At first I wasn’t really liking the design of the new changelings. Something about it just seemed so pastel, and the horns made them look like the artists couldn’t decide if they wanted them to be deer or beetles. But seeing them mixed in a group with all of the ponies, it makes a lot more sense. The old changelings would have clashed and made that scene look really weird. So I guess we’ll be seeing changeling background ponies, like we occasionally see crystal ponies? Hell, maybe we’ve been seeing them all along. Would explain why I saw at least three Lyra’s in the One Bad Apple episode.
But Celestial Advice is really about the dynamics of teacher and student. More accurately, mentor and student. Because both Celestia and Twilight are certainly more than just teachers. And this episode was all about learning when and how to encourage those pupils to make their own decisions.
The pupil in question wasn’t Starlight Glimmer, though. Twi figured out that Starlight was too advanced for her three-year friendship lesson plan and she got it into her head that she now had to send Starlight away, like Celestia did with her.
I kept waiting for Celestia to say, “But you’re not me, and Starlight Glimmer isn’t you.” But she never did. In fact, she didn’t offer any actual advice at all. She let Twilight know she felt the same anxieties when she made that decision, but only told her she’d know the right thing to do, and let it all play out.
Celestia is a master of the hands-off style of teaching. Twilight, not so much. Twilight’s own anxieties and need to control will probably end up being the subject of her last great friendship lesson.
The Southern Nerd 