Thoughts on season 4

I know I'm a year late, and no one will read this, but I'd like to record my thoughts here for posterity's sake.

Season 4 had so much potential. It could’ve been the best season ever (for me anyway). It was a good season, leaps and bounds ahead of season 3, but in the end I think that seasons 1 and 2 were a bit better. As far as I’m concerned season 1 was perfect (well, except for Feeling Pinkie Keen), and aside from some weirdness in the finale (which, despite its flaws, are two of my favorite episodes) and the , season 2 was pretty close.

We all know the problems with season 3 (The dreaded alicorn change, two of the worst Spike episodes ever, the most under-developed villain the show has ever had).

Then season 4 comes along and we see that the dreaded Alicorn change was nothing to fear. The show hasn’t gone off the rails. The first two episodes of season 4 was the best intro since season 2. But then more episodes come and somethings a little off, and I figured out what it was. Nothing changed. Sure, Twilight got her wings, but her princesshood was really only addressed in the intro and finale. Sure, it was a part of Trade Ya! and Twilight Time, but for the most part it was almost like nothing had changed for Twilight.

Remember in Daring Don’t when the mane 6 go to Daring Do’s house and offer to help, only to be met with “I work alone.” Sure the episode had a good moral at the end, and I didn’t have a problem with Daring Do being real, twelve year old me would’ve been ecstatic. Actually, twelve year old me would probably be yelling at me for watching a girls show, but I digress. I had a problem with the fact that a princess, who is a national hero, and her friends, who are the elements of harmony and also national heroes, shows up on your doorstep and then you refuse her help. It might’ve made sense if it was just Dash by herself, but it wasn’t. It was six of the greatest heroes in Equestria. For land sakes, Twilight probably could’ve just blasted Ahuizotl with some magic and cleared the whole mess up, but that didn’t happen.

Also, in Rarity Takes Manehattan, ponies on the street treated Twilight as just another pony, not an Alicorn Princess. I mean, realistically, everpony would’ve been bowing and scraping, rolling out the red carpet, etc.. But that didn’t happen.

Finally we get to the finale, which despite the fact the Discord was holding the idiot ball, were two of the shows best episodes. Except for one tiny thing. Twilight suddenly developed an inferiority complex. She was feeling dejected because thus far her role as princess had been largely ceremonial. Now that’s fine, great even. It shows character development and yada yada yada. The problem is that it happens out of the blue in the finale. How hard would it have been to include a handful of lines scattered throughout the season to hint at how Twi was feeling? But they didn’t do that. It was all so forced and rushed.

It was the same problem the season 2 finale had. Twilight Sparkle had been the adorkable prodigy who had never really had any friends. That was how the show had been. Then in the Season 2 finale suddenly she had a brother that she was very close with, that she never ever mentioned (and a babysitter she must’ve been pretty close with to). Admittedly there are some ways to explain this away, but those explanations were never given in the show. There were some other problems with the S2 finale, like how Chrysalis should have impersonated Shining Armor, or why a race of shapeshifters who feed on love decided to attack a city en masse and put all the citizens in cocoons, but overall it was really well done.

All that said, Twilight got her stupid castle. I like the fact she has a castle/is becoming a proper ruler, but the castle is so garish, so out of place in Ponyville, and such an obvious attempt to sell toys to little girls.

All that said I’m looking forward to season 5. Here’s to changing the status quo!

Edit: I was just watching Power Ponies, my least favorite episode of season 4 (not for any good reason, I just really don't like the whole premise of of the episode). Anyway, at the beginning of the episode the mane 6 are fixing the castle of the royal sisters for no reason, and I thought 'Hey, what if the rainbow power had just restored the castle of the two sisters (and maybe relocated it to Ponyville/maybe not) and that could have been Twi's castle instead of the stupid crystal tree. Of course it is in the middle of the Everfree Forest (which is supposedly dangerous), which could have presented some problems, but that sure would have been interesting. Oh well, I guess we can reserve that one for headcannon.