S03:E13 - Magical Mystery Cure

[Pinkie D Pie 1,035]

Hopefully this works... typing from PS3 so sorry about mistakes. 

 

First things first, my initial feelings. I loved this episode while at the same time hated it.

 

Why did I love it? It was a great episode, music, interesting story, and a very shocking ending. 

One thing I want to say is that I very strongly dislike alicorn Twilight. I was hoping that wouldnt happen, but it did so time to live with it.

Next the episode was great, I would even say amazing. You had the random chaos of the episode, one heck of a song, and straight haired Pinkie. The ending is what bothers me. It just seemed wrong.

 

Anways thats all I got(partilly because typing from a PS3 is very difficult).

[Lighthope 36]

When I first saw the episode, I admit I was disappointed.  Then I went back and watched it again.  And I changed my mind.

 

I think I overhyped myself on what the episode was going to be like and, unconsciously, set up an expectation that was impossible to live up to.  The second time I watched it, I sat back and didn't feel any pressure, there were no "expectation", and I liked the episode.

 

I think this made me swear off spoilers. That may have been some of the problem with me.  Twilight's ascention may have been a lot more exciting if I didn't know it was coming.

 

Am I the only one who thought the opening song was influenced by "Provencial Town" from Beauty and the Beast?  Why not?  We know some of those who work on the show are Benny Hill fans. 

 

In the end, I can't wait for the new season.  Since this episode was part one of an unofficial trilogy, I want to know what they are going to do next with it.

Pearls of Wisdom - The trouble with a kitten is that eventually it's a cat.
 

[GuillermoGage 246]

This same animation error occured when she was having her "epiphany" where her eyes lit up and showed her cutie mark. The star in her eyes had 6 stars surrounding it instead of the usual 5

I mentioned this as well earlier here, and someone else pointed out that all the banners with her cutie mark during the coronation clearly show six small white stars. That's no animation error, it is her new symbol, and it is obviously intentional.

 

The lack of showing a sixth star on her actual flank is the mishap. I only saw one shot after her becoming an alicorn where it's pretty obvious they neglected it (unless that extra star is way in the back by her rump practically), all the other shots don't have her flank in frame, have it covered by her new wings, and then it just gets covered by a dress. We'll totally see the new cutie mark again.

[GenderIsAnIllusion 2,177]

I mentioned this as well earlier here, and someone else pointed out that all the banners with her cutie mark during the coronation clearly show six small white stars. That's no animation error, it is her new symbol, and it is obviously intentional.

 

The lack of showing a sixth star on her actual flank is the mishap. I only saw one shot after her becoming an alicorn where it's pretty obvious they neglected it (unless that extra star is way in the back by her rump practically), all the other shots don't have her flank in frame, have it covered by her new wings, and then it just gets covered by a dress. We'll totally see the new cutie mark again.

 

Her new cutie mark threw me off, because of the whole "Magic cannot interfere with cutie marks" thing back from season 1..... Yeah there seems to be a VERY minor plothole in that respect.

[Anadu Kune 668]

I hope a lot gets expanded on in the first episode of Season 4.

 

I didn't like the fact that you have no idea why Twilight is a princess, or how any of it changes her, and her glanced over coronation was pretty dissapointing.

 

Not to mention a large chunk of the episode was just songs and it seemed poorly done. It didn't feeli like Twilight really accomplished anything by fixing the destinies of the Mane 6 it seemed likem she walked in told them to try their true destiny and immediately they were back to normal.

 

It's not even about Twilight becoming an Alicorn, that didn't bug me in the least, it was the lack of reasoning behind it, it literally came out of nowhere.

Certain questions are going to be left unanswered for now, but thats ok as this is an on going series with at least 26 episodes to come. This episode was focused on how she got there, what that means for her would as Celestia said come later.

 

Saying just songs implies they had little meaning or purpose. I can understand not liking the musical set up but thats personal preferance. Each song was extremely important to the plot and moved the story along whilst conveying emotion. It essentialy the essence of the show dont tell principal in animation. 

 

The point of the episode was that Twilight was utilizing her accumulated knowledge of friendship. She fixed the problem by realizing  "a true friend helps a friend in need". In other words twilight realized magic wasn't the solution friendship was. Only her direct personal help would fix the problem, and the collective help of the other once they were restored. 

Edited February 18, 2013 by Anadu Kune

[GuillermoGage 246]

Her new cutie mark threw me off, because of the whole "Magic cannot interfere with cutie marks" thing back from season 1..... Yeah there seems to be a VERY minor plothole in that respect.

Can you be more specific? I don't quite remember that.

Also, I don't think the episode "needed to be a two-parter", or that it was "rushed". Twilight Sparkle had accomplished so much throughout the series that she ended up being the type of pony to write a bold new piece of magic in such a way that a whole episode can be half musical numbers, and her actions here finally got her to the level of more than just the most special student.

[GenderIsAnIllusion 2,177]

Can you be more specific? I don't quite remember that.

Also, I don't think the episode "needed to be a two-parter", or that it was "rushed". Twilight Sparkle had accomplished so much throughout the series that she ended up being the type of pony to write a bold new piece of magic in such a way that a whole episode can be half musical numbers, and her actions here finally got her to the level of more than just the most special student.

 

Remember the Episode where Applebloom tried to get Twilight to make her cutie mark appear?...... And after several attempts Twilight says that magic cannot make a cutie mark appear?...... Thats what im talking about.

[DBG 79]

A nice episode, but the whole thing about Twilight becoming an alicorn/princess, IMHO, SUCKED FRIGGIN BALLS! One does not simply take a character and make him/her a goddess. It ruins EVERYTHING!!! Now my WIP fanfic is ruined!

 

Rant over.

 

PS:

 

*Darth Vader is watching MLP in his meditation chamber*

 

Vader: Finally, the season 3 finale!

 

*watches episode*

 

*exits chamber*

 

*goes to the MLP studio thingy*

 

*strangles episode writer*

 

Vader: Now do you see what happens when you ruin Darth Vader's favorite show! You can't just have the        

           student of an empress become ruler...

 

*later, on Bespin*

 

Vader: Join me Luke, and we can overthrow the Emperor! 

 

Sorry if it were long, I'm into Star Wars right now, and I wanted to illustrate my rage, hatred and anger.

 

You're assuming that being an alicorn automatically makes a pony a goddess.

 

It doesn't. Nor does it make them perfect, all-powerful, and infallible. (Especially considering one such as Celestia doubted Twilight's instincts, and lost to some changeling boosted by the emotions of a unicorn. Cadance was also unable to escape her prison. Super perfect goddesses? Please.)

 

And just what are you basing that off of? Celestia and Luna? Seriously?

 

Sure, those two are alicorns and are practically the two big goddesses of Equestria. And they've lived for at least one thousand years. The fact that they we don't see them fail as much is merely because they have one thousand years worth of experience behind them. Kinda hard for someone with that much experience to go wrong themselves, but it's certainly still possible.

 

But then we have Cadance.

 

Cadance isn't a goddess. I doubt she has lived nearly as long as either of the two regal sisters (unless someone shows me otherwise).

 

Neither is Twilight.

 

So unless Twilight literally goes Mary Sue on us the entire season 4, I see little to no reason to believe she's a goddess just because she grew some wings.

[Pulcinella 1,016]

I really liked all the songs in this episode, especially "What My Cutie Mark Is Telling Me", so I drew my OC, Lilac Etch, stuck with Derpy's Cutie Mark.

[Winged Anomaly 47]

I'm just going to get my opinion out there.  Make of it what you will, but know that I will not be responding to people raging.

I LOVED the episode.  I was expecting to get upset about Alicorn Twilight, but I wasn't.  The plot of the episode itself was fantastic, the songs were probably the best in the series so far, and there aren't words to describe what I was feeling by the end.  Misty-eyed would be an understatement, there was just this incredible feeling of... I don't know, 'we've come so far' I suppose.  I was expecting Alicorn Twilight to be this horrible thing just shoehorned in, and though it might have been just that, the transition was smoothed over, perfectly integrated into the episode and plot, and steeped in emotion.

I suppose I really do trust the writers now.  I was expecting to be in a rage, but they managed to make me not only deal with the change, but appreciate it.  Bravo, MLP dev team - you took Hasbro's idiocy and turned it into something beautiful.

[Lightning Dasher 149]

Ok, I think it's finaly time to say something about this episode... Actually, this if the first episode i'm going to say anything about, huzzah.

 

The first time I watched it (re-watched it as soon as it finished), I thought those were some of the best songs all season and it seemed more like a musical than any kind of character development. I enjoyed the "episode," but not where it left me afterwards. What they do with things after this scares the crap out of me, no matter how many times they sing about things being just fine. They are planting ideas into our heads through their music to quiet the rage after what happened!

In a way, it worked. I mean... Things made sense. Twilight created a new spell which was a prerequisite to becoming an Alicorn, and I suppose that automatically grants her a royal status. I'm not gonna really argue with it because how did any of the other Princesses' become a Princess. Princess Cadence's ability to create love could have been her new spell to become an Alicorn, where Celestia was the first to raise the sun and Luna the moon. Maybe it's going a bit too far to think of the possibility that there were ever ANY Alicorns until Celestia performed some magic to do so and she was the first through that way.... Losing my train of thought here, but I think my point has been made. Will be interesting to see what happens in Season 4... I think I can survive long enough to see what they do with it.

 

All in all, great episode. It was fun to watch.

[Vermilion Meadows 10]

And here's a sneek peek at the first episode of Season 4.

Yeah, you know somepony somewhere has thought of this.

[Sunny Fox 5,933]

In a way, it worked. I mean... Things made sense. Twilight created a new spell which was a prerequisite to becoming an Alicorn, and I suppose that automatically grants her a royal status. I'm not gonna really argue with it because how did any of the other Princesses' become a Princess. Princess Cadence's ability to create love could have been her new spell to become an Alicorn, where Celestia was the first to raise the sun and Luna the moon. Maybe it's going a bit too far to think of the possibility that there were ever ANY Alicorns until Celestia performed some magic to do so and she was the first through that way.... 

We were told in "Hearth's Warming Eve" that the unicorn race was responsible for raising the sun and moon to create day and night before Celestia and Luna were even the rulers. So Celestia and Luna can't have invented the spell. Maybe they were elevated to the position of alicorns when they became solely invested with the power to raise the sun and moon respectively.

 

Which could mean that there are many ways for a magically powerful unicorn to ascend to become an alicorn, and that writing new magic was just the method that Twilight ended up using.

 

Some people in this thread really need to calm down. Whether you liked or loathed the episode, please let others have their own opinion and stop implying that something has to be wrong with people for them to disagree with you. Personally, I kind of enjoyed it. The songs, I thought, were too many in number (a complaint I have raised before in regard to Crystal Empire) but they all did something to advance the plot. And as always, really showcased the musical and singing talent this team can bring to bear.

 

As for pacing, I truly do not see why people are complaining so much. Maybe I'm just blind to it, but it didn't seem too rushed to me. There was a lot happening, I'll grant you, but it's not too complex. Restoring her friends' cutie marks inspired her to write her own spell, and that was the trigger for her ascension to alicorn. QED I also liked the order of events, starting with the dilemma in full force, rather than using the cold open to set it up. A great use of In Medias Res. (Yes, people, there are more pretentious latin phrases one can throw around than "Deus Ex Machina"  Et Cetera, Et Cetera)

 

I don't particularly care about Derpy, but for the sake of her fans, I'm glad she was included in this episode. 

 

Finally, I'll make a deal with those who really disliked this episode. I'll watch it again and try to find the faults if you all will watch it again and try to find the positives.

Edited February 18, 2013 by Full Spectrum

[rainbow the epic dash 3]

guys how do you become a brony? cuz im a blank flank and i wanna be a brony

[SeaSpray 22]

I watched the S3 finale with a bunch of friends yesterday and frankly noticed a lot of issues. The S3 finale simply is not believeable and has difficulty following it's own internal logic and canon. It is written in a fashion that simply doesn't respect the audience's intelligence.

I rewatched the episode and here are a few glaring problems:

Pony naming

- Twilight at 00:56 says and refers to Rainbow Dash. We then see Rarity acknowledge that. Even if their cutie marks got swapped why did Rarity recognise her name as Rainbow Dash? OK so now their names got switched?

- At 02:29 and 08:40 as Twilight walks to Fluttershy's house, she refers to Rainbow Dash as 'Rainbow Dash'. Now if their names got swapped, how come the Dashie recognised her name?

- At 08:25 when Twilight talks to Fluttershy about Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy understood which 'Rainbow Dash' was referred to. Now if their names got swapped around, how is this possible?



Canon and logical continuity

- I thought only Pegasus/Pegasi could control the weather? Rarity is a unicorn!

- By the way the Apple family don't seem to care or mind that Pinkie got switched by AJ (you'd think that would raise an eyebrow). The same thing happens at 13:17 with Pinkie with the town people. Oh well..

- At 13:45, Twilight says that she knows how to fix the spell. This is after all her affected friends already go back to normal? Twilight has fixed the spell on her friends already. What do you fix now?

Yeah we know, go to pony heaven and become an alicorn - jeezus that doesn't make any sense.


Artistic integrity

According to an interview with Tara Strong, in Season 4 nothing will really change with Twilight. If that's the case what the point in changing her (other than the merch sales that we all know about)? Obviously corporate mandate just crapped on the show's integrity.

http://www.themarysue.com/tara-strong-interview/


In summary the episode was horribly rushed, and simply couldn't suspend my disbelief. The only saving grace was Daniel Ingram's songs which tried to carry us through on sheer emotion.

However I know the difference between being emotionally inspired and being emotionally manipulated (which was the case in the episode). Quite frankly, realising that makes it suck even more.

 

I'll leave it here, if you've read this far thanks.

Edited February 18, 2013 by SeaSpray

[~Princess Luna~ 31]

I just can't wait I want to know more about this episode Magical Mystery Cure

I am going to study more about this  Any Who I might even post a thread talking about this episode more

 

I JUST CAN'T WAIT !!!

[Sky Warden 2,243]

I must admit that the Alicorn part made me "Aaaahhhh....What is it?" but FOR THE LOVE OF CELESTIA! SHE SINGS! CELESTIA IS BUCKIN SINGING! She has a nice voice and that song saved my day. Can somepony please give me the link? I really want that song in my playlist!

[Pulcinella 1,016]

guys how do you become a brony? cuz im a blank flank and i wanna be a brony

You have to earn it. Post, post, post, post, and in time, you'll get there. I mean, I'm not even a brony yet, and I have, like, 926 posts, exactly. It's tough to get to the rank you want, I remember wishing really bad I was a Phoenix in April last year, and, well, here I am!

[Mr. Jaguar 1,402]

I thought the same thing about One Bad Apple until my second viewing. In an episode like this I find it imperative for at least a second viewing.Your saying there a ton of plot holes. What are they?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- The entirety of Sweet Apple Acres somehow falls into a barren craphole simply because Applejack isn't there to help, which doesn't make much sense, I don't see how her help was what kept the entire farm afloat, I can see it getting more difficult to keep things running, but run down completely? It was never indicated in the show that she was that necessary to the farms survival, and now, suddenly, without her the farm goes to shit.

 

- Big Mac and Applebloom are never shown helping Pinkie Pie, leaving her to do all the farm work by herself even tho she is clearly incapable of the task. This makes no sense for obvious reasons.

 

- The citizens of ponyville somehow devolved into an angry, hostile mob where nobody gets along, only because Pinkie Pie wasn't there to make them laugh........seriously? I mean, seriously? First off, that just doesn't make any sense, I don't see why an entire city of people need a clown to entertain them so that they aren't wanting to tear eachother's throats out. You may be able to argue that it was due to Rarity making the town's weather constantly awful, but they were shown to still be miserable even after the weather was fixed, as Pinkie was the last to be cured. Also, there's never been any indication that Pinkie has been the sole source of Ponyville's happiness before, this came out of nowhere. Ya, I don't buy it.

 

- Somehow, Twilight comes to the conclusion that throwing her friend's respective elements on their necks will remind them of their special talents......despite there being no rational explanation for how she came to that conclusion. It was "I'll use my friends love for eachother to get them to help eachother remember their special talents" and then, somehow she came to the conclusion that throwing their respective elements on their necks would remind them of their special talents.........WHAT?

 

And lastly

 

- Princess Celestia made Twilight an alicorn princess just for what she has accomplished and learned while living in Ponyville. Okay, maybe you could argue that Twilight has shown that she has the good qualities of a leader, but, even then, why did they even need a third princess? It's never explained, Celestia and Luna have never been shown to have any issues running the country on their own, so it makes no sense for them to need another princess. What is the point, what does it accomplish, why? We got this big event happen, without any justification for it to happen. It just does.

 

So here's a slice of Swiss Cheese:

 

 

As you can see, this episode has more holes than this slice of swiss cheese. I rest my case.

[moduz94 78]

I understand the idea that they did the best they could with what they got. But the conditions generated a problem. Considering it all, I think they did an astounding job. But the thing is: if you have 20 minutes to tell a story and your story doesn't fit 20 minutes, tell a different story.

Aside from that, they knew in advance how much time they had.

Yes of course, that would be possible if you are the one in charge of everything, wich is not the case, Hasbro gives directions and then DHX media has to put it in the show by the means that they can do.

 

for example do you remember when rarity had butterfly wings? hasbro probably asked that at some point a character had to have butterfly wings for some toy and so they made it work.

 

this time they asked for twilight princess(lol) and so they made it work telling the story with lots of songs

 

really I think that's the way things work, correct me If I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure the scripts for the show are made at Hasbro Studios

[Metatora 37]

You're assuming that being an alicorn automatically makes a pony a goddess.

 

It doesn't. Nor does it make them perfect, all-powerful, and infallible. (Especially considering one such as Celestia doubted Twilight's instincts, and lost to some changeling boosted by the emotions of a unicorn. Cadance was also unable to escape her prison. Super perfect goddesses? Please.)

 

And just what are you basing that off of? Celestia and Luna? Seriously?

 

Sure, those two are alicorns and are practically the two big goddesses of Equestria. And they've lived for at least one thousand years. The fact that they we don't see them fail as much is merely because they have one thousand years worth of experience behind them. Kinda hard for someone with that much experience to go wrong themselves, but it's certainly still possible.

 

But then we have Cadance.

 

Cadance isn't a goddess. I doubt she has lived nearly as long as either of the two regal sisters (unless someone shows me otherwise).

 

Neither is Twilight.

 

So unless Twilight literally goes Mary Sue on us the entire season 4, I see little to no reason to believe she's a goddess just because she grew some wings.

 

Actually, Cadance IS considerably stronger than the normal pony. She was the ONLY one who was able to fend Sombra off for any amount of time. Shining Armor, who isn't a push-over himself, tried the same thing and got rolled. Plus, she was the one who gave Crissy the boot after she recovered. So yes, while they're not gods, Alicorns ARE in fact better than the other pony races. And now Twilight is one. Which makes better than all of her friends by default, which is bad because it ruins the group dynamic that made the show great. And while Cadance may or may not be immortal, two other Alicorns are, so it's not unreasonable to assume that they are at the very least, very long lived. I don't think I have to explain why that would be bad for Twilight down the road. 

 

I will concede that Twilight won't become uber-powerful overnight, that much is true. But the fact is, now that's she's the same kind of being who can play pinball with with planetary bodies, she's so far above her friends that it isn't even funny. 

[Twinhead B 482]

> Twilight's worst fear in Crystal Empire is not being Celestia's student anymore.

 

> Becomes alicorn and is no longer Celestia's student in finale.

 

> "Everything is going to be just fine"

 

wat.

[Loriem 639]

The first half of the episode was fairly good, the second half was "meh" because that part was spoiled to me.

 

Also, the magic Twiligh wrote... all it did was blast her into limbo...

 

I mean, it just flashed her into Limbo were Princess Celestia did that whole "You ready! Yay!" thing.

 

... I don't think said spell will be  very useful...

[Metemponychosis 1,236]

We were told in "Hearth's Warming Eve" that the unicorn race was responsible for raising the sun and moon to create day and night before Celestia and Luna were even the rulers. So Celestia and Luna can't have invented the spell. Maybe they were elevated to the position of alicorns when they became solely invested with the power to raise the sun and moon respectively.

Celestia says in 02x01 that she and Luna discovered the Elements of Harmony and used them to defeat Discord. Maybe that's what made them Princesses.

[moduz94 78]

> Twilight's worst fear in Crystal Empire is not being Celestia's student anymore.

 

> Becomes alicorn and is no longer Celestia's student in finale.

 

> "Everything is going to be just fine"

 

wat.

She is still her student, just in a different way, in wich now they can learn from her too

 

what an incredible turn of events! lmao