Hey, Big Mac Question! If you’re gonna have Star Trek jokes, at least bring back the Shat for a line or two! Honestly.
Anyway, no sense dwelling on the past, the damn show’s about to end! I have been spoiled on exactly one rather inconsequential thing, and otherwise, my body is not ready. Even though I’ve been ready since season one.
I just hope this was all worth it.
(Spoilers: I got the episode titles wrong throughout this whole thing, just roll with it.)
Yeah, it was. Time for yelling because yelling is fun and I need some time to process things.
TEMPEST WAS IN THE SHOW
ALSO NOVO AND SKYSTAR IF YOU CARE ABOUT THEM I GUESS
also they remembered Stygian exists
WHAT IS WITH THE PRO-SPIDER PROPAGANDA THAT STUFF IS CANCER
FALLOUT EQUESTRIA IS CANON
CHEESEPIE IS A PLEB TIER SHIP
FLUTTERCORD IS A PLEB TIER SHIP
APPLEDASH IS OKAY I GUESS
And perhaps most importantly, WAIT DISCORD WAS GROGAR???
Yeah, let’s start with that, because I mad. I’m mad because Grogar was so cool, and so menacing and so powerful, and I was really looking forward to finding out what his master plan was. I was so stoked they took this one last G1 villain and updated him, because his design was great! And, well, I’m not that mad, like I’m not livid about this because if nothing else, it explains Discord’s weird behavior in the season premiere (which I rewatched right before this aired).
Besides, I don’t think there’s aaaaaanything else I can complain about. Not when it comes to End of the End.
I mean, shit, by the end of part 1, they had topped Twilight’s Kingdom in terms of epicness. Tirek vs. the Pillars was amazing, and even better because they remembered Rockhoof’s strength was magical in nature! I didn’t even remember that! All the individual battles were just fantastic (and I loved seeing Chryssy in her Guardians of Equestria armor, what a callback! XD) Even Starlight was goddamned unbelievable! WHY DIDN’T SHE KISS TRIXIE
Also, MAN, Windigoes! Me from 2012 is vindicated at last. (Though it takes a good bit more than a single bloody conflict to summon them; it’s all about global mistrust.) Still, I haven’t had cause to label a fic canon in quite some time. That felt… strangely good?
Also I CANNOT BELIEVE THEY DID A PINKY AND THE BRAIN REFERENCE. I mean, it was positioned poorly, it’s right there on the end of a tense emotional scene, but Whedon’s Law, man, c’mon, and it was goddamn amazing. Probably the single best pop culture reference joke the show has ever made, and it only took them nine fucking years. :V
…Okay, there is one other thing I want to complain about: the ultimate fate of the villains. I mean, yes Discord, it’s poetic and all, but whatever happened to “I don’t turn ponies to stone?” I have to say, the whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth. I was waiting for reform school or something, not literally turning a pony — a child, but I can’t be too hung up on that because we never got a damn backstory for her — to fucking stone! What’s with that?
But if there’s one really good thing about End of the End: it’s actually a strong conclusion for the School of Friendship. I mean, it may not justify its existence, and it certainly doesn’t excuse how poorly mishandled season eight was, but if anything, it makes me think that maybe, just maybe, they had this planned all along. Like, I can believe that. Whoever wrote this did a damned fine job of it, and it went straight to the top of my episode list before part 2 was finished. It’s not the best episode of the show’s entire run, but it might be top three? Like, that’s really something for me to say. Damn.
Also, I love how Twilight goes to have donuts with the six best friends she’s ever had, and Spike, and not Starlight :V
Okay, time for The Final Problem.
That was… okay.
I mean, I’m glad it was an epilogue. The final sequence with the song was fantastic, my friend and I were literally just shouting at the screen the things which we were seeing on the screen. I might need to watch it a few dozen more times so I can pick everything out. Also, that song was pretty damn good, not gonna lie.
But the whole episode itself… Well, I can see why people were angry. I mean, yes, I hate two of the ships they canonized. (And why is Rarity still single, holy shit! I assume they left her open to date Twilight for Monochromatic’s sake.) And while you can probably ignore what Fluttershy says about Discord — they’ve been living together sort of for a long time with zero romance, why would that change — it’s going to be much harder to justify what Rainbow and AJ said as them not at least living together. Also, my dreams of TwiDash and Rarijack are dead (or at least buried in EQG) and that does not feel good. 😦
But I’ve always been a “seasons eight and nine are not canon” kind of person. And I’m sticking to that. And even if I choose to approach those seasons, I will take this episode as fanfiction of them. The real final problem is deciding how much of any of this affects you.
And I have to be honest, I feel a little bad, because my friend who hasn’t been keeping up with the show since season six sat down with me to watch this and he’s in tears while I’m very nonchalantly typing up this review. I didn’t hate it, I think the last few minutes of The Final Problem were even a fitting and perhaps beautiful finale for MLP:FiM, but overall? As an episode?
It was just okay.
The “worst coronation ever” plot was obvious but entertaining. I was expecting there to be spiders in Twilight’s sash, but I won’t know if that happened because there was so much lag in the goddamn stream (balanced out by the owner’s fine taste in music). Twilight fretting because her friends weren’t upset enough felt very we’ve been here already, but the solution was actually one of the more grown-up moments of the show’s entire run. The future stuff I can take or leave. At least there’s a lot of time we haven’t seen between them that we can fill in ourselves.
This isn’t the last I’ll write about MLP:FiM, not by a long shot. I’ve got a season recap to perform, and then I need to eulogize a series that I have devoted nearly a decade of my life to. And that is what’s gonna be really hard.
Yeah, that’s what’s actually got me feeling feels right now.
The Ending of the End
Student Counsel
Sparkle’s Seven
A Horse Shoe-In
She Talks to Angel
The Last Laugh
The Last Crusade
Common Ground
The Beginning of the End
Growing Up Is Hard to Do
The Last Problem
Sweet and Smoky
The Big Mac Question
The Summer Sun Setback
Going to Seed
Frenemies
Rainbow Roadtrip
Dragon Dropped
The Point of No Return
Daring Doubt
A Trivial Pursuit
Uprooted
2, 4, 6, Greaaat
She’s All Yak
Between Dark and Dawn
The End of the Rainbow
The Magic of Friendship Grows
Rainbow Roadtrip
Being Big Is All It Takes
Living in Color
The Last Laugh
Better Way to Be Bad
Fit Right In
Lotta Little Things
Present Perfect 