Sabbatical Updates and Thoughts on S6E1: The Crystalling · 12:01pm Mar 29th, 2016
Sabbatical got a few updates. Due to me being silly and publishing the chapters before the story was submitted, and then unpublishing them after submitting, and then republishing... The short of it is that I'm pretty sure I didn't show up on the Updates tab, or your notifications, until now, with the new chapter, Guest Speakers coming fresh off the press (not really, it's been written for about a week now).
If you're up to date, have a go; if you're not but you're interested, have fun with Vilage Conspiracy and The Grand Destrier, and if you're just one of the people who fav'd it for later, thanks! Hope you enjoy it when you do 
Delicious black Patchy.
Another season, another blog on the episode, another bout of reiterating that I am admittedly not as passionate as most fans. I like watching it in the same way I like watching Adventure Time. It's cutesy and intriguing and I'll like it pretty much regardless unless it's Bats! tier.
And there was a lot to like! Foalicorn being a surprise to Celestia and Luna was fine. Crystal Kingdom being dependent on a magical artifact and bordering on The Frozen North is fine. Simultaneous spells are great, and I liked the names.
And, of course, canon Starlight Glimmer. Unless something game-changing happens by the end of the season, Sabbatical's integrity should remain intact. Remarkably, Caughlin's is also... that's robust planning for you I guess.
But, yeah. Starlight comes across as a more modern stereotypical Twilight for now. Twilight, in the beginning, was standard smart bookworm. Starlight is now insecure regretful pony. Kinda like Sunset Shimmer, really, which makes it absolutely fine by me. Did anyone else notice her voice sounds a bit different? Less raspy, and more like Twilight's?
Change of morals = change of timbre confirmed
Thankfully she's not incompetent. And hey, neither was Spike! That was possibly the highlight of the opener for me: the fact that Starlight's still got a manipulative trait to her, and that Spike's not [written to be] dumb enough to fall for idiot ball tricks.
On the topic of the idiot ball...
Pictured: quality decision making
This scene almost made me add a chapter to Trust Me, where Celestia tells Luna to ham it up for anypony that might be watching. Discourse on the nature of mentorship proceeds.
"So, how shall we handle this, sister?" Luna half-shouted, straining against the bitter cold. Then, a smirk. "I suppose not even you could have planned for this."
Celestia stared at the storm clouds silently.
"How about Thunderdancer's Cleaving Gust? Phoy's Destatikker? Perhaps a reverse seed could poison the clouds and disperse them. We could even open a warp and teleport the clouds back to where they came from..."
"Let's use lasers," said Celestia.
"What?"
And off Celestia flew to fire lasers at the clouds.
I didn't do it because, eeh, but still. Celly pls.
Pictured: quality decision making
It must be noted that it was Cadance (or Shining?) that told the stall party not to come clean about the Crystal Heart, because she didn't want to cause a panic. Then, of course, Shining Armor comes and does it anyways and nopony panics. Overprotective mother confirmed?
Pictured: elitist society confirmed
Okay, so whenever somepony gives birth, they have to bring a crystal of the highest quality they can muster to contribute to the thing keeping them all alive. Say ponies are pure of heart and are not judgmental. Nothing wrong with the system, then.
But what if families do get judged on the quality of their contributions? The richest get the best crystal. The poorest... perhaps not so much. And what if you can't even find one - ignoring the fact that there are crystals everywhere on the outskirts of the kingdom, that is.
And say there was a widow who bore a child out of wedlock. The widow has but the tiniest of crystals to offer, and everypony judges her big time. The foal she gives birth to is constantly reminded about how his life is worth much less because of said crystal. He grows to hate the crystal ponies, the Crystal Kingdom, everything about the establishment, and gets this horrendous obsession with the Crystal Heart and crystals in general. To the point that when he gets overthrown, all his ghostly being can hiss is "Crysstalsss..."
You know it could happen.
Anyhow, overall - good stuff, Starlight Glimmer's a great addition that I'm looking forward to, and I wouldn't mind if the focus shifted to her as long as the plot is done right.
"Let's use lasers."
:D
Yeah, for all of the creativity with spell names in this episode, there was very little on display when it came to actual magic. Flurry destroying crap? Lasers. Pushing back the clouds? Lasers. Fixing the Crystal Heart? Lasers. There were a few shields involved, but aside from that, all beams all the time.
Thematically appropriate given Sunburst's comprehension vastly exceeding his actual ability, but still disappointing.
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i.imgur.com/CqgrCaY.png
I agree - more fancy magic visuals like this would be nice!
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Hum. Even Photo Finish gets an emote, but Luna doesn't...