art by Akuama

I usually enjoy the puns in the episode titles. This time, it just seemed unnecessary. That aside, the episode itself was delightful.

The episode started us off with an absolutely wonderful song, then presented us with a ponified telling of the holiday classic Christmas Karol by Edmund Wells.

It also didn't leave me with a whole lot to talk about. Since the episode it a retelling of such a well-known classic, and virtually all of the story elements and character development are derived from that story, "A Hearth's Warming Tail" presents us with something adorable, charming and fun... but not really with anything new.

Of course, when it comes to Christmas stories, we don't often see truly new ones. And while some, like "A Charlie Brown Christmas" do manage to become modern classics, rarely do new stories have the resonance to last. By far, it is more common to see familiar holiday tales retold with new characters and/or in alternate settings. In that respect, "Hearth's Warming Eve" was really impressive in that it crafted an entirely new, Equestrian story that gave the world of My Little Pony its own holiday, analogous to Christmas without actually being Christmas. Equestria's Hearth's Warming Eve largely embraces a holiday spirit comparable to Christmas (or, at least, the non-religious spirit of the holiday) while also having a unique nation-founding aspect. And having given us that, I am more than fine seeing the writers (re)tread very familiar territory for Christmas-themed episodes. While not new, "A Hearth's Warming Tail" was definitely an enjoyable watch.

That said, I do have a few comments on the episode, which I will discuss below the break.

art by Underpable

I find the most interesting food for thought here is in how "A Hearth's Warming Tail" echoes elements of past episodes enough that Charles Dicken's story does not feel out-of-place in the setting of Equestria. The most significant of these is how Snowfall Frost's motivations are grounded in emotional scars from childhood.

Then some distress, words so careless,

Standin' there, you don't know what to do.

Feelin' helpless. You can't make it hurt less,

So you go and change your point of view.



And in that moment, though you didn't know it

Your defenses set up walls you built to last,

Leading to the pony you've become today.

And the spell you're about to cast

It all comes from your past.

In my Afterthoughts for the previous episode, I noted how reaching goals and facing the difficulties of transition has been a common theme in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. This has been another: how emotional wounds from childhood still haunt us as adults.

"A Hearth's Warming Tail" may not have offered much that was new, but it did change up the story a bit by giving Snowfall Frost a few shades of The Grinch with her plan to eliminate the holiday entirely. And I liked how the pony version of Dickens invoked the windigos for the story's bleak future act.

And much of the fun in these iterations is seeing characters we know and love taking on the roles. For me, at least, the best part of any telling of "A Christmas Carol" is always the future sequence, and I eagerly anticipate seeing how the Spirit of Christmas Future is depicted. Halfway through Pinkie Pie's song, I was fervently trying to guess who would get to play that role. Princess Luna was actually the first to come to mind, but I quickly dismissed the idea since the writers seemed to be going all-mane-seven for the major roles.

But it was indeed Luna... and she was perfect. Chilling, mournful, poetic... and they gave her a stylistic design that I found breathtaking.

art by Raikoh-illust

The writers told an old story well, with very nice songs and a great deal of wonderful little touches. Snowfall Frost's villain song was impressive, hitting all the right notes. Seeing that Twilight was actually singing the songs and doing "her Pinkie Pie voice" provoked genuine laughter. Spike's commercial break was excellently played. There were wonderful visual touches, such as Snowfall's reaction to having the first spirit walk through her. All the cameos, both in Ponyville and in the "Victorian" Equestria were a delight. And seeing Equestria in the motif of Victorian England was quite the spectacle. The episode was pure eye and ear candy.

I particularly loved seeing the Victorian versions of these two.

As a final note, I must say that I really appreciated how the episode started. Everyone is blissfully in the holiday spirit except Starlight Glimmer, who finds the holiday silly and just plans to skip it. There is no malice in her mindset. She bears no hatred of the holiday, nor discouragement of those who do enjoy it. It just isn't a holiday she has any appreciation of.

There is an interesting contrast here with Fluttershy and Nightmare Night. Fluttershy finds Nightmare Night actively unpleasant, makes an attempt to join in anyway, and finally decides that the holiday simply isn't for her. There are plenty of things she can enjoy with her friends, and it is okay for Nightmare Night not to be one of them. Starlight Glimmer has no such active antipathy, merely apathy. Twilight diagnoses this as having never had Hearth's Warming Eve put in the proper light. Through the story that Twilight reads, Starlight Glimmer gains an appreciation of the holiday and decides to join in.

And it is worth noting that Twilight does not pressure Starlight Glimmer to do so, merely thanking her for allowing Twilight to read her the story, then heading back to the party herself. She doesn't try to make a Friendship Lesson out of this; she leaves whether or not the story altered Starlight Glimmer's perception of Hearth's Warming Eve entirely to Starlight herself.