My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (TV Series) The Crystalling - Part 1 (2016) User Reviews

I thought it was great!

[madisondeclare · 9/10 · 17 May 2016]

Is it as amazing as the previous two parters? Not quite, but it still is great!

So after the decent "Cutie Remark" finale, lots of fans have complained about Starlight Glimmer's redemption being too forced and/or rushed, which I agree with for the most part, but this show had plenty of other rushed redemptions that in my opinion were even worse and quicker to reform, like Discord and Sunset Shimmer. So I don't know why people are sooo bothered with this one specifically?

Anyway, if there is one thing this show does well in my opinion, is the reformed versions of the characters that used to be villains or jerks. I said that Sunset Shimmer and Discord's reformations were the worst, but besides the WAY they were redeemed, the writers do an excellent job of portraying them realistically afterwards. And that is just what they did with Starlight.

I love the idea of Twilight having another student besides Sunset (at least in the films), and I find this episode portrays her role as a teacher well, and how eager Starlight is to make up for what she's done and how she genuinely wants to change. What happened with Starlight and Sunburst was definitely predictable, but it still is touching and I like the way they do become friends yet again and understand each other.

The other story arc with Flurry Heart was pretty cute yet intense. It was definitely interesting to see a natural born alicorn on the show and just how intense her powers really are. I don't know why people are hating on her by the way, she is just a baby! Lighten up! Oh, and Shining Armor and Twilight's parents speaking was a nice little unexpected touch to the episode.

Overall, this episode had some good laughs, sweet moments, intense moments, and everypony (including dragon) were in character.

9/10!

Doesn't shine like crystal enough

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 15 February 2021]

'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' mostly fared very well with its nine two part season premieres (and did even better with their season finales). Of the previous five season openers (all in two parts), only Season 3's "The Crystal Empire" disappointed a little and that still had so much that was admirable with Season 2's "The Return of Harmony" faring best. Many of my friends that love the show were disappointed in Season 6 and for understandable reasons, for me it was more inconsistent than the previous five.

"The Crystalling", both parts, was a watchable if rather unexceptional start to the season. For me it is a contender for the weakest season opener of 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' and also one of the weaker two parters (meaning finales as well as premieres) overall. Of the two parts, Part 1 was weaker and was heavily flawed in my view. Watchable but a very mixed bag, and for a 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' season opener a very mixed bag just isn't good enough in my view.

Am going to start with the good things with "The Crystalling: Part 1". Have no issues with the animation quality which is always vibrant and fluid with lovingly detailed backgrounds. Or the well synchronised music that has a lot of character. Or the uniformly very good voice acting, especially from Tara Strong and Kelly Sheridan with the most to do. While not being sold yet on Starlight's new personality yet, that is through no fault of Sheridan.

Spike really surprised me throughout "The Crystalling". He serves a point to the plot, not window dressing, and is sympathetic and likeable, his most likeable appearance in a long time. His conversation with Starlight here is one of the most heartfelt moments of the entire two parter and sees him as a true friend and someone you should take advice from. There are amusing moments as well as some cute ones, Flurry Heart is adorable and when the regular characters featured they were fun. Twilight is written very sincerely and the chemistry between her and Starlight Glimmer intrigues.

For all those good things, there are some big negatives. "The Crystalling" does suffer from the opposite basic problem to "The Crystal Empire". Whereas that episode felt over-plotted and rushed at times, this felt too slight. "The Crystalling" easily could have been a single episode and with pretty much all the events of Part 2 and a little of what's seen in Part 1. "The Crystalling: Part 1" is basically setting things up for what's to come, which admittedly season openers should do, but too often feels like overlong filler. While the chemistry between Twilight and Starlight is great, for me the subplot between Starlight and Sunburst in Part 1 didn't work.

Not only is it not interesting or realistic (or at least in this part), some of the writing between them is quite cringe-worthy and Sunburst is not a very appealing character. Did not find myself connecting with Starlight here really, her character writing was a revelation in Season 5 and her 180 personality post-Season 5 took a lot of getting used to. It is not yet interesting enough and her writing seemed underdeveloped and rushed. While the other regular characters were great when they appeared, their appearances are too brief. The writing is uneven, it intrigues enough in parts but in other parts especially in the previously mentioned subplot there was the cringe factor.

Overall, watchable but a disappointing way to start Season 6. 5/10

A disappointment compared to the rest of the two-parters

[metalman50 · 1/10 · 28 March 2016]

One of My Little Pony's biggest writers Josh Haber hasn't succeeded very well in my eyes when he started with Season 5. In particular though, every episode he's written in Season 4 was admittedly a few steps forward for him as if there was some hope for him later on. The Cutie Re- Mark might be just okay to me for how it's flawed for its rushed plot and redemption of Starlight, but a much bigger disappointment has to be his second two-parter being the Season 6 premiere. And I'm sorry to be offensive, but Haber should be one of the few writers who just aren't needed to write anymore episodes. I will admit that I wanted to be proved wrong with this 9th two-parter, but after one full viewing, I was just instantly unimpressed. And I have no problem explaining why, so, let's get started...

My Little Pony has succeeded very well with all of its two-parters, albeit the mediocre Cutie Re- Mark as I mentioned, but this episode just did not do well for me. Granted, Shining Armor's and Cadence's newborn baby Flurry Heart was pretty adorable, but was sadly overshadowed by both Starlight (who I'm now neutral towards) and her childhood friend Sunbrust. Princess Twilight Sparkle might have proved that you don't need an antagonist to make a great two-parter, or even amazing action sequences as proved by The Cutie Map, both of which were the previous two-part premieres before this episode, but this premiere of this new season unfortunately wasn't proof of either of those two.

Thanks to sloppy execution and overstuffed moments of both Starlight and Sunburst in its narrative, it sadly falls flat as the weakest two-parter and is rather (what I like to call) "badverage". As I said, Flurry Heart may be preciously adorable, but her overpowered alicorn magic didn't really add anything very exciting to the plot. The most interesting thing about the episode had to be Twilight's and Shining Armor's parents finally getting a speaking role at the very end of the second part. I even prefer Re-Mark over this because of a better concept, not to mention The Crystal Empire (that of which is the obvious 3rd season premiere) did this Crystal Empire-centered plot much better.

The episode's visuals and categories in its sound may be the spot on pros of the entire episode, but the rest of the storyline in spite of a few things I liked (like Spike's part with Starlight and how intense it was for the main characters to try and put an end to that immense blizzard) just didn't stand out well enough, especially Starlight's and Sunburst's parts which didn't help at all since Starlight just has not developed well enough with an obvious backstory that's just too rushed. So I won't necessarily call it bad, or one I hate, but compared to the rest of the show's two-parters, I'm just not a fan of it. And I'll end this by saying it's my least "bad" episode, but is fine enough for me to call it "so bad it's good".

AWFUL - TERRIBLE - DISGUSTING

[kuperkingston · 1/10 · 1 November 2019]

THIS is the beginning of the end. This episode was awful! How could they mess this up so bad?