 |
| Might have been easier just to use AJ's death glare to melt the bars... |
10 May 2014
My original rating (for the whole finale): 9/10 (=★★★★★)
IMDb score: 9.2
Thoughts:
Here we are, then. Was it worth the ride? Yes. Oh sweet Celestia (thank you for that, Rarity), yes it was. I must admit I'd wondered from time to time whether this episode would hold up after all these years. It does, you know. It's exciting all the way through, with a real sense of threat and a nagging uncertainty about how Twilight and her friends can possibly win the day. Of course we knew they would, but the tension remained. It looks excellent as well, and the sad image of the burning library has rightly become legendary. Of course the big fight scene is absolutely incredible, and it was never bettered. Probably it never could be, not in a TV-Y show like this. Tirek remains one of the most menacing villains the show has had, though like all the best villains he was the architect of his own downfall thanks to his dishonest gift to Discord: Scorpan betrayed Tirek the first time, Scorpan's medallion provided the means to beat him this time. A nice parallel. Rainbow Power is silly but proved entirely inconsequential, and these days the castle doesn't bother me nearly as much as it once did. As blatantly toyetic introductions go, it wasn't too bad in the end. "Let the Rainbow Remind You" is a very good closing song, too. Only second best in this finale as a whole, but considering the competition that was always likely. We even get some epic closing credits music. Sure, this final episode of S4 is by no means flawless, but this episode is just so exciting and visually thrilling that I can only give it the top rating – and so S4 does indeed end on a high. Five stars it got the first time around, and five stars it keeps!
Choice quote: Fluttershy: "I know." (In context, I adore that line.)
New rating: ★★★★★
Before heading onwards, I'll do my usual brief(ish) look back at this season. After that, there'll be a quick swerve into Humanised World for Rainbow Rocks. Then it'll be time for "The Cutie Map", which is an episode I've been looking forward to for the entirety of this rewatch series!
The spectacle in this one is so, so good. I said that last time too, but it bears repeating here. I do feel that "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2" is a better episode, mostly because all the weak writing there was confined to Part 1 and it could hit the ground running with pure bombast. Here, the first third still has a few pieces to set up, and plenty of Idiot Ball decisions to go around.
ReplyDeleteImpossible Numbers' mentioned Celestia's dumb decisions, and they all hold true - the big one being the passive "hiding our magic and just waiting around" thing, though telling Twilight to keep things a secret is a textbook example of "for the plot". And assuming Tirek doesn't know of Twilight, while true, is still really risky. The Outline did have Celestia state that Twilight holding their magic was just a temporary solution while they worked on a permanent solution (with a loose implication that they expected to get more time before Tirek showed up, and that he was draining ponies' magic and growing stronger quicker then expected). That dilutes the problem, but doesn't fix it, and with the other two and trusting Discord in the first place… yeah, still poor! Still much better here then the crotchety characterisation she and Luna got in later seasons.
The episode is great otherwise. The tension and excitement is off the charts pretty much the whole way. Tirek only got a few scenes last time, and he's such an effective, menacing villain here, something I forgot in the wake of later seasons. Like Present Perfect, I appreciate the fight being a one-time deal that didn't change the show or its tone (there was a little concern from Hasbro/The Hub on, as awesome as it was, the show remaining about relationships). For the first time, having rewatched the show at a slower rate, I better understand the hype about it.
The Rainbow Power designs are ghastly things, and no matter how good the spectacle is, you never quite forget that everything about the Tree, Keys and Chest happens literally because "sentiment magic doing plot things". Still, the designs never come back (in earlier Season 5 drafts, they were intended to reappear when summoned by the Map and when a mission is finished). Easy to ignore.
Then there's the castle, and the blowing up of the library and it never getting fixed when any other destruction in Ponyville always is. Look, I've been used to that visual eyesore for years now, and I'll admit its reputation is tarred by being mostly linked to the worse era of the show. You get used to it, and I've made my peace. Mostly. Though I'll always miss the cozy, small feel of the Golden Oak Library.
But my god, they put zero effort into hiding the toyetic motive - I dunno if Meghan McCarthy tried to hide it, or just gave up based on Hasbro's demands. Happily, somewhat, this is the last time the show had such an obvious toyetic inclusion (the School of Friendship and the Treehouse being the writers' ideas), as Hasbro got busy focusing on the Movie, and by the time that was out, decided to end the show.
It really is easier to focus on this episode's issues, because the many positive points don't merit much discussion. Enjoy the spectacle, a satisfying payoff to Twilight and Discord's arc, and all the points from last time, ramped way up. The ending song may be narratively superfluous, but it's such a good breather after the rising action. Honestly, in many ways, the last 1.5 minutes may be the best "potential ending note for the show" it ever did, quality-wise. This episode fluctuates between being really good and great for me - given how many two-parters, and especially Finales, flounder on that front, especially going forward, let's not take that for granted.
Though the title is always a misnomer. Ever thought about that? Twilight, you ain't ruling no kingdom, dear. Not now, and not until the Canon In Name Only ending of the show.
Prepare for earth-shattering Production Changes reveals below!
I always wanted Rainbow Power to come back, just because it was so ridiculous in concept. I have weird nostalgia for it now.
DeleteBut putting it in every Map episode would have been way too much. D: I'd have been fine with pulling it out once or twice a season just to nuke the next big bad.
"Twilight's Kingdom" - Production Differences in Premise
ReplyDeleteThe Premise for the two-parter was one document, and was different enough from the final episode, with it being very unclear as to where Part 1 would finish. As such, it can only be discussed as one, in its own post. Brace yourself.
The first Act of Part 1 in the Crystal Empire is nowhere to be seen, and many plot threads - Discord being sent after Tirek, Tirek spending much time absorbing the magic of many ponies, getting the Princess’ magic, them putting in in Twilight so she’ll stand a chance - are gone too. No one knows Tirek’s escaped either, and he was defeated by just Celestia way back when.
Instead, Tirek wants Twilight’s magic so he can stand against Celestia (his initial plan of teaming with Nightmare Moon being a no-go, he’s missed a lot), and he and Discord play the game more stealthily, orchestrating many challenges for Twilight so Tirek can gauge her skill, while with Discord’s prodding, Twilight focuses on facing them alone and with magic (thinking this is what will get her Key), alienating herself from her friends.
Once Twilight is distracted and Tirek abducts her friends and betrays Discord, the episode plays out mostly the same, especially once Twilight comes to Tirek. From that point on, there’s only small differences to account for - Twilight makes her deal magically binding so Tirek can’t hurt them after, and Discord still has at least some of his powers, since he summons the Chest and other Keys.
Finally, once Tirek is defeated, the Epiphany Rainbow transforms the Castle of the Two Sisters into a floating castle in the clouds for Twilight. Celestia says this is where Twilight will live, but Ponyville is forever her home, and the episode ends on a song in Twilight’s Castle in the Sky (they call it that, yes - hey, the Studio Ghibli film is a cultural touchstone for a reason). And matching early documents for other episodes, Twilight already knows the others’ Keys are meant for the Chest right from the start.
This is not as epic, lacking mayhem across Equestria and the other Princesses being defeated (still got the one-on-one of Twilight Vs. Tirek, mind!), and being a little more focused on the plot rather than Twilight’s feelings of uselessness at the start. Tirek is dropped in rather unceremoniously, Discord barely hesitates to betray his friends, and the library’s destruction is even more obvious. So certainly some rough patches.
On the other hand, confining the mayhem to Ponyville gets around many of the final episode’s plot holes (like the other Princesses being passive idiots). Twilight distancing herself from her friends in her vain efforts to get her Key is quite harrowing and thematically resonant, an element present in the final episode, but very diluted and scaled back. And the Castle of the Two Sisters becoming Twilight’s new castle is brilliant - explains why it was basically never used after Twilight got a castle, it was meant to be her new castle! And it becoming a Castle in the Sky is so awesome - there goes another super-cool fantasy idea that Hasbro never let through, for whatever reason. That said, I can understand dismissing it on the grounds of having it on the, well, ground, so non-pegasi can visit it on their own power.
Certainly, the plot has some messy elements and needed some retooling, and many of the changes made were welcome, but there are quite a few things here that would have really helped the final episode, had they being kept.
Totally agreed on the castle bits, that's amazing and I'm sorry it didn't carry through to the end. :D
DeleteIt probably wouldn't have been as notable, except for the fact that updating the Two Sisters' old castle, just keeping it grounded, stayed all the way through to the final scripts, only to get axed sometimes in visual development/storyboarding. All the buildup with the time spent in that old castle, refurbishing it up, etc. - gone, at the last possible moment such a change could have been made.
DeleteWe've seen many cases of buildup been discarded, usually by new show runners who don't care about what came before, or change their minds. But that would be an an early writing stage - not via Hasbro at the last possible moment!
I found this out like 3 weeks ago, and it's still vivid in my mind. I do so wish this knowledge was more known in the fandom - may be 7 years past peak interest, but people deserve to know!
Oh, another Rainbow Power thing - outlines and early scripts of all Season 5 Map episodes show a sprout of new Tree of Harmonies (or something akin to that) sprouting out of the ground when the two Mane 6 ponies leave after their mission is done, is a very similar manner to how the audience, in Season 4, saw the rainbow sparkles on the Keys. Guess they were building up to a different seasonal climax earlier? Maybe they scrapped it for feeling too similar. I doubt it, it reads like the same "lack of interest in following through" that happened everywhere else. But thought you'd like to know!
That's great to know! I was wondering why they abandoned the obvious setups of the Castle of the Two Sisters becoming Twilight's new home.
DeleteFun fact: It seemed so obviously what the show was leading up to, that in the first draft of The Celestia Code I wrote it as such!
Yes, it felt utterly bizarre at the time that the CotTS was basically abandoned. It never made a lick of sense that the ponies would spend so long there and then more or less drop the renovation works.
DeleteAt least now we have an explanation for that decision, though as Mike says we don't know exactly what made Hasbro choose what we got. Toyetic considerations are the obvious, but it would have been possible to do similar with Rainbow Power and that didn't get much attention (or merch) at all.
Fun fact: It seemed so obviously what the show was leading up to, that in the first draft of The Celestia Code I wrote it as such!
DeleteOh? Interesting. Assuming you mean the first public version, before you later revised it for cleanup (and for a few show canon adjustments), in preparation for the print version, that was a surprise to me - only being in the fandom for 3.5 years, I only came to the story last year.
Fantastic story, by the way, iisaw - adored it the whole way through, and can't wait for my scheduled reread of it real soon. The sequels have plenty of pleasures (okay, mostly the sky pirates story), but, as cliché as it sounds, the narrow focus and scope of this first instalment, and the breath of fresh air of it being its own thing, make it easily my favourite. Apologies if that's a common reaction! Love all your work!
Toyetic considerations are the obvious, but it would have been possible to do similar with Rainbow Power and that didn't get much attention (or merch) at all.
An important thing to remember is that Hasbro's Entertainment Division and Toy Division are not a unified body - they are separate, and while the order of power is reversed compared to many other studios, where the toy makers have to work with what the entertainment division give them, they are not in some kind of magic perfect sync. Faust once said in interviews how Hasbro Studios kept asking for things in episodes seemingly on a whim, and never seemed to care about them to ask again (they kept resisting Faust wanting a boy character, then demanded Pip in Luna Eclipsed, then didn't ask for him again - him coming back was just the natural progression of a few episodes that needed lots of foals). More famously, Hasbro Studios asked for a train, she put in the Friendship Express, and then she saw there was no coordination between the toy division and entertainment division, as the train (or first train) that did come out wasn't even a good match with it.
In essence, Hasbro Studios make decisions of their based on what they think, in the heat of the moment, makes sense for the company's other divisions. Whether those other division follow that path is up to them, not well coordinated and up in the air.
Anyway, I do wish this reveal told us a bit more then "oh, DHX/the writers planned what made sense and was built up to, all the way through to final script, and then changed it between then and animatic to what we got for an unknown reason". The how, not the why. But, without seeing the emails on this decision, no telling that from just the scripts. You play with the cards you're dealt, and all that.
Apologies if that's a common reaction! Love all your work!
DeleteThank you very much! It's not an uncommon reaction, I will admit, but the sky-pirate ones run a very close second!
“Twilight’s Kingdom - Part 2” - Production Changes
ReplyDeleteAs the Premise for both parts is substantially different and documented elsewhere, the Outline will kick things off here. Befitting a season finale and a status quo changer, there's a lot to discuss here - enough to require a 4-part comment! Though most of that doesn’t relate to the status quo changing element. Here we go, everypony - buckle up.
OUTLINE
Part II has a few differences that are noteworthy, but only just. Celestia makes it clearer that the plan here is for Twilight to master using all this magic so she can hold Tirek off while they work on a proper plan, and she also clarifies that Twilight can’t tell her friends because word could get back to Tirek. The scene with Tirek and and Discord in Canterlot Castle is also split in two to show Twilight struggling with her magic further.
Discord finds the Mane 5/Spike at Fluttershy’s cottage, and they already know he’s a traitor. He briefly pretends to have changed again, but retracts when they try to rush into Ponyville, and despite pleas from Fluttershy, he puts them in a Phantom Zone-type prison over the town. Once Tirek’s betrayal Discord and put him inside, Twilight shows up and the fight with Tirek begins - it is a beam from Twilight that accidentally destroys the Golden Oak Library!
The deal has Twilight putting a shield spell on her friends so Tirek cannot harm them afterward. When her friends admonish her for what she did after, she says she knew this was her test, and though she relinquished her magic, it’s really about the Magic of Friendship. The Mane 6 don’t transform until after Tirek’s defeat, while restoring magic to Equestria. Finally, like the Premise, the Castle of the Two Sisters becomes a cloud-level Castle in the Sky for Twilight, and the finale song is a reprise of “You’ll Play Your Part”, focused on Twilight, rather than the whole Mane 6.
Most differences are just small rough things that get naturally polished and shortened with time. The most notable difference is the Princesses having a plan (a poor one, but a plan nonetheless) beyond just waiting for Tirek to come to them, Twilight being the one who destroys the library and the battle happening in Ponyville rather then its outskirts. Everything else’s small and easily forgettable and the right call - only Castle in the Sky and the Princesses not having the heaviest Idiot Balls are changes that should have been retained.
SCRIPT
Some early differences in the script match those from Part 1 - Tirek being able to control ponies comes back just to have some pony zombies escort Celestia and Luna away, and Scorpan is not mentioned indirectly as the medallion's origin until a 2nd Polish draft. The 1st script only had Tirek defeating Shining Armor being in the Crystal Empire, as Cadance was there alone - the next time we see him, he has defeated Celestia and Luna in Canterlot. The scenes and dialogue weren't different otherwise, so merging them to save time was easy. Discord originally captured the ponies in Fluttershy's cottage, then put them in a Phantom Zone-type prison over Ponyville - when Tirek makes the deal later, it releases them as Twilight is being drained, so Rainbow Dash saves Applejack and Fluttershy, while Discord catches the others. He also appears to still have some magic, as Tirek pursues them on their way to the chest (whether he suspects trouble or is just being violent is unclear) but Discord stalls him. There are two finale songs, the first being a quick reprise of "You'll Play Your Part" and the second being a low-key party song that puts Discord's hug and "where's my throne?" bit after it, as the closing note.
[script continued below]
[script continued from above]
DeleteThe 2nd draft cut the script to just under 25 pages! Easily the shortest seen yet. There's a few odd anomalies here - Twilight practising her teleporting, which was in the prior draft, is gone here. The two scenes of Tirek in Canterlot were put into one, and Twilight leaving her friends had Discord capturing them mere moments later. The medallion's origin was originally the last of Tirek's kind who ruled. And, most strangely, after the finale song, Celestia and Luna muse of a dream/vision Celestia had, with Luna saying Twilight will do what must be done. This got scrapped a draft later - who knows what Season 5+ events that was foreshadowing that they changed their minds on quickly!
The first Polish draft moves back to 28 pages, mostly by putting back in Twilight's erratic teleporting and splitting the combined scenes from above back up as they end up. The song's full lyrics now match the extended 2-minute version too, though with an extra addition that only got cut at the animatic stage.
And, of course, the usual splattering of dialogue and visual scene tweaks exist as the drafts progress too.
ANIMATIC & OTHER CHANGES
Based on the final script, the following things were cut from the script, or added/changed in storyboard:
* When Twilight raises the sun, she is shaking uncontrollably afterward, her vibrating hooves rattling the floorboards and rousing Spike. He looks unconvinced by Twilight saying she’s just doing some exercises.
* The scene with Shining Armor lasted a page longer. He tried blasting Discord repeatedly, then tried trapping Tirek and Discord in streams of purple fire (he says “Feels familiar, doesn’t it Tirek?” - probably meant to be a throwback to how Tirek was originally imprisoned?). Also, Tirek eating magic the way he does came from Jim Miller.
* When Twilight flies over Ponyville chaotically, Rainbow Dash catches her and brings her to earth, rather then Twilight crash-landing herself.
* Tirek melting the stain glass window of Twilight at he stomps away was a brilliant storyboard addition - it was scripted as Tirek plainly laser blasting it.
* Prior to Discord capturing the ponies, we see Twilight trying to practice her levitation outside the Castle of the Two Sisters - her successful levitation of a boulder ends up uprooting a tree and knocking over many more.
* After being betrayed, Fluttershy tearfully says “Is that really all you think I offer you? Tea parties?” Meghan wanted this and the prior line put back in, but for time, only one of them made it.
* After Tirek betrays Discord, the scene ends with him magicking Discord, Spike and the Mane 5 away.
* Some locations Twilight erratically teleports to, like the buffalo stampede, were storyboard additions. Jayson also said they had a funny idea for Twilight to appear in DHX's office (yes, live action) with all of them wearing rubber horse masks, but they had no time and he acknowledges it probably would have been denied anyway.
* Twilight having Owlowiscious when she escapes from the library was missing not only from the script, but from the storyboard, at least the one used in the Art of Equestria book. Nothing on this in animatic feedback, so presumably it was added seamlessly later.
* The battle between Twilight and Tirek was almost completely unscripted, describing only a few laser blasts before their stalemate. This was intentional, knowing the board artists would go to town.
[animatic cuts continued below]
[animatic cuts continued from above]
Delete* A few scenes have Tirek remark more openly on the ponies’ stupidity - the most notable cases are him twisting the knife against the Princesses on their passive plan, and then on how stupid Twilight can be to still trust Discord when she asks for him to be released too. It’s possible these were cut not only for time, but to avoid the word stupid, even though Tirek refers to the ponies’ actions as stupid rather than the ponies themselves - Treehouse in Canada has often censored the word “loser”, after all.
* Tirek being shrunk was in the script, but being imprisoned again in Tartarus wasn’t - this was a late addition after animatic feedback to make it clear he wasn’t killed by the rainbow beams (somewhere in the Pony afterlife, Sombra is fuming).
* The Mane 6 restoring magic across Equestria gave them all different scenes - Pinkie got the first unicorn Tirek drained, Rainbow Dash Cloudsdale, Rarity the Crystal Empire, Fluttershy Canterlot, Applejack Appleloosa and Twilight the Princesses in Tartarus.
* Through to the final script, it was the Castle of the Two Sisters, transformed, that become Twilight’s castle, not a new ghastly creation in Ponyville (it ceased being a Castle in the Sky after the outline). This change could have been DHX’s (maybe it visually cumbersome to have Twilight living a forest away from the others), or Hasbro’s, or to match a design from the toy division. We’ll likely never know.
* No visuals were scripted for “Let the Rainbow Remind You” - except for the final photo, everything here including the montage of the ponies from the Key episodes, was added in storyboard. They struggled with the right imagery as everything was already wrapped up, but came up with the montage at the 11th hour.
* The final song broke at the last two lines for a scene of the Mane 7 posing for a photo, with Twilight saying she feels her new role will change some things. Photo Finish asks for a smile and a wave, to which Twilight face-hoofs and the others laugh. She grins and remarks it won’t change the most important thing, and the last two lines of “Let the Rainbow Remind You” close the episode out. Obviously this is meant to echo Twilight’s “smile and wave” disappointment from Part 1.
Animatic feedback was lengthy, given all that happens in the episode. Most scenes were about making things visually clearer, debate about showing Discord’s regret visually at certain points, and so on, along with plenty of praise. Twilight’s castle was also marginally bigger then it ended up being (The Hub envisioned it as only slightly bigger then other Ponyville buildings, which Hasbro wanted it as big as we got it).
The battle scene contains all the interesting points - it has Hasbro Studios’ infamous “we cannot show Twilight punching/kicking Tirek in the face” note. More notably, they say this segment is the first to look at for trimming, but Jayson points out that the 2nd Act is quite short already (9 mins for Act I, 6 for Act II, and 8 for Act III), and is barely the culprit, so he left it intact to avoid a tiny Act II (we can surmise that a bit under a minute got cut in the end). The episode is 2 mins overlong at this stage, as he notes that without the song, they would be almost bang on (he also dryly comments that he knows nobody would agree to cut the song, but it is superfluous to the story).
Hasbro’s answer to this is hilarious - the recipient notes that while they’d love to fulfil their inner anime nerd and keep the whole fight, FiM is a relationship show, so not at the expense of other things. They also, correctly, note that the song’s emotional release and underscoring the power of the rainbow and Twilight finding her role more than justifies it.
[animatic feedback continued below]
[animated feedback continued from above]
DeleteHasbro also answered a few other replies from DHX - when Jayson pointed out that the ponies kicked changelings two seasons prior, and that this seemed fine as it was so over-the-top, Hasbro noted those was still images for comic effect, while this was a personal battle that plays more violently. They also pointed out that even on their action shows, they cut away from fists actually hitting faces.
Finally, there was a lot of struggle about Tirek not evoking devil imagery. Michael Vogel, of all people, pointed out that other similar choices had been approved - Sunset turning into a demon and shooting red magic. He wondered what standards rules had changed. Standards clarified that got passed as Sunset was a more fantasy evil spirit, and her magic/eye colours were not that devil-like. In the end, keeping Tirek’s magic from being pure red, and making sure it didn’t look like fire, got them through.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Ignoring Premise differences, there are two sore losses. One being the brief aside in the Outline that the other Princesses will still work on a plan while Twilight keeps their magic safe and stalls Tirek if necessary. It's such a small addition, and makes them not be passive idiots.
Far more damaging is Twilight's Castle not being the Castle of the Two Sisters, reformed (as cool as it is, I can live with losing the Castle in the Sky element). It’s super sore, as the Two Sisters' Castle becoming Twilight’s makes perfect sense with all the scenes in it, and polishing it up, across the season. And it also explains why the castle was never seen outside of flashbacks again, excepting “School Daze - Part 2” - it was meant to do everything Twilight’s new castle did! With this, we have some explanation for why one basically-dropped element in the show was dropped, at least.
You can bet I'm going to keep telling people after this for months, if not years. Finally, over 7 years later, we have proof that a decision which many fans anticipated (I'm told quite a lot of people anticipated Twilight getting the Sisters' old castle) was planned, and got abandoned at the last possible second. My money's on Hasbro or their toy division being the culprits…
Outside of that not-so-small change, the rest, like Part 1, show lots of effort and work to improve the end result. This means virtually all script changes are largely unremarkable - even the concept of a Phantom Zone-style prison barely registers. It's a bit weird that some scenes were combined and later separated, and that Twilight's erratic teleporting was removed and then reinstated, but I'll give Meghan the benefit of the doubt and assume she was very busy with her new duties (around this time was when she started giving animatic feedback herself, and was moving up the ranks, so the Movie's greenlight was fast approaching!). Since the final episode is the most dialogue-light in the whole show, at 150 lines, a lot of cuts were still made, but little remarkable. The animatic feedback is quite hilarious, though.
Solid work from everyone all around. Were it not for scrapping the Princess' other plan and making Twilight's castle a separate visual eyesore (seriously… it made it to final script, what happened after that?!?), this would be as equally impressive an example at episode production as Part 1. As it stands, those changes make this a mixed bag. Doesn't take away from all the other improvements!
Wow, Twilight destroying her own library would have been devastating. D: I might have actually been broken up about it!
DeleteThank goodness for Big Jim coming up with the eating magic routine, that's one of the things that makes Tirek truly terrifying to behold!
Ah, so the live-action rubber horse mask thing was something they were planning well before episode 100. :B Great.
I was definitely not one of the people who sniffed that Twilight might be getting the sisters' old castle. But it really does make a ton of sense in hindsight, and I can't believe they just dropped it. Well, I mean, I can, they dropped plot threads all the time from here on out, it just seems like such a major oversight from here.
I'm certainly glad someone thought to add that Owlowiscious scene - I probably wouldn't have noticed its absence until later, but the first time we watched this episode (as latecomers, this was the last of our binge before we "caught up" just in time for the Season 5 premiere), my daughter's instant reaction to the library being blown to bits was to shout "Owlowiscious!" in horror.
DeleteI surprisingly like this one, considering I have many problems with it. THe highest compliment I can pay is that it gets the emotional beats of a big, dramatic season finale with a bright future implied.
ReplyDelete"It looks excellent as well, and the sad image of the burning library has rightly become legendary."
I've never been a fan of the destruction of the library, and not just because of the immediate displeasure of seeing a library blown up. It strikes me as an attempt to invoke "Nothing Is The Same Anymore", but it's so lame and obviously a result of cold feet (come on, it's not like they can blow up any actual ponies) that the idea of Twilight getting that upset over it is a hard sell (see, if there was any evidence she'd thought Spike was still inside, THEN that'd be something).
Plus, they really can't fix it? Really? Not even with the harmonious world-healing wave, Discord on their side, and four alicorns who could cooperate? I call nonsense.
"Of course the big fight scene is absolutely incredible, and it was never bettered."
To quote Pascoite who quoted Pinkie Pie a couple finales ago: "Eh, I've seen better." It's a welcome bit of entertainment, to be sure, but it does feel a bit show-offy and overlong after a while. Especially given the weak trigger for it, it tends towards the bleh for me near the finish.
"Rainbow Power is silly but proved entirely inconsequential,"
Shockingly, I've honestly never been bothered by the designs. Given they proved a one-off deal anyway, it seems OK to me to go all-out just this once.
"and these days the castle doesn't bother me nearly as much as it once did. As blatantly toyetic introductions go, it wasn't too bad in the end."
Disagree, myself, but there'll be a whole episode later devoted to that, so I'll say no more here.
"Sure, this final episode of S4 is by no means flawless, but this episode is just so exciting and visually thrilling that I can only give it the top rating"
Broadly, I agree with this except for the "top rating" part. I do end up liking the rollercoaster feel and the way Discord and Twilight end up tested. I just don't think it's enough to compensate for some glaring flaws. I'd probably rate it a low four, and that's if I'm generous.
Sorry, that was me. I forgot to change the profile correctly.
DeleteThis is one of those episodes where, bluntly, I can see the joins and the worn bits and I just don't care because I'm having too much fun. I just can't get bored with this fight scene. I would have done if they'd kept doing it, but thankfully whatever you may think of the S5 finale they did at least take a different route for the central conflict.
DeleteAs for the "can't fix the Library" bit, I file it in the same general bin as Doctor Who's handwaving about "fixed points in time" that can't be changed. In other words, basically nonsense but useful nonsense.