Mar
28th
2016
I finally watched The Crystalling · 11:27am Mar 28th, 2016
And, I got this feeling in my chest.
A feeling of warmth, bubbling upwards.
Is this the thing they call joy?
More later.
Though seriously, they pretty much just blatantly said that the foal was an alicorn because of Hasbro marketing, but the rest of the episode actually made me very happy so I forgive them for their sins. Plus I've got a fanfic coming Soon (TM). Yes, the same one I was talking about last week.
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Titanium Dragon · 935 views
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#The Crystalling
#S6E01
#S6E02
#This Thing They Call Joy
#merchandizing
I joined the Flurry Heart Team after finding out how many people hate her. It's a pathological thing with me; I enjoy rooting for the underdog and defending the weak.
I really hope they explore why she's an alicorn later on. It's not guaranteed, but it's possible. And if all else fails, it's a mystery for fan fiction to explore.
You like a... season... premiere...
iambrony.steeph.tp-radio.de/mlp/gif/tumblr_m0coh2W2nd1r18bi7o1_500.gif
3832531
My fanfic (which didn't get uncanoned by the episode) is about that.
I was hoping to release it before the episode, because I thought the episode might directly contradict it, but it didn't.
3832521
Eh. She's a force of nature villain like Sombra.
I had fun with the characters, not with her so much. But she played her part in creating comedy.
3832539
Yeah, that hasn't happened since season 2.
Season premiers are seldom terrible, but they're usually very badly paced. This was as well (they drug out a few scenes in the first half too long), but it actually ended up working because there was enough comedy in it that I was actually entertained the whole way through.
Starlight Glimmer and Spike worked well together, and I appreciated the ponies all acting as a team to try and save the empire, even if it lead to severe cast herd issues.
Pinkie was fun as well.
3832542 "... they're usually very badly paced..." One of the curses of slicing and dicing to fit the inviolate TV timing of commercial breaks is that even the best scripts come out looking a little like a baby giraffe taking its first steps. TV writers who can build that sense of total immersion in (counts on fingers) three chopped up fragments of a 22 minute show (or 44 minute double) are like gods to the Hollywood crowd. We're just lucky our gods have hooves
"... I appreciated the ponies all acting as a team to try and save the empire, even if it lead to severe cast herd issues..."
44 minutes of screen time divided by number of speaking parts (6 Elements, two parents, one dragon, one adorable little filly, Celestia, Luna, two grandparents, several townspeople (Note: The Crystal Empire seems to have only about twenty citizens), Starlight, and her coltfriend) gives a very narrow window for each one to be seen/heard. (or herd) About the only way to handle the crowding is to lump the cast into groups, which they did for the most part (Starlight/Coltfriend/Spike, M6 - Twilight - Parents, with Twilight acting as the intersection of those two sets) I'd have to go back and look again, but it *seems* as if every scene (except for one with Shiny/Cadence/Baby) had either Starlight or Twilight in it, so they kept a tight focus on the two of them and their developing friendship. I suspect their interaction will be a considerable bit of the season.
I do really have to hand it to the writers/producers on this one. Large casts like the 14+ or so here are *really* difficult to handle. I about went nuts writing Monster, and it had twenty.
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Well, Fluttershy and Rarity basically didn't exist during the episode, and frankly, none of the mane six really had much in the way of screen time or lines other than Twilight. It was basically a Twilight/Starlight/Spike episode, with Cadance, Shining Armor, and Pinkie Pie as supporting cast. Applejack and Rainbow Dash did their bit with the crowd, and Luna and Celestia went out to fight clouds, but they didn't really have major roles in the episode.
I was … eh. Underwhelmed? This felt like such a low-stakes season opener … no, that's the wrong word. It felt like such a manufactured crisis, from start to finish.
Like, all four princesses and the Elements of Harmony are collectively powerless against the mighty might of a four-day-old infant. They should just have sent Princess Diapercorn against Tirek.
Cool that you're releasing a story though! I'll be posting a new one myself this week. It's, uh. Weird.
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I ran the story by you before. Or the outline rather. I've been struggling to write it because, as it turns out, I have no idea how to write Flurry the Dangerously Adorable. :V I've gotten the serious business bit mostly done, but the other bits (namely, the start and the end) have eluded me.
And to be fair, they could have "solved" the problem of the infant quite easily.
But they weren't going to kill Cadance and Shining Armor's baby.
It was really a force of nature type episode - both Flurry and the storm were forces of nature. The destruction of the Crystal Heart was what really drove the danger, while Flurry was mostly an inconvenience (who happened to destroy the heart).
I don't really mind low-stakes episodes anyway. Really, something threatening Equestria gets a bit old hat after a while.
I wish the writers would go totally meta on this. Like out of nowhere a purple and white alicorn stallion (because he's a 'bro, obviously) appears and explains that he is the Alicorn of Marketing, and he considered it his job to kick-start the economy of the Crystal Empire, and he wanted to boost the number of Crystalling Memorabilia sold, so he cast some secret spell to make Flurry Heart an alicorn to move more product.
Thinking about royal births like in the UK, there are probably nearly identical figurines of Flurry Heart being sold in-universe as IRL!
3832998
As soon as I saw Flurry Heart sneeze, it was obvious that somehow she was going to bring down the shield spell around the city. Raising that kid in the Crystal Empire is like storing fireworks inside your favorite soap bubble. Maybe its time for fostering in Canterlot?
3832998
Let's not forget the fact that between the two of them, Cadence was able to keep the Crystal Empire temperate while the Crystal Heart was presumably inert, and for a lot longer than this episode lasted (and Shining said he would have been able to help but for his protection spell being countered by Sombra). And that while the barrier was also under pressure from Sombra. So the idea that there was any actual sense of urgency to fix the Heart now now now struck me as a real stretch.
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They hand-waved that as her keeping Sombra at bay rather than the winter, saying that the Crystal Heart was keeping winter out.
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Oh. I remembered the part about her spreading light and love and that protecting them, but not anything about the Heart taking care of the winter prior to its restoration at the Faire. My mistake.
I love how even though it was clearly Hasbro's decision to make the baby an alicorn, the writer's just took it and went "Okay then, we'll not only make the baby totally OP, but we'll use that to make it just as annoying to the characters as it is to us. Oh, and then we'll have it be named after the nearly catastrophic destruction of an entire civilization (and the 4 princesses of Equestria) that it caused. Two can play at that game."
Anyway, I thought it was funny how they handled the baby alicorn thing. As for StarBurst (which is clearly the best ship), I thought it went pretty well. I hope that Sunburst becomes a regular character that makes Starlight blush at least once an episode.
3833018
Okay, I laughed.
Can we talk about how they're going to totally replace the baby with a changeling and no one will notice until the season finale? I mean, come on, that's what they do in mythology. And baby = no personality = no OOC.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw Starlight flashing back to Friendship Vietnam. Also, why am I not following you? Rectified.
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I just came back to this post from TD's most recent because just the sight of that gif is apparently enough to get me to crack up, and I'm pretty sure the phrase "Friendship Vietnam" is why.
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Ponyville. Horseapples, still only in Ponyville. Every time I think I'm gonna wake up back in the wasteland. I've been here in this castle for a week now, waiting on a mission, getting friendlier. Every minute I stay in this room I get happier, and every minute Charlie squats in the bush, he gets sadder. Each time I look around, the walls move in a little tighter.