More complete thoughts on the Season 5 Finale · 5:38pm Nov 28th, 2015
Do not read this unless you like spoilers.
So here we are. Another season ended, and with the more visceral reaction I had while the episode was airing out of the way I can think about the overall quality of this one.
In a word, it was good. Very good. A few interesting bits of fanon confirmed (not least that Equestria can apparently function just fine without the sun) and some curve-balls thrown in for good measure. Sombra coming back was unexpected, but not entirely unwelcome if only for the sight of an actual Equestrian war... though, perhaps that was better left to the imagination. These ponies can't fight for beans. The Changelings winning and dominating Equestria was nifty, in part because we go an extended conversation with Zecora. Whoever wrote that dialogue needs an award for sure. I only wish they'd written more.
The brief glimpse of Discord's world was disappointing if only because we saw so little of it, but I suspect at that point they didn't want to spend too much time on reiterating the same basic idea over and over: Twilight does thing, world changes, it sucks more than before.
The last world, the one with the desolate wasteland, is probably the most subtle of the bad ends. The constant wind and the twilight, with the glow of the sun over the horizon, spoke of a world where the entire natural order had ceased and Celestia was no longer in control of the sun. It was the sort of world the early disaster fanfics envisioned.
I have no complaints about this episode at all. I know a few people will be calling the ending rushed, but they're missing the point: it was a montage. They're intended to give the viewer a sort of cliffs-notes version of events, a compressed view of reality. Speedy, yes. Rushed? No.
Great season. Great episode.
I'm not sure how I feel about the song (it was middle of the road at best), but the only thing I want is more Tirek future, and that's just because I'm greedy. :D
There were batponies and changelings. I can die now. Also: Batpony helmets and the batpony RD shows they're made by NMM/Luna, not are a seperate race.
Fallout Equestria confirmed, guys!
Ahhh, feels nice seeing Equestria desolated~
As far as I'm concerned, this was the best season of the show, so many great episode and so much plot progression it's hard to compete. Only a few episodes were "meh" and those don't really detract much from the whole of the season.
Starlight's motives seem a bit weak to me to motivate her to go to the extremes that she did. Other than that I really liked this episode, now to wait the better part of a year for new pony... Eh, at least it gives a year for people to write without their fancanon ideas being stamped into mulch.
This was one hell of a finale! I liked it a lot, and not just because all the different Bad Futures we saw were pretty fun.
My favorite parts:
* The time machine spell itself, with those ticking hourglasses, is a beautiful design. I can believe Starlight spent most of the year cobbling it together from a bunch of sources.
* Zecora as a bad-ass rebel leader in a mask with a proper warcrest! (And the revelation that Chrysalis' forces had already infilitrated the place before she invaded openly.)
* Nightmare Moon's reign of night. She was just as arrogant, high-handed and casually malicious (just look at the way she annihilates that fleeing timberwolf!). And the Night Equestria had the kind of elegant, dark beauty to it that I had hoped for.
(Also, I was totally expecting Twilight to interfere and change Starlight's past when they visit her childhood. Then again, it might have brought the whole season down in a crash of paradox!)
3577802 That last one is ripe for fanfic fodder. Twilight doesn't learn the lesson she's been trying to teach Starlight and meddles in the past herself? Biiiiig badaboom.