>>42541773
I think by magical mystery cure, the change was already apparent. if MMC was more or less the same but S3 was spent setting it up, much like how the gala episode was very well set up in S1 and how return harmony's setup was basically all of S1, then it would have been pretty good. The driving idea that led to Faust era mlp being as much of a cohesive narrative as it was, was already gone by S3, because of canterlot wedding.

This Antony c vid explains my opinion of canterlot wedding far better than I ever could, and if you look into it, most of the same shortcomings of canterlot wedding are present in S3.

https://youtu.be/y36UT2tOvkI?feature=shared