My honest opinion on the new episode. · 4:23pm Feb 17th, 2013
I'll be blunt. I rated it as the second worst episode of the series; only episode I hated more was Spike at Your Service. Now, the difference in the two episodes is that in SaYS, we only had a Spike that went full retard and basically terrible characterizations over all. The Timberwolves weren't enough to pull it out of a crater that dug to the core of the earth filled with shit I wanted to set on fire from pure hatred of the episode.
Magical Mystery Cure, which sounds like it's based off of some Beatles' album, brought a whole new level of suck to the table. It's the first episode I rage quitted from watching (my friend who I was chatting with did nearly the same thing) and the first episode where everything that happened I basically hated. Almost everything, at least.
The good things were few and far between. I mean, there was basically only three or four good things in the entire episode. Five if you count the appearance of Bubbly McBubblington Bubblebutts, best wall-eyed background pony ever made. Although she's not really a plus. She's pure fan pandering and adding her into the finale quite honestly annoyed me. I guess the only thing I'm happy about is that she's alive, as this should shut those moralDerpyfags up. Hopefully. Probably not, though.
I guess I should start explaining my reasoning behind my hatred. First thing was the music. I only managed to make it through six of the songs. I quit before the last one was played, but judging by how bad the songs were overall, I would've hated it. Guess I also missed the second one but I'm still gonna guess it sucked. Yes I hate things. Quite easily, in fact. Maybe it stems from the fact I'm into death metal and little pop songs don't make me release dopamine the same way I do when I hear Pekka Kokko shredding, or Herman Li playing some amazing guitar solo that makes me question how the universe hasn't been torn asunder.
However, I'm not just into metal. Some of the songs from the show I /have/ enjoyed and have taken the time to memorize both rhythm and lyrics. For fun. Smile Smile Smile in particular; This Day Aria was a fun one to learn; Winter Wrap Up is a must. The songs in the new episode, however?
The first song, with Twilight waking up and saying how everything was going to be a good day. I actually liked it. It was catchy, pretty cool, and I found myself laughing--and questioning a bunch of things--when Twilight started tap dancing on the table. Bipedal much? This does raise a bunch of questions, however. Since when did Twilight learn how to tap dance? I demand a fic where Twilight takes tap dancing lessons and she finds out she's some sort of prodigy. Another good thing about the song is that it lead into the problem. Rarity fucking up the weather 'cause apparently she's been cutie mark (destiny?) swapped into believing she's a weather pony.
The second one, as I previously stated, I missed. Because my laptop overheated and I REALLY didn't want to look back into this episode. Just going to assume it sucked because, as a friend stated when I gave my review of this episode to him, I'm a pessimistic lil' fuck. Whoops. :3
The third song (assuming it was 'What my Cutie Mark is Telling Me') was also quite good. Something about seeing how everyone is now trying to deal with their new forced destiny (we'll get to that later) was kinda cool. So, we have Rainbow Dash thinking she's Fluttershy; Fluttershy thinking she's Pinkie; Pinkie thinking she's Applejack; Applejack thinking she's Rarity; and Rarity thinking she's Rainbow Dash. The pentagram is complete between swapped destiny. All we need is a few candles, a ram's horn, maybe a hoof, and we'll get together for early morning Satanic rituals.
No one? At all?
Fine. Guess I'll summon something by myself.
All silliness aside, Pinkiejack was adorable. Everything she did was adorable. From the faceplant after she tried to move the plough, to the broken leg when she tried to buck a tree. Hell, even when a chicken laid an egg in her mane it was adorable. Applejackity just wasn't as good, but whatever. Pinkiejack has enough adorableness to back everyone else up.
Now, song four was shit. I can not stress this enough. Only positive thing was when Rainbow Dash was about to be vored. Should've went through with that. Now, the lyrics make me want to cringe. The simplicity of solving the entire episode's problem in a single song as well? Blah. Bad taste in my mouth rotten enough to make corned beef taste good. I /loathe/ corned beef. No, seriously, it's the only food to ever make me vomit. The lyrics are obviously aimed at a younger audience. I know what you're going to say. 'Oh, but this show was originally for little girls.' That's cute. Daniel Ingram promised 'epic' this season. Songs have been bad.
Another thing that I've heard. . . apparently MandoPony worked on some of the songs? That could explain why I didn't like most of the songs. As per much of the other 'famous' fandom musicians, I don't actually like any of them. Call me a heretic, call me a blasphemous scum, call me a Satanist that's still gathering supplies for my early morning Satanic summoning rituals--one of these days I'll summon Pinkie. Then the world will bow before my feet. Or hooves--but I really don't like them.
Getting back on track, the next song was the greatest moment of the show. Oh, the song sucked, but Celestia sang it. Lyrics were shallow. . . man, I can't even think of a proper analogy here. I'll post my headcanon here later in the blog, but the song sucked. Plain and simple.
And then Twilicorn happened and I rage quit. Not from the wings, but because of why it happened. Like I said, it brought a whole new level of suck to the table.
Let's get to it, shall we? Now, Celestia sent Twilight Starswirl's unfinished spell. It obviously wasn't completely unfinished, as it managed to swap the destinies of her friends. Except her 'cause fuck that, Hasbro needs a new money grabbing scheme. Does this ring a bell with any other fanfic writers? Namely the 'Twilight fucks up a spell and the world fails.' Only good one is Scystorm's take on it. Simply because everything goes just fine when she casts a spell.
So Twilight, through a song, manages to push everyone to their rightful destiny, therefore fixing her own fuck-up. Also she adds a few lines to the book then does a dramatic dot then PEWPEWPEW she gets laser beamed.
The headcanon here is that she died. Would've made the episode a LOT better, honestly. Now, the laser beam incinerated her. The next scene where she's in some sort of in-between universe that looks like it was made by a Twifag stalker documenting her entire life for his own personal lustful needs. Now, this is the afterlife. Celestia couldn't bear to tell her student the truth, so she gave her an afterlife dream. This explains why the lyrics suck, Celestia's making up a song on the spot to try to make it seem like everything's normal. Everything else is a dream. A good dream, one that Twilight obviously wanted. Dead, body vaporized so thoroughly there's no strands of it left in the entire universe, Twilight's living in her dream as an alicorn. As the pretty pony princess she obviously (she didn't) deserved to be. Ponyville is left mourning; Celestia's going to refuse to take in another student for fear of her next one being torn apart from her like this one. The Lunar Republic and the other one rises because nothing makes sense anymore, and the world ends. Okay, last part is joking, but it totally makes sense. If you believe in the afterlife, that is.
Headcanon is a powerful thing, isn't it?
Now, ignoring headcanon and getting back to the show. Celestia’s song ends, and Twilight becomes an alicorn and a pretty pony princess and I quite honestly rage quit then and there. I saw nothing else, heard nothing else, and effectively gave up on the episode. The livestream tab was closed, and I never looked at anything dealing with the episode again. Until today when I had to look up the song names.
I have seen a lot of praise for this episode, and I guess people are welcome to their own opinions. But that also means I’m entitled to my own.
This episode earns a 1.5/10, the second lowest rating I've ever given an episode. I recommend not watching this ponified High School Musical, and instead doing better things with your life like doing the dishes.
Review over, let the flaming commence.
Looking forward to not replying to your comments,
Carmine.
i accually feel the same way
Yes, most of my review is based on the songs. When there's a song every 3 minutes, on average, there's not much else to criticize. Most of the in-between sucked though. Also the plot was so rushed, Usain Bolt is now a turtle.
I watch the entire episode and did not smile at all. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but most of the opinions do need some support (Not saying that you don't have any which you do have support for your opinion). The episode honestly to me felt rushed and couldn't quite put the right amount of sense to replace the rush into something real good. If they went slow, explain the stuff that was going on without adding song by song that had nothing to do with the situation going on, then perhaps it would not be that bad. To me, that was out of the three episodes I did not like. The other two shall be name for they are everypony's except mines favorite episode. Here is a hint, one involves Luna (Don't like) and the other involves Rainbow Dash (This was a rush one that made me frown)
So that is pretty much it. Everyone has their own taste to liking and disliking things.
Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaay...
So does this mean not watching future seasons, if she stays an alicorn? Cause supposedly, this ISN'T the end of it if haven't heard, Season 4 is supposed to have another 2 parts tying into the end of this season.
Unlike yourself, I LOVED the episode and right now, it is my new favorite (think Canterlot Wedding was before it, when saw it the first time, though never was aware until after thought about it, I guess
). You didn't miss a song, it sounds like, I don't know why you think you did... the "What my Cutie Mark is Telling Me" song WAS the second one of the episode, if you don't count the usual opening theme. 
You just missed a bit of conflict with the ponies being mad over Rarity doing what was formerly Rainbow Dash's destiny/job, if didn't see that part. I agree, thought it was interesting how the ponies seemed to switch personalities while still being themselves at their core personality. Though it's odd how nopony else seems to question things (they complain, sure, but never question them), short of Twilight and Spike, like AJ and Rarity's families, or the Cakes. But other than that and couple minor things (supposed rushness, but a LOT of episodes can be considered rushed, in a 22-minute timeframe and doubt will up the time to an hour if not gonna last forever or several years, like soap opera or something), was pretty well-done imo.
Personally, I liked all the songs and while I may have had high hopes while eagerly awaiting it that morning, it didn't detract from the episode for me and hasn't, now that it's worn off and seen it again, earlier this morning (only thing that was different was that sort of 'cried' during when they got their cutie marks back, for some reason
). Really should've seen the coronation, Twilight may've been bit cheesy, but she DID thank her friends and teacher for teaching her the magic of friendship and stuff and didn't seem much different (first thing she practically did was ask for book about being a Princess //dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Twilight_Sparkle_lolface.png ) and while it leaves lot of unanswered questions; as I said, Season 4 will have a 2-part opener or whatever leading from where Season 3 ended, supposedly. Well granted, understand your feeling, but there's not much when have one episode to work with, and it's not better to end a season with a ginormous cliffhanger like Twilight debating over how to fix her friends' cutie marks or seem like died or whatever. 
Granted, turned out somewhat different from all the theories people said, but it was still enjoyable for me and reinforced that Twilight will always our adorkable bookworm we've come to grow and love. I hope will respect my opinion and not trash my blog going in-depth about it, currently on my page here. 
(Especially since blog is going unseen cause I have very few watchers atm due to only having promise of stories to come, and yet to deliver on any, though haven't prematurely posted, as it is. And only using Twilight icons wasn't intentional, mind you. XD)
I disagree with you on most of the points you brought up. Also, I don't get it how you liked the first two songs you heard, disliked the next one, thought the Celestia song was the best part of the episode, yet still somehow ragequit shortly after that. Your comments up to that point would indicate that there was very little you had disliked by then. Also, considering you liked two of the songs, how can the Celestia song be the best part of the episode if it sucked? I think you let your previously formed opinions color your view of the episode. It was much better than I personally expected, and I really liked the music in general.
The only thing I liked were the songs, everything else sucked, worst episode from MLP so far, I actually liked Spike at Your Service a lot better than this one
Your mouth is broken.
If the pentagram doesn't work out, try putting candles on the sides of a mirror at midnight and chanting "Pinkamena, Pinkamena, Pinkamena". I heard that one worked at least once.
I agreed with you on the most part. I do think the scenes where Twilight becomes an alicorn and where she tells her friends are good, execution-wise. Plot-wise, there is nothing salvageable in this episode and I am glad someone else is here to see it.
I agree. This episode was terrible. But for different reasons.
First, I'd like to say, Twilight's immunity to the spell kinda makes sense because... well... think of it like a computer file. You can't edit a file while it's in use... at least in Windows. Twilight was using her special talent while the spell was cast, therefore, it couldn't affect her. At least, that's my own theory.
But yeah, everything about this episode was terrible. No good reason was given for Twilight to be promoted to princess, and the side effects from the cutie mark switch made no sense.
Cutie marks are supposed to represent talents. But switching them did not change their talents or basic skill-sets. It actually changed their memories, and nothing else. That makes no sense.
Then we have Princess Twilight, who is promoted because she wrote a spell. Wait... what!? I don't see how writing a spell proves you have leadership qualities. Also, if writing a new spell is such a rare and difficult thing, Equestria's a stagnant dystopia.
I posted a full review on my site if you're interested.
844689
Huh. Read your review just now. You point out pretty much the same criticisms I did, which is very encouraging, actually. I liked S3 in general, and Sombra was a different sort of antagonist, so I didn't compare him to the others. (A monster, plot-wise, not a villain. He fits as a monster, I find). All in all the theme of the season has shifted from fighting for happiness to the price of happiness. You see more dilemmas than before, which not everyone likes.
But this is something I just don't understand. How do people like this? You have to suspend so much disbelief for so little reward. Fluttershy's monologue during her restoration was possibly the worst moment in the entire series. And that's coming from someone who saw the upsides to 'Mare Do Well'.
855347
"All in all the theme of the season has shifted from fighting for happiness to the price of happiness. You see more dilemmas than before, which not everyone likes."
I don't know exactly what you are referring to this season. Let me think.
Okay, looking back, I know exactly where you're coming from, and that might be part of the problem. The staff were trying new things, and didn't know exactly how to write them. I'll at least give them credit for that. Trying something new and faceplanting is better than doing the same thing over and over.
I think I might be a bit too harsh on the finale though. I might be writing up a quick look back on the entire series, look at the problems of each episode, see if I gave the finale equal judgement.
855347
You know, regarding Sombra just being a monster and not a villain. Sorry, I don't buy that, since he can talk. If you can talk, you can exposite and you can have motivations. You're also not allowed to not have them.
860367
I mean from a plot point of view, not any sort of distinction in races or intelligence. His function in the story is to move the plot along. The Crystal Empire episodes are centered entirely on the heroes and Sombra acts as the ticking clock towards doom. As such, he serves the same function story-wise as the monster in Predator, which was also something that could talk and didn't get a lot of character development in any of the movies. If you compare him to movie villains, he falls short. If you compare him to movie monsters, he pretty much does what he's supposed to do. If you look at it just in-show, Sombra does the same thing for the episodes as the hydra in Feeling Pinkie Keen or the cockatrice. Had they gone for a villain with clear motivations, then the focus wouldn't be on the heroes and the whole nature of the plot would have been different, possibly even repetitive. You can argue that this would have been a better choice to begin with, but it doesn't take away from the fact that Sombra acts like monster and not a villain from a story perspective.
The fact that he can talk makes no difference. He was designed to fulfill a function in the story, which he did. That function wasn't that of a villain: you interact with villains, they get backstories. Monsters are supposed to be menacing, make us care about whether or not the heroes can escape. Have you noticed how Sombra was the only antagonist that had to actually be stopped before he got what he wanted? Nightmare Moon managed to stop the dawn, Discord managed to turn Ponyville into the chaos capital of the world, Chrysalis did manage to take Canterlot for while. And the world didn't end. Here, the stakes were made out to be bigger because supposedly, if Sombra won that would have done permanent damage. All the stuff he left behind suggests he enjoys torturing others, and it's the only antagonist who, to me, at least, looked like he might actually use lethal force if given the chance. All the other antagonists had a perfect opportunity to do that, and they didn't. Here, it's a little more vague, because he didn't get that clear a shot.
Then there's the implication that what we saw was just a weakened remnant of Sombra, whatever survived the banishment to the shadows. Like Aku from Samurai Jack, who started out as just this big, mindless black goop. Nobody cares about that black stuff at first, we care about the samurai trying to drive the thing away. It's only when it gets a personality that we start to see some appeal in Aku and the focus goes to the conflict between the two. Likewise in later episodes: you see a mix of villains and monsters there: characters with exposition and motivations and characters that are just there to be obstacles for the hero. Doesn't matter if both can talk: story-wise they're monsters or villains.
I guess the major failing with Sombra is that he's implied to have any personality at all. Me, I consider him a monster because of how he fits in the story, and his level of intelligence doesn't change this perception for me. Again, Samurai Jack has plenty of story monsters who show a level of intelligence. Other people consider him a failed villain because he has more intelligence than a monster, but not enough personality to make him a proper villain.
Besides that, the writers had to use a unicorn to at least introduce the idea that even a normal pony can ascend to dark powers. It either set up Evil Twilight or Reformed Discord. Also because the toy department said so.
But, umm, whatever you think is fine
.
860923
Fine, whatever, but it opens up a lot of questions. Why is he evil? What exactly did he do? There are some hints of a deeper story here. They tease us with flashes from the dark times. But we're not actually told what happened.
They were slaves. But what were they doing as slaves? Building something? Building what? Why? They could have cut down on the stair walking and musical numbers, and filled up the time with evil backstory and the entire episode would have been better off.
I forgave the episode because I assumed they were gonna reveal some of his back story in later episodes, but we never did. I mean I think we got a few hints in Magic Duel, but still, that wasn't much.
860923
Nightmare didn't use lethal force? Did we watch the same episode? She did, I know that, she just failed at it. Remember collapsing the cliff? That's attempted murder.
Sucks. I suppose.
Pinkie Pie, please answer me what has happened
I would soon rather your friend you had dismembered
For, in the third saga as a whole, you seemed less than silly
Being annoying as a tight underpant snaring someone's willy
Pinkie, please come back! Be the mare we most fondly remembered!
(Now, a surprise for Carmy)