Season 6 Opener · 9:36pm Mar 26th, 2016
Well since so many others are praising the new season episode I might as well put in my two bits on it.
Personally it felt really weak when compared to all of the other openers as it felt rather forced and advertisements for their toys. With the lack of a real time frame Cadance's pregnancy felt too fast as she wasn't even showing seven episodes ago and the whole wing thing... Well that just throws more pity towards Scootaloo. Of course it wasn't complete without an 'idiot Celestia' moment as she tells the weather pony that deals with Everfree weather that she couldn't handle unpredictable weather. It could have been phrased better to imply the difficulties of the cold instead of her unable to handle unpredictableness.
Speaking of predictable though, the entire episode was one cliche after another and felt like the writers didn't even care about trying. The book burning I called the moment they mentioned the library and the heart shattering moments before it happened. The whole friendship issue was easily predicted as well and the fact that it tied in with the problem they were having at the castle was just forced. Seriously I thought the Sombra episode was better written than this one.
Now for Twilight... They are turning her into another Celestia as she is becoming a joke just like her. With all the books she has read as well as her talent for magic she should have had more of a clue as of what to do instead of dragging some other pony in to fix things for her. She even seems to have backslid a bit in her perfectionism and checklists without her bothering to see how she would learn best which was a lesson she should have learned after RD's test.
One of the few good points of the episode was Spike as he actually was doing a decent job helping out and probably would have done better WITHOUT the checklist... Barring the small bit where he made it harder for Starlight to knock on the door as well as telling Twilight to act more like Celestia. He was generally helpful though and wasn't the butt of the joke as he normally is.
Starlight Glimmer.... Really the show could do without her I think as now it feels like the show is going to focus more on her and less on the Mane 6, especially the ones that have little enough time as it is. It's already hinting at anything she does will be a rehash of lessons Twilight already went through, and the only real thing that she might add will be a lesson on fitting in with a group of people that are already friends while being the outsider, which Sunset Shimmer touches on a bit already. Overall she is starting to feel a bit like a bad OC with how easily they all accept her.
Edit: Also forgot to mention, the fact that a storm comes out of nowhere the instant the heart breaks is really stupid especially if it's really that fragile. Something is really wrong with the kingdom if that does happen and there is no driving force behind it.
I liked Starlight Glimmer, but maybe that's because I didn't look into it as deeply, and felt that her storyline was MUCH better compared to the abomination that was Alicorn Baby.
I can definitely see what you mean about Twilight being far less useful than she should have been.
Last, but not least, it's not that the Crystal Heart was fragile. It's that it was attacked by a Alicorn Baby with enough raw magic to punch through several layers of crystal flooring with a quick energy blast from a SNEEZE. Her Super Sonic Magic Shriek was just the right attack to use. After that it was like a nasty cascade effect.
Though it DOES seem strange that they didn't have anything to make the baby less powerful. Like a Horn Inhibitor or SOMETHING, until Sunburst came through at the end.
Last, but not least, Alicorn Baby is just 100% unlikeable and FAR too OP. I mean while Starlight Glimmer seemed OP, at least she was more likeable and interesting.