S07:E10 - A Royal Problem

[Aqua shine 1,898]

true to that luna my sister

[Mortar 143]

I just got to this ep today and so far, I think it's the best of season.  For a long time I've wanted an ep that focuses on Celestia and Luna outside their official Princess duties.  This filled that perfectly.

[The Blueberry Writer 278]

I know I am late to the party, but I do think this might be one of the best episodes in the series, it compliments the novels well and if you are a fan of "the Day shift" comic story arc, I think they can work, canon wise, and be two different points of view to the same day of horrible events for Luna.  My only minor minor complaint would be Celestia thinking that controlling the Dream realm would be easy, I picture her being wise enough to know it wouldn't be a cake walk even if she had the gift now, to control the dream realm.

[Senko 459]

On 8/15/2017 at 5:22 AM, BlinkZ said:

I"m watching it now and i'm puzzled
Starlight used a cutie mark swapping spell..but also effected talent ??  Okay cutie marks are whatever the writers want them to be
A: starlight went out of her way to invent such a spell in the first place
B: she use a modified version of her odl removal spell
C: she made it up on the spot
Any of those three is disturbing to think about. I know she impulsive about using magic but..you have to come up wit the spell in order to use it.

 

Actually cutie marks affecting talent was shown at least back in Starlights first appearance when she took the mane 6's ones. Dash became slower than a trotting pony, Flutershy lost her ability to talk to animals, Rarity lost her ability to tell what was fashionable and there may be other changes I've been working my way through the seasons so there's a lot to absorb (when I get all caught up I intend to start over and see what I missed the first time). Going by what's been shown though a cutie mark seems to affect your talents, personality and possibly even destiny to some extent. They're a nice way to help you know what you should be doing with your life but with the ability to swap/change them yegods those things are dangerous.

As for the episode I liked it especially with the fact we again see super powerful, ruling alicorns who are quite happy to chuck "proper manners" out the window and just dig in to good food. I was also impressed with the way Luna after a full night's work still managed to get through nearly an entire day of Celestia's without winding up face down on a table snoring. Loved her defaulting to "THERE IS NO TIMBERWOLF PROBLEM." in an attempt to reassure people when she was distracted by her concerns over the foals field trip then palming the whole mess off onto Celestia and running for cover.

Some interesting and sad dreams there in those little bubbles and I agree Luna's was just downright creepy all those chanting foals I half expected to see a pony in a green and red sweater pass by during it.

I have to admit I can't shake the feeling the reason the map only called Starlight for this is it knew Twilight was too biased to give a proper judgement but too controlling (its something she needs to work on I admit it even if I love her) to stay out of it fully and would be around to give nerve racking advice to Starlight while restraining herself from actually telling her what to do. So many cute moments too her making the music box play to try and calm down Starlight, bewildering the guard by talking after Starlight left the room and her pancked mix of pride/lecturing and wanting notes at the end with her dragging an unamused Starlight off to tell her everything from the moment she stuck her in a drawer.

As for Celestia's thinking it would be easy to do Luna's job I agree that she only did the moon raising for the past thousand years as her magic didn't work in/on dreams meaning she honestly never realized what it was actually like. Which could also explain some of the ponies we've seen no one was around to keep their dreams from doing damage to them.

Edited June 19, 2018 by Senko

[bigbertha 410]

This episode feels like a poor man's "Luna's Micro" from the comics. The sisters seem artificial and forced in their interactions in the episode rather than energetic and fun like they were in the comic, and Andy Price's art in that issue is more entertaining than the animation in this episode. Celestia also feels too insensitive towards Luna. With all the guilt and sadness Celestia has gone through after having to send her sister to the moon, you'd think she'd be nicer to Luna. 

The comic also had Kibitz who played the role of the helper of the sisters better than Starlight, who feels like she was forced into the episode for no reason. All Starlight does is take the focus away from Celestia and Luna when making the episode fully from their perspective would've helped. The jokes are also much funnier in the comic. This episode's comedic highlights are a flanderized Twilight and Luna eating a banana peel.

 

Score: 3/10

Edited March 17, 2019 by bigbertha

[GreyScholar 1,584]

@bigbertha Thank you, exactly my thoughts!

More, I felt the comic did a part better job at pulling off this plot and was more entertaining.

[The Blueberry Writer 278]

I think the Comic and Episode both did things better than the other, but I did notice that both the comic and episode can have happened at the same time, what I am saying is that they are canon from my point of view, and they compliment each-other well.

[qwerE 95]

Great episode! This was completely unexpected but quite well executed. I know this might not have been the most natural sequence of events, but this was certainly new and refreshing. There were a lot of hints that Celestia and Luna were just like other ordinary sisters, so maybe this was bound to happen someday. It was quite shocking that Starlight could change Celestia and Luna's cutie marks, but considering how she managed to erase all the cutie marks in a whole town and even Twilight's, it makes sense. A really entertaining episode, in my opinion!

[Moony the Cat 3,697]

I liked this Episode, i thought Twilight was really cute and funny in this one and the lesson...well, it was okay. Day Breaker looked really cool, but why was it Starlights Nightmare and not Celestias? Did Starlight just imagined this evil Version of Celestia out of fear or did Daybreaker really exist at some point and Starlight just feared that she could come back, because Celestia seemed to recognize her. I think i heard Daybreaker first appeared in the Comics, so it was probably a reference to that. i dont know because i dont read the comics.

[CypherHoof 26,479]

1 hour ago, Nanotek said:

I liked this Episode, i thought Twilight was really cute and funny in this one and the lesson...well, it was okay. Day Breaker looked really cool, but why was it Starlights Nightmare and not Celestias?

I think it was more reasonable as GlimGlam's - Twi had been browbeating her since the map that a repeat of the whole nightmare moon episode could not be allowed to happen, and the dismissive way each sister felt about the other's duties wasn't helping. Celestia wasn't asleep, and was visiting GlimGlam's dream.

1 hour ago, Nanotek said:

Did Starlight just imagined this evil Version of Celestia out of fear or did Daybreaker really exist at some point and Starlight just feared that she could come back, because Celestia seemed to recognize her. 

Not sure; it is a logical extension of NMM though. Perhaps imagining nightmare outcomes is something else she learned from her mentor?

 

1 hour ago, Nanotek said:

I think i heard Daybreaker first appeared in the Comics, so it was probably a reference to that. i dont know because i dont read the comics.

I don't think there is a comic, but I think there is a trading card with a similar design, as a "nightmare sun". It IS curious that luna didn't need to be told who Daybreaker was, despite not having seen this particular standoff before...

[Rushing cash 824]

One of my favorite episodes in the entire series. I loved the portraile of all characters involved: I loved twilight comedic role, she had a reason to freak out in a way its make sense for her character. Starlight was amazing, luna was a bit salty and prideful but she had good intentions while celestia finally got a real personality which I loved, this episode made me love celestia. The nightmare was stunning, it's always nice to see nightmare moon again and daybreaker was something I wondered if we will get in the series, and it was more then I could have asked for. I am still holding hope that daybreaker will appear for real by brainwashing or celestia losing her temper in a battle against a powerful villain, that will be a cool concept.

10\10, this episode blew my mind.

[Helpful Hoof 9]

so if the nightmare, can cause damage to her Sicie then who helped them before Nightmare moon was defeated

[CypherHoof 26,479]

6 hours ago, Helpful Hoof said:

so if the nightmare, can cause damage to her Sicie then who helped them before Nightmare moon was defeated

Nopony, sadly. While 'tia could raise the moon, many a filly will have woken shaken from their night terrors, with no beautiful princess there to protect and guide them....

[Senko 459]

On 7/16/2019 at 7:30 PM, CypherHoof said:

Nopony, sadly. While 'tia could raise the moon, many a filly will have woken shaken from their night terrors, with no beautiful princess there to protect and guide them....

Interestingly the species that guards pony dreams in the comics live on the moon and where corrupted by Nightmare Moon when she was banished there.

Excluding cross media continuity an interesting paralell could be made between Ponies not having a dream guardian and the number of mental . . . quirks the main characters have demonstrated.

Twilight: Obsessive compulsive to the point of mania if things fall through.

Pinkie: Depressive if she feels her friends are excluding her to the point of delusion.

Starlight: Embarked on a scheme to steal cutie marks and later rewrite history becuase her foalhood friend went off to Canterlot without her.

Applejack: Obsessed with pride and self-sufficiency to the point she works herself to exhaustion.

Trixie: Possibly compensating for an inferiority complex to the point she enslaves a town.

Roseluck and her friends: Collapsing in a faint at the sight of a Bunny Stampede.

Fluttershy: Literally afraid of her own shadow.

[CypherHoof 26,479]

It's not a complex, she IS inferior

[Thrond 3,257]

This episode is so good that its little annoyances bother me all the more. On paper I like how Twilight freaked Starlight out so much that she walks on eggshells around the princess, but her dialogue is incredibly bland. She's a mouthpiece for exposition and that's it; any personality to be seen here is an incredibly watered down version of Twilight's, which by the way is slightly exaggerated in this. And I would have been able to move past the ethical implications of switching cutie marks if the episode hadn't lingered on it, but it lingers on everyone getting upset and then goes out of its way to try justifying what she did. It worked this time, but that doesn't make it okay. With how this episode was set up, I feel a couple lines from the princesses telling Starlight not to do that again would fix that issue pretty easily. Otherwise this was even better the second time. The highlight this time was how sincere both Celestia and Luna were about helping people. And their conversation about pancakes at the end is adorable. 

Also, I complained in the past that I don't believe Celestia and Luna would turn evil just from arguing, but on second watch I don't think I'm supposed to. Clearly that's Twilight overreacting because she expects them to be perfect, and Starlight turning that into a horrible nightmare because she's crazy. I'm also not convinced that Starlight's nightmare would really be so dangerous, but then again, it's not exactly surprising that she's mentally unstable. 

[Splashee 28,537]

Hello crazy old episode!

 

So this episode is the one at the top. Except for the short little intro before the credits, where Twilight was being so surprised over the map choosing Starlight, the rest of the episode is flawless.

The only big question I have is, why couldn't they make more of these "interesting for everyone to watch" episodes?

[CypherHoof 26,479]

18 minutes ago, Splashee® said:

Hello crazy old episode!

 

So this episode is the one at the top. Except for the short little intro before the credits, where Twilight was being so surprised over the map choosing Starlight, the rest of the episode is flawless.

The only big question I have is, why couldn't they make more of these "interesting for everyone to watch" episodes?

I liked that too.

This was the first time the Map had called anypony other than the Mane cast; it had called Starlight (who, much as I love her, is as crazy as a bag of frogs at times) and it had called her to the Royal Palace, instead of Twi.  Classic Twi Freakout Triggered.....

The similar scene where the CMC are summoned is noticably cuter though

[Splashee 28,537]

7 hours ago, CypherHoof 🐎 said:

The similar scene where the CMC are summoned is noticably cuter though

We have to address how cool the map acted, when calling, or indicating completion of a mission. The cutie mark glowing in a very special way, on queue as well. When Starlight finally wakes up at the end, and the sisters are getting along again, it is perfectly queuing completion, and after that Twilight shows up with a tooth brush?

If I remember that correctly, then this is a good and well paced episode indeed! (I saw it last time in 2018)

[CypherHoof 26,479]

4 hours ago, Splashee® said:

The cutie mark glowing in a very special way, on queue as well

Cutie marks and the lore around them aren't really that well defined, but its worth noting that this happens in one other circumstance too - when a pony is being openly true to what the mark represents.  Two good examples are when Cadence finds the strength to save Spike and return the Crystal Heart, and when Coloratura puts her heart into a song.

I was more surprised we didn't see that with Diamond Tiara during her reformation montage.

[JMTV99 1,348]

This episode was meh. I wasn't too crazy about as everybody else does. Also, I'm not into Daybreaker. She's basically just "what if Celestia was Nightmare Moon?" It's too fan-service for my liking,

Besides a couple of good jokes here and there and some good visuals, I'll give it a pass.

[Astralshy 23,546]

This episode shows and demonstrates so well Starlight, how she is differs from Twilight, the two sisters. I loved every minute of this episode. There also so many small details which I just adore like Celestia's pancakes, music box Twilight etc.

The nightmares in this episode were also interesting to see. I'm still not sure if this maybe not too much for the original target demographics, but nonetheless I really liked these well executed scenes. Then I need to address  also day breaker in this nightmare. It was interesting to see Celestia's counter part. But this character is also not what makes this episode so great for me. It's the whole story there with all those little details.

As I said: I loved it.

 

 

 

[CypherHoof 26,479]

On 2021-05-21 at 8:36 PM, Astral Soul said:

There also so many small details which I just adore like Celestia's pancakes

I particularly liked the way that, when Luna ate a pinapple instead of Celestia's pancakes, the next morning Celestia made pinapple pancakes...

[JMTV99 1,348]

Looking back on this episode again, I wasn't too crazy about it. Don't get me wrong, the visuals (especially the dream sequences) looks nice, the sisterly bond between Tia and Woona was interesting, but that's about it. Everything else was just dull. I don't understand why this episode choose Starlight instead of Twilight since Twilight know the Royal Sisters more than Starlight. I wasn't a big fan of Starlight in this episode. She was so painful to watch when she easily screwed up. Also, I'm not a big fan of Daybreaker. She just Nightmare Moon: Celestia edition. What else is there?

I know a lot of people do like this episode. If you like it, good for you. I'm just not a big fan of it.

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

14 minutes ago, JMTV99 said:

Looking back on this episode again, I wasn't too crazy about it. Don't get me wrong, the visuals (especially the dream sequences) looks nice, the sisterly bond between Tia and Woona was interesting, but that's about it. Everything else was just dull. I don't understand why this episode choose Starlight instead of Twilight since Twilight know the Royal Sisters more than Starlight. I wasn't a big fan of Starlight in this episode. She was so painful to watch when she easily screwed up. Also, I'm not a big fan of Daybreaker. She just Nightmare Moon: Celestia edition. What else is there?

I know a lot of people do like this episode. If you like it, good for you. I'm just not a big fan of it.

You're entitled to your opinion... no matter how wrong it is.