A Royal Problem Review · 4:45pm Jun 10th, 2017
So, we finally get our royal sisters episode, seven seasons in. And just like "Celestial Advice", it's Starlight Glimmer who's the character of focus for the episode. Oh, and it's written by Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco.
Don't get me wrong, "Celestial Advice" was pretty good, but I think we should all admit it. It only became that way because of the Celestia bits, if they had been written out the episode would've just been about shilling Starlight and likely would've been a snooze fest. So, is that what happened with this episode? Well, let's find out.
We begin with right away, with the map calling Starlight to Canterlot by herself, and Twilight is practically speechless. She considers tagging along but quickly decides against it, again trusting the map's judgement.
Starlight arrives in Canterlot, and soon finds that the problem is the royal sisters Celestia and Luna. They don't seem to particularly respect each other and are content to cast daggers at each other, but they won't admit they have a problem. I should take this moment to bring up a criticism a few people will no doubt lodge at this episode, there's no prior buildup or anything that suggests Celestia and Luna could be at each other's throats, especially considering what happened in their last major fight. But I feel like that criticism can easily be debunked if you remember a couple of things. One, Luna mentioned in "For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils" that she feels her sister often shines more brightly than she (Luna) does. Two, Luna specifically didn't tell Celestia about the existence of the Tantibus, instead seeking out the mane six for help (sure the more likely reason is that she regarded the Tantibus as her own problem, but I think you could make a case for her not feeling Celestia would understand it since Luna herself created such a creature). And three, in "Slice of Life" we saw the two sisters briefly arguing over who was supposed to bring the gift for Cranky and Matilda's wedding, though they went to great lengths to hide this when anyone was watching. Suffice it to say, they're very good at putting on a mask, but even the best of masks can't hide everything.
Starlight retreats to her room, where she finds Twilight as a music box, so she has someone to spout exposition to. Starlight spends the next day noticing how Celestia makes pancakes for Luna, but Luna never has time to appreciate them because of how tired she is. And Celestia is too busy at night entertaining guests to notice Luna's work putting up lavender in the castle. Then the next morning, Starlight tries to get the two sisters to talk it out, but they both feel their job is more important than the other's and don't seem particularly considerate of what the other must go through (hey, they're still siblings, maybe they don't fight directly but words can be just as effective a weapon as any sword or spear). Starlight impulisvely decides to switch the sisters cutie marks for 24 hours, and Celestia and Luna at first both glare at her for such a decision. I will say it's a step up from "Every Little Thing She Does" and even sort of "All Bottled Up", but it's still the same basic problem for Starlight, it seems like her focus episodes run into the common theme of her constantly using magic to fix her problems.
Anyway, the sisters decide they'll go through with the day and night, just to prove their point to each other. Luna at first thinks it'll be easy to be Celestia, as all she has to do is smile and wave. But of course, she soon discovers just how hard it is to do that all day long.
It gets to the point where Luna stops smiling for a second, and a photo is taken of her at that precise second, which costs a school a chance for its students to go on a field trip (Luna was attending a fundraiser). Luna worries so much over this that she accidentally slips into her royal Canterlot voice to reassure some villagers that there are no timberwolves about (not exactly sure why a princess would need to reassure them of that, a local wildlife expert or even simply a town mayor should be able to do the job). With Starlight's help, she makes it through the rest of the day and retires to bed, as Celestia comes out to raise the moon. However, since Starlight has fallen asleep, Celestia has no one to talk to. She goes into the dream world to find somepony, and discovers Starlight having a nightmare about her reckless decision. All of a sudden, Starlight thinks she's made the princesses start fighting again, and Nightmare Moon pops up, followed by Celestia's own dark side, Daybreaker.
Celestia finds herself unable to stop the nightmare from progressing, especially since Daybreaker taunts Celestia about how powerful she could become if she stopped caring about others. Fortunately, Celestia is able to pull Luna from her own nightmare to aid in the dream battle, and Luna gives Celestia the encouragement to overcome both Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker, even though Daybreaker claims she is just like Celestia.
The sun raises to start a new day, as the two sisters gain a newfound appreciation for each other. But then we get to a forced reset button for Starlight, who basically gets told that it's okay she messed up since everything worked out in the end, basically meaning she's just going to do this again the next time she runs into a similar problem. Look, just because everything worked out with no collateral damage, doesn't mean Starlight should just be forgiven and rewarded, this would be the perfect opportunity to tell her that she needs to think before she acts. Your actions can and do have consequences, acting without thinking seldom works out for the better. But instead of addressing this, we get a sudden appearance from Twilight (who claims she forgot to give Starlight her toothbrush, and throughout the entire episode acts rather clingy and desperate to intervene, really feel like this should've been her episode), and the episode ends with Luna hastily admitting to Celestia she messed up.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Honestly, it's very much the royal sisters episode we've always wanted, and in that regard it succeeds quite effortlessly. Even the inclusion of Daybreaker is handled well, and it's nice to see this new side of the sisters (though I still prefer Friends Forever #38 for this kind of plot for them, it just seemed to have more weight behind it). The inclusion of Starlight Glimmer unfortunately hurts this episode a little, she's mostly just there to mess up and kickstart the major conflict. It wouldn't be so bad, if it weren't for the fact that her nightmare feels really sudden, there's never anything prior to it in the episode to suggest Starlight truly regrets what she did (and no her cowering in fear when the sisters glare at her doesn't count, that's more her being terrified of punishment than outright regret), and even when the episode acknowledges that, it then hastily resets it by telling Starlight that it's okay since everything worked out in the end. Heck, Twilight's inclusion at the end isn't to scold Starlight for her actions, but simply to ask for details about what happened. I also feel at times this episode can be rushed (most noticeably with Starlight's nightmare suddenly becoming a thing), and I feel like if they'd cut "Honest Apple", they could've expanded this into a two parter. Perhaps if they'd done that and dropped Starlight from the episode (either Twilight or Cadence could've worked for the middle man), and have the sisters swap their cutie marks willingly, this episode would be perfect. As it stands, this episode gets an A, putting it above "Hard To Say Anything" which admittedly had the CMC regressing in maturity and at times could be cringey, but below "Forever Filly" which managed to actually do a conflicting loyalities story where both sides were sympathetic.
Now, next week we have the final episode before the mid season hiatus "Not Asking For Trouble", but I'll probably try to watch it early since I've heard it's mostly medicore.
Honestly, I don't think any pony other than Starlight would have worked for this.
Twilight and Cadance are too close to Celestia and Luna.
For me, this is not just the best episode of the season, but also the second best episode of the series.
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Not to mention how biased most ponies are. I mean, while I didn't like seeing Starlight in this episode I can see why the map called her and not Twilight.
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Yeah, I have to agree with you two. Anypony else would have been too biased. Starlight would have been the only neutral party, as everypony else looks up to the sisters as Goddesses. However, I admit Starlight resorting to magic to solve her problems is getting a little old, and she never seems to learn from it.
I think that this was the best episode of the season so far and Starlight's nightmare isn't connected to her swapping the Cutie Marks which was an act of desperation but to the fear of what might happen if the royal sisters don't stop fighting. Like other commenters have said this episode wouldn't have worked without Starlight because others are too biased and unwilling to take desparate measures.
Starlight is starting to grow on me. The writers are not shoving her down our throats like they did last season. They are really giving her
character development which is something she was lacking last season. She is developing friends naturally instead of everyone forgiving her. This how last season should have been developing friendship with the mane six every other episode. Anyway I consider this episode best of the season and one of the best overall. My favorite part was of course Daybreaker. Her fight with Nightmare Moon was excellent.
Well, it was MILES better than the train wreck with Applejack, the battle with Daybreaker was very impressive and the idea of Luna and Celestia swapping roles was interesting to watch. If the next one before the hiatus is meh, it won't give me much hope for the second half of the season.
What's with your anti-magic attitude? It's not wrong to use magic to solve certain problems. Also this episode is INFINITELY better than that piece of shit FF #38.
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But last weeks episode was great.
4567842 Yes, it's not wrong to use magic to solve certain problems. But Starlight uses magic to solve ALL her problems, even when there might be a better way. And considering what she did in her past, she should KNOW swapping cutie marks (let alone tampering with them) is wrong! The fact that she not only did that (even if it was on impulse) but also ended up being REWARDED for it, undermines her character development. Me thinks Lewis and Songco need to stay away from Starlight, they just can't write her without shilling her. Though to be fair to them, they likely started work on these episodes before any of Season 6's Starlight episodes aired, so they had no way to know people wouldn't want to see this again.
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Temporarily switching cutie marks is not wrong.
4569072 It is when you used to steal cutie marks from others for your own selfish goals. When Twilight did it, it was an accident, when Starlight did it it was on impulse.
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What Starlight did back then and what she did here are hardly comparable. And the village Ponies gave up their marks willingly; as far as we know, the Mane 6 were the only Ponies Starlight flat out forced to stay. Also, I fail to see how wanting equality is entirely selfish.
4569291 But Starlight didn't believe in her own message, she just wanted control. So she lied to the villagers and tricked them, basically, forced them to accept her way of thinking. She even had a hut set up to brainwash villagers who disobeyed.
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She clearly did believe it. She probably did come to enjoy the control, but at the beginning she likely would've gotten ride of her mark if there had been a real Staff Of Sameness. And that "prison" looked a lot like a hastily converted house to me.
4569608 It was still a prison, and let's not forget that when confronted with the reality of her actions, she twice denied any wrongdoing and tried to justify it because of her losing one friend as a child. Doing stuff like this doesn't exactly make an already badly executed redemption look anymore convincing, it comes across as character shilling more than anything.
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After losing her ONLY friend. And her heart clearly wasn't in that second denial. Why am I even still here if I'm just gonna be judged for liking a character?
4569625 Losing her only friend did not excuse her from condemning all of Equestria to suffer, or to strip other ponies of their cutie marks. I don't hate Starlight, but when the writers keep making her do stuff like this and get away with no consequences, it's hard to say she's truly a better pony. How many times does she have to cross the line before she learns that magic can't solve everything, and messing with other ponies in body or mind is WRONG?! At least when Discord or Twilight did it, they would be called out on it!
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When did she condemn Equestria to suffer? Those alternate futures were prevented from happening because Starlight decided to change. So far she has suffered consequences whenever she's done something wrong. And you're still sounding like a judgemental prick.
4569667 She still messed with time just because she was made about having her precious little "utopia" ruined by Twilight and her friends exposing her lies. She had a lot of time to think about what she was doing in those caves, and she chose to settle on revenge. As choppy as Discord and Trixie's redemptions are, at least they get called out for acting like a bad guy most of the time. When Starlight does wrong, it's either never addressed or just lightly brought up and then passed off with an "I'm sorry", or in this case telling her that what she did was okay when it clearly wasn't. She can be a great character, "Rock Solid Friendship" is proof of that, she needs more stuff like that and less stuff like this. Stop focusing on her constantly doing things that would get someone else called out and possibly condemned or punished. Actions have consequences, Starlight was lucky her actions worked out okay this time, but what would've happened if they didn't? At the least the ending should've changed so as to not make it sound like Starlight was being praised for something that could've had drastic consequences on the rest of Equestria.
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Starlight IS called out when she actually has done something wrong.
I'm tired of this. I'm tired of being attacked for liking Starlight. I'm tired of people assuming I apply the same standards to real life people that I do to fictional characters. I'm tired of being called a terrible person for liking Starlight Glimmer and Spoiled Rich. I'm tired of judgemental assholes!
4569715 I will say Starlight's not as bad as Spoiled Rich, who got publicly called out on her behavior and seems to have learned nothing from it. At least Starlight seems to be on the side of good, but actions like this make her morality seem questionable and raise the possibility that maybe she isn't truly as reformed as she claims.
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Dude, calm down. SPB12 isn't attacking you for being a fan of Starlight Glimmer; he's just trying to explain a problem he has with her character that's happened far too often. If you like Starlight, that's fine. More power to you. But at least try to understand his point of view.
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I do understand his point of view. I just don't agree.
While your review of this episode was good, my favorite review is still this...