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

[Jeric 46,834]

54 minutes ago, Envy said:

I know he's a trouble maker by nature and all, but I didn't really enjoy that.

I agree that this was a weakness in this episode. I keep wanting to see Discord act like a pushy troll, only to find out at the end that he was knowingly doing so for a character's benefit. Three times this character growth opportunity presented itself practically gift-wrapped and they didn't take it. 

[Dark Qiviut 22,160]

1 hour ago, Jeric said:

Starlight became my second favorite character because of that second moral.

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

[Sidral Mundet 1,666]

I think my biggest problem with these episodes was best summed up by Heir of Rick (image below)

 

Quote

BOY I sure am digging the new season of Starlight & Friends! But I noticed there were these colorful character in the foreground sometimes. Who were they? Do you thing they’ll get a whole episode someday?

Honestly though, they were nice episodes. They were good episodes, I liked them. And I don’t hate Starlight or anything. I just wish at least the mane five got to do stuff with her. Instead of just cameoing, or being helpless or mind controlled, or what have you.

I really like these horses. These ones are my favorites. I was looking forward to seeing them do stuff again. The Celestia bit, and really any time the six were on screen, were my favorite parts. I missed them.

 

[Dark Horse 12,795]

I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed that these premiere episodes had more of a laid-back, casual approach to their plots. You don't always need to start off with a high stakes plot in maximum drive, sometimes just an 'ease-you-in' episode can work just as well if it devotes some time to good character development, which is precisely what we saw here with Starlight, Trixie and even a little bit for Celestia (and I thought she'd been relegated to throwaway gags only by this point!). It was a pleasant surprise and I can happily say it's a decision I'm not at all disappointed with. I agree that for such an important moment to furthering Starlight's character the pacing did feel a bit rushed and lacking in significance at times. I mean that they make such a big deal out of Starlight graduating in the first episode and then just kind of slam the breaks on that in act two and point out that nothing has really changed as a result. She was already independently having her own adventures with Trixie long before this, so it seems like more a formality at this point. I also wasn't pushed on the side-plot with the Mane 6 in act two. It made me think that the writers didn't believe that the Starlight/Trixie plot could hold up on its own, which I think it perfectly could have. The whole "Team building" thing played more of a distraction than a supporting act here.

Still, as far as premiere episodes go, this was a nice way to start. Certainly much more fulfilling than Season 6's, and I hope that what was built here sets the foundation for further Starlight (and perhaps Trixie) development later in the season. Much like Season 5, this premiere could actually maintain relevance down the line!

Or is that just wishful thinking?

Solid thumbs up from me either way!

[碇 シンジン 27,427]

Great to see some development for Celestia really enjoyed the episodes =) 

[Odd Ball 230]

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 13,282]

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 22,160]

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 705]

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 621]

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 705]

Can someone summarize the episodes for me please?

[Dark Qiviut 22,160]

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 11,118]

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 3,257]

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 10,984]

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 46,834]

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 8,827]

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 2,575]

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.