Between Dark and Dawn Review (Spoilers for American Fans!) · 4:58pm May 30th, 2019
Well, this is the last of the early airing episodes for the time being, and it's also the end of the first half of the final season. Only thirteen episodes (and a special that's a sequel to the movie) to go. Of course, like with the past three episodes, if you're waiting for this episode to air in the U.S.
This episode is very much "A Royal Problem" type of episode, it's a royal sisters episode despite what the synopsis may lead you to believe. Not sure why they still need to fool us, they've allowed the princesses to star in episodes before. "Horse Play" in particular won praise last season for being the Celestia focus episode we'd been begging for for years. Anyway, this episode marks the debut of a new writer, Gail Simone. He (or possibly she) has only written for comics before, but so impressed the current show runners that he (or she) was hired. So, was Gail able to deliver a good enough episode to close out the first half? Or did (he) or she pen a dud like "Uprooted" or "Sweet and Smoky". Well, let's find out.
We begin with a giant turtle monster attacking Sweet Apple Acres. Of course we all know that it's not really a turtle, it's Torterra, it's even got the same design.
Twilight organizes and instructs her friends to take care of it (except for Spike who gets captured by the creature's tongue). But Celestia and Luna show up and basically steal the mane six's thunder. This isn't the only time they do it, they insist on doing it for every little problem that needs solving in Ponyville, which is getting on the mane six's nerves. Rainbow Dash in particular is frustrated about how only now they seem to be helping at all.
Sensing that what the two princesses really need is a vacation, Twilight decides that she and her friends will take over running things as practice for when Celestia and Luna retire. The princesses are thrilled to finally have a vacation together, but quickly run into trouble about what they wanna do. Celestia is so bored of her daily life that she wants fun and excitement, in other words adventure.
Luna, on the other hoof, has more than enough drama just patrolling the dream realm night after night and wants to just relax and take it easy. The two sisters try to work around this by taking turns, and they depart after giving Twilight and her friends a long list on what to do for an important, upcoming ceremony involving the palace swans. As the two sisters set off, they soon break out into a song "So Many Little Things" which kind of feels like it's harking back to "We're Friendship Bound" in more ways than one.
Twilight and her friends prepare to take over Celestia and Luna's responsibilities and are greeted by Fancy Pants, Jet Set, and Upper Crust (the latter two are not voiced even though Upper Crust has the same VA as Rarity and Princess Luna). They offer their services but Twilight rejects them out of hoof. When her friends all glare at her for this, Twilight says that if they take any help at all it's like they'd be admitting they can't do anything by themselves and aren't ready to take the princesses' place. Except this flies directly in the face of morals like "Applebuck Season" and "Baby Cakes" where the moral is about how it's not a bad thing to ask for help, and that sometimes you can take on more responsibility than you're ready for. And this is far more important than simply completing a harvest or watching two little kids.
Celestia and Luna start coming to blows when they don't like each other's preferred activities. Luna in particular is quite fascinated by a post office, except somehow I doubt this is the first time she has ever been inside one. The two get into a heated argument and split off to do their own things. Meanwhile, Twilight and the others are proving unable to handle Celestia and Luna's responsibilities and still won't accept help. They eventually learn that not even princesses do everything by themselves (didn't Celestia tell Twilight something similar back in "School Daze" when explaining the EEA?) and delegate authority to others. I guess this counts as a sort of redemption for Jet Set and Upper Crust, not that they were ever really antagonists to begin with (honestly, their entire presence felt like a waste). Celestia and Luna meet back up after their solo vacations don't go very well (Luna gets sunburnt and Celestia is scared of chickens for some reason). They meet up, reconcile, and watch the moon set/sun rise from a hill. But it turns out Twilight is having trouble raising the sun and lowering the moon (even though I somehow doubt this all took place in the span of a single day) so they hurry back to Canterlot to help her. Hey, at least she doesn't bring up that screaming sun.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, in terms of a royal sisters episode it's pretty good, though I have to question why we're once again seeing them argue and fight. Yes, they're still sisters and siblings will always argue no matter what. But it's getting kind of ridiculous how it seems like when they're together they're either getting captured, spouting exposition, or just fighting. Seeing them fight even on vacation sort of makes you wonder how they could ever get along at all. I get that "Two Best Sisters Play" was a popular fandom work, but the more you keep incorporating that the more it kind of kills the image you're trying to project of them. As for the mane six, well they're kind of just there to be honest. The entire episode makes them completely helpless until they start delegating authority out to others. The beginning of the episode should've had them save Celestia and Luna, not the other way around. That could've been the justification for the sisters to take a vacation in the first place. And Twilight refusing Fancy Pants' help right out of the gate was a horrible contrivence that makes zero sense. The song is fantastic, and you can tell Nicole Oliver and Tabitha St. Germain were having fun hamming it up. But their falling out took too long to occur, and then it was hastily resolved because it came so late into the episode. I'm making it sound like I hate this episode, and I don't. The royal sisters most definitely carry it, even if the sisters aspect is more emphaised than the royal part. But considering we're halfway through the season and this was the first glimpse of what the mane six ruling might look like, it sort of undermines what the season (and series) finale is probably building to. I am at least glad they didn't make it into yet another Twilight freak out plot, those are getting old. In the end, I give this episode a narrow B, putting it just below "The Last Crusade" which despite having a few scenes that dragged on for too long or were way too predictable (the crying needed to be cut down, and the solutions to keeping Scootaloo from moving obviously weren't going to work) truly felt like a good enough end point for the CMC as a group. Plus, it gave a believable justification for seeing Scootaloo's parents now, while leaving it open how long they've been away and how long she's been in the care of her aunts or other ponies.
Now, baring any sort of leaks, the next piece of new content will be "Rainbow Roadtrip" a special that will premiere at the end of June. So far we have only a vague synopsis to go on of Twilight and her friends taking a balloon trip to a town that is void of color. I'm hoping that there's far more to it than that, since right now it just sounds like a rehash of "The Cutie Map". Hopefully, unlike the last several major projects, this one will actually fit into the intended timeline it's supposed to take place in.
But first, I'm going to update the rankings for the Student Six. I won't do any other blog posts related to episodes or characters until at least these episodes come out in the U.S. (the mane six I will hold off on until after "Rainbow Roadtrip" just to see if it maybe does something to elevate certain characters). That updated ranking should be coming out within the day.
While I agree that the mane 6's side of the episode is kind of mundane, I loved the princesses side enough that I actually kind of enjoyed it more than Sparkle's Seven.
Just for the record, Gail Simone is female.
So, I didn't actually think Ponies could get sunburnt, since they have fur, but I suppose that it's justified now, and that little part of the song in the season 3 finale, where Rarity rhymes about sunburning ponies actually was a thing. Still, it feels off. And I had no idea Tia had a chicken phobia. I wonder if cockatrices had anything to do with that.
For the episode as a whole, I can say it's one of the better episodes, despite some cringe moments.
Also, there was something that got me wondering, if Celestia and Luna were on vacation from "all" their duties..... who was taking care of the dream realm?
I think that is bait for a fanfic there.
5066992 Probably Twilight or Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash in particular would be fitting since she called dibs on that power in the premiere.
5067018
Again, if anyone else see's opportunity, we might see how the dream realm is handled in Luna's absence. Wonder if they will have an episode in regards to the aftermath?....... meh, probably not.
I can see all your points. Actually, if and when you do a rewrite in one of your future volumes, you could actually START OUT with Celestia and Luna getting ready for their vacation while helping Twilight (who is the only member of the Mane Six to actually appear and even SHE only has a two-line cameo at the very beginning and one more two-line cameo at the very end) learn how to use the artifact that allows her to move the sun and moon.
From there, while the Royal Sisters are travelling on their vacation, there are a fair number of attacks from monsters that are more than the local police and military can handle themselves, but are nothing more than minor nuisances to Celestia and Luna (who, for once in the series, are NOT Nerfed OR made to look like overgrown teenagers [in fact, the monster attacks actually HELP with the sibling bonding]).
Anyway, at the very end, Celestia and Luna return from their two-week break feeling good from getting to both take in the sites AND feeling good about getting the hang of saving the day themselves again. Twilight confirms that, things got rough a few times while she and her friends were filling in, but nothing they couldn't handle with organized teamwork.
Unless, of course, you already have something else in mind (which I will completely respect)
So, I took a quick peek at the episode Between Dark and Dawn again, and something caught my attention. During the song, "So Many Little Things", at least during the first part of the arc, there was an area where the sisters were prancing past many background ponies, and of course we saw Discord in there. But then there was someone else who caught my attention. It was "Tapper, the Tabby Cat" from the movie. It caught me completely off guard.
Do you know what this means?................... it means we may get a return of more of the movie characters in later episodes. Maybe that special will include the movie characters. Sweet Luna I hope so.
I absolutely hated this episode. I swear, it's like these writers are bound and determined to ruin the characters of Twilght, Celestia, and Luna until they're barely recognizable. The show itself isn't even the same show it was back in the early seasons.
5067018 I can't see that happening since it was clear that only Twilight would be taking over for the Princesses.
5071292 I don't see that happening since those characters would in all likelihood have to be recast.
5067810
Which is why I hated this episode!
5071437
While most of the episode was more cringe worthy than what I would want, there were a couple of good moments. Like the part where Luna mentioned Celestia taught her how to spot lucky stars when she was just a filly. This all the more validates that Celestia and Luna didn't just spontaneously pop into existence, fully grown and alicornified.
But I do also agree that the show isn't the same as it was in it's early years. One is due to Lauren Faust's departure from the show, and the fact that the writers from the earlier seasons are not the same we have for these later seasons.
And I know that the staff is listening in on things, cause, in this most recent season, things fans have been asking since the show's incarnation as G4, are starting to get answered. Things like Spike's actual relationship to Twilight Sparkle. There's always been debate whether she was a mother or a big sister to Spike, and Twilight's Seven cleared that up.
But the more recent episode released to Amearica, "Going to Seed" has also made things complicated, with showing Apple Bloom with her mother when she was just a foal, making "Where the Apple Lies" get more questions than answers now.
And with the CMC episode finally revealing Scootaloo's family life, this gives me at least some hope some other questions will be answered, like who Spike's Dragon parents are, and how Cadence came to be. I would like to get closure on Scootaloo's flying inability, but I don't want to stretch my hope to much.
5071437 I don't think this episode outright ruined Celestia and Luna's characters. I just feel like there's no excuse for them to still be fighting even when not on the throne. It seems like even now the most we see of them is either being captured, giving exposition, or arguing. It'd be nice to let them shine without needing to do any of those things.
5071543
I found "Going to Seed" to be extremely boring and a major chore to get through.
The show has had multiple opportunities to answer the question of Spike's parents. When the episode "Dragon Quest" first aired, many of us thought that we were finally going to get the backstory behind Spike's parents and how he came to be in Celestia's possession. We didn't get that. Then in "Father Knows Beast", the writers had that same ipportunity, but once again we got jipped. As for how Cadence came into being, read this book. And as far as Scootaloo's flying goes, I highly doubt that's ever going to happen. They more or less answered the question as to whether she could fly in the episodes "Flight to the Finish" and "The Washouts."
5071575 Go back and rewatch the first two seasons and compare their behavior to how they act now and you'll see what I"m talking about.
5071581
So, I have read through the book. But It doesn't exactly clear things up. Plus book and comic canon isn't necessarily considered show canon. And the fact that Tirek knows about Cadence, dictates she was around before Tirek's banishment, and Discord's imprisonment. How new she was to the alicorn way of life is a mystery of it's own.
As for Scootaloo establishing verbally she can't fly, that doesn't give us the "why". There's no explanation as to why Scootaloo remains grounded at this point. We don't know if it's a physical or a magical handicap. And it seems to be a dream of hers that she will one day soar across the heavens. And even if there is a handicap, there is no reason the writers can't find some way to get her flying. I mean, if they can get Tank flying, than they can definitely get Scootaloo flying, even if she requires some technical assistance to achieve it. And let's not forget Rainbow Dash in the Sombra vs. Celestia reality. Rainbow Dash was wounded with one of her wings, and still was given a technical assist with her metal wing, still able to fly, so you can see where there's no reason to not give Scootaloo a chance at flight.
5071596 I'm hoping that it happens before the series ends, but at this point I don't see it happening. And speaking of Scootaloo, "The Last Crusade" seems to negate what she said in "Parental Glideance."
5071658 I regard that line in "Parental Glideance" as projection more than anything. Considering how much Scootaloo still worshipped Rainbow Dash at that point, it's only natural she'd want parents that were just like Bow and Windy.
5071803 5071658
I have to agree with SuperPinkBrony on that. She states no pony ever told her she'd amount to greatness, but it was due to her parents being off on dangerous adventures. She simply meant she wishes that her parents that she loves would be around like Rainbow's parents to give her motivation to succeed.
5071871 Yeah. Having parents answer your letters isn't the same as them being there directly to cheer you on. For kids especially, having their parents support them directly is a big deal. Even if they know the work their parents do is important, it can still be hard for them to not have them there whenever they need something.
5071903
Yeah, and I can relate with that in a way. My mom was a single mom up until I was 8 years old, after she and my father divorced. While I was way too young to remember the split up, I was among a group of kids who didn't get to tell others about their dad, and what he does. And those early years of no actual father in the picture can leave an impression on you. Don't get me wrong, my stepdad has been more of a dad to me than I could ever hope for, and my uncles and Grandpa were great substitutes for father figures for the first 8 years of my life. But anyways, I can get where Scootaloo is coming from without having a parent around.
5071871
5071803
Oh, okay! I always took it as her saying that she's never had anyone around to motivate and encourage her, which I find hard to believe given that her aunts seem to be extremely encouraging to her.
5071984
Yes, they do seem to encourage her, but not to the level of Dash's parents. And their encouragement, from what I see, is more to keep her from going into a depressive state. That's just my opinion though. And again, her Aunt Lofty also seems to be a pegasus that is okay with staying grounded. I'd have to look again, but I don't think I've seen her fly once, and that would tell me that she didn't really jump on the chance to teach Scootaloo how to fly.
5072055 Aunt Holiday didn't do any flying either, from what I saw.
5072148 Uh, Holiday is an earth pony. I think you confused her with Auntie Lofty, who's the pegasus. Snap Shutter isn't a pegasus either, actually.
5072148 5072175
Yeah, SuperPinkBrony is right. Holiday was an Earth pony, like her brother.
I'll admit, I almost thought Lofty was a sister to Scootaloo's mom, since they were both pegasus, but that would have sent my head spinning, and I realized, most likely, Lofty and Mane Goodall were probably really good friends, and well, you can guess how the rest turned out after they met Snap Shutter and Holiday.
5072203 If not for the chapter books, I think that's what most people would've assumed Lofty was relative to Scootaloo's parents. I don't necessarily think Scootaloo's parents had anything to do with Lofty and Holiday meeting, but I don't think the show's ever going to go into details on that.
5072236
I agree. It is after all a show that was targeted towards little girls.
G5, from the rumors I hear will be targeted at the mature audience. To me that means, more backstory, more "touchy" subjects not meant for kids, possibility of more male roles, and many others too long to make a list of.
But I digress. They are rumors at this point, so until Hasbro comes forth with something for G5, we'll just have to wait and speculate. I mean, there was rumor before Season 9 announced it would be the final season, that MLP:FiM was just gonna be on a prolonged hiatus, so as you can see, you can't believe all rumors going around.
I forget, what was the gap in time between the end of G3 and the beginning of G4?
I thought it was an alright episode. I thought the Royal Sisters were funny and annoying at the start of the episode where they act heroic just for the fun of it. I was glad to see the sisters have fun as well. During the song, I was shocked to see Capper in the background because we haven't seen characters from the MLP Movie. I felt kind of uncomfortable when I saw a zeppelin along with Celestia and Luna falling off the waterfalls in barrels with the help of a goat as it reminded me of one of my most hated episodes: Once Upon a Zeppelin. I was surprised and angered that Twilight refused help from the committee as I thought she learned the lesson from Applebuck Season. I was also surprised that Celestia was afraid of chickens, then again, Twilight was afraid of ladybugs so I shouldn't judge. It did make sense for Celestia to be a thrill seeker as she was kept busy with princess work. I lost it when she said "Zip-line!" At the end of the episode when Twilight asked for tape, did anyone thought of Guardians of the Galaxy 2?
5078368 Why exactly did you hate "Once Upon a Zeppelin" may I ask?
5078387
For a few reasons: 1. Twilight was cheated a well-deserved vacation. 2. Her family didn’t do anything to help her especially not informing her about the Northern Stars. 3. Iron-Will was way worse in this episode. 4. Star-Tracker acted like a stacker to Twilight. That is all I can think of for my reasons.
5078546 Well, Twilight was the one who made the deal with Iron Will to keep the vacation going. She was the one who kept sacrificing what she wanted to do because she thought it was important she be a good princess. And not for nothing, but Twilight Velvet did notice Twilight was upset about missing the Northern Stars and did try to talk to her after Neighra Falls. Missing out on the Northern Stars was more Iron Will's fault, there's no way he didn't know that's what Twilight wanted to do more than anything.
5078613
It's just my opinion that Once Upon a Zeppelin was one of the worst episodes to me.
In the case of Twilight, you could make the argument she assumed the Royal Swanifying would be an easy task for her and the other Mane 6, especially Fluttershy, to do on their own. After all, she did ask how hard would it be to throw a swan party.
I really loved that they made the princesses so relaxed in this episode and getting them to loosen up. Funny twist with Celestia being afraid of chickens. It was cool that Celestia had that secret wild side to her and Luna just wanted to take it easy.