Texan Pinkie was easily the best part of the episode, though.

Texan straight haired Pinkie.

I maintain that the best part of the episode happened before the intro.

Tapdancing Twilight.

It's so confusing...she does that, and her moves in the Failure Success song...yet in Sweet And Elite...she did that dance...if you can call it that.

Pinkie taught her some moves between then and now.

Well, the musicals segments aren't really happening.

And it's more like Flamenco than tap dancing.

The only noticeable plot threads remaining are the CMC getting their Cuty Marks and Twilight asuming her duties as a princess. Which makes me wonder what they'll be doing for next season. World Building is more than likely seeing how she's expected to solve problems whenever she's called upon and I wouldn't at all be surprised if we get to travel to some new countries.

RE: songs, I like the theory that Quantum Castaways ran with.

Twilight has an understandably hard time convincing the human she's stranded with that ponies really do break out in spontaneous song and dance numbers, and hints that Harmony magic assists somehow. Eventually, during a particularly bleak and lonely moment, she proves it when he starts singing an Earth song, and she joins in flawlessly without consciously knowing the words.

And then a while later, as part of the Trollympics between them, he breaks out Baby Got Back, which causes Twilight to start uncontrollably "shaking her moneymaker" and their Come-to-Life-activated water barrel to get in the groove too.

edited 19th Feb '13 1:39:47 AM by Pykrete

It's a major shake up, to be sure.

edited 19th Feb '13 1:44:02 AM by edvedd

I seriously didn't think the season finale could hit me hard like a friggin freight train, even after bracing myself for two weeks prior to the finale.

While intended to soften the blow of how rushed the plotline is, the concentration of song and dance was so high that it felt surreal, and there is still barely any breathing room to prepare for a major turning point in Twilight's character development. All in all it left me very disturbed.

It really did feel like the entire premise should had been presented in a multi-parter (like A Canterlot Wedding) and a series finale, and the build-up and foreshadowing over the course of season 3 should be less subtle since the season was too short for us to catch on on time. It doesn't help that the finale is followed by a long hiatus before we actually see a continuation of this plotline, leaving some viewers very restless and frustrated.

Seems Executive Meddling (ordering the coronation plotline to be crammed into one episode, a half-season that leads to rushed plot development and a higher proportion of bad writing, and another unnecessary alicornifation) stifled this season's quality, although it's arguable that this could also be viewed as a breather season for the production crew since the production of a 26-episode season tends to be more stressful.

On a more positive note, the extended interview DVD of the Brony documentary should be shipping out around now. That means we'll get to hear a little more about Faust's original long-term plans for the show. Seems there is in fact conclusive character development; Rarity opens a new boutique in Canterlot, Rainbow Dash is successfully initiated to the Wonderbolts, the CMC will finally receive their cutie marks, and Twilight will succeed Celestia as a princess (no mention of becoming an alicorn in the process). These make for ideal foundations for a solid AU fanfiction.

edited 19th Feb '13 2:31:55 AM by MalagasyParrot

I think it's a bit of a social thing. In Canterlot's more refined and relaxed society, Twilight couldn't have been expected to have participated in any songs especially as she was much more cynical and withdrawn at the time. Even so, Pinkie is notable for the sheer quantity and spontaneity of her songs. It may be considerded the same as a person shouting and making dramatic speeches anytime they were excited regardless of the mood. But Pinkie being Pinkie, Ponyville grew to like her random outbursts of song and may have made Ponyville a more musically-excepting social group even by pony standards.

It could also be that song could be the equivalent of having something important to say. Official speeches aside, it seems reasonable to assume that most townwide events are done through music. Ponies in general being a very excepting race, it isn't surprising they'd adopt the practice.

I will disagree about the proportion of bad writing (I think it was generally of high quality), but YMMV.

With a shorter season, there is a tendency for a bad episode to leave a more lasting impact on a season as there are fewer good episodes to compensate.

In season 3's case, disregarding Broken Base episodes, there were at least two to three mediocre-to-bad episodes (mainly Apple Family Reunion, Spike at Your Service and Games Ponies Play), just like seasons 1 and 2, but because this season's ratio of bad episodes is higher than previous seasons due to season 3 having fewer episodes, it's led to the perception that the writing quality for season 3 took a dive.

edited 19th Feb '13 5:53:16 AM by MalagasyParrot

So I just saw the Finale. I choose not to see it sooner because the controversy over it made me nervous.

And it was definitely..... something.

Now I actually liked the idea of Twilight becoming an Alicorn. That may be an unpopular opinion, but I thought it was interesting idea.

My biggest complaint was that this felt very rushed. Like 'the episode has ADHD' rushed. It should have been at least a two-parter. I really felt like the whole 'Swapped Cutie Marks' thing (which was clever idea btw) was resolved way to quickly.

The second half of the episode could be summarized like this: "Look Twilight is now an Alicorn! Look at how much of an Alicorn she is. We're all so happy she is an Alicorn. BTW she is also a princess (of something)!" It felt somewhat surreal.

And the songs were really more like 'songified dialogue'. They had had very little substance and weren't that memorable.

This wasn't a bad episode (it was an okay episode), but it was a disappointing episode because it could have been so much more.

In my opinion this episode (when expanded into a two-parter) should have been the Season 4 starting episode. The Season 3 Finale should have been King Sombra retuning to corrupt Twilight during the Equestrian Games or something like that.

Overall all this episode is to me is 'something'. It's not a good something. It's not a bad something. It's just a very confusing something.

edited 19th Feb '13 5:34:24 PM by DeviantBraeburn

To what I said earlier, I still hope season 4 isn't the last one. Or that we at least get some new pony in some shape or form.

I give the show another two seasons (including season 4), tops, and that's even stretching it.

Season 4 seems to offer more than enough room to include a couple of adventuring acts, members of the Mane 6 achieving their "destinies", and even give the CMCs cutie marks (I'm still sticking to my view that all this should happen first before Twilight's coronation). Anything after all these are resolved is very likely to be filler, a very clear sign of Seasonal Rot, if it hasn't happened in season 3 or season 4.

edited 19th Feb '13 5:47:08 AM by MalagasyParrot

I could live with 5...reluctantly.

I say the show will get 6 seasons. But there will be a 2-3 year gap between seasons 5 and 6.

And then it will end with a TV Movie (like Ed, Edd, and Eddy).

edited 19th Feb '13 5:39:40 AM by DeviantBraeburn

That would still be pony all decade, and that suits me just fine.

Next arc: Spike's journey to becoming Dragon Lord (and more importantly winning the heart of the lovely Ms. Rarity)

edited 19th Feb '13 6:29:45 AM by nervmeister

Post of the Day #292

Next arc - Spike finally realize that his true love is another mare. Applejack.

edited 19th Feb '13 6:52:58 AM by DeathCloud

All hail the Princess of Blark!

Yeah, agreeing that it rather desperately needed to be a two-parter, or at the very least two different episodes. While leery of the premise, I was willing to run with Twilight's ascension as a story gimmick. But as it is, we got one episode that was rushed to resolve six minutes early, and the orphaned conclusion of a completely different one. I know why they didn't break it up of course. Cartoon execs are leery of having two-parters at all, and two of them in a truncated season was more than they were comfortable with.

The ideal solution would have been to axe Games Ponies Play and work Cadence into Twilight's ascension.

edited 19th Feb '13 7:02:55 AM by Pykrete