• Member Since 17th Nov, 2012
  • offline last seen Sunday

MariusIoannesP


Lifelong Nerd. Lifelong practical Catholic and firm believer that an egg is an egg. Amateur fanfiction auteur elsewhere and maker of YouTube videos.

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  • 279 weeks
    Guess who's back...

    Guess who's back, back again
    Marius’ back, tell a friend
    Guess who's back, guess who's back?
    Guess who's back, guess who's back?
    Guess who's back, guess who's back?
    Guess who's back?

    Now this looks like the time for me
    So everybody just follow me
    'Cause we need My Little Pony fics I see
    'Cause it feels so empty without me

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    4 comments · 782 views
  • 353 weeks
    Special Announcement/Rant Concerning MariusIoannesp Reviews

    Greetings my Brony Brethren!

    I’m sure you’re all waiting with baited breath for my reviews of the Equestria Girls specials Dance Magic, Movie Magic, and Mirror Magic...

    Oh, who am I kidding?! None of you are waiting for my reviews of anything! Well, maybe one of you, but whatever.

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    2 comments · 961 views
  • 356 weeks
    Mariusioannesp Reviews: "Not Asking for Trouble"


     
    WARNING!!! The following contains SPOILERS for MLP’s mid-season finale “Not Asking for Trouble”.

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    0 comments · 941 views
  • 357 weeks
    Mariusioannesp Reviews: "A Royal Problem"


     
    WARNING!!! The following contains SPOILERS for the latest MLP episode “A Royal Problem”.

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    0 comments · 1,690 views
  • 358 weeks
    Mariusioannesp Reviews: "Honest Apple"


     
    WARNING!!! The following contains SPOILERS for the latest MLP episode “Honest Apple”.

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    0 comments · 1,180 views
Apr
2nd
2016

SPOILERS? Mariusioannesp Reviews: "The Crystalling Parts 1 and 2" · 6:38am Apr 2nd, 2016

The following contains SPOILERS for MLP’s season premiere of MLP “The Crystalling”. Probably doesn’t matter since it’s a few days late. It’s not a good start to this season’s reviews if the first one is late. But hey, what can I expect when I was at a three hour Easter Vigil mass the night of the premiere and my birthday was the next day. I might as well start calling these blogs "Mariusioannesp Is A Slowpoke".


Glad to have you back Professor Song to warn us of spoilers. Even though these might not necessarily be spoilers anymore.

Anyway, without further a-googoo-gaga-do, here is my review of the sixth season premiere of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic “The Crystalling”!


It feels so good to say that after such a not as long time as the last time.

Princess Twilight Sparkle is excitedly preparing for the first friendship lesson for her new pupil Starlight Glimmer. Yes, Starlight Glimmer is officially Twilight’s pupil now. Twilight has it narrowed down to a couple of choices, one of which Starlight reconnecting with her foalhood friend Sunburst in Crystal Empire. That would be quite convenient because Twilight and co are expected in the Crystal Empire once Shining Armor and Princess Cadance’s baby is born for the baby’s Crystalling. Starlight isn’t enthused by this option. So of course, the baby is born soon after, and they’re off to the Crystal Empire. While Spike and Starlight go off to reacquaint Starlight with Sunburst, Twilight and friends go off to meet the new baby. They’re in for quite the surprise when they discover that the baby is an alicorn! With disproportionately large wings! This is problematic because it means that its flight and magic are even more out of control than in typical unicorn and pegasus babies. The baby’s uncontrollable power gives way to an incident that will doom the Crystal Empire forever beneath a mountain of ice and snow! Will Twilight and Starlight and the rest be able to fix this problem and learn about friendship before it’s too late?!

So, what’s the verdict?

This premiere was pretty much what I expected it to be, which is in no way a bad thing. In fact, it’s a pretty good thing. You know, because I was totally expecting it.

So yeah, I liked it!

Now, let’s see. Where do we begin? At the beginning of course! We begin with Starlight Glimmer wandering the Castle of Friendship looking for the library. Funny, she didn’t seem to have a problem getting around the castle in the last episode. Then again, it probably doesn’t help that the doors to even such disparate rooms as the library, the broom closet, and Spike’s bathroom look exactly the same.



Am I the only one who thinks it’s odd Spike doesn’t seem to mind when Starlight keeps walking in on him like this?

Anywho, Starlight finds Twilight in the library doing a ludicrous amount of preparing for Starlight’s first friendship lesson. She sends Starlight down to the throne room where the rest of the Mane 6 are discussing the Crystalling of the Shining Armor and Princess Cadance’s soon to be born baby. What’s a Crystalling? Oh that’s easy. It’s the thing where you… When you… With the thing… Actually, no pony there is certain what the Crystalling is given that it hasn’t happened in a thousand years. Naturally, Pinkie Pie is just excited about the party it entails. That’s when Spike shows up with a very helpful crystal vase explaining what the Crystalling is all about. Apparently, whenever a baby is born in the Crystal Empire, their parents present it to the Crystal Heart. They find the purest shard of crystal and designate a “Crystaller” to present the baby to all who come to see it. The shard then absorbs all the love and joy they feel, and it is joined to the Crystal Heart to increase its power. Since this a royal baby, that means pretty much everyone in the Crystal Empire is going to show up. Starlight wonders what the Crystal Heart is supposed to protect the Crystal Empire from, but Spike is uncertain as Twilight didn’t have him research that. I wonder if that’s foreshadowing. Well, not for this episode it is.

Starlight returns to Twilight to find that Twilight has narrowed down Starlight’s first friendship lesson to three options. One of these options is reconnecting with her foalhood friend Sunburst. You remember Sunburst right. From the last episode, the last season finale. Continuity! Well, he just so happens to live in the Crystal Empire. The other two options are going to Griffonstone or joining the Cutie Mark Crusaders the next time they have to figure out what a pony’s special talent is. Even more continuity! Starlight though is not thrilled at the prospect of possibly having to see Sunburst again.

See. She keeps this to herself. She does share her misgivings with Spike when she runs into him afterwards. Turns out when they were foals, Sunburst knew everything there was to know about magic and knew the right spell for everything. It wasn’t a surprise when he was accepted into Celestia’s School. Starlight is concerned about having to bring up all the evil she’s done since they last knew each other. She expects that he’s become some great unicorn wizard by now.

You know, like these guys.

Spike assures Starlight that if Sunburst is so knowledgeable about magic, then he’ll at least appreciate some of things Starlight was able to do with it. He also encourages her to be honest with Twilight about her misgivings, but Starlight doesn’t want to seem ungrateful or unwilling to learn. It’s at that moment though that they receive a letter in the form of a snowflake announcing that Shining and Cadance’s baby has been born! Twilight’s an aunt!

I could be an aunt too, but my sister knows better than to get pregnant out of wedlock!

And I’m also a man.


Wait, Snowdrop? Did you just become canon?

Turns out, they’re going to the Crystal Empire, and Starlight’s first lesson in friendship is reconciling with Sunburst. As expected, she is quite overjoyed by the prospect. On the train ride to the Crystal Empire, Starlight tries to get out of the friendship lesson. After Spike gives her a gentle prompting, Starlight shares her anxiety over the friendship lesson with Twilight. Twilight assures her that she need not worry as she has prepared an exhaustive step-by-step lesson

They arrive at the Crystal Empire train station and are met by a rather disheveled Shining Armor.

Clearly fatherhood agrees with him.

I do like how through Shining Armor some attention is given to the hard work of fatherhood. That’s something that the target audience of young boys and girls might not fully understand. But you know who would understand by having been there? Their Brony fathers who watch MLP along with them.

Since Twilight wants her and her friends to give Shining and Cadance a break from their overwhelming parental duties, Twilight won’t be able to accompany Starlight to meet up with Sunburst. Starlight’s gladness at this development is quite thinly-veiled.

Look at it. It’s all over her face.

That doesn’t last long though. Spike suggests that due to the exhaustive and comprehensive nature of Twilight’s lesson, he could accompany Starlight. So, Twilight and co go to see the baby, and Starlight and Spike are off to see Sunburst.

As Starlight and Spike are on their way to Sunburst’s house, Spike tries reassuring Starlight that all they have to do is trust in Twilight’s lesson. However, Starlight still wants to try to get out of this. When they pass that giant statue of Spike, Starlight asks about it, it gets the attention of the Crystal ponies who just love to fawn over Spike, and Spike ends up having to tell the whole story of how he saved the Crystal Empire. In this moment, Starlight seems to be using her villainous deviousness in a rather mundane situation, much like Discord did last season. It seems MLP’s reformed villains tend to share many of the same characteristics.

Meanwhile, Twilight and co are off meeting Shining and Cadance’s new baby. They’re shocked to discover that the baby is an alicorn!

And her wings are disproportionately large for her size. I mean, look at them.

Apparently, the whole alicorn thing was unexpected. Rarity even points out that she thought alicorns only came to be through alicorn ascension. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna happen to be present. According to them, the birth of an alicorn is something Equestria has never seen, and it’s beyond even their understanding.

Now, let’s talk about this for a second. Some might take this as confirmation that Celestia and Luna were not born alicorns, even though that is what Lauren Faust said was the case. Though whatever Lauren Faust has to say in this regards might allegedly be moot given she hasn’t work on the show in the past four seasons. Nevertheless, Amy Keating Rogers’ book The Journal of the Two Sisters seems to indicate that it is the case that Celestia and Luna have always been alicorns and that there were many alicorns in their youth. However, Celestia and Luna were the only alicorns left when Equestria was so founded, so logically no alicorn could have ever been in Equestria. All it really confirms is that neither Celestia nor Luna got busy with some dude and produced an alicorn baby. Since alicorns are suggested to be rather long-lived, that could mean that few alicorns were ever born. There was never too much of a need to frequently replace the population. That’s why Celestia and Luna don’t have much knowledge on the topic of alicorn births. Or it could be that the Alicorns disappeared when Celestia and Luna were fairly young, and so they never had the chance to learn about these things. See, there are plenty of explanations.

It seems that even Amy Keating Rogers is practically of the same mind according to Equestria Daily.

Now, let’s get back on track, given the baby’s alicorn nature, her magic is much stronger than the typical wild magic of a newborn unicorn. She illustrates this a shooting a laser beam from her horn that tears through the entire castle when she sneezes. Cadance wonders given the circumstances if it would be best to cancel the Crystalling. Everypony agrees that the Crystalling is too important a tradition to cancel. Cadance goes off to remind her subjects of the importance of the Crystalling. Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Applejack are going to help Shining with the final preparations for the Crystalling. Twilight and Pinkie Pie are going to watch the baby. It’s kind of like “Baby Cakes” all over again. Continuity!

While this is going on, Spike finishes regaling everypony about the time he defeated King Sombra. Starlight tries to put things off further, but Spike insists they get a move on. Twilight’s lesson even helpfully suggests that she should face her fears rather than try to run away from them. So, they arrive at Sunburst’s house, but before they can knock, Spike follows the lesson and first highlights the importance of the meeting. When Starlight questions the necessity of that, Spike reminds Starlight that her future may depend on the outcome of this meeting.

For a second, I thought Spike got tossed the Idiot Ball, but it seems the over-the-top-ness of this moment was intentional because he then checks off highlighting the importance of the meeting from the lesson. Anywho, with that done, Starlight actually knocks on Sunburst’s door. It takes a while but he eventually answers.

He seems somewhat glad to see Starlight again after all these years and such. He seems somewhat impressed to hear that Starlight is the pupil of Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship. Starlight doesn’t want to bother him too much though because she figures he’s an important unicorn wizard who’s really busy. Well, he certainly looks the part with a cloak and a beard. Though he does lack the presence of a ninja. He also does not deny his status as a wizard though in a very suspect manner. Soon enough, he returns inside his house, and Starlight wants to call it quits. Spike though insists they need to at least tell him what Twilight wants them to do. Later, Starlight and Sunburst are having tea, and he’s rather confused as to why Princess Twilight wants them to be friends again. He asks Starlight if anything happened to her after he left for magic school, and of course, Starlight doesn’t tell him anything. Spike consults the lesson looking for a solution to this problem.

Back with the Crystalling preparations, Shining Armor is freaking out over all the things he has to do, like picking an honor guard and the pure shard of crystal.

You know who would make a great honor guard? Where’s Flash Sentry in all this?

On the two mares and a baby front, Twilight and Pinkie are having a bit of trouble keeping the baby under control. She’s a really strong flyer.

Why does this look familiar?

Continuity!


Tee hee! It’s a funny!

Soon enough, everypony has got everything and the baby ready for the Crystalling when suddenly everything takes a turn for the worst.


The baby’s magically-enhanced crying shatters the Crystal Heart! Not only can they not do the Crystalling, but soon the Crystal Empire will be buried under a mountain of ice and snow!

Well, here's another fine mess they've gotten themselves into. Soon, the Crystal Empire will be a winter wasteland, the total opposite of a winter wonderland. Rainbow’s suggestion of just clearing the oncoming snow clouds away as pegasi normally do won’t work because the weather this far north as a will of its own. Celestia and Luna though can use their magic to keep it at bay but only for a little while. What do you know? Celestia and Luna are finally doing something. They go off to do that while Rainbow, Applejack, and Fluttershy attempt to disburse the crowd that’s gathered for the Crystalling, and Twilight hits the library to find a spell to fix the Crystal Heart. Shining, Cadance, Rarity, Pinkie, and the baby go with her.

Back with Starlight and Sunburst, things are not going well. They just can’t seem to reconnect. Spike consults the lesson searching for a possible solution. Spike finds the suggestion of having each of them share an embarrassing incident from their pasts. Of course, Starlight doesn’t want to do that, and Sunburst is equally as guarded about embarrassing things about his past. Suspicious! Either way, Starlight decides to take off so as to not further keep Sunburst from the wizard-y things he has to do. As they walk back, Starlight laments the failure of her first friendship lesson. Spike tries consoling her that he’s the one who thought the solution would be in the lesson. Starlight though remains convinced she’s the problem because Sunburst didn’t want to be friends with her, even though he never actually said that. Spike assures her though that he and Twilight are glad to be friends with her.

Awwa!

It’s at that moment that Spike and Starlight notice that it’s suddenly become colder. They surmise correctly that something has gone wrong with the Crystal Heart and rush back to the castle.

Back at the castle, Rainbow, Applejack, and Fluttershy are having trouble dispersing the crowd that has come to the Crystalling. In the castle library, Twilight and Cadance are frantically searching the books for a way to fix the Crystal Heart. Everypony else tries to keep the baby under control with little success.


Starlight and Spike arrive in the castle library and get the rundown from Pinkie. It’s at that moment that Cadance and Twilight happen upon a book with a spell that can possibly restore the Crystal Heart. How lucky. This luck doesn’t last for long though as the baby sneezes and unleashes another laser from its horn, Rarity reflects it with a hand mirror, Shining reflects it with a magical shield, Starlight reflects it with one of her familiar bubble shields, and the beam goes right through the book with the spell in it!

Starlight apologizes for her part in bouncing the magic beam through the book, but of course, Twilight doesn’t blame for any of that. Their only option is for Twilight to somehow duplicate the spell even though she only read it once. Shining goes off to begin evacuating the Crystal Empire. Starlight offers her assistance, but there’s not much she can do. She happens to mention how Sunburst is an important wizard when commenting on the failure of her lesson. Cadance then suggests that since Sunburst is an important wizard, Starlight should summon him to aid them with his magical expertise. Starlight and Spike run back to Sunburst’s house. Starlight explains the situation with the Crystal Heart and the baby to Sunburst and how Princess Cadance has requested his aid given he’s an important wizard and such. Sunburst however is actually rather reluctant to help; he says he’s too busy even in the face of such impending disaster. After Starlight continues to plead with him, Sunburst finally cracks and confesses that he’s not actually an all important wizard! He only said that because he presumed Starlight had found success in life given that she’s now Princess Twilight’s protege. Starlight is just surprised Sunburst isn’t a wizard given he was so good at magic. However, Sunburst didn’t do well at magic school because while he has intellectual knowledge of magic, he was never able to put that knowledge to practical use. It’s something Sunburst is not proud of. Starlight can sympathize with it because after he left for magic school she became so bitter she stole the cutie marks from an entire town, and when she was defeated by Twilight and her friends, she traveled back in time to enact her revenge and destroyed Equestria six times over until Twilight convinced her to accept friendship. That’s something she’s not proud of. Sunburst though is impressed that Starlight traveled through time. Sunburst is sorry that they lost touch because otherwise Starlight could have helped him with his magic and Sunburst could have helped Starlight not become evil. Sunburst realizes he should have just told Starlight the truth from the get go. That’s a lesson I can stand behind. Is this the lesson of this episode? Sure. Why not? I don't know. Anyway, Starlight remembers that they need to evacuate unless Sunburst somehow knows a spell that will drive back the Frozen North and allow the baby to have its Crystalling. Sunburst has a sudden realization and consults a few of his books.

Meanwhile, Shining Armor was able to convince the crowd at the castle for the Crystalling to evacuate after revealing the truth about the Crystal Heart and their baby’s alicorn nature. He and the others lead them to the train station alongside of Celestia and Luna. They run into Starlight and Sunburst who insist they need to go back to the castle because Sunburst has the solution for the problem. Celestia seems to recognize Sunburst as well. Not too surprising since he attended her school and such. Sunburst arrives on the scene after Twilight and Cadance’s attempts to fix the Crystal Heart have failed. Sunburst explains that fixing the Crystal Heart would require more than just the one spell; it also requires a ritual unique to the Crystal Heart that increases its power. The Crystalling itself! He also provides a spell to help with the baby’s magical power fluctuations. Cadance presumes Sunburst must be the important wizard Starlight described him as, though he explains he really isn’t. Starlight assures everypony that he’s well-versed in the study of magic and reminds everypony that he’s the only one with an actual solution. Shining Armor then announces that he’d like Sunburst to be their baby’s Crystaller. Seems a bit weird given that he’s just met this guy. No matter. With that, the Crystalling is on! Sunburst picks an appropriate shard of crystal. He presents the baby to the Crystal ponies. The shard absorbs all their love and joy.

Sunburst then rushes into the castle with the shard and presents it to the Crystal Heart, while Twilight, Starlight, and Princesses Celestia and Luna do the spell on the Crystal Heart. All the crystal shards fuse back together, and the Crystal Heart is restored! It sends out a blast of magical energy that crystalizes everypony again and drives back the Frozen North.




Once everypony is back to normal as expected, everypony is meeting Twilight and Shining’s parents at the train station. They got delayed by the storm.

I think this is the first time we’ve seen Twilight’s parents speak. Anywho, Shining and Cadance reveal that they’ve decided to name their baby Flurry Heart after the incident.

Also at the train station is Starlight and Sunburst. With Sunburst as Flurry Heart’s Crystaller, he’s going to be busy providing magical advice for the baby eventually. He promises to keep in touch with his oldest friend.

Do you ship it yet? Is it just me or is there less excitement in the fandom for straight ships as there is for the mare-on-mare ships? It’s a tad disconcerting if you ask me.

Once they’ve boarded the train, Twilight laments to Spike that she still has a lot to learn about being a teacher since Starlight learned her lesson without much prompting from her. Spike assures her that unbeknownst to her, she handled it just like Celestia did with her. She gave Starlight the space to make her own decisions. That’s a lesson I can stand behind… I guess. And with that, the train chugs away back home.

First off, much like last season’s finale, this pair of episodes focuses mostly on Twilight, Spike, and Starlight. The rest of the Mane 6 play more ancillary roles in this pair of episodes. Sometimes in past premieres, you get a few moments where you’re basically reintroduced to the Mane 6. This doesn’t quite happen this time around, but it’s been six seasons. We know who these ponies are. I doubt anyone is going to go into this episode cold turkey when there’s been a hundred-plus previous episodes.

Cannot resist a meme joke. Pardon the French.

This is more or less a character piece for Twilight and Starlight than the epic opening you might want to see. But it’s not necessarily a bad thing that this was a low-key opening. The opening of Season 4 “Princess Twilight” was also a fairly low-key opening, and Season 4 went on to be one of MLP’s best seasons, closing with the spectacularly epic “Twilight’s Kingdom”. I hope this is the case for this season, but more on that soon enough.

The lack of epicness is not surprising since this episode was written by Josh Haber. Josh Haber also wrote last season’s finale “The Cutie Re-Mark” and Equestria Girls: Friendship Games. As I said in my review of Friendship Games, Josh Haber is mostly known for writing slice of life episodes, though they do tend to have a bit a dark bent. In the past, Meghan McCarthy usually handled finales and Equestria Girls, but she’s been working on the upcoming movie. It seems odd that they’ve transferred these responsibilities to Josh Haber. Normally, I don’t make it a habit of paying too much attention to writers, but we’ve recently had the news that M.A. Larson and Natasha Levinger would not be returning for this season. And this is all on top of Amy Keating Rogers leaving after last season. I’m rather curious to see for myself if losing all these writers, including a few stalwarts, ends up changing the quality of the series as a whole.

The strong connections between the Season 6 premiere and the Season 5 finale makes me suspect that Season 6 will be more or less an extension of Season 5. From what we know so far, it seems there will be a lot references back and continuations of things brought up originally in Season 5.

One thing I liked about this episode was Shining Armor as a harried new father. Obviously, this is not something the children in the viewing audience are going to completely understand, but their Brony fathers that watch the show with them will totally get it. Fatherhood is so important. It’s something that is not as valued in today’s culture as it should be. Children need their fathers. Desperately. It’s nice seeing MLP acknowledge the importance of it.

This appeal to the whole family, parents as much as children, reminds me that this was what Lauren Faust intended for MLP. I’m glad that MLP still seems to strive to follow what Lauren Faust originally laid out.

One thing that confused me a bit about this premiere was the different designs for not only the baby ponies, but the Crystal ponies.

I know we got a bit of a preview of the new baby design last season in “The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows”, interestingly enough, the episode that first introduced Flurry Heart as an unborn baby pony. I just don’t understand why this change was made. Is it an attempt to make baby ponies seem cuter or match the toys more? Sure. Why not? I don't know.


And then there’s the Crystal ponies. They’re no longer crystally anymore, and it’s never pointed out. They’re manes are still kind of crystally and most of them can be distinguished by the hexagons in their eyes. They still go crystally when the magic explodes from the Crystal Heart at the end. I’m not sure if that means they’re going to stay that way as they have in the past. Is it just easier to animate them this way? Is it to make it easier on the illustrators of the comics, who can’t really effectively replicate their look? Is it a retcon to make them appear more like the Crystal-eyed ponies of G1 MLP? Those hexagons in their eyes seem more prominent to me. I never really noticed them as much until this episode.

As for what’s wrong with this episode, I know you’re not supposed to judge something for what’s it’s not, but this is something that’s really starting to bother me. MLP hasn’t had a great premiere since Season 2. The Season 3 premiere tried to match that greatness but failed spectacularly. Season 4 and Season 6 just avoiding trying to match that greatness. The closest was the Season 5 premiere, but that eventually floundered towards the end. Is that so much to ask for? A premiere that knocks my socks off as much as “The Return of Harmony”? Impress me those of you MLP writers that are left. I demand to be impressed!

The sense I get from this premiere is that it’s setting up something that we’re going to see later this season or more than likely in season finale. I feel we will be seeing Starlight Glimmer, Sunburst, Flurry Heart, Shining Armor, Cadance, and the Crystal Empire all again in the season finale. It’s not too surprising since as I’ve stated before, this premiere is very similar to the premiere of Season 4. Though that premiere made that much more explicit and set up an arc for the season. I don’t quite see an arc established here. Some have pointed to something suspicious in the background in the final moments of episode.

Let’s take a closer look at that shall we.

That looks like it might be a Changeling flying around back there. That could mean we could be seeing Queen Chrysalis and the Changelings back in this season’s finale. I could see her take part in some kind of revenge plot involving kidnapping Flurry Heart. Of course, that could also mean we could be seeing Chrysalis get reformed. Because that’s what MLP does now. Instead of having a recurring villain, you got to reform them their second time around. (Unless you’re the Flim Flam Brothers.) Like Starlight could be the one who helps her reform being that she was a villain herself. I’d rather that not happen. It’s not worth worrying about at this point though. We have yet to know anything about the finale.

This seems to have reminded a lot of people of The X-Flies.

The X-Files. That’s another show I’ve never seen.

But perhaps there is an alternative theory.

Oh, look at Mariusioannesp try to convince us all that Grogar is coming. I know I’ve been wrong before. I will probably be wrong again. But humor me for just a moment. There are two reasons I believe we could be seeing Grogar down the line in the finale most likely. Firstly, Grogar’s initial action in “The Return of Tambelon” was to kidnap all the unicorns. With Flurry Heart’s birth, we now have five alicorns. I could see this aspect of Grogar being adapted for FIM by having him kidnap all the alicorns. This would set up the situation where the Remane 5 and Starlight Glimmer would have to figure out how to defeat Grogar without Twilight’s help. I think this would be very interesting to see because it has never been done before. Usually, they have to defeat the villain together. I mean, if the the writers insist on throwing Starlight into the mix, this would be a great way of cementing her status as a new member of the main cast. Chrysalis could still be involved by having her be an ally of Grogar. Perhaps she’d be in charge of kidnapping Flurry Heart and Cadance. However, having Chrysalis pair with a possibly more menacing villain could increase the possibility of her reformation. Or ideally, Chrysalis would reluctantly be forced to work alongside the ponies in an Enemy Mine situation. Now, that would be interesting. My second reason is that as I’ve already stated, this season opened a lot like Season 4 opened. And Season 4 ended by introducing Tirek into FIM. I could see a similar thing happening with this season if they do indeed introduce Grogar. It wouldn't surprise me to see such things from G1 MLP if indeed they did retcon the Crystal ponies to look more like G1's Crystal-eyed ponies.

Overall, “The Crystalling” was fun for the whole family. Though it was as I expected, another not great season premiere. I do feel it is setting up some great stuff somewhere down the line this season.

What do y’all think about “The Crystalling”?

God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless Equestria.

And of course, Happy Easter! It still goes on 50 days after the Sunday!


Jesus is risen! Alleluia! Alleluia! He is truly risen! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Comments ( 6 )

The return of MLP also signals the return of your wonderful reviews. :twilightsmile:

I too liked this premiere though I may have had a more positive reaction than you did. That seems to be the case aside from a few rare exceptions where I tend to be the naysayer (from what I've seen, I may have the most negative opinion of What About Discord than a lot of other fans). But we're all entitled to our opinions either way.

3844780 Well, you're reviews are good too. :raritywink:

3855944

I have thoughts on what sort of villain Grogar would be, if you want to hear it?

Yeah, sure why not? :twilightsmile:

3858296 Well, that all sounds great. :pinkiehappy: It would be wonderful if MLP's staff went with such a characterization for Grogar. Don't know how likely that would be, but it would be awesome either way.

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