MLP:FIM S6E01&2 - The Crystalling - Grading & Discussion

Episode Title: "The Crystalling (Part 1 & 2)"
Air Date: March 26th, 11:00 AM Eastern Time (3:00 PM GMT/UTC)

Summary: "Twilight and the rest of the Mane Six head to the Crystal Empire for the 'Crystalling' of Cadance and Shining Armor's new baby while Twilight takes the opportunity to present Starlight with her first friendship lesson."

Live Streams:
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REMEMBER: NO OPEN SPOILERS UNTIL 3 PM ET (7 PM GMT)

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Ruminations:
Here we go, the season 6 premiere of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic! We're going to get a lot crammed into this episode, I think. We have the continued resolution and redemption of Starlight Glimmer, along with the creation of a storyline involving the Royal Couple's new foal! There are so many opportunities here, and this could be the way to start off the new season of MLP with a bang. I'm not certain where it's going to go, or what is going to happen, but I am all on board the hype train, and there are no brakes! So discuss below, and grade the episode after you've seen it!

EPISODE TRAILER (spoilers):

 

Ponies are back?!

I still have to catch up on the last few eps of season 5. I think Hooffields/McColts is where I left off.

Guess I know what I'm watching tonight.

 

Yep! It caught a bunch of people off guard, myself included, when they announced the show was coming back so soon. We've got the most recent episodes over at Brony Kingdom if you want to watch them there.

 

Indeed. She looks adorable, and the baby talk/gurgling is so freaking cute.
I'm apparently still surprising people with the fact that the season starts today. Someone emailed me and said "You mean March of this year?!" so I'm hoping everyone can catch up. I'm trying to spread the word!

 

Sadly, it seems Hax is no longer streaming MLP, so I've had to go to one of the alternatives. I have had to run It's Always a Good Time and Hardware Store myself as the lead up!

But, ponies are back!

 

Even though I really don't like the suddenness of Starlight's redemption, I love that song, and the final shot...

 

Spoiler

And it was Tara and Andrew Francis too!

A nice strong A from me.

 

The "Twilight and the Crystal Heart Spell" book told us her backstory back in early 2013, she was born a pegasus and abandoned by her parents to starve to death in the woods.

She found her way to a village that nursed her back to health but was under a curse. She used her magic to cure them all, Celestia heard of it and because of her magical potential, she was made an alicorn as a young teenager, shown a young filly to look after to help her socialise again (Twilight).

 

Sooo...

Spoiler: Spoiler 1

So we've got another washout from Celestia's magical school. Does she have sort of GED program for failed students? At least this one went more for the D&D shutin and less the rule-the-world way of life

Spoiler: Spoiler 2

Did they effectively whipe out Tia's and Luna's backstory from the Journal Of The Two Sisters, or did they leave enough wiggle room with the whole "history of Equestria" wording

Good episode, overall. Not great though, didn't really focus enough on one story or the other to flush either out fully.

 

Given "Equestria" is intertchangeable as both the Kingdom (odd given it never had a King but yeah...) and the entire world itself, it could be either.

But I think the inference is pretty clear, Flurry Heart is the first Alicorn to be born and not bestowed with that power later in life like the other four.

 

Which opens up a whole new can of worms regarding Alicornhood and the Princesses. Onto my thoughts about the episode (SPOILERS AHEAD):

That was a solid opener to the season. I was gratified to see that Starlight's disposition in the new season is one of the hopeful redeemed. In other words, she knows she's far from perfect, that she made a horrible mistake, that she is contrite for that mistake, and that she is trying to better herself.

I like that she missteps on occasion. She didn't want to see Sunburst, she tried to dissuade Spike from helping, and she was quick to drop the subject when it looked like things weren't going to work out between her and her old friend. To me that speaks of someone who knows they need to confront their past, but is scared of rejection and condemnation. All of this speaks well of her character. This was the best case scenario I had laid out at the end of last season. So it is what I had hoped to see, and I look forward to her growth over this season.

Princess Flurry Heart. Sweet Celestia, is she adorable! I think it's funny that since she is an Alicorn foal, she has the same idiosyncrasies of a newborn baby (temperamental magic, ability to fly erratically) but amplified a hundred fold because of her wellspring of magic power. Watching an exhausted Shining Armor and a frazzled Cadance try to keep their baby under control was great. It's also clear that Pinkie Pie is a wonderful babysitter, as we know from "Baby Cakes," and it's interesting to see even she is out of her element here.

The story itself was good. Granted, there wasn't much to it to justify a 45 minute episode, but while the pacing was a bit off, it was still serviceable, and the only reason the episode doesn't get an A+. I like how it turns out Sunburst has the intellect to do great magic, but not the power to back it up. It feels right that Starlight ended up being the muscle behind his brains (and brains in her own right).

Focusing back on Starlight, I am finding that I do like her. Just as I gave Sunset Shimmer a chance, giving Starlight Glimmer a chance to redeem herself has proven to reap the reward of seeing a potentially great character grow into her role in this universe. Twilight sees that potential in her and has taken her on as her student. The nice thing is that like Sunset Shimmer in the EqG world, Starlight isn't magically perfect in every way, and isn't a Mary Sue. She's clearly intelligent, talented, and adept, but she knows she has a long way to go in learning the value of friendship, just as Sunset had to travel.

Back to the story, so we see the Crystal Heart get shattered. To be honest, I was expecting a little bit more than what we got. It was less "Holy Luna on a Moonbeam, the Crystal Heart has shattered! WE'RE DOOMED!" and more "Hey, uh, that doesn't look good. We'll probably have to do something about that." I realize they're trying to fit an entire season opener storyline into 45 minutes, but this is where the pacing issues showed themselves. There were other areas where the fat could have been trimmed, and then used to supplement this particular scene, and to give it the gravity it deserved.

It's a bit of a ramble, I know, but I just watched it, and it will take some time to absorb. All in all, a solid season opener, and a good episode overall. The episode wasn't as good as previous season openers, but it does set up a significant number of plot threads that could be followed, so I'm willing to toss it a gimme in order to see what the rest of the season has in store.

Also, I think Starlight and Sunburst look good together. Oh, am I shipping them? Of course I am. So everything taken into consideration, this episode gets a solid "A" from me, and a sigh of relief that the season has started, and looks like it's going to be a good one. Onward!

 

G. M. Berrow writes the show based "chapter books" (and the novel for Equestria Girls, Perdita Finn now writes all the EQG stuff) and is now a main show writer. She got the Pinkie book canonised in Mane Attraction, and other subtle nods to her books have been cropping up.

But the book has three timelines going on, sort of. Most of it seems to be the memories of a Twilight years after the show ruling her own Kindgom, thinking back on her early days as a Princess. She brings up Cadance's story comparing it to her own, then the main story set around the Crystal Heart Spell adventure, where Trixie and Gilda are the antagonists. So it would likely have happened off screen in season 4 or so.