Help, I can't form my own opinion! · 7:23am Feb 26th, 2013
So, it's been more than a week since the finale. And I figured that maybe if I let it set for a bit, I might be able to form a thought on it after it cooled down. But it's been a week, and I still don't have my own opinion on the season three finale.
I've read blogs from folks who hated it. They talk about executive meddling, and separating Twilight from the others when the show was meant to be an ensemble, and how the episode's pacing was rushed besides. And I agree with many of their points.
I've read blogs from folks who absolutely loved it. They talk about themes of fate and destiny, and not being afraid of change. And I agree with many of their points, too.
In the end, I am left with an uneasy ambivalence. I feel like I'm waiting for one more shoe to drop before I can form any judgements of my own, but of course I know there isn't one until they come back again with season four. I'm left in a sort of limbo, and even though nothing I'm currently writing is directly affected by the episode, I'm finding it hard to plant myself in front of the keyboard because of it. It's left me all out of sorts, and I'm a bit frustrated about it.
Is this what it was like at the end of the first two seasons? Because I don't know how you guys managed to hold your breath the whole summer if it was. I'm already blue in the face.
The first two seasons ended on more of a definitive note, so the whole cliffhanger aspect is different for this show, but it's not exactly an uncommon thing for shows that have a guaranteed next season...for example, those of us that watched House M.D. having a season end with the title character getting shot, and having to wait until the next season's start to see how it really turned out. As for coping with a season ending cliffhanger, it's mostly a test of patience.
Also, this seems like a good spot to note that Lauren Faust has said that her original plan for Twilight was to eventually become Celestia's successor. Given how many other things from season three seem to derive from her original plans for the characters, Princess Twilight doesn't seem quite as out of place.
The only thing I'll really speculate at this point is that after the airing of the first two episodes of season four, the fanbase will generally agree that the episodes felt rushed and the story needed another episode.
I have to admit that I'm in a state of cautious optimism about Twilight's big development. I think there are new and interesting things to be done with her character, but I'm always conscious of the possibility that this could go south very easily.
And a lot of my anxiety also has to do with the episode. The songs and the overall plot were good, but a little rushed. I think turning it into a two-parter like "The Return of Harmony" might have been better. I hope Season Four turns out alright, and even if it doesn't, we still have quite a few good episodes from the last three seasons to enjoy.
No! Like I'd pointed out, NOTHING HAPPENED at the end of season 3.
Nothing. Nothing at all. Besides, once the first ep of Equestrian Girls comes out, you'll probably not mind so much.
Nah, just watch it. you'll see what I mean. Nothing happens. Nothing at all happens.
You should write a fic about your mixed feelings.
Whatever genre it ends up being will show your true thoughts about the finale.
Cling to that limbo or decide to like it if you can; it's not pleasant to actively dislike it. It makes me sick to my core in a very convoluted and roundabout way.
Much as I appreciate that destiny and progress and whatever else are factors to be considered, it's also a step away from things I liked; the easy-to-appreciate symmetry and bid for equality. The slice of life-y clinging to normalcy. Twilight was special--like everyone else. Now she's special, unlike everyone else, saddled with a "princess" title that has been ambiguous ever since Cadance was introduced.
Also, I'm warring against my own mind knowing that Lauren wanted something like this. I can't help but wonder if I'd have an easier time accepting the finale if she'd been at the helm. I feel terrible for not being able to accept something that was planned from the start, because it makes me feel like I missed the point of the show. Like I've been watching it "wrong".
On the flip side? I've never railed against canon before. Not in a big way. I've never been one of those people who think they know better than the writers, and I've always kept a level head - I've tried to, anyway. This is the first time I've felt the need to stand up and say "are you sure this is right?" -- I don't know if this makes my opinion more valid, or if it's just because it hits one of my minor triggers. I hate endings, goodbyes and change.
Ugh. Sorry. I feel like the world's biggest wet blanket. If you are on the fence, try to fall forwards, not backwards. It's got to be far more pleasant. I sure as hell don't judge people who liked it, I'll tell you that much. Yeah, I do get pissed off when people try to disagree with my right to dislike it - there are a bunch of zealots who seem to try to deny people having an opinion on it - but the only thing I feel when I see people who genuinely enjoyed it is envy.
Wow, that sounds moodier than my teenage self way back when, haha.
It was poorly executed and poorly conceived. Much like almost all of season 3. I'm extremely sad when i dwell on it for too long, because we will never get more season 1. The writers have long ago abandoned that style of storycrafting.
I'm going to avoid causing too much drama here.
It is my firm belief that I don't care that Twilight is an alicorn now. I don't give a single flying squirrel. But I absolutely, without a doubt, hate the episode in which she became one. The pacing was absolutely horrendous, and I felt like they (the show makers) focused more heavily on squishing twelve 4 minute songs into the first half of the episode than they did keeping Twilight in character. She gave up too easily at the beginning, and without even an experiment or thought process, she knows exactly how to fix the problem. :/
And one small detail that annoyed me:
Twi. You got your wings like... 5 hours ago. How did you learn how to fly?
That's just my humble opinion. Cheers.
<3 DarqFox
I personally liked it, though I will admit the first half of the episode was rushed. In all, there's nothing we can ever do about it anyways, so as Mr. Cloudy Skies said, try to just enjoy it.
On a lighter note, I'm starting to think that "Princess" is just one of those honorary titles you through around to reward and/or appease people, even though it doesn't mean anything.
Not really.
The Brony/Pegasister community has always had their disagreements on Season Finales, trust me. The Season 2 Finale is still questionable (Honestly, conquering a kingdom to get love doesn't work).
The episode itself has many problems, but I don't understand how anyone can have formed an opinion on the change itself so soon. How it will affect the show is still entirely unclear, and will continue to be so until the next season.
866889 Maybe part of what bugs me about it is that it doesn't work particularly well as a cliffhanger. I'll buy that Faust originally had Princess Twilight in mind as an eventual end for her character arc, but it seems like that's the sort of thing that would happen at the end of the show itself, not as the cap of a half-season in the middle. It almost feels to me like the writers weren't sure there would be a season four or not, so they worked up something that doesn't quite fit as a mid-series finale (because now they have a whole other season wherein they need to work with Twilight being able to fly and having a crown) nor an end to the show (because none of the other five really got any resolution to their character arcs).
866941 I wonder if maybe cutting out the coronation ceremony at the end would have relieved some of the time pressure on the plot. I mean, then there would have been another five minutes or so to make the plot a little less frantic, and the episode would have behaved more like a proper cliffhanger in the end:
Twilight, you're a princess now.
I'm a what? Holy sh-
-Continued in season four-
866956 Eugh. Don't remind me that's a real thing. All the humanized fics that are gonna come out of that...
866961 That might be an idea. Twilight takes a moment to panic over what's going to become of her and her friends now that she's a princess. Hmm.
867053 I agree that the sense of equality among the main cast is a huge part of the enjoyability of the show, and that the princess thing represents a threat to that balance. But what the princess thing really is is still ambiguous, which means there's still a chance, maybe, that season four won't become The Twilight Show, starring Princess Twilight.
Like I said to Suraht, I'd buy that this was what Lauren Faust intended for Twilight at the end of the show, but it seems strange to put it in the middle like that. (Not to mention completely deflating the joke in my latest chapter of Teatime Visit
)
867075 It certainly seems more sloppily done than the previous finales. Canterlot Wedding is hardly fair to compare it to, since that one was a two-parter with action and a villain. But in comparison to the Grand Galloping Gala, well, Gala balanced its time and focus evenly between the cast, and didn't feel rushed despite taking the same amount of time as MMC because the season finale arc was woven in with the episode's plot without any jarring transitions. But for the whole season... I've seen your complaints about season three, and while you make a lot of valid points, I can't agree with you that the whole season was a disappointment. There's been some character growth, some world-building. I certainly wouldn't call it a total wash.
867201 This statement may not make me a whole lot of friends, but I am not as big a fan of Daniel Ingram as most of the fandom seems to be. While Celestia singing meant that Celestia got to be on screen for more than a few seconds at a time, which is a plus in my book, for the most part the musical aspect didn't do much for me.
867206 I think that's the best hope for a continuation in season four. "Good job, Twilight, you're a princess now. Here's a plaque you can hang over your mantle, and we'll see you at the Hearth's Warming Eve dinner!" I just can't picture the show retaining its charm if Twilight starts arriving everywhere by chariot and everypony bows in her presence.
867382 That was something that puzzled me, too. What exactly was Chrysalis planning to do? What was stopping the changelings from just going around Canterlot and its bubble to infiltrate the surrounding countryside and get their fill of love there?
868191
But I wanna jump to conclusions now!
868324
I will admit that the singing was not bad, seeing as I didn't immediately skip over it like I did for just about every singing bit other that 'Winter Wrap-Up'. But then again, I really couldn't skip the singing because that was 80% of the episode. Singing. The only reason it really irked me was that the whole thing felt like a big animated musical, like someone's pony-fied version of something like 'Hairspray' or (forgive the cliché) 'High School Musical'. It felt like the entire point of the episode was some half-assed excuse for the show writers to be lazy bums and satisfy some sick itch to hear the musical voices of all of the characters.
But again, the music was not bad, and was not the key factor of my dislike of the episode itself.
<3 DarqFox
868324
Say what you will about Daniel Ingram, but you cannot deny his genius!
867206
Princesses are just like everypony else!
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869952
Indeed.
868324 I think for me it comes down to never being able to stop wondering whether I would have accepted this "ending" if Faust was at the helm. Some consider all of S3 a failure, too. I don't know where I stand on that, but I'd like to see Faust do S3 and its ending so we can put it side by side: even if I still dislike the idea of separation, I'm curious. The fact that the others got no resolution - most notably Rainbow Dash, I guess - only heightens this.
And yes. It really feels like "the end--wait. Renewed? CRAP!"
I just don't know. It's so easy to sit here sniping at S3 and the finale, but I know that when I put on pony eps, I'm inevitably going to enjoy them. At least, with S1 and S2 that's the case - I'm not so sure about S3. I'm in the middle of S3 in my current chronological rewatch and I have to admit I'm tempted to just go back to S1 and start anew.