Twilight's Kingdom - Some thoughts · 1:50pm May 11th, 2014
Just some thoughts in a semi-random order about the season 4 finale:
In case anyone was wondering, the Rainbow Power form ponies were designed by Hasbro's marketing department and have been appearing in MLP TV adverts for about six months now. Even then, bronies were saying that they're fugly and need to be redesigned before they appear in the show. The bad news? They didn't. The good news? DHX now have several months to try to talk Hasbro into letting them refine the designs a little before the opening of Season 5.
Regarding the new Castle of Friendship, my suspicion is that its' physical nature is strongly influenced by its origins. The Tree of Harmony is a crystalline artefact that vaguely resembles a tree. The Chest blossomed from it in a way that suggested it was sort of a Seed of Harmony. Because the new Castle sprouted from that 'Seed', it makes sense it would share the Tree's crystalline nature. I'm hoping that this will be explored in a few world-building episodes where Twilight tries to find out where the original Tree came from. My gut feeling is some sort of ancient super-civilisation. I'm not going to say 'aliens' but... come on, guys: Aliens!!! And if Pinkie Pie says something like that, I'll laugh my butt off.
I'm hoping that the Mane Six don't now become superheroes. Rather, I'd hope for things to be at least partly unchanged from Season 4's precedent with Twilight and the others, mostly unknowingly, continuing to act as teachers of the virtues of the six Elements (both by word and deed). They'll only use the power-up for more... serious blockages.
Finally, I really didn't like how Twilight found her Key. They seemed to stick it in the last episode to create an artificial sense of crisis. I would have preferred her to receive the key's precursor object in a prior episode. Then the climax could have been made a bit more sensible, with Twilight making the strategic decision that she couldn't beat Tirek by conventional means without causing immense damage to the country and innocent lives so she deliberately discards that card, having worked out from Discord's comments something of what awaited inside the Mysterious Chest. Then her choice seems less sentimental stupidity and more the plan of Equestria's smartest ascended unicorn.
