or even has a set of parameters that she wants Twilight to operate within, let alone any indication of what to do should her student get in over her head. They probably thought they didn't need to specify because we'd assume Celestia and Luna would step in if needed, but a little clarification goes a long way.
This leads into the "Failure, Success Song" which is what was shown off as a promo clip at a convention in full animated form. It's okay but it doesn't tell us anything we the audience didn't already know. When the song ends, Twilight meets her friends at the train station and tells them they're all going to the Crystal Empire. I assume that on the way she fills them in on the details, since otherwise it doesn't make sense to bring them along and not let them know what they're getting into. Rarity apparently came prepared with multiple scarfs, but she doesn't think to give them to any of her friends (element of generosity, everyone). And you know how "The Return of Harmony" referenced A New Hope? Well this two parter decided to reference The Empire Strikes Back with Shining Armor patrolling out in a blizzard not unlike Han patrolling Hoth at the beginning of the movie.
The crypticness continues as Shining Armor urges everyone to get to the empire before night fall and vaguely says "The empire isn't the only thing that's returned.", and it turns out he's referring to King Sombra. It seems kind of odd that no one is able to actually speak about him directly. It's an attempt at being vague to add a sense of mystery, but it falls flat when in the first attempt they don't tell us what "it' means and in the second attempt we soon learn what they're trying to mention but see no reason why they couldn't say it outright. Sombra then takes the form of a huge cloud of darkness, and Shining Armor out of the blue decides to stop and fight, resulting in him being overpowered. I should mention that the original draft for the two parter was going to reuse Chrysalis, which probably would've been better than utilizing a new villain that we don't get to learn much about directly. And there was also just going to be a one shot dealing with the lost civilization with no evil forces attached (and another episode involving the forgotten customs and traditions of the empire, which I kind of wish we'd gotten to see an episode made out of that). Sombra is meant to be like Sauron from Lord of the Rings in that he lurks primarily in the background but remains a threat to the heroes. But it doesn't work when Sombra lacks any kind of personality or meaningful interaction with the heroes, and we learn only a little bit about how he might have worked. Sauron had an entire movie to be built up as a credible threat before he finally made his big move.
So because of Shining's decision to more or less sacrifice himself (for no established reason) his horn is blocked off by dark crystal shards. But other than that he's okay, he just can't do magic. There are attempts to integrate the mane six's personalities into the story, such as when Applejack and Rainbow Dash tease Rarity about how it's no big deal and Rarity dramatically overreacts. But it doesn't advance the story and in fact pauses it for the sake of telling the joke. The story really continues when we meet Princess Cadence, who is looking groggy and sleep deprived. It turns out she's been using her magic to put up a protective barrier of love and light, while Shining Armor has been patrolling out in the wilderness (as opposed to maybe interacting with the empire's residents). And it does seem like Meghan got Shining and Cadence's abilities mixed up because at no point is it indicated that Cadence learned how to do Shining's signature shield spells. Twilight then decides to do what Cadence and Shining haven't been able to do, talk to the empire's residents and extract some information out of them if possible, believing that this is part of her test.
Again, the story tries to fit the mane six's personalities in when we have stuff like Rainbow Dash bluntly and aggressively interrogating crystal ponies, Rarity fixating on what she'd be like as a crystal pony (it really feels like Meghan didn't know how to write Rarity into this story) and a fake out of Fluttershy preparing to strike at a crystal pony after no one will speak to her only to decide not to. But the only one besides Twilight who's actually interesting is Pinkie Pie, largely because she utilizes a sort of stealth suit with night vision goggles. However, Twilight is the only who gets anything that's really vital. The empire's residents don't remember anything from before King Sombra came to power and don't want to remember anything from Sombra's reign. They also can't believe they've been gone for a thousand years because for them it feels like it's been no time at all.
Applejack (off screen) was able to find out some information about a library (after a clever fake out joke where Pinkie Pie shows up in a Fluttershy costume and unzips it, and then Fluttershy shows up, sees the costume and wonders if it was something she did) and Twilight gushes in delight at the prospect. The mane six (and Spike) all head over to the library and find that even the librarian can't remember anything (she's not even sure if she's meant to be working there). Fortunately, the mane six manage to find a book about an ancient tradition called a Crystal Fair and decide to put one on. This leads into the "Crystal Faire Song" which is catchy, bouncy and manages to follow in the tradition of other songs by making the exposition contained within it flow through the story naturally.
Pinkie Pie is somehow unable to play a fluglehorn despite being a master of multiple instruments, and she keeps playing it despite being bad at it until she has to be told to stop. Twilight then announces a new Crystal Fair and all the crystal ponies start showing up to the fair grounds. Cadence and Shining Armor remain inside the castle though even though this could be an opportunity for them to interact with their subjects (so aside from the need for a shield spell why where they sent there if Twilight was just going to do all of their work for them?). The fair works, it begins to restore the crystal ponies' memories. However, it turns out that the Crystal Heart mentioned in the book was an actual artifact of importance. And somehow, Twilight didn't notice a page was missing (in the original plans with Chrysalis the library was going to be already destroyed, but they would find the book in the rubble and put on the fair anyway). Then, to make matters worse, Cadence's magic fails and the barrier drops. King Sombra closes in on the empire rather slowly as part 1 ends.
However, Part 2 immediately resolves the cliff hanger by having Shining help Cadence up, and this is all the encouragement Cadence needs to recast the shield spell and put the barrier up in time to keep Sombra out (cutting off the tip of his horn in the process). So the cliff hanger from part 1 was pointless and unnecessary.
Shining Armor finally decides to do something for a change and go look for the Crystal Heart, but Twilight tells him not to because he needs to be by Cadence's side and she still believes that for the sake of her test she has to solve the problem herself. I could forgive it up to this point, but by now Twilight has seen how high the stakes are and she should know better than to try and do everything herself. But she goes off anyway as Spike learns about this and runs off to be with her. We then get a lot of back and forth between this A plot and a B plot of the rest of the mane six trying to keep the crystal ponies' spirits up and keep them away from the Crystal Heart. Needless to say, there's a lot of back and forth mood whiplash here. And also, strangely enough, several background ponies that aren't crystal ponies show up here. About the only real development during this time though, is Rainbow Dash roping Fluttershy into competing against her in a jousting tournament. And when she sees that Fluttershy isn't thrilled to be doing so, Rainbow guilt trips Fluttershy and then says she can't go "too easy" on her for the sake of her reputation. And this is the same Rainbow Dash who should know about her friend's performance anxiety.
As for Twilight and Spike, Twilight refuses to let Spike lift a claw at all because she thinks doing so would violate the terms of her "test". Spike reluctantly agrees as Twilight starts searching the castle for the Crystal Heart (figuring it was the one place no crystal pony would ever be able to look for it). She then uses dark magic to reveal a secret stair case beneath the throne room and follows it all the way down to a door at the bottom of a cavern.
The door keeps moving, however, so Twilight uses dark magic to make it hold still. She then runs through it when it opens only to suddenly and inexplicably find herself back in Canterlot. There she finds a rather angry Princess Celestia telling her to go away because she failed the test. In fact, Twilight is no longer going to be Celestia's student even though there was never any indication of that before. Celestia just coldly dismisses her and Twilight sees a stained glass display of Sombra conquering the Crystal Empire.
It all turns out to be an illusion, however, as Spike comes down the stairs and is able to call out to Twilight to get her to snap out of it. Then he stares into the door and is shown a vision that we don't get to see. You'd expect it to be something trivial and played for laughs, like maybe finding out Rarity doesn't love him or not being able to snack on gems anymore. But it's actually something very serious. Twilight is sending him away. So we know that Twilight means a lot to Spike. And for once she acknowledges this, hugging him and reassuring him that she won't send him away or fail her test.
Using normal magic, Twilight gets the door open and finds a huge spiral staircase waiting for her. She begins to climb up it only for Spike to conclude that this must be another trap Sombra set up, a staircase that leads to nowhere.
So Twilight decides that Spike is right and uses a spell to flip the stairs upside down and slide on them. This works, leading up (or I guess down actually) to the tower where the Crystal Heart is resting. But the barrier is just about to fail, and to make matters worse Pinkie Pie accidentally exposes the fake Crystal Heart to the crystal ponies. Twilight immediately moves to snatch up the Crystal Heart, but in doing so she sets off an alarm that alerts Sombra to her presence and he traps her.
As Sombra begins to slowly close in on the empire again, Twilight tries and fails to get out of her crystal prison. In a moment of realization she tells Spike that he has to be the one to get the Crystal Heart to Cadence (since the heart landed right next to him). Spike reluctantly does so, but on his way down he trips and falls off the tower balcony. Shining Armor then out of the blue picks up Cadence, and her seeing the Crystal Heart is enough to reinvigorate her. Shining tosses her like a javelin and Cadence is able to fly up and snatch the Crystal Heart (and Spike) before King Sombra can get to it.
Cadence is identified as "The Crystal Princess" and shatters the fake Crystal Heart before placing the real one into a fixture that appears out of the ground. She instructs all the crystal ponies to power up the heart and drive Sombra away, and they do. But Sombra isn't just repelled or sealed away like all the evils before him. Oh no. He gets straight up destroyed, his entire body bathed in light and blown to a million pieces in surprisingly graphic fashion for a G rated cartoon. Only the Storm King would meet a fate equally as bad.
King Sombra's demise frees Twilight from her crystal prison and I guess Cadence later came to get her down. Some time later, the mane six and Spike are heading back to the train station to return to Canterlot as Shining Armor comments on how Twilight is always saving him and that it's getting embarrassing. But all Twilight can think about is that she failed her test by having Spike deliver the Crystal Heart to Cadence (even though it was on her orders). However, Princess Celestia reveals that that was the intention behind the test all along. She wanted to see if Twilight understood the meaning of self-sacrifice. This is nice and all, but again it wouldn't have hurt to clarify that she would've stepped in had Twilight failed for any reason because otherwise it makes Celestia could look very irresponsible. It's very likely that she wanted to ensure Twilight wouldn't turn out like Sunset Shimmer since I don't see much else of a reason behind her pulling such a test now.
Part 2 ends with a reprise of "The Failure Success Song" which is okay but again not anything spectacular. It really just seems like it was put there because they couldn't think of any other way to end the episode. But at the very end we see Luna produce a mysterious book out of nowhere and nod to Celestia.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the two parter? Well, I think it was with this two parter that it became clear that Meghan McCarthy was at her best working with pre-established characters and villains that already existed, because her attempt at a new villain here fell flat and a lot of her attempts to be "vague" also fell flat. The biggest issue is that this two parter was not as adventure oriented as either season premiere before it, and that's fine since "A Canterlot Wedding" showed it was possible to have a more slice of life two parter with hints of action adventure later on. The problem lies in that the mane six's personalities didn't always mesh well with the intended story, especially in the second part where that was a lot of mood whiplash revolving around their antics. Shining Armor and Cadence do nothing for most of the two parter even though the Crystal Empire is supposed to be theirs, and the idea that this was all a test from Princess Celestia with no indication that she would step in if things went wrong means the empire is in more danger than it might be. Yes, if we knew Princess Celestia would step in there would be far less stakes, but they could easily find ways to work around it without rendering her or Princess Luna powerless or irrelevant. Twilight is fine here, she does get tunnel vision a little but it makes sense why she does. Surprisingly, Spike is the biggest plus for this whole two parter. He's in top form here, his usual comedic tendencies are kept to a minimum and he actually gets to have some development and a major victory. King Sombra does have the advantage of being crazy prepared, but when he doesn't do much until the climax he could easily be replaced by an invading army or a natural disaster and we wouldn't lose anything. Part 1 gets a borderline B/B+ while part 2 gets a B-. They're still good, better paced than either season premiere before (not that that's saying much) but "A Canterlot Wedding" had raised the bar pretty high for what two parters could (and arguably should) strive to be and this two parter didn't quite clear it.
Well, next up is a rather interesting episode since we had the return of Dave Polsky with "Too Many Pinkie Pies", an episode with clones.
You know, I became so hyped the moment I heard the word "it", because I acutally thought the episode would be a crossover with Stephen King's It and that the Mane 6 was going to fight Pennywise. He honestly would've been a far better villain than King Sombra ever was.
Also, even if this wasn't a crossover with It, I would've loved to see Tim Curry be the VA for Sombra, because the character itself is basically a combination of elements from three iconic villains all played by Curry:
* Darkness from Legend
* Hexxus from Ferngully
* Pennywise from It
I got into the fandom sometime during the hiatus between Seasons 2 and 3, so this two-parter was actually the first episode I watched when it premiered.
You know, a part of me likes to think Rainbow Dash forced Fluttershy into the jousting tournament as an excuse to get back at her for what happened in Dragon Quest.
5472816 Well, unfortunately, I think this was right around the time when Tim Curry had his stroke. And if not, he was already busy with Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Transformers Rescue Bots.
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Oh... Right...
Yeah, this is definitely not one of the season's best, but I would go back to it over the pilot or Return of Harmony
Ah the best premier of the show. This was certainly a controversial premier in ways, and I find it's rather underappreciated. Sombra in particular is extremely underrated. He may not do much, but the planning he did to ensure no one reached the heart was top notch and ultra super layered, and he's just so intimidating waiting outside the empire patiently. Also a really really funny premier, with a wonderful Twilight and Spike here.