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| "Doesn't Starlight get her own evil mirror?" |
S7E10: "A Royal Problem"
My original rating: ★★★★★
IMDb score: 9.1
Thoughts: A hugely popular episode, not with everyone but certainly with the majority of fans. The S6 finale notwithstanding, this may have been the point at which most finally made their peace with reformed Starlight being a major cast member. She was sympathetically written and did a good job of helping Celestia and Luna settle their differences, all the more so with Twilight in (perhaps slightly excessive) neurotic mode. I am definitely a fan of Daybreaker as a villain, too: a great design and worth waiting for. That mirror scene with Luna was legitimately creepy. Some funny moments, such as Luna's frown – though having it cost a field trip stretched belief slightly. Celestia sounding surprised at how easy it was to raise the Moon was also odd, considering she did it for a thousand years! Not quite a perfect episode, and in truth on the four/five boundary. But I still loved rewatching it, so I'm going to be perhaps slightly kind and let it keep its five. Undoubtedly one of my very favourites from the later part of the series.
Choice quote: Starlight: "Gee, thanks for believing in me, Twilight."
New rating: ★★★★★
Next
up is "Not Asking for Trouble", which felt like a bit of a comedown at the time! It was the final episode before S7's two-month mid-season hiatus, and it didn't really impress the fandom, or indeed me. I'm not that optimistic it will suddenly leap up in my affections, but we'll see.
Twilight was also great in this one. Her appearance/rant at the end has so much fun stuff to unpack, but my favourite easily missed part is when she says Starlight forgot her toothbrush, and then produces what is very obviously Spike's toothbrush. :D
ReplyDeleteNo quibbles with the 5 here. My only qualm at the time was that the comic "The Day Shift" had already done a princess job swap story, but so much of this remains splendid even now.
I really do need to reread the comics. Some of them, anyway. Originally I intended those to be in this "My Little Repeats" series after I'd finished with FiM -- but then I was expecting to have been well past that by now! :P
DeleteI'm a bit behind with these, so I'll be tackling two episodes at once, starting with Honest Apple. It's unquestionably a divisive episode, with some loving it and some hating it. Nowadays, I find myself towards the middle; I like the message about there being such a thing as being too honest, but it probably would've worked better in an earlier season. Also RariJack is overrated - sorry, not sorry.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for A Royal Problem? I still love this episode six years later, and it still retains its position as the best of season seven, much less the entirety of six through nine; it's only beaten still by Twilight's Kingdom.
I do wish we could've seen more of Daybreaker, as she's such a fun evil counterpart to Celestia; Nicole Oliver must've had fun doing her. Also, yes, this is Starlight Glimmer's best starring role, and it hasn't been bettered. I do wish her redemption could've been handled better at points back in season six, especially given that she felt underused there, but with the existence of A Royal Problem, I guess I can't complain too much.
Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco were godsends for season seven, and I wish that they'd kept their position as story editors for the next two seasons. They're such great writers, and it was disappointing to see Legend of Everfree come from them the year before.
I agree, more Daybreaker would have been welcome, as long as they didn't overdo it. And I too wish Lewis and Songco had been kept on for the rest of the show. Ah well.
Deletebest episode season 7 :V
ReplyDeleteI legitimately do not care what happened in this episode, because my brain saw Daybreaker and shut right the hell down. :D
But also, it's the Royal Sisters episode we always wanted! They weren't the main focus, that was Starlight, but we got to see them bickering and doing things behind the scenes and not just being princesses all the time. :) And that by itself was worth its weight in gold.
Yeah, I think I would agree. Looking down the list of remaining episodes, I can't see anything that's going to get more than a four at best. As for the Sisters, we did get that little bit in "Slice of Life", but indeed this was great.
DeleteA lot of this is right up my alley, and yet I had really mixed feelings about it. I liked the sisters' interaction a lot, and I'd been a fan of Starlight since the beginning, so what's not to like? The biggie for me was how Starlight creates this situation in the first place. I do like that in general, Starlight's been unstable, on the verge of relapse. That's one of the things I like about Sunset Shimmer as well. But it started to get disappointing around this episode that it always gets played the same way: she goes into a situation timidly, quickly feels overwhelmed, lashes out in a panic, and then has to clean up the aftermath. Well before this, I would have bought that more easily, but when it keeps happening that way, then I see a stagnating character. I think I would have liked this a lot better if it were more of a calculated move. I'd probably still rate it a 4, but a low 4.
ReplyDeletePoint taken that it's a bit repetitive how Starlight is handled, but this one time I think it worked excellently. Probably because (nearly) everything else seemed to work so well.
DeleteGrumpy Luna is best Luna! The pineapple thing slew me.
ReplyDeleteI like the episode for all of the reasons you mention and a few more. I really like the times Twilight uses magic that is weird and subtle (like the "Haycarts" spell), and the music box thing is just perfect.
Weirdly enough, Starlight treading the very familiar beats of uncertainty, frustration, rashness, and desperation didn't really bother me so much in this episode. I guess it's because the Sisters are such familiar and powerful characters that they draw focus away from Starlight's predictable internal arc, and this time her "screw it" phase looks to have more consequences than usual.
I'd agree with the five-star rating, certainly in contrast to the other episodes of the season.
And the banana thing! And yeah, I basically agree with everything you said. All downhill from here, though. Well, probably. Maybe I'll end up giving a five to "A Trivial Pursuit" or something. :P
DeleteThat's a joke. That's a joke, right?
DeleteI assure you, if I give a five to that episode, it will be done for the best of reasons. For example, I may have changed my scoring system to be out of 100...
DeleteXD
DeleteAs someone following the twin policy of "don't delve into an ep you haven't actually seen" and "if you can't say anything nice, limit yourself", I have to at least break my silence and ask:
ReplyDeleteSeriously, what is the big deal over the Daybreaker thing?
Not only was it such an obvious fandom trope from day one that tons of writers did it, but I'd wager plenty of them did it better too (not least because theirs wasn't a dream version). And we're, like, seven seasons in by this point. Maybe it's just me, but if there was ever a time to canonize this concept, I think it would have at least been a couple of years prior.
I mean, is it a dancing bear thing? We're just amazed the show did it at all? Because I'm genuinely struggling to understand what the big deal is.
I don't think it's something I can explain rationale, really. For me, it just worked. Maybe now I think of it, the fact that the show *didn't* keep going back to the well with Daybreaker actually helped, in retrospect.
Deleterationally
Deleteit was definitely amazement the show did it :D and Nicole Oliver sold the hell out of her! and the design is great, it was like seeing a bunch of awesome fanart come to life!
Deletealso she's hot :V
5,500°C? Yeah, I'd call that hot.
Delete