SWEET CELESTIA SEASON 5 AAAAH

Okay, so I'm basically a week behind in saying anything about this, even though I saw the episode on the day it aired. I've had a weird week with work and returning to college after spring break. You could say it's a... long story? AH-HAHAHAHAHA please don't kill me. By this point of course, just about everything seems to have already been said about the premiere two-parter. I'm sure what I'm about to write will sound like echoes of other people's thoughts, but hey, maybe not, who knows. Also I should be in bed but I really just want to get this done, so I will sorta be cutting it shorter than I'd like.

So these were easily the most serious episodes we've seen yet, handling the most difficult topic they've ever tackled. It's no stretch of the imagination to say that Starlight Glimmer is a tyrannical dictator, or perhaps a cult leader, which was the first vibe I picked up. It wouldn't have surprised me if they called the village Jonestown or if everypony was walking about in new Nikes drinking Kool-Aid. And the first part handled what's basically a massive allusion to Communism or hardline religious uniformity in what I thought was an even-hoofed way that young'ns could pick up on. The equals sign at the end was also the first example in the show I can think of of something non-diegetic related directly to material of the show. Sure, the symbolism was heavily splattered everywhere, but children basically needed a little help to understand the ideas they were addressing. Remember, you and I get it, but we're still not the target demographic.

At least that's what I thought until the second part came up with nice lovely topics like "reeducation" brainwashing political prisoners in state gulags run by corrupted politicians. You know, for kids! Was it good? Sure. On the nose, blatant, and so unsubtle that the only thing the writers could have done to make it more direct would be to have the Mane 6 quote Karl Marx? Oh yeah. I think kids can handle more than what we think they can, but that's far too much. I already was starting to suspect Hasbro was aiming for bronies when the super-complex card game came out, and reading the comics was solidifying that opinion for me, but... My Little Pony is now our show. And I'm not sure what to think of that. Perhaps it's going through a painful growing phase and turning into the kind of cartoon that gets unanimous respect in animation fan circles for secretly tackling serious stuff, like Batman or Adventure Time does. If so, that's super cool and I hope they can move forward with that while toning it down a bit. But man, Hasbro doesn't need to put stuff in on purpose to appeal to me. I started watching when Season 1 had just finished. They weren't pandering to us back then. I was drawn in to MLP for how honest and sincere it was.

With the elephant in the room out of the way, I'll briefly address the rest of the stuff I can think of. It's great that the title of "Princess of Friendship" means something now. Pulsating cutie marks are toyetic and you can expect figures with Real Butt Glow Action™ on shelves very soon. Starlight Glimmer could become an interesting recurring villain but I have no idea what she'll do next. I hope we get to see whoever Meadowbrook is, considering all we've seen of Starswirl has been in the comics, and Clover the Clever has only been portrayed by Twilight. For that matter, I want to see Meadowbrooks eight magical items, too.

And here's some quick stuff about my writing so far. I'm 5,240 words into the chapter, somewhere on the 14th page. I'm aiming for this to be the second to last chapter and then an epilogue. I was also aiming to get this done before the season premiere but, well, that didn't go down as expected. I'm going to go hit the hay and hope I remember my alarm has a snooze function in the morning.