I was about a week late to the party this time around: I didn't get to watch the MLP:FiM Season 4 finale, Twilight's Kingdom, until just this evening, six days after it aired. By that time, more than 300 people had voted for it, with close to 90% of them saying they loved it. Easily the highest-rated episode of the season, and I'd bet one of the most highly-rated of the whole series.

I think that's awesome. Yet, I was not among that 90%. In fact, after a couple of hours of conflicted thought and agonizing, I ended up voting only "Meh, it was okay."

Why, after such an epic finale?

This two-part episode brought Equestria to the brink of total destruction, and brought even the most powerful of creatures to their knees. Even the almighty Discord was hamstrung. The episode capped off everything that not just this season, but the entire show, had built up to.

And yet, it's just the end of a season. There will be another season, it seems, and now we're going to have to wonder, how are they going to top that?

In my opinion, they pulled out all the stops for this finale. They gave the fans just about everything they ever wanted - singing Luna, the four princesses working together, validation of Twilight's role as princess, a great villain (from G1, no less), a test of Discord's loyalty and a fleshing out of his character, Derpy, a helpless Celestia, and an epic Dragonball Z-style fight involving Twilight. They gave us cameos of every important character in this season, flashbacks to some of the season's most important moments, more pop culture references, 3D spins, closure to the keys subplot, and even a bit of shipping as canon (particularly Discord + Celestia). They even gave us a couple of great songs, and they didn't overload it with songs (like they did in Season 3). What more could you ask for?

And yet, now that they've done that, how can they possibly top it next season?

My fear is that they're going to have to pull out even more stops to keep the show going. If they don't, fans will lose interest - the wad has been blown, as it were. And if they do, they're going to go to even more ridiculous lengths than they already have - a phenomenon known as "jumping the shark". And in all of that, I fear they're going to lose what made this show special in the first place: How relatable it is to real life.

Don't get me wrong - I thought this episode had a GREAT plot, and the best villain since Nightmare Moon. It had a great lesson, a great tie-in to the Elements of Harmony that were central to the first three seasons, and it did not disappoint in both its depth and breadth of entertaining values. On its own merits, it's a fantastic bit of animation, writing and production.

But I found myself wishing for the simplicity and relative innocence of my favorite slice-of-life episodes in Seasons 1 and 2. Those were episodes I could relate to. Those had lessons that helped me, directly in some cases, become a better person. Those were the things that attracted me to this show and this fandom in the first place. What lesson was to be learned here? That if I possess enough magic and then sacrifice it to save my friends, I'll save the world? It was just a little too far-fetched for me.

Also, I fear that the Mane 6 as a group just went through the same fundamental transformation here that Twilight went through at the end of Season 3: In the same way that Twilight rather suddenly went from a student to a Princess, now the whole group has gone from being just a bunch of friends - and, mind you, ordinary ponies that have other ordinary friends, families (in most cases), and responsibilities - to a group of rulers, with whatever additional responsibilities those entail. Their lives are now irrevocably changed.

Perhaps it's about time they got the recognition they deserved for saving Equestria, what, nine times over? But they aren't the same Mane 6 they were before.

I came out of Season 3 arguing with a large portion of the fandom - even with my own wife - that Twilight Sparkle's ascension to princesshood was a good thing. That it opened new doors in her development, new amazing growth opportunities for the Mane 6, and all sorts of new and important lessons for not only children, but even adults, to take to heart. I was brimming with ideas on how they could use this transformation to take the show in a whole new direction, and make more of this change than just giving Twilight wings and a new line of toys.

Unfortunately, my disappointment is twofold. First, they didn't do nearly enough with Twilight this season - she was a princess and an alicorn in name only after the first two episodes, until more than halfway into the season when a bunch of kids finally noticed her status and turned into a zombie horde as a result. It wasn't until the last few episodes that Twilight actually started getting to BE a princess, and the central point of the finale was that she had to discover her place? While I appreciate that the studio was being honest about her marginalization through out the season, it just felt... wrong to me somehow.

And second, as I mentioned, the Mane 6 as a whole just underwent the same sort of transformation. While it's been obvious throughout the whole show that their fates will always be intertwined, now they've become co-leaders - without any real indication that that's what they wanted. Now that they have this crystal castle to replace the library that used to be Twilight's home, there's really no way they can just continue being the same pony folk they were up to now... is there?

Funny, I remember lots of people saying that about Twilight last year. And many would be right to say that she wasn't the same this year. But now, I find myself wondering, just how is this show going to change going into Season 5? What'll happen to our favorite ponies? What'll happen to the slice-of-life stories that made this show awesome, the relatable everyday ponies that I fell in love with? Will Hasbro and DHX be able to keep up the momentum they've built up?

My fear is that whatever they do in Season 5 won't be enough. My fear is that this finale will have set the bar too high, and in order to top it, they'll need to do something so utterly ridiculous that the magic will be lost.

I think that Twilight's Kingdom was too much, too soon. Too many loose ends still not wrapped up - Rainbow Dash's quest to get into the Wonderbolts. Scootaloo learning to fly. The CMC finally earning their cutie marks. Had this been the last two episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, it would have left the show incomplete. This excellent two-parter certainly had the production value of a series finale, and as such, it should have been reserved for a later time. But it's merely the end of a season. And unlike the similarly over-dramatic finale of Season 3, this one was so amazing...

...that it makes me feel like there's little left to look forward to.

Source: S04:E25+26 - Twilight's Kingdom