Season 4 Openner Review (Spoilers) · 2:40am Nov 24th, 2013
First off, I'm glad to see Twilight isn't taking easily to her role as Princess & change to Alicorn. It keeps her from being a Mary Sue, which would have been easy given the show's target audience.
Twilight's reluctance to leave her friends had me worried in my first viewing. That combined with the expanded cast featured in the credits had me afraid that the concept of the "Mane Six" was going to become a secondary feature in Season 4, or at the very least its importance was going to be ignored.
In the next scene we see Twilight still being adorkable. Checklists, panic attacks, etc. Yes, she's become an Alicorn and a Princess, but she is still at her core Twilight Sparkle.
Seeing Celestia's guilt over the conflict she had with her sister was a nice moment of depth. It showed that Celestia isn't as untarnished and unblemished as she often seems. I like that she genuinely recognizes Twilight as a peer.
As expected, the general populous of Equestia panics. Hey, that's what they do best. Everyone looks to Twilight for guidance in the absence of the other princesses, which is a new kind of responsibility for Twilight that she's unsure how to react to - but she takes charge admirably, though only provides general orders of "Go do what you probably would have done anyway." Not bad, given its her first "royal command."
Excessive "Nope" and "Eyep" from Big Mac. It's cute, but they're laying on it on thick. We see Dash's usual expression of bravado. She's a badass, even if its in her own mind. After seeing how all the ponies react to the blackroot (except Pinkie, oddly enough), the Mane Six (and the audience, I'd imagine) think it's Discord.
Twilight has to be reminded she can fly to Ponyville, which is a nice touch. Again, at her core, she's still the same ol' Twi and that's a good thing. Also, Alicorns apparently come equiped with a seatbelt. Who knew?
Enter "reformed" Discord. I have to say this might have been the most pleasent surprise of the episode. Yes, he's reformed, but he's still not a good guy. He loves what's going on. He relishes in the chaos and while he does help the Mane Six, he does it in a way that is both true to his promise and true to himself. Like Twilight, we don't see an unbelievable change in his character simply because of a progression in story that doesn't quite warrant it.
Then Zecora shows up (for no apparent reason). I guess they needed a mentor/exposition mouth piece in the absence of Celestia and Luna. She's got a Potion of Help the Writers Explain Some History They Couldn't Otheriwse Reveal. It felt a bit weak in the terms of plot device, but it is a cartoon for 8 year old girls and given the strength of the rest of the episode, I can certainly forgive it.
So we get to see Luna go all Anakin Skywalker. Then Celestia uses the Wonder Planetarium and Death Star of Rainbow Friendship Lasers because Shit Got Real (tm). Not gonna lie, I loved it.
After the first flashback, Discord cements his title as King Troll and Twilight takes it to the head a second time. I imagine Zecora and the Mane Six going "Chug! Chug! Chug!" all fratboy style.
We continue our lesson in Equestrian History 101 and I have to say the subtle use of Discord's seeds was really good. I didn't pick up on it in my viewing, so great twist there.
Enter the Tree of Harmony. Never mentioned or revealed before, but it still felt natural. It fit the paradigm of MLP, so again, rock on.
So yet again the adventures of the Mane Six take them into the Everfree Forest. The parallel with the pilot episode continues, but remains fresh. It's adding to the cyclic nature of myth and legend instead of feeling like a rehash of old material because of weak writing.
So Killer Croc visits from Gotham City and the other Mane Six tell Twilight to GTFO because she's all royal and shit. Not very supportive of friends, if you ask me - and I'm not sure if all of them would buy into this plan of action. Dash, especially. I see her being like "Fuck that noise! Twi's a badass, she's going to be fine." In addition, I see AJ (who seems to be the strongest proponent of this course of action) not buying into it, at least not when Twilight expresses her disappointment in their faith in her.
I guess therein lies the real reason Twilight's dismissal. They're putting her title above the friendship they share and through the whole episode we're seeing Twilight is still the same, even though she's got wings and a crown now. In that same vein, Discord's trolling when she returns doesn't seem like something she'd fall for. Twilight knows who she is - hell, that's how she earned being a princess in the first place.
So Twi tells Discord to go piss up a flagpole and heads back into the Everfree Forest. Apparently Croc isn't the only Gotham villian on leave, as Twilight gets bushwhacked by some sidekicks of Poison Ivy.
So the rest of the Mane Six get their ass kicked by some roots and AJ & Dash have an obligatory argument - because hey, that's what they do and they're awesome.
So, Twilight's about to take things in a hentai direction when the Mane Six show up and save her flank in a really cute battle sequence. (APPLEJACK, NOW WITH KUNG-FU POWERSLIDE ACTION!)
Group Hug and Lesson Learned. Friendship first, bitches.
So, back to the Tree of Harmony. Then, the Shit The Bed Moment happens. The Mane Six surrender the Elements of Harmony to empower the tree.
Holy shit. Ballsy, brave, dynamic writing. Bravo, writers. Bravo. It takes a lot of courage to take the MacGuffin you've used for three seasons and say "Nope, not going to lean on that crutch anymore because that's not the real strength of the show. The real strength is the genuine relationship between these characters." Fuck yeah.
So the empowered Tree of Harmony takes a note from Ted Elliot and Terry Russio and reveals the Dead Man's Chest. No clues, no hints - just a new plot device. Sure, I say. Why the hell not?
They get back to town and Discord's like "Ooops, my B!" but the Mane Six can't re-imprison him because they're Elementless. They'll genuinely have to depend on their friendship if Discord gets saucy.
Again, well-played writers. Well played.
So we close with the Summer Sun Celebration and Princess Sparkle does a firework that reminds me a lot of a Sonic Rainboom. Because she's an alicorn, so sure - whatevs.
I'll say two contradictory things. This is the best episode I've ever seen. The strength and bravery of the writing just leave me floored. It's got mythic resonence in the tradition of other epic legends like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars and it is willing to throw away previous writing crutches to get back to its core. Good, good, good, good stuff.
But, it's not my favorite. That doesn't take away any of its credits or make it any weaker of an episode, but Cutie Mark Chronicles is probably still my favorite. Chronicles is the prelude to the MLP series in my mind while Princess Twilight Sparkle is the beginning of Book 2 in a series.
So yeah. I haven't been this satisfied with an episode since Season 2 and I think it shows that MLP can maintain its strength and continue to grow as a series. Things are going to get really, really cool as the season progresses.
As a post-script, I'm really interested to see "Castle-Mania" and learn more about the Pony of Shadows. But then again, I was a goth kid, so I can eat up fan service like that all damn day.
This is maybe the best writeup I've seen. You hit a couple of great points with the meaning behind giving up the Elements (which I was all for anyway, but didn't realize quite why I felt that way) and Twilight's freakout scene, which kind of irritated me on first watch. I may appreciate this more after repeated viewings.
This, however, I thought was a major problem, especially with Pinkie. Her segments felt very much like "Things are getting too serious, it's Pinkie Time now." And then they milk one joke two or three times.
1534996 Oddly enough, Pinkie didn't seem as overdone for me as she does in other episodes - and I'm not a big fan of her. But to each their own.
Thanks so much for the compliments though! That's high praise indeed!