"The Crystal Empire: Part 1 and Part 2" was an absolutely fantastic start to Season 3!!!! The songs were great, the message of self-sacrifice for the greater good was solid and well executed in its delivery, the Mane 6 and Spike were a joy to see again, along with Cadance and Shining Armor! The laughs were solid, the action and suspense were sick, and as usual, the magic of friendship was great!

I guess the only thing I was disappointed by was King Sombra. Don't get me wrong, he was a scary and dangerous threat; I guess I was just expecting a little more dialogue from him, but hey, we probably wouldn't have gotten nearly as much of the Mane 6's shenanigans at the Crystal Fair if he'd had more screen time. Also, he was pretty much the first (and to date only) villain of the show DHX straight up killed, so that's something. I mean, he kinda blew up at the end there, it's not like he was purified or sent flying like Queen Chrysalis and the Changelings. I guess overall I get everypony's complaints about Sombra, but at the same time, even if I did want to see more of him, his presence as it was still worked for me. I don't think any other villain in the show has really ever had such a continuous sense of foreboding for so long in two episodes as Sombra did. The suspense throughout both episodes was amazing, and even from a distance, the guy was a major threat; he basically had every single thing that could've spoiled his plans covered, and some of his traps were downright devious and evil, especially that door that shows you your worst fears! While the few times he actually appeared throughout the episode were disappointing overall, the suspense that you felt throughout both episodes, even in the midst of the Crystal Fair, was great, and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. So while as a villain himself he had a lot more potential to do more, I overall love the role he played in the execution of both episodes.

Buck me, buck me, BUCK ME!!!!!!!

Speaking of Cadance, I will add that seriously, she never thought to check the top of the castle's tower beforehand? I'm just saying, she's got wings.

I guess you could argue she was busy keeping that shield up the entire time, but she didn't even notice it when she first flew in? IDK, I feel like she would've at least had 5 minutes at some point to check!!!

Crystaaaaa- the buck? Did that seriously just happen???

The little character interactions were incredibly polished and great to see; honestly, I think it was a lot more balanced than the Canterlot Wedding episodes, which focused so much on Twilight, whereas this time we got a nice balance of Twilight and the rest of the Mane 6, and even a bunch of shots of Cadance and Shining Armor together, which were really sweet (although my favorite of the latter had to be, as I previously mentioned, Shining Armor chucking Cadance

).

The songs were once again fantastic; the biggest surprise for me was probably how delightful the reprise at the end of Part 2 was, since reprises can sometimes feel unnecessary or tacked on. But no, that was a wonderful reprise at the end! So glad to see that Daniel Ingram continues to do wonderful work for the show!!!

Finally, the episode was incredibly dark. Usually we just hear about how bad things were for ponies under a villain (Discord, Nightmare Moon) or how bad they will be (Chrysalis), but this time, we actually saw ponies in slavery?!?! Dark, so dark! That's what I think Sombra ultimately added the most to the episode; as a villain himself, he was quite a let down, not gonna argue that, the guy simply didn't do that much or say that much. But, he added such a constant sense of suspense and foreboding to both episodes (that really did a lot to add to both episodes' atmosphere) that I did appreciate a lot of what he added to both episodes' execution. So overall, I'm not really disappointed in the results, even if he himself was lackluster as a villain.

Overall, Season 3 got off to a fantastic start with "The Crystal Empire: Part 1 and Part 2". It set the tone for the rest of the season and showed that, whether or not this would be MLP's final season, DHX wasn't going to back down and instead was going to pull out all the stops to make this season as epic as possible, despite the reduced number of episodes. Great season opener, one of the highlights of the entire season, and most definitely always worth a rewatch!