Reviews Recap / My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic S 2 E 26 A Canterlot Wedding Part 2

About the third, Love is another type of bond, the way they used it was pretty much exactly the same as what was used to defeat the Windigos before, just a different type of bond.

Friendship is actually another type of love, platonic love, so it makes since true romantic love has the same power.

1. The flashback implies that Shining Armor was only around Twilight during her VERY early years. She didn't have her Cutie Mark in any of them, and was shown being flown away while still lacking one, so the scenes took place before her entrance exam. As for why he wasn't mentioned, what times could he have been brought up without it sounding forced in? People don't just bring up relatives out of nowhere. And Twilight mentioned during the train ride that the two had been growing apart ever since the move to Ponyville; they're adults with their own lives, and Twilight was only upset because she had to hear the news secondhand.

2. Chrysalis pretty much gave all the backstory she needed when she appeared. She eats love to live, and wants to attack Canterlot because it's the center of Equestria, the land of love and all that. Once her army is powered enough, they would then attack the rest of Equestria and repeat the process. It's not wonderfully deep, but not every villain needs a super-meaningful backstory to work. Heck, for all his backstory, Discord was a one-dimensional bad guy with no real plan other than to cause chaos. Nightmare Moon is the only villain that worked on that level, and that was because she was riding on the back of Luna's backstory.

We didn't need to see Cadence get kidnapped. We didn't need to see how she got into Canterlot to begin with. Did we have to see what Nightmare Moon did to Celestia, or how Discord stole the Elements? No, because those details aren't vitally important. They don't break the story by not being there.

3. This was the weakest part of the episode, but it's not a gamebreaker. And besides, Twilight was able to use a bubble to dispel part of Discord's magic in Ro H Part 2. It's not far-fetched for what looks like the same spell to slam out the others.

Yes, you need love to have friendship and friendship to have love, but the matter it was that it came as implied instead of shown.

In the first episode we get scenes of both the good, the bad and the curious for the Mane cast, the tribulations they had to pass and the entire series it's pretty much an essay of what is friendship, what it's need to exist and all the troubles it takes to maintain it.

The love story exist... because love is pure and great, everlasting feeling that can conquer all obstacles. Seriously, there is not a single scene of their relationship, how it was formed, why they chose each other, the ups or downs or anything except a song and a dance at the end. For example heart's warming eve took pains to draw how bad the situation was between the tribes, what kind of people it was needed to redeem them and the three heroes had at least a discussion of their situation and they laughed in desperation and defiance to their situation in an accidental act of harmony.

What does Shining armor or Cadence got? It was Twilight who, in the end, saved them (liberating Cadence twice and helping Shining armor) and whom pointed their good sides (kind, intelligent brother/ nice, lovely pure princess). The scenes of them where from Twilight perspective and 99% of the on-screen time was between fake cadence and shining armor.

There is not a single, deep characterization of said "over powerful" relationship in the entire two hours of the story. Not even a dialogue that you couldn't find in the most banal of the Fics.

And the entire Friendship power... It needed six chosen wielders, each one being literally an avatar of said element, 6 untold powerful artifacts and they only defeated their main enemy, not the entire race in one go (and this was an opponent who was canonically stronger than Princess Celestia and having sucked almost all of Shining armor love/magic).

The love bubble needed... a deep meaningful look and took a competent soldier and a very low level tier Alicorn to become all powerful deus ex...

Also, just to eat it's not enough reason, not in my little pony. Even Discord "for the lulz" was in his nature as a physical manifestation of chaos. Or Nightmare Moon got a old legend and an intro, not to mention like a dozen of tests before the main fight. Heck, the episode even lampshade chrysalis recklessness in leaving her disguise in front of the god ruler, in the middle of her kingdom, without completing the wedding (why was needed in the first place) and leaving all her minions outside of the indestructible bubble.

Gods, it sounds even sillier when I write it.

The story was (or should be) about Shining Armor and Princess Cadence and they were relegated as living props or secondary characters (beside the bubble scene in the first act, what Shining armor did? and Princess Cadence only got shackled and saved by twilight twice). In fact, it was more about Twilight learning to accept her family doesn't belong to her and that life is never static, both grow and change, sometimes for the better and she shouldn't be jealous out of the good fortune of others (at least in the first act).

I... honestly don't know what was the aesop, the drama or just the reason of the two hours episode.

The way I see it is:

1. The two hour thing isn't a fair statement because it was only a one hour pair of episiodes. And the show is about Twilight and her friends. The wedding affected Twilight and her friends, but those two characters are Canterlot characters, and not likely to have a lot of effect on Twilight and company back in Ponyville.

2. The love bubble worked because of what Chrysalis said herself: Shining had great love for Cadence, and she for him. In her case, it drove her to seek a way to save him with Twilight's help, and to bravely stand up against Chrysalis. Shining was just doing the best he could with the little magic he had left after Chrysalis had been feeding on him and draining his power.

The show is always an aesop for Twilight (or one of the other Mane Six) so of course the lesson was something for her. Celestia stated it as "listen to your instincts", since nobody else trusted Twilight, but your point is also well made — your family is not yours forever, and that everything changes.

...okay 2 episodes or 4 episodes it got the Canterlot Wedding. And yet it was very shallow. Imagine if we got the same time to disclose more closely Spike's travels in Dragon Quest or to watch Fluttershy downhill evolution as a jerk and her redemption.

I don't think they would get the same... generic result and that's my problem. For an episode of My little Pony, it was very badly constructed and, in the end, we learned nothing or the characters except "love is great" or probably "learn to watch other people and trust in your friend", which the mane 5 really dropped the ball in this... again.

Also, WTF with luna disappearing until the end. Seriously, they couldn't include the second alicorn in the pair of hours special during a direct attack to her city?

Also, it about Shining Armor and Cadence. It was their wedding. Their Drama. Their lives/love/relationship that was the core of the episode and what hinged the entire plan of the main Villain. Hence they got to use their super special awesome love bubble to save the day, who was unexplained except some half-assed bull theories that don't hold together under the most shaky scrutiny.

I... honestly don't know anything about the pair except that they were nice brother and babysitter and... cadence really loves cakes. I think.

You have some great points, and I mostly agree. However, I think their reason for crashing the wedding was because Cadence is the basically love incarnate—what could be tastier to a love-devouring demon? Alas, I am afraid to say that I actually have more negative comments on this episode. Mainly, the Changelings.

What are they? Where the hell are they from? Why have they never been mentioned before? All these questions have been swept away from my mind and replaced with one big concern: the Changelings' absolutely retarded battle strategy, and Canterlot's even more mind-blowing terrible defenses.

The part where Chrysalis infiltrated Canterlot? Great. The part where she slowly weakened Shining Armor's resolve and will and got Cadence and Twilight both out of the way? Great. The part where the Changelings basically almost took over the most magical, powerful city in Equestria by shooting sticky green gloop? DAFAQ?!!!! The citizens must be wimps. I think the Changelings could have taken over far more discreetly and elegantly if group of them had masqueraded as ponies and taken the train in. I mean, the guards will let ANYTHING inside as long as it resembles a pony. Some defenses.

And another thing! The place has THREE PRINCESSES. Sure, I get that when Celestia was defeated and Cadence was trapped, there was nothing they could do to help(at least until the end of the episode) but what about Luna??? Did she sleep through the assault or something? I disapprove.

All in all, it was cute, the Aria was beautiful, and the whole love-conquers-all thing at the end was sweet.

I admit a beef I kinda have with this episode is that a lot of the characters and plot feel a bit "ass-pull"-ish. Shining Armor and Cadence are fairly one note role models for Twilight that have never been so much as mentioned beforehand (though if they do get appearances and development in later episodes it could amount to something) and Chrysalis was mostly just a generic Card Carrying Villain that lusted over anything sadistic and "evulz", and WTF did those weird goblin pony things come from?!?! It seemed like it actually needed more screentime to properly spotlight and setup everything and in the end even a two part episode length led to it feeling very rushed through.