This Is More Like It! · 8:34pm Jul 4th, 2015
I guess the showrunners saw my blog post about how "meh" Season 5 has been and busted out their A-game to win me back over. What? I don't care if the timeframe is impossible for that, that's clearly what happened.
Amending Fences is the best of the season so far, and up there with the show at its best Slice of Life eps. We get character growth for Twilight, she gets retrospective on her life and realizes she wasn't always so nice. We get worldbuilding with lots more of Canterlot seen than before. Usually when we visit Canterlot we just see the castle, hooray. We get character building, with four new supporting characters to enjoy. Minuette was fun, Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine were fine, and Moon Dancer was great. I love they went the route of "what Twilight would have become if she hadn't made friends," it's a bit heavyhanded but I love that. Seeing shadows of what a character might be in someone else is one of my favorite tropes, it reinforces what makes those two characters different while also recognizing their similarities.
We also get convenient story explanations for why those five ponies seen in the premiere living in Canterlot keep showing up in Ponyville. The episode ignores Amethyst, but my headcanon is that she lived in Ponyville as a foal and only came to Canterlot to visit - that's why Twilight wouldn't mention her as a friend, and why she's in the premiere despite "Slice of Life" implying she lived in Ponyville for years before Twilight did. That would also explain why Lyra is in Ponyville as a foal in flashbacks, she was there visiting Amethyst and/or Sweetie Drops. I don't know if the showrunners thought of that and were purposefully going for it, but it fits perfectly. This is such a minor detail, but I like the showrunners thought of this stuff and instead of avoiding it or retconning it, wrote around it. How easy would it be to just have Lyra and Amethyst in Canterlot, but the showrunners remember "oh yeah, they live in Ponyville" and come up with an explanation for why they're in the premiere in Canterlot. And of course, Pinkie remembers Minuette as a bridesmaid at the royal wedding. I presume Pinkie knows Twinkleshine from the same.
Good attention to detail with the S1 premiere flashback. I wonder if they just reused the scene or remade it, because it was spot-on exact. I love we got to see Twilight's old home again, and goodness the fic potential there! That abandoned library is just waiting for someone to move in! Maybe when Sunset Shimmer comes back, she can live there! *jots down note* "Twilight Falls, Sunset Dawns sequel idea #4 - Sunset moves into Twilight's old home in Canterlot." *looks back to blog* And of course the feels! So much happiness and sadness for Twilight to reconnect with her old friends and make amends with them. Story potential, they can come back in later episodes! Showrunners, don't go overboard with it, but between this and Slice of Life, you've canonized and elevated a lot of background characters to supporting cast, use them! The next time we go to Canterlot for an episode, I'd love to see these four back, and possibly Lyra and Amethyst. Perhaps we can call them the Canterlot Six now? Though Lyra is pulling double-duty as a Background Six too. Eh, whatever.
This episode is FiM at its best, and is everything I expect from this show. It's got feels, story, character, worldbuilding, and of course there's already memes coming for Moon Dancer's book and Lemon Hearts in the flask. What more could we ask for?
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I'm with you; that was FIM at its best.
Also,
Indeed