Back from Delaware! + Thoughts on the Season 5 Finale · 11:40pm Nov 28th, 2015
Hello, everyone! I am back from my Thanksgiving vacation in Delaware. I will be resuming my normal activities as proofreader for Azrael as well as working on the sequel to A Prose By Any Other Name. And it's great to be back! The Season 5 Finale was released today. I'll be writing my review of it below.
Bear in mind, this is high in spoiler territory. You have been warned.
I'll be honest; an episode by Josh Haber is not something I was looking forward to. While he isn't a bad writer, I didn't really think he could pull off a good episode. Considering he was one of the writers for Equestria Girls, which, though I do like, is not the best writing I've seen, I was feeling somewhat apprehensive. In the face of other great writers, most notably M. A. Larson, I was definitely nervous.
But after viewing, what did I think of the episode in the end?
We start off with Twilight practicing her upcoming speech for Canterlot's School for Gifted Unicorns. She is quite nervous, as she will be effectively teaching unicorns all about magic. She is the student of the Royal Princess herself, and did advance into an alicorn, so setting a good example for other unicorns is of utmost priority. We don't get to touch upon this too much, however, as the real focus on the episode is the events following the speech.
Those who have seen the past animatic already know that Glimmer would be found in Twilight's castle, which she was. After a brief scuffle, Glimmer uses a scroll to use a time-traveling spell made by Starswirl the Bearded, and disappears into the past. Twilight jumps after her. Here is where the real focus of the special lies.
There were murmurs that this episode would deal with the ramifications of not having a Sonic Rainboom, and those rumors were proven true. Initially, it seems that Starlight's plan is to prevent the Rainboom from ever happening, through intervening in the events that led up to it. Each time Twilight tries to stop her, she ends up returning to a different present, which I found to be the most intriguing parts.
In the first return to the present, Equestria is at war with Sombra's Crystal Empire, and it was pooling all of its resources—pony and non-pony alike—in trying to defeat the tyrant. That was superb, in my opinion. It absolutely demonstrated the ramifications of altering the past! Twilight tries to explain what has happened to Applejack, but the farmer doesn't believe her. She decides to keep trying to stop Starlight's plans by returning to the past—I will touch on later the results of this.
In the second return, Chrysalis has taken over most of Equestria. A small band of resistance led by Zecora are all that remain. Among them include Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, but not Rainbow, Applejack, or Rarity. It can be presumed that they were somehow killed or captured by Chrysalis' forces, as Changelings disguised as them show up.
That's dark, by the way. Real dark.
A third return leads to a time when Nightmare Moon reigns supreme. This time isn't too long, however, and I did feel that it could have been touched a bit on somewhat more. However, it got the message across, and Twilight once again had to return to the past to try and fix the present.
There were three more returns; the first two weren't all that important. The former dealt with Discord reigning supreme; the latter dealt with Tirek destroying everything. But the third was where this episode took a drastic turn.
Equestria is dead. All life is dead. All dirt and plant and animal and any thing are dead. It's a barren world which Starlight refuses to initially accept.
(I know I'm speeding through this: bear with me.)
Twilight figures out that she can't stop Starlight, because the magic used is too volatile and powerful. The only way to have a hope of stopping her is to convince her to stop. Starlight is fed up with Twilight, and brings them all to her past, revealing her reasons why she became who she is and why she did what she did.
This... is kinda weak, in my opinion. But it could also be strong, in other lights.
Starlight had a friend, and his name was Sun Burst, According to her, she and he were good friends, until the day he got his Cutie Mark. He was whisked away by his parents to go to Canterlot's School of Excellence, and she apparently never saw him again. She therefore developed a hatred for Cutie Marks, thinking that they ruin friendship.
This doesn't explain why she lied to her village, though, about having a Cutie Mark. And I'm still left wondering when she got her Mark and why she didn't try and find Burst again.
Regardless, after seeing this, Starlight is still furious at Twilight's insistence at trying to stop her. But finally, in the last return to the past, Twilight pushes past Starlight's barriers and convinces her to stop. It is here that I think a lesson can be learned, and it echoes a lesson taught in Return of Harmony.
Friendship isn't easy, as Twilight explains, and there will be times when the bonds between friends is severed. However, she argues that it is better to try and get through those tough times together with your friends, than to give up and seek a more darker route.
Starlight finally breaks, the Rainboom happens, and they return to the present, seeing that all has been restored. But now there is the issue of what to do next with Starlight.
This is where the episode gets very controversial, and it is very easy to see why.
The Mane Six are not at all upset with Glimmer, despite the fact that she has violated ethical law. Time travel is not something to be messed with. In all honesty, Glimmer should have been locked up and imprisoned for her actions. Yet the Mane Six (well, mostly Applejack) only briefly touch upon this aspect, saying that they can't just let Glimmer go with all her power. To that end, Twilight decides to do something drastic.
Starlight Glimmer will be her student in Friendship. Cue screams of disgust.
A brief, not exactly good song later, and the credits roll, and Season 5 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is officially over! It was an interesting ride.
Now for my final thoughts and rating.
Let's talk about the idea of Time Travel, then. Because that's always interesting. I won't get into the many types and consequences—that again is for another blog—but I will talk about why Twilight kept getting stuck in an endless cycle of not stopping Glimmer.
Glimmer's spell was modified by her to send her to the past and stopping the Rainboom. Every time Twilight used the spell, Glimmer would arrive, and stop the Boom either way. This creates an endless and unbeatable cycle from which neither can escape from. Glimmer would have to keep stopping Twilight, and Twilight would have to keep trying to stop Glimmer. The two actions cancel out, leaving us with a predictable and infinite cycle that cannot be broken by outside forces. In this case, Twilight.
The reason why Glimmer was the only one who could stop this cycle is because she is the source. For every ending, there must be a beginning. Time is malleable, as light speed and gravity tells us. The source of time should in theory be able to change everything, and also fix everything, if the source chose to or could do so. Glimmer, as the source, held supreme power over even an alicorn like Twilight, as she was able to do what she wanted—even at the cost of remaining in an infinite loop.
Of course, the cycle breaks once Glimmer is reformed.
I am not one of those people who is entirely against reformation. The problem that I have with people who keep wanting villains to remain villains is that they hardly ever consider that MLP is not meant for adult audiences or to have adult themes and insights. This isn't Batman: The Animated Series or something that glorious. This is a kids show, through and through, and until that message is hammered into your minds, you will never be happy with this show!
In a show about magical talking ponies whose main trope is Friendship, literally, there cannot be unreformed villains. It would be bad for marketing, and it would be bad for business. This is a show meant to sell toys. It does not need nor should it always have to be "more mature."
Reformation is key in FiM. It keeps the show going. Having a returning villain, while nice on paper, can get boring when you don't have that many villains to choose from. It's not like the Mane Six have a huge Rogues Gallery that the writers can come back to. Nightmare Moon is gone, Chrysalis is dead, Sombra is dead, Discord would just be turned to stone, and Tirek wouldn't last against Rainbow Power again. If villains remained, with the way the show has evolved, they wouldn't last for long. A repetitive cycle would be stupid, therefore, in this show. Reformation gives more freedom to the writers to do something else.
Therefore, Starlight Glimmer's reformation is not something bad. It's now the show's other trope, and teaches an ideal—albeit blind—lesson. Not all things are inherently evil, and some things can be changed for the better.
That is not to say I am a wholehearted supporter of this idea. I am a bitter cynic who believes humans are inherently flawed and evil—but that's a rant for another day.
The point is, you cannot hope for no more reformation in this show anymore. It wouldn't be Friendship is Magic anymore. Honestly, I wish people would consider that this is a show aimed at little girls, not people with more mature outlooks and darker perspectives on the real world.
Rant over.
So what is my overall rating for this special?
Story: 8/10
Pacing: 10/10
Animation: 10/10
Music: Well, no one really cares. Though the song at the end was pretty forgettable. 4/10
Despite all of this episode's flaws, it was still a very good episode in context. Really, all of its flaws lie in a mature outlook, and I have decided not to go that way, because that destroys the context of the show. Time travel and all of its usages was very well used, and all of the potential futures and presents were all reflective of the time traveling Butterfly Effect. Though it could be argued that each instance should have been longer, the point of the present being severely altered was made well. Any longer, and the episode would have drawn on way too long. And while the reformation may come with a sour taste to stubborn fans, honestly, it wasn't entirely unexpected. Though I would have rather have seen Starlight get punished before becoming Twilight's pupil.
Also, it seems that the bonus ending for Friendship Games now makes sense. Effectively, it took place during and after this special. (Though I cannot figure out at the moment which timeline was seen in the portals.) Heck, I would've enjoyed seeing a reference to EQG with this connection in mind.
All in all, it wasn't a bad special, and Josh Haber greatly surprised me. I'd give it a letter grade between B+ and A-.
Go watch it, you stubborn nuggets.
Here's to seeing more from Season 6.
There is one gaping thing that really bugs me about this episodes: time travel spells. How did Starlight even got those? And why didn't Celestia destroyed them.
Another big problem to me is that most of this season SUCKED, IMO, except some rare pearl of episodes. But I hope to give a deep thought on this episode, MLP and EQG in my blog
3575760 Oh, yeah, I'm peeved that we didn't get an explanation where that spell came from.