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| Nothing is ever made of it, but both princesses are clearly not entirely unscathed |
Written by Meghan McCarthy
23 Nov 2013
My original rating: 8.5/10 (=★★★★) [for the entire two-parter]
The one with the Twicane
Thoughts: I've always had an iffy relationship with the Tree of Harmony. I never really warmed to it, even as a plot device, even way down the line in S9. And here it is for the first time. This is an interesting follow-up to part 1, and unlike some I do like the flashback sequences to Discord's rule and Luna's banishment. However, the whole thing is rather bitty, and that irritates me a little bit more than it did in 2013. Discord himself is very good pretty much throughout, there's some real emotion in Twilight's scene with "dead" Celestia, and I rather like the argument in the Everfree – but it's perhaps stretching credulity for all five of the other ponies to be okay with sending Twilight home and to remain so until much later. (Applejack, this really wasn't your best moment.) There are also maybe slightly too many conveniences, eg Spike happening to spot the castle and Pinkie happening to find the staircase. At the end, of course, we get the start of the show's most serious attempt at a season-long arc – a pretty good one all told, though now we know where it leads it's hard to have unmixed feelings about that, either. So... rather to my surprise, I find that I can no longer quite justify a four-star rating. It's a top-end three with considerable ease, but in some ways I actually preferred part 1, which perhaps felt slightly more coherent than this arguably overstuffed second instalment.
Choice quote: Discord: "Fine. But I don't do windows."
New rating: ★★★
Next up is "Castle Mane-ia", an episode that wasn't really like anything before it. I remember quite liking it, but finding some aspects mildly annoying and others just a bit odd. It's also Josh Haber's writing debut, for better or for worse.
Yeah, this second half is the weaker one, all right, though I think the Tree isn't that bad. Most of the problem is that the potential teased in the first half effectively has no real pay-off.
ReplyDeleteTwilight's worries about being princess are pretty much irrelevant, since it's no clearer now what difference it makes (other than that rubbish-for-too-many-reasons fake drama padding out the middle). The flashbacks basically boil down to pointing to the Tree and maybe Discord's seeds, neither of which really justify throwing us so much Luna and Discord detail (let's put it this way: Sunset's backstory was genuinely new information, and that was relegated to a quick infodump). Discord... really hasn't justified being released, however entertaining he is to us the audience. And the sacrificing of the Elements feels a bit inconsequential, since "defeat the bad guy" is what the Elements do anyway, so what difference does it make to have the Tree do that? Besides, why can't they just take the Elements back as soon as the Plundervines were eliminated?
Nothing really matters except that, for a few minutes in the middle, the entire Main Six come to the idiotic conclusion of splitting the Elements for a quest that clearly needs all six, and boy howdy could I go on about how stupid that whole scene is (for one thing, has no one been paying attention to what Princesses routinely do re: national security? In-universe, their decision makes no sense!).
But, to be different, I'm going to leave that to someone else and ding Discord's reveal at the end instead. This two-parter really raises the question of why he was brought back at all, in-universe. He's barely a few episodes out, and already he's a massive civilization-wide liability. Not just because he clearly could have wiped out the pathetic Plundervines with a snap of his claws the whole time, but because he turns out to be responsible for it in the first place. He sits on this information, though, and lets the one thing that can stop him be compromised, causing massive damage in the process, apparently just to emotionally manipulate Twilight. My gods: this is the precursor to that effing S9 finale!
And while I'm OK with the ongoing arc, its setup here takes a bit of the triumph out of the proceedings. Instead of something approaching the majesty of the Tree being restored, it's immediately overshadowed by a gimmick, which strongly suggests its power will come into play again, then. Kind of makes the sacrifice of the Elements a lot more anticlimactic, in hindsight.
To be fair, the crew behind this two-parter are clearly trying. The callbacks to the major elements of the show thus far (which I think is the best meta-reason why the otherwise irrelevant Summer Sun Celebration and focus on Nightmare Moon are present) definitely gives the sense that this is partly a "look how far we've come!" retrospective on prior seasons before going forwards with new ones. Certainly, Twilight's emotional sincerity and Discord's new role as stealth mentor are among the best bits.
It's a nice attempt, mind. Credit for trying something different, and all. It just really, really doesn't work for me.
I sadly don't recall whatever comments I held back for this half (no doubt they were cutting and witty), so I'll just say that, while the Plundervines might have been a threat as underwhelming as King Sombra, at least this two-parter didn't feature an action shot of the Mane Six charging into battle with gardening implements.
ReplyDeleteAs noted by others, this is the first two-parter where I have more problems with Part 2 then Part 1 (not counting cases where the difference was shaving it by a razor’s edge, as with the series pilot).
ReplyDeleteThe first issue, and the most obvious, is the whole conflict between Applejack and Twilight in the forest. Not only is the cragadile encounter structured to make Twilight more helpless then she normally is (your wings may be rickety, darling, but you can just blast it with your horn! Or if Hasbro won’t allow that, push it backwards, or encase it in a shield - all things Twilight has done many times as a unicorn), but the resulting bickering and eventual conclusion between the two friends was just delivered in a clunky manner. Had the aforementioned padding from last time been cut, and part 1 ended on the Discord flashback or the reveal of the Tree of Harmony, there could have been more time given to encountered dangers in the forest, constructed in such a way as to justify sending Twilight back (maybe the plunder vines focus on her, because she’s a princess? There’s your answer! They’re able to focus on her when she’s about to return the Elements later, after all). And also just little extra moments here and there throughout the rest of the conflict that flesh it out a bit more, because much of the episode just feel stiffly executed for reasons I can’t quite articulate.
Really, I could devote paragraphs to how poor the writing is for this decision - the group needs all the Elements, for a start - but it honestly speaks for itself. Look at it in even a little detail and it just falls apart. So, I'll park that and move on to something else. Don't want to be here all day!
Giving up the Elements was a smart plot move - ever since “A Canterlot Wedding”, Meghan and co. had been getting tired of having them as a fallback for every big problem - even if doing so is another step that loses some of the series’ initial mystique and wonder, what with all the jossed fan theories via the Tree of Harmony (which also raises the question of why Celestia and Luna didn’t just return the Elements to the tree after petrifying Discord). The Tree itself is, you know, fine for now, and I won’t judge this episode for what was later done there. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the chest and the key, continuing the train of concepts and magical things happening because Buy Our Toys and making no effort to hide it (don’t tell me the chest only gave Twilight a castle because she lost her library and its main purpose was just to stop Tirek - you know that’s denial). Meghan McCarthy was a good story editor, but her inability to make such things organic the way Faust could was one of her flaws on this show.
Oh, and I also find considerable fault with the reveal that the plundervines were Discord’s doing, partly for the characters only being angry for the scene but mostly because it’s just too “convenient” to tie him into the reason, and actually robs the Plunder Vines of some agency, making them just leftover chaos magic. Oh, they should remain a faceless antagonist for sure, but just have the reason for them be some past conflict or residue of dark magic that ISN’T tied to villains we already know, much less still have. But Impossible Number has already dug at that scab plenty, I'll let it try to heal back up.
Granted, some things DO have an explanation when you look for them - I used to think it was pure plot convenience the plunder vines pony napped the Royal Sisters but left Canterlot untouched and no trace of the kidnap, yet was mindlessly invading Ponyville. But Discord did intend for them to stop Celestia and Luna, so that actually fits now. Even if it nerfs the Royal Sisters, again.
[Continued below with thoughts on the two episodes together.]
[Continued from above comments on Part 2 specifically.]
DeleteAs regards the two-parter as a whole, what saves it from this ping-pong back and forth between stiff moments, awkwardly done parts and solid parts is a consistent guiding point - this two-parter totally sells Twilight’s role in all this. Even if Twilight’s prominence over the Mane 5/Spike has always been an awkwardly-done part of the show, her modesty, one of the most likeable parts of her character even as she keeps getting more stuff thrown at her to handle, and more power, is something done great here. It’s enough to make the fabricated splitting drama a dull throb, rather than a severe ache! Even the mostly-wasted first flashback does at least allow us to see her get so invested in the proceedings. You can really feel her when she wakes up from the first flashback, and the tangible pain when she has to go back.
Now, to start sniping again: I know I've mentioned elsewhere how this one is just stiff in its writing, and that really comes down to much of the forest escapades and how they play out, but also how it doesn't really follow up on various threads and teased moments from Part 1. We don't know anything more about Twilight's worries after these 21 minutes, and the writing around Discord at the end just gives me bumpy flashbacks (or would that be flash-forwards?) to what they did with him in S9.
Remember how I compared these episodes last time to one of those arc-setters that's all plot, but little beyond that? That's far more true here, given the big character moment, the splitting of the party, falls totally flat. Just makes this episode unmemorable, by and by, especially given how little actually happens in it. Probably repeating myself by now.
One last point - this episode is another major shift towards more cinematic moments. From camera zoom-ins on a character talking about something serious, to little visual reactions, to Twilight’s face - Flash model and all! - getting little twitches that show how she’s perceiving everything (especially at Celestia’s ‘death’), it’s really something. And then you of course have the bigger things like the sun/moon battle, various Plundervine establishing shots, much of the Nightmare Moon flashback, and so on. Tiny things, but together, they do help. Getting this on a Hasbro budget should not be taken lightly - the show staff on both ends still cared passionately about what they were making here.
That’s a lot of complaining! Truth be told, status quo changing two-parters are easy to nitpick given they affect the whole show. Most of the episode plays out as being fine and watchable and enjoyable, just stiff, forgettable, padded and bland. Better then virtually all the two-parters in the show's back half, then!
This two-parter doesn’t quite work the way it think it does, but it’s a credible effort, at least, though more so in Part 1. If I haven’t spent as much time on the positive points, well, they largely speak for themselves, honestly. And get kind of overshadowed as the two episodes progress, but you knew that already, sure.
Like part one, this left such little impression on me that I don't even remember enough about it to comment on anything specific. I agree that the drama of everyone wanting Twilight to stay home where it's safe felt very contrived, and the show violates a good rule of thumb for writing, on several occasions: coincidence is fine for getting your characters into trouble, but it's a poor method for getting them out of it.
ReplyDeleteJust to pick out a moment that hasn't been mentioned by anyone else yet (because I think Logan, Impossible Numbers and Mike have covered most of what I would say if I wrote a longer piece) I've always loved the little moment of Fluttershy saying "It is probably for the best". Utterly heartbreaking coming from her and hits so much harder than if it had been said by any of the other characters. I think if any of the others had said it Twilight would have pushed back against it but because it's Fluttershy it feels utterly believable that Twilight is broken by it. I was broken by it. Great little moment and helps to sell something that would otherwise by hard to swallow (ok, is still hard to swallow, but that line on its own worked for me).
ReplyDelete