Thursday 16 March 2017

And finally we have a Season Seven teaser clip!

That's right: we have an official S7 teaser trailer! Now, in the normal scheme of things, I do not consider things like this to count as spoilers – so please be warned! However, on this specific occasion, even the thumbnail is sufficiently spoilery that I'm placing the trailer link after the break. A single glimpse of it will tell you something about the premiere, though I won't say up here how important it is.

After the break, I will also be discussing some episode details released by Discovery Family – and those include not only the premiere's synopsis, but also a few significant details about other episodes. Read on if you dare!

 
( Text link )

Well now... this isn't a conventional trailer, but what appears to be the opening minute and a half of Episode 1. There's a lot to take in. The heroes from the S6 finale are all there – wearing special pendants. The reformed changelings are present (and Thorax speaks). Discord most definitely is in S7. And Twilight tells us the Starlight Glimmer has graduated from her friendship studies.

Um... what? Now, unfashionably, I like Starlight. But I do somewhat agree with the charge that she's getting some things too easy. Her character is very powerful, without us ever really having seen how she got to that point. (We don't know how she set up Our Town, either.) And she also seems to be rushing through this. I don't see why, given that it doesn't affect toy marketability.

Still, enough of that for now. We also have a Discovery Family press release, which gives some details about the premiere. Here's the relevant section:
"In the back-to-back premiere episodes titled “Celestial Advice” and “All Bottled Up,” Twilight Sparkle agonizes over Starlight Glimmer’s future and receives some much-needed advice from her very own mentor – Princess Celestia. While the Mane 6 are on a friendship retreat, Starlight Glimmer loses Twilight Sparkle’s friendship map. Afraid her anger might get out of control, Starlight Glimmer casts a calming spell while the ponies search for the lost map. "
None of that was evident from the trailer, but it sounds a lot more interesting. For a start, this may be the first premiere in the show's history not to be a two-parter, as there's an apparent break of flow after "Princess Celestia". On which note, my optimism that "Celestial Advice" would be a full-on Tiasode looks to have been misplaced. Oh, how utterly surprising. :P

The second episode actually intrigues me more, since "Every Little Thing She Does" and this suggest that a continuing flaw of Starlight's may be a tendency to use magic to fix everything. Given Glimmy's magical OP-ness, it would be quite a relief to me if she was shown that there are some things she still really has to work at. ("How do I fit in without magic? I haven't got a clue!")

The aforementioned DF press release doesn't stop at the premiere(s). We also get the news that William Shatner and Felicia Day will "join the cast for a very special episode in late summer". Yes, I did note that phrasing. Wild and almost certainly wrong guess: they're going to play AJ's parents. If so, then the episode really might be about dealing with loss and bereavement.

We're also told we'll meet "Rainbow Dash's over-enthusiastic parents", which seems a bit clichéd, and that there will be "five brand-new original songs". Now, I am aware that Daniel Ingram has had a lot of work to do with the movie, but I can't help feeling that five songs in a full-length season is rather disappointing. It's easily the lowest of any season, including S1 which didn't get going until E11.

So, overall? A mixed bag. A lot is going to depend on how Starlight is handled. She really, really needs to have a more nuanced and interesting character than she's been given up to now. Give her a bit more depth and (dare I say it) shadow and I'll be happy. I do still have the old excitement about S7, and I hope what I see in the forthcoming season will maintain that.

18 comments:

  1. I like Starlight Glimmer, too, and despite all the charges that she's just a stand-in for Twilight's old student role or for Sunset Shimmer, there's an important distinction for what attitudes she has about friendship, how those turned her into a bad guy in the first place, and how they shape her role now. And while she does share some viewpoints with Sunset Shimmer, mostly about how they have feelings of inadequacy when compared to the main 6, they handle it very differently. Sunset takes a more cautious approach and is skeptical of magic (at least until Legend of Everfree, which I found to be a disappointing turn in her attitude), while, like you said, Starlight tries to power through everything with magic instead of figuring things out.

    I will say that even though Twilight has become the Princess of Friendship, she's still learning friendship lessons, so even though Starlight may graduate as her student (I agree it's rushed, as a single season is a bit too quick for that), it doesn't mean she's a master of it yet. I tend to think it just means she's gotten to the point she's self-sufficient in her studies and doesn't need such close attention to keep her on track anymore.

    We do have some intel that Shatner actually is playing AJ's dad and that one of the songs comes from that episode. There's a ton of angst being spilled over whether that means her parents are still alive, but given that it's a back story episode about how her parents met, I don't think it implies that at all, though it still remains to be seen. They've dealt with death with a very light touch in the show, and given that the writers said years ago her parents are dead, I don't expect they'll reverse direction now. I'm interested to see what they do with it. Unless, of course, they just come up with a dumb way for them to still be alive.

    I'm looking forward to the season, too! It's inevitable for people to become jaded about things as familiarity creeps in, but for me, the quality's held up well enough, and it doesn't hinge on things being incredible for me. I just want to have fun watching cute ponies have some cool adventures, and even if it isn't jaw-dropping good, I'll still get that. You want some really nuanced storytelling, you have fanfics for that.

    So everyone step right up here to see which are the good ones! \FlimFlamVoice

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    1. A single season to graduate strikes me as no more abrupt overall than a single montage to reform. :B

      If Appleparents turn out to be alive, I hope it's due to similarities with a fic written by NinesTempest long, long ago. Granted, that came with the revelation that they were not good parents, so take that how you will.

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    2. I just want to have fun watching cute ponies have some cool adventures

      Yup. I've never been one for the "MLP is the best TV show ever!" stuff, because, well, it's not. But it's a damn sight better than an extended toy advert has any right to be. :)

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  2. "On which note, my optimism that "Celestial Advice" would be a full-on Tiasode looks to have been misplaced."

    I expect this should be our expectations going forward, i.e., prepare to be disappointed.

    And hey, S1 had a song in episode two! :| Or have we forgotten Giggle at the Ghostly?

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    1. I suppose so, though when I rewatch S1 I tend to feel that the songs didn't really get into gear until E11.

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    2. Y'know, if you go into something determined not to like it, then you'll find a way not to like it.

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  3. Ugh. I don't know what to think anymore. I can't stand Starlight. She ruins everything. Now, I thought the season six finale was decent, but that was mostly due to Discord and Trixie. Starlight merely just wasn't obnoxious, and that's a terribly low bar.

    This teaser just feels... unfocused? Out of place? I don't know. I feel like we are being shown something that's just a wrong piece of time. It kind of feels like someone's bad OC that they just can't help making in a Mary Sue. Starlight hasn't really earned very much, but everyone acts like she's the second coming. Meanwhile, Twilight still acts like she wishes Discord would be anywhere else. I get that he's more grating of a personality, but he's just one step removed from Starlight, and actually does less aggressively evil stuff.

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    1. I get the feeling they're going to double down on Starlight, and that it'll be the biggest base breaker we've had for a long time.

      As for the teaser... I'm honestly not sure what to feel about it, other than "interesting". The second clip that's now out (I'll get to that tomorrow, but see EQD) is a bit more conventional in form.

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    2. The whole time Twilight was building up to Starlight getting something, all I could think was, "Surprise! It's your own series! Now geddafuggout."

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  4. I unfortunately am not looking forward to this teaser trailer at all and my expectations for this season have dropped. I still hate Starlight, there's no reason as to why she's so powerful, she feels just like a Mary Sue, and to me is doing what Princess Luna used to do (no offense to her though): just hog the spotlight in the show and fandom (a good amount of her fans are terrible too), and now it's sad to see how a good amount of the Mane Six, particularly Rainbow and Twilight, along with Celestia and Luna, now matter so little to Hasbro and I'm worried we'll never get a Celestia episode and Twilight and Luna's characters' reputations may be irreparably damaged...God, I hate this fandom sometimes!

    I just really, really, really hope that this will be her final appearance, and that season 7 will be really good, season 6 made my passion for this show go down greatly after they, to me, jumped the shark at season 5's finale, and if it isn't, then I will be done with the show for good. I will watch the movie and still be a fan of MLP, but I will no longer watch the show anymore.

    I don't even know what to say anymore...

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    1. *I unfortunately am not looking forward to this premiere at all

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    2. If you find you no longer enjoy the show (or anything else) then there's nothing unhealthy about moving on. What would be unhealthy would be masochistically sticking with something you know you won't enjoy. For Celestia's sake, please don't end up like an erstwhile commenter on this site, who now pretty much spams EQD with dozens of comments about how much he hates the show. Doing that is guaranteed to make you miserable. I hope you do decide to stick around and enjoy S7 – but if you don't, I hope you find something else to love.

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    3. I still like the franchise and the lore, and a good amount characters of MLP: FiM, along with some fan stuff I've seen, but it's the show to me that's dropping in quality.


      The thing is, for me, I feel like it's like with a lot of new shows nowadays, not just including MLP: FiM's later seasons (I still like/love the first four, it's the later ones that I'm not too happy with), every time I try to give them a chance or the benefit of the doubt, something always happens that makes me disappointed or makes it not live up to my expectations.

      Don't worry, I'm not going to sound like some people I've met online like this guy Kwark85 (who's complained about the Twilight alicorn thing for over 3 years) or a troll (that other commenter is probably Shadow Bolt? I hate him also, and I just reported and blocked him). I'll just move on. I dunno if I told you this, but October last year I did temporarily quit, but I eventually returned (trying to give it another chance).

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    4. No, I don't mean Shadow Bolt. I'm deliberately not using their name here, since I don't think that would be fair on them.

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    5. I see...

      But like I said, I'll still be with the franchise and fandom even if season 7 disappoints me.

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  5. I think I'm simply going to take my Season Six approach: wait until the synopses come out, track down a few clips to see if it looks promising, and then pick and mix. My prediction ahead of time is that my like-dislike ratio will be roughly the same as last season's too, though I wouldn't mind being pleasantly surprised.

    As I've said before, if for some reason the show crashes and burns overnight, I've always got the earlier seasons (and the salvage from the later ones) to enjoy. Distilled and delightful. Ah, sweet.

    (As far as fic-writing goes, I'll probably just soldier through most of it. In extremis, I'm going to resort to the AU tag if I want to write a story that flounders against canon I don't like. I don't believe in "jossing"; I believe in "my canon" and "their canon", natch. :P)

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    1. I do rather envy that approach at times! Still, I quite enjoy writing the episode reviews, so at worst I can try to complain in an entertaining way. :P I'm also expecting a similar level to S6, though I enjoyed that season a bit more than you did so I'm probably a little happier about it!

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    2. I might try to do the same thing...

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