The Crystal Empire has been called the weakest of the two-parters, and from what it seems, for good reason.

The entire episode must sustain itself on the most unnecessary and incredibly forced plot device I have ever heard in my entire viewing of this series:

"It's just a test."

And yet, I continue to enjoy watching this episode...why exactly?

An entire Empire

This episode was amazingly stunning on the visual side. Of course, the visuals do improve year after year as everyone from the storyboard artists to the character animators to the VFX animators to the guys sweeping the floors at 190 Alexander Street in Vancouver continue to improve their respective crafts.

The whole crystal theme gave a new visual aura not before seen in this series. There was even a proper use of lens flare of the light coming off the castle, and the place has a decidedly more modern look to it than most other locations in Equestria. If I had to compare it to any cities in the real world, it's like Dubai meets Downtown Brooklyn, with Disney World's Cinderella Castle on steroids right in the center of it. It gives the impression of being like those cities in energy-rich regions that are centers of innovation, especially with it being the center of "love and light" being spread all over Equestria.

It pops up out of thin air in the frozen North after 1000 years (very subtle, Meghan) after having been cursed by the pony equivalent of Pol Pot, King Sombra. Fittingly, Pony Pol Pot has also returned with the empire, threatening to shroud it in darkness once again.

It kinda begs the question, if the Crystal Empire was in no pony's land for 1000 years, where's the backup generator, then?

So now it seems as if it's up to Equestria to play a little game of regime change on the energy-rich land, as Princess Cadance is unfortunately weakening in her mission to defend the Empire, and Shining Armor is dealing with a little blockage.

EQUESTRIA, BUCK YEAH!

It's just a test

Yes, Celestia. Remind me that these are ponies' lives you're playing with and the fate of a magical city, and should this city fall it could have devastating consequences for the whole of Equestria...

...and the framing device you chose this time was a bit of a bad one...you know how Twilight has a bit of trouble under pressure and freaks out about tests and letting you down...

...and if she fails, the empire falls, thousands of ponies enslaved, hatred and fear spread across Equestria...

...okay, we're still going with that?

Here's my main problem with it: this is a mission to save Equestria and Celestia frames it as some kind of test in Twilight's studies. It comes off as incredibly self-centered in a twofold way: one in that Celestia treats the fate of a whole city as some kind of civil service exam, and another in that Twilight goes through the entire episode worrying more about her own so-called "test" than actually saving the Crystal Empire by finding the Crystal Heart. Good to put the needs of the few above the needs of the many to the point where she will LIE TO EVERYPONY'S FACE about the Crystal Heart just to save her own!

And then it ends on a self-sacrifice moral, and it has me thinking, maybe you would have learned just as much about self-sacrifice if you hadn't thrown in this "test" device?

Long live the king

King Sombra. He's...a bit hard to describe.

At first, he comes off as another run-of-the-mill villain. Hatred and fear, enslaving ponies while he sits his fat ass on a throne, and etc. But there really are a couple of things that really save him from being a total wash.

One is that he sets clever traps around the Crystal Heart for Twilight to figure out later on in the episode. His traps are set so that only the most advanced magic users can get past them, and so that normal Crystal Ponies would be too scared to even touch them. A doorway that leads to your worst fear is really a device that this fandom, hell, anyone who's looking for inspiration, can use. The gravity spell and two long staircases show how far Twilight has progressed in terms of honing her talents, proving she's ready for anything.

Mainly, to this point, unlike Chrysalis, Discord, and Nightmare Moon before him, Sombra actually goes down fighting instead of gloating and reveling in his success. Though Queen Chrysalis was actually able to defeat Celestia, much to even her own surprise, it just took one second of looking over the balcony and calling the method by which she gained her own power "ridiculous" that earned her the one-way return-to-sender ticket back to where she came from.

Here, King Sombra is able to defeat Twilight, and with the re-Mane 5 sidelined from using any actual magical power as the Elements of Harmony thanks to the Crystal Faire, and Cadance low on power, only Spike, this time thankfully filling his number one assistant role rather than as a plot catalyst or narrative punching bag, is the last line between the Crystal Heart and defeating King Sombra. Nice to finally make use of him!

Unfortunately, this can't completely save him. Although his embodiment of hatred as the antithesis to everything Princess Cadance stands for could justify him destroying or hiding the Empire, there really wasn't any clear meaning behind enslaving the Crystal Ponies. Was he forcing them to mine crystal for his castle? Was he trading the crystal and keeping the profits for himself?

There is also his design. While he looks menacing as a dark cloud looming over the empire, his pony form has nothing on it. As has been said a thousand times before, he does look like another one of those red and black alicorns to step out of OC Land, trying to be physically imposing and cool when they're really not, only with wings replaced by gaudy royal attire. In terms of design, he is really very much upstaged by a staircase and a door.

The songs

Meh.

Associated ramblings

As beautiful as the Crystal Empire is, the Crystal Ponies are mostly as bland when they're full of energy as they are when they're depressed, although their designs do reflect well against the theme of the city, the librarian seemed to be the only one who actually did anything.

The episode was haphazardly edited, and the tone shifts between the lightheartedness of the Crystal Faire and the epicness of Twilight defeating Sombra's traps in the castle were jarring as a result.

With the Re-Mane 5 effectively sidelined from using any magical power such as the Elements of Harmony by running the Crystal Faire, the episode does turn out to run very Twilight-centric, even as buildup to the Season 3 finale. This problem is exacerbated by this whole "test" as a plot element, and the delivery of the self-sacrifice moral as Twilight sacrificing her status on this "test" rather than Twilight actually sacrificing herself in the tower of that castle to save the Crystal Heart. Though I won't fault it only on being centered on Twilight, the main problems here are the uneven splintering of the second part into two plotlines and the botched delivery of the moral which give the impression of having sidelined them from the main conflict.

If Rainbow Falls is a bad luck location for episodes, the Crystal Empire is a bad luck location for morals. This episode, "Games Ponies Play", and "Equestria Games" all had great morals, the first two both about different forms of self-sacrifice and the most latter of self-confidence. All three had botched the execution of their morals: "The Crystal Empire" and "Equestria Games" on dilutions of the morals by unnecessarily forced plot elements and "Games Ponies Play" by pulling the moral out of a subplot that had been edited into the background during the episode's duration.

Conclusion

Will it fail or will it pass? In a way, it errs a lot to both sides.

The plotline of the episode was a failure. The completely contrived element of the "test" unfortunately changed Twilight Sparkle's motivations throughout the episode from altruistic to self-centered by playing on a known character flaw. Said character flaw was already explored in both "Lesson Zero" and "It's About Time" by different, more fitting morals. Instead, we get a self-sacrifice moral that unfortunately looks out of place if you consider the implications, especially who it was that delivered it. The moral itself would have resonated better and little about the actuality of the episode would have changed little had this unnecessarily forced "test" as a plot device had been gutted.

Additionally, the episode is hampered late by clumsy editing, jumping back and forth between two splintered storylines. Had the transitions been more carefully balanced and ordered, this really wouldn't be a talking point.

Where it does pass, however, is in what I find entertaining from it. The new location is a great new opportunity for the artists to show their stuff, and they delivered. As was the new villain. Despite having fuzzy motivations and a somewhat off-putting design, Sombra was written to the point of being one of the highlights of the episode for me. His plan showed a certain kind of ingenuity not displayed by any other villain before him except Discord, and the motions of the climax displayed a certain kind of savvy and will in him that enabled him to go down fighting instead of gloating that was not shown by any other villain before him, not even Discord. His traps in the castle provide a high point in enabling Twilight to demonstrate her intense prowess in magic.

"The Crystal Empire" is a flawed episode, plot-wise. However, where the failures are, there are moments of success that allow me to enjoy it.

Like nearly everything, whether "The Crystal Empire" is good or not is subjective. Unlike a lot of other things, when you think about "The Crystal Empire", where it went wrong, and where it went right, the subjectivity is obvious and doesn't provoke as strong of a reaction like the better and worse episodes do. In this case, it presents a choice that your subconscious pleasure centers can't really make for you: would you enjoy it on account of its successes, or dislike it on account of its flaws?