Episode Re-Review: Twilight's Kingdom Parts 1 and 2 · 6:59pm Apr 16th, 2021
If you thought my opinions on "The Return of Harmony" and "Luna Eclipsed" were unpopular, just wait until you see my opinion on this two parter. So many people still hold it in high regard, I daresay there's not a two parter more popular than it or more highly praised than it (the only one that comes close is "Shadow Play"). Happening to coincide with the MLP franchise's 30th anniversary, many still say this is where the show reached it peak and where it should've stopped. And this is despite being written by Meghan McCarthy, a writer not exactly praised for her two parters given how devisive "A Canterlot Wedding" and "The Crystal Empire" were and still are. Heck, this was the last big thing for Meghan before she would begin to be called away due to the 2017 movie (which was probably just in the initial pitch stage at this point in time). So, just what does this two parter have to offer and is it really as worthy of praise as so many think it is? Well, let's find out.
Part 1 begins in the Crystal Empire, but not during the Equestria Games at any point. It's for a completely unrelated event (they probably didn't plan to have "Equestria Games" come before this two parter but still poor timing on the show runners' part). And it's only now that Twilight is beginning to lament that her role as a princess doesn't seem to be amounting to much of anything. And after a pointless cameo from pony Flash Sentry, we see that Twilight was called to this summit of sorts planned for a never before mentioned duke and dutchess just to unfold a banner. And soon afterward the whole thing is over, it really just seems to serve to hammer home what Twilight already told us. It in turn leads to "You'll Play Your Part" which is the only time Kazumi Evans became Princess Luna's singing voice. Yes, admittedly she's using the same exact voice she used for Rarity but at the same time I think she was a good fit for the role whereas Aloma Steele's first performance was kind of jarring.
Interestingly, the song involves the line "As love finds a place in every heart" even though King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis at least can attest to creatures who had no love. It's a fine song, but it very much reiterates what was already established and after the first chorus the lyrics repeat exactly what was told to Twilight before: We know you want to do more but you must be patient, your time will come soon enough. It's only once the song ends that we get our first hint that something is truly amiss, a pony in a darkened alley (likely near Canterlot) bumps into a hooded figure. Said figure declares that it is "no friend" before revealing itself as Lord Tirek. As I mentioned before, Tirek's inclusion was apparently last minute to coincide with the 30th anniversary milestone and originally they were going to use the Pony of Shadows instead. This is probably a decision that was for the better since the Pony of Shadows as I assume the backstory they were going to use if "Castle Mane-Ia" is anything to go on sounds like it would've been a carbon copy of Nightmare Moon. And with Tirek, he's a reimagined G1 villain, the only one we would get.
Princess Celestia stumbles awake, believing that she just had a bad dream. But a conversation with Princess Luna reveals that it was actually a vision, though unfortunately we get no further ellaboration on this at any point. Even "Celestial Advice" leaves it vague as to whether Princess Celestia had any kind of advanced foresight or way to see into the future even just vaguely.
The next day, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna call up Twilight and Cadence and tell them about Tirek. He and his brother Scorpan came to Equestria long ago to steal its magic. But Scorpan befriended the ponies, particularly a wizard who just happened to be Starswirl the Bearded. Those who complain that this should've made him less willing to believe the "Once a villain always a villain" line he spouted in "Shadow Play". But it's never made clear that Starswirl knew Scorpan used to be evil before coming to Equestria, so as far as he knew Scorpan was never a threat and only Celestia and Luna may have known otherwise. Anyway, Scorpan tried to persuade Tirek to abandon his planned conquest, but Tirek refused and so he turned to the princesses for help. They were able to banish Tirek to Tartarus, the storybook animation making it look like the equivalent of being dragged into hell. And considering Tartarus is the Greek underworld, that's about as close to a pony hell as you can get.
Twilight raises the rightful question about how if Tirek escaped Tartarus during the events of "It's About Time" (the first such acknowledgment of any events from seasons prior that isn't Twilight's ascension to alicornhood or the Equestria Games) why he's only now started draining magic from unicorns. Celestia counters that Tirek was weakened by his time in Tartarus and thus only now has he managed to regain enough power to do what he does. Then she decides that instead of sending Twilight to track him down, she must "call in another" in the form of Discord. So I'm guessing this is why she wanted him reformed in "Keep Calm and Flutter On" even though they never say outright that's the case. Fluttershy explains the reason, Discord can sense magical changes so therefore he'll be able to home in on Tirek the next time the centaur drains magic. But Discord is being sent alone to hunt down Tirek, and we'll later learn that there was never a back-up plan if he should fail or go rogue.
So then we finally get another acknowledgement of the search for the keys with no indication that Twilight has ever been doing it on her own. Yes, we did get a sort of background nod in "Twilight Time" when we saw drawings of the chest but that's about it. And we get what's basically an "As you know" segment about having to give up the Elements of Harmony all the way back in "Princess Twilight Sparkle", because I guess they didn't think the audience would remember it? Really does indicate how unfortunately the attempt at a story arc fell flat here, the Equestria Games at least could weave continuity into multiple episodes and find a decent way to tie it all up. Here, the two other big arcs were just belatedly tied together. Just goes to show that a free lance writing style with no set order for episodes has its drawbacks. Anyway, Discord shows up when Applejack comments how she's hopeful another "friend" won't make them regret giving up the elements.
Discord naturally can't resist gloating about how he's been tasked with hunting down Tirek, even supposedly rubbing salt in the wound for Twilight about how her destiny is still uncertain. But then, in his own Discord way he suggests that whatever's in the chest could be what Twilight needs to prove her worth. And he reveals that he bookmarked a few sections of the friendship journal, before he takes off on Blythe Baxter's scooter. I'm not joking, it's the actual scooter from the 2012 Littlest Pet Shop reboot.
With Discord out of sight, Applejack comments on how she believes he's more obnoxious now than he was before he was reformed. And that really doesn't make the mane six (minus Fluttershy who has shown support for Discord) look good when they're talking bad about him behind his back. Yeah, he's being an arrogant show off but he's still doing a public service so you really can't complain too much, especially when you don't have much of a way to reign him in.
Then Discord goes to track down Tirek, successfully capturing him. But before he can send Tirek back to Tartarus, Discord reveals that he's reformed and is doing it for the ponies (though he admits it's mostly for Fluttershy). Tirek senses an opportunity for manipulation here, commenting on how friendship is just a new form of imprisonment and that Discord had to abandon his "better nature" to befriend the ponies. Discord insists that's not the case, but Tirek offers him a promise of freedom and claims that once he's drained the ponies of their magic he'll be happy to let Discord do whatever he wants with them. And while we do get a hint of insecurity from Discord, we never really see him ponder or contemplate this decision or even why he should take Tirek at his word. Meanwhile, Twilight finds the book marked sections of the friendship journal and we get a clip show of both Applejack and Fluttershy's rainbow realization moments, though for Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie we don't get them. Twilight concludes that the objects each pony received must be a lead.
One by one, each of the objects becomes a key until only Twilight's has yet to show up. Rarity suggests that Twilight must've had it, and seems to literally interpret Twilight's element as just involving magic even though it's been established that the element is in fact friendship. Then Twilight gets a summons to Canterlot as she learns from Princess Celestia and Princess Luna (but not Princess Cadence who appears but does not speak) that Discord has betrayed Equestria and sided with Tirek, helping him grow strong enough to steal pegasi and earth pony magic too. Twilight is shocked by this, but then she says "I thought he had changed." which would carry more weight if not for what we saw in "Three's A Crowd" and even earlier in this episode where none of the ponies seemed willing to treat Discord with any degree of respect. So they kind of only have themselves to blame for Discord taking what he thinks is a better alternative when they fail to show him what friendship can mean (though it doesn't help that Discord stupidly tried to pull a "test" on Twilight during "Three's A Crowd" when he had no need to do so other than because he wanted to mess with her, making her less inclined to trust him as a result). Then part one ends as Princess Celestia declares that there is only one solution to stop Tirek, get rid of alicorn magic.
Once the recap in part 2 is done, Celestia explains that in actuality they're not going to get rid of alicorn magic because it can't simply disappear. So what's the alternative? Pour all the magic into a single pony, in this case Twilight. Why? Because they believe Tirek doesn't know about her yet, even though Discord is helping him and could rat her out whenever he wants to.
But they go ahead with it anyway, Twilight doesn't mention the search for the keys or even think to check with Princess Celestia for any leads on the remaining one. And Celestia requests that Twilight keep her new powers a secret for no reason other than because her friends might be in danger because of it. It really does seem like Meghan was just looking for an excuse to get the princesses besides Twilight out of the story so that what happens later on would be possible. What this "plan" basically amounts to is giving Twilight all the magic and then telling her to just stick her head in the sand and hope for something to happen. She's not going to look for the keys, she's not going to try to maybe perfect her magical abilities ahead of a fight. She's going to do nothing. And it's not like doing nothing is a valid option here when Tirek is being aided by Discord.
Still Twilight accepts this and is quite content to follow these instructions to the letter despite knowing that no help is coming. And we see that Discord is already well aware of the magical transfer, but he doesn't tell Tirek because he thinks it "Can't be right" so even he likely thinks the princesses are dumb to bet it all on Twilight and do nothing else. It's not even made clear that Celestia has some kind of vision showing Twilight emerging victorious. What's most interesting though is that Tirek is now without a need for his cloak because he's grown so large and powerful, and his voice has changed too (as has his method of dealing with others). Twilight returns to Ponyville, somehow able to disguise her powers until she realizes that the sun is supposed to rise. And yet somehow, her moving of the sun and the moon in erratic fashion doesn't arouse suspicion. We do get a brief interaction being Discord and Shining Armor where Shining snaps at Discord for betraying Equestria, right before Tirek argues that Discord betrayed himself by choosing friendship with ponies.
Discord does appear to show some signs of regret, before Tirek sends him off to "have a little fun" and Discord gleefully rubs his paws together and laughs. Meanwhile, Tirek reaches the throne room where all three princesses are still huddled together. So they weren't even going to try and send Tirek on a wild goose chase by hiding in different locations.
Twilight, meanwhile, is still somehow able to hide her powers because her friends suspect nothing out of the ordinary until she literally starts flying like crazy. But Twilight doesn't tell them even though there's no reason not to, and she also fails to mention Discord's betrayal for no reason at all. She just tells her friends and Spike to stay in Ponyville and tell everyone to stay indoors and lock their doors and windows. Then we cut back to Canterlot as Tirek reveals that he has figured out the plan, and sticks all three princesses in Tartarus. And once he sees a stain glass window display of Twilight, he finds out that she exists too and Discord never told him. Discord, for his part, has received a medallion from Tirek as a sign of trust and does comment briefly on "Rarity's influence". But again, this moment of regret is rather fleeting. And it's never made clear why he never ratted Twilight out to Tirek at any point, not even as an insurance policy. It feels like they were going for a "You never asked" kind of revelation, but if so it's never brought up and Discord willingly snitches on Twilight's location as Tirek melts her stain glass window display.
So because Twilight withheld vital information from her friends, they're easily betrayed and captured thanks to Discord. And even seeing Fluttershy cry isn't enough to persuade him otherwise, even pointing out how Tirek offered him a better deal since only Fluttershy truly bothered to befriend him while the rest at best tolerated him. Of course, Tirek makes the classic villain mistake of betraying his underling as soon as he thinks they're no longer useful and even indicates that he was lying through his teeth about the medallion being a sign of trust. Applejack ends up twisting Discord's words against him as Discord is drained of all his chaos magic, and this is the last we'll really see of any of them. From here on out it's all Twilight, meaning that everyone else has just been used to lead up to her big moment of glory. As for Twilight, she struggles with teleportation due to all the magic she has. But then Tirek shows up and demands that he give it to her, and she refuses. She manages to teleport back to the Golden Oak Library, but Tirek catches on to her and hurls a magic fireball at her.
The Golden Oak Library is destroyed as Twilight teleports out with just Owlowiscious but not the Friendship Journal. And this is enough for her to decide there's no point in holding back, leading to the climax involving a very DBZ esque fight and beam struggle. As nice as this is, it's clear that this is what the whole two parter was building up to and everyone besides Twilight and Tirek were just writing pawns to be used to set this up and then be tossed aside. It's what I like to call "Building Backwards", starting with a climax and thinking of how to get the story to that point without necessarily thinking about whether that's a good climax to have or whether it makes good use of all the characters. Also, it was revealed that censorship limits were so strict that they couldn't have Tirek directly punch Twilight, not even once. That's why he at most tries to hurl her into a mountain or plow right into her instead of say trying to swat her down or stomp on her.
Since neither side is budging an inch, Tirek offers to make a trade with Twilight. He'll release her friends in exchange for all the alicorn magic in Equestria. Discord, to his credit, does show genuine remorse now for selling out his friends which is a far cry from how he felt when he masquraded as Grogar.
This triggers Twilight's rainbow realization as she agrees to Tirek's demand, but she doesn't try to impose any kind of guarantee and it's only because of contrivence that Tirek agrees to keep his end of the bargain before asking Twilight to fulfill her end. He even releases Discord despite being dumbfounded by how Twilight could consider him a friend after the way he betrayed them all, which could've been used to raise a point about how the ponies didn't seem to care about Discord but it's never actually brought up even when it was a part of this two parter's story. However, Discord gives Twilight the medallion he got from Tirek as he claims it's a sign of their friendship, and that ends up being the final key needed to unlock the chest. Yet Twilight insists that she and her friends open it together, making the stipulation from Celestia before completely pointless and in fact counter productive. And this leads into rainbow power, something that we would never see directly again. My guess is, Hasbro saw the backlash against the designs and decided to drop it, although we do know that the movie was originally going to use it again before it was decided otherwise. And it's with this power that Tirek is defeated and sent back to Tartarus, and then the magic is restored to Equestria and the princesses are freed.
Then, because of executive meddling, Twilight moves not into the Castle of the Two Sisters despite its repeated prominence throughout the season but into a crystal castle that sprouts up from nowhere. They don't even try to come up with an explanation for why Twilight has to move into this new castle rather than the Castle of the Two Sisters, which would go on to be completely abandoned and forgotten about. Most interestingly, the castle now features a throne room with several thrones, including one for Spike. But the last we hear of Discord across this two parter is him asking where his own throne is. So Discord thinks that despite having screwed up in the task assigned to him and as a result endangered Equestria (and made Twilight and Spike briefly homeless), he's still entitled to a reward. It really goes to show how a joke can ruin a character's development, because it makes it seem like Discord doesn't quite grasp how badly he messed up. And the show would never address this huge betrayal of trust, which only further gave the ponies reason to be skeptical of him.
And the episode and the two parter (and the season) end with "Let The Rainbow Remind You" as Twilight embraces her new roll as Princess of Friendship and her belief that she has to spread friendship far and wide. During the song we get to see a rainbow pass over each key bearer (Coco, the Wonderbolts, Cheese Sandwich, the Breezies, Silver Shill and finally Discord), and as it ends Twilight and all her friends (plus Spike) pose for a group photo that would not be featured in the opening credits next season (all they did was swap out the Golden Oak Library for the new castle). The song itself is nice, but it's just standard victory fare and friendship fare. It fits the bill for what it needs to be but it doesn't really do much else.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the two parter? Well, I find it to be kind of overrated. To all those who say this should've been the series finale, I ask you: Would you have been okay with the rest of the mane six and Spike being completely useless and not contributing anything of substance in the second half until almost the end? Would you have been okay with the other princesses being completely useless and Celestia doing things like sending Discord alone with no back-up plan or just telling Twilight to take the magic and hide? Would you have been okay with Discord's redemption ultimately ending with him selling out his friends for the promise of freedom, and still thinking he deserved something because he helped contribute to the victory indirectly? Would you have been okay with the Cutie Mark Crusaders getting no role at all and not getting to earn their cutie marks, like how it seemed Ash could never win a Pokemon league? Would you have been okay with only Twilight's role getting something prominent but the rest of her friends would have their futures left vague? As this two parter is I don't think it would've been as satisfying a conclusion as I think people claim it is as a season finale. It's good but it's not nearly that good. It's basically following Meghan's two parter formula established through "A Canterlot Wedding" and "The Crystal Empire" whereas every two parter since would try for better or for worse not to follow that formula and try to be unique.
The big problem lies in how everyone who isn't Twilight or Tirek ends up feeling sacrificed to allow for that incredible fight sequence to happen in part 2. And as cool as it was I would've rather it be scrapped for something more character driven and something that didn't feel like the plan was "We'll think of something when we get to that point". Part 1 in particular really struggles with deciding whether we're gonna follow Twilight or Discord's story, and once they establish that Twilight's will be the one of focus Discord's big act of redemption is pushed aside so that he on a whim betrays his friends. He does show remorse, but the last line from him makes it sound if as he doesn't grasp how his actions made things worse and that he's not entitled to a reward for screwing up. Tirek is undobutably the best thing about this entire two parter, and it goes to show how a really good villain can carry a story. We see him as both a crafty manipulator and as a physical force. He's strategic, making very few mistakes and displaying a remarkable degree of foresight. Even though he does need Discord's help to grow strong, we see that he's able to put that power to good use without losing that intellect that guided him earlier. And yes, it's nice that Twilight's princess status finally became a big deal and she is written pretty good for the most part. So I give part 1 a B due to its uneven focus and part 2 a borderline B+/A- due to some executive meddling and questionable decisions mostly overshadowed by the impressive fight. As a whole, the two parter gets a B+. Season 4 as a whole is good, no denying it. Four for four on the seasons improving on each other. But Season 4 really struggled in that second half, and so many episodes feel like first drafts ("Flight to the Finish" actually did have a different first draft that would've not involved Diamond and Silver or Scootaloo's disability, and would've been all the worse because of it focusing on Rainbow Dash being needlessly hard on Scootaloo). The success of it may have unfortunately sent the wrong message to the show staff, encouraging them to keep doing what they were doing (and convince Hasbro to get the seasons turned out faster) when it might have been better to step back and see the cracks.
Now it's on Season 5. Or actually, not quite. Next up is the Equestria Girls sequel that no one wanted but now everyone says is really good: "Rainbow Rocks". And if you know me, you know I'm not one of the ones who has high praise for that movie.
This episode does have a lot of flaws, I'm not denying that.
But there's something about the spectacle of it that makes it one of my favorites of the season (not my absolute favorite, that's still Pinkie Pride), but definitely in the top 5.
Though it's definitely outdone by pretty much every two-parter after.
And with that, we've come to the end of G4's Hub Network era. Next time, we'll be entering its Discovery Family era with what might be SPB12's most controversial unpopular opinion.
I'm still waiting for that Death Battle between Tirek and Cell.
5499079 Well actually, "Rainbow Rocks" came out in theaters while The Hub was still around and I think it did air on The Hub shortly before the network reverted back to Discovery Family, and was then one of the first movies to air on the new network. So it was actually the end of the Hub era for G4 as well as the start of the Discovery Family era, in both cases indirectly given that it never premiered on either network.
5499362
You're right about Rainbow Rocks premiering in theaters before The Hub got rebranded, as the movie came out on September 27 and Discovery Family was launched on October 13. However, Rainbow Rocks made its TV debut on October 17, less than a week after Discovery Family replaced The Hub.
I remember a theory that the reason Chrysalis had no room in her heart for love was she already loved either her subjects, or, more likely now, herself