That sure was... something.

Good News: The season premiere for season 7 had me laughing out loud!

Bad News: Not always for the right reasons.

Reader beware, you're in for a scare... if you're scared of SPOILERS!

First of all, the elephant in the room. This is the first season to open without a two-parter. Does it matter that much? Not really, if they can stand on their own.

But do they?

Celestial Advice offers an interesting question, what comes next after Starlight has learned enough about friendship from Twilight? The answer? Heck if we know, because she's not ready to move on! We'll get to the main way I feel this episode falls flat in a moment, but a big plus for the episode is Twilight and Celestia's interactions. Twilight's fantasies involving Starlight's future are funny to watch, with the highlight being the dragon one. Twilight's out-of-character storytelling is both funny and cringeworthy, as you can imagine Starlight's and Ember's lines and attitude being in a bad fanfic. Then there's the Garble scene. The context Twilight gives and Garble's canon personality make me think he's supposed to be intentionally harming Starlight, but the way he acts, and his inflection on the punchline of the joke make me think he's totally clueless that ponies cannot swim in lava. It's hilarious. Starlight being awkward with the changelings and adorable with Sunburst is also pretty neat, though nothing special, IMO. Getting to see how Celestia started the series is also pretty cool, and seeing her laugh at Twilight for a good half-minute is priceless.

But all of this can't save this episode's biggest problem. What is it? Well, in the end, Twilight and Starlight decide they're not ready to move on to other things yet. I'm slightly disappointed that the status quo remains unshaken, but it isn't that bad. However, the way they come to this conclusion is nothing but what I would call downright LAZY.

Twilight Sparkle: Starlight, trust me. You're ready.
Starlight Glimmer: Yeah!
[beat]
Starlight Glimmer: No, I'm not.
Twilight Sparkle: What are you talking about?
Starlight Glimmer: I'm not ready to leave!
Twilight Sparkle: Oh, good! 'Cause I'm not ready for that either!

You probably think that this is a mocking parody I made to express my displeasure at how the conclusion was handled. Nope. This is, WORD-FOR-WORD the ACTUAL lines spoken in the episode. Copypasted from the transcript. This is the complete discussion about how Starlight admits she doesn't feel ready to move on. She admits it, and Twilight caves immediately. The whiplash is so heavy, that I feel embarrassed, and that all of the guests and Starlight should be embarrassed, too, that Twilight announces that she and Starlight are ready to move on, and then just goes straight back on what she said. There's no discussion between Twilight and Starlight about why they're not ready to move on. Less than eighty words are spoken after the point where my quotation ends. If they had properly built up to the point where Twilight and Starlight stay together, I wouldn't have a problem, but the point at the end of Celestia's advice session where they talk about how Twilight will always need Celestia doesn't work as a buildup to this because Twilight HAS MOVED ON! Even if she still needs Celestia's guidance, she is no longer under her direct tutelage! That said, the amount of stuff I like punctuated by this critical error is why I feel this works as entertainment, but it does not work as an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship as Magic.

All Bottled up is a bit simpler, in that it has an obvious lesson that plays out naturally. Trixie is being ignorant to Starlight's feelings of annoyance at her various transgressions, chief of which is transporting the Cutie Map to a place that Trixie can't remember. Meanwhile, Twilight and friends are on a teambuilding friendship retreat in which they solve puzzles inside a room. I think Trixie and Starlight may have become my favorite pairing in the show. Starlight just seems the perfect pony for Trixie to work off of and relate with (which reminds me, that I was awfully glad to see more interaction between Trixie and Discord in the previous episode). One thing I'm really starting to like about Starlight is her numerous magical solutions to problems. Need to spend quality time with friends? Brain Control! Need to resist telling off your best friend? Emotion Jar! The moral is standard, but good. Telling the people around you how you feel is an import social skill. Apart from that, there's cinnamon nuts and massages. Not bad. I hope Starlight keeps coming up with magical solutions, but not to a point where it gets repetitive.

Now there's a problem with this episode, too. It's not quite as bad as the first episode's, but I still found it pretty noticeable. It's with the B-plot following Twilight. In my opinion, there has never been another element in an episode in this series that was so completely and undoubtedly FILLER. I felt it barely tied in with the rest of the episode and had so little conflict or flavor that it stuck out like a sore thumb. First Twilight's friends are not as enthusiastic as Twilight, but then they get motivated by their own friendship and the record set by a group of griffons. They have no problems with the puzzles, as the narrative switches back and forth between A-plot and B-plot. In the end, they sing a song about their unbreakable friendship, which causes them to go over the time limit set by the griffons. Starlight's rage-in-a-bottle spills out and makes Bulk Biceps, Granny Smith, and whatsherface attack Trixie, screaming Starlight's unspoken diatribes at her. This reveals Starlight's problem to Trixie, causing her to fess up, just before they find the Cutie Map and solve the problem before Twilight gets home. Now Twilight and her friends' problem-solving getaway might be harmless, but I find it completely lacking in entertainment value. There's no conflict, obstacles, or anything that resembles a proper story. It's just an event that's happening. No one has anything memorable to say, and even Pinkie relegates herself to the roll of enthusiastic cheerleader with nothing crazy to do. It was when they got to the song that I realized how empty these parts of the episodes were. I can't think of a single song before this episode that I would call pointless, because whether I liked the music or not, in the show and in the EG movies, each song was sung for a reason; expressing how a character is feeling, or what a character is doing; another medium to tell the story. How does the song tie into the story? Just because their friendship got them through the room? They didn't sing at all about how they worked together! Furthermore, neither the song, nor Twilight's situation has anything to do with the situation in A-plot, so we've got a song that has nothing to do with a situation that has nothing to do with the main story, and it's hammered in when they cut between Twilight and Starlight IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SONG. Sure, Trixie may be asking for help from Starlight... *sigh* you know what? Sure. There's your connection. Feels pretty slim to me, though. The worst part of the song, though, was that for the first time in MLPFIM, I felt insulted for watching something juvenile. I might feel embarrassed occasionally when MLP reminds me that it's for kids, but it's usually in a gentle way, that it's not the show's fault and I feel slightly silly, but not bad at all. This friendship song, "Best Friends Until the End of Time," felt so pandering that I felt bad for watching it. It didn't last as long as the embarrassed laughter, but it left a deeper impact. Still, it was harmless, and had no bad morals or offensive content. The worse it did was what most filler does: distract from the main plot to extend the running time.

So in my opinion, there were two alright episodes each with an obvious super-distracting problem. I still have high hopes for this season.

Comments

[obake]

Nice reviews!
I believe you earned yourself a watch,