S07:E01+02 - Celestial Advice/All Bottled Up

[Odd Ball 231]

Here are my thoughts on the episodes.

Celestial Advice:

Enjoyed Discord.

Love the new imagination spell.

Great to see Celestia finally get some new backstory.

Spike is awesome when he's written like he was here.

All Bottled Up:

Trixie is is a much more enjoyable now than in her previous episodes.

I wish Starlight had this angry magic cloud thing back in her first appearance.

The choices of the ponies being affected by the angry cloud could have been better, I for one would have love to see angry Derpy.

The song is dull, but does get a pass for being a punchline of a joke.


Despite not being a two parter, these two separate episodes were good overall.

[Drunkfrank 1,125]

6 hours ago, chronos911 said:

Man.. I hate to be a downer but these episodes just bored me.   Nothing was really set up to make the rest of the season seem exciting.    It was basically just Twilight and friends hanging out and Starlight and Trixie hanging out..  oh and they made a table disappear... Yay?   So interesting.    I'm not entirely decided yet but I think this series is starting to lose it's appeal for me now..   Season 6 did nothing for me, and I thought they would at least try to improve the writing quality in season 7 but it's just more of the same.  We've went from Disney level quality to what seems like this really goofy kids show that really is meant for 6 year old girls this time.  Have I grown out of this show or has this show really just lost it's charm?   It feels like the latter to me. 

 

People always say this. "The show USE TO have good disney writing, but now its crap"

The show only had that Disney style writing in two parters and with the exception of this one, it has been almost the same. Sorry it wasn't edgy, they wanted to try something different, Season 2 had far more childish moments and episodes than season 6 did.

 

"I feel it is the latter"

It's not, The show has not objectively gotten worse or "lost it's charm" that's ridiculous, you are simply bored of it after like 7 years.

[Drunkfrank 1,125]

What I liked about Celestial Advice is that it felt like an actual direct follow up to Where and Back again, it's not like S2 premiere to s3 premiere where it goes from huge terrible thing happening, then it feels like months pass and boom, another apocalyptic event. This felt like it happened just days later.

As a standalone episode, it worked, Celestia development was great, the art stunning at times (go back to that shot of Celestia overlooking Canterlot, DAYUM) it was funny.

 

All Bottled up was pretty good, funny, good dynamic with Starlight and Trixie. the song was catchy.

 

9/10 and 7/10 respectively

8/10 overall.

[cuteycindyhoney 13,345]

I loved how we finally got a look into Celestia's personality. Celestial Advice also gave me my all time favorite Celestia quote.

"I was not aware that I was an expression."
- Princess Celestia

In All Bottled Up, we saw something I suspected. Starlight can get just as twisted up and worried as Twilight. This was her "Lesson Zero" sort of. The literal bottling up of her anger was very entertaining. I knew it was going to reach critical mass the way Trixie was driving her crazy all through the episode. I want to see more of their adventures/misadventures!

[Dark Qiviut 22,681]

Two problems I'm noticing in ABU:

1. The B-plot at the Friendship Retreat. The whole thing comes across as less understanding a new lesson and more like a gag to separate them from Strlight, Trixie, and Spike. Add a flanderized Twilight and a stereotypical-looking young stallion, and it becomes a plot that can be done without.
2. Trixie is flanderized, too. Right after she accidentally teleported the Cutie Map, she stopped caring about that and cared more about her development in magic. Her change in personality feels too sudden and implausible.

[Star48955 706]

I am so mad.THE WEBSITE SCHEDULE LIED!!! It said "Celestial Advice" would start at 6:00 but it started a hour early!!It also said "All Bottled Up" would start right after which was true... but at the wrong time!And because I was at Worlds of Fun I missed it!So now I have to wait a couple of days for it to come out on a website...

[FirePuppy 739]

Some of us thought Starlight was gonna be the new main protagonist to keep the show running. But uh oh, were we WRONG! So far, Starlight has only been the main protagonist for ONE episode this season out of 8 -- All Bottled Up; while in Celestial Advice, Twilight spoke FOUR times more dialogue than Starlight did.

Worse yet, Rarity didn't speak A WORD in Celestial Advice. Looks like she's gonna face bad luck this season after all.

[Malcontent 196]

Just finished them both. Pony Think Tank review being written as I speak. ... er sorta.  

[Star48955 706]

Can someone summarize the episodes for me please?

[Dark Qiviut 22,681]

Sometimes the animation doesn't get enough credit.

One striking detail is Starlight's hairdo. During their visit to the jewel shop, Starlight's hair straightened, frayed, and wilted. The more anxious and crosser she became, the worse her hair quality. And look at her face, too: Her eyes were smaller, and there was a constant wrinkle below her eyes, suggesting how tired she was emotionally. Her emotions were literally tied to her hair, face, and magic, showing how much this whole conflict (and especially Trixie's obliviousness) was literally taking a toll on her psyche.

Edited April 16, 2017 by Dark Qiviut

[pony.colin 156]

No longer having to use an action oriented two part opener..... okay, I can roll with that I guess.

 

Quick run down of my thoughts. Wow, this opener was hitting a bit of my snarky bone (well actually more towards all bottled up). So I guess starting with Celestia advice, this is actually a nice episode to finally have an excuse to bring Celestia back into the spotlight as an actual character. We've been stuffing her in the closet for some seasons now...

This was a really good episode to finally have Celestia actually talking with Twilight and actually being part of the plot of the episode for once. I think though a number of people will enjoy this side of Celestia which wasn't exactly made explicit in prior seasons. This maternal side of Celestia that some have always believed that she had towards Twilight. The focus of having Celestia actually act like she feels like a mother to Twilight (albeit not actually a parent), gives her a lot more expression to be appreciative about. Spike was also good comedy relief throughout this episode (good light-hearted snarky, not Spikeabuse). Also, that meta joke about using Celestia's name as an expression, surprised we went there, seemed to be executed well. There were actually good jokes in this episode that kept the pacing nice and added to the episode. 

However, when Celestia looked up at the sky when pondering what to do with Twilight and saying, I should send her away... that was totally snarky to me. Those two events were totally unrelated from each other and the former does not have any sort of effect on the latter in terms of decision making, Wot?!

And, Celestia totally didn't get Twilight to write to her to report on her friendship lessons as a teaching framework (well not the entire sole reason), she totally was wanting to know how she was doing throughout her move to ponyville.

Although I found it a bit weird of how strange of a cop-out it was that Starlight is totally not leaving as well. Totally wasn't expecting that. I guess Starlight is here to stay for longer.

 though what a cop out for magical dimension sucking black hole conjured by Starlight and Sunburst

All Bottled Up - this episode just kept hitting my snarky bone.

Things like these quotes:

"Yah, Trixie, you're so great at magic and having good hair"

"Relax. If anything breaks, Starlight will just go back in time to fix it"

"They're going to bond, share laughs and if I know them ... they're going to share a song"

"This magical energy has to go somewhere. And if I'm not using it to fight a magical duel or bend my friends' will to obey my every command... ha I remember that"

Many these jokes were actually good. Like, I'm surprised but I think this episode won me over easy because I like snark. Starlight isn't going to be the type of character to go full 100% good character and there's still a bit of her acting a little bit devious, but I oddly like that about her. Even though, Starlight actually plays the ethical character throughout this whole episode. So it does reflect that she has learned to be ethical as the episodes have passed (which is actual development for her.) I really do like seeing her get pissed off though. But now I can also see the point of others saying that Starlight is ridiculously powerful as a unicorn if she can literally bottle up her emotional magical energy and cause a side effect of ponies being affected by it. Like there was a lot good that I liked about this episode because we finally get to see the relationship between Trixie and Starlight develop between each and actually act like they're in a friendship. Though it's kind of funny, but I understand that the point of throwing the mane 6 on a retreat was to produce a sort of opposite dynamic effect of showing friends who have long developed good relationships to those who are just starting out now.  I liked this episode a lot

I can see why Seth likes Trixie now. He'll probably enjoy her a lot during this episode. But i really do like Trixie and Starlight as being a different type of friendship dynamic that we're getting to see compared to any of the mane6's so far. Also Spike was good snarky comedy as well, AND NO SPIKEABUSE too, excellent!

This was a pretty good opener, I liked all bottled up more, but finally brought Celestia back to the front light for once. Hoping to see a bit more of her too.

 

Also unicorns stop playing god and trying to bring every inanimate object to life

[Ganondorf8 11,813]

I posted this earlier over on Equestria Daily.

Celestia finally got to have the spotlight even though she had to share it with Twilight, and who said she was supposed to be a regal princess? Even she is allowed to poke fun at a given situation without having to feel bad about doing it. Also, her name is now an appropriate expression, something she never knew before until now. We also got to see some backstory that further connects her with Twilight that paralleled what was happening between Twilight and Starlight. In my own opinion, I liked this episode more than I did the second one mainly because of how Celestia was portrayed and Twilight going back to her freak-out moments.

Granted, the other episode did give us an entertaining song and Bulk Biceps is someone who works multiple jobs--though why isn't known just yet--and that retreat was pretty funny especially because of the ironic twist at the end thanks to that song. But, I feel Trixie took a step backwards and acted like she did back in season one rather than what she is meant to be like now. Also, Starlight developing an evil-like cloud through anger kind of felt weird since no one else has ever done it, but I will chalk it up to a new dynamic in her character. Does this mean I finally like Starlight? Almost... She still needs that one extra step.

[Thrond 3,272]

Celestia episode! One-part slice-of-life premiere! Huzzah! Too bad these episodes are not good. 

I mean, I have something of a soft spot for them because they're not an epic two-parter, and "Celestial Advice" is hardly the worst thing ever, but neither of these are terribly exciting, and "All Bottled Up" is my least favourite kind of episode - the kind where irritating behaviour is mistaken for humour, and any other jokes have been done plenty of times before. Good moral on the latter though, and the former does a lot to humanize Celestia, but I can't say I enjoyed either much, even though for whatever reason I can't get angry at either.  

I reviewed both at my blog. 

Additional thoughts:

Seriously, "All Bottled Up" is one of my least favourite episodes since season 5 ended, and yet I don't feel any real anger towards it. Dunno if the show's getting more consistent, if I've mellowed out, or if season 5 just lowered my standards that much. Maybe the mostly strong ending led to me being a lot more kind to it. Maybe I'm just glad that the general writing philosophy of season 6, which put comedy and character before drama, is still in place; I have no reason to believe that this isn't a mere bump in the show's continued creative revival, especially considering that I just don't like Lewis & Songco all that much anyway.

I maintain that Starlight didn't so much take over as fill a void. The mane six were barely changing in season 5, so someone had to take over. I think people place way too much emphasis on the premieres and finales when the rest of the mane six are almost certain to get their own episodes, and besides, "Celestial Advice" was  primarily focused on Twilight, and was all the worse for it. I only appreciate Starlight taking time away from Twilight because the alternative is usually (though not in this case) so much worse. Do you guys just never want to see the mane six in the background at all? That's silly. 

Lewis & Songco as story editors terrifies me, though, because I typically do not care much for their writing style and find their stories to often be bland and lack character development. They wrote some episodes I love, like my beloved "Rarity Investigates!," but these two episodes do little to redeem them in my eyes for "Legend of Everfree," even though they arguably do the most to develop main characters out of everything they've ever written for this show. Wish we could just have another season of Haber. 

[Prospekt 11,040]

Here's a link to my blog entry for these episodes, just because I really don't see the point in copy-pasting it. 

https://mlpforums.com/blogs/entry/22126-s7-episodes-1-and-2-spoilers/

[takai 1,060]

Celestia is bestia. She was great this episode. I loved how she didn't know she was an expression, that's hilarious. It was also great that they showed a different side of Celestia and how she also worried for Twilight as she became more independent. Her confession about worrying Twilight might not need her was adorable and it really furthered their relationship. This was the highlight of the season opener.

Starlight leaving? That's the best idea I've heard in a while.

Spike is quickly becoming the best character, his bluntness and almost fourth wall breaking comments are gold.

The second episode was alright. It taught Starlight an important lesson but Trixie's selfishness seemed really forced and out of nowhere.

I had a feeling that song would ruin their chances for the best time. 

[Jeric 46,894]

2 hours ago, Dark Qiviut said:

I think it flew by me, but what was that moral?

My fault. Inelegant sentence and all. I meant the moral of the second episode concerning hiding ones negative emotions to instead of having a constructive conversation. I suppose you have a secondary positive example of how well Trixie took it all when it finally came out. 

[GiFTGewEhrSCHutzen-4 8,835]

Alright! Here we go. Episode 1. For Celestia's part in this episode, I'm so glad they decided to make her a main supporting character, if not a star for this episode. Not complaining here. Here we get to see another side of her too. In the pre-season 1 timeline, we get to see Celestia also worried for Twilight in wanting to let her go or not. Also, the scene in were Celestia laughs and Twilight thinking she's making fun of her. Incoming internet memes, and Trollestia comments! Well, that's all I can say about the first half of the Season 7 premiere. Now, on with the second episode.

Oh, yeah! Forgot to add, I like how Vinyl's playing the Rarity For You shop's grand opening music, and the Party Palace music as well, the one from the Saddle Row episode.

Personally, I can't think of many things to say about this episode. Though, I wish I could learn how to do that spell in bottling up your negative emotions. Though, I do like the character development of Bulk Biceps with him being the hardworking pony that he is since he has multiple jobs and all.

Edited April 16, 2017 by GunPla_NiNJa_4
Forgot to add something... =P

[Techno Universal 2,576]

There's something strange about Celestial advice as it somehow seems to reference the core company from my theory about MLP. The company is called Celestial Labs.inc so this is probably more evidence of the existence of my theory. Plus even in the episode when Starlight created the black hole portal it led into what I call the core dump. It's the place where all deleted items go to be permanently removed from existence and there's no escaping it once you end up in there plus it seemed to crash Twilight's simulation and black screen it too. Very computer like to me.

[ShadowPhoenix 153]

If the two episodes aren't two parters, why is there a need to air them on the same weekend? Is Trixie a permanent fixture of Ponyville now?

That aside, great start. The show is steadily incoporating even more self-aware humour and the dialogue from all is cleverer than ever and Spike somehow stole the show. Celestia's revelation was emotional as they addressed that she did indeed monitor the Mane 5 prior to Twilight moving to Ponyville. It was a bit weird seeing the five embrace if they were not close friends at this point of time. Ending the episode with the Pinkie vacuum was a nice way to reaffirm the slice-of-life nature of this opener.

All Bottled Up was more than a little weird. It was good nonetheless, but it bugged me how Starlight's anger seemed to resurface from nowhere except possibly the Season 5 two-parters. She has not been prone to anger in a really long time and perhaps she gets angrier at Trixie more often because they are now more fully fleshed-out friends. As usual, some of the Mane 6 get nearly inconsequential roles in the storyline, and it was Rarity (who did not even speak the first episode), Applejack and Fluttershy this time. I thought the song had to be the most out-of-place song ever until I realized it was satirical which is I suppose, clever in some sense? Starlight herself was a gem this episode though.

Edited April 16, 2017 by ShadowPhoenix

[weesh 690]

6 minutes ago, ShadowPhoenix said:

If the two episodes aren't two parters, why is there a need to air them on the same weekend?

ya.

I spent the the last half of the first episode wondering what major villain would stumble in and cause the need for a part II. 

It was really confusing when it ended normally.  

[Malcontent 196]

and my thoughts are up and ready for destruction or shunning

 

 

[Dark Qiviut 22,681]

Well, finished All Bottled Up.

Honestly, I take back what I previously thought. This was much better watching it a second time.

Strengths:

1. Starlight. She needed a really strong performance after poor outings in Every Little Thing and To Where. ABU is her best outing since The Crystalling. She was strong when she needed to, angry when he needed to, tired when she needed to, and sad when she needed to. Her characterization was a row of colors (and, no, not just red). She felt like a character that people can empathize to.
   
   While past episodes sometimes told us she grew, we get to SEE it very clearly. If you recall Every Little Thing She Does, she controlled her friends against their will as the first resort; in what was trying to replicate Lesson Zero's success, that didn't work. Here, she literally bottled up her anger as a last resort. Every time Trixie did something that made her angry, her anger became more and more uncontrollable. Starlight knows this, but feared getting mad at her would fracture their bond. Considering what happened in the past (both with each other in NSP and herself in ELTSD), it's understandable. She couldn't risk that.
   
   Even though it was wrong for her to bottle up her anger, you can see where she's coming from, and there are actual consequence to hr choice. Every time she got mad, her expression, personality, and facial expression changed. Her hair frayed and wilted. Her eyes drooped. Overall, there was no life into her personality. To keep her temper under control emotionally and physically drained her. In other words, her character growth from ELTSD was used to the Sister Writers' advantage, not ignored.
   
   She and Celestia were the best characterized in these two episodes, but I'm more impressed by Starlight's for the reasons above. And Starlight's hairdo wilting at the jewelry store is my favorite moment of both eps.
2. The pacing here is much more improved over CA, too. With one exception midway, everything flowed from one point to the next much better. The ending didn't feel rushed, cramped, slow, or nonsensical. Everything, including the Friendship Retreat, mattered.
3. The Friendship Retreat broke away from the moody A-plot. Yeah, the B-plot had some humor, but it was also quite serious and heavy. Sometimes when you have a plot this heavy, you need something to occasionally break away to relax the plot a bit. The B-plot is very relaxed and tenseless.
4. On top of that, fantastic moral. Sometimes when you bottle up your anger, that anger can manifest itself into making you do things that'll you'll regret. A big strength in maintaining a healthy friendship is the ability to be honest, yet constructive with those you care for.

Weaknesses:

1. The B-plot, while counterbalancing the A-plot, is contrived. Twilight's mildly flanderized here, and you have a stereotypical-looking and sounding stallion who acted like he couldn't care less about his job. Secondly, it kept interrupting the A-plot, which slowed the pace and put it at a standstill. You can maybe relax the tension in the A-plot without stopping it to complete the B-plot.
2. Trixie becomes flanderized. After she accidentally teleported the Cutie Map, she stopped caring about that, was so oblivious to Starlight's anxiety until late in Act 2, and cared more about other things immediately. Her change in personality feels too sudden and implausible. If there was a conflict between trying to find the map and slowly becoming too mesmerized on extracurricular things, then it could work a little better. Like an improved Cart Before the Ponies.

Nevertheless, a really great episode that I grew to appreciate more the second time. Originally, I thought Celestial Advice was better. Now I believe the opposite.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,167]

Finally added the writers for both episodes, and I seriously hope they contributed more for the season.

With that said I must say that both episodes were strong overall with some minor quips here and there. "Celestial Advice" was amazing with it's show of character from Twilight, Celestia, and Spike, and I enjoy the interactions between all the characters, though Discord was a tad...much, if you will. However, I think I preferred "All Bottled Up" for the dynamic of Trixie and Starlight, as well as the VERY strong moral at the end.

Plus; I just LOVE the attention Trixie and Starlight have received thus far, and hope to see more of it in the future. 

[Nerdy Luigi 2,065]

Celestial Advice: (I give this episode a solid B+)

Pros: Premise (Interesting concept for Twilight to have to make a decision with such impact), Twilight (Reminded me of Season 1!), Celestia (What was that laugh? ACTUAL PERSONALITY!), Discord (most of the time I found his antics pretty funny...).

Cons: Discord (Though sometimes he went overboard. Seriously, The way he put Twilight in the spotlight drove me crazy), Mediocre pacing (At some points, it felt like I would have missed nothing important if I simply skipped a whole of 2 or 3 minutes of the episode...)

 

All Bottled Up: (I give this episode a C)

Pros: Starlight (She's still got flaws!), Good moral (Anyone can learn from it, probably.)

Cons: Trixie (She was AGGRIVATING.), Premise (Plot was yawn-worthy and felt like filler)

Edited April 16, 2017 by Nerdy Luigi
Moved All Bottled Up's rating down a little.

[Batbrony 16,089]

Good evening everypony, and welcome back to another edition (and a brand new MLP:FiM season) of "Batbrony Reviews"!!!  Tonight, for the season premiere, I'm in the unusual position of having to review two episodes that were not a part of a single story arc.  Yes, for the first time in the entire running of MLP:FiM, DHX decided not to have the opening be a massive two-parter where the girls had to battle some threat to all of Equestria and... frankly, this change was probably a season overdue considering that last season's opener (while delightful) involved the Crystal Empire being threatened by a newborn alicorn.  Yeah, it's not easy coming up with new threats to all of Equestria on a seasonal basis (especially seven seasons in), much less twice a season, so frankly I'm quite happy they finally decided to do this.  And it worked really well since the first episode pretty much picked up immediately from where the last episode in Season 6 left off (and the closure it brought to such a momentous event in Equestria as relations getting normalized with the Changelings was very gratifying to see).  But enough of my introductory ramblings, let's get to the real meat of my review... which is mostly me rambling.  This is "Celestial Advice" and "All Bottled Up"!!!

Awwwwwwwwww, giant wing hug, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! 

So starting with "Celestial Advice," this episode was important and needed for a number of reasons.  As I said, we got really good closure following the Season 6 finale, in particular seeing Starlight and her band of friends hailed as heroes (in many ways it was a fun and silly contrast to the Season 2 "Star Wars" celebration for the Mane 6 in the season opener, particularly because Starlight's group is nowhere nearly as tight as the Mane 6 were by that point and probably never will be since the only two who see each other on a regular basis are Starlight and Trixie).  That entire scene was executed very nicely; I was particularly pleased to see such a wide array of Equestrian citizens and their closest friends and allies mingling in the same spot, including the reformed Changelings and Crystal Ponies (though it was odd that neither Princess Cadance nor Shining Armor were there, though I'm guessing that's going to be explained in next week's episode based on the preview for it).  But it was also important because Twili- ah screw it, no more beating around the bush, CELESTIA GOT SOME DAMN MEANINGFUL SCREENTIME!!!

Wowwwwwwwwwwww, you have no idea how great it was to write that.  And seriously, I'm holding off talking about anything else good about this episode until I get this spiel about of the way.  First of all, this is what I had to say about Celestia's treatment in Season 6 (and pretty much since Season 4) in my Season 6 review:

Oh me oh my, why can't poor Celly get any love on this show it seems? Between time and time again being incapable of actually solving a national crisis (a plot device that seems a bit tired at this point, I mean, it was ridiculously easy for the Changelings to capture both her and Princess Luna, buck, all of Equestria's royalty was bucking useless in that so I can only hope that that was one bucking stealthy operation the Changelings launched) and just disappearing for stretches at a time, this character just can't catch a break these days. Let's not forget that there was a time in this show where pretty much EVERY MAJOR EVENT revolved around Celestia to some extent. She was the main catalyst in sending Twilight to Ponyville and getting her to regularly learn lessons of friendship and report them to her, she bucking made Twilight a princess for crying out loud, and she's supposed to be her dearest mentor, and a mentor and leader to all ponies. Needless to say, since the end of Season 4, that has not been the case and it is NOTICEABLE!!! This is a character who is simply too big in her importance to both the show's setting and main characters to be ignored the way she has the last two seasons by the writers without it coming off as ridiculous. SHE CONTROLS THE BUCKING SUN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, AND YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT THE HIGH POINT OF HER SEASON WAS A GAG ABOUT HER BEING UNAMUSED IN "No Second Prances" IN WHICH SHE DIDN'T EVEN SAY A BUCKING WORD?!?! It's too much, at this point, it's simply too much. Many of us in the fandom have long been asking for more Celestia, going all the way back to the early seasons, but instead she just had her worst season ever and this NEEDS TO CHANGE!!! She needs an episode next season, to put it mildly, she simply does. Nicole Oliver for one is too good in this role to ignore, but back to the character herself, this is a character that deserves better! Princess Luna has rightfully had a character arc across all six of these seasons, Princess Cadance has even had a character arc and sometimes major appearances in episodes (even if she maybe hasn't ever faced a friendship problem, unless you count "The Times They Are a Changeling"), but Princess Celestia, the sole ruler of Equestria for 1000 years, STILL DOESN'T HAVE A SOLO EPISODE?!?!? BUCKING RIDICULOUS!!! Writers, at this point I'm just begging for anything, anything at all. A fun little slice-of-life episode, maybe about a day in the life of Celestia or a romp with some other character on some random adventure, more about her and Twilight's relationship, maybe a look into her own mind and what her own fears and insecurities are, SOMETHING, ANYTHING!!! But the show simply can't keep ignoring such a big character without it coming off as a major flaw, and until that changes, until Princess Celestia finally gets the proper attention she deserves in the show, even in just one episode focused on her as an actual main character, it will remain quite possibly the biggest long-standing flaw of the show, and it's a shame that a season that was so strong for the most part in its handling of new and old supporting characters was so marred by such a glaring absence.

Andddddddddddd... exhale.  OK, it appears that the show runners at DHX have taken note of this... GLARING problem, to say the least.  As you can see, Celestia's been getting the shaft, and the entire show was going to keep getting brought down for it if such an important character was continually treated so poorly.  NOW, I am not yet letting them entirely off the hook because this was NOT a solo-Celestia episode.  BUT she was more or less the season opener's deuteragonist, and that is much more than she has been in any single episode for a long, long, long, long, long, long, long time.  So for that, major props DHX, I can only hope you're going to build off of this solid foundation of Celly-love and not just let it be a single bone thrown her way.  Anyways, yeah, Celestia was great here (and it should be obvious from the title alone that she'd be a major character, I mean, ya know, "Celestial Advice" and all).  This is a Celestia I've wanted to see in the show for a long time, with a combination of new character elements we learned about her along with old staples about her that we already loved.  The second Twilight asked her for help, I already felt like the show had entered a comfort zone it hadn't been in in a longggggggggg time, too long, in fact.  Frankly, it was just nice seeing the show do something it doesn't do enough anymore; have the main characters go to their elders for help.  I know some people may be like, "Well, it's cliche or old fashioned," but come on, the main character of this show has a mentor who's over a thousand years old and has ruled Equestria, the greatest country in the entire show, most of her life in relative peace and harmony.  The fact that she had barely sought her advice for any major decisions or friendship problems, onscreen, since pretty much becoming the Princess of Friendship (there were exceptions, but not enough), was not just criminal from a storytelling point of view, but stupid, ridiculously stupid.  Too often for some time now either the characters have easily learned most lessons on their own, OR Twilight has taught them; I know the former is easy enough to accept for most friendship problems in this show (especially for the veteran members of the Mane 6), and that the latter makes sense in establishing Twilight as the Princess of Friendship in actions and not just in title, BUT come on, surely they could have found more for Celestia to do before now.  Anyways, yes, Twilight asking Celestia for help and advice not only made sense, but was great to see, especially in getting to contrast how Celestia is as a teacher to Twilight vs. Twilight as a teacher to Starlight.

"I was not aware that I was an expression."

Best bucking line in the entire premiere!!! 

She really just forgot which kitchen her cake was in that day 

Most of the time Celestia was just calmly listening to Twilight, and when she spoke, it was only because she knew exactly what she needed to say, no more, no less (aside from an innocent joke here or there).  Considering how many ponies she's ruled and helped in all her years, this makes a lot of sense; it's probably hard to phase Celestia with much at this point, and she knows the value of hearing all that you need to know before speaking one word.  Twilight on the other hoof, when it comes to Starlight, is always either worried that she's not doing enough to mentor Starlight or doing too little.  She's not the OCD wreck she used to be, but she will always have a natural inclination to have all her ducks in a row in any professional activity as Princess of Friendship, that's just who she is.  An interesting Star Wars analogy occurred to me in thinking of this trio of ponies today: Celestia is very much a Yoda to Twilight's Obi Wan, the former serene and having the utmost confidence in both her students and how she teaches them, while the latter is obsessed with mastering and practicing and perfecting every last bit of whatever it is she's invested herself in to the fullest, and then again, and again, and again.  Twilight too is Obi Wan to Starlight's Anakin, but that analogy works in a different way that I'll discuss later.  Besides of course knowing exactly what Twilight needed to be told, Celestia gave us some wonderful backstory on both her buildup to sending Twilight to Ponyville (a decision that evidently took her quite some time, most likely months given both the obviously difficulty with which she made her decision as well as the fact that getting the library secured for Twilight must've involved at least some paperwork) and what she was experiencing emotionally in making that decision.  She was as afraid for Twilight as she was herself, because it was clear that at that point, Twilight was one of her closest friends (though I got the feeling that Twilight probably didn't think of it in the same way at the time, more like at best a maternal, but first and foremost regal, mentor considering how little she understood about friendship at the time), and she had no way of knowing if somepony as close to her as her sister could truly be saved even after she returned.  She had big plans for Twilight already, and unfortunately for her, those plans meant letting the wonderful status quo of having such a wonderful, dear friend by her side almost constantly come to an end.  It was great seeing how painful and hard that was for Celestia, and added a level of vulnerability to her we've only rarely gotten to see.  And of course, the experience allowed her to tell Twilight with the utmost confidence that part of being a great mentor in anything is knowing when your students are ready to cut loose on their own, no matter in what or how painful it may be for the mentor or student, or even downright scary.  All around, I couldn't have asked for a more solid start to the season for Celestia, but that said, she still needs a solo episode at some point, so stick to it DHX, and hopefully you'll deliver just that this season.

AHA!  BEHOLD, THE RETURN OF TROLLESTIA, BOW BEFORE HER, MORTALS!!!

As for the rest of the episode, it was all good stuff.  Twilight's increasing, OCD paranoia about what could happen to Starlight on her own was hilarious, and the lesson she learned and actions she took as a result was great too.  As far as I can tell, Starlight (while still living in Ponyville, which, given how quickly she decided to do that after they set up so much her getting sent away, felt like a bit of a cop out, even if I was happy for it) is no longer directly being mentored by Twilight about friendship.  She'll still live in the castle for the time being, but there appears to be no fixed agenda for her, she's just going about learning how to be a better friend and maybe helping teach others along the way in her day-to-day business.  Hopefully this means she might get paired with other members of the Mane 6 besides Twilight, because I would like to see her grow closer to the other Mane 6 individually, though I get the feeling that a huge portion of her adventures this season will be with Trixie.  Basically she's kind of where Twilight was at somewhere around middle-to-end of Season 2 or Season 3, at least I think she is.

Dat's racist

Dat's... also racist.  Man, Twilight has some deep-seeded racial insecurities, doesn't she? 

Discord, while hardly a villain, was quite a good troll here in setting off Twilight's latest freaking-out episode, and it was kinda nice seeing him for the most part just lightheartedly screwing around rather than making himself constantly the center of attention.  He felt, oddly enough, like a more normal member of that crowd.  The reformed Changelings were adorable and hilarious (though Thorax's voice really doesn't work with that beefed up new look, just doesn't sound right coming out of him), the Mane 6 had some OK bits, the animation was just lovely, Starlight and her friends were great, Spike was once again a low key voice of reason, and all in all everything here just worked.  Very solid opening episode, I very much enjoyed watching how everything played out in this one.

Moving on to "All Bottled Up," the lesser of the two episodes, but not by much.  I still thoroughly loved it very much, and for good reason.  It still felt very much connected to the first episode in that here, we got to see what kind of life Starlight is beginning to make for herself now that she's no longer directly reporting to Twilight on a regular basis.  It seems she's starting by trying to teach her best friend, Trixie, how to be better at magic in general (since, to be honest, Trixie could stand to improve by quite a bit).  This actually presented quite a few contrasts between Starlight and Twilight that I rather enjoyed and which fit very much into how we've seen both of them develop as characters.  Going back to the Star Wars analogies, Twilight is the Obi-Wan to Starlight's Anakin in the magical department in the sense that, as far as we know, Starlight's the more powerful of the two when it comes to raw power.  Let's keep in mind that when Twilight battled her in Season 5, Twilight was an alicorn and had (and probably still has) more book-learning about magic than Starlight did, and yet somehow Starlight stayed on par with her.  Twilight is the learning obsessed master of technique who's greatest skill in mastering anything magical is doing so by practicing it 200 times a day and just getting it down to a T.  Hence, Obi-Wan.  Starlight, on the other hand, seems to have greater raw power and while she is still probably even in power with Twilight, the fact that she is as a unicorn is ridiculous to say the least and goes to show just what kind of stuff she's made of.  While Twilight's calling is clearly as the Princess of Friendship (and that certainly involves plenty of magic, especially since friendship is probably the most powerful magic in Equestria, literally), Starlight, I get the feeling, may eventually go into a more explicitly magical field.  I just don't see her being a friendship teacher in the same way Twilight is.  As far as friends go, Twilight was not a natural leader to begin with.  She was a recluse and anti-social, so it makes sense that like everything else, she taught friendship when she got into it like a project that she had to master through as much study and repetition as possible.  Don't get me wrong, she's a great friend, but there are many ways in which she still approaches friendship as she has from the beginning, and it's for those reasons that she's the glue that holds together a group like the Mane 6.  Starlight, on the other hoof, IS a natural leader it seems, or at least we have seen that she possesses the will to be.  Her problem with friendship was insecurity, not disinterest, and there will probably always be a part of her that fears that she could hurt others if she isn't careful because of her past mistakes.  Hence, I foresee her never having a Mane 6 group like Twilight, and frankly I'm OK with that.  The show really doesn't need such an arrangement for any reason, it would come off as tired and lazy, and it just doesn't fit Starlight.  She will have friends, but unlike Twilight, her closest friends won't be a big group that all are dear to each other as well; her friendships are going to be fewer and far more personal to Starlight, one-on-one so to speak.  I mean, to date, it seems that her three truly closest friends are Trixie, Sunburst, and Spike, none of whom are friends with each other in particular (not in the same way at least).  Trixie is her best friend, Sunburst is more of a very close childhood friend, and Spike is like a combination of mentor and little brother.  Twilight is a super close friend too, but more as a mentor, and to this day you always get the sense that ever since the end of Season 5 Starlight's been kind of in awe of Twilight and in no way considers herself to be on the same level as her as a friend.  What I like about this is that it highlights that there are all kinds of different ways to have friends in one's life (something the show has highlighted many times, but this is particularly noteworthy since it's main characters we're talking about).  Some people have a solid group like Twilight and the Mane 6, others have few friends but super close ones like Starlight and Trixie.  Valuable lesson to be taught, even if it was only in the background here.

So the actual lesson was pretty great too (if a bit obvious).  Starlight was literally bottling her anger at Trixie because she feared that if she blew her top at her, Trixie wouldn't want to be her friend anymore.  This was a little confusing because I'm pretty sure they've had spats before of some kind, but it largely worked because, just like some of Twilight's early friendship problems in Season 1 when she knew little about friendship, Starlight too is still super cautious when it comes to aspects of friendship that she doesn't understand.  The idea that getting into a fight with your best friend is OK was clearly bizarre to her, and Trixie's ego probably didn't help convince her she'd take Starlight being angry at her OK.  But in the end, doing so only made things worse, and Starlight and Trixie were able to come to an understanding that sometimes, friends need to be brutally honest with each other, and even if they fight as a result, that doesn't mean things won't be OK between them in the end.  A good, if simple, lesson, but it got the job done.

The real highlights of this episode were the entertaining bits, and boy were there a lot.  Trixie was insufferable (even more than usual) in this episode, but hilariously so (her predilection for junkfood seems to be becoming something of a running gag, and I nearly fell out of my seat when she birthed an Eldritch horror in that teacup poodle and insisted that a bag of pretzels were a suitable replacement for homemade teacupcakes... twice).  It's nice to see that certain aspects of her personality haven't changed, that her magic is getting better (though there are still things she just bucks up for the strangest of reasons... I think she might be a magical klutz), and hopefully she might even start embarking on more of a character arc than she has to date as, possibly, a developing main character!

Pffftttt, OK, in all honesty, she kind of needed a nut cart to be thrown on top of her at some point in this episode... which thankfully happened.  Cheeky little bastard used up about 50 too many of her Get Out of Jail Free cards.  Also...

DAT'S A LOTTA NUTS!!! 

Spike was very solid here; I love seeing him as now the most low key member of the main characters, and his rapport with Starlight remains fun to watch as he throws out good advice to her here and there, but nowhere near as pushy as Twilight would.  Also, his terror of Trixie's magic and her wanting to use him as a teleportation guinea pig was hilarious.  The Mane 6's subplot (while largely pointless) was pretty funny.  I loved their assistant who clearly knew who they were and just didn't give a buck because he most likely gets paid two bits an hour to do this s*** all day for whoever comes through, and his pleasure at their two second failure at the end was amazing.  The song they sang was pretty standard, but was amazing payoff as a joke set up earlier by Starlight that they'd most likely sing a song at some point; really, it was just that standard because the show was being self aware in that moment how cliche this is (there really was no good reason that the girls would sing a song about something so banal as beating a fun puzzle game), and the best part of all was the fact that they sung that song in real time is what kept them from beating the course record.  Amazing payoff to a greatly set up joke, and it's great to see that the show runner's still have no problem poking fun at themselves and their beloved show now and then when it's warranted or just in harmless fun.

 

And finally, Bulk Biceps, Granny Smith, and that... new townspony, whoever she was, were all hilarious, both before and when they got possessed by Starlight's bottled up anger.  If I had any complaints, it was simply that we've never seen Starlight's anger manifest as a magical entity, and probably won't ever again, so where the buck did that actually come from here?  But other than that, this was a pair of lovely episodes to kick off what will hopefully prove to be another wonderful season of MLP:FiM.  Join me again next week everypony when I review the next new episode of Season 7.  Until then, this is Batbrony signing off.  I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit*