I could go on and on, but the core of the issue is really the same as the much more simple complaint of how Luna is being presented, extremely different both in terms of she herself, and in terms of how people are treating her. It feels like an incongruous u-turn that I think was more pushed in service of the halloween theme and the lesson that was held in mind, which, from a writing perspective is of course fair enough. Those are the concerns that probably should come first in writing a children's show and, since I've mentioned theme and lesson seeming to come first before, it seemingly is the concerns some writers were putting first. Nonetheless, it is unavoidable that this episode does Luna really, really dirty and honestly doesn't fix things too much by the end. The best I could say about where things end up is that Luna seemingly, at least within the conclusion of this episode, has a more down-to-earth, honest, open and friendly relationship with her subjects than the fawning worshipfulness with which Celestia is treated, which seems to even tire Celestia at times. However, this obviously doesn't stick around and I think without a status quo change never was going to stick around, so it just ends up being one of those odd technically alright episodes that just has unfortunate consequences.

Having said that, I do like the relationship between Twilight and Luna a great deal... When we're not having this stupid Royal Canterlot Voice business. Being banished to the moon explains nothing on that front, Luna, you were Nightmare Moon for those 1000 years, and whilst I could believe Nightmare Moon spent 1000 years shouting at nothing up there, why has nobody told you to shut it yet after a year down on Equestria again? And how can you just forget the concept of speaking normally when you yourself explicitly said the Royal Canterlot Voice is for addressing one's subjects? That more than anything else might bother me most about this episode, what a stupid idea. Write another draft, bin the royal autism voice, for goodness sake. Anyway, back to the good: Twilight gets to live out every bookworm's dream of getting to be an old historical figure's guide to the modern day. I think probably every theory-obsessed Marxist has dreamed of showing old Karl around a supermarket and every historian has dreamed of seeing what Napoleon thinks of France today. If anything I think that angle wasn't explored enough, indeed wouldn't Twilight be familiar with the Royal Canterlot Voice? She acts unfamiliar with it, but she's familiar with the prophecy of Nightmare Moon's return, and she's familiar with Starswirl who, going off of Luna's reaction, was significant in around the same era. There is such a thing as these customs, even quite well-known ones for their time, simply being forgotten, however that's significantly harder to swallow when we have Celestia, who does not seem to have any memory problems, still walking around. If giving interviews for biographies and histories isn't one of her primary duties then Equestria has a serious failing.

All in all, this isn't really one that I enjoyed rewatching, which made it a little harder to review. And it's probably pretty clear that I don't like it all that much personally, but I would say it seems perfectly competently written in most respects, and has a perfectly good lesson at heart... But I think I'd say something like 5.4. I wouldn't prefer not to watch it altogether, which is what I think of under-5s as, but the enjoyment is fairly minimal, so it ekes it out above 5.