Talk:The Crystalling - Part 1/@comment-25559529-20160327030401

Relatively decent episode compared to the previous (then again, so is any). There was something so... natural about the awkwardness between Starlight and Sunburst that almost made me want to like Starlight. Almost.

Spike was utilized well too, and that's not just because of his relationship with Starlight. The way Starlight took advantage of his self-image was perfect; it shows that Starlight, although good now, is still able to come up with quick and witty plans right on the spot when given the opportunity, even if she's lost the penchant for self-justification. And what came after was good too. It wasn't just some useless mob of ponies fawning over Spike for no reason; it was a group of grateful ponies giving thanks to Spike -- thanks that Spike had earned.

Of course, the episode isn't perfect. Far from it. In time, I'll probably notice more flaws and/or positives on a second watch, but for now, I still have a hard time stomaching everything that went on in this episode. To explain that, I'll compare this episode to The Crystal Empire. In that episode, we are spared a convoluted explanation for the basic mechanics (the empire was gone for a thousand years; you can't blame them for not grasping things righ away), whereas this episode had to relay stuff about Alicorns and the Crystal Heart that we've already known since season 3. And it does so in some of the most painfully obvious exposition dumps that the series has seen thus far. Why does Twilight have to explain to Pinkie what the Crystal Heart is/does? Isn't Pinkie the pony with an exceptional memory? In The Crystal Empire, time was limited, so Celestia just gave the abridged version of the history and left the rest to Twilight. What little we were told about Sombra was efficiently shown later on.

Speaking of whom, in The Crystal Empire, Sombra, with very little screen time and dialogue, felt like an actual threat. He was smart, he planned ahead, and he only lost through dumb luck. In this episode, the whole "Crystal Heart destroyed, find spell, spell destroyed, stall/send ponies away" was amazingly convoluted to the point where I was wondering just what the hell was going on. This episode suffers from the typical "2 acts faffing; 3rd act resolving" structure that most of season 5 suffered from. And the resolution... okay, I'll admit TCE's resolution wasn't the best (The Crystal Ponies were running around in fear mere seconds ago, yet they are immediately able to power up the heart), but... I have no idea how to describe this episode's resolution. Heartwarming? Stupid? Predictable? Starlight still sucks? I don't know.

In fact, this episode seemed rather... forgettable. While everyone was denouncing The Crystal Empire as the weakest two-parter, I actually found it (at the time) the best two-parter because of its high stakes, good villain, good moral, goo entertainment value, and character utilization (the way the Mane Six kept the Crystal Ponies' spirits up in TCE was fun and entertaining; dealing with stubborn ponies on the verge of a convoluted explanation of a storm is neither).

Fun fact: This episode was so forgettable that I've been scrambling to find the season six premiere of Blue Bloods all day, and in the midst of that, I kind of forgot that this episode aired today. :P