S3E1-2 - My thoughts

-WARNING-THERE WILL BE SPOILERS-

So I just watched the opening for Season 3 of MLP:FiM, and... well, here we go.

I guess I'll attack this from a story perspective, since that's what I'm best at. The overal conflict was just... confusing. A mysterious kingdom appears, and it's up to Twilight and the gang to save it from the evil King Sombra (or Somber, or Sombre, depending on who you ask), who made it dissapear a thousand years ago. Just who is King Sombra, you might ask? Well, he's a powerful unicorn who wants to rule the Crysal Empire because... okay, he's a malevolent shapeshifter trying to...

You know what, the only way I can think to describe him is "an overpowered, underdeveloped red-and-black OC." We're not off to a good start here.

So I guess King Sombra wants to rule the Crystal Empire because... well, slave labor or something. This, for me, is the biggest disappointment, especially since I've torn apart so many overpowered, underdeveloped red-and-black OC's on FIMFiction. Nightmare Moon, Discord, and Chrysalis all had distinct motives and personalities, but all the character development King Sombra gets is "growl." Seriously, that's all he ever does. Sure, sometime's he'll growl "Crystals..." like some kind of rock-eating zombie, but that's really about it. I dunno, maybe he's going to come back and get an actual personality, but so far, my hopes aren't high for him.

Anyways, King Evil is trying to take over the Crystal Empire again (which is really just a city, I think), and Princess Cadance has been sent to protect the city with a magical love barrier. Shining Armor is there, too, but his magic gets taken away early in the episode, and apparently his barrier spell can't stop Mr. Evil anyway. Meanwhile, all the Cyrstal ponies are wandering around in a depressed daze, as if they have no idea what's going on. Well, they've been in some kind of stasis for a thousand years, so that makes sense.

Celestia sends Twilight and her friends to help Cadance and Shining protect the city from the King, so off they go. Celestia tells Twilight that this mission is a test to see if she is ready to progress in her studies and says Twilight must be the one to help Cadance in the end. Twilight and Spike then sing a song about how she wasn't prepared for this discovery before meeting up with the gang and setting off for the north.

The gang arrives in the Crystal Empire and discovers that the city can be protected if the Crystal ponies are happy, so they put together a traditional fair to cheer them up while singing all about it. Problem is, they need an ancient crystal heart to channel their happiness into some kind of magic, so Twi and Spike go off in search of the heart while the others keep the fair going.

After passing through several challenges (some of which involve Twilight using King Evil magic), they find the heart, but Twilight gets trapped by King Evil's spell. Though she fears she'll fail the test if she doesn't deliver the heart to Cadance, she realizes she won't escape the trap in time and tells Spike to deliver the heart. Meanwhile, King Growler has invaded the city and is making his way towards the castle. Spike delivers the heart to Cadance, who, with the help of the Crystal ponies, uses it to drive Sombra from the city and possibly blow him to smithereens (though given the fact that he spends most of the episode as an evil black cloud, I'm not sure that would be much of a setback for him).

The Crystal Empire is saved, and the ponies return to Canterlot, worried that Twilight may have failed her test. However, it turns out the test was to see if Twilight would sacrifice her own ambitions for the good of the Empire, which she did. The gang then sings a reprise of Twilight and Spike's preparedness song and head home.

So aside from the completely forgettable "villain," the whole episode just seemed rushed, like the creators were trying to throw more at us than could be adequately explained and developed in 40-odd minutes. The main characters barely get any attention, even Twilight. There was too much happening and not enough character development, and the characters are what really brought me to this show in the first place.

For example, at one point, Twilight and Spike discover an evil door that sucks a pony/dragon/whatever into his or her worst fears when King Evil magic is used on it. Twilight sees Celestia rejecting her as her student and sending her away. Spike sees Twilight reject him. This was one part I really liked, but it barely got any attention. It was there, Twilight figured it out, they moved on, and nothing about it ever came up again.

And then there was the jousting scene. Dash makes Fluttershy fight her in a jousting match, and even though Fluttershy doesn't want to do it, Dash guilt-trips her into doing it again. Dash essenially tells her that if she doesn't joust, it means she doesn't care about the Crystal ponies. What? What happened to "Hurricane Fluttershy," when Dash encourages her to overcome her fears for the greater good? What happend to the Dash who lets her friend walk away because, ultimately, Fluttershy's feelings are more important than the windspeed record? Why is she suddenly bullying Fluttershy into doing something she doesn't want to do? It may be a small thing, but it really bugged me.

Scratch that last paragraph. I watched it again, and it doesn't bug me so much anymore.

Overall, I thought it was... alright. The animation was great (as far as I can tell), the songs were pretty good, and the lesson was appropriate, but rushed pacing and a terrible villain really hurt this one. Maybe King Sombra and everything else will get more development later on, but right now, they're just forgettable, in my opinion.