What's that? A review about This Day Aria? Pfft, oh come on, MC. We all know that This Day Aria is the best MLP song EVER. What could you possibly have to say that we don't already know? We already know that it's got an amazing musical score, is a Disney-tier villain song, and cures a small child of cancer every time you listen to it! What more is there to say?
...what? What's that? You didn't like 'This Day Aria?'
...You thought it was a bad villain song and that saying it's Disney-tier is an insult to what Disney can do?
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHBBLBLBALSBLFABLBL
This Day Aria: A REVIEW
So if you couldn't guess, despite the fact that 99% of the brony fandom seems to think it's the greatest thing since
breathing, I don't like 'This Day Aria.' I've said it many times to my friends and none of them seem to agree with me. I've said it on public forums and comment threads and gotten flamed into the ground. For some reason, this song is beloved by every brony in existence and I honestly can't see why. My only guess is that it's because 'This Day Aria' is the first traditional 'Villain Song' in the show, with 'Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000' being ignored for some reason (probably because it's meant as a comedy villain song).
But just being a villain song should
not be enough for so many people. Especially not a bunch of people that I have more often than not seen to be so analytical, well read, and contemplative about quality. Because just being a villain song does NOT automatically make a song GOOD.
And this goes for This Day Aria, because it is one of the
worst villain songs I have ever had the displeasure to listen to.
Keep in mind, I know how this is going to end. This is going to end with me in flames. For some reason, having this opinion on this song causes all bronies to gang up on me and curbstomp me. It's happened many times before and it's honestly made me really really disappointed in the brony fandom as a whole before. I once had at least 25 people gang up to tell me just how wrong I was, their prose littered with swears and insults. So those of you intending to flame me can just leave now.
Now let's not waste anymore time. Onto the review proper.
ReviewThe problem with 'This Day Aria' is that it is incredibly inane and pointless.
I guess the best way to start off criticizing it would be to highlight the good points first. As far as real!Cadance's parts go, it was okay, though there was actually a real problem with the music overshadowing the lyrics. But real!Cadance's parts were alright. Nothing special, but alright. The song did a good job of highlighting a fair amount of Cadance's character traits relatively quickly, showed just how much she loved Shining Armor, and her despair at the thought of losing him. It does, however, get rather repetitive in her second verse, but she didn't exactly have much to work with so... whatever.
But when it came to fake!Cadance's parts in the song (And I say fake!Cadance because at the time of first watching we had no idea who she really was), the villain song failed on every conceivable level as a villain song.
Really the only way to analyze the song is to go down the song line by line.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzsxfO…This day is going to be perfect; The kind of day of which I've dreamed since I was smallThis is actually a good line. It gives us a little bit of insight into her character: that she's been planning this coup for a while now and that she's gleeful about what she's done. It's actually a good opening line.
Everypony will gather round, say I look lovely in my gown; What they don't know is that I have fooled them all...Again, this is actually a good line. The lyrics are a little clunky, but this line highlights the contempt she has for the wedding as well as her smugness in fooling even the most powerful ponies in Equestria. Combined with the use of shadows and glowing green eyes that flash at the end of this verse, it's actually a pretty intimidating start.
...then we have real!Cadance's verse... and then the song goes down the shitter.
I could care less about the dress, I won't partake in any cake; Vows? I'll be lying when I say that through any kind of weather I want us to be together the truth is I don't care for him at allYeah, yeah, you've already shown your contempt for the wedding. By extension it was plainly obvious that you didn't actually give a shit about Shining Armor. Move on. What are you going to do now that you've 'fooled them all?' What is your motivation? What is your plan? Who are you really if not Cadance? What do you intend to do with the Princesses? What do you intend to do with Equestria? Do you want to rule it? Destroy it? Assimilate it?
Also, what on earth is with the visuals? They're incredibly boring. You're just walking around all over the place, knocking over fruit and stroking mannequins like they turn you on.And what's that? Disintegrating a hat? Ohhh wow. Watch out fellas, we got a badass over here.
Every single one of her actions could only be described as 'snore worthy.' Normally, the visuals in a villain song tend to build, becoming more and more menacing and bombastic and frightening as time goes on, to highlight just how dangerous and threatening the villain is. Here? The best we get is those glowing eyes towards the beginning, and that's really weak sauce in terms of villain song visuals. We're supposed to beware this villain, but the only things she's proven to be any threat to in this song are bowls of fruit and headwear.
No I do not love the groom, in my heart there is no room, but I still want him to be all mine~So basically, the point of this whole song is "I'm going to marry Shining Armor and not love him." By proxy, "Cadance doesn't get to marry her true love."
Now I'm not going to be some guns and explosions obsessed nut here and say that ALL villains have to be big, world threatening monsters. In fact, the motivation to ruin just one person's life can sometimes be a really scary and threatening motivation.
But mull that over in your head for a minute. From what we've been able to take from the song, her whole motivation is to "Marry Shining Armor and not love him."
Given the context of the episode we've seen so far, this is LAME. Lame and nonsensical We've seen, at this point, fake!Cadance throw a mental whammy on Shining Armor and seemingly drain him of strength, infiltrate a high government position, and toss Twilight into an old mine shaft via a ring of unholy green fire and then taunt her to the breaking point...
...and this song would have us believe that the only reason she did that is because she wanted to "Marry Shining Armor and not love him."
This is stupid. Stupid and underwhelming. If her whole motivation is to ruin Shining Armor, then there are easier ways to do that. More subtle, calmly enacted ways that could be just as scary when pulled off right without all the green fire and parasitic beams and stuff. By the same token, there are better ways to do that to Princess Cadance if she's the object of her ire.
This song is just so underwhelming and pointless at this point. And again, no decent visuals, and the music is literally out of control. As if the musicians don't know what they're doing anymore. To the point where it sometimes gets so loud that you can't even hear the lyrics.
Finally the moment has arrived; for me to be one lucky bride
(Oh the wedding we won't make, he'll end up marrying a fake; Shining armor will be~)
Mine. All mine. (evil laugh)Aaaand with an evil laugh that honestly makes her sound like a giggling five year old, we end our song.
Now ask yourself... what have you learned?
If you were watching this for the first time with no prior spoilers, and you watched this song, what would you have learned about the villain?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Beyond the fact that she's been planning this for a long time, we've learned nothing about the villain. Motivation? We don't have any. Plan? Not given. Intents and Goals? Zip. We don't even know what her NAME and SPECIES are.
Yeah... you know what the point of a villain song is? TO HIGHLIGHT ALL OF THOSE THINGS.
And not only to highlight all of those things, but also to make us scared and afraid of the villain. To show us that he/she is somehow a force to be reckoned with and meant to be feared.
Let's compare this with a really good villain song... Be Prepared from the Lion King. This is my go-to song for highlighting what a good villain song should be:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0AiN8…This Day Aria sure is a far cry from that, isn't it? 'Be Prepared' very plainly highlights a TON about Scar's character (he's ruthless, violent, and not below punishing his men for the smallest of offenses), his motivations (I'm going to kill the king and Simba and take over the pridelands), His plan (I'm going to command this army of hungry hyenas with a promise of food and they'll be my enforcers), and his goals (rule everything.)
And then there are the visuals. Green smoke. Dark caverns. Steam. Skeletons. Ravenous Hyenas. Nazi Parallels. Fire. A Mountain made of EVIL. All capped off with a nice, boistrous, evil laugh to the heavens.
This Day Aria? Doesn't do any of that. We don't know a thing about fake!Cadance. We don't know squat. And all it does is seem to highlight her as some bratty child. That's what the song really makes her out to be. A whiny, spoiled child that "wants everything just so
you can't have it."
This is why I actually take a small measure of
offense when I hear people say that 'This Day Aria' is 'Disney-esque' or 'Disney Tier.' Because it's NOT. Not in any way. Compare this to any Disney Villain song. Poor Unfortunate Souls
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oU85k…, Hellfire
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmn9iH…, Friends on the Other Side
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZAY-7…, The Mob Song
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCENkw…... all of those songs are miles better than 'This Day Aria.' In fact, in terms of highlighting things about the villain, it doesn't even come close to the worst Disney Villain song ever, Yodel-Adel-Eedle-Idle-Oo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=twwDqu…It is one of the worst villain songs I've ever seen. On par with 'We're the Titans'
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDun2l… and Marry the Mole
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3p3kO…In fact, My Little Pony
GENERATION ONE had a better villain song than this in "Nothing Can stop the Smooze"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CnOys… At least that song had a gigantic shoggoth eating the world. At least the music didn't overshadow the lyrics. At least there was some level of threat from the villains and seemingly a goal in mind.
...But you want to know what's really funny? "This Day Aria" is made even MORE dissapointing, because it's obvious that the MLP team is capable of making a decent villain song. You know how I know?
The Reprise:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJw0kt…Well would you look at that? She's letting spill her goals. She wants to control everypony in Equestria. Rule over them with an iron hoof. Canterlot is being destroyed in the background by an army of changelings. People are running for their lives from vicious monsters. Green Slime and smoke is everywhere. Chrysalis is gloating right in front of our heroes. It's not perfect, but this 25 seconds is a better villain song than anything we saw in the two and a half minute long slog through a boring, insipid lyrical mess was.
Ultimately, This Day Aria just fails. I've heard many people trying to excuse it, citing different reasons. One said that it was meant to be
'Cadance's song rather than a villain song' but that's obviously not the case given that most people cite it as a villain song and that given the music, as messy as it is, it's obviously meant to be threatening (even though everything else fails to back it up). I've also heard that it's meant to be taken like
'Chrysalis is taunting Cadance through the duet' but while that would work if they were in the same room with each other, it doesn't work in context since the two characters are in completely different rooms.
'This Day Aria' is a failure of a song. It seems like they were really trying to make an effort to make a good villain song, but obviously they just completely screwed up. Whether it's just because they weren't used to making this kind of song or because there was miscommunication between artists/animators/writers/musicians, I don't know. But at the end of the day, discounting that 25 second reprise, the whole thing is a useless, insipid, inane waste of time that could have been filled with a decent fight between Celestia and Chrysalis... something else that I love to gripe about in this episode. But that's another matter entirely.
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Alright, you can bring on the flames now. I'm ready.
