Originally posted in the Magical Mystery Cure discussion thread.

Like most of us, I was very hesitant about the whole "Twilight becomes an Alicorn" thing. And actually seeing the episode, it seems like they tried to squeeze two distinct plots together. But the writers have pulled through some terrible decisions before (giving Twilight a long-lost brother, namely). So I was determined to keep myself in check and put faith in the writers. So, did they deliver a satisfying episode?

Not really, no.

The whole thing is just plagued with problems, plotholes, shoddy writing, and shark-jumping.

Exhibit A: The pacing is far too fast.

As many have already said, this episode tries to squeeze in way too many things into a short time. On the surface, the plot doesn't sound like an awfully convoluted ordeal: The cutie marks get switched, the ponies go through some existential distress, Twilight fixes everything, and then she becomes an Alicorn. It sounds like it could be doable in 22 minutes, but, evidently, it wasn't.

The thing is, the plot follows that basic skeleton, but it doesn't do it well. We're told that Twilight screwed up the cutie marks by performing a faulty spell, but we're told a significant way through the episode via flashback. Why could this not have gone in the beginning? Giving us that bit of exposition up front would have made the plot so much more coherent. As it is, the flashback just interrupts the plot and makes the story feel incredibly choppy.

I was sorely disappointed at how little we were given of the ponies' existential distress. The writers are amazing at that sort of thing. Remember Party of One and Lesson Zero? But we don't get any of that. We see the ponies being sad at their new jobs, sure. But none of the humor comes from them. Rainbow Dash's scenes aren't funny because of how Rainbow Dash acts; the jokes are centered around the (apparently carnivorous?) animals. They don't get any funny actions, any funny dialog, or any funny situations. Hey look, Rainbow Dash is trying to take care of animals! Pinkie Pie is trying to applebuck! Applejack is trying to make a dress! So what? If the writers were trying to make these situations funny, they failed spectacularly. The real effort is made not on writing for the characters, but for writing the scenarios in which the characters find themselves. We're not shown how Rainbow Dash would attempt to care for animals in her own way; we're shown Rainbow Dash, in a cottage, briefly attempting to care for animals. The focus is not on Rainbow Dash, it's on the zany situation.

So much could have been added to make this episode amazing. Rainbow Dash, boisterous and confident, taking care of animals? Fluttershy, as nervous and quiet as ever, trying to make ponies laugh? Applejack, every the tough tomboy, taking the reins of Rarity's dressmaking business? These could make for great episodes in themselves! But unfortunately, that's not what we're given. The characters' personalities could bring so much humor and drama to their environments, but they're shafted in favor of having them sit there and look sad. So much opportunity, for humor and drama heartwarming, lost.

Everything in the plot gets moved along far too quickly to be of any notable significance. Twilight gets sad, but only for a few seconds. The cutie marks are switched, but before you know it everything is back to normal. It's very hard to get invested in the story when it moves so quickly. This episode could have been a spectacular two-parter, with part one focusing on the cutie mark debacle. If they did the conflict right (which they didn't, as explained below), it really could have slowed down and shifted the focus back onto the characters, and away from the situations the characters find themselves in.

Not only is the episode's main conflict rushed, but the conflict's resolution is so quick that you could miss it if you blink at the wrong time. Because unfortunately...

Exhibit B: The "resolution" isn't a resolution at all.

How does Twilight fix everything? Well, first she gets sad. Understandable. Then Spike says, "But Twilight, they're your friends!" Then, all pretenses of being sad gone without a trace, Twilight looks at a photo, her cutie mark appears in her pupils, and she figures out how to fix everything.

Wait, what?

How does Twilight figure out the solution? Nothing happened! There was no big revelation about friendship. She didn't learn anything. She didn't experiment with magic. She didn't ask Celestia for help. She didn't do anything. Where was this solution supposed to have appeared from?

The writers haven't messed up this badly before. In The Return of Harmony, Twilight gets motivated by reading her old letters. In the series premiere, Twilight discovers the Elements of Harmony by realizing that she's made friends. In this, though, she just... comes up with the answer out of nowhere, I guess. You can't chalk this up to some lesson about friendship, as she doesn't learn anything prior. And she doesn't say "I learned this about friendship and now I know the answer!". She just figures it out, somehow, and refuses to tell us.

And even past that, how she restores her friends makes little sense either. By getting them to perform the actions they love doing... they're fixed? When Pinkie Pie almost makes someone laugh (as she is restored, interestingly, before anyone in her audience laughs), she just starts glowing, and putting her Element on just fixes her. Why does this fix her? I thought cutie marks determined a pony's destiny or special talent. Why does putting Pinkie into what was her destiny make her susceptible to being fixed? Where does this resolution come from? Why do they fixed? How do they get fixed? Perhaps these are all moot points, though, because...

Exhibit C: The conflict doesn't make sense.

So Twilight gets a faulty spell that Starswirl the Bearded wrote. This spell takes the Elements of Harmony and mixes them up. Why would this spell even exist? Why would Starswirl create this spell?

Maybe that's a minor issue, but the mixing of the Elements of Harmony isn't handled well at all. Five of the Mane Six get their cutie marks mixed up, which, according to what the show has told us about cutie marks, has changed their destiny and their special talent. That is, what they are talented at doing. So why is Rainbow Dash bad with animals? Why can't Applejack make dresses? Why does this episode seem to contradict what we've been told in the past? Rarity has the weather-mare's cutie mark. Why does she suck at managing the weather, then?

One could make the argument that cutie marks aren't what cause the talents; they're only a sign of them. So mixing the marks up doesn't actually change the ponies on any substantial level. But if this is the case, why do they appear to be suffering from amnesia? Just because Applejack now has Rarity's cutie mark doesn't mean she just forgets her old life, does it? Why do the ponies act like they know nothing of their former personality? But they only forget selectively, apparently. Applejack forgets about her farm and her family, sure, but she remembers who Twilight is. And who the rest of the Mane Six are. And basically everything that doesn't have to do with her apple career.

Why would a switch in cutie marks give them such amnesia? Why don't they remember what they're good at? They sing about how they're only doing what their cutie marks "tell them to". So, it turns out the cutie marks do compel them, then? If that's the case, why did they need to get amnesia? Why are they bad at their new special talents? What is the nature of cutie marks, already? Are they the cause of a pony's talents, or are they a sign of talents that already exist?

And that's not even the end of it. When the Mane Six are out of commission, Ponyville grinds to a halt. But... why? The Mane Six have been on lengthy journeys before. Why is this different? Sure, Pinkie Pie couldn't farm if her life depended on it. But Big Mac and Applebloom are still there, right? How did the farm function, say, when Applejack was away at the Crystal Empire in the season three premiere? Why does Applejack's absence suddenly cause the farm to die?

And for that matter, why didn't Big Mac and Applebloom do anything? "Hey Pinkie, you suck at farming. Help us find Applejack". That exchange alone would have accomplished just as much as what Twilight did, after all. There's really no good reason for the writers to decide that the Mane Six are suddenly the cornerstone of society itself.

Exhibit D: The songs are too numerous, and eat up too much screentime.

For some reason, I guess the team decided to pack this episode full of songs. So much so, in fact, that there's almost more song than actual dialog. And while this helps somewhat to move the plot along, it doesn't alleviate the fact that the plot is too fast in the first place. A cheery musical number may make the story's breakneck pace easier to swallow, but the songs themselves may be a part of why the pacing is so quick in the first place.

Consider the song that the episode opens with, in which Twilight joyfully sings about Ponyville (in a manner that seems infinitely more fitting of Pinkie Pie, but okay). Why is this song here? What is it trying to convey? "That's easy," you could be saying. "It's showing how happy Ponyville is and how content Twilight is, so that the contrast later will mean more". True, but why did this message have to be expressed in such a lengthy song that could have gone to more important things, like the dialog? There's no reason Twilight couldn't have just been taking a walk with Spike and casually mentioning how happy Ponyville is. "Gee Spike, Ponyville is so lively today! I'm glad Celestia sent us to live in such a joyful place." There you go. The entire purpose of the song could have been condensed to a single line of dialog, with nothing important being lost. Adding a musical number for its own sake is never a good idea, and this episode does it in spades.

Seriously, you can't go three minutes without someone starting to sing. And the songs are all completely forgettable. They're not terrible, thankfully, but they're certainly not some of Ingram's best work. All the time that the songs took up could have been used in a much more responsible way.

Exhibit E: The ending is rushed, out of place, and nonsensical.

Twilight turns into an Alicorn, and now she's a princess. Such a huge, game-changing plot twist surely warrants at least a little exposition, but no. Instead, we're treated to a dialog that essentially boils down to this:

Celestia: You're a princess, Twilight!

Twilight: Is there a book about that?

Celestia: Nope!

Twilight: I have absolutely no apprehensions about this whatsoever!

Mane Six: Yay!

Seriously though- they take Twilight's new status as a princess way too quietly. This is a huge development, but nobody even bats an eye. Twilight's friends aren't terribly confused or surprised. Twilight herself accepts her new position startling quickly. She's crowned a princess, and that's that. Not one of the characters stops to recognize the significance of this. This makes the ending feel so very, very rushed, and so incredibly artificial. If the characters themselves don't care about the significance of this, why should the viewer?

And going past the rushed nature of it, the entire development is completely out of place. It's hard to imagine not expecting it, as the brony community has known about it for weeks already. But withing the show itself, absolutely nothing even hints at Twilight becoming a princess. Yeah, we get a few hints of Celestia about Twilight being ready for something. But this is quite an unexpected turn of events if you take what's been told through the show itself. The fact that the ending was so unforgivably rushed makes this whole thing seem incredibly out of place.

The implications for the rest of show are grim, as well. Twilight being an Alicorn could very easily mess with the group dynamic that makes the show so appealing in the first place. Setting Twilight up on a pedestal is exactly the kind of thing they shouldn't do, and if they don't tread carefully, this could be the beginning of the end. However, they have shown their inability to write great adventure episodes in the past (see The Crystal Empire), so I'm not going to hop on the doomsayer bandwagon just yet.

Conclusion

Take everything I said above, and you'll get the idea of why I disliked this episode so much. It's rushed, it's sloppy, the writing is bad, the songs are pointless, and the ending is terrible. A two-parter would have made this episode so much better, but as it is, I honestly believe this is one of the worst episodes of the series. As in, right up there with MMMystery on the Friendship Express and The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well. It genuinely baffles me that so many people think this episode is amazing. If this episode was the best they could do, I wouldn't be a fan of the show in the first place.