Opinions on "To Where and Back Again" (season six finale) · 11:05am Nov 2nd, 2016
I'm just posting this to get it off my chest, before I continue taking my break from MLP.
I like To Where and Back Again, for the most part. But I felt like it was a "shoestring budget" version of what it could have been. What do I mean?
These episodes were about different heroes other than the Mane Six or the Princesses saving the day. But the only characters they could use were Trixie, Starlight, Thorax, and Discord? I needn't remind you that two of these characters were only recently introduced from within the last two seasons and there were so many others they could've brought in from the other seasons (Big McIntosh, Troubleshoes Clyde, Gilda, Cranky Doodle, Zecora, Daring Do, Lightning Dust, etc.). And since they were going to a place where non-Changeling magic didn't even work, wouldn't this have been a good opportunity for some of those earth pony (Double Diamond, Troubleshoes Clyde, Big McIntosh) or especially pegasus (Daring Do, Lightning Dust, Night Glider) characters to shine through for once?
When the Changelings take over Twilight's castle, wouldn't this have been a great opportunity for Sunset Shimmer to show up and help Starlight and Trixie get rid of them? The Crystal Mirror is right there in the castle, it's still jury-rigged to open at any time (if the mid-credits scene of Friendship Games is any indication), and I'm sure that Princess Twilight could've mentioned Sunset's journal to Starlight when they were sorting through Twilight's collection of books.
And since non-Changeling magic didn't work in the Changeling Kingdom, Sunset could've used her experience as someone that's spent years in an entire world where her own magic didn't work to help the group find a way to overcome their disadvantage.
And above all: Rebecca Shoichet was already doing voice-work in those episodes as Sugar Belle and Night Glider, so having Sunset at least make a cameo shouldn't have been too much of a hassle.
Ugh. If only Hasbro/DHX would stop pretending EQG and FiM weren't connected. But at least I can come up with a good explanation for why Sunset wasn't around to help Starlight's group fight the Changelings:
When the Changelings infiltrated the castle, they found out about Sunset's journal and the Crystal Mirror, so after replacing the Mane Six, they decided to send a team through it to capture Sunset. What they didn't know was that Sunset and the Rainbooms had their own magic from the events of Legend of Everfree, so they were able to beat the Changelings back through the portal once they returned from camp, and then crossed over into the Castle to drive the rest out of Ponyville. And then Sunset sticks around just long enough for Princess Twilight and company to come back and tell them what happened, and finally make amends with Princess Celestia.
Overall, I don't necessarily think it was bad. There were some good ideas here and there, but it seemed to have too little time to flesh things out, and things were just so abrupt (Mane Six and Princesses being so easily captured off-screen, Thorax suddenly being declared leader of the Changelings, etc.). If this finale had at least three parts, things probably wouldn't have seemed so rushed, and more ideas and concepts could've been explored by the writers.
And what do what happened to the changelings mean for your story? Are you just going to slap an alternate universe tag on the whole thing?
4341398 I have no idea what it will mean, but I don't think I'll have to add that tag since:
1:I haven't reached that point in the show's timeline
2: I started writing these stories before even season four began. Of course stuff's not going to mesh with what has really happened in the show.