Awful, just awful. · 2:19pm Feb 17th, 2013
The Season finale was exactly that. The (few) of you watching me have probably figured out that I'm not one for blog posts, but I think I'll make an exception here. In case you couldn't tell, some of the following is drenched in an inadequate sarcasm.
First of all, there is no explanation for anything, largely as a result of cramming over 40 minutes of content into 20 minutes of incoherent babble. Hey, guess what? The mane6 have had their cutiemarks switched, through magic, despite magic not being able to! Why? Because magic does that. And you know, magic explains stuff when we can't be bothered to. Solution to problem? More magic, because stuff. Twilight is an Alicorn now, because stuff! Now lets sing about it and not be bothered at all that our friend has just become a vastly more powerful being, yeah, that sounds about right! Everyone is happy. Unicorns can control the weather now: seems legit. Discord is nowhere; thats entirely normal. He really wouldn't be around for such an insignificant turn of events, would he? Nahh. Of a half length season, they choose to make the arguably most radical of them all a standard, 20 minute episode. What on earth was going through their heads?
The songs were borderline acceptable, though having such a unrelenting stream of them made Celestia's song rather lackluster. The best of them, by all means, but only one of many in a sea of mediocre lyrics. More generally, season 3 isn't so much about friendship anymore, so much as spouting friendship is magic' until we convince ourselves that it means something. No longer, does it need to be explained through lessons of morality, that would be too complicated, of course it would. All we need do is remember the magic of friendship and it will come to save us from our ills. Let the meaning be reduced to a phrase when things go well. That's what little girls will benefit most from, I'm sure.
You wanna know the incredible irony of S3? It seems to me at least, that Corey Powell (as the new writer on staff this year) wasn't made a part of the overarching plot planning, either by choice or because he/she came on later, but those episodes had to be stand-alone slice-of-life episodes that didn't affect the overall plot—and they're far, FAR better than the rest of the season by comparison. I mean, Sleepless in Ponyville is in my top 3 episodes of the whole series, maybe even my top 1, and I thought that nothing would EVER match up to Sisterhooves Social in my book.
Honestly, though, you do sound a lot like me and my friend right now. I think we came up with at least every one of those same points in our own rants yesterday. It's not a secret why things aren't as good, I just really hope that most of it is/was Hasbro's fault so we can get back to our ponies when they find a new toy to get distracted with and leave MLP to the writers.
No explanations for anything in a series known for good writing.
No good, impactful songs in a series known for good songs.
No morality in a show known for good, honest morals.
I think those points pretty much hit the low spots to me. And honestly, the moment Celestia and her friends BOW to her like it's no big deal? What IS that?
So she teaches AND learns now, that's nothing new. Do ALL Canterlot post-graduate students become alicorns?
838765
(Apologies for sounding generic)
We can only hope.
838748
Of course it would be the episode that didn't aim to end up with some grandiose change that would be the best. As you've pointed out, season 3 has consisted of more weak episodes then any other season so far and yet has come up with a brilliant one, by the relative newbie, out of all people.
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839331
I believe that the quote is 'but now we will be learning from you too' or something along those lines; I think the point of that statement was to show that the princesses are now also her students, not just ponies.
But I agree that it was extremely rushed, more so than magic duel. I also believe that there will be some expla
nation* and continuity in season four, as hinted by Megan Mcarthy, who suggested there would be two episodes linked to the finale.
Absolutely right that the morals are going and the music was extremely low-quality in comparison to the rest of the show, however we must remember that there is quite a fast production line and that they never intended for this level of intellectual viewership and thus they are pretty much making everything from season 2 onwards as they go along (and probably some of season 2 as well). Think about it, in season 1, every single event led up to the Grand Galloping Gala. In season two, there were very few hints to anything important happening after discord, however, they still had plenty of morals to show. In season three, there was no build-up to anyone doing anything.
I'm tired now, be back later.
*: That's jon's fault. We're in Korea :3
849150
No lie, that would be the single most stupid thing in the entire show to date, worse by tenfold than "We wanted to teach you a lesson about humility, so we humiliated you." Yes, the demigoddess ponies who have ruled the world, lived for thousands upon thousands of years, and formerly bore the Elements of Harmony against the same enemies and likely more need lessons from a unicorn of about eighteen simply because she has a few true gal-pals.
THIS is the sort of logic that's breaking the show apart, and why I've sadly had to pretty much declare all of season 3 non-canon for the purposes of my writing. There's no lesson for her to teach. There's no reason for her to be a Princess. There's no SENSE. It's definitely not the same show as I started watching a year and a bit ago.
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I agree with you wholeheartedly with this. Promoting (or demoting may be more accurate) Twilight to a teacher nullifies the entire purpose of her ever having a 'pupil' status in the first place. If there was an insurmountable urge to somehow turn her into a princess, it would have needed to be done as a marker for the end of the FIM generation, although, sadly, it may still be. Somebody has managed to permanently warp the show in one of the most ridiculous, inept ways I could think of, with no foreseeable recourse.
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In terms of an explanation, regardless of the potential validity, I think it's asinine to fragment such a monumental narrative over multiple seasons. I wouldn't consider what they did in the finale reasonable for an episode to be followed up by another next week, let alone an ultimatum of a season. Regarding the validity of said filling in of gaps, if I am somehow adoring of it, it will be difficult to forget the time when it was left for dead. But, until the bitter end, do I hope against hope.