S5E13: Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep? · 8:07pm Jul 11th, 2015
This was pretty good fun. Yes, there was a whole heap of fanservice in those dreams -- and a Luna episode is basically fanservice already -- but unlike "Slice of Life", there was an actual story in there as well -- and one which included a genuine, and apparently major, threat to Equestria as a whole. A reminder, if any were needed, that this is not a safe land. The ep'll stomp all over quite a few headcanons, but there's nothing wrong with that. I do wonder about that final scene -- it seemed so unassuming that I'm almost sure it'll turn out to be massively significant down the line. I'm getting seriously irritated with the lack of songs, though, especially with the mid-season hiatus upon us. Eight episodes is too long to go without one -- and no, Vinyl and Octavia's instrumental thing doesn't count. But yeah, this was an enjoyable episode, weirdness and all. ★★★★
The only damage this did to my headcanon was the idea that Luna is the only one who can walk among dreams. The rest I will gladly incorporate. Especially Magical Prince Big Macintosh.
The biggest thing that annoyed me about the episode was that Luna was the whole cause of the problem. And I don't mean it was just feeding on her guilt, I mean that she made the damned thing in the first place and didn't tell anypony! After that reveal, I was half expected RD to yell at her "you couldn't have told us that a few hours ago!?" If she had just told them that her little bit of self-flagellation was going to eat Equestria up front, that would have been better. Then they'd know they were fighting a construct, not a monster and been able to deal with it accordingly.
Aside from that, I agree that it was good. Always nice to see a Luna ep.
3230009 I didn't have firm headcanon about dreamwalking, so that wasn't a problem to me. Fluttershy wanting to be a pet kinda came out of nowhere, but I guess it works. Of course, we'll now have a billion Maclicorn fics, most of which will be terrible, but that doesn't really change anything around here. :P
3230152 Hmm, I need to think about that for a bit. People (or ponies) burdened with guilt can act in very odd ways -- I know -- so I'm not going to complain too much at it just yet. And yes, a very good Luna episode. I'm not as much of a fan of her as a large chunk of the fandom is ("Luna Eclipsed" is only upper-mid-table in S2 for me), but I've really warmed to her over the last season or so. I don't want any complaints about how it took three seasons to get a second Luna-centric ep, though, given that we Celestia fans have had nothing for five seasons.
