S04:E01+02 - Princess Twilight Sparkle

[Luna_tic 120]

Twilight totes deserved to be a princess, but I cannot give an impartial opinion.  She's always been my favorite of the mane six.  I'll admit, I was a bit concerned with the doubling of the number of canon alicorns though.  It works now, so I'm stoked for the Princess of Friendship and biz.

[Mlp13 62]

Pre-episode comment

 

 

Not sure how I feel about the Everfree forest being the threat in this one. I think maybe Sombra's horn has some explaining to do.

 

Also, the customary geek out.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh man I'm so freaking' excited i'm about to jump out of my skin!

tumblr_m2y7uxtkKo1rskeexo1_500.gif

 

 

 

 

Post-episode comment:

 

I feel like I can safely say that those were the best opening episodes so far. Probably the highlight for me was the back-story on Luna, Celestia and Discord even if it was kinda minimal (I did have my hopes up for some Sombra back-story but alas, nothing) . Mane 6 not relying on the Elements of Harmony any longer? Genius, I think that was a pretty cool move as well now we know it's not just going to be a matter of who do we use it on this time, plus it sort of opens up a bunch of new possibilities. I wonder if they'll throw story based episodes about each mane 6 finding their key in amongst all the everyday life episodes to keep the story running throughout the season, that would be neat.

 

Actually the back-story wasn't even the best part now that I think about it. Applejack had so many awesome scenes and a lot of dialogue. I plan on invading this space with screenshots of said moments when a Youtube video is up and running. Absolutely can not wait to re-watch it.

 

 

 

Hi My name's Applejack and I'll be saving your life this evening.

 

Untitled-1.jpg

 

Awesome powerslide

 

Untitled-2.jpg

 

In summary the whole episode was on a completely different scale. AJ really certified herself as second in charge of the group in my eye's

Omg!I have to agree with you!!<3

[ZUPERFLY 4]

I really liked the fight scene at the end. It really tied the room together. And why are they all mean to Discord. Who just tries to help?

I really liked the fight scene at the end. It really tied the room together. And why are they all mean to Discord. Who just tries to help?

[4april 374]

This was the first episode of MLP that I saw (7 months ago).

 

I loved the story line, the animation, and the characters. I have been a brony ever since..

[Lexamena 391]

When I see Luna raise the moon to eclipse then sun at the very end of pt 1, it makes me remember how awesome it is that the moon can eclipse the sun at all considering how the sun is 400 times larger than the moon. But since it's also 400 times farther away, they appear the same size in our sky. It's just one of those amazing coincidences of nature. This was actually a great episode and Discord was extremely entertaining. It has tons of little visual details that I love. With the exception Twilight being a princess at all, the story was good.

Edit. Also, Twicane!

Edited October 30, 2015 by Lexamena

[JenyRae 11]

This is my daughter's favorite episode Purely because twilight, her favorite pony, becomes a princess

[JonasDarkmane 19,785]

I thought the episodes were rather good . 

[PacificGreen 1,163]

I think this was one of my favorite season premieres. We got some backstory on the EoH and Luna and Celestia, plus seeing Twilight struggle and succeed with her first duty as a princess made for a really interesting plot. I feel like this episode struck the right balance between action, characterization, and backstory.

Also, as much as the episode's ending makes me want to hate Discord for pretty much lying to the mane six, his outfit changes were pretty hilarious as usual.

This one might be tied with the Season 5 premiere for my favorite season premiere episode. 

[powerpuff-tsubasa 448]

beautiful and fascinating enough to see twilight becoming an alicorn

[cmarston1 5,959]

This is my all time favorite season premiere.

The animation was beautiful, Twilight's interaction with her friends where great, and we even got a little bit of character development from Princess Celestia.

The flashbacks to Celestia vs Nightmare Moon were great, and Discord was highly enjoyable in the episodes as well.

Plus the scene of giving up the elements of harmoy was one of my all time favorites.

All of this makes for some pretty great episodes.

[Thrond 3,263]

The first part of this ends in a flashback. 

 

THE CLIFFHANGER. IS IN. A FLASHBACK.

 

Everything about this episode is wrong. If it was about just one of the million things it tries to be about, it would have been fine, but it's overstuffed, full of terrible ideas, and makes all of the wrong decisions for where to put its dramatic weight. Much more time should have been placed on Twilight dealing with the change in her status, but instead they toss in a random villain of the day. Twilight should have come to the conclusion to return to her friends on her own, but it had to be Discord's nagging to make her go back. Can't have introspection here! Nope, just need to drown the episode's deeper elements in manic action and completely irrelevant plot elements. 

 

Having Nightmare Moon be banished right after transforming? An awful decision. How has Nightmare Moon become so infamous if she never left the castle?

 

The Tree of Harmony? A horrible, horrible idea. Apparently Twilight never had any real agency in her life because whatever greater power dictates this universe has decided she'll be a princess. Her accomplishments which the show insists merit her being a princess? Completely irrelevant. 

 

Putting a cliffhanger in a goddamn flashback to an event we already know about? The worst.

 

I dunno if I had lower standards during season 4 or what, but this episode is only on brief occasions fun enough to overcome just how many decisions directly undermine the drama that it's clearly going for. It wasn't until the third viewing that this episode suddenly stopped working for me, and I dunno why I suddenly started taking so much more issue with it this time, but of all the season premieres, this is the only one which I would be very happy to never see again. 

 

At least it's better than "Magical Mystery Cure." 

[Spider 1]

Anyone notice that the vines were very changeling-like in their design? I got excited when I first saw them

[Lucartini 104]

I like Alicorn Princess Twilight.

[Moony the Cat 3,702]

I didnt liked this Two-Parter Episode as much as other Two-Parter, but it was okay. It had good Flashbacks and great Animation, but i wished it had a more normal Villain and not just something bad that happens.

[Nye 1,652]

Cool first episodes of Twilight being a princess!

[Thrond 3,263]

Really overstuffed two-parter which constantly stifles its own emotional core with the show's dullest monster attack. I just find the action-adventure sweep of this episode tremendously dull. The action scenes are alright I guess but the plot is kinda bland and all the stuff about Twilight dealing with being a princess feels really simplistic and underdeveloped. The real meat here is how Twilight and her friends deal with the former's change in status, but so much of that is diminished to a few simple beats which are meant to stand in for a whole lot of complicated feelings. I simply don't care about the adventure plot here, and the stuff I do care about is constantly being shoved out of the way for an impersonal battle against a villain with no personality and a bunch of really tedious jokes spouted by exaggerated characters. Celestia and Luna are captured because, um, because. And c'mon, did Twilight seriously just forget she could teleport? Ridiculous. 

I also still dislike the ways this tries to expand the mythology, like the Celestia/Luna flashback and the Tree of Harmony. The former makes Nightmare Moon's reign of terror seem like it never actually started, and the latter gives the show a weird deterministic feel, as if Twilight had no choice in becoming an alicorn princess, and the show doesn't bother engaging with that idea. Clearly the episode's supposed to be about her feelings on the matter, but it's just such a simplistic take which is constantly deviating from the actual interesting stuff. It's this kind of noncommital attempt at maturity which makes the show feel the most immature to me. This show should stick to what it knows. 

Score:

Entertainment: 3/10
Characters: 5/10
Themes: 4/10
Story: 2/10
Overall: 35/100

[bigbertha 414]

The beginning of the new era of the show and it feels like 44 minutes of filler. There's not much that happens here. The tree of harmony is introduced, but did we really need to sit through 44 minutes of nothing to get to it. You could argue that Twilight is more sure of herself as a princess by the end, but her behavior at the beginning seems very similar to how she later acts at the beginning of "Twilight's Kingdom". The episode starts by saying the mane six's friendship is stronger than the elements and ends by stating that the mane six's friendship is stronger than the elements. Discord was a little fun and the flashback to Nightmare Moon was very flashy, but all in all, this 2 parter has no substance.

Score: 3/10

[Meushell 52]

I really feel like the issues of this episode and the last should have been switched. It is Twilight’s choice to give up power that elevates. Of course, the others went along with her choice, so it might feel as if they were screwed over...but it kind of feels like that way.

Then the first thing Princess Twilight does is accidentally switch the cutie marks of her friends. It makes her really question being a princess.

On 9/7/2016 at 9:17 PM, AlexanderThrond said:

Having Nightmare Moon be banished right after transforming? An awful decision. How has Nightmare Moon become so infamous if she never left the castle?

Celestia would be the only answer here. Between this and allowing the Nightmare Night holiday happen, I’m thinking that the sun princess wasn’t so innocent in driving Luna to such jealousy. Luna feels so guilty about what she did that she won’t bring it up, but Celestia might have had to reign in her own ego after seeing what results of her pride.

[qwerE 96]

Hmm. It's Interesting to me that many people hate this episode. I guess some holes in the plot made it seem illogical for fans watching the show multiple times. As a first-time viewer though, I liked it! The animation feels much smoother, Discord is acting like a real friend, and no use of elements of harmony! Locking them away for good. It looks like they'll be getting them back after finding the keys, but I'll be looking forward to seeing what kind of new methods the mane 6 uses until then!

But seriously, why wasn't princess Cadence at the ceremony? Is she a different kind of princess or something?

Edited October 20, 2018 by qwerE

[CypherHoof 26,482]

1 hour ago, qwerE said:

Hmm. It's Interesting to me that many people hate this episode.

Must say, I took a while to warm to it - its got a good song, but Twi being all angsty about her role (and the make-work that the princesses find for her) isn't THAT entertaining. 

1 hour ago, qwerE said:

I guess some holes in the plot made it seem illogical for fans watching the show multiple times. As a first-time viewer though, I liked it!

There are worse holes elsewhere in the series - I was shocked to see that "alicorn magic" looks suspicously like what Celestia taught Twilight way back in S03E01 though.

 

1 hour ago, qwerE said:

The animation feels much smoother, Discord is acting like a real friend,

Well, pretty discordant. They were quite happy to exploit the chaos the vines were producing, while denying responsibility for them. The Stare now apparently works on Discord though, despite not having done so in the past

 

1 hour ago, qwerE said:

and no use of elements of harmony! Locking them away for good. It looks like they'll be getting them back after finding the keys, but I'll be looking forward to seeing what kind of new methods the mane 6 uses until then!

Indeed; the Rainbow Bitchslap of Harmony is just too overused at this point though, so forcing the Mane 6 to go without them for a while is going to help their growth massively.  Plus of course, each pony obtaining their key is a good plot hook to base later episodes on.

 

1 hour ago, qwerE said:

But seriously, why wasn't princess Cadence at the ceremony? Is she a different kind of princess or something?

Just busy off in the crystal empire, I guess.  And to be fair, yes, she is; she has not had an official role at the palace (and if she did, obviously no longer performs it now she is married and has a kingdom of her own) and Twi herself wouldn't be there except as part of her apprenticeship as a "new" princess.

[qwerE 96]

27 minutes ago, Cypherhoof said:

Just busy off in the crystal empire, I guess.  And to be fair, yes, she is; she has not had an official role at the palace (and if she did, obviously no longer performs it now she is married and has a kingdom of her own) and Twi herself wouldn't be there except as part of her apprenticeship as a "new" princess.

So she didn't have an official role and has to rule the crystal empire... that explains it!

Twilight's friends and the guards said that Twilight should rule Equestria when Celestia and Luna are gone. That felt kind of weird without an explanation, because I thought princess Cadence could do the job. But as you said, that would be hard since she has a whole different kingdom to rule. It was just that I wanted to see her do some cool magic performance, along with Celestia and Luna. Thanks for the answer!

[Midnight Solace 5,132]

Tentacles invade Equestria.

GET YOUR TENTACLES OFF MY TWILY!!!

[bigbertha 414]

The only point of this episode is to introduce the Tree of Harmony and the chest. And while the episode does accomplish that, it doesn't do anything else. The big problem with this episode is that it has no substance. None of the characters are changed and not much actually happens. Twilight might've changed a little, but that doesn't matter in the long run since she's still questioning herself in the finale. The antagonist is literally just a bunch of vines that ultimately do nothing and have no threat. The two parter is so light on substance that it resorts to trying to distract the audience by showing the fight between Celestia and Nightmare Moon for no reason. Most of the second part is just the mane six going into the forest and giving up their elements. Twilight leaves for a little bit, but then goes right back, making it all pointless. Speaking of making things pointless, Discord withholds useful information just to teach Twilight a lesson that Applejack already told her in the beginning of part 1. 

There's not much good here. The animation is the best it's ever been and Discord is mildly amusing despite giving no reason for him to not start destroying everything after the elements are gone, but those are very minor things in the long run. This episode sucks.

Score: 2/10

[SunburstRainbow2019 3]

My symposis on this episode:

 

Black tentacle roots...

that's all

Edited June 17, 2019 by SunburstRainbow2019

[ZiggWheelsManning 9,999]

The Mane 5 going into the Everfree Forest without Twilight (sending her away) has me suspect Discord mind controlled the former.  It seems he wanted them and Fluttershy to be doomed to those threats.  He could have gotten rid of those vines back when season 3 was over at anytime.  Not helping that Twilight is crying with Discord there.  The animation is an improvement.