ShootingStar159

Damn, I missed it! First vote I missed.

For the same reason Starlight couldn’t permanently replace someone’s cutie mark with the equal mark she created. Their cutie marks would find their way back to their owners. The fact that she couldn’t just swap Celestia and Luna’s marks at will backs this up, cutie mark Magic is more complicated than cntrl+x, cntrl+v.

I don’t believe so. There’s a reason Starlight needed the cutie mark vault to store her villagers cutie marks. As we saw, they would automatically seek out and return to their owners. Cutie marks seem to be magically tied to their owners, and I don’t think there’s anything that can be done to change that.

When You Think You Might Be in Love With Your Best Friend, by Esmia

So, the biggest problem I have with this episode is that it’s ignoring the point of the schools narrative purpose, or at least what most people assumed it would be. That because of how much the main cast has learned and progressed, it was time to introduce new characters to make mistakes, and have our main characters teach them what they’ve already learned. Except we’re getting the opposite effect, the students aren’t learning and growing and seem to already know the lessons, and the teachers are repeating old mistakes that even the episode itself points out they should have moved past a long time ago. This leads to a double-edged downside, not only do our old characters look bad by dredging up old flaws in the worst possible way, our new characters aren’t developing their own personalities and group dynamics, learning from their teachers or each other, and are basically being made as bland and likable as possible, without having to work for that likeableness. To be clear, this has nothing to do with our main cast still learning lessons, or even having to retread old ground. That’s still an important part of the show formula, and I don’t want that to change. But it shouldn’t be happening in episodes about the school or the students, or their is no point in introducing either of these concepts.

If I ran a school, I’d never hire my best friends so I wouldn’t ever be in a position where I might have to fire them.

Ugh. If I had to, absolutely had to find one great thing about this episode... I guess I did like the twist where they’re still competing by trying to be gracious to each other. Usually these sorts of conflict try and treat the forced teamwork as a real end goal, and I liked that this episode didn’t do that. Im still not really sold on these students, there’s just nothing of any real substance to them. They’re fun to watch, but they’re just shells of characters compared to the main cast.

Metal Spirit, by 3d4d Damn, do I want to see this happen.

So, I’ve seen the episode a few more times, and I’ve put my thoughts together. So, the boring stuff first. This is probably the best showing for Sunburst so far, he’s not only relatable, he’s not being a dick to Starlight for the plot. The big stand out moment for me is the fact that Sunburst was actually expelled from Celestia’s school, presumably because he didn’t have what it took to pass the classes. It does, however, introduce some unwanted confusion into his and Starlight’s backstory. When did he get kicked out? Did he not go back home afterwards? If he did go back home, was Starlight not there to confront him? Did she run away or leave home at a younger age than previously assumed? This, combined with the train scene that @Music Chart Fan pointed out, introduces much unneeded uncertainty surrounding these two characters backstories. I have always been of the opinion that the problem with Starlight’s backstory was purely a presentation problem. The writing itself didn’t have any glaring plot holes, just elements that weren’t properly expanded upon. In short, it’s passable, but that’s not going to be the case if they keep adding unanswered questions and muddying the timeline with poorly thought out clutter. My biggest concern is that in trying to write a relatable story, they’re either throwing continuity aside, or worse, they still have no idea what that continuity is and are writing the stories without first figuring that out. There’s also the problem that this didn’t really feel like a homecoming. Outside of their parents, neither Starlight or Sunburst recognize or are recognized by anyone in the town. It makes what should be a big event in their lives, especially if they haven’t been there in a while, feel shallow and underwhelming. Okay, boring stuff over, now for the fun observations. So, first, once again I got more reinforcement that Starlight is far more willing to blame herself than the people she loves for her problems. In the train scene, she confesses that her father is treating her like a foal, and how frustrating that is. But, instead of railing against her dad and how bad he is, she blames herself for her feelings. “I know, I’m a horrible daughter.” That... is probably my favorite low key moment of the episode, I know what it’s like to be ashamed of my feelings, even when I know it’s reasonable to have them. So, I don’t think I’ve talked about it here, but this episode also further solidifies what I consider to be Starlight’s biggest flaw. No, not her impulsiveness, though that does get her into trouble as well. No, I think her biggest flaw is avoidance. From a very young age, she’s always dealt with her greatest challenges by avoiding them until they blow up in her face. Hurt when her best friend leaves? Avoids other people so she can’t feel the same pain again. Still miserable because she’s all alone? Build a village where she can get rid of the thing she blames for people leaving her, avoiding the possibility of rejection. I could go on, but Starlight clearly has trouble facing her problems. In the scene where Firelight is explaining the town’s history to Starlight, he mentions how he knows how she can have a hard time concentrating. Possibly an explanation for why she couldn’t get into magic school, if she had a hard time focusing growing up, she might not have been able to pass the schools grade requirements. I got the impression that Firelight, while obviously obsessed with the past, wanted to keep the town just the way it was when Starlight was young, so that she could feel safe there like he said at the end. And speaking of the scene at the end, did anyone else catch Starlight’s reaction to Firelight saying how hard things were for her when she left town? This is the sole thing that makes me think that maybe they do have some plan with Starlight’s backstory, since he could be referring to either a specific hard event that made her leave town, or just a general level of difficulty she had growing up. Either way, I hope we get some real details before the end of the show. So, yeah, good episode, there was some real missed opportunities and some questionable writing, but on the whole an enjoyable 8/10.

After The Mission, by HankOfficer

The big question surrounding Starlight’s childhood is always ”why.” Why didn’t anyone notice something was wrong with this little girl and get her the help she needed? Well, this episode suggests that Firelight did notice she was having a rough time growing up, but his attempt to help her failed, in fact they may have ended up making things worse. Notice just how trapped in her past Starlight seems to be, like we saw in Uncommon Bond? Compare that to how Twilight reached out to Starlight. Firelight coddled Starlight, he treated her like a kid and only focused on making her feel safe. Twilight confronted her on her beliefs, she called them ridiculous, and told her the harsh truth, that sometimes things happen that we can’t control, and that real friendship is working through those tough times, not trying to create a fantasy land where we can avoid all pain forever. And being confronted like that is something that Starlight needed to be told. I have more to say on this, but I want to get my thoughts together, so have this instead:

Just like we saw Rainbow’s dad in the Equestria Games flashback... oh wait. It was just someone we assumed was Sunburst’s father, it could have been an uncle, or even someone who just looked like him.

Unicorn enslaved the entirety of her race because she lost her ball.

Outside the obvious Spike and CMC, I have to say Pinkie Pie. A lot of her early episodes, even ones I love, the conflicts and plot revolve around her being childish and moronic. Compare Party of One to Pinkie Pride, two episodes with very similar conflicts where Pinkie worries her friends don’t want or need her anymore. In Pinkie Pride, she sees her friends giving someone else the attention and praise that would usually go to her. In Party of One it’s becuase she... forgets her own birthday? She became a more relatable and realistic character as the source of her conflicts became more relatable and realistic.