I don’t get quite the vibe that Starlight is gone for the entire season. I feel like we’ll see her again sometime this season even if it’s as far as the Finale. It felt like it was implying we’d see her show up again as Starlight wasn’t exactly like Trixie (Who was just a very boastful showpony, she didn’t have an agenda like Starlight did). The theme of the Season is Cutie Mark Magic, just because the Mane 6 foiled her town plan. Doesn’t mean she may go try to find other means to get what she’s after.

I do kinda agree that it wasn’t quite as exciting as some of the other premieres tend to be. And if I ranked the premieres by how much I enjoyed watching them then in comparison the Season 5 premiere might rank lower then I do. But otherwise the feelings of creepiness and less big magic Magic booms at the end is because that’s what the episode was intending. That’s not to say the Season 5 premiere was boring though, just very different from previous premieres where we got in order- Season 1: Nightmare Moon has come back after 1000 years! OH NO! Season 2: The spirit of Chaos has comes back after 1000 years! OH NO! Season 3: The Crystal Empire has return, but with it came the evil King Sombra OH NO! Season 4: The Everfree forest is expanding and kidnapped Celestia and Luna?! OH NO!

I get that. As Season 5 has somepony that has some “equality” plan that would likely take years and years to accomplish. There’s less immediate danger because the Mane 6 could of left that town alone and they would of gone on their little different society a little while longer unless Starlight for some reason wanted to attempt to invade and expand which would actually be a little more detrimental to her plans because obviously the Princesses would come to stop her. Still in terms of what the episode was trying to do I think the episode overall is solid. Remember that I didn’t say it’s my favorite premiere as I still prefer the Season 4 premiere that had it’s own twists and still had a little bit of the bang that premieres usually have. But in an overall sense, the Season 5 opener does what it wants to do better then most of the other premieres.