Episode Re-Review: Celestial Advice · 3:58pm Jun 7th, 2021
Allow me to explain what's going on here. I'm not going to re-review every episode, every movie and every special from here on out. I still think a majority of my reviews from this point onward summed up my thoughts and feelings quite well the first time around (especially on the Equestria Girls side). However, there are others that I feel could do with some updating: Either because new information about them has come to light or because I feel like there are points I didn't consider in the original. In this case it's kind of the latter, though is more because this was the first episode to be bundled back to back with another for a special occasion (Season 8 would do it for the mid-season premiere and Season 9 would do it for the last three episodes as a prime time special on a Saturday night). Anyway, Season 7 was confirmed to be ordered while Season 6 was still in production, and Hasbro apparently liked this trend so much they started doing this for Seasons 8 and 9 as well. Interestingly, Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco, coming off their stint in Equestria Girls, were tapped to take over as story editors here. They also wrote this and the next episode, but neither of them are regarded as good season premieres (in fact, they're seen as the opposite). On its own and not coupled with what came after it, is this episode at least decent and able to function as Season 7's first impression? Well, let's find out.
The episode begins with Spike paying Starlight Glimmer a visit in her room, apparently opting to be a distraction for her so that Twilight can measure Starlight's room undetected. Spike even opts to pull back his scales and mimic Rarity, which is meant to be a nod to G3 where Cathy Wesluck voiced Rarity (and ironically enough, when Cathy decided not to come back for "Pony Life" Tabitha St. Germain took over Spike). We also learn that Starlight and her rag tag rescue group are being awarded the Equestrian Pink Heart, which would appear to be similar to the U.S. Purple Heart award. Fortunately, Spike is able to distract Starlight long enough for Twilight to measure the room and get away. It's revealed that Twilight is getting Starlight a mirror similar to one Twilight has in her room, that way Starlight will wake up "Surrounded by her friends". And as for the ceremony, she's got Pinkie Pie taking care of that. And it seems Pinkie has traded in her party cannon for something more direct.
So the ceremony gets under way as the medals are awarded, though Princess Luna has a problem getting the medal tied around Thorax and we don't get to see what exactly she does to make it fit. Soon afterward, Discord talks to Twilight and mentions that Starlight is definitely beyond basic friendship lessons and asks her if she has a plan. Sensing that she doesn't, Discord opts to try and put her on the spot, but Twilight manages to make a retreat and start fixating on a plan for what to do with Starlight. Meanwhile, Discord spends time hyping up Twilight's big announcement while Trixie and Thorax more or less are just there to pose for pictures (and Trixie still can't stand Discord in the slightest). It kind of feels like the episode is shilling Starlight Glimmer a lot, especially when Twilight mentions a lesson where Starlight taught her something. Twilight then decides to turn to Princess Celestia, seeing as she had a plan for Twilight. But it's weird that Twilight is reverting back to this when the whole point of "The Crystalling" was that she didn't need to be exactly like Celestia (and arguably, trying to be like Celestia backfired in that it put pressure on Starlight and made her do drastic things like blow off an important dinner or combine five friendship problems into one).
So Twilight starts proposing ideas, starting off with sending Starlight to the new changeling hive to help Thorax teach the values of friendship. Thorax's voice hasn't changed a bit, so it's weird that he didn't speak at all after his evolution in "To Where and Back Again Part 2". Heck, he never once had the echoy filter that Chrysalis had (none of the changelings did). It's worth mentioning that he was more or less appointed the new ruler/leader of the changelings by Princess Celestia, which is kind of her meddling in the affairs of another nation. But at the same time, I think most of the changelings would've turned to Thorax by default (or Celestia choosing Thorax might have been to prevent a power vaccum or power struggle). We're then treated to Twilight visualizing what Starlight's time in the hive might be like. And when Spike points out that Thorax wouldn't talk the way he does in the vision, Celestia says "There is no wrong way to fantasize".
Twilight then worries that since not all changelings have automatically accepted friendship, one changeling might try to make Starlight look bad by more or less emulating what Starlight used to be like except far more condescending and racist. Heck, this changeling in the vision somehow manages to bring up a fly swatter while posing as Starlight. So Twilight decides that maybe the changeling hive is not a good idea, and when Spike tells her it probably won't happen Twilight insists "It could". And apparently, Princess Celestia is only now aware that she's an expression.
Next, Twilight considers sending Starlight to the dragon lands to hang out with Ember, and imagines the two talking like rejected 90's stereotypes. But she also worries about Garble coming up, abducting Starlight and diving head first into a pool of lava. Thus, Twilight rules out the dragon lands and considers sending Starlight to the Crystal Empire to study magic with Sunburst (not sure that's a good idea after how magically overpowered Starlight's proven herself to be, but at the same time maybe Sunburst could keep her from going too far off the deep end). Oddly enough, the way Sunburst pronounces "clock" sounds really off, almost as if the "l" were silent. Anyway, the vision shows Starlight and Sunburst making a coo-coo clock with Flurry Heart (or a wooden carving of her I would assume) as the coo-coo that comes out. However, Twilight worries about the two trying to tackle something truly advanced, like a conjuring to "retrieve an item that was lost". It sure is a good thing that there are no demons ponies can summon.
Instead, the vision has the two opening up a black hole that sucks Starlight in.
So because of what "could happen", Twilight doesn't think she can send Starlight anywhere really. And then out of the blue, Celestia begins to laugh. Twilight thinks she's being laughed at, but Celestia says she isn't, she's laughing because she once had similar feelings about sending Twilight away. Not for nothing, but Celestia laughing when she did is kind of mean. Twilight was just coming off a vision of Starlight suffering a horrible fate and likely dying. And at no point does Celestia apologize or even show that she tried to keep herself from laughing. However, this does lead to what's probably the best thing about this episode (besides Spike's constant interruptions), Princess Celestia shares her story about how she came to the decision to send Twilight away. It truly confirms the whole "Momlestia" thing, showing that she worried about Twilight's well being and potential, but also kept trying to come up with excuses as to why she shouldn't send Twilight off to Ponyville. Interestingly, one of her worries was of Twilight running into a manticore, which did happen in the pilot.
There is a weird continuity issue though since Ruby Pinch appears as a filly in Celestia's school alongside Twilight's Canterlot friends, which was probably done just because the animators didn't want to waste time on a new character for one scene (but why not just recolor Pinch's model like they did for Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle's models to avoid the continuity error from "Call of the Cutie"?). Celestia also mentions knowing of "A special group of friends", suggesting that the rest of the mane six all knew each other and actually were friends before meeting Twilight. But I think this is Celestia having her feelings clouded by what she now knows. The rest of the mane six may have been vaguely aware of each other and some of themwere canonically friends before Twilight showed. But many of them would've never interacted with the whole group if not for Twilight. I mean heck, a lot of Season 1 episodes made it clear that some like Rainbow Dash might have wanted nothing to do with others like Pinkie Pie. It's easier for Celestia to think they've always been friends since she's always seen them together. It's unfortunate that all of these scenes are happening so close to the end, especially Princess Celestia saying that she came to the realization that she was afraid Twilight would no longer need her if she made friends. And Twilight insists that's not true, before Princess Celestia tells her that Starlight might be worried about the same thing. She even suggests having Starlight write letters if Twilight is truly worried about her. Just hope she has a provision in place for the possibility of junk mail.
So then we get to the scene that Discovery Family leaked early and thus made everyone assume it would happen much earlier in the episode: Twilight making her big speech about sending Starlight away. However, as soon as it's over Starlight says she doesn't want to go away and Twilight accepts because she isn't ready to say goodbye to Starlight yet. So this entire scene is pointless, and thus the whole episode can feel pointless.
Discord claims after the fact that he was hoping Twilight would send Starlight to his dimension as a roommate, scolding her for not apparently noticing his hints. But this feels like a "Freudian Excuse" when it's clear that Discord enjoyed messing with Twilight and was hoping to embarrass her upon finding out she had no plan. I get it, he's Discord and he's going to be chaotic. But now that he's more or less "reformed" to the point where he's unintentionally done something truly selfless, he should be above this kind of petty behavior. I mean, he knows Twilight has had issues trusting him in the past, so why does he continue to mess with her? He doesn't even try to frame this as a "lesson", he did it just to mess with her and now he's trying to save face.
The episode then ends with Pinkie Pie bringing in a vaccum to clean up after the party, and that's it. The rest of the mane six have been completely irrelevant to this episode: It was just the Twilight and Starlight show with Princess Celestia as a guest star for the third act. Definitely not the best way to start off a new season.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, even on its own legs it's not a very good premiere. It offers no hint of anything to really come for Season 7, it offers no path forward and after teasing the possibility of changing the status quo it leaves it completely intact. The whole episode is spent on building up to something that never comes to pass, and it just feels like it's shilling Starlight Glimmer. It's only the stuff in the third act with Princess Celestia, fleshing out her character and letting her finally be seen in a positive light for a change that saves this episode from being completely unsalvageable and completely skippable. Yeah, it probably is fanservice for those who wanted Celestia to be more developed and get more love, but it's done so well and so in character that I don't mind it. In fact, drawing on Celestia's memories would've been the perfect way to extend this episode into a proper two parter. And you could also spend time playing up Starlight's own concerns about leaving. I have a theory (or hypothesis to be scientifically accurate, theory rolls off the tongue better) that this was going to be the big two parter premiere for Season 7 originally, but Hasbro inexplicably said no. So Lewis and Songco salvaged what they could of their plans here, then quickly set to work on writing the next episode to fill the gap. I mean, there's really no other reason I can think of why Season 7 didn't get a two part premiere unless maybe it was only supposed to be a half season originally, and then got extended to a full season to give the movie staff more time? Well, regardless of what might have been, this episode as it is just barely gets a C. Even if Season 7 ultimately became my favorite season of the show, it most certainly didn't start off on the right foot (which is something Seasons 8 and 9 at least managed to do). Even "The Return of Harmony" for all its missteps offered up something new, this really didn't.
And next up is an episode that more or less irrepreably destroyed StarlightxTrixie in my eyes even though I kept holding out hope that it could be saved. And that something is "All Bottled Up" which would be the first (but not the last) time Starlight would get a toxic friendship because I guess the show runners thought it'd be funny.
Been a long time since I saw season 7 but this season is one of my favorite season and this episode is a good way to start it
For me this is a fun, sweet little episode that's honestly more enjoyable than the first couple of premieres.
I know I've said before that I consider Mirror Magic to be the quintessential "Shilling Starlight Glimmer" story, but if I had to pick an episode of the parent series that deserves said title the most, I'd probably go with this one.
You have no idea how long I watched a loop of Celestia laughing at Twilight.
5531310
I mean...the 2-4 premiers are the best in the show other than The Beginning of the End topping The Return of Harmony.
5531452 I respectfully disagree on 2 having a good premiere, at least if we're talking two parter. "Lesson Zero" is the true Season 2 premiere for me, "The Return of Harmony" was intended as the grand finale for a show that never was and needed serious retooling to fit into the show it was part of.
5531463
It's definitely flawed. But I wouldn't say the flaws hold it back too much. It's a flawed masterpiece.
5531452
Eh, Princess Twilight Sparkle is the best premiere before Cutie Map.
But the 5,6,8 and 9 premieres are my favorites, and Return of Harmony is my least favorite two parter overall
5531513
Season 8 has my least favourite two parter