Season 3 Episode Reviews: The Crystal Empire · 7:51pm Nov 10th, 2012
And it’s a new season of FiM at last! The long drought is over, the birds are singing, the writers are etching out hundreds of fanfics about how Sombra was actually a misunderstood sex god, and it’s time for me to overly criticize a little girl’s cartoon! Oh, the joy and the merriment! At least the reviews aren't random this time...
Let’s look at the first two episodes of the third season, “The Crystal Empire.”
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TECHNICAL SPECS:
Season: 3
Episodes: 1+2
Written By: Meghan McCarthy
First Aired: November 10, 2012
SUMMARY:
During her usual work hours, Princess Celestia receives a message from Equestria’s northern border, telling her that something has returned. Horrified, Celestia dispatches Cadance and Shining Armor to resolve the situation before writing an official summons to Twilight. Unfortunately, said summons included the word “test,” sending Twilight into a blind panic over what her mentor might want to quiz her on. Meanwhile, Luna is unsure that Twilight is ready or capable of doing whatever needs to be done, but Celestia’s trust is enough to persuade her to give it a try.
Twilight arrives, her saddlebags stuffed with supplies for a usual exam. Celestia quickly shoots down her beliefs that this will be a normal test, however, by showing her the history of the Crystal Empire. A thousand years ago, this land was a peaceful empire inhabited by crystalline ponies, but the evil King Sombra took over and enslaved everypony inside. Celestia and Luna reduced him to smoke and sealed him in the arctic wastes, but not before he placed a curse on the Empire that caused it to vanish into thin air. Now it has returned, and Twilight must help Cadance and Shining Armor discover what happened and bring hope and joy back to the long-lost land. Before she leaves, however, Celestia reminds her that she is the only one who can perform this task.
The gravity of the task weighs heavily on Twilight’s shoulders, causing her to break into song about her fear of failing. Fortunately, her friends were all arriving to congratulate her on acing whatever Celestia had up her…um, invisible, furry sleeve. Together, they journey to the frozen tundra, where Shining Armor got his Empires mixed up. And none too soon, too; Sombra has also returned, now little more than a giant head riding a cloud of black smoke. The Mane 6 and Spike make it safely inside, but Shining lags behind to hold off Sombra, and ends up getting his horn sealed for his troubles.
In the crystal palace, the gang runs into Cadance again, now looking like she’s run an entire marathon while wearing full armor. She’s been awake for days, using her love magic and the natural powers of the crystals to keep Sombra at bay. But now her power is fading, and with Shining’s own magic unusable, the Empire won’t stand much longer. Fortunately, there had to be some means of protecting the Empire before Sombra arrived, and Twilight immediately assumes that her “test” was a research paper on the history of the Crystal Empire.
Unfortunately, the denizens are of no help. Not only are they surprised by just how far in the future they’ve been flung, but they have no memory of anything before King Sombra, and they really don’t want to remember him at all. Even worse, they’re so depressed that they’ve lost their shine, reducing them to sad sacks that even Eeyore would be telling to lighten up. Once they find a library, however, Twilight manages to find a book detailing a Crystal Fair. The ponies set out at once, rigging up events to serve as a means of perking up the populace so that Cadance won’t have to use her own magic anymore.
At first, the fair seems to be working. Before long, however, they discover a fatal miscalculation. The book mentions a Crystal Heart as the thing channeling the positive emotions of the Crystal Ponies, so Twilight carved one for the festivities. Unfortunately, it turns out there is an actual Crystal Heart, and if they don’t find it, things will fall apart. Even worse, Cadance’s magic is already collapsing; Sombra almost makes it through, but is cut off at the very last minute. With her friends running the fair and keeping the fake heart hidden, Twilight runs off on her own to save the day. After a little prodding, however, she agrees to take Spike as well, but only as long as he doesn’t do anything.
The fair runs without a hitch, with the Crystal Ponies growing shinier with every passing moment. But they still want to see the heart, forcing Dash to draft Fluttershy into helping her with a jousting competition. Meanwhile, Twilight deduces that the heart has to be hidden inside the palace. Once she sees the throne room again, she remembers that Sombra twisted the land with his magic, and copies the same dark powers Celestia used to corrupt some of the crystals, revealing a hidden staircase. One tumble and shattered pelvis later, she finds a door…which leads her right back to Canterlot, where Celestia disowns her as a student and Cadance was killed by Sombra. What she’s really seeing is an illusion, detailing her greatest fear. When Spike goes through the same thing in an attempt to rescue her, she manages to break him free as well, and together, the two open the door the right way. All this does, however, is reveal another seemingly endless staircase…which she traverses by making gravity her bitch and flipping the stairs over, thus letting her slide up/down to the top.
Unfortunately, things are falling apart. The shield has broken enough that Sombra has begun to get through, and the Crystal Ponies quickly take notice. Panicking, they run to the fake heart, where the Mane 6 try one last time to distract them. Unfortunately, Pinkie ends up knocking the sham relic over, revealing their web of lies. Twilight runs up to grab the Crystal Heart itself, but sets off an alarm that alerts Sombra to her location. He seals her inside a prison of black crystal, and when she tries to teleport out, she gets warped right back inside. The Heart, meanwhile, lands at Spike’s feet, but there’s no way for him to save Twilight. Despite knowing it will mean she failed, she orders him to grab the Crystal Heart and run it downstairs.
Cadance’s magic fails entirely, allowing Sombra to completely get through. Seeing Spike, he makes a beeline for the dragon, even regaining his physical form as he approaches the Heart. The day is saved, however, when Shining hurls his sleep-deprived wife at the relic, allowing her to catch the artifact before Sombra can reach it and revealing herself to be the “Crystal Princess.” She lands on the fake heart, shattering it, and places the real one in its proper place. The sight of it alone is enough to make the Crystal Ponies shine again, and their joy supercharges the relic, releasing a wave that briefly crystallizes all the normal ponies and completely destroys Sombra.
With the day saved, Twilight and her friends make the trip back to Canterlot, where she expects to be reprimanded for failing to save the day. Instead, she is praised for telling Spike to leave her and save the day. The real test was to see if she could delegate tasks to her friends and not simply rely on her own power to see things through. And she passed with flying colors.
REVIEW:
Welcome to the first completely Faust-free season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. With Meghan McCarthy serving as the new editor (and writer for this episode as well), there are a lot of fan expectations that must be dealt with. Will the show survive? How much influence have we fans had? How will the series evolve and grow from this point on? While a lot of these answers aren’t forthcoming just yet, these two parts show us some hints at what is to come, as well as what probably needs a little more work.
I’ve already covered the first eight minutes back when I reviewed the preview clip, so here’s a quick go-through. The prologue is incredibly short and just serves to set up the Crystal Empire’s return. Twilight freaking out over a test is par for the course, but her blowing up the library and Spike’s pillow armor was hilarious. Celestia actually shows her power when demonstrating the Crystal Empire’s importance. Sombra is set up as one of the most vile villains in the series so far, standing just above Chrysalis and beneath Discord. Twilight thinks she’ll fail, hints at her becoming an Alicorn, meh “Failure Song,” and finally everypony going north. Everybody got that? Good.
I love Shining Armor’s getup; it looks a bit like a reference to “The Empire Strikes Back.” Appropriate, since this is about an empire striking back. Sombra’s smoke form also makes a pretty good first impression, coming off as more of a force of nature than a mere villain. One thing that did bug me, though, was Shining staying behind to hold him off…when everypony was already well on their way to escaping. There was no real point. He wasn’t going to catch up. Still, it serves its intended purpose of cutting off his own power, thus justifying why he can’t throw up a shield of his own to save the day like he did in “A Canterlot Wedding.”
The Crystal Empire is a pretty damn cool setpiece, all things considered. It looks sufficiently alien compared to Equestria, with everything made out of crystals – even the inhabitants. At the same time, though, the visual design is impressive, especially for something animated in Flash. In particular, the snowflake theme is carried in the city’s layout, as well as serving as the central symbol for the entire country. Rarity’s reaction is absolutely perfectly in character for her, and I loved the little jab her friends give her before going into the palace. It’s one of the few moments in the two episodes where the gang’s all together and, you know, showing those friendship qualities they’re supposed to have.
I loved the little hints to just how exhausted Cadance is, from the lines under her eyes to her general emaciated look. The return of the secret hoofshake was a bit on the forced side, but still adorable…until it’s followed by the shield collapsing. Unfortunately, this pretty much amounts to what the two will be doing for the rest of the forty-two minutes: standing in the palace and spouting exposition to the rest of the cast. About the only thing they actually do is help save the day in the end, but I’ll get to that later. The real point of the scene, though, is to show that Twilight still hasn’t gotten it through her thick gob that this isn’t a regular test; she’s still stuck in a world of research papers and written exams. Also, Rarity’s reaction to the existence of Crystal Ponies is totally in-character for her, and I love it.
The first appearance of the Crystal Ponies highlights just how dire the straights were when Sombra took over. The whole city basically operates like a massive mood crystal, with everypony’s inner thoughts and feelings manifesting themselves via the colorization and shine of their bodies and buildings. Now that everypony’s still bummed about the whole slavery-and-teleportation-to-a-thousand-years-in-the-future thing (perhaps Sombra was timing his return?), they’re all a bunch of sad sacks who aren’t good for much of anything. They can’t even remember what happened before Sombra came in, other than that they don’t want to talk about him. It’s actually a fairly disturbing bit of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for the entire civilization.
Of course, we have the actions of the Mane 6 to lighten things up a bit. Rainbow Dash being her usual bossy self to get answers was funny, as was Fluttershy starting to act assertive, only to back right back down. Pinkie’s spy routine was freaking hilarious, especially when she activates her night vision and ends up crashing into a pole. (By the way, never actually use night vision goggles when it’s light out, unless you like the idea of flash-frying your eyes.) Rarity’s scene, however, is a bit too much. Once again, she loses sight of the objective and instead brags about how beautiful she’d look if she was a Crystal Pony as well. It’s nowhere near as bad as in, say, “Sonic Rainboom,” but it’s still a bit of a downer to see her turn back into this.
The library scene is where the episode really starts to pick up for me. Twilight practically having a few dozen orgasms over how many books there are to behold is so fiendishly adorkable that I had to pause the episode to laugh. Applejack pushing Rainbow Dash’s ladder so she could quickly pull books down was also amusing in its own right, as was Pinkie defying physics so she could reach the top shelves. Rarity using Spike as her slave labor was not quite as funny, but still cute. And to top it off, Twilight just levitates the books over in an assembly line until she has the right one and has left about half the library in a massive pile.
This leads to the second song, “The Crystal Fair.” It’s mostly just exposition set to music, but it’s not too bad. Some of the animation gags are funny, but for the most part it’s just a basic tune to advance the plot. Pinkie’s mangling on the bugle was a lot more amusing than it probably has any right to be, at any rate.
The Fair itself is pretty amusing, but the best part is the effect it has on the Crystal Ponies. In an instant, their bodies begin to glow, and their memories return. As I’ve said before, the animation in this episode is just great, making the whole sequence a lot of fun to watch. Of course, this is only the first part, so the plan hits a major snag almost immediately. Once again, Twilight misunderstood what she was reading; this time, though, it’s because Sombra tore out any information on the heart’s existence, no doubt to keep the ponies from trying to find and use it against him. Even worse, Cadance’s magic begins to fail, causing Sombra to…reveal his horribly untextured head. No, seriously, the guy looks frickin’ hideous, and not in a good way. Even worse, this cliffhanger soon proves to be utterly pointless as Cadance gets right back up and restores the shield, cutting off the tip of Sombra’s horn.
At this point, the story splits into two distinct halves. The A Plot is Twilight running off on her own, completely discarding everything she had learned up to that point about the Magic of Friendship because Celestia told her she had to do it alone. Spike gets to tag along, but Twilight is still so paranoid about failing that test that she orders him not to lift a claw to help her, even to look under a rug. Meanwhile, the B Plot is about the rest of the Mane 6 holding the fair and keeping everypony from looking at the fake heart (now covered by a flag). Unfortunately, this story is fairly glossed over, and outside of the jousting scene, not much really goes on here. Still, I like the attempts to keep ponies from taking a peek, Rarity’s basket weaving is a nice continuation of her nest building from “Winter Wrap-Up,” and the sheep petting zoo is hilarious. Said joust is actually the best part, even if it ends up being another “Rainbow Dash stomps over Fluttershy” moment.
Back on the “Twilight Sparkle Show,” Twilight finally breaks out her reasoning skills and figures out the secret of the Hearth’s location. In a flashback, she remembers that Sombra redecorated the Empire in his own image, and uses the same dark powers (!) Celestia used (!!) to reveal the location of a deep staircase. After a few more jokes about how deep the pit is and all that, Twilight falls down and is saved only by a levitation and teleportation spell combination. Fortunately, ponies are apparently made mostly of marshmallow; otherwise, every bone in her body would be a pile of jagged edges. The moving door bit is…kind of eh, but the real important thing here is that Twilight gets it to stop by using the same dark magic as before…causing her to end up back in Canterlot Castle, where Celestia tells her she failed and is no longer her student. She even gives her a wing hug…just to brush her away.
Of course, that’s not what actually happens. She’s actually still in the Crystal Basement, staring at a blank wall torturing her with her greatest fear: failing Celestia. But unlike “Lesson Zero,” this isn’t simply brushed over or played for laughs. There’s no mention of Magic Kindergarten or ridiculous crap like that, but instead, we get to see just how much the thought of failing her mentor/mother figure actually terrifies Twilight on a basic level. It’s an incredibly short scene, and again kind of a waste of a cliffhanger in retrospect, but it’s such a huge punch to the gut that it really works.
Even better, Spike manages to pull her back to reality…just before looking into the same doorway, seeing his own worst fears of Twilight abandoning him. As we saw in “Owl’s Well That Ends Well,” he takes his relationship with her very seriously, and the mere thought that she might not love him was enough to make him run away. Again, it’s a short moment, and kind of padding in the grand scheme of things, but it’s also a good character piece between the two. Twilight opens the door the proper way using her actual magic, revealing yet another endless staircase. Of course, she doesn’t just teleport or anything, probably because she doesn’t actually know what’s up there and doesn’t want to risk going into a wall or anything. Instead, she just makes gravity cry like a baby and inverts the tower, causing herself to slide up the bottom of the stairs. It seems Pinkie is rubbing off on her…
Of course, this is where everything falls apart at the fair. Everypony runs out of ways to distract the Crystal Ponies; Rarity’s last-ditch hat is by far her funniest scene in the episode so far. Even worse, the ruse is revealed just as the shield collapses, causing Sombra to spread himself across the Empire. Fortunately, Twilight reaches the top…but sets off a security alarm that causes Sombra to trap her in a black crystal cage. Say what you will about Sombra sucking (because he does), but that was actually a pretty ingenious move. What wasn’t so ingenious was him letting the Heart bounce out and land at Spike’s feet.
And so Twilight is stuck. She can’t teleport out (again, good forward thinking), and she might not escape in time to deliver the Crystal Heart to Cadance. Her friends, family and Equestria itself are in grave danger. So what is she going to do? She actually thinks like a leader and tells Spike to leave her behind and deliver the Heart. Fortunately, Sombra’s corruption is operating on video game logic, and a platform leading downwards appears just as Spike needs it. Of course, he then trips, sending both him and the Heart falling towards Sombra…who now has a body again. I…don’t get it. Probably something to do with the Crystal Heart and magic and who cares by this point.
This, however, is when we get to the truly most awesome part of the episode. Shining sees what’s about to happen, grabs Cadance, and throws her at Spike and the Heart. Fortunately, she regains consciousness upon being grabbed, allowing her to glide over and grab both at the very last second. Oh, and she’s now the Crystal Princess. Granted, her Cutie Mark was kind of a giveaway, but still, it’s kind of an odd thing to toss into the very end of an episode. The Crystal Heart activates, cleansing the land of Sombra’s dark influence, turning the ponies to crystal briefly (I love the designs and Rarity’s reaction), and finally ending by destroying Sombra himself…possibly. There’s some hints that he might be back, but whatever. Point is, he go boom boom. The effect is so great that it even creates an aurora borealis, reaching out all the way to Canterlot. I love the short scene with Celestia and Luna here, as if Luna is admitting that Celestia was right about Twilight all along.
Of course, that does little to raise her spirits; she’s so downtrodden over seemingly failing that she fails to even notice the horrible pun Applejack makes when Rarity starts complaining about losing her crystal form. Heck, she doesn’t even react when Shining hits the same button as Spike and says it’s “Just a test.” (I love Cadance’s reaction to this, even giving him a little slap on the cheek with her wings. Apparently she’s suffered Twilight’s violent stress storms before.) But then we get to the moral, and it’s a really good one. The actual test was to see if Twilight could handle a situation such as this, not if she could save the day. In the end, she did the right thing by seemingly sacrificing her own future (and more importantly, her life) to save the Crystal Empire. While Spike and Cadance were the ones to really save the day, Twilight still proved herself worthy of advancing to…whatever the next level is.
And so we get a reprise of the “Failure Song,” this time with the others (who weren’t there the first time and apparently got a quick peek at the song while Twilight was inside) singing about how super-awesome she is and how she shouldn’t let her doubts control her. It’s…still not that good, but hey, episode’s over.
CONCLUSION:
As a whole, I think this one is the weakest of the two-part episodes so far. Again, Twilight is made the center of attention, with the others only serving a supplementary role at best. In fact, they barely appear in the second half, with Twilight and Spike taking up most of the plot. Shining Armor and Cadance get a little more development, but still mostly serve to provide exposition and to save the day at the end. Sombra starts out menacing, but by the end is an utterly flat and forgettable villain. Like Discord, they seemed to be banking on just how incredibly evil he is, but where Discord had a strong personality and presence, Sombra just growls out four or five lines, sits on the sidelines for most of the episode, and looks downright horrible.
Still, these episodes aren’t bad by any means. The Crystal Empire and its denizens are very well designed, and make good use of what amounts to another toy plug. There’s enough suspense and tension throughout the second half to keep the story working, and what little the others get to do is almost always amusing. Seeing Celestia and Luna together is wonderful, and just makes me wish even more that they actually had their own episode. Best of all, though, I like what the second episode does with Spike. After so many episodes of him being a Butt Monkey or an antagonist, here he gets to really play the part of the hero. Throw in a good moral, great animation, and a promise of an actual story arc this season, and you have a fairly good pair of episodes. It just doesn’t quite measure up to the rest of the series.
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Well, that’s the first two episodes of a brand-new season. Even better, we got some peeks into what is to come in the next few months, including Trixie being evil, actual horses, Pinkie making her face look like a G3 pony, and…TWILIGHT TURNING APPLEJACK AND RARITY INTO FILLIES?! C-Could this be a repeat of Cakelestia? Could I actually be psychic?
Well, considering I haven’t won the lottery, I kind of doubt it. But still...
That definitely needs more GAK.
490381
Fuck you trollestia...
I enjoyed reading your review. I was upset about how how poor of a villain Sombra was but reading this helped me focus on the strong points of the episodes. One little thing that I doubt you noticed is what is on the cover of the book Luna pulls out at the end. Take a look at the ending. I doubt it's coincidence. :)
You forgot:
MULTIPLE PINKIE PIES!
Looks like the 4th Wall wasn't strong enough...
Good review, I agree with a lot of the points you raised. Also, I would like to mention that the writers did a good job on realizing that his lack of screen time does not really lend itself to being able to give much character to King Sombra, so they did their best to put in some character details through the puzzles he set for the Crystal Heart, and the backstory of the country itself.
It was almost the reverse of Discord. Where Discord had but a minute or two of fanfare before his real arrival, and the rest of both episodes to do his best to cement himself in the memory of bronies (and trekkies) forever, Sombra was a study in build-up.
490381
Those will never be funny.
Ponies give you psychic powers only in regards to ponies.
As for the commercials, don't forget too many Pinkies, Scootaloo gliding, Wonderbolts pony training, and GAK being back!!!1!
I was disappointed with the villain, because he was given so much buildup at the beginning, and then he didn't get to do a whole lot. Other than that, I found this premier to be very cute and that's always a good way to compliment an episode. I also really liked how Spike FINALLY got his moment. I felt like cheering for the little guy, especially when I saw his new window.
Now to wait for the rest of the season to roll out. I'm really curious as to what plans the princesses have for our plucky unicorn.
It was disappointing to see so little of the 'Big Bad' in this episode.
There's something I don't get... If Celestia and Luna kicked Sombra's ass 1000 years ago... and lets say its 1002 years after Nightmare Moon in present season time... Well then... How did Luna kick Sombra's ass if a thousand years ago... she was stuck up in the moon due to Nightmare Moon events???? CELESTIA Y U NO MAKE SENSE????
490777
As people kept saying back when I reviewed the preview, the thousand year thing doesn't have to be literally a thousand years. It could just be something around the same time. Perhaps it was the last thing the two did together before Nightmare Moon happened.
490781 OIC... oh great... gotto include Season 3 into my story
490519 Yeah what was up with that?
What's their score anyway, 3:2 for RD or something?
I totally loved that. I also reallt liked it when Twilight activated Sombra's trap card. Both times. That's the most competent use of powers we got from a major vilians so far.
Judging by leaked images, it's probably Sombra's fault. Evil magic-enhancing amulet.
I think it's supposed to be G1 actually. Could go both ways really.
Did anyone else see the RairXTwi hints at the end? I would have wrote them off as friendshipping except that there were two in rapid secession.. .
I don't know what I feel about this possibility.
Finally watched it, good thing I waited for the HD vid. Maybe it wasn't the best of the two-parters, but still it was pretty damn good. And hey I don't have to rework my headcanon either!
490781
I don't think of it as literally a 1000 years ago, except in the case of the Long Night. Basic timeline:
Hearth Warming---->Discordant Era---->Rise of the Sisters---->Defeat of Sombria---->The Long Night.
Also I forgot to mention Sombra.... this guy is a bloody mortal, not a Chaos God or a Alicorn or some exotic creature, but a mortal unicorn. That is something
I actually thought Sombra's design looked kinda cool. Ah well, personal preference and all that.
Honestly, I'm just glad Spike got some limelight. Was this episode THE BEST THING EVER? No, but it was still incredibly enjoyable (and visually impressive). If you ask me, this season is off to a good start.
490959
She borrowed Pinkie's crystal ball and wants another shot at marrying royalty.
491237 OMG
I found that this was kind of a disappointment, and I heard that they might be changing Twilight into an Alicorn too...
i.imgur.com/lVfgS.jpg
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amerikanhistory.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/bear.jpg
I really really really really really really hope that's not the case...really really...really...
I wish Faust was here
Maybe the show isn't really the show we know and love without her...but bah, what do I know? Maybe this is just a bad episode and the rest of the season will be good 
490952 That is a G3 face. It never leaves your mind. Sees one: AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!
Thx for the excellent review.
I love the plot and humour in season 3.
At the end of the episode, we can see that Luna (stands with Celestia) smiles and summons a black book which has a cover of Stars and Swirl.
Hub (Meghan?) said that Star Swirl the Bearded is kind of Merlin in Equestria.
I wonder what plot will be.
Will Luna be the other mentor of Twilight?
Anyway, that will be really interesting.
491001 Sombra isn't a mortal unicorn. He turns into a force of nature, got his horn cut off, and lived for 1000 years! The Kingdom vanished for 1000 years and the ponies in it did, but Sombra was turned to 'shadow' banished to the ice of the arctic north.
Somehow, even as a 'shadow' he has alicorn like godly magic more powerful than Twilight, she can't escape his trap at the end, shining armor, got touched once and suddenly lost all his magic, and Celestia and Luna too since he broke free from his prison they created and banished him to. Also he has been alive for all the years the kingdom has been gone and somehow broke free the second it returned. It probably returned because he got free for all we know.
492606
I'm not going to argue with that, he is far more powerful than even Twilight it seems. But there might be more to him than it seems. A Taint on the soul perhaps?
Best explanation ever.
Sorry for taking so long. Had to type this out peace meal on my phone during lulls in the activity, which means it might ramblingly repetitive and tangential.
Anyway, I must say I was expecting a far more critical review from you. This was kind of a "meh..." episode for me; it had it's entertaining moments but really didn't ad up to much. Then again, I was in a bit of a downer mood when I watched it , so maybe my opinions will change later, but watching an episode (especially a new one) is usually my universal cure all for such, so maybe not. For now at least, I'm definitely going to agree this is the most mediocre of the two-parters. Now then, specific points...
Rarity:
Sure she didn't really have much to do, I was just expecting you to have harsher words for her. I'll take moment to gripe that Spike was hardly being treated as a slave, and was just helping in his own way.
King Sombra:
I still don't see what's so offensive about his design. That said, yeah he's pretty much an utter waste of a villain. He didn't really get to do anything that necessitated being a new and could have worked just about as well more generic malevolent force of nature. He was certainly at his most intimidating when he was little more than a formless shadow. If this is all we get of him I don't think we'll have to worry about him getting to much of the leather pants treatment.
Now if it turns out he survived in some capacity, maybe he will yet prove in some way interesting, but if his role in subsequent episodes is just that of an evil corrupting shadow, I'd just as soon they used something like the left over remnants of whatever dark force transformed Luna into Nightmare Moon, rather than waste the effort creating this utterly dull and blandly one-note character.
Twilight Sparkle:
First, I agree that the bookgasm and conveyor belt sequences in the library were wonderful. Second, twilight does indeed seem stuck scholarly bookworm mode early in terms of how to solve the problem,though for me at least it worked as her falling back on what's familiar to her. I mean sure she's fought monsters and saved All of Equestria before, but that's always been with the help and support of her friends, while here she was asked to stand on her own (for whatever reason). Add on top of that her test anxiety and fear of failing Celestia, which was for once play quite seriously instead of just for laughs. It all gives me a ton of hope that she's going to real have the chance to shine this season as a fully dimensional character instead of just a walking ball of stress.
Which of course brings us to her character are, rotatable I'm still not sure what the point insisting she do all of this ALONE. Unlike in the pilot, this didn't seem like a case of Celestia being a trickster mentor because while She was commended for choosing the greater good the instruction would have been a blatant lie where that the intended lesson, compared to the pilot which used the exact words trope to hide the truth. That said it was reassuring to see that while the rest of her friends had limited screen time, they weren't really marginalized by the plot and had their own important task in all this (though I'm not sure who's bright idea it was to put AJ in charge of keeping the fake heart secret).
Pacing:
This I must agree is certainly where the episode stumbled the most. Discord would probably have been better with three episode, but as it stands this one could probably have been don in just one: cutting out the failure song and it's reprise, plus most of the scenes with Sombra and his computing considering just how little any of that amounted to. Another part of the problem is how stretch and padded buildup was compered to how rushed and abreviated the ending was (largely making the M6's temporary transformation into crystal ponies pointless, as we really didn't even get to see much of them). Celebration and in the empire would have been nice, maybe get that closing ceremony of the fair and every one sing that Crystal Anthem, see if they actually did learn it in a day (I'd certainly have preferred that to the rather bland failure reprise).
Not the best episode, but far from the worst. I was happy to see Shinning Armor and Candance playing a roll in the episodes. I hope the rest of season 3 is a bit better though. I'm very curious about that book Luna brought out at the end. I was a nice little cliffhanger.
491520
It ain't happening. The show's crew isn't stupid.
But if by some miracle it does, though, I shall watch from above as the riots in the streets engulf our entire corner of the Internet.
492775
...Wow, I think this is the first time you've actually called me out for not criticizing an episode enough.
Then again, it's not like it's the worst episode of the show. Far from it, in fact. There's a lot to like here, but there's also a lot that doesn't work. Still, the rest of the season looks promising; heck, even the next episode sounds like it'll be a lot of fun. (That would be the one about Pinkie cloning herself to keep up with all the promises she made.)
One thing I would like to point out about Sombra, though, was that he actually seemed to avoid the Idiot Ball. He carefully booby-trapped every step towards the Crystal Heart, even installing an alarm to prevent anypony from stealing the relic. Heck, he even had his traps designed to counter somepony trying to teleport out. Pretty much the only reason he lost was because Twilight took Spike with her and Shining pulled a Fastball Special with Cadance. By comparison, Nightmare Moon basically stood there and let the Elements power up, Discord flat-out allowed the ponies a free strike in his pride, and Chrysalis dismissed the same power she had just used to defeat Celestia.
Granted, he still sucks, but it's so rare to have a forward-thinking villain these days.
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I'm sure it will be.
You hear that, McCarthy? Don't make me a liar.
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Actually, I think quite a few people overstate how important Faust was to the show's early success. This was a team effort, and many of those same people are still working on the show. Faust stepped down to work on other projects, Renzetti dropped out for similar reasons, and I still ended up liking the second season more than the first. It'll be interesting to see what happens as the show progresses.
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This is probably the most vocal complaint about the episode, to the point where people are already calling these the worst two episodes simply because of Sombra's lameness. Personally, I find that kind of ridiculous. A villain should never be the sole defining piece of any work of fiction. While they have to be good enough to help carry the story, the real focus should be on the protagonists and how they respond and react to the issues that present themselves. On that end, the episode was fairly well written. It's just that Sombra was such a disappointment after all that build-up that it ultimately fails.
As said, there was a lot of good in the episode, but it obviously needed some more work.
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Thank you, seriously. It's been feeling lately like everywhere I turn people are reading the episode previews as a checklist for signs of the apocalypse. So to have some one show genuine eagerness is thoroughly refreshing.
Yeah, like I said, I was in a bad mood at the time so maybe that made me the overly critical one.
Meh... if we actually had gotten to see him being forward thinking I'd be impressed. There's just no feeling of connection between the traps and the growling umbral shadow beast we got to. At best it paints him as maybe having been an interesting villain 1000 years ago; the modern take though, not so much. As it was the traps were more plot devices to facilitate Twilight learning the lesson of relying on others. It's kind of sad when the castle is a more imposing antagonist than the supposed villain of the story
Emeral Bookwise said:
Well, Rainbow Dash was too aggressive (and actually attracting attention), Pinkie Pie too random (and simply this is not something she's good at. Also, she's more likely to Pinkie Swear them all to silence, which is counterproductive to what the actual aim was), Fluttershy well, no one had any idea where she was until she was dragged off by RD for the jousting (and she's not assertive enough =/) and Rarity was busy weaving... baskets?
I guess AJ was the best mare for the job at the time (despite her being a poor liar). In fact, she actually did a good job by changing subjects/using misdirections instead of outright lying until she was simply overwhelmed (and you know, if Pinkie's ball didn't knock the crystal off the pedstal).
Ok, what is GAK. What joke am I late to the party for?
Also, I am almost certain Sombra will be back. There seemed to be some foreshadowing in general about a story arc, and Sombra's appearance kind of felt like a preview of things to come. And did anyone else think that book at the end, with stars on it might indicate that the "next level" of studies will involve more Luna. Cuz I did.
EDIT: Oh. Gak. I remember that stuff. I watched it on Youtube, so no commercials.
That Rarity pun, it sounded a little flirty to me....
Yeah, this episode was pretty disappointing, especially given the fact that Sombra is basically a nonentity throughout the entire thing. At least the previous villains were actually characters. Sombra was pretty much a walking plot device with a face and that was about it. That said, if you want to talk about Trollestia...don't you think she could have phrased the whole "You have to save the Crystal Empire for the sake of the world" thing as something other than a test so that Twilight wouldn't waste time and energy freaking out about passing and just get the job done. Celestia seems to just frame it as a test solely to mess with Twilight's head. Looks like another fandom meme has become officially recognized... That said, there's that tiny bit at the end where Luna materializes what looks like some kind of book. I wonder what that's all about.
Well, watched it again (in HD this time). Overall I enjoyed myself much more on this second viewing, but that's not unusual for me. Notably, I rather loathed Luna Eclipsed the first time around as well. Not because of fanon discontinuity, but rather because I just thought the plot revolving entirely around Luna being clueless about how to behave was rather stupid. I didn't really enjoy it wholeheartedly till the third viewing or so, when I started to notice all the subtle details in her body langue that really sold her as having hidden depths underneath her mask of outdated royal etiquette.
Anyway, Sombra is still blandly flat and uninteresting. Also, while the lesson is still good the setup and delivery still comes off as forced to me. I just can't see this as a test of character on Celestia's part to see if Twilight would put her own ambitions aside for the greater good. She already learned the value of trusting in and relying upon others all the way back when she vanquished Nightmare Moon and discovered the magic of friendship. Oh, and I still wish we got a longer celebration with more opportunity to get an eyeful of the M6 in there crystal forms (certainly would have been a better use of time then the still pretty awful failure song reprise).
Wait, that doesn't sound like I enjoyed myself more at all, yet I know it I did. I can't really explain why though, not yet. At best guess I was just able to appreciate all the little subtleties in a more holistic fashion or some such. Also, could be I was simply better able to focus on the parts I did like while tuning out what wasn't working for me. Maybe I'll be able to better explain it after a few more viewings or so.
Anyway two things that I had meant to comment on last time. 1) Pinkie in a Fluttershy suit, mostly just another typical toon gag from her, but what really puts it over the top is the way Fluttershy freaks out a bit when she notices she's standing on what visually looks like a discarded husk of herself. 2) The window in Twilights nightmare vision depicting Sombra's victory, it didn't have to be there and neither Twilight nor the fake Celestia draw much attention to it, but it really helps sell the scene (Though the consolatory hug that's actually a "get away from me" rejection is still the most wrenching part).
and
finally broke me.
Also, Luna? dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Luna_lolface.png
Finally they showed her some actual spotlight.
Am I the only one that found the Mane Six being transformed into living crystal creepy as all hell? It changed their hair, made them all pretty, and even destroyed AJ's hat!
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Yeah I thought so too, so far their serious villains have been evil destruction machines of epic scale.
But King Sombrero is a unicorn like any other - but terribly evil.
Actually, he reminds me of Kuchen the Mad
The only thing that King Sombra lacks is exposition.
Discord had tons of it; every line is memorable, the voice acting is excellent, and his animation is great.
Nightmare Moon had dramatic flair, thunderclaps, and a menacing voice.
But Sombra . . . . a generic appearance, mediocre voice acting, and almost no lines anyway.
Really it boils down to having almost no speaking role.
If he said some cool stuff he might be a lot more memorable.
His one full phrase "ahh, my crystal slaves" is a pretty cool one, made me want to hear him just talk more.
And I have to admit, at the end when they were chasing for the heart stone - he was looking pretty kickass.
He finally assumes a physical form - that's cool by itsself - and is riding this crystal towards the stone.
A pretty exciting scene there, really showed that this guy could be awesome.
- - - - for about 5 seconds
503480 Yet his one line helps define the extent of his evilness, while there are fics out there that try to redeem him, at in the summary none have tried to excuse his actions. Which is refreshing to say the least.
It boils down to this:
King Sombra will not sell little plastic ponies with flowing hair. He gets the short end of the plot stick.
The Crystal Ponies allow Hasbro to sell *every* pony they have now in G4 as a "Crystal" version, plus a few background ponies from the Crystal Kingdom. Win-Win.
Doing a "Disney Death" on Sombra is very smart. If he was crazy-popular, he can be brought back for one or two episodes, just like Discord is rumored.
I still think Hasbro should do a "Villain Pack" of Nightmare Moon, TGAP Trixie, Chrysalis, Discord and Sombra, even if they only sell it off the web. (Collectors would go nuts for it as a limited edition).
While I didn't think this two-parter was the worst of the series' two-parters, it was a close second (A Canterlot Wedding is still the reigning champ of abysmal in my book). You hit on a lot of good character points, although I think the writing staff did a much better job with the individual characterizations of the Mane 6 this time around. Rarity's brief relapse into zomg-fashiongirl was handled remarkably well, I thought. It showed that all of them are affected by their roots and longings (for good or bad), and that Rarity might find it the most difficult to keep a lid on her narcissistic nature.
What really bugged me about these two episodes were the story's technical aspects. I could go on for pages on this, but there were some serious universe continuity issues emerging from almost immediately after the title sequence. For example, the Crystal Empire was gone for a thousand years. Let's see, where have we heard this before...? Oh, that's right! Nightmare Moon was also gone for exactly a millennium. Nopony found it odd that the first Nightmare Moon incident and the insurrection of King Sombra occurred at almost exactly the same time? And who, exactly, was posing as Luna while fighting alongside Celestia against Sombra? Luna had become the Nightmare a scant two years prior, and was in exile in the moon. After banishing her own sister to the moon (and, arguably, feeling indescribably broken about it), you'd think Celestia would be the first to recognize an imposter when she saw one. One of the writers didn't do their homework on this one, and that kind of pre-production carelessness really irks me.
As for King Sombra, he is, in my opinion, the second-weakest major villain in the series (not counting Trixie). He's a better villain than Chrysalis. Chrysalis can even be stripped of her "villain" status and considered to be just a misguided queen, if you think about it with the right slant. He's not as evil as the Nightmare, and he doesn't even come close to the darkness of Discord. So he enslaved an entire nation of ponies for a few years, possibly a couple decades, before Celestia and Luna flew to the rescue. I can think of at least two dozen instances in human history where this exact scenario has happened (minus the flying unicorns and magic, of course). Nightmare Moon was far more insidious than Sombra, and Discord was evil to the point where there simply is no historical analog. Two seasons in, the writers should be coming up with better than this. They've had over fifty episodes to build their universe and create the ideas of memorable heroes and villains. Sombra just doesn't cut it.
Overall, I have to give The Crystal Empire a C (average) grade. From a technical storytelling aspect, it's downright awful (almost as bad as A Canterlot Wedding) it's redeeming quality was the imagination that went into the Crystal Empire itself. The visuals were really good. I liked this pair of episodes, but I was left at the end feeling more disappointment than satisfaction.
What are you talking about? Sombra was awesome. I find him to be not only the most menacing but the best villain of the show.
Why? Because his presence and the mere thought of him is absolutely terrifying to the Crystal Ponies.
To quote Carbon Maestro from his From Shadow Unto Crystals "He's a looming evil shadow watching over you spreading fear to your heart." And there is proof in that if you compare him to the other serious threats in the show.
Take Discord (when he was a villain) and Chrysalis. Both are evil in their own right. Discord is fun and charismatic while taking absolute joy from causing the chaos around him and to the ponies. Chrysalis is definitely a schemer and is pretty intimidating alone but even more so when she has an army of changelings. However, both of them have their over-the-top villainous moments as well. Like when Chrysalis sung "This Day Aria" and Discord's.....well being Discord.
Sombra is a villain who would never pull any of that kind of bullshit. He wouldn't sing a villain song, he wouldn't crack a joke; hell if he felt like it he would probably out right kill you. And he wasn't stupid either; he waited as Cadence's magic to wear out, he waited for his time to strike, and when he did he immediately struck fear in the hearts of the ponies, and he planned ahead (as you pointed out)
One part that I honestly got goosebumps was when he was looming closer to the Crystal Heart and he licked his lips. It seemed to show he was probably more of a monster than what was shown.
All the traits of his personality are further exemplafied by his goal. To take back what he believes is his. That being the Empire he probably had to kill to control, along with the Crystal Ponies which he then made his SLAVES that rightfully FEAR him; I believe him to be the shows closest example of a Complete Monster and is PURE EVIL.
Another thing to note is that he is the only villain that they killed. Discord was turned to stone (then redeemed), Chrysalis was sent blasting off again, Sombra fucking BLEW UP!!
And sadly he's not coming back so he Died For Real. Which sucks for me because the King of Crystals was by far the best villain the show has had yet.
*Side note: Here is another great example of how awesomely evil he is.