Of Season-Openings and Soapboxes (S3 Spoilers!) · 10:14am Nov 11th, 2012
Don't read if you've not watched the season premier! Last spoilery blog post for a while now, promise.
I know I don't usually post episode review/reaction blogs, but I fancied putting my two cents (bits?) up to this discussion, given the amount of opinions whizzing around at the moment.
First off, I'm going to come right out and say it; I enjoyed the episodes. Okay, they were flawed. Okay, the villain varied between paper-thin and non-existant, but I think it was a cut, nay, several hundred cuts above A Canterlot Wedding. In fact, despite it having more flaws than is usual, it's possibly one of my favourites.
Better get the dodgy stuff out of the way first. It seems Shining Armor is still an enormous Mary Sue with all the character (and hence character-flaws) of the average lemon, but luckily he doesn't take nearly so much limelight this time around. Equally, Cadence's talent of making anyone be happy/loving on her command is still utterly horrifying, particularly in a show that calls out characters like Discord on brainwashing and changing ponies' personalities against their will, but once again it's all fairly background stuff this time around. The limelight's securely back on the main characters, which is the show's primary strength.
Now, I can't leave it for too long: the villain. Now, I'm not going to go on ad nauseum about how he was characterless, forgettable, OC-like and not a patch on the show's other villains, (all of which I basically agree with) but what I am going to say is that I don't think they needed a villain at all. It would have been far more satisfying, in my opinion, to build the plot around some kind of natural or magical disaster or disease-like influence. (Something diseasy would probably have been best, because that allows for Shining to get that horn-rot thing.) That would have done exactly the same thing as Sombre, but nobody would have minded that it didn't have a personality because it wouldn't have needed one. In the end, this episode wasn't about the villain. It was about the characters, and because of that, the villain was always going to feel like an afterthought, because the screentime and focus went into character interactions. But really, because of what the villain was sacrificed in favour of, I'm not really complaining.
Now, onto the more positive stuff. Despite what I've said about the failings of the villain, I ultimately don't think it matters. Return of Harmony was about Discord (and worked well because of it), A Canterlot Wedding was about Cadence, Shining Armor and Chrysalis (and was likely saved by the latter of the three, in hindsight), but this episode wasn't about the villain. It was doing what she show does best, which is focusing on the main characters, and particularly on the relationship between Twilight and Spike. The moral was one of the best we've seen thus far, I think, and the pacing felt better than much of what we've seen before.
Now, earlier on, I said that these episodes were some of my favourites, and obviously that's a pretty big judgment to call, so I'd best justify it: I loved these episodes because they had so many wonderful bits of characterization, so many moments, and moments are what this show does well. There were so many little pieces of awesomeness. There was Fluttershy's priceless reaction to seeing her own discarded skin-suit-disguise-thing, there was Rarity's crystal-induced-BSOD, there was Pinkie Spy, and the weirdly discomfiting jousting sequence, to name but a few. I've always found the show enjoyable, but this is one of the first times it's made me laugh out loud, more than once in fact. Also, the dialogue was consistently great, and the self-sacrifice moment didn't feel played out or cliched, like they so often do. All in all, my hat goes off to the writers and VAs on this one. As I say, the plot felt tight (dohoho) and the pacing felt absolutely right.
All in all, I think, a solid couple of episodes that have largely dispelled my concerns for the series' future that rose after A Canterlot Wedding. After most big episodes of MLP, I find myself asking, "Now, if the first season had been of this kind of quality, would we all be here? Would the whole Brony thing exist, or would MLP just be another kids cartoon?" When I watched A Canterlot Wedding, for the first time, I seriously had doubts. These episodes, however, are much more reassuring.
Wow. Apologies for the wall of text. So much for two cents, it seems.
I freely admit I'm no great reviewer; please feel free to shout at me. 
Pony on, etc. (No dammit I am not making that my permanent sign-off.)
~Ardensfax
Someone who mostly brings out positive stuff! Huzzah! I both love and "Meh" the episodes... But my verdict will always be "It's still MLP", so I mostly loved them
PONY ON WAYNE
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PONY ON GARTH!
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SCHWING!
And then..... GAK
493579 Gak will be the main villain of the last episode.
493607
Gak will be the main-villain of the whole season
You forgot the mystery surrounding the book and also Twilight's freakish ability to learn magic(Which I like her having). She was able to use Sombra's magic after seeing it once(I know she said Celly taught her, but I don't really think that Celly would take the time to teach her his magic while the Empire is still in danger) and during the short time between receiving a letter with "You must come to Canterlot at once" and arriving there, she learned gravity spells well enough to use them in a manner of seconds. (Let's not forget about her flying library)
493609
493579>>493607 ALL GLORY TO THE GAK MASTER-RACE!
493617 493627 493609
Heh, I never thought I'd see a meme propagate faster than the "The fun has been doubled!" thing, but the whole Gak busness has proven me wrong... I for one welcome our new Gakkish overlords.
493614 Yeah, Twilight is basically confirmed as ridiculously OP'd magic-user, which is kind of refreshing, to see the full extent of why Celestia chose her in the first place. Also, bouncing library. I lol'd. (About the book, I'm not sure whether to go with the "Luna will teach her as well" camp or the "Alicorn Twilight" crowd. My personal guess would be Twilight gets offered alicorn-dom, and turns it down to be with her friends. I hope that's what happens anyway, I have a horrible feeling that a proper ascention end up messy, weird and unsatisfying, unless they did it really, really well (which, let's be honest, isn't unknown by any means.)
493645
493645 Logically I'd lean closer to the "Luna teaches her as well" camp, and I'm sure they'd be able to do that better, but I just can't get over the fact that I love alicorn Twi. It'd be cool to see how they would do that, your idea of her turning the offer down seems nice to me, but if she really ascended, it could get bad for fanfictions. I love alicorn Twi because most of the time, it involves either some nice comedy, romance, or a big adventure, as well as the whole aspect of "why?". But with a canon ascension, it'd turn into something normal for everyone there.
As far as AliTwi goes, I'm guessing she'd be a lesser Alicorn like Cadance, rather than the Sisters. I could see that working.
After the Wedding debacle, I was concerned that we were headed into "blatant 22-minute toy commercial" territory. The five-second "there, crystal mane six, happy?" scene combined with a decent pair of episodes has calmed me on that count.
You make many of the same points I do, I loved the stuff you liked, hated the stuff you didn't (Sombra does come off way too much like some kids OC with the black coat, the curved horn and the glowey eyes) as to your point about Cadence, I think she doesn't force love on people but rather brings out the natural love they feel, kind of like putting certain emotions at the forefront, not making them feel love, but shoving other emotions aside so that the love shines forth (if that makes any sense) I've not seen Shining armor as Mary Sueish (or Marty Stu for the proper gender) to me he comes off as rather useless.
The season premere certainly eased my worries I had about it in general, episodes 3-9 on the other hand, I have my misgivings about some of those seeing as we know at least some details on them. Two words, Wonderbolt Academy.
493614 I've brought up before my misgivings about Twilight suddenly being able to use that dark magic that she saw exactly once, as well as the book. That is a huge part of my and many others misgivings about the episode (some are already predicting the "Twilight will become an Alicorn" thing which makes it all feel wrong) Also as a note to my previous comment, I expected to hate the crystal ponies with the same passion I hate sea ponies and the flutterwings but strangely I didn't, they came off a bit scatterbrained and ADDish but not OP or annoying in any other ways.
Edit: sorry for the double post.