I will cover the episode in a short bit but I do want to say this one won’t just be on the episode but also a bit of a halfway report card for Season 5 so far and of course saying a little bit on the mid-season hiatus we’re getting I suppose. Which I’ll do that first, then my thoughts on the episode, and finally some generalized thoughts on how Season 5 is going so far. Do not worry though, both my thoughts on the episode and the Season so far are in the positive.

Hiatus

The hiatus news actually began with people thinking we were getting Season 6 earlier then we thought we would when an official Hasbro tweet said Season 6 was coming by the end of the year. Which made people think that Season 6 would only start like a month after Season 5 finishes in what would be October if the rest of the episodes had aired all in a row (I was even thinking this may have been the reason the hiatus between Seasons 4 & 5 was so long). But it was just a mistake from the person who made the tweet who had mistaken the 2nd half of Season 5 as Season 6 so instead of some of the best news as a fan you could get, you get perhaps one of the more worse ones with a mid-season delay. We don’t exactly know when Season 5 will start continuing. Though I think some are predicting an October return to Episodes. Now on the Bright Side, this could mean the hiatus between Seasons 5 & 6 will be much smaller then the wait we had between Seasons 4 & 5. Though yeah the mid-season Hiatus is going to feel weird not to mention people already disliked the 1-2 week breaks the first 13 episode had occasionally already. But as much as it is weird since every season beforehand went with barely any breaks between episodes. I think we could take this hiatus just fine, it’s Summer and it’s even the Season of Pony cons for those who go (I may even be going to my first one next weekend!). For those who can’t though, there’s other animated shows that will be showing episodes in this time if you’re a good animated show fan in general with shows like Steven Universe and Gravity Falls. And there’s always gaming of course, Smash Bros. and Mario Kart for example certainly aren’t going away anytime soon and there may even be some fans that haven’t been in the loop in Season 5 who now have a chance to catch up now that there’s time watch new episodes without worrying about sudden new episodes that catch all the hype and it’s tough to avoid spoilers for the big things that happen. Still, I won’t fault anyone for being disappointed about having to wait for the 2nd half of a Season. But I think it can be worth the wait, as some stuff revealed at Comic-Con (Which I won’t say explicitly in case there are those who want to avoid Spoilers, especially for the Season Finale) really showcases what’s in store for us. (Oh and I suppose we do have EQG3 in September, that’ll be interesting for sure)

Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sleep? Thoughts

But anyway, let’s head into some episode thoughts shall we? Now people may be bummed about the hiatus, but I personally think you can’t say they didn’t leave us off on a good note with an episode like this. I think is truly a natural Luna episode, even more so then Luna Eclipsed was I’d even say. Luna’s slowly really grown importance over the show. She never appeared in anything beyond the pilot in Season 1, he appeared in Luna Eclipsed in Season 2 but then all she had beyond that were what amounts to cameos in Canterlot Wedding, Season 3 was when it starting making her role more apparent with both appearances in the Opener and Finale and the introduction of her Dreamwalking powers mid-season, Season 4 saw more of what Season 3 brought for Luna, and heck in Season 5 so far Luna’s appeared more often then Celestia oddly enough. Though throughout all this time Luna’s been super popular within the fandom, and I mean almost always wins the poll on Equestria Daily if she’s on there popular. Luna sometimes seems so popular that you can stamp a Luna sticker on anything and you’d think some of Luna’s rabid fans may think what Luna on is pure gold. Now I’m not trying to say she’s overrated in case people may get mad at me about that, but you can definitely tell there’s a significant number within the fandom that goes crazy over anything Luna related of which I’m sure many has already decided this episode is their favorite of the Season so far (Not me personally though, I enjoyed this episode but Amending Fences is still winning best episode of Season 5 so far for me) but I want to just say things that I enjoyed out of the episode aside from Luna as you’ll get plenty of the Luna love already if you just look around enough I’m sure

I’ll only really say about Luna is how it is tragic how Luna lets herself see her personal nightmare every night ever since she’s turned back to normal. And there are some people who actually do make themselves suffer due to a great mistake earlier in their lifetimes, and thus this can be a really relatable thing for some people. It’s rather dark, and certainly a moral that sounds like it’s more so for brooding teenagers or even young adults then the children this show is targeted for but certainly a welcome lesson. Aside from that though, this episode was very fun to watch and some really crazy stuff happened on-screen that’d make many fans of the show make a double-take almost as much as some of the scenes in Slice of Life such as the Catdog style Conjoined Lyra and Bon-Bon and the giant meowing Derpy. A lot of the stuff that the Mane 6 and Spike do are also clever continuity references like Buff Spike that we saw in A Dog and Pony Show and RD and AJ becoming their Power Pony selves. Then you had other crazy stuff like Princess Big Mac and Scootaloo growing Giant Wings. Just so much craziness on the screen and I can’t help but love it so much. I think this was an excellent episode to end off the first half of this season and set us off into the mid-season hiatus.

Mid-Season Review

Last but not least, a little bit of thoughts on the season so far. Season 5 I think had a real strong start. Perhaps even more so then Season 4 did, and that’s pretty unbelievable consider Season 4 had a pretty damn good start itself. My least favorite episode of Season 5 so far is Tanks for the Memories but I wouldn’t say it’s quite as low as Rainbow Falls or even arguably Power Ponies (Though personally I enjoyed that one even if I admit it failed short in some areas) out of the first half of Season 4. Though I must say I had at least 2 (Or 3 if you’re insistent on terminology regarding two-parters) episodes I was really, really impressed with within Season 4 while in Season 5 there was only one in Amending Fences. In terms of having less subpar episodes Season 5 delivered in it’s first half but at the same time while it did have some really good episodes, for the exception of Amending Fences they don’t meet how I felt about the Season 4 Opener and Pinkie Pride. It’s also a bit of a nitpick, but Season 4 episodes also had a bit more “WOW” to it within a lot of the first half. From everything in the opener you went to a castle once inhabited by Celestia and Luna full of fun traps, then you had Daring Do is actually real in the FiM Universe, you had Scootaloo confirmed that she’s unable to Fly very well, the crazy Power Ponies episode, Fluttershy became a Vampire, Applejack and Pinkie may be related, Most of Three’s a Crowd, and all of Pinkie Pride. Meanwhile, Season 5’s wow moments include perhaps the Opener, a lot of Make New Friends but Keep Discord, Return of Gilda, All of Slice of Life, Most of Amending Fences, and of course the latest episode. Most of that is more recent and not quite as spread around like the moments we had during the first half of Season 4. Season 5’s first half I’d say is probably the most consistent stretch of 13 episodes with not one episode being all that bad. (Well some may say Princess Spike kinda sucked but eh, if anything I just find that pretty average) it may just not have as much Wow factor until around Episode 7 and beyond.

Though just to be sure I want to say that so far Season 5 has a real chance of competing with Season 4 for best Season so far still especially if things keep up as they have for most of the episodes since the Discord episode. Though I can say it also has the potential to make it where it’s hard to choose between which Season is better because Season 4 may still have more of the Wow moments by the end and thus have more of an entertainment factor especially since Season 4 ended with a bang with such things as the Dragon Ball Z-esque fight between Twilight and Tirek. That’s a tough act to follow for sure. But it will be very exciting to see if Season 5 is up the challenge. I don’t remember where it was said but I think a staff member of the show even said they didn’t know at first how they were going to follow-up things after all that happened during Season 4, but they have some confidence that they think they’ve done it. And I’m very curious to see what they mean. I think the show has really hit a stride that makes the intensity upgrade from Season 1 to Season 2 feel small and it’s really seemed to become a different show then it was during the first three seasons. And I mean that in all the good ways, it’s taking full advantage of the fantasy world the show revolves around and ran away with it far more often then earlier in the show where we were only taken out of familiar locations once in a blue moon. It really feels like ever since Season 4 started that they really are taking full advantage of the potential they have with this show more then ever as the show grows and gets more budget to really do some amazing things. Including eventually leading up to the big film in 2017 which will no doubt be full of stuff to look forward to for those who have remained following the show for a long time.

So while we have a hiatus to deal with mid-season, we have many things to look forward to in the near future.  For now we can only dream up what’s coming up for the show soon. And I’m certain it will be almost all good dreams, and we may be smiling like Luna was at the end of the recent episode.