Really I was rather disappointed by this finale. For most of this season I loved the direction it took but this finale just didn’t do it for me. It seems to me that this finale has something of an identity crisis. It tries to build into an epic confrontation which it seemingly succeeds with up until the actual confrontation itself.
The whole wedding crashing was a nice set piece but everything seemed to start falling apart for me the moment the Changeling Queen started telling her plan to everyone in the room. This little cliché I have seen time after time again in kid shows and I used to love them. With the direction this episode was heading however it seemed to just be a slap in the face that this is still supposed to be for kids which really offset the atmosphere. The part with Celestia being defeated seemed weak to me. For someone who has the power to send a mare to the freaking moon, change night into day, and seems to have lived for around a millennium to be so easily defeated screams either a cop out or “We are f***ed!” Unfortunately it comes off as the former by the conclusion.
The sight of Canterlot in ruins bounced the show back to this “epic” conclusion. I have no complaints with the ensuing dash for the elements of harmony. I have no issues with the capture at the end. I do have issues with the fact everyone seemed to give after that up until the love of two people spontaneously saves the day (as expected for the kiddies). That just didn’t fit with the desperation of the situation. To say the conclusion was rather rushed is an understatement. The conclusion was just another miracle solution that saved the day. For most of the series I would find that to be acceptable but with the struggle going on in the end, the solution seemed cheap as hell.
The episode seemed torn between sticking to the younger audience while trying to appeal a lot to bronies. Usually this can be done successfully in other episodes yet it just seems to just fail for me during this episode sadly. There seemed to be too much appeal to the tastes of an older audience mixed in with the clichés and basis of a kids show (or perhaps vice versa). I personally think that the brony influence should only go as far as to effect small portions of the show such as small jokes, cameos, or maybe a plot change in line with the show’s established atmosphere. This darker tone shows promise as a standalone but in the end it didn’t mix well with what MLP is already.
Well those are my complaints in a rather messy nutshell. I did enjoy the episode however. I just felt it could have been better realized.