trouble-clef

the obviously increased animation budget (the lighting is sooooo pretty this season and I love the baby hairs on Layla and Sophia)

new adult character

more background characters and background unicorns WITH NEW POWERS

consequences from last season's conflict

the conflict of Serena's desire to live up to her family name but also not liking being a unicorn rider

Val fighting to also fulfill her family legacy but letting that get in conflict with her friends

Layla and Serena's dynamic of an kid trusting an adult and that adult betraying that trust (also that for Val)

the Cinder and Val death fake out

THE WILDSTAR DEATH FAKEOUT (it was so good and so dramatic and so much of a characterization for Wildstar honestly)

Ava blowing up at Sophia (again) but somehow it having even more gravitas

Unicorn friendships! (River x Cinder anyone?)

BOTH of Sophia's parents being unicorn riders!? (side note I can so see this Sophia's legacy versus Val's legacy being a later conflict) (further side note Sophia's mom's outfit is awesome)

Serena's makeup is soooooooooooo pretty and I love her outfit a ton

awesomer names for the new unicorns

genuinely Sophia saying goodbye brought tears to my eyes

Serena is an awesome villain wtf. she's like, charismatic and gorgeous and smart and manipulative and AWESOME (and I love how we're seeing discord between her and Encore in a different way than the main characters)

AND the development of Val and Isabel's friendship and how it plays into the final plot

I usually hate the music in the show it's my one true gripe but Fire in Disguise was genuinely a bop

also her hypno powers and their little musical motif are genuinely creeepy

i love that the harmony magic fading becomes an actual problem the fix for which helps fix the magic-zapping problem

shout out to Encore somehow having a full character arc in ten minutes total of screen time (#justiceforEncore)

i deeply love that "trust in your destiny" is actually a theme

SERENA DEATH (FAKEOUT?)

this whole season i have been losing my mind over Cinder's transformation because he already has a breast collar and boots and his bronze metal is THE BEST

NEW LEVEL UP OMG MAGICAL GIRL TRANSFORMATION PEGASI NEW OUTFITS CIRCLETS HAIR SHINY

TRAPPED UNICORN OMG IS IT SKYWIND IT'S SKYWIND ISN'T IT

AAHAHF'HEFIJWE'FOIWJG'OEJKG'GJE'GKW'GWGW

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

conclusions:

I think the writers have realized there are more than a couple adults watching lol, or else their child audience is older than they thought

more seasons like this please

Been thinking about this for three seasons lmao

River and Storm are pretty obviously an arabian and a clydesdale respectively.

so far I’ve further thought Cinder is a thoroughbred awaand Leaf is a fresian (color obviously does not matter)

Encore seems oddly like an Arabian-clydesdale cross?

I’m thinking someone has to be a mustang and someone has to be a quarter horse because I don’t think they dug so deep as like, Lusitanos and such and those are the other two “classic layperson” horse breeds.