About the Season Finale

Okay, this episode was so WTF I feel compelled to talk about it. First, I wanted this to be a good episode, I really did, and I had faith in M.A. Larson. When the episode started and Twilight started singing my hopes went up, and my hopes kept going up when the second song and third song came. The way things were going it looked like the plot might actually be cohorent, it looked like Twilly found herself in an alternate universe where the timeline was alternated and the mane 6 got the wrong cutie marks, and it looked like the moral was going to be that a mark on your flank or whatever doesn't determine who you are or your destiny, and you make your own destiny. I hoped it was going to eventually build up to Twilight giving up her wings so that she could make her own destiny for herself (at the end of the three episode arc, not this episode) The only thing I didn't really like at that point was how Twilight mixed their cutie marks up by doing something Celestia told her to do, but I absolutely loved everything else. Then Fluttershy got her cutie mark fixed, and it all went downhill from there.

The immediate problem with this is that Fluttershy seems to be completely cured, but they are still in the same "AU", which means that the whole AU thing doesn't work anymore, which mean THAT THE WHOLE CUTIE MARK SWAP THING NOW MAKES NO SENSE. Twilight is the only one who remembered the ponies old talents, not just the mane 6. This also makes the whole cutie marks very creepy as it makes it looks like getting their cutie marks swapped completely screwed up with their memories and FORCES THEM TO DO CRAP INSTEAD OF JUST CONVINCING THEM THEY ARE SOMETHING THEY AREN'T, making the episode overly fatalistic, which is not good. Now, with the next part to my horror I watch as all of the ponies got their cutie marks fixed by the end of the next song. There are two major problems with this. The first is the episode isn't even half over yet, but it looks like the conflict has already been completely resolved. Wow. The other problem is that now that the cutie mark swapping thing has been resolved that whole arc felt completely and otherly pointless. Twilight didn't need to learn anything to resolve the problem, she didn't reflect over anything, she hardly even thought about the problem, she just fixed it, and it had no lasting effect after it was resolved. It was completely and otherly pointless. Now Twilight and her friends go back to finishing the spell together, they might have well just started the episode from here. What the hell does swapping cutie marks have to do with Twilight becoming an alicorn anyway? It's obvious Star Swirl's spell was the "become an alicorn spell", he's spent his whole life writing spells and Twilight only wrote one, writing her own spell is not what turned her into an alicorn. Anyway, if Star Swirl didn't have any friends the whole cutie mark swapping thing doesn't make any sense as he would have had no friends to have their cutie marks swapped. The only possible connection I see between cutie mark swaps and the alicorn is the idea of destiny.

Anyway, now Twilight explodes and talks with Celestia in the astral plane. Now, I'm going to tell you here and now, I'm not actually opposed to alicorn Twilight. I thought this scene would be great FOR THE SERIES FINALE. Considering that the series was originally going to be only 65 episodes it makes sense that this might have originally been the series final, but it's not the series final anymore, and that doesn't change the fact the first half was completely pointless. My idea of a good series final would be about Twilight learning to say goodbye to her friends as she begins her next stage in life, an absolutely heart wrenching conclusion to an amazing series. Not this, which didn't go anywhere, more on that in a sec. Now Twilight falls back to her friends on the surface in a pretty epic scene. One of the things I do like about the episode is her friends are just as WTF about Twilight becoming an alicorn and a princess as the bronies are. What I don't like is how suddenly it's BOOM, coronation out of nowhere. Really, such a thing needed a bit more build up. Now, since the conflict was apparently resolved so early in the episode the whole time I was just waiting for them to throw something in to make a new conflict or continue with the old one. I remembered Megan's tweet about how this was the start of a 3 parter, so the whole time I was sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for them to throw in some sort of sequel hook. You know, like when Celestia said Twilight's studies are now over that she would be told she would have to leave Ponyville or something, but no, I watched in horror as nothing happened. The everything is fine song reprised, and I was just waiting for it to be interrupted just as it was the first time, but no, it didn't even end on a bleak note, instead we are treated to Twilight saying something retarded WHILE SHE IS FREAKING FLYING LIKE A MARY SUE! Why didn't she have to learn to fly like everyone else? Thank you Hasbro, for ruining our adorakable, socially awkward, student nerd, and replacing her with a princess, something no one can relate to. The reason I loved this show was because of it's excellent characters, I haven't seen many well done female nerd characters, especially not one who was the lead character of the show their in.

Okay, I'm going to get a lot more personal for the next part, so a warning right here. In the 3rd grade I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. I had to take special social skills classes, and I even had to change schools. In middle school I had to ride the short bus. I could say the most embarrassing moment of my life was when I wet my pants in school, but that only lasted a moment, this lasted for years. I was ashamed, I felt less than human. I felt unlovable, a monster. I tried to prove that I was smart, not to make myself look smart, but to prove that I wasn't retarded. It felt terrible. I wanted nothing more than not to be excluded by this label, to not be persecuted. For one moment in my life I just wanted to be normal. I was so humiliated I did things I now hate myself for doing in an attempt to "redeem myself". In the the 7th grade I finally managed to get myself out of those classes. The next year I moved to new school in Virginia, and the next I moved to Brasilia, Brazil, where I managed to start over again, trying to hide all evidence of my past. I even managed to make some friends. However, I still couldn't forget my past and it continued to haunt me. I fell in love with a German girl, and it tore me appart internally. After she moved back to Germany I was left broken and I couldn't forget who I really was inside, and my self loathing soared again. It was at this time where I was introduced to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Eventually I decided to watch the first episode, and I found myself forming an instant bond with Twilight Sparkle, I found a connection with her that I have NEVER seen in another character. See, she is the only character I have EVER seen being forced to learn social skills. Seeing Twilight go through similar thing to me gave me a whole new perspective in life, as when I saw a piece of my reflected in her, I saw something else. I saw that she wasn't a loathsome creature, that she was beautiful just the way she was. I saw that I wasn't a loathsome creature, that I could be loved. I learned that when people said they loved me just they way I was, that I brought joy into their lives, that the site of me just made them smile, they meant it. They really meant it. And now Twilight Sparkle is freaking princess. She is still far from perfect, I'm still far from perfect. Well, now she's done with her formal lessons, as am I. Now why don't I get to be freaking princess?! Okay, sorry about that little rant.

Back to the episode, the biggest problem with that is the conclusion was too conclusive, which isn't good when there is supposed to be another two parts to it, and the other problem with that is that because the falling action ended in the first half of the episode most of the episode was just a disconnected denouement, causing the episode to end in an awful anticlimax. Anyway, with the music in the episode, it was fantastic, but there was too much of it. I have nothing against a musical episode and I think it's a great idea, but it should be done for another episode, not a climatic one like this one. Overall I felt this episode was extremely rushed and pointless except for making Twilight an alicorn, which is completely unnecessary except for selling toys. It might have been a good episode if it were a two parter, this really needed to be a two parter excluding whatever is going to happen next season. MA Larson is not a bad writer and I hope (and also dread) that this only flopped because of restraints that were placed upon him. I hope the Season 4 premiere can redeem this train wreck. That's all.