Rating:
Despite the fourth season premiere promising a massive arc
of a quest, Twilight admits at the beginning of Twilight’s Kingdom that it
hasn’t ended up happening. Meghan McCarthy’s
second two-parter finally wraps up this story, with her usual dose of yet
another retconned villain, an easy solution, and a plot that feels borrowed
from a fanfic. Nevertheless, it is as
focused and watchable as her earlier effort, since pushing the series forward
helps gloss over more problematic writing.
After Twilight wonders about and then demands a purpose, an old
ape-centaur picks that moment to wander into town and start stealing
magic. This extremely creepy process is
repeated many times, while Twilight’s eventual battle with him also pushes the
show into areas it probably shouldn’t go.
After finally acquiring all the dollars magic in Equestria, Lord
Tirek is quickly defeated by a big ball of friendship that sprouts up a new
castle for Twilight afterwards. That was
easy. Songs are mercifully kept to a
minimum (which doesn’t seem likely when the first filler one hits less than
five minutes in), and having promise of a slightly different direction for the
series is somewhat exciting. But this is
a second straight season finale that expects us to ignore all the problems as
it pushes toward its goal. McCarthy may
have slightly relaxed her writing idiosyncrasies in the fourth season, but like
Discord, she isn’t quite there yet.
Kingdom’s opening is a bit odd in that it seems to reference
the previous Equestria Games (with Spike still loving that giant statue) while
ignoring that they ever happened (not one single plot element is mentioned
despite another visit to the Crystal Empire).
Twilight is there to help welcome a Duke and Duchess of
something-or-other (Lord Pickering and Lady Doolittle, I think), but her duties
consist of unfurling a lame banner. The
disgust at this menial task eventually leads to a song that only wastes time
where talking would have sufficed. Princess
Celestia et al. assure Twilight that she totally has a purpose that isn’t butt
monkey, because I guess they know what’s going to happen next.
Lord Tirek almost appears to be a decent villain at first,
as his snarl and strange wording are quite different from anyone else in the
series. Unfortunately, as he grows from
sucking up magic midi-chlorians, he just turns into Iron Will but with less
depth. Tirek typically has no purpose to
his actions other than an evil lust for power.
He is able to sway Discord to the dark side after the latter was
foolishly sent by Celestia to stop him. While believable, Discord really should have
realized sooner that Tirek had no reason not to betray him. His admission otherwise is an attempt to
produce a cute parallel between him and Fluttershy, when averting the trope
would have been more effective. Every
sign is ignored, although hopefully Discord will learn a lesson himself from
this.
Realizing they’re boned after doing nothing to stop an
imminent threat, Celestia again decides to let Canterlot’s junior partner save
everyone while sitting on her fat ass for the entire episode. Every other princess transfers their “alicorn
magic” into Twilight so that Tirek will be unable to steal it. Fortunately, this produces the episode’s best
scenes while Lord Twilight deals with having way too much power inside of
her. She must keep it a secret from
everyone to prevent leaks, but fat chance of that happening. Twilight can now shakily raise the sun, fly
faster than Rainbow Dash, teleport anywhere instantly, and has the ability to
battle all of Tirek’s accumulated magic.
Controlling all of this is another matter.
While the fight scene is impressive, all of the nukes going
off and property destruction doesn’t really fit with the series. Twilight holds her own, but neither is able
to prevail despite the many times their bodies are hit or smashed into
rocks. Finally, Tirek offers to trade
Twilight’s imprisoned friends for her magic, which can’t possibly work out
given the unlimited power he’ll have.
Looking for a special magic moment, Twilight agrees, even though nothing
could stop Tirek from capturing all of them immediately afterward. Thankfully, he’s distracted by growing bigger
or something.
In order to originally stop his threat, Twilight had spent
time with her friends at the old castle library attempting to discover what the
keys for that lockbox could be. Discord
kindly highlighted passages in their journal pertaining to the special moment
each character experienced in previous episodes (additional flashbacks are
either filler or helpful depending on how quickly this season was viewed), and
they soon figure out the various objects must be keys. Such an easy accident is actually forgivable
though, as Pinkie Pie impatiently throws her chicken at the lockbox which
magically morphs it. Twilight was
unfortunately missing an episode of her own, but they soon surmise Discord’s
medallion gift will probably work for the final key.
While the box doesn’t contain an object itself, it does
somehow house unlimited power. This
repairs the tree a bit more and envelops the mane six in a ball of ass-kicking
goodness. They easily defeat Tirek and
return him to hell, while restoring everyone’s magic and reversing each bit of
damage. But instead of a new library to
replace Twilight’s obliterated old one, this box pushes up a similar looking
castle for her to rule Ponyville from on high.
Celestia names Twilight the Princess of Friendship, and together
they’ll…oh it’s just going to be the same fucking show with a slightly nicer
library.
After the third season finale, My Little Pony’s course could have been irrevocably changed with
Twilight’s ascension to princessdom, but that wasn’t the case. Having her acknowledge it is strange and almost
feels like McCarthy is criticizing the other writers for producing
similar-storied episodes. Twilight’s
purpose had already developed pretty clearly; namely that she is in charge of
rescuing Equestria from any and all would-be threats. Making Twilight a princess means Celestia is
putting these matters in the hands of a trusted lieutenant rather than a
graduate student, and is sensible even if only a face-saving maneuver. So Twilight wondering about this facetiously
wastes the first act since Celestia could easily just say “you’re
commander-in-chief, now shut the hell up”.
Which would be good since Equestria apparently has no
shortage of villains that Celestia has conveniently forgotten about. According to Twilight’s Kingdom, Tirek has
apparently been free since It’s About Time some two years earlier, and that
unexplained hooded figure at the end of Castle Mane-ia is almost certainly
him. But how could someone so powerful take
forever to show up? Saying Tirek was
“too weak” doesn’t make sense since his magic-sucking abilities seem fine right
from the start. And sweet Jesus is
McCarthy trying to give kids nightmares in this season. Tirek’s process looks like it sucks the
pony’s soul out too, and he doesn’t limit himself to unicorns. But having magic so easily stealable and
transferable contradicts Twilight’s earlier statement that magic comes from
within. Or I guess it doesn’t since she
was apparently speaking literally. As in
pretty much any pony could have magic if we shot this glowing ball into
them. This is something that shouldn’t
be introduced unless pony civil rights is about to be a subject, with the Star
Wars prequels Force debacle being a fitting comparison.
At least Discord is a delight, especially after his previous
appearance in Three’s A Crowd. The lord
of chaos is constantly changing costume for decent comic effect, while he’s
given enough solid development to practically become the seventh mane six member. Despite showing some remorse, betraying
Fluttershy shouldn’t have been so easy for Discord considering he even brings
her up during his initial encounter with Tirek.
Still, the centaur raises an apt point as to whether Discord can ever
accept a supporting role for the forces of good. That it isn’t resolved yet makes Discord feel
more well-rounded, although he presumably won’t be attempting a takeover like
this again. As we’ve come to expect,
John de Lancie delivers his lines excellently, including the aforementioned
“shock” at being betrayed.
Likewise, McCarthy’s characterization is good despite the
episode mostly focusing on Twilight and the baddies. The other mane six members find decent (but
not spectacular) dialogue in support, which is also true for their royal
highnesses. Even with Dash’s clichéd
“point taken” and more references to Luna happily invading everyone’s dreams,
no established character acts over the top.
Tirek unfortunately feels cobbled together from archetypes, although he
has his moments as well. As the focus
isn’t mostly on him, McCarthy shields herself from a glaring inability to
produce compelling characters. At least
we won’t be constantly subjected to Tirek like the royal couple, who still seem
bland in the midst of their long-distance relationship.
Twilight’s Kingdom marks the second straight season finale
littered with problems, but once again its rating is right in spite of
them. The focus and characterization are
both strong, which is noticeably different from those filler episodes that aired
just a few weeks earlier. Of course,
Twilight’s Kingdom really should have rated out even better, and perhaps in the
hands of M.A. Larson it would have. But
McCarthy put herself in charge of another “important” episode, and her
shortcomings cost My Little Pony a
shot at producing a definitive outing.
Even if the arc didn’t pay off as expected (and seemed oddly
specifically designed for an event the tree couldn’t really know about), the
fourth season largely excelled because of it.
Granted, Lauren Faust probably left the series specifically due to
scenes like those shown in Twilight’s Kingdom, since the action sequence and
Tirek’s magic eating are meant for viewers much older than the target
audience. And Twilight’s whining about
not having a purpose is more difficult when she clearly already has one. But yet her entry into the new library is
still moving, as Twilight does feel like she is finally receiving the
importance she deserves. McCarthy’s
direction might be straying from its intended destination, but at least it’s
going somewhere. In this way, Twilight’s
Kingdom exemplifies the fourth season’s progress while building hope for the
episodes to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment