By the end of part 1, my wife turned and asked me if it was just her or if it was boring. While I wasn't exactly bored, I was certainly far from enthralled. In fact, there were even some cringe-worth moments as it almost felt the like a character was trying to hard to do what they do. Sort of a mugging for the camera thing.

After about the 3rd time in part 2 where I heard King Sombra say, "Aaauggh!!" I realized that I didn't care because he wasn't developed as a character at all. I suppose the Crystal Empire itself was supposed to be the character, but in the past, Discord, Queen Chrysalis,and even Nightmare Moon had more character development in their respective episodes that let you know who they are and what they were about.

The Crystal Empire thing almost seemed, too transparently, like a way to push the crystal pony toys I haven't given a crap about so far. The premise also feel a little flat. It was an almost entirely Twilight focused episode with the rest of their characters being coloring and barely being involved with the main plot in anyway, just mugging their personalities, poorly, outside of the story.

It also seems sad that, with all in the balance, Twilight still thinks of this as a literal test, and in the end, that's pretty much the case as Celestia passes her. From the beginning I thought it was a situation where there was no real test, and ultimately the "test" was metaphorical. It was for her to help the crystal empire, like a member of Celestia's court. Not like a silly student worrying about grades.

I really got cringey every time she mentioned the test thing in the second part. I guess ultimately the capital 'm' Moral comes from her giving up her chance to get an A so that the kingdom can be saved. Really?!

Despite it all, I was really happy to see my ponies again, but with only 13 eps this season, I hope they do a little better going forward. Character development episodes, please. That's what makes me care. If you're not going to develop the villain, either don't have one, or develop the other ponies more strongly in their place.