 |
| There was so much fandom discussion about that mystery flying creature at bottom left |
S6E02: "The Crystalling, part 2"
My original rating: ★★★ (for the whole two-parter)
IMDb score: 7.3
Thoughts: My favourite part of this episode doesn't really include Flurry Heart at all. (Who is surprised?) It's the little scene in Sunburst's house where he and Starlight admit to each other that they're not quite who the other thinks, and that making friends is hard. It's nicely judged, and to my mind more interesting than the "toyetic, but let's not make toys" Hasbroism of Flurry herself. Some other good moments, such as Fluttershy gently patting the head of an annoyed Rainbow, and Celestia and Luna doing something for once. (Though I mentioned in 2016 that some of their stuff was dropped from the final episode, boo.) A lot of the episode feels rather predictable and by-the-numbers, though, and the crowd steadfastly refusing to move despite the blizzard goes on too long and becomes stupid instead of silly fun. Good to see crystally ponies again near the end, though not as beautifully animated as the S3 version – apparently that was too resource-heavy to keep on doing. Shame. Points for having both Twilight's parents get speaking roles (only just in Night Light's case) but I remain of the view that "The Crystalling" is the least interesting season opener to this point. As with part 1, this keeps its three but not by very much.
Choice quote: Spike: "Technically, she's more of a student than a protégée."
New rating: ★★★
Next time, it'll be "The Gift of the Maud Pie", which I had remembered as dull to the point of tedium but which most people (including me) actually rated quite well.
The Crystalling - Part 2 NOTES
ReplyDeleteThis post's only a minute early off being exactly one week after the last one. Why Logan, surely you're not committing to a schedule, after all this time…!
My broad thoughts about the two-parter last time still hold fully true here, though I will admit this one feels even more routine, especially for how it handles the external conflict and ponies' reaction to it. So I'll diverge to Starlight, whom I left out of last week's thoughts. For nothing else is really the 'point' of the episode, she is. And as Haber's first in-charge outing with her, he had near carte blanche to do what he wanted, within plugging Flurry Heart and paying lip service to her prior story and arc.
I haven't timed it, but it certainly feels like Starlight gets more screentime than the 'A' plot. I don't know what the buildup to this was like, what fans thought as to how much or how little she'd be focused on after her 'reformation' last time. But setting aside whether she earned that reformation given her actions, or how she's now written in an incompatible way with how she started out as (amplified by the Rarity ripoff mane from nowhere and an adjusted inflection from Kelly Sheridan that effectively retcon her from a middle-aged mare to Twilight's age, or younger), Starlight's writing is an exercise in inconsistency and sloppy execution. Make no mistake, I do get a lot of enjoyment out of her, but it's always with caveats. Her falling back on avoiding problems and being unable to help manipulating others to benefit herself? Great traits, except they only pop up when the writers decide so, rather than being consistent flaws she gradually overcomes. Ditto with her flaws ever being acknowledged in organic ways. There's a lot of personality I like there, but it's surrounded by as much sloppy material as the Mane 7 in this era, and sometimes more, and without the goodwill they get from being veterans.
The moment of quiet admission between the two you mention is interesting, because there's always enough of Starlight of that level here (and for most of the rest of the show): moments of a darker streak, wanting to avoid issues, a blunter personality then the Mane 6. Aspects that present friendship as something hard and not always sunny. Yet a overly sunny ending here and later largely renders it moot. Hard to do in a TV-Y show as it is, and the inconsistent sloppiness of it just makes such moments feel like happy accidents, whatever the intention.
It doesn't remotely surprise me that some Celestia/Luna business was cut (I don't know this episode well enough to quickly check the script and see what without having the episode transcript to hand), but I'm curious where that got out publicly all the way back in 2016 such that you'd have heard it. Though geez, this two-parter is laggy enough, you'd think they'd have cut business elsewhere to keep that. Alas, DHX is constrained by the recorded dialogue and flow as regards what they can cut, so episode-wide trims to allow that material to stay would have needed to be done by Haber at the writing stage.
[I did, however, peek at the script long enough to confirm the changeling cameo (why is Thorax flying in broad daylight untransformed though?) was a board addition.]
Incidentally, neither last week's review nor this one read like ★★★ reviews at all. By now, you're published quite a fair amount of high ★★ reviews that feels more positive then the "largely predictable and kind of boring, with occasional flashes of inspiration and energy in the Starlight plot" sentiment for these two. And ★★ is meant to be 'average' for you, I recall. But, reviewing's never an exact science, is it? One's always learning about another's criteria.
Why Logan, surely you're not committing to a schedule, after all this time…!
DeleteCome off it, Mike, you've known me for long enough by now... ;)
I'm curious where that got out publicly all the way back in 2016 such that you'd have heard it.
I can't remember, but my guess would be that it was mentioned on Twitter. Big Jim Miller etc would sometimes drop little nuggets like that.
neither last week's review nor this one read like ★★★ reviews at all
I tend to like the two-parters more regardless of anything else, so they tend to get scored higher. It would take a lot for a two-parter to score as low as ★★, to be honest. Is "The Crystalling" above average? For me, yes it is, but only by a bit. It's barely into three-star territory, but that Sunburst/Starlight scene just gets it over the line.
For me, there were so many elements of this episode that were right in my fun zone... but they completely failed to gel. Three's my verdict as well, but probably a middling three instead of a low one.
ReplyDelete