Shadow's Seasons: Amending Fences · 4:29pm Jul 4th, 2015
Hello and welcome to the eleventh episode in my Season 5 review series.
In this episode, Amending Fences: A tale written by M. A. Larson,that tells us that you should keep your friends close, but your old friends even closer.
The tale's plot revolves around the fact that Twilight Sparkle had completely forgotten about all of her old friends at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. When she realizes that, she takes a trip back to Canterlot to make amends with her friends. These friends are Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, Minuette, Lyra, and Moondncer.
At the start, everything kicks off relatively well. Twilight feels generically bad that she abandoned her friends. However, she says that she couldn't help it, due to the fact that Nightmare Moon was about to return that day. This is a strong sense of continuity that is seen here, and one that I can appreciate.
Everything works well to begin with. Minuette, Twinkleshine, and Lemon Hearts are completely fine with the fact that Twilight had to leave on such short notice, and immediately accept her apology. However, for Moondancer, it's a different story. She feels alienated that Twilight up and abandoned her, and it gave her a recluse attitude, much like that of Pilot Episode Twilight.
Throughout the rest of the episode, Twilight tries her best to make up with Moondancer, but it seems like all of her attempts are in complete vain. Even though she comes close at times, she still doesn't seem to be making any progress whatsoever. When Twilight sees how much heartbreak she caused, she begins to feel really regretful that she put her friends through that heartache. Much like Tanks For The Memories, this works because we've seen the conflict happen.
In act three, Twilight brings Pinkie Pie over to make things up. She bonds with Twilight, Twinkleshine, Minuette, and Lemon Hearts to make a party to make up for the one that Moondancer had in her past. And then to lure Moondancer in, they pull a Hansel and Gretel technique and lure her in with rare and unique books.
Moondancer lets out all of her repressed emotions and lashes out, but not violently or abusively. She unleashes her pent-up frustrations and cries immediately afterwards. Twilight comes to cheer her up and tries to help her prove that Twilight's absence shouldn't be what should bar her from friendship. This ultimately finishes the conflict, getting Moondancer perked up and apologetic.
The pacing is good, considering it's Friendship is Magic for one. You can feel the conflict from the beginning, and the time it takes to get from the conflict to the resolution is what is expected from the show. This allows for some nice stability, as well as the occasional humour here and there.
Each of the characters that Twilight reconciles with is also unique in their own respective right. Their identities show you just how much continuity the show has. This is especially evident when they show you the first section of the first act of the first episode to remind you just how far Twilight came since then.
Finally, the resolution is a great one. Just because one friend abandoned you in your time of need, that doesn't mean that you should give up on friendship altogether. By holding onto the mistakes of the past, you alienate yourself and devote yourself too much into your work to even care about anything else. This is a great moral to live by, as we do get abandoned by friends every now and again.
Amending Fences is an interesting episode that is sure to grab the attention of many. Taking us back to the roots of where it all began, and re-enlightening us on Twilight Sparkle's oldest friends before she even met the Main Six.
The pacing is good for this episode, as mentioned before. It's not too slow so that we lose interest, and it's not too fast so that we fail to understand what's going on. It's a reasonable pace that we can appreciate and follow on.
Each of Twilight Sparkle's friends is a breath of fresh air to what we've usually been dealing with. And the consistency of the time they spent together really stands out in this episode. With this, it shows you that Moondancer, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, and Minuette are all characters that can stand out from the crowd.
Overall, the execution of this episode is great. Showing you that old friends can't be forgotten, but if you feel like you've let them down, it's not a bad idea to try and make it up to them. This can be applied to any and all circumstances, including if you've had to transfer to a new school, or had to just leave your town or country forever.
Still, there does come a time when we have to say goodbye. And my only regret is that this episode isn't longer. It's not only a great sense of character building, but also that of making amends for all the things that happened in the past.
If you're willing to make amends, but don't know how to do it, this episode might just be the choice for you. Choose how you want to do it...
...and begin Amending Fences...
8.9/10
Thank you very much for reading, and join me next week, when I'll be covering: Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?
Until then, farewell...
I liked this episode.
I liked this episode also this
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3205787 I actually saw that, thanks to Tennis down here.
3205802 Ah.
This was a good episode... and it's great to see side characters get some more time in the sun. As much as the fandom loves Derpy, I feel that others can be a lot more interesting