Warning: these reviews are absolutely going to contain SPOILERS! I guess I could do spoiler-free reviews, but frankly I just think it'd be more fun if I didn't try to hold back. Not to mention with a show like this it's hard to establish what constitutes spoilers in the first place. So I highly recommend that you watch the series yourself, first. It's all on YouTube, after all!
Anyway, onto episode 1 of season two, The Return of Harmony (part 1)!
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Season two begins, somewhat surprisingly, not with the mane six but with Cheerilee and all the important fillies/colts (Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, Snips and Snails, Twist, and the CMC). They're on a class field trip, you see, to the Canterlot gardens, where a bunch of statues represent typical good stuff, like friendship. Except one, which is notably not a pony and not a good thing: it's a statue that represents discord! Which, if you've been following any of the pre-release stuff, you know is the antagonist of this episode.
But the best part is that the CMC have to fight about the meaning of the statue and (wait for it) their discord in front of Discord makes the statue crack as Cheerilee and the class continue their field trip. So everything is the CMC's fault! They should totally get cutie marks for that.
Actually, around this time there's something in the episode that bothers me a little bit. Discord is a crazy abomination of a critter that they call a "dragonokis" (yeah I have no idea if that's the right spelling or not). He has the head of a pony, body of a dragon, and an amalgamation of a ton of other animals for limbs and horns and the like. So why didn't they just call him a chimera? One of the things I love about My Little Pony is the classic fantasy mixed into the world: the dragons, the manticore, the cockatrice... but they opt to make up a species for Discord, when the obvious existing one is right there! This isn't exactly a big deal, but it still made me a little sad.
EDIT: A good point has been brought to my attention: a classical chimera was a specific amalgamation of creatures (lion + goat + snake) as opposed to the more modern, general definition it has been given in things like Fullmetal Alchemist and Mother 3. So this point no longer really stands as criticism, but I'll leave it up anyway. For posterity.
Oh, and I was a tad bit disappointed by the theme song. I was under the impression that they had rerecorded it for season two, but it's the same one we've already had for 26 episodes. Again, this is hardly more than a nitpick on my part, but still it left me a little disappointed. Hopefully they kick in a new theme a few episodes in.
So now that we're done introducing Discord, we get to see the mane six as discord (I wonder how many times I can say "discord" in this post?) descends upon Ponyville in the shape of cotton candy clouds that spaz out and rain chocolate milk. Which is also referred to as chocolate rain. Eeyup.
But it's evil chocolate milk, for you see, it does nasty stuff like make corn pop into popcorn, apples grow giant and bend their trees, and rabbits turn into long-legged Salvador Dahli-esque abominations. Which segues nicely into the fact that I really hope this isn't the only Dahli reference Discord ends up creating, 'cause I feel like Dahli's freaky surreal imagery would fit perfectly with our villain. Let's see some melting clocks all up in here!
So the mane six deal with the clouds and Celestia calls them to the castle to
Then Celestia gets owned when she finds out that the very secure box she had the Elements in has been breached and Discord stole them. Oops!
This is also when we first get a real introduction at Discord, as he comes to life in a stained glass windows and mocks everyone, conveniently reminding the audience of the specific Elements and which ponies they go to. It's actually pretty cleverly set up, I think, as it was hardly obtrusive and Discord wandering around in the stained glass (and at one point moonwalking on glass-Twilight's head) is awesome.
So after Discord has fun at everyone else's expense, he challenges the mane six to a game - he hid the Elements in the castle labyrinth (made of hedges, and seemingly lacking in minotaurs) and they can go get them! But without magic or flying, so he takes away their horns and wings and tells them that as soon as one pony leaves the maze the game is over and he wins. He then separates them in the maze and proceeds with his dastardly plan - turning them all against their Elements!
One by one, the ponies are hypnotized and turn grayscale as Discord tricks them into forsaking the Elements that are such important aspects of their personalities. It sounds a little trite, but I felt it was actually done pretty well - as soon as I began to worry that some of the ponies willingly going against their Elements was out of character, a scene made it clear that the little shows Discord was putting on were really more of a formality as he hypnotizes Fluttershy with a quick bop on the head.
So everyone is hypnotized except for Twilight Sparkle (who is deliberately allowed to see all her friends acting on their anti-personalities), Dash flies away from the labyrinth, and the game is lost (...sorry about that). With that, we get the "To be continued..." and we have to wait another week for part two.
So, overall, I wouldn't call it a bad episode. It wasn't particularly surprising, wasn't particularly amazing, but it did a good job with the concept. Discord is a pretty interesting villain so far - his powers are obviously many but are left pretty undefined, and his entire personality makes me think of an eviler version of King Bumi from Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is definitely not a bad thing. His design was one that I had a negative knee-jerk reaction to when I first saw his outside of the stained glass, but it's grown on me and now I can't wait to see how terrifying fanart can make him look.
I do find it a little hard to swallow exactly how useless Celestia is. She's supposed to be this immortal, goddess-like figure who moves the freaking sun as her special talent, and yet she lets the mane six deal with Mr. Cause Equestria to Descend Into Chaos. At least Nightmare Moon had the excuse of being her sister and thus having similar powers. Maybe I'm just too used to the fandom making her more awesome than she is "supposed" to be? I dunno.
Also the pacing of the episode before Discord showed up bothered me a little. It just all seemed too quick, too awkward. Obviously they really had to rush things along a bit to get to the actual plot, but it still felt weird to suddenly have all the mane six show up at Sweet Apple Acres with Ponyville almost randomly in chaos.
And, unfortunately, it's hard to judge this episode on its own. It's only half of the story, and a lot of it was setup. I really wish they could have aired the two Return of Harmony episodes back-to-back like some series do for their season premiers.
Overall, it certainly wasn't a bad episode, but it wasn't amazing either. It's very possible that I'll change my mind when episode two comes to wrap up the story, but as-is I give it a
7/10
Pros:
Discord is a pretty nifty villain
Takes a concept that could be trite and puts a nice spin on it
Adds some nifty backstory to the Princesses
Cons:
First half of the episode feels weirdly paced
Perhaps a little bit exposition-heavy
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So see you next week when we can wrap up this story ark and get a better feel for how this all ties together! Until then, I will await terrifying, child-scarring Discord fanart with bated breath, and perhaps even make some of my own.
~C.O
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