Season 5 Premiere? Kinda underwhelmed me... (Spoilers) · 12:37am Apr 5th, 2015
It was easier than it SHOULD have been to contain my hype over the hiatus. And why SHOULD it have been? Season 4's finale is pretty much my favorite ever, and we seemed to be gaining some awesome momentum as the show settled in.
So why was I not more excited?
Well... the premiere just didn't look very exciting.
Yeah, sorry, but I was NEVER looking forward to this, because of EXACTLY what happened.
Powerless heroes, relying on normality and cunning to see them through. I HATE those storylines. This is why I can't read that comic about Celestia making Twilight live as an earth pony because she relies on her magic "too much." Yeah, you rely on that thing that makes you special and defines you TOO MUCH, Twilight, so I'm arbitrarily taking that away to make you learn some bullshit life lesson! Fuckadoodle-doo... Kiss my ass.
I understand not trying to outdo the S4 finale, because how COULD you, but this feels like the weakest opener of the show, hands down.
Yeah, it sets up what will HOPEFULLY be a better season for the elements introduced, and the chance for Starlight Glimmer to be a recurring villain who slowly turns into a true threat is appealing, but it feels like this PREMIERE got equalized along with everyone else.
And worse, there's no DRAMA, because we've SEEN images from later in the season, where they all CLEARLY still have their cutie marks. So we KNOW this will only be a delay, jerking us around, so that a bunch of random-ass ponies can save the day FOR them.
Season 3 might have had the worst written premiere of any of them, and the writing HERE isn't bad, but at least Crystal Empire felt BIG, it felt IMPORTANT. It felt like a real adventure with real stakes to it.
Say what you will about Sombra having no dialogue, his design being bad, but at least he wasn't just a normal-ass pony.
In a way, I like the idea of just a regular pony being so dangerous to threaten the world... but the world wasn't at stake here. That, and the uninspired nature of Starlight Glimmer herself. Yet another character who could easily be a Thesaurus taken to the name "Twilight Sparkle." With Sunset Shimmer I thought it was kinda neat, like she represented what Twilight COULD have been if she had taken the wrong path. This? It just doesn't feel like she has much character beyond being smug and thinking she knows what's best for everyone.
Now, IF she's a recurring villain, there's a chance for us to see a deeper backstory and motivation. And I'll gladly be proven wrong.
And hey, this season will probably be awesome. We've got the hundredth episode to look forward to, and maybe the CMC getting their talents at last!
But what does it say about the premiere, that the thing I was most looking forward to this season had to to with the Crusaders?
Depowering your heroes is something in writing you have to make EXTREMELY temporary, because nobody wants to see the goal of a story to be the return to a character's usual strengths.
Imagine if the Avengers had a MOVIE where everyone's powers for whatever reason were removed, and they spent the whole movie trying to get them back from a villain they could otherwise punk-out in seconds?
Oh wait! DC comics DID do something like that!
It was called "JLA: Act of God"!
And guess what?
IT FUCKING SUUUUUUCKED!
This was the "Star Trek: Insurrection" of two-parters...
So, you're saying that making your heroes powerless is a bad thing because... it just is? I really don't see what you're saying. All I got out of this was "this episode sucked because the heroes didn't fight anyone", and it's not as if they've never solved a problem without OMG exciting fights and superpowers! before.
Also, I don't see how you can say that Starlight has no real character when we've had characters like Chrysalis and Sombra who's goals don't extend beyond "Imma be a huge jerk because I can", rather than having an actual goal, albeit a misguided one. I will agree with you that her name is really unoriginal, though.
Honestly, it was underwhelming in parts. Pinkie though had her moments. Lots of funny moments and Rarity losing her mind as she can't quite tell fashion anymore was funny as well. But honestly it just felt like the stakes were not very high here. I mean seriously, the villainess took there cutie marks (yeah I know, why spoiler it? Safer I think and doesn't think anyone will come looking for a missing Princess? Like her former Teacher or any other friends or family that might get interested in finding out where there family and friends had disappeared to?
Pretty much the entire episode I was waiting for someone to pull out a pitcher of Kool Aid. I really was.
2946680 I dunno, Starlight just left no impression on me. She was perceptive AND easily fooled according to the needs of the plot. I guess part of me just really doesn't like her because of that sickeningly smug smile, so props to the production in getting that out of me.
Also yeah, they used wit and stuff to overcome people before, (coughMagicDuelcough) and I found THAT one disappointing too in a number of ways, especially in how amazingly they tried to retcon Twilight's immense abilities.
It's like... I get you're trying to teach stuff to kids, but it rubs me the wrong way. Like, in this premiere, Glimmer plays quickdraw and unmarks them all before Twilight can bring the Wrath of God on her candy-ass, and regardless she's WIDE-open for one of them... or ALL of them... to kick her in the face. But that doesn't happen, it fades to black and then they're in the propaganda drip-torture room (one aspect I actually kinda liked, with the megaphone and all). I mean, I know the other ponies would have overpowered them, but... eh...
I'm sorry, I'd probably be WAY more forgiving here if the M6 got their talents back and then laid the unholy smackdown. Instead, we see them lag behind while a bunch of no-names do the legwork.
It would've been ONE thing if we saw them all being their awesome selves at some point at the start, or at the end, or... anywhere... But this was an ENTIRE... TWO PART... PREMIERE... in which we get to see them do NOTHING we LOVE watching them for. Instead we saw them walk... and talk... and sneak... ugh!
No, I don't take it back: worst, most dull premiere YET. I'm glad its over with so we can go back to everything people actually CARE about, thanks.
Funny how the things you hated about this episode are the same reasons I loved it. This may be my favorite premier after season 2.
I do agree that the villain's name was eye rolling, but other than that I really liked how the townponies were the ones to save the day. It was their town and managed to win it back. The main characters inspired them to rise up, a role I heartily approve of. You can't have them keep saving others and need to teach ponies how to fend for themselves.
Really looking forward to the rest of the season!
2948075 Yeah, I'm sorry, I just can't stand this premiere. I know the setting was boring by design, but it didn't stop it from being boring. It didn't stop me from feeling like this episode was on rails from the moment we hit the town. It didn't help that I knew every... single... damn thing that was going to happen with almost complete accuracy, so there were no surprises. What we saw in the previews and at Comic Con was what we GOT, and nothing more.
Maybe this is all just personal, but it did about everything it COULD to get LESS than no reaction from me... and I HATE that. I HATE wasted opportunities, because it's only in the two-parters that all the really cool and important stuff is allowed to happen.
Like, there were ways I had hoped to be surprised in this episode...
For instance: Ever play Bioshock 2?
In that game, the city of Rapture has been taken over by a collectivist cult, whose leader's ultimate plan is to use some freakshow science to fix the inbuilt problems of communism, by combining everyone's minds into the vessel of a single all powerful child, and through her, she could use all their collective knowledge and skills to create utopia.
What I was HOPING this episode would do, was reveal that Glimmer was hording cutie marks, because she could use that staff to empower herself with EVERYONE'S special talents at once. This would, to the markless ponies, simply be how they would get by. Not as different ponies with different talents, but as one people, with one pool of power to draw from.
See, THIS almost even sounds like it might've swayed some of the Mane Six for REAL, instead of them never questioning their way was right, and the show not even bothering to countenance the discussion. This way, it would be like the village could function just as well, if not BETTER than anywhere else, because the talents and power aren't being "squandered" on sole owners. This way, it isn't CLEAR from the damn get-go, that a town like this would fail, or be culturally dead, because nobody has ambitions or even aspirations to improve as a collective.
As is, the town really seems like it would prefer that everyone and everything sucks, and have everyone be no better at any subject than their worst man, which makes it trivial to refute, and makes the much more nuanced equality dilemma far too black and white.
I know, kids show... but you see how I was hoping I MIGHT have been pleasantly surprised... and then wasn't.