"But how did you escape my bridesmaids?!"

[nenena]

My Little Pony and Wakfu have already done a lot to convince me that Flash animation can not only be, you know, actually good, but downright beautiful if done well. And then this freakin' episode came along and just blew all of my assumptions about the limitations of Flash animation right out of the goddamn water.

The animation! The luscious background art! The background ponies! The costumes! The character designs! The facial expressions! The cinematography in the musical numbers, the fight scenes, even the scene where Twilight is sitting at that cafe table and venting to all her friends!

Just freakin' everything about this episode was perfect. The new characters were great. Shining Armor was such an adorkable dudebro and Cadence was so courageous and awesome. The villains were straight-up nightmare fuel of the type that I haven't seen since some of the more phantasmagoric episodes of the original MLP series. And oh my god not just the epic songs but even the background music was fantastic. (asdfghjkl;asdfghjkl; that music that plays when Shining Armor and Cadence cast their spell!!!!) Everything was fantastic, right down to the sounds effects that the Changeling Queen's wings made when she flapped them and that her hooves made when she walked.

There's just so much amazing attention to detail paid to every single frame of animation in this episode, it blows me away. And the music was so good. I am so completely in love with the key changes in "This Day Aria" I could listen to it all day long. And the episode managed to balance its tone pretty evenly between the epic fantasy elements and the comedy elements. Which, to be honest, this new version of MLP always does consistently well - thank goodness it never makes the mistake that the original series did of taking itself too seriously, because then of course it would immediately become completely ridiculous - but I was especially happy that the big Twilight and Company vs. Changeling Swarm Kung-Fu Blowout turned badass funny very quickly. Because if it hadn't been hilarious it would have been hard to take any of it seriously at all, as paradoxical as that may seem.

HERE HAVE SOME SONGS BECAUSE THEY ARE AWESOME (ALSO SPOILERS but i kind of doubt that anybody reading this actually cares):

ETA: Rolling Stone covers My Little Pony music. I love how the reporter actually asks Daniel Ingram if he's using big words in the songs in order to pander to an older male demographic, and Ingram responds "No, I never forget about the original demographic of our show, which is six-year-old girls. Just because it's for kids... I don't think that influences me in terms of how sophisticated I want to make the music."

Oh Daniel Ingram I heart you so much for that response. So freakin' much. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love this show for never talking down to its audience, and I love the creators for refusing to buy into the idea that something for little girls can't be sophisticated and multilayered and intelligent, and I really wish that a certain segment of the Brony fandom would get on board with that idea and stop trying to claim that anything intelligent or complex about the show is automatically evidence of pandering to them because obviously big words and smart jokes are always intended for an adult male audience (*eyeroll*).

Comments

[lavannah]

I actually missed the airing of this episode, but the wonders of Youtube had the musical scenes up only about an hour after it aired. I was floored by This Day Aria and Big Brother Best Friend Forever that I had already decided to buy them off iTunes the moment they were released(which I did).

The changeling ponies and Chrysalis are completely awesome. I got demented flutter ponies as soon as Chrysalis changed into her true form. A rather twisted nostalgia moment. Not sure I was convinced about their defeat though. I mean, blowing them out into what looks like a wasteland doesn't seem like a permanent fix.

I'm happy Luna got some screen time, but she should have been included in the fight. They kind of make it look like she doesn't reside in the castle with her sister during the day.

If I could loop the ending (the full video ending, not just the song...which I've been doing) I'd watch it again and again. Adorable ending. A much, MUCH better season finale compared to season one.

[nenena]

I got demented flutter ponies as soon as Chrysalis changed into her true form. A rather twisted nostalgia moment.

OH MY GOSH YES. The original Flutterponies always had a creepy, insect-like vibe about them in the first place - I mean, they defeated the shadow guy in the Nightshade episode by swarming him to death, and their song was always more of a war march than not - so it almost seems like Chrysalis and her changelings were the next logical step from that.

A much, MUCH better season finale compared to season one.

Oh, I definitely don't agree with that. I liked that the Season 1 finale went for straight comedy, that it delivered some punchlines that had been built up over the entire season, and that each of the six main ponies got to have her own mini story arc. If I have one complain about the Season 2 finale, it's that it was almost entirely a Twilight story, and the other five ponies barely got to have any role at all.

[lavannah]

OH MY GOSH YES. The original Flutterponies always had a creepy, insect-like vibe about them in the first place - I mean, they defeated the shadow guy in the Nightshade episode by swarming him to death, and their song was always more of a war march than not - so it almost seems like Chrysalis and her changelings were the next logical step from that.

I honestly don't remember too much about the flutter ponies except from when they appeared in the movie.. the one with the grundles and the smooze lol. I don't remember seeing them in the series at all...I think I need to ransack youtube again.


Oh, I definitely don't agree with that. I liked that the Season 1 finale went for straight comedy, that it delivered some punchlines that had been built up over the entire season, and that each of the six main ponies got to have her own mini story arc. If I have one complain about the Season 2 finale, it's that it was almost entirely a Twilight story, and the other five ponies barely got to have any role at all

I, unfortunately, didn't find the season finale of season 1 particularly entertaining or funny, but that's just how some peoples' sense of humor works. I do agree that Twilight was too focused on, but with the way they wrote it, it was kind of unavoidable.

I just re-watched the ending again, and caught the (possibly unintentional, but maybe not) play on last year's Royal Wedding in London. All it needed was any of our favorite Cutie Mark Crusaders making a pouty face.

[nenena]

The flutter ponies were in the original series episode "Bright Lights". And they were badass:



And I definitely think that all of the RL Royal Wedding riffs in the MLP finale were intentional. :)

[nenena]

Argh Youtube embed not working:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hys95BayrtM

[lavannah]

Ah, I don't believe I ever got to see that far into the original series. I recall some of those ponies, I think they were in a circus, but whichever channel we watched it on never actually finished that arc. The channel seemed to favor My Little Pony Tales (which i still love regardless) instead of the original series. *sigh* Childhood...thank you Youtube for bringing it back lol. And of course Lauren Faust for remaking a fantastic new series. Can't wait for season 3.

[meiousei.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I tried to post here yesterday with my iPhone, which I guess didn't work.

I just wanted to say that YAY THESE TWO EPISODES WERE AWESOME, and I'm glad you thought so, too. :)

Meredith

[meiousei.livejournal.com]

Dagnabbit, apparently I can't edit my comments over here. I also wanted to say that I loved how operatic the "This Day" sequences were. Yay for awesome music!