Talk:Shadow Play - Part 1/@comment-10390252-20171029075851

Okay I'm going to risk somewhat going against the popular flow here but bear with me and everything that I will say will make sense.

Firstly, I have to emphasise that there is nothing wrong with this episode. It has some genunely laugh-out-loud moments and I loved the way Rainbow Dash both outfought and outwitted Garble (something that he needed to experience to cure him of his contempt for ponykind). All of the mini-quests were well done and I appreciated that the Mane Six were able to take charge and save the day on their own initiative rather than stumble accidentally onto solutions or have someone else point them in the right direction. That's a real change for how the characters (with the exception of Twilight Sparkle) are generally presented in the two-parters and I appreciate seeing it here.

My problem is this: This shouldn't have even been an episode at all. It should have been at least six episodes, the first outlining the problem (the first reel), possibly including Starlight, Sunburst and Twilight's debate about the difference between 'could' and 'should', which deserved more screen time. The next five would be the rest of the Mane Six's artefact quests with plenty of time for them to express to their sidekicks their reasons for respecting their tale and why they want to help free them from Limbo. IMO, the season-ender should have been exclusively the rescue of the Six Pillars and the fight against the Pony of Shadows, who needed far more screen time to establish him as more than a hypothetical threat.

This is a conceptual disagreement that I have with the crew over how this story was handled. If it had been done more like the Keys of Harmony arc in season 4, then season 7 could have been an enormously different experience, especially with the comics tie-in. This doesn't really impact on my enjoyment of the episode but it is nonetheless a disappointment.

BenRG's Rating: 8/10 - The best season finale set-up since Twilight's Kingdom - Part 1.