Review of Season Four.

So, season four has ended. Overall, I am happy to say, that I am impressed. I consider it tied with season two in terms of awesomeness. At the very least, the season eclipsed season three and made up for all the shortcomings that were in the third season. I will proceed to elaborate on what I enjoyed about this season and then elaborate on some points that I found lacking. I won’t give a summery of each and every episode; both because that would take too long and because everyone reading this note has presumably watched the season.

There were only two episodes that stood out in season three; however, this season had a great many episodes that were exceptional.

What stole the show was “Pinkie Pride.” This episode was one of the crown gems of the whole series, alongside my other favorites “Feeling Pinkie Keen,” “Dragon Quest,” and “Keep Calm and Flutter on.” Ever since the age of 7, I have been a weird al fan, one of my fondest childhood memories having been the privilege of seeing Weird Al live during his “running with scissors” tour when I was still in elementary school. So having Weird Al make an appearance and sing in a very recognizable fashion was perfect. Besides Weird al, it was a perfect episode regardless. It showed a recognizable character development and maturity for Pinkie Pie, while it would have been fun to see Pinkomena return in full, with a reprise of the friends we saw in the tea party in “Party of One” the fact that she didn’t go completely psycho shows that she has matured. A season one-two pinkie pie would have collapsed back into her unhinged and paranoid state. So, with this episode, there was genuine character development, a star appearance by weird al, and very enjoyable songs: A five out of five.

“Rarity takes Manehatten” was an episode that has been needed since day one. Besides Rarity helping the sea-monster in the pilot, I don’t really recall her being generous at any moment during the series. Unless you count the way she kissed Spike, and accompanied him during Dragon quest, and even these, and what else might count, are insignificant cause we never had an episode in which her generosity was tested. This was a very powerful episode because it presented Rarity with a genuine test of her element. After the way she was so brutally taken advantage of by Suri, I wouldn’t blame her if she never wanted to help anypony ever again. So, kudos for this long overdue episode. With an awesome portrayal and development of Rarity in a genuine challenge, we were also complemented by a spectacular song.

“Rainbow Falls” was also an episode that was a long time coming. Ever since the first episode, I was been waiting an episode which seriously tested Rainbow Dash to see where her loyalties lay. More than this, I wanted her faith in the Wonderbolts to be shaken. On top of this, I, together with my friends, literally cheered out loud when Derpy made an appearance. This gives me hope that Rainbow Dash, at the end, gets accepted into the Wonderbolts but declines, believing, and rightfully so, that she is destined for even greater accomplishments. This was also genuine character development, for a Rainbow Dash in the early seasons likely would have defected to the Wonderbolts in a heartbeat.

The finale was quite literally, a dream come true. When I first discovered the first generation, I watched rescue at midnight castle and thought, oh man, what we need is a return of Tirek. In my mind, I dreamt up a My Little Pony movie to serve as the series finale bringing back Megan, Molly and Danny Williams as adults who defeat Tirek who has returned for revenge. However, I didn’t seriously expect this to happen. So when I saw that they were brining back Tirek, they might as well have turned fanfiction into an episode.  

Tirek, I am glad to say was awesome. I loved the fight scene between Tirek and Twilight, two minutes of a fight scene rivaling DBZ and Naruto I also was pleasantly surprised that they were more or less faithful to the original script (yeah, they took a few twists and turns, but they included Scorpan, so sue me). Additionally, it was nice to bring in a villain with a different ambition. For Tirek seemed less interested in actually “ruling” equestria as he was moreso interested in just sucking out the magic for its own sake. This way, he was not simply a repacked Nightmare Moon, or, worse, King Sombra. They gave him a backstory, personality, and a clear goal, so kudos to the writers for this great addition.

Speaking of unpredictability, I, after much thought, am very pleased with Discord, both in the finale and in “Threes a Crowed.” When I first watched the episode I was uncertain if I enjoyed the way Discord was so easily swayed to defect to Tirek. I was a little unnerved that he didn’t have anything up his sleeve but now I realize that this is strength of Discord’s character. For after “Keep Calm and Flutter On” a lot of bronies were thinking “What, this is too easy!” but I foresaw, and was right, that Discord would be a wild-card, true to his chaotic neutral characteristic. He would sometimes be friend, other times be foe. Although admittedly, I was expecting, when Tirek was stealing Discord’s magic, for Discord to laugh and say “hahaha Tirek you fool!” and for Discord’s magic to backfire, and for this to have been Discord’s plan all along. But alas, to have Discord temporarily defect and then learn a genuine lesson about friendship was worth it. The finale and “Threes a crowed“ both get a 5 out of 5.

It was also beneficial that this season inched us closer to the truth of Discord’s identity. I, along with a large portion of the fandom, am a proponent of theory that Discord is in fact, Star-swirl the bearded. I will let on a little secret about my own headcanon; I combine the theory that Discord was Starswirl with the theory that Discord and Celestia were once romantically involved. My headcanon states that Starswirl lived the life of a hermit, not caring either for friendship or romance until he was smitten by Celestia. Starswirl made advances on Celestia and she rebuked him. Even though she harbored feelings for him, it just could not happen because she was immortal and he wasn’t. Celestia didn’t want to be heartbroken for eternity after witnessing Starswirl wither away with old age. Determined to win over the love of Celestia, Starswirl concocted the spell to turn himself into an alicorn, which is the same spell Twilight later used. However, because Star Swirl didn’t understand friendship, the spell backfired and turned him into Discord, Starswirl could not stand the sight of himself in the mirror, but thought that Celestia might love him since he had at least achieved immortality. However, Celestia was repulsed and disgusted, saying that she could never love him if he tried to be something that he wasn’t. His hideous transformation followed by his rejection, turned him completely crazy. The biggest telltale sign that Starswirl is in fact Discord was the fact that in “Threes a Crowed” they ran into Discord at a Starswirl the bearded event. Also in the season finale, a telltale foreshadowing can be seen when they mentioned Starswirl in the flashback, how he was indirectly responsible for stopping Tirek when he convinced Scorpan to defect. Here, we can see how this is repeated with Discord indirectly leading to Tirek’s downfall when he gave Twilight her key. Despite this huge step for Discord, I think that that season five still has a lot more to offer in terms of his character development.

As a diehard Spike fan, I am relieved that we had some genuine Spike episodes in this season. One of the biggest disappointments of season 3 was the portrayal of Spike in two very underwelming episodes. I decided at the get-go, that I would rank season four based on how they treated Spike. I was worried for a long time, for Spike seemed to have been relegated to “humdrum”, to a simple Joke character with no redeeming value. Up until his appearance in the inspiration episode, we didn’t see Spike do anything special, only pop in for the comic relief. However, I loved “inspiration manifestation” for two reasons. The biggest reason is that I am a Sparity fan, yeah, I know that most fans have been saying that this proves that Spike and Rarity will never happen, but you know what, this episode shows that he is still interested in her. Granted, I don’t think that Rarity, at the moment returns the feeling, and I think Spike thinks that he has no real chance, but the very fact he went out of his way to help Rairty shows that he still maintains an infatuation. More importantly, I liked seeing this trial for Spike. For before, we have only witnessed his pains with greed and growing up, but now, his character is sorely tested as he is forced to be loyal to his friends. This I thought was an important building block for Spike’s character development. “Equestria Games” was also an important building block for Spike’s character, for he faced a problem that affects us all which is pride. Specifically, how too much pride can go to our heads, and make us do thing we regret.

Aside from these star episodes, some other little gems buried within the season was Pinkie Pies “rapping history of the wonderbolts,” Also the “stop the bats” song was very epic, as a Danny Elfman fan, I appreciated the fact it was clearly influenced by the Nightmare before Christmas. Having a reprise of the flim-flam brothers was also a nice touch. Especially, I was worried that the Flim-Flam brothers would have been actually reformed and that Applejack would have to learn a lesson about giving the benefit of the doubt. However, I am glad they kept the Flim-Flam brothers as villains, mainly because I don’t have any interest in seeing them reformed. It was also interesting to see Applejack have to lie. So these gems are worth keeping.

Regarding issues in which I am lukewarm, I can safely say that I am not excited one way or the other at Twilight getting a castle. I think it will have the same effect as Twilight being an Alicorn, as in, it wont make a difference. “what?!” I can already here my fellow bronies asking “you don’t think Alicorn Twilight did her job?!” and the answer is no. Literally every episode could have worked just as well if Twilight stayed a unicorn. While it was interesting giving her wings that served a minor role in a few episodes, and of course, we had “Twilight time” In which the fillies were fawning over her. But seriously, I didn’t see Twilight fill any leadership role. In all honesty, I don’t expect anything significant out of the new castle, other then it will make some little girls happy when they get it for Christmas. I also didn’t think very much of the Cutie Mark crusaders episodes, I know that a lot of fans have been squealing over the deepening of the relationship between Rainbow Dash and Scootiloo, but I feel that these episodes were below the bar set by “one bad apple.” The Power Ponies episode was a little bit of a disappointment in all honesty, while it was fun to see all of these pop-culture references, I didn’t like the message seeming to be “Sorry Spike, we are turning you into a joke character.” “It aint easy being breezies” was a little under whelming, mainly because I felt like Fluttershy having her kindness taken advantage of has already been examined more then enough, and that there was a lot more potential for the episode. While I don’t have any criticism of them per say, I don’t think any of these episodes really stand out as exceptional.

Now, in terms of things I disliked about the season. Generally, I try not to “dislike”, I always try to look for the positives, after all, I am a fan of the show. However, I have to say that “simple ways” was quite simply, the worst, episode, ever. It is not that I mind that Rarity totally flaked and apparently forgot about Spike’s crush on her, after all, this is consistent with her personality. I also don’t mind that Spike went along with her and helped her for whatever reason. However, what I do mind is that they wasted the perfect opportunity to have an ideal Spike episode. What they should have done was cut out 5-10 minutes of the fluff of Rarity making puppy eyes at Trenderhoof, and instead, have it focus on Spike, much like the inspiration episode. If they gave us 5 minutes or so of Spike admiring Rarity from afar and singing his heart out expressing his conflicted feelings and frustration, that would have given the episode a five star rating. Instead, they gave us absolutely no insight into how Spike is feeling, none whatsoever. Some fans have said, “oh, this is proof that Spike is outgrowing his crush on Rarity,” however, I don’t see this as evidence of that at all. It is just as likely that Spike thought the crush was fleeting and that Spike would just bide his time. However, this is all the more reason why this episode should have been a Spike episode.

The season gets an almost perfect score. It had many exceptional episodes, good moments scattered throughout most of them, and only one episode that I can say should never have been written. So, I give this season four and a half stars out of five, or at least, 95%.

Now, with an excellent season behind us, we can now look forward to a season five. I will reveal my hopes and expectations for the next season at a later date. However for now, all I can say is that my only real concern is that they are going to start running out of ideas. The season finale here would have been an ideal series finale. Especially, if they had extended it into an hour and a half long theatrical film where they wrapped up each and every lose end, they would have been able to end the series with dignity. However, I thought that the fourth season ran the risk of degenerating into g3 lameness, but I was pleasantly wrong.

Thanks for being with me today.
-Alekthewererat.