Oh my God, FINALLY. We have been waiting an eternity for a proper princess (especially Celestia) episode. But we get Starlight kicking it off. Hurray~?

And sorry that Celestia’s more pinkish here! My screen on my art tablet sometimes distorts the colors, but this cover took forever and I’m not willing to go back into it just to correct that. :‘3

☯️ SYNOPSIS ☯️
In a shocking turn of events, the Cutie Map beckons Starlight to solve a friendship problem over in the royal Canterlot Palace. While there, she realizes that the conflict is between none other than the two ruling figures, Celestia and Luna! She soon surmises that neither princess truly recognizes nor appreciates the different roles they play. When the royal sisters begin to heatedly argue, Starlight impulsively chooses to swap their cutie marks! And the princesses are not happy with this development in the slightest.

☯️ IMPRESSIONS AND STUFF ☯️
Wow. That synopsis already gave me two very different emotions. On one hand, I was overjoyed at a closer look into the relationship between Celestia and Luna. But we get a Starlight episode as well, with her inexplicably being sent by the Cutie Map. Seriously. It couldn’t have been Twilight? Or maybe even Applejack, who has the easiest bond with her own siblings and understands the importance of compromise between family remarkably well? I actually would have loved that scenario. And no, don’t tell me that Starlight was a good choice because of her knee-jerk reaction to mess with the princesses’ cutie marks. While I understand that we wouldn’t have gotten the awesome ending near the end and make it possible for Celestia to understand the work Luna has to do in the dream realm, it was still a stupid, incompetent, and potentially disastrous thing for her to have done. Just because it lead to highly interesting outcomes doesn’t mean she gets a break.

Twilight pretty much sums up all my thoughts on the Cutie Map not only sending Starlight, but only her. It just… reeks of Starlight being oh so special without any real explanation given – she’s not an Element of Harmony (YET. Who knows, the writers might just pop a new Element on us to further cement her as part of the group), and it’s always sent them in pairs before now. But not with her. e.e

I know Twilight was supposed to be irritating and naggy, but I honestly couldn’t fault her. This kind of thing had never happened before when it came to the Cutie Map. Not only that, it’s involving the royal sisters and a possible rift growing between them. With her and her friends being so involved with the Nightmare Moon incident, is it really any wonder why she was panicking and worrying about it happening all over again? And with the Elements of Harmony being under the Mane6’s control, they’d be the ones to have to potentially fight and maybe even banish one of the sisters if the worst case scenario happened. Add that to the fact that Starlight stupidly switched their cutie marks, and I’m genuinely shocked Twilight didn’t teleport over and step in directly as soon as things were taking a nosedive. She showed a ton of restraint and trust in Starlight (yeah, she was still intrusive, but this is Twilight Sparkle we’re talking about). And tiny music box ballerina Twi was both cute and ridiculous, so that’s a plus as well. Had no problems with her appearances here.

I just knew Celestia would be great at cooking, especially when it came to sweets! 🎵

Anyway, it becomes obvious that Celestia and Luna don’t recognize the selfless things they do – Celestia with making impressive pancake breakfasts for Luna, and Luna with hanging up soothing lavender for everyone in the castle to rest easy. Starlight confronts them about it directly, and both sisters admit they’re feeling unappreciated after some reluctance. While I’m not surprised that Luna tends to feel some type of way, I was pleasantly surprised that Celestia felt similarly.

Now, while their argument was somewhat understandable due to both of them trivializing the other’s daily duties and the toll it takes on them, I found it a bit silly how easy it was for things to get so heated between them – to the point where they didn’t even seem to realize how immature they were behaving in front of a guest. Granted, things were probably brewing between them for a while, but for such long-lived and experienced royals, this came off a little odd. I’m absolutely not trying to say that they can’t have normal sibling arguments, but they acted petty and childish, is all. But I’m all for them having realistic flaws, so it’s no big deal.

Now onto the juicy part. While I can understand why Starlight began to panic, her purposefully switching the princesses’ cutie marks was baffling, and seems to come from her need to control things to make it more convenient for herself. Yes, Twilight’s panicked ramblings about what could happen if there was a falling out between Celestia and Luna certainly did not help, but the fact remains that Starlight could have taken a different route. She could have used her magic to interrupt the argument and propose the switched role scenario – it wouldn’t have worked as completely as it did with the switched marks (Celestia can’t go into the dream realm without Luna’s), but it would’ve been a lot more sensible. Or, I dunno, ASK if switching powers for a day would be alright? But she just came off as selfishly impulsive – it got out of hand, so she just uses the most convenient solution to solve the problem. You’d think she’d have learned not to pull this crap after doing something similar (but more extreme) in “Every Little Thing She Does”. And her frankly infuriating justification that she thought it was a good idea (and the convenient fact she couldn’t reverse it until a set amount of time had passed) didn’t win her any favor with me. Granted, she might have just been rambling nervously in the face of two alicorns who could incinerate her if they wanted, but it still came off as weak excuses. And don’t get me started on when she said they didn’t have any choice but to go along with it. Starlight fans may find me harsh (it’s fine if you enjoy her and I mean no offense to you directly), but I don’t feel unjustified in my opinion of her. I’ve had a very low opinion of Starlight ever since her reformation started (I enjoyed her most as a villain), but I was slowly beginning to tolerate and even like Starlight a little. Like in the Season 6 finale, and especially “All Bottled Up”. Speaking of that episode, I recall Trixie saying that if the lessons stuck, it’d be hard for them to have fun. At the time I reviewed that, I worried the writers would use this as a subtle excuse to rehash lessons or have characters do things they should have grown out of by now – especially Starlight. And they did exactly what I feared, even though I hoped they wouldn’t. （;≧皿≦）

While it’s a bit comforting to know that Starlight soon realized the colossal mistake she made and started breaking down in guilt, that’s not enough for me to forgive or even sympathize with her. The scene where she tried to preach about harmony to the fighting Nightmares and began crying was a case of trying too hard. You were supposed to pity her, but I didn’t. I knew they were milking this hard when Luna said “this could have a grave effect on her psyche” – she’s already GOT psychological issues considering all the things she’s done. It’s like, whenever Starlight might get judged for her unforgivable behavior, the writers emphasize that “oh look, she feels bad, and that’s enough, right?”. No. No it isn’t. Someone feeling remorse =/= deserved punishment/consequences. There’s an annoying trend of every single person around Starlight forgiving her as soon as she apologizes and gives them a sob story, with her never getting any real comeuppance. And it’s one of the many things about her that drives me up a wall. Even Celestia and Luna (who initially displayed realistic fury towards her), brushed off her actions because everything turned out okay, like that somehow justifies what she did. If I’m to buy that the Map sent Starlight there because she was “bold enough” to do something like switching cutie marks of the RULING ALICORNS, then I think the Cutie Map might be a bit sadistic. And Starlight should question the Map from now on too, as it comes off as “you’re the only one crazy enough to do this”. Even when Starlight tried to call the sisters out on that being a nice way of saying she got lucky, they insisted it was the perfect solution anyway.

Starlight’s actions being “necessary” is all dependent on the assumption that Princess Celestia and Luna haven’t grown past the issues that lead up to Nightmare Moon, and that they couldn’t have eventually talked things out without a huge battle occuring. Things could have turned out very wrong, but Starlight just gets another pass. As soon as I gave her some slack, she’s pushed right back down again. :|

Okay, venting over. I’m sorry if anyone happens to enjoy or even love Starlight, but I’m not going to pull my punches too much here. It might come off as character “bashing”, but that’s not the case. While I’m greatly annoyed with Starlight, I think a lot of the ranting comes from the fact that I was beginning to accept and even like her as a character finally. e_e

But as much as I complained, there were still a ton of great things in this episode.

Luna’s dream was creepy. Creepy children and teeth falling out? Jeez. 0_0

Once Celestia and Luna switched duties, it was a very fascinating look into what they have to do on a daily basis, as well as their inherent differences. While Luna assumed all Celestia had to worry about was being showered with constant love by the populace, she quickly learned that putting on a constant cheery image for the public was extremely exhausting, not to mention the fact that she was in constant demand. I’m sure Luna loves her subjects as much as Celestia, but we know that she’s a more introverted and serious character, and that constantly smiling and putting on a perfect persona just isn’t something she can do on a regular basis. She’s the type who appreciates lots of time to herself to work through problems at her own pace, rather than deal with an influx of issues at once like her sister does. And Celestia learned that Luna’s job in the dream realm was far from easy, having to help ponies potentially confront and quell their worst fears. Like a dream therapist! Not only was this draining, but with Celestia being much more social, it was difficult for her to not only do it on her own, but to not be able to talk to anyone for long stretches of time. I like that she’s the opposite of Luna in that she needs someone to talk to, and doesn’t handle being alone that well. The differences between the royal sisters was very believable and something I always suspected!

I am so happy about Celestia getting more meaningful screen time! She’s my favorite princess, so this was even more of a treat than it already would have been. I loved seeing how welcoming she was to Starlight (someone she barely knows), and how she may be a Stepford Smiler with her constantly having to be around the populace and solve problems. Yet, they made it clear that she handles a LOT of responsibilities, dispelling the idea that she doesn’t do anything in lieu of the Mane6. The only thing I didn’t really like about her was how smug she was when she was told Luna had a tough time filling her shoes. I can understand her bitterness that Luna didn’t appreciate the hard work she had to do (especially considering she likely had to take on even more after she was forced to banish her), but it was still a bit childish for her established personality. But hey, I’m all about instilling good character flaws, so I can deal with that if it’s an intentional trait the writers are establishing.

Speaking of Celestia… HOLY MOLY, I DID NOT EXPECT FOR HER NIGHTMARE FORM TO APPEAR! Daybreaker is absolutely amazing. She’s everything I’d have hoped for in a corrupted Celestia: extremely powerful (maybe even the most powerful alicorn incarnation), deliciously dramatic, and loving every single minute of being evil. Sure, I felt a name like Solar Flare may have been better, but that’s cool. She also seems to confirm a headcanon I’ve had for Celestia for years now: that she’s actually immensely powerful, but limits herself to not accidentally harm innocents. Daybreaker is her if she just stopped giving a damn about anyone, and it’s truly scary to think about Celestia abandoning her caring nature and obliterating anyone who stands in her path. She easily beats out Nightmare Moon by being a whole lot more entertaining and putting up one HECKUVA fight. This was one of the biggest highlights, hands down. And even though I loved Daybreaker, I was super proud of Celestia for overcoming her inner doubt and asserting she would never allow herself to become her.

Oh, and I can’t forget Luna! This episode, along with “Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?”, has really endeared her to me. I relate to her introverted and isolated nature. Her more cynical and sarcastic personality was pretty much exactly how I’d imagined her too! But we saw that she’s just as warm and compromising as Celestia, despite their differences. She even went out of her way to fix pancakes for her exhausted sister after they ironed out their issues! I found it an adorable contrast that she’s absolutely terrible at cooking too. Even better, she was fine with Celestia being her true self around her, showing she accepts her sister – flaws and all. Luna’s pretty darn great. 💖

Grumpy Luna is my favorite. Her pouty faces and reactions are a really fun look into her character and how she just… is not as sunny (durr-hurr) as her older sibling. XD

Last but not least, Celestia and Luna admitting that their individual roles are far from easy and learning to respect and appreciate the other was done perfectly. I understood how they came to their misunderstanding, and it was incredibly satisfying to see them reconcile and work together to dispel Starlight’s nightmare. It shows that, despite everyone else freaking out about them having a violent fallout like before, they have indeed grown past that and are determined to work through their disagreements. Their love for each other was shown realistically and is even inspirational. You can go ahead and add Celestia and Luna to my list of favorite family dynamics.

☯️ OVERALL OPINION/SCORING ☯️
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

Okay, to sum everything up as much as I can: the episode was perfect simply because of the well-done plot revolving the royal sisters’ dynamic and individual personalities. It caused a lot of annoyance (at best), however, due to Starlight’s rash actions and the fact that she once again got away relatively scott-free from it all. But regardless of my many grievances with Starlight, I can’t deny that her switching the cutie marks lead to an amazing episode that I think the entire fandom will enjoy watching.

Yes, my intense dislike of Starlight was not enough to not grant this one a full five stars. Please, MLP fan or not, give this one a watch.