< Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 >
Season 7, Episode 1
During my trip to Germany (which is where I am as of this post’s publication!), writing a Eurovision review on my downtime somehow didn’t seem fun at all anymore. Those blog posts are fun to write, but the difference between them and my MLP posts is that while I enjoy almost every MLP episode, the Eurovision songs that truly interest me are few and far between. Therefore, it requires a higher degree of boredom for me to write a Eurovision post.
By the way, this trip has been an absolute blast so far, and it will include my very first pony con soon: GalaCon. I might write a bit about it on my blog.
Season 7 Episode 1: Celestial Advice
In five words: Celestia’s side of season 1.
Premise: The only season premiere not to be a two-part episode. During a celebration of Starlight Glimmer and friends’ overthrowing of Queen Chrysalis, Twilight Sparkle doesn’t know what to do next with her pupil and consults her mentor for advice.
Detailed run-through:
I’ve already said it before, but I love Starlight Glimmer so much.
Well OK, most fans who hate Starlight hate the late seasons in general.
Unlike the last three seasons, I’m not going to take my sweet time analyzing the first minute of the premiere, because not much happens in it. Season 7 of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic begins with a typical casual Starlight Glimmer/Spike conversation about the upcoming celebration, where Spike desperately hides the gift that Twilight Sparkle is working on. It’s a mirror where Starlight will see herself surrounded by her friends each morning.
However, I am going to analyze in detail the pictures on Twilight’s mirror a minute and a half in, because it has some interesting details.
First off, on the top left, we see a picture of Celestia and Discord. This implies that even though Discord is so… Discord, Twilight Sparkle by now considers him a good friend. Something even more subtly sweet is the picture with Moondancer on the bottom right. It suggests that Twilight has a special attachment to her childhood friends, even the ones she doesn’t see often, which I can easily relate to. Does this mirror have anyone else Twilight considers important to her? We have Cadance, Spike, the rest of the Mane 6, Owlowiscious, and everyone in the group photo. Aside from her relatives and maybe Luna, the list seems complete.
Spike: Don’t you need to get the castle ready for the celebration?
Twilight Sparkle: Nah. Pinkie Pie’s got that covered.
If you needed proof that Twilight is now a friendship expert, notice how well she knows which friends are good at what. She knows that Pinkie Pie can use her reality bending powers (known more innocuously as “cartoon physics”) to instantly decorate a castle, so she assigns Pinkie to exactly that. And with one pull of a hidden string, Pinkie Pie decorates the castle. She wipes off sweat and says “phew!” when it’s over, which might imply it strained her to devise the absolute best configuration of Pinkie Pie powers to decorate a room. Or that her muscles are really weak and it took a lot of energy to pull the string. However, it’s more likely a sigh of relief that it took so little time.
Oh yeah. Obligatory mention that in the theme song, Starlight Glimmer looks happier in the group photo, and the show’s logo now has less pink in favor of white and purple.
When the festival begins, Twilight Sparkle gives a speech in honor of Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, Thorax, and Discord. I have to wonder… is this the end of Twilight’s hate crush on Trixie? I’m going to guess her crush on Trixie is dormant. She got over these feelings because Trixie helped save Equestria, but if Trixie provokes Twilight again, the crush could be reignited.
One could argue that Trixie has developed a hate crush on Discord, since they continue insulting each other in this episode. I’ll leave you to decide if their interactions are romantic.
Dirk Strider would be so proud.
The badges fit on Starlight and Trixie like a charm, but it’s trickier for the boys. Discord temporarily takes off his head to fit his on, but Luna has to struggle to get the badge past Thorax’s horns. This reminds us that Equestria still has a way to go till it’s fully inclusive to non-ponies.
Celestia: It’s a wonderful feeling, isn’t it? Watching your star student shine the way you always knew they could.
Twilight Sparkle: (laughs) My cheeks are sore. I don’t think I’ve ever smiled this much in my life!
Celestia: I can only imagine what that feels like. (wink)
Twilight’s extreme degree of smiling at her student’s achievements shows that she’s a teacher archetype through and through. The teacher archetype has a lot of overlap with the mother archetype, which Twilight also displays.
Discord: Yes, Starlight is student of the year, isn’t she? She has so much potential.
Discord: So, what are we going to do with her? And by we, I definitely mean you. Being her mentor and all that.
Discord: Her destiny falls squarely on your haunches.
Twilight Sparkle: Oh, don’t you worry. I’ve planned enough friendship lessons to cover the next three years.
Discord: (laughs)
Twilight Sparkle: What’s so funny?
Discord: Clearly, Starlight is beyond basic friendship lessons. She just won a medal, for Equestria’s sake. I thought you were joking.
There’s a clear metaphor in Twilight’s plan to give Starlight more friendship lessons. She’s just like a mother who struggles to see that her child is growing up. If Celestia is the normal doting mother archetype to Twilight Sparkle, then Discord is like the uncle who’s more willing to cause mischief. I was originally going to say Discord is like a mischievous father, but “uncle” fits so much better.
When Discord tells Twilight she should make a master plan for Starlight, just like Celestia did for her, he shifts to his excited, manipulative tone. You can sense from his voice that he’s ready to pull another set of strings.
You can see in Rarity’s eyes that she wants to design her next line of outfits for these changelings.
(I love Rarity too much. She’s such a goofy dork and so is her sister.)
Green changeling: So, you can’t have friendship without makeovers?
Applejack: Uh… Not exactly.
(Rarity smiles and nods)
I love this touch of Rarity being true to how she was in the first episode. The moment she first met Twilight Sparkle, her first instinct was to drop all she was doing and give her new friend a makeover. To her, that is simply how friendship works. We’ll see some stronger references to the show’s beginning as this episode continues.
Twilight Sparkle goes classic nervous Twilight mode when Discord pressures her into coming up with a master plan, then she escapes the scene.
Spike: Twilight, are you reading during a party? Again?
The callback to the first episode might not have been intentional in Rarity’s scene, but this one was clearly on purpose. It’s a clever piece of buildup to the reveal of how the first episode went from Celestia’s perspective.
Twilight Sparkle: I had years worth of friendship lessons ready to go. But when we were captured by Chrysalis, Starlight took charge and really stepped up. I don’t think friendship lessons are enough for her anymore.
Celestia: So you have an overachieving student. Sounds familiar.
Spike: (laughs)
Twilight Sparkle: That’s why I had to talk to you. You of all ponies would know what to do. I mean, you were me and I was Starlight. But for now, I need you to pretend you’re you and I’m me.
Spike: What?
Celestia: Go on.
One thing about the late seasons (especially 8 and 9) that feels weird to me is that Twilight Sparkle becomes Celestia and Starlight Glimmer becomes Twilight. That change is more noticeable when watching episodes in haphazard order (which I sometimes do with friends) than watching chronologically. If you watch the episodes in order, scenes like this embrace the characters’ gradual development, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss the more sarcastic pre-princess Twilight. On the bright side, Starlight Glimmer is just as sarcastic and I love her a lot too.
Twilight Sparkle: When I was your student and you were in this place, you… Oh no.
Twilight Sparkle: You sent me to Ponyville. Which means it’s time for me to send Starlight Glimmer away!
This scene parodies the “explain, explain, oh crap” trope in the most Twilight Sparkle way possible. Instead of coming to a genuinely dramatic conclusion like the trope usually goes, she falls down one of her classic slippery slopes and her resulting conclusion is completely baseless. She misses the point that Celestia sent her to Ponyville because Twilight wouldn’t make any friends in Canterlot, but Starlight has succeeded in making friends right here. Not just Trixie, but also Thorax and Discord, plus a reunion with Sunburst. And the main cast of course.
The thing with Twilight Sparkle is that she’s a huge nerd. One thing that huge nerds do is pick up on patterns and extrapolate upon them overly methodically. She may not be as sarcastic as she used to be, but she’s still a lovable nerd at heart.
Celestia hints that it was a tough decision to send Twilight off to Ponyville, Discord convinces the rest of the Mane 6 that Twilight is cooking up a master plan, then comes a series of fantasy sequences where Twilight imagines what could go wrong wherever she sends Starlight off.
First off, Twilight imagines sending Starlight to the changeling kingdom, where she and Thorax teach the other changelings about compromise in a fake, stilted tone. Spike isn’t hesitant to point out how unrealistic this is. This goes to show that unlike Spike, who knows Thorax personally, Twilight knows almost nothing about changelings and is thus prejudicial about them.
Twilight Sparkle’s spirals of what-ifs seem a lot more ridiculous when visualized, like when a changeling impersonates Starlight Glimmer and ruins the real Starlight’s good name. However, she’s right about one thing: some changelings still don’t want to be reformed. We’ll learn more about this in To Change a Changeling later this season.
Spike: Uh… that probably won’t happen.
Twilight Sparkle: But it could! I can’t just send her off to Celestia knows where without thinking it through!
Celestia: Hm. I was not aware that I was an expression. An appropriate one, of course. For even I don’t know the answer.
So you’re telling me that this whole time Celestia ruled Equestria, which is at least a thousand years, she didn’t know people used her name as an expression? I have an explanation. Maybe in Canterlot, it’s considered rude to use Celestia’s name in vain, but it’s completely normal in places like Ponyville, and that’s why Twilight Sparkle picked up the phrase. I like to think that in Canterlot, most ponies use a euphemism akin to “gosh” instead of “God”; maybe they say “Tia” instead of “Celestia”.
Next, Twilight Sparkle imagines Starlight and Ember in the dragon kingdom, once again inaccurate to what they’re actually like. Aside from humor and showcasing Twilight’s fears, I think these fantasy scenes have a third purpose. They hint to viewers that we’ll see plenty of non-pony characters throughout season 7, including more of Thorax and Ember.
Then comes the freaky part of the fantasy: Spike’s nemesis Garble finds Starlight Glimmer and throws her into a pool of lava. Although Twilight is right that Garble hates ponies, I don’t think he hates ponies enough that he wants to murder them. Besides, even if he had it in himself to kill a pony, that would mean he couldn’t bully them anymore.
Spike: Twilight, this is crazy!
Spike: Starlight’s really good with magic. She could stop herself from falling into a pit of lava.
Twilight Sparkle: What if she didn’t realize it was happening?! You just never know, Spike!
As Spike’s words make clear, Twilight is exactly like a parent who worries like crazy about her child, forgetting her child’s ability to look out for herself. However, Spike doesn’t complain that this is out of character for Garble, which shows how much he can’t stand the guy.
Whenever the Mane 6 went to the Crystal Empire, the library was definitely Twilight’s favorite part.
The third place Twilight imagines sending Starlight to is the Crystal Empire, which is a reasonable choice. She could practice magic with Sunburst and keep the guy some company, or help the royal couple with Flurry Heart. It doesn’t have many people Starlight already knows, but she could easily make new ones.
However, it’s perhaps because of this isolation that Twilight worries her pupil could become evil again. Maybe the advanced spell that she envisions isn’t exactly evil, but it looks like a demonic ritual. Again, there’s a small amount of truth to this fantasy: Starlight does tend to use complex magic spells to solve her problems, and they always backfire.
When Twilight worries that there’s nowhere she will be able to send her pupil, Celestia erupts into laughter. It turns out that she had exactly the same worries about Twilight. Indeed, it is absolutely hilarious when someone or something reminds you of your past self. Even something as simple as a kid obsessing over a toy you used to love.
Going by this flashback, young Moondancer was slightly less introverted than Twilight.
Celestia proceeds to tell a story about young Twilight Sparkle. She was a star student in magic, but it withheld her from making friends.
If this flashback was in season 1, every character except Celestia and Twilight would be a generic background pony. But instead, all but one of them are proper characters with names and backstories. We see the Canterlot trio that loves to visit Ponyville, Lyra Heartstrings who moved to Ponyville, and the cute nerd named Moondancer. The only unnamed one is on the bottom right. She was included so that all except Twilight would have a partner.
As with prior reviews, if a character speaks in italics, it’s their past self.
Celestia: I had a decision to make. Oh, but it wasn’t easy.
Celestia: Maybe I could close the library, or throw a party in the castle. Oh, she’d have to talk to the other fillies then.
Celestia: (looks at the moon) Oh… I must send her away.
Now here’s where Lewis and Songco’s writing style starts to shine. Their specialty is flashbacks and backstories, normally for new characters (like Top Bolt or The Perfect Pear), but here they do it with an existing character and pull it off wonderfully. It makes perfect sense that Celestia is scared of sending Twilight away, both because of parallels with grown-up Twilight, and because it already hurt her to send Luna to the moon.
I love the animation in this scene. Each of the main cast demonstrates a trait of theirs simply through expressions.
Celestia: I knew there was a special group of fillies in Ponyville. But I kept inventing all kinds of reasons why I shouldn’t send you.
Celestia: What if she runs into a manticore? What if she gets pulled into Tartarus? Or worst of all, what if she doesn’t get along with anypony?
Celestia knew in her heart what the right solution was, but she was scared to actually do it. She always knew the prophecies involving the Mane 6 and the Elements of Harmony. We even see her conferring with Mayor Mare as the rest of the main cast walks by—did Mayor Mare know about these prophecies too? I’ve always liked the idea that the mayor knows more than she lets on. For all we know, she could have secretly coerced Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie into moving there.
Weirdly, Twilight lacks her horn in this flashback even though she didn’t in the first episode.
Celestia: I kept you in Canterlot longer than I should have.
Celestia: Eventually, I realized all the anxiety I felt was because I didn’t want you to go.
I presume this episode’s writers found it strange that Celestia abruptly sent Twilight to Ponyville, as a full-grown adult. But instead of just complaining about it, they found a justification for this oddity and wrote it into the show! It turns out that Celestia procrastinated on sending her star student off. She only did it when she had no other choice: on the thousandth anniversary of Nightmare Moon’s defeat, when a special team of ponies was destined to take her down. If she did it any later, Equestria would be doomed.
Twilight Sparkle: Really?
Celestia: I loved having you as a student. You challenged me and taught me just as much as I taught you. I am embarrassed to admit it, but… I was afraid if you made friends, you wouldn’t need me anymore.
Twilight Sparkle: Princess Celestia, that is so not true. I will always need you.
Celestia: I think Starlight Glimmer might feel the same way about you, if that is what you’re afraid of.
This exchange puts the entire first season of the show into a new perspective. When she arrived in Ponyville, Twilight was reluctant to make friends and just wanted to rush through the Summer Sun Celebration, because she thought Spike and Celestia were all the company she needed. She loyally sent letters to Celestia every week, and even had a mental breakdown when she almost forgot to send one (in season 2). She tried to keep a perfect image of all her new friends when Celestia visited. Most of all, the whole reason she wanted to attend the Grand Galloping Gala was for quality time with Celestia. They spent enough time learning from each other in Canterlot that their bond went unbreakable. And yet, Celestia’s fear that her favorite student would abandon her is very real and believable. It’s exactly like if your child is about to explore the world on their own.
Celestia: Here we are after all these years, Twilight.
Celestia: We are living proof that letting someone spread their wings doesn’t mean you no longer have a place in their lives.
Twilight Sparkle: Thank you.
This friendship lesson means something a bit broader: it also applies to when a friend of yours moves far away. It means that saying goodbye does not mean closing the book on a friendship, nor does it break your bond.
Celestia: And if you’re still worried, you can always make them write you letters. (wink)
Just like that, Lewis and Songco single-handedly (double-handedly?) invented a reason why Celestia made Twilight send all those letters, and made it canon. I think every fan wishes they had this power. Whether it’s something as overarching as a character’s top secret identity, or something as silly as a character’s food preference. Actually, who am I kidding, most fans just want to canonize their favorite ship.
For real though, this scene is exactly like learning your parent or authority figure once worried about and feared the same things that you do today. There comes a time in most adults’ lives where they learn what sorts of insecurities their parents once went through, and it makes you see their lives in a whole new way.
Twilight Sparkle gives a speech in Starlight’s honor, which confirms the outcome of this episode. Starlight has made many new friends as Twilight’s pupil, and thus has graduated and is allowed to choose what’s next for her. She decides to stay in Ponyville and keep the same role as before. This means that the real purpose of this episode isn’t to reveal what’s next for Starlight Glimmer, but to provide a new perspective on the show’s beginning.
It looks like this mirror has room for Starlight to put additional friends on.
After all, Twilight knows this is not an end, but a beginning.
And so, Starlight decides she isn’t ready to go, she receives her gift, and they hug. A simple and heartfelt ending to a season premiere.
To wrap up the episode, Pinkie Pie cleans up the room with a magic vacuum, then says “phew!” I think it’s a phew of relief that she had this thing lying around. She probably almost forgot it!
Overall thoughts:
This is the oddball of the season premieres, even more of one than the season 6 finale. It’s so simple, but so effective as a season opener. Instead of a dramatic adventure where the main cast must stop a villain or a looming natural threat, we get a backstory episode disguised as a “what’s next?” episode. It may seem like a simple look at how season 1 went from Celestia’s perspective, but it actually sets a recurring theme for this entire season. Throughout season 7, we’ll learn the histories behind various existing characters, as well as new or unexplored characters like some of the Mane 6’s parents and the Pillars of Equestria. It all started with Celestia’s backstory, and this won’t be the last time she’s fleshed out as a character.
Grade: B
It’s not groundbreaking enough to get an A, but it does everything right.
Miscellaneous notes:
- When imitating Rarity near the start, Spike puts on the same fake accent he used when narrating the play in Hearth’s Warming Eve. I’m guessing this wasn’t an intentional callback, just Cathy Weseluck accidentally having the same idea. (No disrespect to her, she’s a fantastic voice actress and seems like a very nice person.)
- The Crystal Empire fantasy is the second time the historical figure Somnambula is mentioned—a hint at the overarching story of season 7.
See you next time as Starlight Glimmer keeps her anger in a bottle so she will never lash out at anyone again. Surely it will work like a charm with zero repercussions.
Cookie Fonster's stuff 