I'm actually thinking of doing a longer review in my blog, or possibly even a video review, but here's a preliminary every-gushing-thought-that-came-to-my-head draft.
WARNING! Here there be SPOILERS! If ye have not watched "A Canterlot Wedding" yet, read at yer own risk!
So now Season 2 of
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has officially ended. As most of you know if you've seen my earlier reviews, I mostly thought the second season was a step down from the first. I also wasn't really anticipating the Wedding episode, especially with all the hype surrounding it. And I mean, a two-parter about a
wedding? Between two characters I've never heard of?
That was actually my biggest gripe, just from the pre-release rumors. But ya know what? That gripe wound up being answered within the first ten minutes of the episode, and in a very compelling and credible way (namely, by having Twilight more-or-less react the same way I was to "Prince Mi Amorre Cadenza, " while singing a song about her brother and mentioning that living in Ponyville had caused them to drift apart).
The minute Cadance didn't recognize Twilight, I kind of figured out where the plot was going, but that by no means made it bad. In fact I wound up anticipating every development, wondering how Twi was going to work this one out. And especially when she barged into the recital and spouted accusations, I found myself hoping it would work out for her while also knowing she had made a mistake. The show actually had me in doubt as to whether Twilight was right or wrong to suspect Cadance.
Now, those familiar with my opinions know that in general, I hate the "good versus evil" episodes of MLP and usually despise anything that even threatens to mention the Elements of Harmony. But this one introduced a villain and it actually worked. On thinking about it, I think that's for three reasons:
1. There's a slow build-up to the villain. Shining Armor mentioning that Canterlot is under threat and Cadance's behavior make you anticipate that a villain is going to appear at some point, so its not a completely out-of-left-field surprise when one does.
2. The villain has a pretty compelling motive and she behaves reasonably, not being an attention-starved idiot prone to shooting her own hoof off a la Nightmare Moon or just a series of unprovoked randomness like Discord. The Changeling specifically wants food and everything she does is a ploy to get it.
3. She's not a goddess. Yes, she overpowers Celestia, but there's a very strong and compelling reason for that, and even the Changeling herself seems astonished that she managed such a thing.
But I think the most important thing is how the resolution happens. It actually tricks you into
wanting the Elements of Harmony to appear, and for awhile, it looks like its going that way... but that's not what happens. The girls get captured before they even get that far (which is far more believable than all the supervillains we've seen so far, who honestly should be using our favorite girls' bones as toothpicks right now).
In fact, the mane six don't even take out the villains. The Changelings are instead defeated by a captain of the Royal Guard, and an Alicorn Princess who were
so totally in love with each other. I never actually thought about it until now, but Shining Armor is established as being able to make force fields, and Cadance is able to make love happen, and they basically combine their powers to make the big ol' field of love that bonks the Changelings. So not only is it awesome from an emotional/visceral perspective, its logical as well. Perfect, absolutely perfect.
One last thing. Throughout this season, one thing that constantly annoyed me was the songs, which had been becoming more saccharine and childish. This episode
totally effing reverses that. There's a lot of singing, and its all good. Like, "Cutie Mark Crusaders Theme" good. Like, Soundtrack worthy.
My favorite moment in the whole episode though, was how Cadance defeats the bridesmaids. As Sun Tzu once wrote, the best strategies are often so simple even a child could think of them, which has the weird effect of making them the last thing you would expect. (She rattles a bouquet in front of them and then throws it. And, well, bridesmaids)
Man, I don't think I've been this happy to be a Brony since "The Best Night Ever." I can't even decide which of the two was the best Finale. As of now, that's like asking me to choose which is better—the Sega Genesis or the PC-Engine. Just can't do it. Not possible. Does Not Compute.
Now I've got to hit up Ponibooru and see if any hilarious memes have been generated. Ciao!
![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
