As usual with my reviews, it will contain spoilers. Those of you who have not watched the episode yet, you have been warned.
The premise of this episode is that Twilight, after realising that she wasn't the friendliest of ponies back in the day, goes back to Canterlot to try and make amends to those ponies who tried befriending her in the past.
Let me start this right off by saying that I think this is a great premise for an episode. In fact, I'll give them even further credit by saying how great I think it is that they're focusing on something that, at first, seemed like a relatively minor point on the show. Remember, although they did appear in the very first episode of the show, Twilight's three friends only had a few seconds of screen time, and were only really there to show the kind of anti-social problems that Twilight was dealing with at the time. Taking those three and crafting an entire episode's plotline around it is an interesting thing. But, then again, since "Slice of life", I think it's safe to say that I don't think there?s any real limit to who gets the spotlight these days. Now, before I talk about the positives of this premise in further detail, let me just take a moment to somewhat defend Twilight's actions in that first episode. I mean, yes, she did kinda of blow them off, and yes, the show is about making friends, but remember, she did have somewhat more important things on her mind at the time, namely the return of an evil mare who sought to bring about eternal night. Granted, she could have been somewhat more diplomatic with those three mares, but still, priorities people.
As for the setup itself, it's one that not only makes sense for the show, but also for Twilight's character. Because, not only, as I said earlier, is this show all about how you can make friends with many people, but Twilight herself has, over the course of the show, become the kind of character who goes out of her way to try and do the right thing by others. Just remember last week's episode and how much she bent over backwards just to make a bunch of ungrateful yaks seems welcomed. As such, it makes sense that she would feel some measure of guilt for those she wasn't all that friendly with during her early days in the series, especially when those three mares in question actually seemed to want to go out of their way and include Twilight in what they were doing. They wanted to be friends with her, and she did not, hence the remarks back in episode one of her preferring "books to friends", which gave the distinct impression that that was not the only failed attempt they'd made to befriend her. Plus, I think this is also a very relatable situation for Twilight to be in. After all, I think, at some point in our lives, we've all encountered people that we weren't entirely nice towards, and would, later in life, come to regret our treatment of. Like Twilight, I think a lot of us would go back and try to make things better if we could.
In stark contrast to the last few episodes we've been given, this one is a lot more heartfelt story for us to be given, and most of that is centred around the four friends of Twilight's past. The first three, to my surprise, were all well and good, and seemed like some fairly fun friends for her to have had in her youth. Their willingness to accept Twilight back came as much of a surprise to me as it did to Twilight, which is good, as I always approve of moments when the show managed to catch me off-guard. It shows well how some people won't hold it against you if you drift away, and those three certainly seemed to be the forgiving types. And then we have Moondancer. Right from the start, this is a character that seems to be a veritable mirror for Twilight, showing exactly the kind of person she could have become if she hadn't made friends in Ponyville. Obsessed with books, introverted, even somewhat aggressive towards others, viewing friendships as unimportant. Had Twilight's life not gone the way that it did, I have every reason to believe that she would have ended up just as isolated as Moondancer was. And just to make the point abundantly clear, they even have her be a palette-swap of her, making her literally look like another Twilight.
But Moondancer is, without a doubt, the very heart and soul of this episode and everything that Twilight is trying to accomplish. At the start of this story, Twilight laments that her actions in neglecting her Canterlot friends might have negatively affected them, and Moondancer is the very embodiment of that fear. It really took me aback to see how that one tiny detail from the pilot, Twilight turning down a party invitation, could have led to another pony being so devastated, and yet when Moondancer ended up letting out her frustrations and crying at the end of it, that really hit me where it hurts. Because, in all honesty, I've been in Moondancer's position a few times in my life. I wasn't the best at making friends myself when I was younger, and there were moments where all it took for me to feel down was one moment. I know exactly what Moondancer was feeling here, and how hard it sometimes is to make friends when it feels that the friends you have don't seem to care. Plus, the fact that they go out of their way to show how a few gestures aren't going to be enough to fix such problems is a very adult thing to show. As such, this episode is perhaps one of the most impactful the show has given us in a long time, and I give great credit to Mr Larson and the other writers for managing to pull it off as well as they do.
Time to discuss the humour of the episode now and, as you might expect of a story centred around Twilight, much of the jokes and funny moments of the episode are centred around her stressing out over her plans and goals to make amends with her three Canterlot friends. As we saw back in last week's episode, Twilight still freaks out over her plans going awry, and the animators always manage to come up with amusing ways of showing how her stress gets to her. As cruel as it is to say, and I do say it a lot with this show, MLP has this way of making a character's uncomfortable situation seem funny, both with the delivery of their lines and with the facial expressions they give them, and Twilight?s, in this episode, nails it on the head almost every time. However, as I said before, humour is not the real focus of this episode, so overall, the jokes are a bit on the light side. But for me, that's absolutely fine, because while this show does have a good track record when it comes to comedy, it shines even brighter when it delves into more serious issues.
When it comes to songs, this week, yet again, there's none to speak of.
As for the moral of the week, this episode seems to have a general message that's difficult to really say, as they don't really blurt it out loud like they do in most episodes. Obviously, there's the moral of trying to not lose touch with your friends, and just generally treating them right, which is a good lesson to teach, don't get me wrong, but it's done in a very realistic manner. The way that Twilight's apparent neglect all those episodes ago could have had such an impact on those closest to her was a devastating thing to watch, and it really makes you think hard about how little it takes to really spoil a friendship. Its, as I said before, one of the more adult things this show has tried to teach in a long time, made all the more evident when they portrayed it the way that they did, showing just how difficult it is for some people to put themselves out there and try to make friends. Every single one of us has been in that position at some point in our lives, and this episode captured those difficult moments perfectly.
So, how did the episode fare overall? In truth, I loved it. Having the kind of premise that it did, the story was a much more emotional and heartfelt one than we've been given in the last few outings of this show, with Twilight?s situation being not only a relatable one, but also something that ties in well with her role of being someone who has been trying to spread lessons of friendship. So it's good to know that even she has some things to learn every now and again. There were plenty of funny moments, but it was the emotional scenes that really stole the show for me. The characters all behaved in realistic ways, and the episode just had a more grounded and believable feel than many of the show's more recent episodes. Overall, I'd say it's a massive improvement over the last two episodes that we've been given, and one that I think should definitely be watched. In fact, I'm willing to go so far as to say that this episode has usurped "Slice of Life" as my number one episode of the season thus far, just because of how much of an emotional punch it had. It was sweet, an understandable situation, and finally brought a close to a loose end that's been hanging over Twilight since the start of the series. Highly recommended, this one.
The premise of this episode is that Twilight, after realising that she wasn't the friendliest of ponies back in the day, goes back to Canterlot to try and make amends to those ponies who tried befriending her in the past.
Let me start this right off by saying that I think this is a great premise for an episode. In fact, I'll give them even further credit by saying how great I think it is that they're focusing on something that, at first, seemed like a relatively minor point on the show. Remember, although they did appear in the very first episode of the show, Twilight's three friends only had a few seconds of screen time, and were only really there to show the kind of anti-social problems that Twilight was dealing with at the time. Taking those three and crafting an entire episode's plotline around it is an interesting thing. But, then again, since "Slice of life", I think it's safe to say that I don't think there?s any real limit to who gets the spotlight these days. Now, before I talk about the positives of this premise in further detail, let me just take a moment to somewhat defend Twilight's actions in that first episode. I mean, yes, she did kinda of blow them off, and yes, the show is about making friends, but remember, she did have somewhat more important things on her mind at the time, namely the return of an evil mare who sought to bring about eternal night. Granted, she could have been somewhat more diplomatic with those three mares, but still, priorities people.
As for the setup itself, it's one that not only makes sense for the show, but also for Twilight's character. Because, not only, as I said earlier, is this show all about how you can make friends with many people, but Twilight herself has, over the course of the show, become the kind of character who goes out of her way to try and do the right thing by others. Just remember last week's episode and how much she bent over backwards just to make a bunch of ungrateful yaks seems welcomed. As such, it makes sense that she would feel some measure of guilt for those she wasn't all that friendly with during her early days in the series, especially when those three mares in question actually seemed to want to go out of their way and include Twilight in what they were doing. They wanted to be friends with her, and she did not, hence the remarks back in episode one of her preferring "books to friends", which gave the distinct impression that that was not the only failed attempt they'd made to befriend her. Plus, I think this is also a very relatable situation for Twilight to be in. After all, I think, at some point in our lives, we've all encountered people that we weren't entirely nice towards, and would, later in life, come to regret our treatment of. Like Twilight, I think a lot of us would go back and try to make things better if we could.
In stark contrast to the last few episodes we've been given, this one is a lot more heartfelt story for us to be given, and most of that is centred around the four friends of Twilight's past. The first three, to my surprise, were all well and good, and seemed like some fairly fun friends for her to have had in her youth. Their willingness to accept Twilight back came as much of a surprise to me as it did to Twilight, which is good, as I always approve of moments when the show managed to catch me off-guard. It shows well how some people won't hold it against you if you drift away, and those three certainly seemed to be the forgiving types. And then we have Moondancer. Right from the start, this is a character that seems to be a veritable mirror for Twilight, showing exactly the kind of person she could have become if she hadn't made friends in Ponyville. Obsessed with books, introverted, even somewhat aggressive towards others, viewing friendships as unimportant. Had Twilight's life not gone the way that it did, I have every reason to believe that she would have ended up just as isolated as Moondancer was. And just to make the point abundantly clear, they even have her be a palette-swap of her, making her literally look like another Twilight.
But Moondancer is, without a doubt, the very heart and soul of this episode and everything that Twilight is trying to accomplish. At the start of this story, Twilight laments that her actions in neglecting her Canterlot friends might have negatively affected them, and Moondancer is the very embodiment of that fear. It really took me aback to see how that one tiny detail from the pilot, Twilight turning down a party invitation, could have led to another pony being so devastated, and yet when Moondancer ended up letting out her frustrations and crying at the end of it, that really hit me where it hurts. Because, in all honesty, I've been in Moondancer's position a few times in my life. I wasn't the best at making friends myself when I was younger, and there were moments where all it took for me to feel down was one moment. I know exactly what Moondancer was feeling here, and how hard it sometimes is to make friends when it feels that the friends you have don't seem to care. Plus, the fact that they go out of their way to show how a few gestures aren't going to be enough to fix such problems is a very adult thing to show. As such, this episode is perhaps one of the most impactful the show has given us in a long time, and I give great credit to Mr Larson and the other writers for managing to pull it off as well as they do.
Time to discuss the humour of the episode now and, as you might expect of a story centred around Twilight, much of the jokes and funny moments of the episode are centred around her stressing out over her plans and goals to make amends with her three Canterlot friends. As we saw back in last week's episode, Twilight still freaks out over her plans going awry, and the animators always manage to come up with amusing ways of showing how her stress gets to her. As cruel as it is to say, and I do say it a lot with this show, MLP has this way of making a character's uncomfortable situation seem funny, both with the delivery of their lines and with the facial expressions they give them, and Twilight?s, in this episode, nails it on the head almost every time. However, as I said before, humour is not the real focus of this episode, so overall, the jokes are a bit on the light side. But for me, that's absolutely fine, because while this show does have a good track record when it comes to comedy, it shines even brighter when it delves into more serious issues.
When it comes to songs, this week, yet again, there's none to speak of.
As for the moral of the week, this episode seems to have a general message that's difficult to really say, as they don't really blurt it out loud like they do in most episodes. Obviously, there's the moral of trying to not lose touch with your friends, and just generally treating them right, which is a good lesson to teach, don't get me wrong, but it's done in a very realistic manner. The way that Twilight's apparent neglect all those episodes ago could have had such an impact on those closest to her was a devastating thing to watch, and it really makes you think hard about how little it takes to really spoil a friendship. Its, as I said before, one of the more adult things this show has tried to teach in a long time, made all the more evident when they portrayed it the way that they did, showing just how difficult it is for some people to put themselves out there and try to make friends. Every single one of us has been in that position at some point in our lives, and this episode captured those difficult moments perfectly.
So, how did the episode fare overall? In truth, I loved it. Having the kind of premise that it did, the story was a much more emotional and heartfelt one than we've been given in the last few outings of this show, with Twilight?s situation being not only a relatable one, but also something that ties in well with her role of being someone who has been trying to spread lessons of friendship. So it's good to know that even she has some things to learn every now and again. There were plenty of funny moments, but it was the emotional scenes that really stole the show for me. The characters all behaved in realistic ways, and the episode just had a more grounded and believable feel than many of the show's more recent episodes. Overall, I'd say it's a massive improvement over the last two episodes that we've been given, and one that I think should definitely be watched. In fact, I'm willing to go so far as to say that this episode has usurped "Slice of Life" as my number one episode of the season thus far, just because of how much of an emotional punch it had. It was sweet, an understandable situation, and finally brought a close to a loose end that's been hanging over Twilight since the start of the series. Highly recommended, this one.
