Episode Thoughts - The Crystalling

I've been encouraged to do some episode analysis in the past. I'm not going to go back through the whole series and do that - enough people have done it and frankly, that's a lot of episodes, many of which I simply did not like. However, going forward, I'll be writing about my thoughts of each episode after I watch it.

I will assume anybody reading this has watched the episode. As such, spoilers await.

I could go sccene by scene but I'm going to break things up a bit differently instead. That said, let's start with what I really enjoyed about this episode: Starlight Glimmer and Sunburst.

I admit I am not looking forward to more rounds of friendship lessons. Yes, I know that's the series' theme and all (I'm still frustrated that Twilight is the Princess of Friendship instead of Magic), but it's still getting... tired. Fortunately, this one went rather well and was surprisingly unforced. Sunburst turned out to be a rather charming new character (and, oh, hey, look - MALE!). His hesitation about being a "wizard" came off very well, assisted by rather expertly done expressions. The awkwardness, the way they do finally break down and tell each other about their histories since Sunburst left - all of it felt very natural and quite nice. I do wish Sunburst had revealed what he'd been doing for a living, but we know what he'll be doing going forward.

As a starting handoff of "main friendship lessonee" of Twilight to Starlight, complete with the "#1 assistant" moving over, this worked. I hope they don't push Twilight into too much of a background role, though - although, admittedly, that's precisely what they were doing last season.

As for the baby... well... I don't like her. I know "infant foals have powerful misfiring magic" was established with the Cake twins, but I didn't like it then, and I hate it even more now. It makes no sense for a pony to be born with wings and a horn that huge (and I feel SO BAD for Cadance), and it makes even less sense that their magic would be so insanely strong right off the bat that way. And if we have to go with that, against basically all logic, why isn't there a unicorn standing by at every birth ever waiting to cast that spell that calms the infant's magic down? Heck, it should be part of standard midwifery.

So, I get that the Crystal Heart is an ancient, super-strong artifact. I've seen theories that it was formed from the original Fires of Friendship at the birth of Equestria, among other possibilities. But why is it that the storms are strong that only the Heart can keep them out, and not the dedicated efforts of the two elder alicorns? Someone else brought this up and I want to echo it - the series keeps depowering existing characters, especially the alicorns. First when Celestia got the smackdown from Queen Bug, but this is the latest in a long line of this ridiculousness.

Anyway, focusing back on the episode itself, the solution was reasonably entertaining, although I would have expected a lot more ponies to be present. Like, literal crowds, not a couple dozen. I find the Crystalling itself to be kind of an odd ceremony, but acceptable.

Also, I thought Crystal Ponies were pretty much always Crystal-looking. They didn't look that way here until the Heart was restored. What gives? (And why are they always rednecky?)