• Member Since 16th Feb, 2012
  • offline last seen Jun 7th, 2018

InsertAuthorHere


Give me an eternity, I'll give you an update!

More Blog Posts689

  • 303 weeks
    Season Eight Episode Reviews: Molt Down

    This week is a Spike episode? What a re-”molt”-ing development this is!

    Let's look at “Molt Down,” the episode that will surely be perfectly normal and have no long-lasting repercussions on a character's appearance.

    Read More

    2 comments · 2,370 views
  • 304 weeks
    Season Eight Episode Reviews: Break Up Break Down

    I dread going into this week's episode. For today, we discuss matters of the heart. Romance, love, heartbreak, and all that rot. Which means we run right into the most loathsome of all fandom constructs, the kind of thing that destroys friendships and leaves the most brilliant of minds curled up helplessly in a corner, foaming from the mouth:

    SHIPPING.

    Read More

    6 comments · 1,671 views
  • 305 weeks
    Season Eight Episode Reviews: Non-Compete Clause

    We've had a string of good episodes the last few weeks. Whether it be shapeshifting seaponies, an actual Celestia episode, or discovering Starlight's dark phase, we've had lots of fun and plenty of laughs.

    Today's episode is about Applejack and Rainbow Dash competing.

    The good times are over.

    Read More

    7 comments · 1,584 views
  • 306 weeks
    Season Eight Episode Reviews: The Parent Map

    Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone who cares about that! What better way to spend the day than watching a cartoon about horses dealing with their mommy/daddy issues? Well, tough, because that's what we're doing. This is “The Parent Map.”

    Read More

    4 comments · 1,110 views
  • 307 weeks
    Season Eight Episode Reviews: Horse Play

    So hey, it's a new episode. Surely nothing to be excited about. Just another standard episode of a cartoon pony show.

    Only it's a CELESTIA EPISODE!

    Prepare for extra spicy biased scoring as we look at Best Princess' newest episode, “Horse Play!”

    Read More

    5 comments · 1,259 views
Apr
9th
2016

Season Six Episode Reviews: The Crystalling · 4:15am Apr 9th, 2016

Well, I didn't finish Season Four, and I barely got less than halfway through Season Five...but hey, let's do episode reviews again. Sixth time's the charm.

So in the interest of playing catch-up, let's look at the season premiere, “The Crystalling.”


TECHNICAL SPECS:

Season: 6
Episodes: 1+2
Written By: Josh Haber
First Aired: March 26, 2016


REVIEW:

So here we are. Friendship is Magic has ran for six seasons and almost six years by this point. That's a tremendous run for any series, but for a children's show – particularly one aimed at shilling toys – it's astonishing. And yet, when a show has ran for so long, there are certain...temptations that plague creative types. The staff gets bored or runs out of material with who they have, so they strive to add something new to the mix. New characters, new areas, new anything just to shake up the formula. FiM also has to deal with the pressure from Hasbro, who will sell those crystal palaces no matter how many tree libraries they have to blow up.

So imagine my everlasting joy when I saw that the premiere would confirm that Starlight Glimmer is here to stay, there was going to finally be that baby Alicorn they've been teasing for years in the toyline, and the premiere would be about them and not the main characters.

In case you couldn't tell, that was sarcasm.

Let me be as clear as possible: I HATED HOW THE SEASON FIVE FINALE ENDED. I thought I had hated before, but nothing could match my rage at those last ten minutes. Starlight Glimmer destroys space and time over and over again...because her best friend got shipped off to private school and left her alone. And everyone instantly forgives her. I'm totally for redemption and forgiveness, but Discord got more of a redemption arc than she did. Those last few minutes almost killed the whole show for me for a while, but I decided to wait and see how things were handled in the next season premiere.

As for Flurry Heart, I'm largely okay with her presence now. Adding a baby or otherwise “cute” child is a marketing gimmick as old as television itself, so I was expecting something on the level of when the Fairly Oddparents spawned. Instead, Flurry Heart is legitimately cute and largely harmless. She's incredibly overpowered and responsible for most of the episode's problems, but it's a fairly logical progression of baby powers from what we saw in “Baby Cakes.” Remember that Pound was able to carry Pinkie around while flying and Pumpkin could phase through walls and levitate herself, so a foal with the power of an Alicorn would be a major catastrophe until the surges stopped. Also helping matters is that we're likely not to see her for a good amount of time, so she's not being constantly flashed around for the studio audience to gush over.

The Flurry Heart plot manages to find a way to work in just about everyone. The Mane 6 alternate between caring for the baby and warning the idiot tourists to run for cover. Shining Armor is adorable as the sleep-deprived new father. Pinkie makes sense as the one who connects with Flurry Heart the most. Even Celestia and Luna actually stand up and help protect the Crystal Empire. Even better is that the episode largely manages to tie all these disparate parts together, even if Shining's role is largely cut off by the end of the first half.

The real plot of the episode revolves around Starlight, Spike, and the friend that left, Sunburst. For all the grief I give Starlight for her horrible redemption arc, I did like her alternating between frustration and terror at the prospect of meeting Sunburst after so long. As for the “wizard” himself, I guessed the twist almost immediately upon seeing him, but otherwise found him largely inoffensive. I genuinely like the idea behind his character, reminding us that just because someone seems fated to excel doesn't mean they will, and that someone can study something for years and still not be able to actually do it. I just wish it wasn't quite tangled up with a character I'm already inclined to cringe at.

Something that I thought was interesting was how Spike interacted with Starlight. The little dragon is always a helpful fellow to the Mane 6, but it typically has an air of a child wanting to be useful to the grown-ups. This is particularly true with how he works with Twilight. His very identity is centered around being her Number One Assistant, and while he'll snark and snap some sense into her during her mental spirals, he's still typically treated as someone below or subservient. And now we have Starlight, who is in largely the same position as him thanks to being Twilight's student. The two seem to work almost as equals in the scheme of things, and Starlight slipping into her scheming and conniving side could be taken as her allowing herself to be a bit more open around someone she doesn't perceive as being “above” her in some way.

This could also be me being totally wrong, but that's just how the two came off to me. Plus, Starlight using Spike's ego to buy herself some time was solid gold. We need more ponies eating popcorn, dang it!

Also, Twilight's parents finally talked. And they were fine.

Twilight also had a bit of a subplot regarding her role as a teacher. It flashed by so quickly that it's barely worth mentioning, but it also provided some of the biggest laughs in the episode. Twilight is still a list-obsessed nerd, after all, and her lessons are structured accordingly. Of course, she learns not to be so controlling and let her student think for herself, which is what Celestia's done whenever she's thrown her to the lions. Just a reminder: Twilight is now the Princess of Friendship. I think the lesson plan's pretty effective.


CONCLUSION:

Overall, this wasn't the greatest pair of opening episodes, but it was still an enjoyable start. Most of my hangups are of a personal nature, save perhaps for the episode being a bit too low-key for my tastes. I'm still not a fan of Starlight, and I'm not particularly looking forward to seeing more Sunburst. Flurry Heart is cute, but again, she's tolerable as long as they don't try to shove her into the focus like so many kid characters. It's not a pair of episodes I would especially seek out, but it kept my faith alive for a little while longer, and that's good enough for me.


Next time...I dunno. Maybe whenever I feel like it.

Report InsertAuthorHere · 1,245 views ·
Comments ( 7 )

Next time, BY THE POWER OF MAUD!! XD

Flurry Heart is legitimately cute

More sarcasm? She's an eldritch abomination. Those wings, those *shudders* eyes, that potato body and a horn large enough and sharp enough that she probably provided her own cesarean.

Ah, I missed this. You view see some things so differently that it's a genuine pleasure for me.

I loved getting to see episodes from a totally different angle. (although I agree with most of your views on this one)

What makes me cringe is people calling them the mane seven. If Spike doesn't get that honor, Starlight sure as heck doesn't. It's the mane six with special guest and former cult leader Starlight Glimmer.

3858183
I'd honestly put Sunset Shimmer into the seventh slot, assuming that "is or was a pony" was a requirement for entry and thereby Spike wasn't allowed (otherwise I agree that he's a shoe-in). Starlight Glimmer would be more of an eighth.

Though then again there was that fic that posited that Spike is actually a pony himself, just in dragon form due to the unique circumstances of his birth. With Twilight as technically the mother and Rainbow Dash as technically the father.

:rainbowhuh: "I'm too young and too female to be a dad!"

Also Fluttershy was a dragon princess. That fic got weird, but it was fun in its beginning.

Hmm. Noticed there was no summary this time. Still good though. I look forwards to these reviews.

3858186 Well, in the hierarchy of Twilight's helpers, there is Spike, Owliscious, and now Starlight Glimmer. Sunset has earned a spot on the Humane Six, so she's an easy 7th, then we have Spike, who does have a kid-sized throne... I think Glimmer is ninth. But, if Trixie moves to Ponyville, Glimmer gets bumped down again.

Agreed on all points, especially about Starlight and season five's end. Flurry Heart, I liked her overall.

Login or register to comment