Poll MLP:FIM S701 "Celestial Advice" & S702 "All Bottled Up" Grading & Discussion Thread

[Amaris]

Episode Title: "Celestial Advice"
Air Date: April 15th, 2017, 11:30 AM Eastern Time (3:30 PM GMT/UTC)

Summary: "Twilight Sparkle agonizes over Starlight Glimmer’s future and receives some much-needed advice from her very own mentor – Princess Celestia."

Episode Title: "All Bottled Up"
Air Date: April 15th, 2017, 12:00 PM Eastern Time (4:00 PM GMT/UTC)

Summary: "While the Mane 6 are on a friendship retreat, Starlight Glimmer loses Twilight Sparkle’s friendship map. Afraid her anger might get out of control, Starlight Glimmer casts a calming spell while the ponies search for the lost map."


Live Streams:
HaxMega
BronyState Theaters
Brony Network
Equestria TV
Otaku Ascended

REMEMBER: NO OPEN SPOILERS UNTIL 4 PM EST (8 PM UTC/GMT) the day the episodes air.
=-


Usually, the season premiere is a two-part episode shown back to back. This season, we get two totally different episodes, but aired on the same day, so this thread will combine both of those episodes. That being said, where to begin?! This is the premiere episode for season 7! After months and months of no pony, we're now starting into the new season with a change.

The season opening episode will not be a two-parter. This is a stand-alone episode, and is the first of its kind for MLP, because even the series premiere was a two-parter. I'm not sure if this is because the episode we'll be seeing is also on the Shout Factory DVD (which may be why), or they just wanted to shake things up a bit. Regardless of why, I'm curious to see how this episode will play out. Twilight seems to feel she's in the same place Celestia was years ago when she commissioned Twilight to make some friends, and to grow into who she is today. It's a passing of the torch moment, in a way, and I wonder how the showrunners are going to handle this. Since the episode is a single, I'm wondering if we'll also see an overarching theme this season based on this first episode, because surely one can't fit that entire theme into a single episode and expect it to be enough. So we shall see.

So we're getting two new episodes on the same day! Yep, odd as it may seem, because the season premiere isn't a two-parter, we get two new episodes premiering on the same day. The second episode focuses on Starlight Glimmer accidentally losing Twilight's friendship map. On first glance, it seems positively slice-of-life in nature, but I wonder if it's a part of a greater story arc? We won't really know for sure until later in the season, of course, but it's fun to speculate right now. Of course, the most important part is that we're getting two new episodes of pony in one day, and that is something to celebrate. Yay!

On another note, this year our poll will be more nuanced, allowing for greater voting options. For this poll, only, there are actually two polls combined (since I can't make two separate polls, and two separate threads on the same day would be a no-no), so be sure you check your votes carefully.

 

[Count Zero]

I didn't get finished with my rewatch of season 6 and probably will see the new episodes on Sunday (as I'm away on the Saturday). The synopsis sounds a bit ominous but we'll see.

 

[Amaris]

**SPOILERS**

Celestial Advice

An interesting start to the season, this episode seems to be more of a talky. So Twilight, Celestia, and Luna are honoring the B team for their role in rescuing Equestria from a totalitarian changeling society, when Discord pressures Twilight into presenting Starlight with a huge surprise. Twilight starts to panic, decides to consult Princess Celestia, and in the process Twilight realizes she needs to let Starlight go so she can spread her wings, as it were. Twilight then has to figure out just where she wants to send her, and imagines three different locations: the Changeling empire, the Dragon lands, or the Crystal Empire, where she'll work with Sunburst.

Of course, in classic Twilight fashion, each choice becomes more dangerous than the last, and by the last scenario Twilight's worried that Starlight may accidentally destroy the entire universe. Celestia lets Twilight know that she had the same doubts about her own pupil, to Twilight's surprise, and we finally get to see how Celestia devised the entire plan to bring Twilight together with the Mane 5. I mean, we always suspected Celestia was fully behind it, but now it's canon! Also, filly mane six! *squee*

In the end, Twilight is comforted, and tells Starlight she has graduated to independence, and lets her know she's free to go wherever she chooses. Starlight chooses to remain, because she doesn't yet want to leave. Of course, Twilight loves this, and they embrace. Twilight presents Starlight with a large mirror, similar to one she has in her own bedroom, with pictures of the friends she's made inlaid into the side panels. Starlight cries, and then Twilight cries and then I cry.

All in all, a solid episode. We get some backstory fulfillment (after waiting 7 seasons!), talking changelings, and sarcastic Spike at his best. This one gets a "B+." It's a good start to the season.


All Bottled Up

So we start with Starlight and Trixie. Starlight's making tea cakes, and Trixie's working on a little magic. Of course, as Trixie does, she lets her excitement carry her away, and she ruins Starlight's tea cakes, ones she wanted to give to Twilight and her friends for their friendship retreat. We can already see Starlight's frustration beginning to mount, as Trixie drops a bag of pretzels on Starlight's ruined tea cakes to replace the loss of the "snacks." I laughed.

Anyway, so Twilight and company are off to their retreat (which cracks me up because it ends up being a team building exercise. Seriously, I laughed so hard at that, because of course, Twilight), and Starlight is in the castle with Trixie. Trixie decides she wants to learn a teleportation spell she finds in Starlight's magic book.

Starlight reluctantly agrees, and though Trixie's first choice is Spike (with some great moments from the dragon himself), she eventually settled on an apple. Unfortunately, the apple's sitting on the cutie map, and next thing you know, Trixie's bungled it and the entire cutie map has disappeared. Starlight's now in full panic mode, and Trixie doesn't seem to be bothered. This angers Starlight, and we see a visible cloud of red appear over her head. We find out that Starlight's power is directly tied in to her emotions (this was great to learn, by the way, as it explains a great deal), so the more powerful her emotions, the more power funneled into her magic.

The cloud of anger is getting worse, so Starlight uses a spell to have the cloud trap itself in a bottle (hence "all bottled up") that she carries in her saddle bags. So they go off looking for the cutie map, visiting several different places in Ponyville, and each time Trixie's behavior just gets worse, and Starlight's anger continues to build, until finally, on accident, the bottle is tossed from her saddle bags, and breaks open. The cloud of anger takes over the three nearby vendors whom the pair had spoken with while searching for the cutie map, and so they start cornering Trixie and screaming at her. Trixie is confused as to why these ponies are yelling things at her, not realizing the words they're saying are the results of Starlight's pent up anger.

Meanwhile, back at the friendship retreat, the mane six have successfully completed the tasks in the team building exercise, and break into song (I love this bit of self-awareness coming true from Starlight), so things are going swimmingly for them.

Back in Ponyville, things have gone haywire, as Bulk Biceps throws his cinnamon nut cart at Trixie out of sheer rage. Dude is huge, yo. So anyway, Trixie finally starts asking why they're all saying those things to her, and Starlight finally confesses that those words are hers, that her pent up anger has given voice to what she was trying to hide. The pair makeup, and Trixie suddenly remembers where she thought the table would be, and they show up at the spa, getting it back to the castle just in time for Twilight and friends to walk through the door.

I like this episode better than the first one. I think it's a bit stronger, and I think the interplay between the ponies works better. I like that the Mane Six aren't in conflict, which I kind of expected, and it's funny to watch Starlight and Trixie's dynamic. I laughed at the mini Twilight comment from Trixie, as well as Bulk Biceps comment about "wearing many hats" referring to his job at the spa, and his job as a cinnamon nut vendor.

I also noted that Trixie said she loved Starlight Glimmer, which shocked me for a second. I don't recall ever hearing any of the ponies say that they loved their friends, or anypony else for that matter. So for me, it's quite clear that Starlight is the closest friend Trixie has ever had, and had to be lonely out on the road. She didn't just like Starlight, she loved her, and I thought that was fantastic. Clearly, Starlight loves Trixie, because I don't know if I could handle someone like Trixie 24/7.

All in all, this was a great episode, and gets a solid "A" from me. I think we're getting off on the right hoof this season. Here's hoping to more great ones!