Thoughts on the Season 7 Premiere

Well, I must say that this has been the least exciting, least suspenseful season premiere in the show’s entire history , (pause) and I LOVED IT!
Sure, it wasn’t a two-parter, and neither of the episodes’ plots had a lot of stakes involved, but the episodes were fun, whimsical, and surprisingly mature. I’m not going to lie. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy season 7 because the episode synopses for the premiere sounded pretty lame , but the show staff was able to take those premises and turn them into something absolutely delightful and entertaining.
Okay, the first episode is about Twilight dealing with how she doesn’t have anything more to personally teach Starlight. Yeah, I’m not going to spoil any details, but let’s just say this feels more like an episode for parents and teachers than for the target audience. Basically, Twilight is having trouble letting go of Starlight because she’s worried that Starlight will stop needing her, so she goes to Celestia for advice, and thanks to some flashbacks, we learn that Celestia felt the exact same way about being Twilight’s mentor. Like I said, this episode is pretty low key, but it makes up for it with introspection and humor. Plus, we finally get to actually see Twilight and Celestia bonding and what Celestia is like under her regal and occasionally mischievous demeanor, and I found all that to be rather charming. Furthermore, I think it’s an episode that parents could end up relating to a lot, especially parents with college-age kids.
The second episode kind of has two plots. The A-plot involves Starlight teaching Trixie how to use actual magic and getting increasingly frustrated in the process, and the B-plot is some low stakes bonding between the Mane 6. I’m willing to admit that the A-plot is definitely more exciting and more interesting to watch than the B-plot, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the B-plot was unenjoyable and a total waste of time. I mean, it’s pretty nice to see the Mane 6 do normal friendship-related activities together that don’t involve the fate of Equestria hanging in the balance. Besides, the way the Mane 6 get along and work together despite their differing personalities provided a nice contrast to the way Trixie keeps driving Starlight up the wall with her normally obnoxious Trixie-ness.
By the way, the way Trixie and Starlight interacted in the second episode was more or less what I predicted their dynamic would end up being like. I mean, even when she’s trying to be nice, Trixie can be rather full of herself and, for lack of a better term, too much to handle. She’d drive me crazy, too.
The second episode also gives us our first song of season 7. Now, quite a few people have found it annoying, out of place, and superfluous. Well, they’re probably right about the last two. The song didn’t really add anything meaningful whatsoever to the plot, but I liked it anyway. It was catchy and heartfelt, and it reminded me of how close my friends and I were during college and all the fun times we shared before the time came for each of us to move on. Besides, the episode uses it to poke fun at all the musical numbers that the series is known for. It’s actually quite clever.
All in all, I think season 7 is off to a great start. The premiere is nothing that we’ve learned to expect from season openers and finales, but it certainly was a jolly good time, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.