My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2 E26 a Canterlot Wedding Part 2/YMMV


 * Alternate Character Interpretation: The changelings. Always Chaotic Evil or Slave Mooks looking for food with a bad leader?
 * . Is she pure evil, a Well-Intentioned Extremist and/or Obliviously Evil who just wanted to feed her people, Shining Armor (or Cadence)'s ex, or something else?
 * Her Villain Song and a lot of her dialog put her fairly firmly in the Card-Carrying Villain camp. Most of the rest is just fandom making stuff.
 * And the Fandom Rejoiced: DJ Pon-3's appearance at the end. Even moreso at The Reveal of her eyes.
 * The fandom let out a Squee heard around the internet when Luna appeared once again.
 * There is a full version of "Love is in Bloom", and it was released on Hasbro's website less than a week after the finale aired!
 * Anticlimax:
 * And this happens with a full six minutes left in the episode (Discord was defeated with only two minutes left) and transitions straight to a happy wedding party without any delay.
 * And seeing how powerful Shining Armor is, since he can create an entire barrier all over Canterlot, it's kinda granted since Chrysalis is actually pretty weak.
 * Awesome Music: Twilight's song at the end, called "Love is in Bloom" according to Dan Ingram.
 * Also, "This Day Aria".
 * An Aria is a piece for one voice backed by an orchestra. Originally, though, it was simply a very emotive piece, not necessarily with vocals. It lives up to both meanings very much so.
 * Another epic part about it is despite being basically the same character's voice and same voice actress for both singers, both are very distinct and done in a way that works perfectly.
 * Broken Base: DJ-Pon-3's eyes are revealed! ...as magenta, not red, and this was later confirmed by Word of God. Before the confirmation, some vehemently denied it, others assumed it was a trick of the lighting, others still supported it to the point of antagonizing neighsayers, and lastly, there were those who just shrugged and went "At least we know now."
 * Chrysalis defeating Celestia has divided some opinions on Celestia. Either Celestia is still incredibly powerful and Chrysalis feeding on Shining Armor's love really did make her strong enough to defeat Celestia or Celestia is not as strong as she is credited to be. Considering that Chrysalis herself was extremely shocked she managed to do it and Celestia had been shown to be strong enough to completely neutralize a spell Twilight produced with little effort, it's likely the former. And it should be noted that even as powerful as she'd become, Chrysalis was visibly straining against Celestia's attack, even though she won.
 * Counterpart Comparison: It's hard not to compare Queen Chrysalis to Nightmare Moon. Both are black alicorns (Well, the Changeling equivalent of an alicorn in the case of Chrysalis) with similar evil mannerisms and even similar voices.
 * Also, Shining Armor is very similar to Prince Blueblood (without the snootiness, of course).
 * It's not difficult to find comparisons between The Wraith from Stargate Atlantis and the changelings. They're cruel and sadistic, they have forms of mind control, they're insect-based but look like their chosen food race, and they feed on sapient life forms.
 * And then there's her resemblance to Ursula; Villain Song similarities non withstanding, both of them hypnotize the male lead by disguising herself as his love interest, both are evil sorceresses, both are shapeshifters and are creepy and ugly in their true forms, and are plotting to take over the entire world, even being powerful enough to defeat the rightful ruler of the land!
 * Crowning Moment of Funny: When Applejack puts on her cowboy hat after wearing her fancy bridesmare outfit for so long!
 * Draco in Leather Pants: As could have been expected, this happened to Queen Chrysalis almost before the episode had finished airing, mostly seeming to center around the fact that her Villain Song also includes a line saying she's dreamed about this day since she was small. Which of course totally justifies the Mind Rape, the terror tactics, and the attempted coups of a peaceful land.
 * And the fact that the "day" she dreamed of is clearly the utter take over of our favorite utopia. That shot of the terrified family cornered by changelings you'd think show her "dream" isn't a good thing by any stretch of the imagination.
 * A more justifiable example would be the rest of the Changelings; many fans believe they only follow their evil, sadistic queen for the promise of food. Food which they can easily see is composed of thinking sentient creatures, but still.
 * Epileptic Trees: Some fans have justified multiple occurrences of same ponies in a single setting in previous episodes as being Changelings.
 * Evil Is Sexy: To some, Queen Chrysalis. Given that she needs (to consume) love to survive, can become literally anyone you can think of, and the similarities to both succubi and certain vampires, it's no wonder that there's been an explosion of 'sexy Chrysalis' art online.
 * Fanfic Fuel: The Changelings. Sweet mother of Celestia, the Changelings.
 * Their Queen alone, being the latest "big villain" in the series, is sure to fuel tons of fanfics, much like Nightmare Moon and Discord before her.
 * In fact...
 * There are already four groups dedicated to them over at deviantArt.
 * Also, both Cadence and Shining Armor are, most probably than not, going to be this. Especially the latter since he's both Twilight's Brother and the captain of the Royal Guards.
 * Fan Nickname: Equestria Invasion: Battle Canterlot.
 * "Cheeselegs" for Queen Chrysalis.
 * She's picked up a number of these, including "The Holes-In-Things Fairy".
 * Genius Bonus: In Western European mythology Changelings are creatures that are switched with human babies, not unlike the Queen switching with Cadence.
 * "Mi Amore Cadenza" means "My Love Cadence". However, they may be mixing up Italian with Spanish, since the correct Italian form would be "Il Mio Amore Cadenza", and the right Spanish form would be "Mi Amor Cadencia".
 * Arias are generally written for a solo singer, while "This Day Aria" is ostensibly a duet. The irony lies in the fact that the duet is between two characters, where one of them is in the guise of the other.
 * Also consider that, excluding the reprise, the song was sung by the same voice actress Britt McKillip, making it still an aria for all technical purposes. But so so many props to Britt for having enough inflection in her voice to make it very easy to distinguish between the real and fake Cadence.
 * As confirmed by Daniel Ingram, the chord progressions are a play on words as well. Normally, chord progressions in music, such as the real Cadence's parts, end on standard cadence - meaning that there is musical resolution to the phrase. The sections of the song as sung by the disguised Queen end on chord progressions that are left hanging, musically called "deceptive cadence".
 * Hell Is That Noise: The insect-like buzzing the changelings make when they fly.
 * It's also very reminiscent of a snake rattle. It doesn't make it any less creepy.
 * That fact actually makes the scene just after Chrysalis
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: Celestia has a Memetic Molester version of herself called Molestia, which started out as a succubus that took her form.
 * Keeping their dresses on to identify each other in the heap of Changlings might have been a better idea for the mane six than just throwing them up into the air.
 * So we have an important ceremony coming up where a villain wants to take over the kingdom by taking on the guise of the princess to be wed and, in order to do so, sealing the real princess in some kind of hidden, unknown location in the castle. The similarities are pretty funny when you think about them.
 * The  aesthetically resemble the   of Story of the Blanks.
 * Holy Shit Quotient: Huge in this episode.
 * Idiot Ball: Except Twilight, each of the ponies had some of this, however what takes the cake is that even Celestia and Luna were fooled, beings with thousands of years of experience, and in their own backyard of Canterlot.
 * Nightmare Fuel: The entire episode save the ending, pretty much. Just for starters: the Changeling Queen's true appearance.
 * For those with trypophobia (the fear of clustered holes and/or holes in bodies), her limbs and horns can be downright horrifying, on top of her already-unnerving appearance.
 * Not to mention those with entomophobia and how the changelings looked like a hybrid of a pony and a housefly.
 * So they're horseflies?
 * Queen Chrysalis revealing her true form. Especially the spot directly afterwards where her shadow falls over the . The shadow seems specifically intended to make her look as terrifying as possible!
 * How about the first glimpse of her true form? As she sheds the last of her Cadence disguise, what we are initially left with is a silhouette of a vaguely pony creature, her wings and mane being the only things not shadowed out. Suddenly, her eyes are instantly wide open followed by a close-up of her face.
 * The changelings cornering Dr. Whooves, Carrot Top and a baby foal in an alleyway.
 * Celestia
 * Les Yay: After Rainbow Dash saves Fluttershy from the Changelings and picks her up, a kiss-like sound (most likely just a "whoosh" sound effect for Fluttershy being lifted off the ground) is heard when their heads are closest together (the fact that neither of them are puckering their lips tends to be ignored).
 * Although to be fair, the sound is far closer to a kissing sound than any whooshing sounds (including ones featured just seconds before it) and occurs right when Dash’s lips are closest to Fluttershy’s nose.
 * Memetic Mutation:
 * Funny enough, Someone had that idea.
 * The scene where Pinkie convinces a changeling to mimic her ("Do me! Do me!") has been spread via the Changeling reinterpreting its Pinkie Pie guise somewhat differently.
 * Moral Event Horizon:
 * Most Wonderful Sound: Princess Cadence's singing voice. Oh, Shining Armor, I'll be there very soon!
 * Narm: During the dramatic "This Day Aria" song, the reveal shot of Shining Armor's derpy Mind Control Eyes may have caused some unintended giggles.
 * Narm Charm: "My love will give you strength!" Cheesy, but it leads to a Crowning Moment of Awesome. Not to mention that coming from a Love Goddess it makes sense.
 * Shining Armor and Cadence's slow dance. They're just sort of...leaning in and wobbling back and forth together, but oh Heavens, is it adorable.
 * You'd think Shining Armor's derped Mind Control Eyes would be hilarious and when seeing them in the initial commercial, they kinda were. But when put in context, it's actually really disturbing and depressing, especially at the end "This Day Aria" where the real Cadence cries as the mind-controlled Shining Armor approaches the altar with her fake.
 * Painful Rhyme: "For I oh-so love the groom / All my thoughts he does consume".
 * Paranoia Fuel:.
 * Visual Effects of Awesome:
 * The cave scene at the beginning was also well done in terms of lighting and animation, to the point it almost looked like an Animation Bump to some fans.
 * The Woobie:
 * The cave scene at the beginning was also well done in terms of lighting and animation, to the point it almost looked like an Animation Bump to some fans.
 * The Woobie: