Rating:
Luna Eclipsed is rather raw and slightly awkward, which
parallels its main character in a way.
Between two huge failures, M.A. Larson offers the best Halloween episode
of the series, and one of the few ever which actually tackles reasons for the
holiday’s existence. To do so, he
brought back Celestia’s sister Luna, who was last seen in the pilot over a year
earlier. Criticisms abounded because her
characterization stood in stark contrast to this appearance, which consisted of
about a minute on screen. Here, Luna is
loud, awkward, talks funny, and has a small sarcastic streak. She decides to arrive in Ponyville on
Nightmare Night; partly to protest the holiday’s unfair portrayal of her. Attempting to fit in, Luna scares the whole
town and ends up canceling Halloween altogether. Fortunately Twilight faced a similar problem
earlier (for an episode or two, but still), and is happy to help another member
of Canterlot’s royalty with her image.
Even given this partial success, it would take time for Luna to be
integrated within the series, and her successive appearances show the strong
but quiet loner that the initial glimpse would have suggested. But does this mean Luna is completely out of
character in her eponymous episode? From
a show that tackles introversion regularly, I can’t say that it is. We all have moments of extroversion like Luna
before retreating back inside, and they’re not exactly well-written one-man
shows. Luna might be a bit too out
there, but at least Larson tried to address her being gone for a thousand
years. Language is practically
impossible to understand after that time, so fortunately her speech isn’t
worse. Despite the few aspects of her
character that might not age well, Luna Eclipsed is a joy that still finds time
to explore issues about its subject.
Larson may not articulate his points quite correctly, but he still
offers a definitive argument on why Halloween is a necessary part of culture.
Ponyville is out in force for Nightmare Night, which involves the usual Halloween antics. Twilight and Spike (dressed as Starswirl The Bearded and…a dragon (it works)) answer the door, to find a group of trick-or-treating kids being chaperoned by Granny Smith and Pinkie Pie (who gets a bit too into her chicken costume). After doling out candy, they explore the festivities, where (after Shadow Bolt Rainbow Dash gives Spike a ‘eart attack) they are eventually treated to a scary story by Zecora.
She describes the “origins” of Nightmare Night, which
involve hiding from and offering up candy sacrifices to Nightmare Moon (it is
unclear (but seems unlikely) if the holiday was a recent development). While producing rather good special effects
from just magic dust, Zecora gets unexpected help when the real Jument Séléniaque decides to descend from
heaven.
Armed with a booming “royal Canterlot voice”, the dark
princess brings terror to all of Ponyville’s residents, although her demands
are quite the opposite. Luna wishes to
be accepted by Ponyville society instead of feared, but (especially thanks to
Pinkie Pie) they don’t ever seem able to forget the pilot’s events. Thankfully, Twilight remembers those final
scenes and takes it upon herself to help.
She escorts Luna around to visit Fluttershy and Applejack, but neither
works out that well. At least Applejack
is enthusiastic, but her attempts to help Luna have fun backfire when Pinkie
Pie thinks one of the children is being eaten.
Tempers flare, ponies flee screaming, and Luna sulks after angrily
ending Nightmare Night “for-ev-errr!”.
Twilight fortunately observes that there’s still time left
in the episode to make amends. Her plan
consists of getting Pinkie Pie under control (since she’s ruined every positive
step so far), and bidding Luna to get into the spirit of things. Despite having her confront “Nightmare Moon”,
Pinkie Pie comes along easier than would be expected since she announces “it’s
fun to be scared”. Still bewildered at
this sentiment, Luna gives her Nightmare Moon gear one last spin and announces
she might decide to eat all that candy instead of the entire town. Despite causing more screaming, the kids are
happy that Luna played along and are successful in having Nightmare Night
reinstated. Finally gaining her
acceptance, Luna and Twilight bask in the afterglow of a successful holiday and
new friendship, at the price of only a few cardiac arrests.
Larson shows quite a bit of Luna which will probably never
be seen again, but the temptation to dismiss her actions as out of character
isn’t entirely sound. In subsequent
episodes, Luna will make token appearances next to Celestia and stalk other
ponies’ dreams/nightmares, but the pilot already made clear that she went insane
due to tiring of this solitary routine.
After being forced to rule when most ponies are asleep, Luna shouldn’t
be expected to get along perfectly with everyone. And thankfully it felt like she’d been out of
touch for a millennium, since any other writer would have had Luna speak
normally (such as the flashbacks in Princess Twilight Sparkle). Perhaps all of the “thou”s are a bit too
much, but a person speaking English 1000 years ago would have sounded
worse. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales are
only 700 years old, and already they are close to impossible for modern readers
to understand without translation. Be glad
that Luna is understandable rather than Beowulf, because this is the time scale
she was gone for.
Even if not perfect, Luna Eclipsed is still her definitive
introduction into the series after a year of apparently being forgotten, and
the announcement of a character who demands attention. Despite being limited to supporting or cameo
roles following this leading turn, Luna unquestionably raises the quality of
Sleepless In Ponyville during her scene discussing fear with Scootaloo. Contrary to what is shown here, Larson gave
Luna a presence that none of the other ponies can claim, and only appearing
sporadically helps this. Instead of
seeming like a power-hungry #2, Luna is shrouded in mystery and derives power
from there. Although her backstory has
since been further elucidated, there is much we do not know about Luna’s
desires, motivations, and experiences.
Having such a character greatly improves My Little Pony as a series, although Luna still remains sorely
underused.
Admittedly, the calmer Luna found in Sleepless and For Whom
The Sweetie Belle Toils feels a better fit than a pony capable of strange (yet
memorable) exclamations (“the fun has been doubled!”). But people also forget that Luna Eclipsed is
the freaking Halloween show, and some leeway should be given. After all, The Simpsons’ Treehouse Of Horror
episodes routinely kill off main characters every year, only to have them
reappear next week as usual.
Additionally, “getting into the spirit” is a huge theme for Luna
Eclipsed, and its ultimate solution. The
episode is supposed to be fun, which Larson absolutely succeeds in doing. But Halloween has been under fire before for
being a “celebration of the devil” or some such crap, which completely misses
the point now. Why can’t we enjoy
dressing up as someone (or something) else for one night a year? Warding off “evil” spirits isn’t really part
of the reason anymore, and neither does religion have to factor in.
Larson addresses both the holiday’s creation and possibility
of ending in Ponyville terms. Although
no doubt a retcon, Larson imagines Halloween springing up around Nightmare
Moon, and the legend he has Zecora relate is very creative. The timeline for these events becomes a
problem though, since Nightmare Night has apparently been around for a while,
yet nobody knew of Jument Séléniaque
when she appeared in the pilot. This
isn’t entirely important, but still needs to be brought up. And while not exactly religion, Luna does
count as one of Equestria’s two gods (she’s well over a thousand years old),
but her desire to end Nightmare Night is actually understandable. Obviously Zecora’s legend takes many
liberties even given Nightmare Moon’s evil activities, but Luna can’t escape
either image. This may be a
“celebrities-only” problem, but image vs. reality regarding regular people can
still cause strife, especially regarding stereotypes. Luna’s extreme difficulties with revamping
her own are very apt.
On top of this is
Larson’s assertion that being scared can also be fun, which must seem rather
audacious for him to suggest. There is
merit here, but not in the way Larson words it.
Obviously being scared, rather rationally or not, is an extremely
distressing experience that one does not wish to have often. But yet, there can certainly be joy in
overcoming your fear or doing something you thought you never could. More to that point is the continued
popularity of not just Halloween, but horror movies, haunted houses, roller
coasters, and the like. Why are these
places and films even profitable at all if they only promise an awful
time? Probably for the same reason we
often dream of fears. There is an internal
necessity in all of us to face and overcome potentially perilous situations,
and an unquestionable relief in doing so.
Denying Halloween its existence is essentially being afraid of being
afraid. For whatever reason, our culture
needs this because we need it. Larson
didn’t exactly vocalize everything properly, but this is what he was aiming for.
But enough with the
philosophy. I’m sure the question you
care about more is “who is everyone wearing”?
While not apparently afforded enough time to have all of the mane six
appear, Larson’s costumes for those that do are well thought out. Starswirl The Bearded will be mentioned again
in later episodes, although he’s the perfect choice for Twilight to nerd out
over. No one else who doesn’t study magic
will have heard of him, but Twilight could tell you every last detail. As she also points out, the outfit is rather
striking and memorable. Spike’s dragon
costume precedes yearning to be with his own kind in Dragon Quest, and
highlights how different he is from them.
Pinkie Pie of course
gets way too in character as a chicken, and drives the plot with her fear
because of it. While a bit grating after
a while, all of Pinkie’s misunderstood proclamations do look plausible, and she
eventually redeems her behavior.
Naturally, Pinkie has a chicken’s movements down as well, and does seem
like someone who would never feel too old to celebrate Halloween. Having Rainbow Dash dress as a Shadow Bolt is
another nice shout-out to the pilot, and recalls her mischievous nature around
that time. Not that she does a lot other
than scare ponies with lightning, but Dash is never out of character. Applejack’s scarecrow likewise fits her
aesthetic.
Unfortunately, the
other two aren’t seen in costume, which is especially missed from Rarity. Apparently her scenes were cut, but not
having her show up somewhere is an unfortunate omission. Perhaps part of this was due to Tabitha St.
Germain voicing Luna, and not wanting to highlight them sounding too
similar. While often providing
incredible line reads, and admittedly saddled with a lot of old-style dialogue,
St. Germain’s performance as Luna does not match her best work since it’s often
not distinctive enough from Rarity. Many
of her lines are difficult to take, although that’s not necessarily any of St.
Germain’s fault. This is something that
has improved in later appearances, but again needs to be pointed out (for
someone so talented, it’s not fair of me to nitpick). Fluttershy’s short appearance with Luna is
much better though, despite being a bit over the top. Believing the crazy chicken shares voice
actors with her is hard, especially from Libman’s calm reading of “oh and
Nightmare Moon”. While sadly not
possessing more substance, everyone involved in this scene gives what they need
to for its success.
Twilight likewise
fares well in being Luna’s “straight man”.
She had some difficulty in acclimating to Ponyville earlier, and perhaps
doesn’t want her teacher getting a bad word.
But Twilight also isn’t fazed by Luna since she spent a lot of time
around royalty before the series. This
allows her to help out and address Luna personally rather than being scared by
the image. Of course, she also can
because Luna decides to wander around the outskirts of Ponyville rather than
fly back to Canterlot after her reception.
Obviously this is a necessary plot device, but Luna may fly away
whenever desired, and the chariot she arrives on is completely forgotten. Season four and beyond Twilight could have
tracked her fellow princess down anywhere, but most of the plot probably
wouldn’t have happened now. Again, this
is a nitpicking point that still must be mentioned.
And there are enough
of those for me to seriously question my initial rating and declaration of Luna
Eclipsed being the best season two offering.
Perhaps it isn’t, and maybe I’ll give in and bump it down someday. But not today. As a top-notch Halloween episode, an
important character’s introduction, and pure entertainment, Luna Eclipsed
succeeds on all levels. But it’s not
just all fluff either, as Larson discusses a controversial holiday’s existence
and argues that it needs to continue.
Instead of the faceless villain from the pilot, Larson explores what it
was like for someone to be exiled for a thousand years and forced to
reintegrate. He doesn’t go into
everything, but that just adds to Luna’s mystique, which is an essential part
of her character. Yes, Larson doesn’t
get it quite right, and that awkwardness spills over into many scenes. But he again packs so many more ideas into
one episode than any of the other writers will even attempt. Maybe it won’t remain among the series’ top
episodes after the show wraps, but Luna Eclipsed deserves recognition all the
same. Not everything Larson touched was
a success, but there’s still much merit in his trying.
No comments:
Post a Comment