MLP Season 4 Premiere Synopsis Revealed! · 4:42am Oct 24th, 2013
Today the first synopsis for the premiere of Season 4 exactly one month from today has been released! You can check out the link to the announcement on Equestria Daily here. But here is the pertinent part of the synopsis for the purpose of me discussing it:
The fourth season begins with a revealing two-part premiere in which the newly crowned Princess Twilight must balance her new royal duties and her friendship with the other ponies. Amid preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration in Canterlot , Princesses Celestia and Luna go missing and the Everfree Forest is taking over Equestria. These unexpected turn of events sends Princess Twilight and her pony friends on a quest to discover a mysterious foe who threatens to destroy everything. It is all up to Princess Twilight and her friends to help save Equestria from being destroyed. As part of the journey, Princess Twilight is given the chance to discover the secret behind the Elements of Harmony.
“My Little Pony Friendship is Magic” follows the magical Princess Twilight Sparkle and her trusted assistant Spike, who live in Ponyville in the enchanted land of Equestria, along with her colorful pony friends – honest Applejack, generous Rarity, kind Fluttershy, loyal Rainbow Dash and fun - loving Pinkie Pie. Together, they teach one another valuable lessons about the most powerful magic of all – the magic of friendship!
My this sounds exciting! However, I am quite nervecited. Here's why.
First off, what's cool about it. There's apparently some villain who will be expanding the Everfree Forrest. The Summer Sun Celebration and Celestia (and now Luna) going missing brings it full circle with the series premiere. Perhaps this mysterious enemy is the force behind Nightmare Moon. One of the animatics from the San Diego Comic Con appears to be apparently Twilight witnessing a memory of Luna becoming Nightmare Moon pensieve style.
Perhaps this is from the premiere. It's almost like they're saying this is a new beginning. Also cool is that we're going to find out the secret behind the Elements of Harmony! This is a major bit of world-building on the show's part. Might indicate a bit of what to expect for the rest of Season 4. The only bad thing is that this revelation could potentially screw up Sharaloth's Harmony Theory, which is a very excellent story. But if Sharaloth's as talented a writer as I think they are, they could roll with it.
Now for what troubles me. I was never very happy with the alicorn Twilight thing. In the aftermath of "Magical Mystery Cure", I actually made this analysis video where I speculated that her ascension to alicorn-hood was temporary:
The final part of my argument gets a little muddy so I'll clarify it here. I was merely trying to say that Death and Resurrection part of the Hero's Journey is depicted as a metaphorical death and resurrection or near-death experience. Twilight loosing her wings and potentially her princess status in a death-like act of self-sacrifice would have been an apt metaphorical death and resurrection. Equestria Girls actually gave me some hope that my theory was correct. As I mentioned in the video, Megan McCarthy said on her Twitter that "Magical Mystery Cure" was the first part of a three-part story. That made me wonder why didn't they make the premiere a three-parter, making it a TV movie. Granted, there's probably a number of reasons they couldn't do that. Still, I thought to myself "What comes between 'Magical Mystery Cure' and the Season 4 Premiere?" Equestria Girls! And in Equestria Girls, what it means to be a princess is emphasized. So Twilight had to be a princess in Equestria Girls. She may not need to be a princess after the Season 4 premiere.
However, there is some evidence that my theory will not come to pass. Twilight appears in the aforementioned animatic from the San Diego Comic Con with a crown and wings. This could still be from the premiere and would therefore be before Twilight gets de-alicorned.
There's also this still shot from Rarity's Hot Minute video that Military Bronies put up on their Facebook the other day:
It appears to be a winged Twilight in the opening sequence. And as they pointed out, Twilight's Hot Minute included a clip that would eventually be in Equestria Girls. Still, alicorn Twilight could be in the opening sequence just for the premiere and be de-alicorned in the course of it. That's more something Joss Whedon would do, altering the opening sequence just for an episode. I don't imagine the writers of MLP are interested in emulating Joss Whedon. Then again, I thought the climax of Equestria Girls was pretty reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I didn't like how Discord got reformed in "Keep Calm and Flutter On", making it and "Magical Mystery Cure" the only two MLP episodes I don't like. John De Lancie though has been teasing everypony with the possibility that Discord isn't completely reformed. I got thinking about it though. One of the things Discord does in "The Return of Harmony" is remove the Mane 6's wings and horns. He can remove wings! I thought it might be possible that Discord on some renewed spree of chaos could be the one responsible for de-alicorning Twilight. Discord's reformation in "Keep Calm and Flutter On" would just be an excuse to get him out and about. If that is so, it would make both "Keep Calm and Flutter On" and "Magical Mystery Cure" totally worth it in my eyes! However, the synopsis hints at the introduction of a new villain and nothing hints that Discord will be involved or make an appearance at all. But then you never know with Discord.
However, the summary of the series at the end of the synopsis is the most egregious. Specifically this:
"My Little Pony Friendship is Magic” follows the magical Princess Twilight Sparkle and her trusted assistant Spike, who live in Ponyville...
Here it is very clear Twilight will be a princess for the foreseeable future. However, as I pointed out in my analysis video, Twilight could remain a princess while still being de-alicorned. At least is seems to confirm that Twilight will be remaining in Ponyville rather than staying in Canterlot or ruling the Crystal Empire alongside Cadence or becoming the Princess of Manehattan as I have heard some suggest.
Despite my misgivings about alicorn Twilight, I feel at this point that if Twilight is de-alicorned it would look like the writers didn't have any guts. They wouldn't go through with what they had intended because my half of the fandom hitched a pitch over it. I would be happy, but it would not be as sweet. I'd feel like I'd lost respect for the writers because they've shown themselves to be wusses.
I am certain though that we will be seeing a heroic act of death-like self-sacrifice that will illustrate the love that is agape. This could be done in a number of different ways. To me, Twilight being de-alicorned seems the most natural way to do that. And even if this doesn't happen in the premiere, it could happen halfway through the season or even in the season finale.
In the end, no matter what happens, I hope this season of MLP will be as good as MLP has ever been.
What are your thoughts on the matter?
God bless you all. God bless America. And God bless Equestria.
One month till The Day of the Doctor. One month till MLP: Season 4. Hell yeah!
This premiere certainly sounds interesting and I love the world building we're going to get. We're finally going to learn the origins of the Elements of Harmony! I'm definitely interested in seeing who this new villain will be and it'll be cool to see the Summer Sun Celebration again. Like you said, it feels like they're trying to have everything come full circle in this premiere, and I'm loving it! It's an interesting way of showing that season 1 through the season 4 opener will be chapter 1 of Twilight's life and chapter 2 is everything after that (sort of like how Moffat keeps describing the 50th anniversary as the end of the Doctor's first chapter and the beginning of his second).
Personally, I'm pretty certain that Twilight's going to remain an alicorn (and I have no problems with that), but who knows? They might pull the rug out from underneath us at some point and surprise us.
In regards to Discord, John de Lancie recently gave a few tidbits about how Discord's going to have several appearances throughout season 4 and he's even going to get his own song! You can read more about that at this link here.
Anyway, I'm excited for this premiere, I'm excited for this season, and I can't wait to see what the future of MLP has in store!
