Ranking the season finales!
How would you guys rank the finales? I've never really browsed this sub beyond the trending stuff, so I'm totally unaware if this is something asked a lot. I apologize if it is, but I'm starved for some discussion!
So for me, from least-best to very-best:
I know a lot of people love this two-parter, and honestly, despite its flaws, it's a fun time! The Changelings are awesome, the drama is good, song is great, and I actually like the lesson here.
I know in the previous episode, Twilight herself taught Pinkie Pie that evidence is important when making an accusation, but when there's a lack of evidence (except the obvious shit Twilight DID discover, but was manipulated into looking bad), going with your gut is important in a scenario where a pony you know better than anybody outside of the brainwashed fiance is acting wildly out-of-character (and now that we know Cadance better, she definitely would be sending red flags to anypony who knew her - "stressed about the wedding" was an intentionally weak excuse that Twilight's friends couldn't dispute because they don't know Cadance).
Twilight was acting very possessive of her brother before it turned out she was actually right. But not only was this used to show a unique side of her character, I think that Twilight was so put off by Cadance's behavior because she was acting so different - and was just directing her anger in the wrong direction. Despite everything that happened, and turning out to be right, the climax of part one definitely had an impact on Twilight when it came to confronting others about their wrongdoings in the future.
Even though Cadance and Shining were last-minute creations by Hasbro's whim, I felt like, for the sake of this plot, they were characterized well enough through Twilight's connection to them.
But aside from that, there's definitely a lot of problems mainly beginning and ending with the Changelings: very strange invasion plan, muddled details, the bridesmaids being the only guards AND so easily defeated, along with Chrysalis being defeated because she was oblivious?
Though, I don't think it's as problematic as some people think - I'm of the belief that Chrysalis was the one who began the rumor of a threat made to Canterlot after replacing Cadance, to weaken Shining Armor and catch everypony off guard during a love-filled wedding. In fact, had she not played her games with Twilight and reunited her with Cadance, the plan would have went off perfectly.
I also think that, perhaps, Chrysalis was purposely driving a wedge between Twilight and her friends. Twi remarks that she has a habit of sneaking up on everypony, which makes me believe that she was following Twilight around in disguise and making herself look bad, with the intent on breaking up the Elements of Harmony so she wouldn't be defeated after taking Canterlot.
With all this in mind, it's a neat villain plot for a cartoon. But the fact that it's so unclear is quite poor on the writers' part. A lack of clarity with its plot and messages, or a bungling of very fragile story ideas, is oftentimes MLP's biggest downfall, as it's led to either a failure to write the characters/stories as well as they should be, or people misinterpreting the point of many episodes (i.e. To Change a Changeling, Parental Glideance, Mare-Do-Well, Newbie Dash, etc.)
You're going to notice that, despite my rankings of these finales, I do really enjoy them all, and rank them among the series' best as far as the actual content of an episode, and what it means for the characters (usually Twilight) involved. Some of the best showcases of her character stem from the conflicts that arise in these season-bookends, and Magical Mystery Cure is one of them.
It's hard to defend the fact that this episode's pacing if off - and I don't mean because it's a musical. That part is actually fantastic, all of the songs in this episode are top-notch, both from a design perspective and a storytelling one, with Celestia's Ballad being my favorite.
(No Pear Butter/Bright Mac love song will ever make me feel the way Celestia does as she sings of how proud she is of Twilight).
But Larson's explained it before - this was meant to be a two-parter, but it's crammed into one episode because of the season limit, and so the last third of the episode feels like a different plot entirely. And not only that, but the mane six being given false memories, and the ponies of Ponyville never questioning any of them, are confounding flaws that once ruined any sort of enjoyment I could've had with the episode when it first came out.
Now I just ignore it. Which is a shame, because this is such an important episode, and there's many glaring flaws with it.
However, given that we see Sweet Apple Acres demolished with no Apple Family in sight, it's clear there's a lot of intentional disbelief-suspending going on here with the plot. And I can live with that in the world of what's clearly supposed to be a musical, which typical don't strive for a realistic environment or extras to begin with. Because if we adhered to realism, it'd be boring!
But I'm being overly negative. The real meaning of this episode, as with most any episode of MLP, isn't in the superlatives and technicalities, but the friendship. There's some really nice character-based storytelling in the conflict and resolution: the way each pony's swapped mark not only puts them in the worst position they could possibly be in, but their own personalities are bleeding into the talents, not meshing well, and creating chaos.
In essence, Fluttershy's destiny is to be laughed at while being too "Fluttershy" to be funny, Pinkie having no fun returning to the farm life, Applejack trying and failing to make dresses that are both beautiful and practical, Dash in a closed space and doing something she definitely has no passion for - "stopping" animals instead of taking care of them, and Rarity trying to make lemons out of lemonade and failing every which way.
Magical Mystery Cure was all about friends helping one another, no matter how they themselves may be feeling. And that, for all the lessons these characters have learned, is the essence of friendship.
This is what Twilight's "eureka" moment meant - it wasn't a problem she could "just fix." And from here on out, she abandons this mindset in exchange for approaching her problems with friendship. Because here, all she needed to answer the problem was that, and at the end of 'True True Friend,' this is when Twilight finally, fully understands the Magic of Friendship.
The Crystal Empire's conclusion was great for teaching Twilight this initial lesson - that she only needed to rely on her friends, this time Spike, to save the day. It's why the movie, for all its flaws, was yet another solid story for Twilight in this regard - because she loses sight of what made her a princess in the first place.
And with that, the new magic Twilight creates is that of Friendship, and it's how she is granted the ability to be called the princess of it in the first place.
Although many people have hated on how underplayed Twilight's role as a princess was in its first two seasons, now that we're at the end of season 7, it's a development that I've come to really like as far as growing her character. Friendship was something she had to study and learn through her experiences, and because of those, she's spent the better part of the series ascending to a level where she can teach others those same experiences.
It all started with this experience, and because of that, Magical Mystery Cure is what I'd call the "fine wine" of MLP finales - it gets better with age.
Copy/paste my first paragraph for Magical Mystery Cure, and replace the title with Twilight's Kingdom.
Yes, Celestia's plan is fucking dumb and riddled with indefensible flaws (though until the series ends, I'm of the belief that she knows Twilight's entire path, and that this was a crucial milestone not only for her, but for Discord). That is all I will say on the matter.
As for the rest of the episode, it's a culmination of a really neat seasonal arc where the ponies, not only had to adhere to their Elements of Harmony in the face of doubt, but teach them to others.
At the apex of it all is poor Twilight, who, for the entire season, has been floating adrift, not really having a purpose. It's only realized when she receives her birthright, after teaching Discord, of all characters, the true meaning of friendship - the Magic of it.
Twilight's refusal to throw Discord's life away, despite his betrayal, and his lamentation that follows, remains one of my favorite scenes in the whole show. I remember how everyone thought it felt like "Oh we can't have vengeance in MLP," but I disagree; this was a genuine moment for Twilight's character, because she would always forgive one who wronged her if they show even a modicum of regret, and we all saw that Discord learned what betrayal felt like. It was awful.
But instead of punishing him, Twilight, whose "rainbow-eyes" signify a near-loss of her Element latched onto in the last moment as it has five times before, forgot about what was important to her in the moment (her duties as a princess and the fate of Equestria) and instead adheres to her Element's core value (friendship). I really like how it made the mane six into even stronger role models up against each of these challenging circumstances. It really comes together nicely in the subtext, and it's one of the things I like about this show's writing as far as the "destiny" stuff is concerned.
Outside of all that, Tirek is a solid villain - clever, charismatic, and oh-so-evil. I love 'You'll Play Your Part', one of my favorites in the series both in meaning and by sound. Discord's story here is one of my favorite "Discord episodes" in the entire show because of what it does for his character. And the fight scene, obviously, is a real spectacle - especially like how it characterized Twilight; how she was running until her home was destroyed, and from then on she wasn't exactly fighting Tirek to defeat him (though obviously that was the end goal) so much as she had flown into a rage. Her animation and the way she fights makes this clear.
Although it's constantly shot down for Celestia's plan, and only being remembered for the fight scene, like with the commonly misunderstood Shadow Play there's a lot of really great nuggets of writing etched in the meat of this climactic finale.
What did this episode do that was so special, that I like it more than the previous three finales?
Well, nothing! And that's part of the charm. Before Twilight and her friends were facing off against emotionally taxing and mentally draining dangers, they were a group of friends just looking to have a night of fun. This episode is full of laughs and great character interaction, and because of that, it's definitely my favorite episode in season one overall. Seeing the ponies we've come to know so well over the years have to suffer such a trying experience, in an environment that leaves them totally out of their element, is sobering to see after everything that comes after.
The Best Night Ever is just plain nostalgic - all of the ponies are at their best, back in the show's beginnings when they were all wide-eyed and young, naive about the world and what they wanted, only to find that reality is a thing and it doesn't always live up to your expectations. But that's okay, because friends are what gives our lives the fun and meaning many of us crave, not our shallow desires which often fail to leave us content.
It's a subtle truth about life coated in MLP's sugary exterior that I can't help but smile at whenever I tune in.
It's about time we had a finale that didn't cause any drama! But that's not the most noteworthy thing about Shadow Play.
What is, is the return of the Pillars and Starswirl the Bearded. Although I'm unaware of the overall consensus on our wizard pony, he isn't what I love about this episode. To me, Starswirl functions as a solid character to teach Twilight yet another important lesson about her virtues as a princess - similarly to the Movie, Twilight's Kingdom, and The Cutie Re-mark.
Out of all the finales, this one is probably the most enjoyable Twilight's presence has been. It's great seeing her geek-out over Starswirl, and then feel utterly dejected and stupid for not thinking things through.
Though I can't blame her, honestly - initially, she had no reason to think that the Pillars' banishment was what tethered the Pony of Shadows to Limbo; rather, she assumed they had to enter it in order to trap him. Although Starlight brought up very good points, Twilight countered with some sound logic herself. It just so happens that her student's legendary "gut feeling" turned out to be right.
I understood and empathized with Twilight's struggle in part two: afraid of disappointing an idol she assumed was the smartest pony alive, hearing Starlight's advice and wanting to heed it, but, in light of her recent failure, lacking the confidence to disagree with Starswirl.
That's why I loved the moment where Twilight sees Stygian, forgets everything that's important to her in the moment just like in Twilight's Kingdom, and dives right in to save him. Additionally, I love how well-edited the moment is, how it just cuts to an abrupt black and silence after the Pony of Shadows lets out a terrible roar.
Speaking of Starlight, she was utilized perfectly in this episode. She might not have saved the day herself, but she provided a powerful reminder to Twilight of what it means to be the Princess of Friendship. Although this didn't end up hurting anypony, it still upset Twilight that she even forgot it to begin with.
And apart from all that, this episode does a really cool job of not only drawing parallels between the Elements and the Pillars, but also explaining the lore and meaning behind them without going into too much detail. Past stories involving the Elements, Harmony, Friendship and Destiny speak for themselves here.
The Pony of Shadows is a neat villain. The way he's designed is cool; whenever he forms, all the black tentacles and tendrils he shoots from his wings are very reminiscent of Lovecraftian eldritch horror. His voice echoes like Chrysalis, and he stands as an interesting personification of anti-friendship. In essence, "the Darkness" represents isolation, bitterness, and an opposite to all light and good in the world. I feel like it is Harmony's greatest enemy, it has a connection to Sombra, and we will likely see it appear a few more times before the series' end.
Some begrudge Stygian for being yet another villain with a "tragic backstory," but I think the show has moved beyond just having villains be villains for the sake of it - it's explaining why they're bad, why it's possible to redeem them, and I feel like having the Pony of Shadows echo Nightmare Moon in many aspects was a good way of representing how much the show's writing had grown, despite never straying from its sense of fun and charm.
And that is what Shadow Play did best!
With this as my number two, you can guess what my number one is. And you can probably make the assertion that I really like Starlight Glimmer. She's a big reason why I love this episode so much, but of course, not the only one.
Addressing those first: this episode has probably my favorite concept of all the finales. Alternate universes are great storytelling and characterization tools - they allow us to explore facets of the world we normally couldn't, and this episode does so to let us see more of our favorite villains.
The big three are all great here, it's hard to pick which one if my favorite. Sombra is one of my favorite villains in the show, so it was great seeing him inflict such a grim future upon Equestria. Getting more out of Nightmare Moon was also really neat, and the Changeling victory at the wedding was probably the darkest of them all if you consider what they do and how far they've already won.
But it also brings up an oft-mentioned problem: how do these realities come to exist? Zecora explains it as so - every time the past is messed with, the "river" of time flows down an alternate path (sorry guys, no multiverse remained after being changed). A big theme of this episode is a small change to the past can snowball into something bigger in the present - we see this both in the Sonic Rainboom and Starlight's past.
However, we are shown things like Luna being normal when Discord has won, or Sombra's war with Equestria under the assumption that Chrysalis' invasion failed - or even took place at all. I'm sure we're just not supposed to dwell on that, and assume these factors were changed so each reality could take place.
The Cutie Map played a neat role in this episode as far as lore goes. Similarly to Shadow Play, it's explained in the subtext. The Cutie Map is something I see as a visual manifestation of Equestria's heart - as it came from the Tree of Harmony, and is deeply rooted in the land's history and destiny. It remained existing when the castle itself did not, because Equestria itself sensed that the present was wrong.
Destiny always seems to play a big part in the finales, and Twilight's reformation of Starlight Glimmer seems to be one of them.
I loved Starlight's performance in this episode - her VA is fantastic, she sounds and acts so venomous. Her cleverness is unmatched by any villain in the show to date, and watching her go through all this for revenge is quite sobering to go back and watch after season seven. But it also speaks of the passionate pony underneath all that hatred - she truly did feel like what she did in Our Town was good, horrible as it is.
I'm one of the people who doesn't have a problem with her backstory - because Sunburst leaving her didn't create her drive to create an equal village. Rather, much like what Twilight says about that event leading her to the now, it's what springboarded Starlight to feel that special talents, by their very nature, creates disharmony and fractures friendships.
I could understand young Starlight feeling like Sunburst abandoned her when he never contacted her - I've heard many a people say she should have written to him, but I know what it feels like to be at young age, not hear from you best friend again, and then feel like they don't want to be your friend anymore. Reaching out to them feels like it would cause more pain if they truly didn't, and just never replied.
Because of this event, it led Starlight Glimmer down a path that made her believe any kind of exceptionalism ran the risk of breaking a friendship - not just in talents, but a disagreement, difference of skill, or, just like with Sunburst, separation.
This experience traumatized Starlight, not in an overt way but in a manner that made her feel driven to create a society that would never run such a risk. She manufactured friendships, going so far as to convince herself that brainwashing ponies was necessary, just so she and others would never experience that pain again, and it was up to Twilight to teach her that true friendship is striving through their differences and conflicts together, and emerging from them with their friendship intact.
The scene where she talks down Starlight remains to be one of my favorite scenes in the show. The music is powerful, the tension is high, and both ponies give great dialogue and emotion. Starlight is clearly denying herself from accepting that Twilight is right, because doing so would be acknowledging that she was completely wrong this entire time. But Twilight just keeps hammering and hammering until her resolve crumbles completely.
It sends a powerful message about the meaning of friendship: our ability to work through our differences is what results in stronger friendships, but it's up to us to ensure that it does.
Until the premiere, I've really disliked the feeling this show conveyed about the mane six, just how it seemed only they were important and the center of the universe. And while the latter is potentially true, this episode and everything since the beginning of season five emphasized that everypony's friendship matters, because creating them results in a stronger future than persisting without.
Twilight's role as the Princess of Friendship really comes to a head this episode - she couldn't win through smarts or brute force, but she had to appeal to Starlight using what made her a princess in the first place. She even realizes this when she discusses it with her friends - everything became clear when this occurred to her.
There's many things about this show's characters that warm my heart, but Twilight's friendship with Starlight has quickly become my strongest. Starlight was a sad, broken pony who just needed true friendship, and Twilight continues to change her life for the better just by being herself.
The song at the end of the episode is cheesy and cutesy, but it encapsulates the idea of friendship very well, and serves as a nice parallel to the conformity-driven 'Our Town' from the season premiere.
This is an episode full of good characters and great concepts, and it's one of two finales whose power has never waned on repeat viewings.
It was a tough choice deciding between this one and Cutie Re-mark, but I was actually surprised to find that I liked this one more. You'll probably be shocked to hear that, when it first came out, this was rather one of my lesser-liked finales!
Not because it was bad! Like I said, none of the finales really are. But it took me awhile to "get it" and for it to click with me - not just Starlight's story here, but just the plot as a whole. It went from being an episode I saw as very shallow, to one of the more solid and character-rich finales in the whole series.
To get it out of the way, I do love the on-screen chemistry between Discord and Trixie. Thrusting the two biggest egos in Equestria on the same team just made for some incredible jabs. Seeing Discord handicapped allowed us to see a new, hilariously pathetic but understandable side of him while allowing Trixie to show off her real talent - stage magic.
Discord was only around to see Trixie's smoke bomb trick, but I like that he respects her skill. On the flipside, Discord's ridiculous idea to distract the Changelings, followed by Trixie's quip about it working, is one of my favorite self-aware jokes in the show. Their respective reactions to the situation are fantastic as well, especially Trixie's fear and Discord's fury realizing they took Fluttershy.
Speaking of which, there are some really well-executed "moments" in this episode that stick in my mind. To name my favorites: the Changelings swarming around Trixie had some great sound editing and fade-to-black transitioning, the quickness of Discord summoning a second pig and sending it toward the Hive, Chrysalis "almost" being reformed (the whole composition of that scene and how quickly its mood changes is great), and the escalating tension in Starlight's dream as Luna warns her, is suddenly taken by Changelings (I'm sure in the Waking World she was forcing herself to stay asleep), and then the abrupt cut to black after the pure terror on Starlight's face as she cries, "They're back!"
I could go on about moments like these, but those are the ones that stick out to me the most. Now let's address the bugbear in the room: the Changelings.
As antagonists, I felt they were handled here better than in A Canterlot Wedding. With the lack of magic, and their greater numbers, the Changelings felt very threatening. Chrysalis herself gave Tirek a run for his money as far as intimidation goes, how she snarls and throws Starlight around and ticks the creepiness up to eleven. Wish they were more subtle with their deception, but it's whatever. There's a neat detail when Starlight is talking to "Twilight," and she tries to get closer to her teacher but Twi is uncharacteristically keeping space between them.
I don't have a problem with their reformation. Without addressing Starlight's contribution (which I will get to when I touch upon her story), I felt the sequence of events were very natural. It's not like the Changelings suddenly "turned good," (as we know, they have little idea of how to BE good) but rather, like Thorax said, the Changelings are always starving. When he proved that sharing love can satiate them, they had little reason to believe that they always had to suffer like they have been. It wasn't a betrayal of Chrysalis so much as a toe-dip into an apparent better way.
In fact, it was Chrysalis who turned her back on the Hive - all because she's too hateful to understand that what Starlight and Thorax did was beneficial for her subjects.
I, too, was caught off-guard by the Changelings' redesign. But I've come to like it! I think it's adorable; the colors don't bother me, particularly on Thorax after I've gotten used to it. It's a strange look but the Changelings were strange creatures to begin with, and it's a good "strange" for this show's aesthetic to me.
Though, it took me a while to really "get" what Thorax and the Changelings did, and this is mainly in thanks to Starlight's line, "Sharing love was what made you different to begin with!" I don't know about you, but on a first and subsequent viewing, I was confused. Starlight sounds like she was referring to how Thorax was from the start, when he was first born. It makes sense but not enough to explain what happened - "Wouldn't Thorax have changed already if he was sharing love? That IS what invokes the change, right?"
See what I mean? This problem I had stems from the aforementioned problem MLP usually has with it's writing, in that it's sometimes written not as well/clearly as it should have been, and gives off an incorrect impression.
When I realized that Starlight referred to Thorax being shared love, and having so much of it after making friends that he didn't feel hungry, she wondered what would happen if a Changeling willfully "shared love" - and that invokes the change. From what we see in To Change a Changeling, the change is invoked when a Changeling not only feels love (which is what Thorax was doing in the Crystal Empire), but actively feels it towards another.
With this in mind, it makes me wonder: did Thorax and all of the Changelings feel love for Queen Chrysalis? Maybe this realization is what will inevitably reform her in season eight.
It's a creative way of reforming the Changelings, I came to dig it after understanding all of the implications. But the quickness and vagueness of it all was what really hurt my acceptance of it for a while.
And finally the star of the show: Starlight Glimmer.
As far as character-based stories go, this two-parter went from being one of the weaker showings of Starlight's character in the show to the absolute strongest - even now it still holds that title!
Much like Every Little Thing She Does, I didn't quite understand Starlight's "problem" here. It wasn't very well-defined but that's more because Starlight is a complex personality as far as MLP goes, and a lot of her character lies in subtext. Because Starlight, as we're all very well-aware, has issues. And here, starting with the Sunset Festival, isn't a problem that's solvable by anything but Starlight's own mind.
Simply put, she suffers from a severe lack of confidence, which has actually plagued her throughout season six. This lack of confidence stems from guilt for what she did in the past, and even though Twilight assures her at the very beginning that she's a good pony, Starlight can't believe it. Her heart won't allow her, because Starlight, despite everything she'd done, IS a kindhearted pony! She was severely misguided and awful to be sure, but in her mind she thought she was doing something genuinely good, and that's what separates her from the other villains of MLP.
"Being put in charge," is one of those unclear reasons that confused me, because I didn't feel it was characterized well enough to be an understandable issue with Starlight at first. Why would leading a baking contest scare her so much? Well, huge fuck-up in Every Little Thing She Does still fresh in-mind, coupled with the idea that the ponies whose lives she controlled were so overwhelmingly forgiving of her, alongside what we saw in her first dream, it's abundantly clear that Starlight's breakdown at the festival are a culmination of guilt, surprise, and fear of making another mistake.
Poor gal - but this adventure was clearly just what she needed. Starlight couldn't use her magic as a crutch, for one. But it also forced her to take a leadership role, especially after Trixie was captured, following a very touching scene between the two.
What I love is how real that scene was. As individuals, we're always second-guessing ourselves, with anything; but friends are the people we lean on for reassurance and support. The final scene between Starlight and Trixie captures this relationship wonderfully.
One of my favorite things about Starlight's character is how clever she is - which is circumstantially in full-force this episode. Compared to most other characters, she has a way of approaching problems involving others in a way that utilizes her knowledge of how they would typically act. This sometimes works to her advantage (The Cutie Map, Cutie Re-mark, To Change a Changeling, Fame and Misfortune, A Royal Problem, Shadow Play) as well as it does to her detriment (Every Little Thing She Does, The Crystaling, All Bottled Up).
Although her three successes in season seven could be seen as purely luck-based guesses, Starlight has proven that, when she isn't overcome with fear, she can approach a problem with some pretty sound logic. This episode demonstrates both sides of Starlight, in that she was afraid her old friends would hate her, and able to defeat the Changelings with an educated hunch.
What's cool is that her second dream is a sort of combination of both (and quite telling of her true feelings at the same time). Starlight wants to make amends with her old village, but is now ignored entirely by them, and she doubly fears making Twilight angry. However, she went to bed just feeling in her gut that something was amiss, because Twilight wouldn't ever get angry about Starlight trying to fix a friendship problem. It shows that, even when caught in a delicate state of heart, Starlight's gut is able to sense that something is amiss (of course, she doesn't carry this with Trixie, who clearly wasn't replaced, but Starlight has a habit of going overboard - more nice subtle characterization with such a humorous scene!).
Now forcibly stripped of magic, Starlight had to use her brain to overcome her obstacles and utilize her friends' special qualities. Her words to the Changelings echoes what she learned after her reformation: a kind leader accepts the individuality of her subjects, and values them for what they are and what they provide. The detail of the Changelings looking to one another as they hear this is a nice detail, for it shows that these are ideas which are foreign to them, but agreeable.
And Starlight definitely changed from all this - not only did she step up when she needed to, but she was able to see how much she's changed just from what she was able to accomplish. Her confidence was restored, and forever after the guilt for her past is resolved.
This is a solid two-parter full of laughs, character, and all-around solid writing.
I hope you all enjoyed reading my thoughts as much as I did writing them. This took a lot of work for me to write, so I hope that it gets some kind of notice!
Submitted November 09, 2017 at 04:17PM by LilPotato911
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/comments/7bx6tt/ranking_the_season_finales/?utm_source=ifttt
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