Wednesday, May 7, 2014

[MLP/REVIEW/S4E23] Inspiration Manifestation

Oh yeah... because dark magic is so totally not dangerous at all...

I liked this episode, kinda. I was pretty fun to watch all the crazy stuff that goes on, but I kinda felt it was a little too contrived... Of all things to happen, Spike just stumbles upon a dark tome with the exact ability Rarity needs at the exact time that she needs it... and the key to break the spell just happens to be the moral of the episode? Seems awfully convenient to me...

Even under the influence of the dark spell, Rarity is still Rarity... creating, imagining, and often getting a little to carried away to care about practicality. I have to wonder what the other of the mane 6 would be life under the spell's influence, and I shudder to think of the consequences if Pinkie got her hands on it... At first I thought it odd that Spike would just be so oblivious to how dangerous the book is, but then I remembered that Spike is, in the end, still just a kid, so I can let it slide.

By the way, the "who?" gag with Owlicious was kinda annoying, especially  since it's already been done multiple times before... The episode also didn't do anything particularly interesting during it's middle portion other than having Rarity spiral out of control while Spike just watches... On a positive note though, it's good that Spike didn't admit that there was a problem when Twi confronted him. Don't get me wrong, that was a really dumb thing to do, but story wise, if Twi had swooped in and made everything right as Spike's deus ex machina, that would've made for a very boring ending, so I'm glad they steered clear of that.

All in all, I can't say that this is exactly my favorite episode. There were plenty of fun moments, but nothing that really kept me invested to the episode itself. Now what I did like is how it opens up a lot more questions. MLP is a show who's world is just ambiguous enough that you can fit a lot of head-cannon into it without contradicting the main universe, but not so much so that it's essentially a blank slate. With this episode, you have to wonder what other kinds of dark magic and locked away secrets there are to uncover. Maybe that could get some answers next week, but I wouldn't know as I've avoided spoilers. This is really all self-contrived subtext though, so for this episode in itself, 7/10.

Sorry that this one is late, (like really late...) but I've been busy. Expect a thorough and ON TIME review of next week's finale!

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