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| "A changeling can change. But we haven't." |
S6E25: "To Where and Back Again, part 1"
My original rating: ★★★★ (for both parts)
IMDb score: 8.4
Thoughts: Tiny Pop being Tiny Pop, this episode was shown before "Top Bolt". This is, as Discord says, "quite the combination of secondary characters" – but for the most part, it really works. It doesn't hurt that the best villain in the show is back, although Chrysalis only shows up a fair way in. We get another excellent double act with Starlight and Trixie, while Glimmy herself is a more appealing character for her insecurities. (Her magic is again a bit OP, though...) The Changeling!Mane Six aren't the most convincing replacements in the world: you'd think Chrysalis could have managed better! This episode was shown at UK PonyCon 2016 (on the date of the US showing, so many of us had already seen it) and I remember the general reaction being very positive. I do have a small sigh for the Princesses getting easily captured, not for the first or last time, but oh well. This is quality entertainment. Despite a few flaws, it can keep its four.
Choice quote: Luna: "I see much of myself in you, Starlight Glimmer."
New rating: ★★★★
Tiny Pop showed E25 and E26 a day apart, so for once we had a proper cliffhanger, and I adored that. You get a longer one here for free, though! Next
time, it's "To Where and Back Again, part 2", and then I'll finally be done with S6.
I was always pretty meh on this two-parter, but that's because I just don't care about three-fourths of the major characters. And they had to Worf the actual cast offscreen to justify any of the action. Chrysalis coming back for revenge was a great idea, though!
ReplyDeleteThe removal of the main cast was clunky, sure (it's one of the flaws I allude to) but the whole thing was, to me at least, easily enough fun to make it worthwhile. Frankly by this time in the series "Did I have fun with this?" was my primary concern. And I did, lots.
DeleteMore than any other two-parter to this point, sans perhaps "A Canterlot Wedding" (hey, the other changeling one, how about that), virtually all the stuff about this one worth talking about, for better or for worse, is in Part 2. Like "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1", this one is pure setup, and from a structural and pacing position, rather boring, lethargic setup.
ReplyDeleteFully two-thirds of this is on Starlight's personal dilemma before the external changeling conflict makes itself properly known – the bulk of a feature film's first act, usually something in the 5-20 minute mark for a given animated film, you know, which is a far larger percentage here – and it's just boring and tedious. I grant I do not care about Starlight as a focal character, and given how firmly I feel she got away with her crimes, of course I'm going to be unmoved by her "I'm not leader material" struggle. But even within that, the slackness of the writing, the wonky modulation and flow between moments and scenes, plus the surface approach to older character/aspects brought up (the ponies from Our Town act basically as zombified as they did when they were cultists), mark this as a Michael Vogel and Josh Haber script (it is basically what "Every Little Thing She Does"'s quality would have been like without Starlight's inexcusable decision, proving that's mediocre anyways).
Most of the more annoying contrivances wait until next time, but there's plenty here too (the cover image suggests changeling could penetrate Luna's dream directly…). More than anything, a better writer(s) would have been able to find ways to incorporate the external conflicts into this more naturally. Maybe then we'd have a reason for Discord to show up, and before the last ninety seconds. Nearly the same for Thorax too. Trixie is pretty good here – like many late-season characters, which she is functionally, she works best when stripped of any arc and just made a supporting player. But the blatant manipulating to construct a scenario for these four to lead is shocking, both from the four chosen and the lazy offscreen wafering of all the leads.
Credit be due: The context of it happening now makes no sense, but Chrysalis coming back for a stealthier scheme (or "stealthier", given how the imposter changelings are written to act to make it clear to the tykes in the audience), with revenge in the mix, is certainly good.
Next time: an stealth mission in the lion's den that largely manages to be okay, despite most of the featured character engineering no real interest from me, until the last few minutes ruins all narrative and conceptual interest in changeling while vomiting Skittles over our retinas. Oh boy…
[One last note: it's nowhere near the most egregious title homage on that front, but using the subtitle of The Hobbit for this two-parter, and especially this part, is both thematically unfitting – Starlight's the furthest thing from a home-comfort pony dragged into an adventure – and structurally disproportionate. Shame on Vogel and Haber, thinking this would lend these episodes credibility, especially when FiM once did deserve comparison to the volumes of Middle Earth for its best early adventure episodes.]
I knew you'd be far more negative on this episode than I was, so no worries there. But I'm unashamedly with the majority view at the time -- this finale (as a whole) really was extremely popular with those who saw it for the first time at UKPC 2016, I'd say of the six finales up to that point second only to "Twilight's Kingdom" and roughly level with "A Canterlot Wedding". I didn't find it stupid, boring or annoying, and I'd quite happily watch it again in the near future. Mind you, I rather like reformed Starlight (most of the time) which I'm sure helps. :)
DeleteI didn't find it stupid, boring or annoying
DeleteI mean… I only said one of those things. Annoying is a reasonable interpretation, I suppose; dunno where you got stupid from.
But I suppose a little extra clarification never hurt. This episode is one of those on the border of mediocre and bad for me, which yes, is a fair bit lower then yourself and the audience at UKPC 2016, but really only a tier below Present Perfect's take. I'd wager right now it will float outside of my bottom five for the season – that's not nothing. It's not much, but it's not nothing.
I wouldn't call it far more negative. It could be a lot worse. It could have been "Every Little Thing She Does". This episode is rarely actively annoying. Just… indifferent and poorly written, but more in a "*sigh* Here we go again, Haber and Vogel…" way then anything.
I can understand why folks invested in Starlight wouldn't find this boring, which is why I focused on the typical structural wonkiness Vogal and Haber seem incapable of shrugging off for most episodes. Different and fresh, and something even the episode's fans can't argue it would be better for if they weren't so.
Also, if it wasn't clear from my initial post, I can, and do, enjoy reformed Starlight in contexts that have nothing to do with her past/arc relating to that, or don't demand the viewer remember it. She has a sass and spark merged with enough of a genuine sincerity there that, long as she doesn't fall back on her "go crashing in with my old surrpressive instincts/magic" (*cough* "A Royal Problem" *cough*), she works. So, some supporting roles.
And there are episodes in Season Seven where she does just that, and well. Heck, that Starlight is the basis for "The Parent Map", one of Season Eight's best/worthwhile (:P) episodes! We just haven't gotten that much yet; as noted at the time, Starlight only really pops up in Season Six for focused appearances to do with her arc and character growing out of her past.
^ Me again. What is it with Blogger and picking Anonymous by default now?
DeleteDunno about the Blogger thing. It's still giving me the signed-in option as the default each time.
DeleteI think I stand by "far more negative". No, you don't despise it in every way, but you do consider it indifferent. On my review scale, yours would probably come out at a mid-high two. Mine isn't a really high four, but it is a four. That's a big gap.
Also, unless a lot changes (which it might!) I like "A Royal Problem" more than "The Parent Map", so if you stick with these posts for S7 (I think you said it was only the last two seasons you'd pass on, but I can't remember for sure) then we may end up with a bigger gap between our opinions than we have on this episode! ;)
The side characters here are mostly ones I like, and even the ones I don't like are used well. I'm pretty neutral on Discord, but this may be my favorite use of him anywhere in the series. Starlight is great, showing that she's still very brittle and can come apart easily, but she's making strides as the glue that kept everyone else from falling apart. This is probably also my favorite use of Trixie, and her and Discord's grudging arrival at friendship was a great stroke. I love it for its comedic tone anyway, but the scene where Starlight just calmly envelops Trixie in a bubble so she'll stop freaking out about Thorax speaks very well to the dynamic they've reached. Very enjoyable episode.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, I also really like the bubble scene. Great fun. I remember from first time round that I very much enjoyed the Trixie-Discord dynamic in part 2. I hope that will remain the case now.
DeleteI feel like this would have benefitted more if we'd had an episode devoted to Our Town and how it's moved on in S6, showing the personal transition that was only hinted at for a few seconds in the S5 finale. After all, it's a big leap from "totalitarian Tall Poppy Syndrome cult" to "let bygones be bygones". As it is, Double Diamond and co come across as way too friendly after what happened in "The Cutie Map".
ReplyDeleteYeah, it would have been interesting to have a "meanwhile, back in the village" episode (or even scene) but I doubt it was ever a realistic possibility. The nightmare Starlight has in this episode is as good as we got, so oh well. Fanfic has doubtless covered it!
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