The Crystal Empire and King Sombra! | My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Season 3 Episode 1 & 2 REACTION + Discussion
Added 2024-05-06 09:09:08 +0000 UTC
Comments
Ahh. Interesting 🧐
Ed
2024-05-10 17:56:36 +0000 UTCIt was close to the end (at 45:45 here).
DeViruZz.eXe
2024-05-10 17:46:59 +0000 UTCThink this is your longest one to date! 😂😂😂. But you summarized the entire experience. World building, darkness, crystals, history, and all that. I’ll have to look at the cutie mark again and the book. What time is the Luna book? Probably too much into it but I like the allegories 😂 Still enjoyed it and as you said they brought shining armor and Candace back immediately from the S2 finale. Doesn’t touch that one but still is crazy loaded with history and twilight testing. Which makes you wonder 🤔
Ed
2024-05-10 07:08:25 +0000 UTCI did look at the "My Little Pony: FIENDship is Magic - ISSUE#1" comic again, it contains major spoiler and shouldn't be read until season 5
DeViruZz.eXe
2024-05-09 16:28:26 +0000 UTCAfter a great Finale, we get another interesting 2-Parter with a mysterious task given by Celestia to Twilight, lots of world-building and continuity, and another region as a great introduction towards Season 3. We are introduced to a very old empire in the cold north, the so called "Crystal Empire" which was taken over by some mysterious entity known as King Sombra and ruled by him through fear and intimidation. He enslaved its whole population and stole their Crystal heart which was a symbol of hope throughout Equestria. - Thus the two sisters, Celestia and Luna, stepped in to banish him into the frozen north. - Sadly, King Sombra was able to curse the "Crystal Empire" with him, which caused it to vanish and was never heard of again for a thousand years, until it suddenly reappeared again. But with it, Twilight is tasked by Celestia to find a way to protect this Empire, which contained a powerful magic of love and hope that was able to reflect all over Equestria, and prevent King Sombra from reclaiming it. Interestingly Celestia specifically points out that this task serves as "a different kind of Test" and that Twilight alone has to find a solution to be able to move on to the "next level of studies". We are never told what these are, but we get to see Luna materializing a mysterious black book which shows two stars and a swirly pattern on it. Luckily Twilight isn't alone in this endeavor - aside her friends we also meet her brother Shining Armor and Princess Cadence again who are initially protecting the Crystal Empire from King Sombra, who also returned to invade it anew. It's a pity that King Sombra had to little screen-time. We are also introduced to King Sombra, the antagonist (villain) in this premiere. He is described as an evil unicorn with a heart "as black as night" who isn't afraid to take a whole empire hostage. We also get to meet an interesting new Pony-Race, the "Crystal-Ponies" who are the original tenands of the Crystal Empire. Formerly enslaved by King Sombra and also sealed away by his curse, they still suffer in fear and have amnesia of prior events. The premiere provides us with three another great Songs, which aren't as good as the ones before, but are still above average whopping bangers. Another interesting fact is that Magic can have different forms, we are shown Dark-Magic (fear-magic) by Sombra and Celestia and hope-magic (light-magic?) by Celestia and the Crystal-Ponies at the end. Some further notes/thoughts/facts: I love that they introduced the stained glasses which depicts all the last important events since the Season 2 Premiere. It would have been interesting if the changelings came back, but somehow it would be too predictable. A frantic and upset twilight is best Twilight ;) "Just a test? ... JUST A TEST!?" and boom goes the Dynamite XD The conversation between Luna and Celestia at the beginning was quite interesting: Luna: "The Empire's magic is powerful. It cannot fall again, my sister." Celestia: "She will succeed at her task. And when she does, we'll know that she is that much closer to being ready." So... the question remains: Twilight being ready for what? 🤔 Slavery was very unexpected... in a kids show... :O "The failure song"... is a very musicaly song - this is btw. the first time Spike is singing! While others would need a spell, Pinkie Pie and her canon confetti just rewinded in Time 😱 It would have been very funny if one of her friends said "Oh the crystal empire, yeah i read about it - what a nice place" and Twilight would be completely dumbfounded XD I dont have a problem with swears or curses as long as you are not going overboard with this XD But i cant speak for others. The way all six researched and asked the crystal ponies was way too funny, especially Pinkies Spy-shenanigans and her Fluttershy-disguise XD Oh AJ you had to mention a brand new library for twilight Twilights dream of unexplored information comes true :D "The Ballad of the Crystal Empire" is quite a banger - i like it. 🎵"Save the Crystal Ponies with their histor-yyy"🎶 Tha Flugelhorn is everything, well except for good sounding :o The fair seem to juggles some memories and they remember their most important relic "The Crystal Heart". DAMN THESE BASTARDS WHO ARE ALWAYS BUTCHERING BOOKS BY RIPPING IMPORTANT PAGES OUT OF AN IMPORTANT BOOK! 😆 It's funny how AJ as the most honest person has to prevent curious Crystal-Ponies to come closer to the heart... well technically she didnt lie about the heart - she just evaded their questions by redirecting them. Twilight taps into dark magic wasnt shown in another (filler?) episode, It was directly taught by Celestia at the beginning: Twilight could copy that spell just by watching Celestia doing it which proves how smart and awesome Twilight can be. - Especially her gravity reverse spell was amazing, until she got trapped by that alarm. - She could have predicted this, if she wasn't too focused on her task and the heart. At least she got an enlightenment, to give up on her task, so that Spike can be the hero of the day, to save everyone. Poor Fluttershy getting abused by jousting Sombra is not a ghost spirit, he is described as an evil Unicorn with Dark-Magic by Celestia, but she herself isn't sure about it - in ISSUE#1 of "My Little Pony: FIENDship is Magic", a comic Series by IDW (which are regarded as canon until the show said otherwise) about Equestrias villains, he is described as an Umbrum, a shadow pony. 41:58 Did you see Cadence cutie mark glow, while she arrived with the real crystal heart? If you look closer at her cutie mark - you will see its depiction of said Crystal Heart. I can see why you think that it has religious undertones, but i dont think it has any resemblance to the christian or catholic church and you maybe interpret to much into it. - Well you could see it as worshipping the crystal heart as part of a cult. :O The crystal pony-look suites our mane 6 very well :D Hope shines all over Equestria as a Aurora Borealis like phenomenon, which is also coming from the north. - Love how they inplement those real-world events into the worldbuilding of MLP. "The Success Song" sung by her friends somewhat suits like a reprise towards "the Failure Song" which is a nice way to end this Premiere. Did you see that book at the end that Luna materialized? It shows two stars and a swirly pattern... could be important? - what do you think that is? - It was a nice dual-apisode Premiere which was weaker than every other dual-premiere or finale until now, but I still rate it 7/10 for its overall worldbuilding and an interesting but mysterious indication about what is to come. Its long introduction was still very interesting to watch as it contained lot's of information and introduced us to some new places, concepts and lore. And it's only shortcoming was the confrontation of King Sombra over the Crystal Heart, which was still impactful, but could have been more elaborate and menacing. I also like the inclusion of before established new characters like Shining Armor or Cadence, who seem to rule over the Crystal Empire now which are populated by Crystal Ponies. Its Lesson about Twilights task, to sacrifice ones success for the benefit of others if needed, was a good example and helped Twilight to reach a greater potential by realizing that to fail, is not the end of ones success. She had to come to the best solution for everyone and that was to give Spike the Limelight to shine as the Hero with a leap of faith and was rescued by Cadence so that both could bring back the Crystal Heart to the Crystal Ponies, who are sharing their hopes and love to banish King Sombra again. As you said i would also have liked for King Sombra to be more fierce and evil as he was shown in the beginning with the invasion and enslavement, if you truly want to know more about him you have to read ISSUE#1 of "My Little Pony: FIENDship is Magic"-comic - but i am not sure how much spoiler it contains at this point - i might take a look at it again to determine that.) It truly is difficult to compare it with the Canterlot Wedding-Finale - it is on another level :D Thank you for your wonderful reaction. 💙 P..S.: Hoh boy, I again had too much to say about this... ^^'
DeViruZz.eXe
2024-05-09 12:33:34 +0000 UTCYeah the medieval part of a fair was great.
DeViruZz.eXe
2024-05-09 12:19:18 +0000 UTCGreat opening despite his minimal role but it’s so interesting. The world building and usage of shining armor and cadence was BIIG! Great way to start off the short season!
Ed
2024-05-07 09:14:16 +0000 UTCKing sombra is a really cool villain, everyone agreed they wanted to see more of him and his past as well, although this was a good opening to the season, I love world building we get the crystal empire a new place to explore and expand upon, I enjoyed the history aspect of the crystal fair it’s a cool idea, the songs were really good as well they had kinda a medieval feel too them the era of king sombra was sorta that era for sure knights and jousting, I always enjoy it spongebob and other shows have had medieval era episodes and I always enjoy them, maybe not the strongest opening episodes but still really fun! looking forward to the rest of season!
Pinkie_applepie
2024-05-07 05:29:24 +0000 UTC
