Mini-Reviews: Season Five Thusfar · 9:27pm May 17th, 2015
Well, I must say that after that incredibly long hiatus, the show seems to have only improved - which is a serious relief.
The gradual inclusion of more and more continuity and episode shoutouts and callbacks has allowed the episodes to have a more natural, realistic feel, and to explore more character-focused, personalized lessons in comparison to the relatively generic Aesops seen more often in earlier seasons.
I'm really pleased with that's aired so far, so I figured as we near the one-third mark I'd take a look back and gather my thoughts about what we've seen so far, and any regrets or missed chances I saw...
The Cutie Map Part 1 & 2
This premiere explored some surprisingly dark territory, while also employing a very down-to-earth and normal villainess - at least compared to inter-dimensional Demon-Gods (2 so far!), shapeshifting horror bugs (1), and shadow-infused Dark Sovereigns (2). Cults are devastatingly dangerous to people's free will, emotional health and even lives, and their most common tactics were employed here with almost zero concessions to the light, child-friendly setting. From love-bombing to brainwashing, it was all there. Mix in Twilight's disturbingly non-consensual CM removal, and you get an episode that really pushes an All-Audiences rating to its limits, without a single drop of blood or speck of profanity. It was well-executed, tense, and entertaining, and it was fun to see the Mane Six share the victory with the common ponyfolk - it communicated well that they have at least partly moved from learning friendship lessons, to sharing what they've learned.
IF ONLY: We had gotten a clearer sense of Starlight's motivation. She had so much passion for her bizarre scheme, and we never really get a feel for WHY. I hope she returns later on, and we get some backstory on what pushed her to create My Little Jonestown.
Castle Sweet Castle
Dealing with the trauma of Twilight losing her home (and books!) in an explosion AND the awkwardness of suddenly being handed a bizarre, jagged, crystalline palace that sticks out in sleepy, bucolic Ponyville like a sore hoof was one of my non-negotiables for Season Five. If Twilight had just taken it all totally in stride I would NOT have been pleased. That said, this episode dealt with the matter briskly but well, and included a few nice touches - like the subtle snippets of the song There's No Place Like Home in the musical score. Moving is never easy, and moving after a disaster is even harder. I was pleased to see some pathos, some anxiety, some confusion, and finally some closure for Spike and Twilight.
IF ONLY: The gang had followed through on their brainstorming, in which they said BOOKS about a dozen times. Instead of a pretty chandelier cannibalized from the ruins of the library, it would have been nice to see them donate personally meaningful BOOKS to flesh out the shelves in the palace - joke guides, almanacs, fashion compendiums, Daring Do collections, etc. - along with a scrapbook or journal or the like to add a personal touch. Perhaps even loaned-out Golden Oaks books, returned by the townsponies. The gift was nice, but it really jarred to see the gang's shaky logic: "Books books books - wait! That's it! Yes! A CHANDELIER!" O__o
Bloom and Gloom
And so we round out the Luna Dreamwalks with the CMC trilogy, with AB getting in on the action at last. I have really enjoyed these ones, since they nicely give the impression that Luna is helping herself as much as the foals. Sister envy? Simmering fears? Cutie Mark Doubt? Any of this sound familiar, Luna? It feels like a reformed addict speaking to children about the dangers of addiction. She knows their pain and their struggles, and it makes her advice feel like it comes from a more intimate place than Celestia's perfectly wise and valid but more aloof teachings. The bizarre dream-imagery in this episode developed subtly, and it was fun to see the same scene play out in progressively more surreal ways. Also, it was clever to hint at some further Cutie Mark removal shenanigans, only to reveal it was Bloom's own inner darkness talking all the while. It's a nice lesson that while bullies and doubters can cause a lot of damage, sometimes our own worst enemy can be ourselves.
IF ONLY: We had Luna more explicitly tie these lessons to her own redemption. The subtext is neck-deep, but she never owns up to it. As an aside here, I would VERY much like to eventually get a glimpse into Luna's or Celestia's dreams...
Tanks for the Memories
This episode was all about Dash going through the stereotypical Stages of Grief, in perfect order. With the shift away from the original concept of A Bird in the Hoof, to the extremely oblique and subtle handling of the loss of the Apple Parents, it's clear that death may simply be too heavy a topic to address directly in FiM. However, Tank's hiberation was a tasteful and clever way to deal with the accompanying lessons. It was great to see Dash in really uncomfortable emotional waters, pushing down her fear and tension and trying to bluster her way out of the inevitable, and eventually, having a really messy and cathartic cry. This was a simple but solid episode, with good emotional underpinnings.
IF ONLY: They had more leeway. As mentioned above, Applejack has almost certainly suffered deeper and more personal losses than any of the other Mane Six members, but she's handled her grief with enough grace that even socially perceptive Pinkie says she only "cries on the inside". It's a pity that the question of loss had to be handled with a metaphorical death, leaving AJ's tragic past, and her possible empathy and/or frustration over Dash's melodramatics forever hidden behind the All-Ages rating. Alas...
Appleoosa's Most Wanted
And so we're back in cowpony country, with some returning supporting cast and locales, and another reminder of Applejack's love of rodeos. The CMC get a chance to actually REDUCE mayhem with their attempts to help somepony here (or at least, channel it into less destructive paths), and it was amusing to see what was basically a normal horse presented as a huge, clumsy oaf in this land of tiny Ponies. Once again, self-doubt seemed to be a strong conflict here - perhaps this is a running theme for the season? Also, I found the development of Braeburn as having a rakish, slightly mischievous charm delightful. His pouty-face and limping and so forth were comedy gold.
IF ONLY: Trouble Shoes had gotten more help. A little more presence from the Buffalo tribe might have been nice here - they're much larger than Ponies, and they might have been able to help teach Trouble Shoes to better manage his bulk. Rodeo Clowning is fine (especially the apparent use of them as literal circus clowns instead of animal diversions here in Equestria), but it leaves poor Mr. Shoes condemned to never stop crashing and tripping and falling down...
Make New Friends, But Keep Discord
Although this episode's use of The Smooze savagely josses my recent fic History Repeats, I have to say this was a HUGE step up for Discord episodes in the series. We got to see his home realm (or perhaps, some contanimated Ground Zero from the fight with the Sisters back in the day? The mailpony had to show up SOMEhow...), we got reminders that he turns to chaos-making as a sort of coping mechanism when he gets angry, and we got to see him dealing with troubling emotional moments poorly. Discord has been brutally villain-decayed from an extinction event to a foil, but I must confess that he works this way. As a cautionary example character. "Kids: don't do what this jerkass does". Using Discord avoids having one of the Mane Six act uncharacteristically jerk-like for the sake of a lesson. Tree Hugger was an amusing addition to the supporting cast, the sheer volume of bizarre pop-culture shout-outs marked this as absolutely a "Discord Episode", and Celestia was fantastic. While her apparent delight at all the mayhem might seem odd, I think what REALLY amused her was Discord's upset. If he's mad about Fluttershy's apparent betrayal of him, then he values her friendship... and that means his "corruption" is proceeding just as planned...
IF ONLY: We got one... more... call-back. This episode was excellent, but the one thing they could have added was Fluttershy calling Discord out on ACTUALLY abandoning and betraying them to Tirek not so long ago. It would have lent her lecture a lot more bite, and it's a valid and topical observation to make.
As I said above, the season so far has been pretty damn great. If even half of the episodes to come maintain this level of quality and consistency, this season will be a marvelous addition to the roster. Here's hoping!
Ooh dang, Fluttershy bringing up Tirek. :O I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Yup, this has been a very solid season. The fears of pony mojo having been exhausted seem to have been nothing but fandom paranoia.
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Oh, I think it's understandable to have been worried. But the previously mentioned lack of continuity REALLY worked in their favour, here.
By only NOW introducing a real sense of passing time and building narrative, over the previous seasons which had a more self-contained, shuffle-them-in-any-order structure, the impact of "seasonal rot" is lessened. It's like the show is only now really getting rolling...
Great and succint points on all the episodes. Two thoughts: On Bloom and Gloom: I think Luna is being very intentional with her dreamwalking, not bringing up Nightmare Moon. She goes around visiting kids who hopefully don't really remember that delayed summer sun celebration a year ago, and she kind of puts on a wise, benevolent Celestia impression for them. I think Luna's plan for winning the love of the populace is to wait for the current generation to die off, and cement herself with the kids so their first impression of her is that friendly dream lady, not the former bad guy in the history books.
On Make New Friends: Part of what was great about this episode was at least partially reversing the villain decay on Discord. He still has a temper, and he can hurl anyone he doesn't like into an alternate dimension, and no alicorn can stop him. Apparently the smooze is more powerful than any alicorn, but Discord casually shuts him down. He's clearly cooperating because he wants friendship, but he also seems like he's one really bad day from snapping.
3079068 I like the idea of Luna playing the long game. I also like the thought of a Discord-goes-Killing Joke-style episode
(toned down for Pone, of course...)
3081787 Right, no one throw Discord into a vat of acid, OK? Yeah, I've read great stories on this site about Discord Gaslighting Twilight or Celestia like the Joker did to Gordon, and they are really fun to read.