I know I don't usually review episodes in blog posts, but I am doing so this time because this episode has been very polarizing for the fandom, and is a pretty big deal. And also, because I have a fairly large amount to say.

I don't want to scare people off with this post; I thought this was one of the worst episodes yet, but I'm not going to be spewing mindless hate. There were many aspects to this episode that I know other people like, and I like that some people liked this episode. It just wasn't for me.

Also, before I get started, I'd like to say that I'm not hating on Twilicorn, nor do I think that the show is ruined. While the show will definitely have to change in order to still make sense, I don't think that Twilicorn will make it impossible for the show to be good.

I'm only talking about why I didn't like THIS episode.

In order to explain why I didn't like this episode, I must explain what I like about most other episodes.

-The humor: This show has great, character driven humor. It's innocent, it's funny, and it's not forced. It's not like other children's shows these days, with their toilet humor, or over-the-top surreal humor (I like surreal humor when done right, but sometimes, it's just stupid), sad attempts at being random, and drama coated in rudeness that is supposed to be funny for some reason.

I like MLP's little gags, the visual humor, references only adults would get, and the fact that they squeeze so much humor out of character simply being themselves without it seeming too repetitive.

This episode had very little of that. Yeah, we had Pinky drinking the water just so she could spit it out (which got me to actually laugh out loud), we had Rainbow's pimp hat (which I loved), we had a few little things with the Mane 6 not being able to keep up with each others talents (which had some pretty funny parts), but over all, the entire episode was sub-par storytelling.

-The pacing: The writers really know how to make 22 minutes seem a lot longer than it really is. Not so much with this episode. It was over so quickly, it felt like half an episode. The problem got no build up, it was there literally from the beginning of the episode. After they explained it in a song (which I'll get to later), Twilight explained how it happened in about a minute, and in another minute she already had a plan to fix it. This wouldn't have been a problem, it's happened plenty in other episode; the thing is, in those ones, the first plan didn't work. It created more tension, since the obvious, most likely solution didn't work, forcing the characters to think outside the box. But not here, it was basically: "My friends don't know who they are anymore? Well, what can I do... Oh, I know, I'll just tell them who they are! Hey look, it worked!" And I know what you're thinking, that Twi didn;t just tell them, she showed them what their true destinies were, but really, all she did was say "hey, Fluttershy, Dash is having some trouble with some animals, maybe you should help her?" and about a minute later, Fluttershy was back to normal. Repeat for the rest of the Mane 6, and the entire "conflict" of the episode was resolved in a few minutes.

- The plot: No, not that kind of plot... although this would've been a great opportunity for some Celestia plot, and I don't remember seeing any.

Tying into what I said above, MLP generally has interesting and well written stories. Even though it targets kids, I find myself very interested in what happens. The conflicts seem real, and the mane 6 have to actually work at fixing them. This episode had a great initial conflict. All the ponies marks and destinies got switched? Surely they'll have to go through some pretty hard stuff that will really test them in order to find themselves again... right?

...

...

...or... Twilight could just go tell them what their talents are. That's cool too, I guess -_-

-The music: I never thought I'd say this, but this episode just had too much singing. I've always liked how MLP often has full musical numbers, but in this case, they used the old "a minute of talking and a minute of singing", which has always bugged me, no matter what I'm watching. It didn't help that the one full song (Celestia's) didn't seem up to the usual quality.

And finally, my thoughts on this Twilicorn business. Personally, I don;t think it was a good idea. I don't hate it, I just think that it will be harder to suspend disbelief with a Mane character being an Alicorn Princess, all of whom have been shown to be insanely powerful. Twi is powerful as hell to begin with, giving her a boost is just going to make it so more episodes will have Twilight conveniently forgetting she has magic so the other characters can solve problems. However, looking back, Twi not using magic to solve all the problems even when she probably could hasn't bugged me much in the past, so I trust the writer's ability to continue. Also, it will open up some new stories revolving around her learning to be a Princess, but ultimately, I don't really see a benefit to having her become an Alicorn.