>>26390Well I guess I should put my long lengthy review here. It's not perfect, but bare with it.
This post will be VERY SPOILERY
I did not have high hopes for this season at all. Mostly everybody constantly being negative put me in a bad mood about the outcome. That's why I have bin slowly disappearing from the website because I really didn't want any hype, in fear that it would lead to disappointment. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to watch s4. I gave in and watched it anyways. This was the make it or break it season.
The episode starts out like the average mlp episode. Everyone is just doin… stuff. Twilight is practicing flying for the upcoming sun celebration or whatever it's called. She is having issues of course, It's an interesting side-character development. Twilight doesn't really like her friends calling her a princess, which I am glad they addressed that. It really adds a more realistic feel to their friendship rather then "I am princess but we still friends, k?". I am also glad they threw in the whole "It's not everybodies dream to become a princess". I'm liking the dialogue about friendship and how the princess thing has not changed anything. It really felt genuine to me instead of just feeling a forced friendship just because the plot demands it. For me, it feels like the first time I REALLY feel like they are friends.
Please don't ever make that face again Pinkie Pie.
WOW I AM REALLY glad they addressed Celestia's feelings about banishing her sister. Again this is another genuine moment to me. This scene did it perfectly too. They also added that every time she had never looked forward to raising the sun without her sister. Sure it's pretty obvious that nobody wanted to banish her sister but it was never gone into such detail like this episode. this has also let me connect to Celestia much better, as she really felt void of emotion or atleast had no remorse to sending her sister to the moon, but that was because they had really never addressed it prior to this episode.
This episode is starting to lead in the direction that Luna is trying to take over again. I figured this was going to be another predictable episode.
[seen enough hentai joke here]
The BigMac eyuup/nope bit would have bin funny had they not made him say eyuup before every damn time he tried to grab a root. Also spike passing out felt like a very forced joke. These are small complaints, but I hope they improve on the humor this season. On a good note, this episode's background music is really adding a lot of atmosphere to it.
We come to the scene where the citizens are trying to figure out what is going on and are looking to Twilight for answers. The guards pull her in and tell her that they are seeking orders from her since all the other powers are missing or busy. They handled this scene pretty well too, (besides the spike passing out bit, that was stupid) instead of it feeling like a forced scene to re-illiterate on the fact that "your a princess, so now you gotta do princess shit".
Wow why do these clouds have shards of glass in them.
That looks pretty dangerous.
I loved the Rarity scene with tea attacking the cat. Seriously, fuck that cat.
Another forced joke, with spike and the seat belt. But then Twilight blinks into her home and spike crashed into the window which was a bit a better gag and a little more subtle. That bit seemed a bit less forced. Subtly is always a good thing. Then they ruin it and add another forced spike joke.
"I get it, I need to work on my flying."
Yes, let's not kill that gag.
A cute hoofbump with Pinkie Pie, some nice dialogue between AJ and Twilight and great background music. I like how everybody is getting a bit pumped up for using the elements.
The discord scene is pretty good, except for Delancie's terrible singing. This scene had good dialogue and pretty good jokes. Discord doesn't feel ruined at all like other people have bin saying ever since the reforming episode.
This scene pretty much pointing us in the wrong direction of who we think is responsible for all the crap going on (unless your some sort of weird psychic who guessed it was somehow Discord's fault).
We take a trip to the past with an impressive transformation scene. The dialogue between the sisters was very strong and powerful. Nicole Oliver absolutely NAILED IT with this scene. She voiced that "Lower the moon" line so perfectly with the tone of anger and distress. After getting shot down we have a brief emotional moment with twilight. Then Celestia pulls out the elements and sends her sister to the moon. This was a powerful scene. It again re-enforces the feeling of sadness and regret that Celestia went through from banishing her sister.
This was an amazing scene overall and I wish it was longer.
Discord then lightens the mood with a pretty funny joke.
I really like how the attention to detail in this episode too. The sisters look pretty roughed up and it implies there was definitely some conflict before this. I also liked how they managed to put in a reasonable explanation for why discord was turned to stone in that pose. That was pretty clever.
"I am going to need more popcorn" *lol dats a joke stinger*
God I hate musical stingers like that.
After fending off a crocodile, Applejack somewhat reluctantly tells Twilight that she thinks it would be better off if she went somewhere safe. This is an excellent representation of Applejack's element, honesty. A very subtle but not forced example of Applejack being honest with somebody, rather then the first two episodes where AJ just tells Twilight "trust me". AJ is getting alot of much needed attention in this episode and I am loving every bit of it. Then some emotional feels.
Twilight heads back into the forest only to get assaulted by some carnivorous plants that use a type of sleeping powder to immobilize it's prey so it can't escapes it's grasp. (Why is everything in this forest like some sort of Japanese rape fantasy?)
A neat little action scene goes by, and the end bit where Pinkie goes "Tada!" and then Twilight zaps one in the background was cute and epic too.
*Friendship speech*
Actually this scene was good too. The background music was pretty powerful too.
Now we got a mystery lockbox which will likely be explored at the end of S4.
Over all this episode REALLY surpassed my expectations. The camera work, lore exploration, music and plot was just fantastic. This is for sure one of my new favorite episodes in the series. It really raises the bar and I really hope the next episodes live up to the expectations this episode has brought me.
I am very impressed with this episode.
I want to hear everybody's opinions on it.
tl;dr Great episode, was not disappointed.
