Graduation Day · 4:41am Apr 16th, 2017

Starlight Glimmer. What can honestly be said about her? Depending on who you ask, you'll get a lot of opinions on her. Some say she was welcome addition to the show. Others feel that she should have stayed a villain. If you're like me, you are part of that group where you are neutral towards Starlight. By no means do I hate Starlight, but I mostly am disappointed in how she was handled in season six.

While she had some strong moments such as No Second Prances or To Where and Back Again, it was overshadowed by Every Little Thing She Does or the recent MLP comic arc; Chaos Theory. They barely did anything to explore more about Starlight's past such as how she formed "Our Town" and where she learned all this magic. But after it's said and done, Starlight left a mixed feeling in me towards her. So when it was decided that the season 7 opener would involve Starlight leaving Twilight and the others, it was a bit of a shock to be honest. It's not because I didn't see something like this coming eventually, but because this was so soon and fast. It made me think that the team was getting rid of Starlight after so much backlash. While there are issues with Starlight, I don't want to see her gone at all; just written better is all and better developed.

Perhaps what surprised so many though is not so much Starlight moving on, but who the episode would star; Princess Celestia. Yes, after six seasons, it seems we are finally getting a Celestia episode...to an extent that is. I'll cover more of that more as we get into the episode itself. While this isn't technically a two parter, this review will cover both episodes that premiered. With that said and done, let's see the day Starlight Glimmer graduates from Twilight Sparkle.

The first thing to note about this episode is the time this takes place. Usually, season premiers take place an undetermined time after a season finale. This opener starts off though immediately after the events of To Where and Back Again. It's pretty impressive considering that most of the time, these season openers skip so much time. This gives it more of a story driven kind of feeling here.

After the events of TWaBA, Twilight is faced with a difficult decision about what to do with Starlight after what she did. Much like how Celestia sent Twilight to Ponyville, Twilight is now faced with sending Starlight away to spread friendship elsewhere. Now you would think with an episode with Celestia in it and her name in the title it would be one focused between Twilight and Celestia, right? Wrong.

A huge chunk of the episode is mostly Twilight fantasizing about where she could send Starlight and how it could go wrong. I will admit, a lot of these fantasies are cool such as Ember and Starlight just acting all tough or about Starlight being in the Changeling Kingdom. They're all entertaining in their own way. Unfortunately though, Celestia takes a back seat for most of the episode and just let's Twilight panic and worry so much.

To be fair, Celestia does get a small scene in the end and we get some character development for her. It's the first being of exploring this character, not counting the comics of course, and it's pretty solid for what it is. We get to see her suffer from the same thing Twilight goes through and it's not too bad for her. Though I will say, despite why she did it, seeing Celestia laugh at Twilight's misery is a bit unsettling. Also, it's a bit underwhelming that Twilight says she'll always need Celestia when she doesn't have the best track record in defending Equestria and the whole Canterlot Wedding thing.

One of the major issues though with this episode is just how boring and rather repetitive it gets. Bascially, many of the scenes, except for the party, follow this path; Twilight fantasizes about where to send Starlight, thinks of the worst outcome, breaks out of it, and repeat for most of the episode. Not much happens at all in this episode. It's mostly just Twilight freaking out. If I wanted to see something like that, I think I'd watch Lesson Zero again. This may just be me too, but why have these fantasies at all to be honest? Instead of actually imagining them, these scenarios could be potential episodes in the future. I especially welcome the idea of seeing Ember and the Dragon Lands again. I'm really hoping that these aren't just fantasies and more possible hints of what to see in the future of this season.

The biggest issue with this episode I have though is the abrupt ending. When Twilight tells Starlight she's ready to leave, almost instantly it's taken back and Starlight stays. I mean, I knew Starlight wouldn't be leaving to be honest, but I think this whole thing could have worked out better if Starlight was told this at the start and we see her struggle with whether she's ready to leave or not. This just felt way too fast to me and could have been handled better.

All Bottled Up also picks up shortly after the first episode. Trixie, who I guess is now a permanent guest at the castle, accidentally upsets Starlight far too many times and decides to just bottle up her anger. I heard of controlling your emotions, but I don't think this is what they meant. Much like the first episode, this one focuses more on Starlight, but Trixie joins in on the fun this time around. Starlight and Trixie have ended up as a very unique team. They bond together well and they both shine well when they are together. They are easily one of my favorite teams in the show yet. It's always fun to see these two interact with each other.

We get to see Starlight take on a bit of Twilight's role as she panics after Trixie teleports the Cutie Mark map away somewhere. The one difference is that Starlight once again uses magic to try and save the day. To be fair, this doesn't have as many unforeseen consequences as Every Little Thing She Does since Starlight uses the magic on herself this time. I do have to question though how we can see red smoke to represent what I assume is a unicorn's anger. We've never seen this before, so why is it being seen now? I'm assuming that Starlight must have some serious anger issues and probably needs some anger management. Although it was funny to see the "QUIET!" face return again.

What's not so funny though is Trixie herself sadly. In this episode, she seems very careless and dense. I know Trixie has always been more of a rebellious type and doesn't take her responsibilities seriously, but this is a bit much even for her. She seems to not care at all that something so important to the castle is gone and treats it like some minor inconvenience. What's worse is how oblivious she is about Starlight's own feelings for most of the episode. It's a bit unsettling considering how much Trixie worked so hard to make others accept her after the Alicorn Amulet incident. Here though, she seems to just treat this whole thing like as if it's nothing to worry about. The one thing I will say to Trixie's favor, aside from some development with her magic, is that she can be funny with that teacup thing.

Meanwhile, there's a subplot going on about Twilight and the others on a Friendship Retreat. We see that they are playing a puzzle game, but sadly it's not run by a skeleton. Apparently, they're learning about team building and problem solving. Which doesn't make sense considering they've done team building in the past and problem solving. To be honest, while the whole "problem" they have to deal with is more or less a parody and is funny, the scenes really don't have a point to be honest. The only major highlight it has is just a song; a poorly made song to be honest.

It's not a horrible song, but it's certainly one of the weakest in the show yet. Ignoring the constant reuse of the animation, the lyrics are pretty terrible. Some of them sound like they come from a sappy love poem or something. The apple of my eye? The race that doesn't end? The funnel cake at my fair? What kind of lyrics are these? It just doesn't hold up to some of the other songs the show has put out. Even the game announcer says that they shouldn't have sung that number. At least they learned when not to sing songs.

The one thing I did really enjoy out of this episode was its moral at the end. Anger can actually be a good thing to remind your friends that you can't keep pushing and shoving them and expecting no consequences. It's not often we see something as negative as anger be portrayed in a good way. It's pretty well handled and it did lead to proper payoff for Trixie's bad behavior.

So that was our "season opener" and, to be honest, this was probably the weakest opener to me yet. Don't get me wrong, these weren't terrible episodes at all, but compared to the other season openers, this is probably the weakest one of all. I will give this season opener credit in deviating from the usual openers. While the others are more action packed and suspenseful, this one was more calm and peaceful. It may not be the best idea to me, but I do commend the show for doing an idea like this.

If I had to choose which one I liked more, I'd honestly say Celestial Advice was the better of the two. Despite some pacing issues and how boring it can be for the second act, it at least had some good character development for Twilight and, most importantly, Celestia. While Celestia took a back seat for most of the episode, we at least got some glimpse into her character and the events leading up to the first episode. It was also fun to see all those fantasies and I really hope they are turned into actual episode. I especially want to see the return of Ember and doing that awesome greeting. That was something out of Commando.

All Bottled Up, while good in its own way and doing a unique moral, didn't stack up as well. Trixie was easily the biggest flaw in this episode. While there is proper set up and payoff for her behavior, it's still odd seeing her act so careless about something so crucial and that she acts pretty dense for most of the episode and not caring about Starlight's own thoughts. Also, the fact that nopony in the spa said anything about a table that wasn't there suddenly appearing is also pretty odd as well.

Combined that with some rather pointless scenes with the other Mane 6 and a pretty lousy song, and you got a rather lackluster episode. Again, I'll credit this episode for having a unique moral about anger and how it can be good sometimes. Trixie, despite her flaws, does have some genuine funny moments. The Trixie and Starlight bonding is always fun, and it was cute to see Starlight teach Trixie about magic. Though this does raise the question of how Trixie can levitate stuff, but seems to struggle with everything else in magic. Methinks magic teaching in Equestria is a bit weird.

I hope the season gets stronger as it goes on, but as far as this premier goes, this was pretty weak to be honest. It felt boring for part of the first episode, and it had some character issues in the second episode. The song was pretty lackluster and felt pretty forced to be honest. It just doesn't hold up to any of the others. I am really hoping that with the first episode that while it wasn't a full Celestia episode, it was a warmup for a possible, heavy emphasis on possible, episode for Celestia in the future, and that we will soon get her a proper episode at last.

FINAL SCORES

Celestial Advice: 7 out of 10 (B-)
All Bottled Up: 5.5 out of 10 (C-)

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