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The Return of Harmony

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"The Return of Harmony"

"The Return of Harmony" is the collective name for the first and second episodes of the second season of the American animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and the 27th and 28th episodes of the series overall. Both episodes were written by M. A. Larson and directed by series director James Wootton. Part one of the episode aired in the United States and Canada on September 17, 2011 on The Hub network. Part two aired the next week, on September 24. The episode received a household rating of 0.2 and was viewed by over 339,000 viewers, making it the highest episode ever broadcast by The Hub at that point.

The show follows a studious unicorn pony named Twilight Sparkle as her mentor Princess Celestia guides her to learn about friendship in the town of Ponyville. Twilight becomes close friends with five other ponies: Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie. In part one of the episode, an ancient evil known as Discord escapes from his stone prison, and Twilight and her friends discover that the Elements of Harmony have been stolen. They need to retrieve them in order to save Equestria from eternal chaos, but first have to contend with Discord's sinister mind games. In part two, Twilight is determined to find the Elements of Harmony after her friends are corrupted by Discord and all of Equestria begins to fall into disarray.

Plot

Part one

Cheerilee walks her students through the "world-famous Canterlot sculpture garden" where she shows her class a statue of Discord, the spirit of chaos and disharmony. The three Cutie Mark Crusaders - Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, get into a fight, causing a faint crack to appear on the statue, but the class departs without noticing it.

Later, Twilight Sparkle and her friends, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity, find strange phenomena occurring around Ponyville, such as cotton-candy clouds dispensing chocolate milk. Twilight's magic is not strong enough to stop it, but soon the dragon Spike coughs up a letter from Princess Celestia, urging Twilight and her friends to see her in Canterlot. On arrival, Celestia takes them to a grand hall with stained-glass windows, including one heralding the ponies' defeat of Nightmare Moon, and to the vault where the Elements of Harmony are kept. Celestia tells the six that Discord has escaped, the cause of the strange phenomena, and they must use the Elements to stop him. When Celestia goes to retrieve the box, however, the box is empty.

Suddenly, an image of Discord appears across the stained-glass windows, taunting Celestia and the ponies. Discord claims to have taken the Elements and alludes "twist and turns" and finding the Elements "back to where they began". Twilight believes Discord is referring to the hedge maze near the castle, and the six race there. Discord appears in body, and challenges the ponies to a game to reach the center of the maze, stripping away the pegasi's wings and the unicorn's horns. Despite their handicap, the ponies enter the maze but soon are separated by Discord's magic. Discord is able to individually test Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy against their respected Elements, causing them to be momentary hypnotized, lose some of their color, and become a polar opposite of their former personality. Twilight encounters each of them after this point, aware of their personality shift but oblivious to their encounter with Discord. Soon, they find Rainbow Dash, having regained her wings, flying away from the maze; the maze falls around them, and Discord admits he won since Rainbow Dash took her wings back instead of staying loyal to her friends. The episode ends with Discord preparing to unleash havoc upon Equestria.

Part two

Twilight leads her friends back to Ponyville, which Discord has altered in a chaotic manner: the day-night cycle is haphazard and buildings float off the ground. Discord continues to taunt Twilight but she is determined to get back to the library in town to find a way to stop Discord, while her friends' personalities continue to become more warped, losing even more of their color. Managing to get them all into the library, Twilight and Spike locate the book about the Elements of Harmony, and are surprised to find the book actually contains the Elements. She gets her friends to agree to wear the Elements as the sooner they stop Discord, the sooner they never have to see each other again; Twilight also assigns Spike as the temporary Element of Loyalty as Rainbow Dash is not present. They go to face Discord, but the Elements fail to activate. The other four ponies quickly drop the elements and depart, leaving Twilight despondent and finally losing her own color.

Twilight returns to the library, preparing to pack and return to Canterlot, when she finds Spike coughing up scroll after scroll. Twilight is surprised to find these to be the friendship report letters that she had previously sent to Princess Celestia, and the memories of her friendships in Ponyville cause her to regain her color. Inspired by this, she returns to her other four friends and uses a memory spell to remind them of their friendship, cancelling Discord's magic and returning them to normal.

However, Rainbow Dash is still apart from the group and without her, the Elements will not activate. They find Rainbow Dash protecting a cloud, believing it to be her home of Cloudsdale. They start to give chase, but Rainbow Dash flies away. They quickly use a hot-air balloon, propelled by Fluttershy, to catch up to Rainbow Dash and tie her down long enough for Twilight to cast her memory spell. The six share a hug before remembering that the town is still under Discord's influence.

They collect the Elements and re-approach Discord, who casually passes off their threat. However, with all six ponies restored, the Elements activate, firing a rainbow-beam of light that engulfs Discord and the town. In moments, Ponyville has been returned back to normal, and Discord is once again a statue. The ponies' victory is celebrated by a large ceremony at Canterlot, led by Princess Celestia, who reveals a new stained-glass window, of the six ponies defeating Discord.

Production

Actor John de Lancie appears in the episode as Discord

"The Return of Harmony" was written by Mitch A. Larson and directed by James Wootton, with assistance from supervising director Jayson Thiessen. Noted actor John de Lancie appears in the episode as Discord.[1] According to Thiessen, Lauren Faust had conceived of Discord while watching a series of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes, using the mischievous and all-powerful villain Q (played by de Lancie) as a template. When it came time to consider voice actors for the role, the production team had considered using a stand-in for de Lancie, but were surprised to learn that de Lancie himself was available for the role. Upon the news the team altered some elements of the episode to provide more allusion to de Lancie's previous role, such as the flash of light when Discord would appear or disappear.[2]

"The Return of Harmony" parts one and two are the last episodes of the series to feature Lauren Faust as executive producer. Near the end of the first season, Faust announced that she had left the show, and for season two she stepped down as Executive Producer, to become Consulting Producer. Her involvement in the second season consists mainly of story conception and scripts. Despite her decreased participation, she still has high hopes for the staff members, stating that "the gaps I have left are being filled by the same amazing artists, writers, and directors who brought you Season 1. I'm certain the show will be as entertaining as ever".[3] In addition, a new storyboard editor, Jim Miller, was hired for season two and a majority of the animation was "outsourced" to animation company Top Draw. According to Thiessen, this allowed for a greater pre-production process for season two episodes.[4]

"The Return of Harmony" was the first episode of the second season. According to Jayson Thiessen, The Hub and its parent company Hasbro had "approved the season two before we were done with season one; they knew they had something good on their hands."[4] He explained, "they saw [the success] of the show early on, which is […] rare because usually a season will be one and aired before a network will renew it because they want to know what the numbers are, but they, I guess, a bit of a risk on their behalf, but I'm glad they did."[4] The finale scene of the episode is a parody of the ending from the 1977 movie Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. According to Thiessen, the joke was an "afterthought"; originally, there was going to be a more elaborate ending, but due to time constraints, a new finale was created. During the animation stage, one of the directors noted that the scene was "kind of like the ending to A New Hope" and so the decision was made to create "scene for scene" parody of the original.[5]

Reception

Ratings

The first part of "The Return of Harmony" aired on September 17, 2011, and the second part aired on September 24.[6] The first part was viewed by over 339,000 viewers, making it one of the highest-rated episodes ever broadcast by The Hub.[6] In addition, the first part received a 0.2 Nielsen household rating, meaning that it was seen by 0.2% of all households watching television at the time of the broadcast.[6] The episode received a 0.1 18-49 rating, meaning that it was viewed by 0.1% of all 18-to-49-year-olds watching television at the time of broadcast.[6] The episode was later beaten by the season finale, "A Canterlot Wedding" parts one and two, which scored a total viewership of 483,000 and 475,000 respectively.[7]

Reviews

Both parts of the episode received largely positive reviews from critics. Carina Belles from We Got This Covered, in a review of the first part, called the show "plain awesome", noting that it was "basically Lord of the Rings, only with ponies."[8] Belles praised the expressing animation, writing that "the already incredible art has also improved, with a wider variety of styles being used."[8] A review from Republibot of the first part of the episode called the plot "an interesting revisit of the premise of the pilot ['Friendship Is Magic']". Furthermore, the review called John de Lancie's performance "superb" and praised the animation.[9] Reviews for part two were positive as well. Republibot gave the episode a largely positive review, however, the site did note that the episode "feels a bit rushed, even as a two-parter" and that "Fluttershy's and Rarity's restoration sequences in particular feel rushed and inadvertently echo [the mind wipe sequences from] Men in Black."[10]

Many reviews praised the series' pop culture references. Carina Belles applauded the show for making subtle pop culture references, citing Pinkie Pie's mention of "Chocolate Rain", a reference to a popular internet meme.[8] Many reviews and articles positively commented on the episode's ending, which featured a parody of the closing scenes to the original Star Wars. Cyriaque Lamar from i09 wrote positively of the scene, writing, "Honestly, modern My Little Pony fandom is one of those things I'm live-and-let-live about, even though it baffles me entirely [but] this morning's episode of the show did a little homage to A New Hope."[11] i09 later named the scene one of "The Best Television Moments of 2011."[12] John Farrier from Neatorama wrote, "It’s hard for Bronies to get respect from some quarters, but [the closing Star Wars parody] scene alone says much in favor of the show."[13] The entertainment site Dorkly, an affiliate of CollegeHumor, featured a video comparing the two scenes and wrote, "May the adorable be with you."[14] Topless Robot writer Anne Mathews named the Star Wars parody the "Nerdiest Easter Egg" in My Little Pony, writing, "This scene is a direct shoutout to the fans and completely cements the creator Lauren Faust's geek cred. The only thing missing is a wookiee yell at the end!"[15]

References

  1. ^ Mitch A. Larson (Writer), James Wootton (Director), Jayson Thiessen (Supervising director) (September 17 and 24, 2011). "The Return of Harmony". My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Season 2. Episode 1 & 2. The Hub. {{cite episode}}: Check date values in: |airdate= (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ 'Cereal Velocity' (2011-09-25). "Massive Jayson Thiessen Q&A From Bronycon". Equestria Daily. Retrieved 2011-09-27.
  3. ^ Faust, Lauren (8 May 2011). "THANK YOU!!!". deviantART. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
  4. ^ a b c Thiessen, Jayson (2011). "Exclusive Season 2 Audio Interview with Jayson Thiessen" (Interview). Equestria Daily.
  5. ^ Thiessen, Jayson (2011). "BroNYcon Jayson Thiessen Q&A" (Interview).
  6. ^ a b c d "Saturday, September 17, 2011 Broadcast & Cable Final Ratings". The Voice of TV. 21 September 2011. {{cite web}}: Check |archiveurl= value (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "Hub TV Network Scores Record High Audience With Outstanding Performance of Special Royal Wedding of the Year on 'My Little Pony Friendship is Magic'" (Press release). Hasbro. 2012-04-24. Retrieved 2012-04-24.
  8. ^ a b c Belle, Carina (19 September 2011). "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Season 2-01 'The Return Of Harmony Part 1′ Recap". We Got This Covered. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  9. ^ "EPISODE REVIEW: Friendship is Magic: The Return of Harmony, Part One". Republibot. 17 September 2011. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
  10. ^ "EPISODE REVIEW: Friendship is Magic: The Return of Harmony, Part Two". Republibot. 25 September 2011. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
  11. ^ Lamar, Cyriaque (24 September 2001). "My Little Pony recreates the ending of Star Wars". i09. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  12. ^ Woerner, Meredith (29 December 2011). "The Best and Worst Television Moments of 2011". i09. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  13. ^ Farrier, John (24 September 2011). "My Little Pony Recreates the Ending of Star Wars". Neatorma. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  14. ^ "My Little Pony Parodies Star Wars Ending". Dorkly. 27 September 2011. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  15. ^ Mathews, Anne (15 May 2012). "The 10 Nerdiest Easter Eggs in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic". Topless Robot. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
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