My Little Pony Revisited: Season 6, Episodes 20-26

Twenty-one sets down, one more to go. Can we end this revisiting marathon on a high note?

Viva Las Pegasus

Story by Kevin Burke, Michael Vogel and Chris "Doc" Wyatt
Written by Kevin Burke and Chris "Doc" Wyatt

I like how the episode begins right off the bat with Applejack and Fluttershy being summoned by the map and then they find themselves in Las Pegasus, all within a timeframe that's less than a minute. As a matter of fact, the pacing is without a doubt the best thing about this episode. It moves briskly enough to keep the audience invested, and it has enough story to fill the runtime.

The story is pretty much a character-driven one, no doubt about that, but Fluttershy, again, was fantastic. Heck, she tried helping Flim and Flam reconcile and even got them in on the act of tricking Gladmane to expose his true nature despite their past actions. If that isn't admirable, I don't know what is.

Mind you, Applejack was reluctant to even associate with them, and that's something I've first-hand experience with of my own. Especially in this year alone. I got into a bit of trouble with an ex-friend of mine over my views on The Last Crusade which resulted in another innocent person being dragged into the fight. I very much wanted nothing to do with that ex-friend for what they did, so I can relate to Applejack here.

That being said, this should've been the end of Flim and Flam's character arc. They got something they didn't know they wanted, so why continue to give them appearances for the sake of fan-service? (Don't get me wrong; I liked Friendship University fine.) At least they haven't been given a forced redemption; once a con artist, always a con artist.

Even though I never discuss the animation in my revisits, I will say that Viva Las Pegasus is one of the best episodes in the visual department. But if I had to pick a nit, it doesn't really feel like a casino/hotel. Granted, they tried to make it kid friendly, but is it just me, or does it feel too much like an amusement park indoors? Maybe they got inspiration from Galaxyland in Canada?

Still, a good episode nonetheless.

Rating: Excellent (9/10)

Every Little Thing She Does

Written by Michael Vogel

From season seven onward, Starlight Glimmer is a great character, having the sympathy and willingness to change her ways I'm sure the writers were going for. In this season? Not really. At best, she was practically ignored, making you wonder why Starlight got a redemption in the first place, and at worst, she was stuck in poorly written scripts (or, in the case of A Hearth's Warming Tail, a painfully cliched one) and fans took their frustrations out on her.

This time around, it's a poorly written episode with Starlight as main character. But of course, the fact she was the episode's lead is the least of its problems.

First off, the episode is a blatant re-hashing of Lesson Zero. Keep in mind that no matter what older episode you copy, the end product will inevitably come off as worse. I mean, Starlight practically tries to fix a solution and makes things worse like Twilight did, only it involves the rest of the Mane Six and the humor is practically non-existent. And that's it. It's a really boring episode with very little happening. I have very little to talk about with this episode.

Also, is it just me, or did it feel like this episode aired too late in the season? Perhaps if it had aired prior to No Second Prances, maybe Twilight's distrust for Starlight's behavior would've been more justified? Yeah, they mention Trixie at the start, but still.

Rating: Terrible (-1/10)

P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)

Story by Kevin Burke, Michael P. Fox, Wil Fox and Chris "Doc" Wyatt
Written by Michael P. Fox and Wil Fox

This episode gives me even less to talk about. Seriously, there is literally nothing happening throughout the episode except Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie being mad at each other over a failed boat trip going without a clear perspective as to who's right and who's wrong. That's it. Another episode you can skip and end up losing nothing as a result.

Rating: Terrible (0/10)

Where the Apple Lies

Story by Meghan McCarthy and Dave Rapp
Written by Dave Rapp

Now we're back onto a decent episode. Although Applejack is second to Twilight being the voice of reason among the Mane Six, she wasn't perfect in her youth. One time, she ended up being caught in a lie and wound up making more just to cover up a mistake, much to Big Mac's frustration.

Interesting as to how Big Mac was way more talkative in his youth; it's nice to see some expansion to his character, even if this is just a flashback. No wonder he's usually so quiet these days, though later episodes show him being more talkative, but not as much as he was.

Applejack's attempts at lying her hilariously bad, but not without reason. She wanted to keep a promise to a younger Filthy Rich and just got into more trouble because it. Oh, and a young Spoiled Milk got involved as well; who'd name their foal Spoiled Milk? Is it any wonder to how she turned out this way?

As for why Applejack's parents didn't turn up? According to Jim Miller, they were on a couple's vacation during the events of the flashback, which explains why Apple Bloom didn't appear. Some say it's because she went with them, but I think it's more likely she was conceived during the vacation.

When re-watching the episode on Netflix (as I did with the 130 episodes previous), I noticed that "cider" was replaced with "juice" - why? I heard that it's because it's an alcoholic drink, but even think, it's just silly to replace a word for the sake of censorship. I mean, it's not like the show is promoting underage drinking!

Other than that, there's little to talk about here. The plot's fairly mundane but entertaining, and the moral about lying making things worse is a useful lesson for kids to learn.

Rating: Good (8/10)

Top Bolt

Story by Joanna Lewis, Meghan McCarthy and Kristine Songco
Written by Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco

After an abysmal performance in 28 Pranks Later, it would've taken a lot to bring Rainbow Dash back in good graces. Thankfully, this episode did her a lot of justice. And Twilight as well.

Considering how much this season had either screwed with their personalities, dumped a lot of garbage on them, or worse, both, it's so refreshing to see Twilight and Rainbow Dash showcasing their true personalities. Twilight teaching the classroom, for example, felt very in line with how you'd expect her to act, not like an over-paranoid idiot over an overdue book.

Rainbow Dash is still cocky, but it's pretty clear that she wants Sky Stinger and Vapor Trail to succeed. She even learned that Vapor Trail is a far better flier than the latter gives herself credit for and even encourages her to step out of her best friend's shadow. This portrayal makes it even easier to forget 28 Pranks Later happened.

Both Sky and Vapor are nice characters with sympathetic backstories; he craves attention but she doesn't. She's a great flier but he isn't. It is kind of reminiscent of Mike and Sulley in Monsters University when both realize they can't work without the other. Not only that, but Sky has to learn to fly on his own without constantly relying on Vapor as a crutch, and it's pretty emotional when she reveals what she's been doing and he gets upset with her over it.

That's a surprisingly mature moral for the show. Yes, it's nice to help a friend with a skill handicap, but if they rely on you too much, it becomes a shackle of over-dependency, meaning both parties will be weighed down greatly, leading to disaster. Eventually, you'll have to stand on your own without the other as a crutch.

It may not be saying much, but Top Bolt's one of the best episodes of season six. It's got great character moments, good humor, heartwarming moments, and a fantastic moral. You really can't ask for more.

Rating: Excellent (10/10)

To Where and Back Again

Written by Josh Haber and Michael Vogel

It's time for the big one. An episode that I viciously tore apart when it first aired three years ago. Was my stance back then justified? No. It wasn't.

I'll get some problems out of the way; the episode was intended to conclude Starlight's arc, but the buildup towards it hasn't been all that great and instead, it felt like just another season if you took her out. Because of that, since Trixie only appeared in No Second Prances prior to this episode, we never got to see her and Starlight bond, nor did we see Trixie try to change her ways. Heck, after this episode, Trixie was the same, annoying pain in the ass we knew from season one, making you wonder why Starlight hangs around with her at all.

We also didn't see Thorax get an extra episode after The Times They Are a Changeling. Sure, it was mentioned that his physical appearance had changed, but... that's it. Come to think of it, season six as a whole seemed to be a missed opportunity to properly expand on develop Starlight following The Cutie Re-Mark.

On top of that, it's not really explained why Discord had anything to do with the three. Sure, it could be because Fluttershy's his best friend, but doesn't that make him seem biased? I know he's had issues with the others in the past, but still. Wouldn't it have been nice to see Starlight in Dungeons & Discords? I can understand if they didn't have a role for her there, but it would've been a nice little build up.

The last problem with the finale is minor, but I'll mention it anyway; the first half seems to kind of drag on, but the second half is where things really start to pick up.

It's safe to say that Starlight was kind of a downer throughout season six, but re-watching the finale with a fresh mindset, and long after the hype over season six, she felt... kind of relatable. Being a leader is a stressful thought, but as long as you're part of a team, you'll be fine. Yeah, it's a pretty cliched plotline that any series could do, but it still works for Starlight's character. Heck, I'd say this finale was a step in the right direction.

Because of this, you care when she feels overwhelmed with requests over suggestions and she ends up running away in frustration and shame. But when her friends and the rest of Equestria's royalty get kidnapped, the pressure's on Starlight. And during their time in the Changeling hive, she, Trixie, Discord and Thorax rely on their strengths without magic (minus Thorax's case, since he's a Changeling himself) to get to Chrysalis in the end.

And I know there's people who are miffed that we were never shown how the former Changeling Queen managed to foalnap the Mane Six, Spike, the Royal Sisters and the Royal Family, but honestly? I don't mind. All it does is add more tension and drama, increase the stakes, and it gives the quintet more motivation. Sometimes, what you don't see can be effective. For the most part, anyway.

I will say that the Mane Six (and Spike) replacement by Changeling was handled way better than The Mean 6 (which also had Vogel's involvement) and Chrysalis was a far greater threat than in the season eight episode. I'm glad that they didn't go down the path of giving her a redemption for no reason other than "the episode demands it" because if the recent state of Equestria Girls is anything to go by, it's gotten old really fast with a few exceptions (Stygian, Tempest Shadow). Not to mention that Chrysalis' heart is as black as coal. Why should she redeem? Sadly, this episode was the last time I could take her seriously, especially as later appearances turned her into a joke of a character.

But the best character by far was Discord. He may be a jokester, but when his friends (well, mostly Fluttershy, anyway) are in danger, he's willing to fight for them and even rely on his skills to distract the Changeling guards. I'd also say his dynamic with Trixie was the best with him constantly putting her down and having her and himself both on flying pigs. That was hilarious!

Honestly, I have no idea what I was thinking back when I first covered this episode. I tore it to shreds when it first aired, but after watching it again, I think it's... fairly good. With mostly good characters, a nice message, and a story that's... fine, it's Starlight's best appearance in season six. Granted, the bar wasn't that high to begin with, but she definitely got better in season seven and in season eight, she was pretty good. Sadly, she came to be an afterthought in season nine...

After season six ended, people have looked back on To Where and Back Again as an underwhelming finale, with some even calling it the point that the show turned south. Does it really deserve that reputation? I don't think so. There are problems, but they're mostly related to building up to the finale throughout the season. Shadow Play, which came out the year after, didn't get much build up until the second half of season seven and that received better reception for the most part. If you liked Shadow Play, then surely there was nothing wrong with liking To Where and Back Again.

Starlight aside, what was it that gave the season six finale a poor reputation after the fact? That's a question I can't answer. It just happened. Is there a special something to the finale? There is; it was one of the few finales to break the mold. But maybe that's why people liked My Little Pony to begin with. It was unique, it was funny, and even when it ends, it will hold a place in our hearts. There was even this special bonding with friends old and new over the show that made us enjoy the most-beloved episodes of the series and the not-so-greats that we love to hate.

Rating: Good (7/10)

Final Season Ranking: Bad (3/10)

My Little Pony Revisited: Season 6, Episodes 14-19

We're now onto the home stretch of revisiting seasons 1-6! This set of episodes is an interesting one for sure...

The Cart Before the Ponies

Story by Ed Valentine and Michael Vogel
Written by Ed Valentine

I really enjoyed Ed Valentine's scripts in season four; Flight to the Finish gave us one of the Crusaders' best starring roles of the series and Three's a Crowd is a sheer laughfest from start to finish. So imagine how shocking it was that his third episode... didn't live up to either of them.

Seriously, you would think that after six seasons that Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Applejack would've learned to listen to their younger sisters (sister figure in Dash's case) about designing the carts. They act as if the Crusaders helped them in the making of their carts when really, they did all the work themselves, gave them no credit at all, and were allowed to drive them. That alone is enough to ruin the whole episode.

Not only that, why didn't the Crusaders even think about working with the older sister (or sister figure) who had the same mindset as they did? Just imagine Apple Bloom making a cart with Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo with Rarity, and Sweetie Belle with Applejack; that would've been way more interesting than what we ended up with. And isn't it a bit odd that it would take a single morning just to build a cart? These kind of things take days, weeks perhaps, just to prepare for a derby!

The whole thing is just an idiot plot from beginning to end, and a blot on an otherwise 100% record from Ed Valentine. But at least this episode has more redeeming value than the episode that came afterwards.

Rating: Terrible (0/10)

28 Pranks Later

Story by Meghan McCarthy
Written by F. M. De Marco

So apparently, this was meant to be a remake of The Mysterious Mare Do Well, one of the most hated episodes of the show. But guess what? This "remake" is even worse!

The first sign that the episode is bad is Rainbow Dash giving Fluttershy a fright. And didn't we establish that she understood her foalhood friend was sensitive? I mean, she was the pony Rainbow stood up for in flight school against the bullies, but here? They make Rainbow an outright bully! It's even further emphasized by the fact that all of her "pranks" come as torment for the sake of torment. Considering that we're six seasons in by this point, you'd think Dash would've calmed down by now, and if you told me that this was in the same season where she joined the Wonderbolts, a serious job, please forgive me for thinking you're nuts.

And since the Mane Six and many of their friends work to get their own back as her, that fixes things up, right? No! Because they outright pretend that a zombie apocalypse is taking place, and a giant prank like that could potentially scar Rainbow for life! I'm surprised she didn't suffer PTSD after this! So there's no one in this episode the audience can root for. You can't root for Rainbow Dash because she's a bully here, and you can't root for any of the townsponies because they're hypocrites. Yes, they might've had a reason to get their own back, but that doesn't make it right, and it feels like something you'd expect from Family Guy!

Putting every one of her contributions into consideration, Meghan McCarthy is not a bad writer. Far from it. In fact, what she had in mind must've been different from what F. M. De Marco wrote up, so it feels like it was a case of poor communication between the writers.

Regardless as to who wrote what, this episode is just outright reprehensible. By trying to fix one of the show's most hated episodes, they ended up making a worse product than Merriwether Williams did, and she also gave us Putting Your Hoof Down and Dragon Quest! There is absolutely nothing to redeem this episode, and there's only one rating it can truly get.

Rating: Atrocious (-10/10)

The Times They Are a Changeling

Story by Kevin Burke, Michael Vogel and Chris "Doc" Wyatt
Written by Kevin Burke and Chris "Doc" Wyatt

Here's another episode that's been a constant thorn in my side since it aired. There's episodes that have concepts that aren't completely fulfilled, and then there's episodes that should never have been created to begin with. The Times They Are a Changeling falls into the former category (28 Pranks Later falls into the latter category, for the record), and it's probably the most disappointing episode of the entire series.

The first problem with the episode is Thorax himself. Everypony treats him like scum, but he's hardly a great threat at all... at least, not compared to a Changeling swarm. He's basically the equivalent to a wounded puppy. All that they do with him is portray him as a victim and... nothing else. In fact, he's too easily sympathetic.

It doesn't help that his flashbacks show him not wanting to hurt anyone under Chrysalis' rule. And on top of that, Spike's song (I just cringe when listening to it) implies that "a Changeling can change". How?! Thorax was already shown to be different from the other Changelings, so the moral falls flat on its face. Was the episode trying to go for that moral? Up to that point, I believed the moral was meant to be "don't judge someone based on their culture's actions", and so the intended moral is entirely confused as to what it wants to be.

Adding to the confusion is how easily everypony accepts Thorax just like that. I can understand Twilight and Starlight (sort of) believing Spike, but Shining Armor, Cadance and the Crystal Royal Guard? How were they so easily convinced? (Bad song aside.) Everypony just comes off as interchangeable with each other, which further hurts the story and makes Thorax come off as worse. Even Shining Armor and Cadance felt stupid by instantly sweeping their fear under the rug just like that.

Here's a reality check; that is not how it works in real life! Thorax had to earn his trust with the ponies by proving by himself that not every Changeling was a creature that should be feared. Instead, he just lets Spike sing some sappy song which changes everypony's minds, and that moment completely destroys Thorax's character... if he had any spare to begin with.

My point is that the ending makes Thorax look like a wimp, as if he has to constantly rely on his friends in order to survive. That's nice and all, but what do you do if your friends aren't there to help you? Sure, they're great for emotional support, but it's entirely on you to overcome your weaknesses and flaws to show the world (but mostly those bullying you) what you're made of. Call of the Cutie and Hurricane Fluttershy are two great examples of this.

There's a very easy way to make this episode work without forcing sympathy on Thorax or making the ponies interchangeable with each other.

1. Instead of being born an outright nice guy, make Thorax like the other Changelings, but after the Royal Wedding invasion, he begins to question Chrysalis' rule, and some time after Flurry Heart's birth, he's dispatched along with a small group of Changelings to the Crystal Empire.
2. Have Starlight be more involved along Spike and Thorax. Sure, she might've come off as a third wheel, but she could learn from a perspective that Twilight and the others didn't and would be willing to help Thorax be accepted. (Not only that, it's a perfect build up towards To Where and Back Again.)
3. Although Thorax is initially reluctant to make friends, he still agrees to give it a fair chance and disguises himself as Crystal Hoof per the episode.
4. When Thorax's cover is accidentally blown, the Changelings he was grouped with reveal themselves as the Crystal Guards, take out the Royal Family and kidnap Flurry Heart, finally making Thorax realize who his true friends are.
5. Thorax defects completely from his clan and returns Flurry to Shining Armor. He's about to have Thorax imprisoned, but Spike and Starlight defend him before the Changeling says that they're the best friends he's ever had, and is even willing to accept whatever punishment is in store for him.
6. Although Shining Armor is still suspicious, he concedes (possibly through Flurry) that Thorax was at least willing to return his daughter to him and agrees to give him the benefit of the doubt. By the time To Where and Back Again takes place, he comes to understand that not all Changelings are awful.

See, it doesn't take much effort to make ideas work. Josh Scorcher once said that "there are no bad ideas, only bad executions", and The Times They Are a Changeling was a bad execution, and by extension, a terrible disappointment. A disappointment where characters dogpile on one who A) didn't deserve it, and B) didn't have enough of a fleshed-out personality for the audience to care.

Thorax would eventually turn things around (sort of) in future appearances, but for me, it doesn't change the fact that his introduction ended up in My Little Pony's most disappointing episode, as well as one of the worst executions of the theme I'd ever seen.

At least Flurry Heart is adorable and likable here.

Rating: Terrible (-5/10)

Dungeons & Discords

Written by Nick Confalone

After three consecutive duds, we're finally back in good territory.

It's safe to say season five hadn't been very kind to Discord; Make New Friends pretty much made him the designated butt monkey to the point you ended up sympathizing with him whilst What About Discord... did the exact opposite, only with Twilight in his place. Thankfully, however, this episode brought him back on his feet.

As critical as I've been towards Nick Confalone's writing, especially in Equestria Girls, his best contribution was the chemistry between Spike, Big Mac and Discord. Seriously, can we get someone in the fandom to make a series with them as the main characters? Just do a good job with it; that's all I ask.

That being said, Big Mac doesn't really get much growth in terms of character development. We get hints of Spike having insecurities of his own, and Discord having initial distaste for Ogres and Oubliettes (I've got a hard time spelling it right; just cut me some slack here, will ya?) before he starts to get into it. But Big Mac? Nothing. He's pretty much in the same place he started so... why's he here? At least with The Break Up Break Down (also by Confalone), all three of them had a real chance to shine, and that was two seasons later.

Getting into the guys playing the game, that's where the pacing comes off as really awkward. At one point, we learn the rules as to how the game works and then Discord tries spicing it up by taking them to a jazz club... which they don't bring up again. Also, is it just me, or was it a missed opportunity to expand on the world Spike created? And isn't it kind of strange for Rainbow Dash and Pinkie to join the game because... two members of the Mane Six need to be involved somehow?

Nitpicking aside, I still think it's a pretty decent episode for the most part. The story is relatively fine but the comedy seems to overshadow it at times, which can be a bit frustrating. Still, it's at least a step in the right direction for the season, and however small Fluttershy's role was, it was great, and Opposite Fluttershy was really funny.

Rating: Good (7/10)

Buckball Season

Written by Jennifer Skelly

If Dungeons & Discords is a decent surprise, then this episode is an absolute bombshell.

Fluttershy and Pinkie never really seemed like the type of the pony who'd be into sports, so it was surprising that this episode would actually have them be really good at buckball. Maybe it was a hidden depth that we never knew about up to this point? Yet it still manages to work for this particular episode - of course, I could just be saying that as a Fluttershy fanboy.

It's also nice that we're shown how buckball works. Each team has one of each pony; the earth pony is the offense, the pegasus the defense, and the unicorn the ball catcher. It's simple, but very effective.

Even nicer is how we're given a bit of depth to Snails' character. Before, he was an idiot that you'd want to hit with a baseball bat, but here, he's surprisingly good at catching the balls flung his way. He does it even when he's not looking! That was funny. (Why Rainbow Dash and Applejack didn't ask Twilight, Rarity or Starlight, I'll let that slide.)

There were a few montages scattered throughout the episode, which probably tells me that they didn't have enough material to fill out 22 minutes, but the episode itself was entertaining enough for the audience to see through. Plus, there was a bit of variety in the montages, so it's even more forgivable.

Rating: Excellent (9/10)

The Fault in Our Cutie Marks

Story by Josh Haber and Meghan McCarthy
Written by Ed Valentine

Interesting fact; this episode was originally produced as episode nine, but it was held back to become episode nineteen because the producers wanted a Crusaders-centric episode for later in the second half of the season.

Anyway, this episode was a nice little continuation from On Your Marks, and Gabby's backstory as to how she learned about the Crusaders in Ponyville was a lovely little touch. The continuity with The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone was a neat little addition as well. Her even becoming an honorary Crusader at the end felt pretty satisfying.

The only downside is that they missed on incorporating Zecora into the main story to explain how zebras like her get a cutie mark. She appears during the song and gets a mention from Gabby in the third act, and that's pretty much it. It feels like a missed opportunity.

That issue aside, after flopping with The Cart Before the Ponies, Ed Valentine managed to redeem himself with his last contribution to the show. Fittingly enough, it features the Crusaders as central characters. It's a nice little book end to his time with My Little Pony.

Rating: Excellent (9/10)

My Little Pony Revisited: Season 6, Episodes 8-13

I'm kind of running out of intros for these revisits, but here's the next set of season six re-reviews!

A Hearth's Warming Tail

Written by Michael Vogel

This is going to be a controversial opinion; A Christmas Carol is quite possibly one of the most overdone stories of all time. Heck, it may just as well be the oldest most overdone story of all time. There are so many adaptations of the story tracing back to the late 19th century that you could pretty much put it in literally any franchise. Disney, Thomas and Friends, Looney Tunes, the Muppets, Blackadder, The Flintstones, Doctor Who, the Angry Video Game Nerd, and most recently, My Little Pony.

(In case you might be asking, no; The Emotions' Corner will not be doing a version of the story.)

If you do an adaptation of a well-beloved story, then it's probably best that you add your own flair to the story to make your version stand out. Blackadder is a complete subversion of the story in which he starts out one of the kindest people in England and then ends up being an archetypal Blackadder - rude, selfish, nasty to everyone he meets, and just plain unpleasant. In fact, it's probably my favorite version of the story just for how backwards it is.

But the more adaptations of a classic story there is, the less unique the original story feels. It becomes part of a trope called "Seinfeld" Is Unfunny. There are classic pieces of literature that have had as few as just one straight-forward adaptation - Harry Potter is an excellent example of this - and those adaptations feel unique, almost as if they're a world on their own. If anyone had tried to adapt the series again, then they would have to do a lot to make it stand out from the original 2000s movie series. That, for me, is the sticking point with A Christmas Carol. There are so many versions that it almost feels like writers adapt the story when they have no ideas for a Christmas-themed story.

At this point, you'll notice that I haven't talked about A Hearth's Warming Tail on its own merits. That's because... there's nothing to talk about in terms of story. They also incorporate elements of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but it doesn't work with the Scrooge-like character (Snowfall Frost) because Scrooge himself wanted nothing to do with Christmas. If this was their way of trying to make their adaptation stand out, it fell flat.

The musical format? We've already been there. The story within a story? Done that as well. Heck, the story within a story basically has Snowfall Frost go The Cutie Re-Mark route by changing her ways because without Hearth's Warming, it will result in Armageddon... somehow. It doesn't even help that Snowfall is portrayed by Starlight.

Overall, it's an adaptation that offers nothing new. Come to think of it, it even fails as an adaptation. As Mike Vogel's first script, this set the tone for future stories for him to come as a solo act; bland, uninspired scripts, sometimes poor characterization (here, Twilight and Spike seem to come off as intolerant towards Starlight's views on Hearth's Warming), and gimmicks included as a distraction from the aforementioned problems.

Rating: Bad (1/10)

The Saddle Row Review

Written by Nick Confalone

Speaking of gimmicky plots...!

This was an episode I never understood the hype towards. It's not a holiday-themed script, it doesn't feature a returning or side character as a central focus (Coco Pommel appears briefly for one scene), there's no big Hollywood guest star involved, and it's not a mid-season finale. Out of all of season six's episodes, how did this get ranked as the best a few years back?

I would start off with the story... except the plot is way too complicated for the target audience and casual fans to understand. And I know there are going to be people complaining that "I just don't get it" or some other comment like that, but here's the thing; I'm not you. Only you are you alone.

The basic plot is that the Mane Six try to get Rarity's Manehattan boutique ready for the grand opening tonight - why nopony planned ahead, I don't know either - but it then goes off in so many directions that it's impossible to keep track of what's going on unless you watch it many times over. They try going for a non-linear structure with the Mane Six narrating the events and more flashbacks taking place, but all it does is simply add to the confusion.

And that's before I delve into the humor; it overshadows the story to the point that you're burned out by the time the credits roll; not to mention that the Mane Six constantly suffer trying to get things ready. How is that even funny?

Now don't get me wrong; I'm all for comedy plots, but at least make it work within the story and not force in jokes for the sake of a joke. The complicated plot didn't help either, making the whole episode a jumbled mess of ideas that were thrown onto the wall and then the writers picked what stuck. I complained about Best Gift Ever utilizing too many ideas in 44 minutes, but this episode did the same damn thing in half that runtime!

To those saying this was season six's best episode, I think you may need to answer to my stance towards the episode. It's nothing but a gigantic mess of "story" that doesn't even do a good job at telling a story.

Rating: Bad (1/10)

Applejack's "Day" Off

Story by Neal Dusedau, Michael P. Fox and Wil Fox
Written by Michael P. Fox and Wil Fox

Does anyone remember this episode? If you answered "no", then you've already picked out the biggest problem it faces. It's boring and forgettable.

The story is basically Rarity whining about Applejack not spending time with her (because we needed more shipping fuel for Worst Mane Six Couple) and the latter's chores being handled by Twilight and Spike who screw things up. It's incredibly stock with nothing interesting or new happening. You could probably skip over this episode and lose nothing in the long run.

Rating: Bad (3/10)

Flutter Brutter

Story by Meghan McCarthy
Written by Dave Rapp

Finally! After a string of episodes ranging from mediocre to awful following Gauntlet of Fire, we're back in good episode territory.

If there was any episode I could point to as the one where Fluttershy ended being my favorite of the Mane Six, this is it. She began to come out of her shell in It Ain't Easy Being Breezies, but this episode more or less solidified it, and that made it easier for me to forget about Scare Master.

Here, Fluttershy refuses to take Zephyr's laziness and even chews him out for messing up their mother's flowers and throwing out their father's cloud collection (why the parents don't do anything about it, I'll let it slide). In the earlier seasons, she'd have been a doormat... unless this was a frequent occurrence and frustration for her. But for how much his behavior annoys her, Fluttershy deeply cares about Zephyr like all siblings should. Unless the sibling was really that bad.

Personally, I think hanging around Rainbow Dash a lot has kind rubbed off on Fluttershy, and like her friend, Rainbow refuses to tolerate Zephyr's laziness and even zaps him for doing so. We don't see it, but it must've been really funny, I bet. A nitpick, but why did Applejack and Pinkie not help Zephyr in finding a job? Time constraints and a possible lack of ideas I could understand, but they feel like they're just... there.

But the moral is where the episode really shines; be responsible and self-reliant. Yeah, you don't really need to watch TV to understand this, but it works for Zephyr's arc in this episode. And he even thanks Fluttershy for not giving up on him. Of course, he does still stay with their parents until he can find a place, but then again, character development doesn't always happen overnight. Plus, he probably understood that it would be ages before he'd get a paycheck.

It's also really funny how a writer can go from writing one of the season's worst episodes to one of the best in a short amount of time. Though given that Meghan McCarthy provided the story to Dave Rapp, that might've helped things out.

Rating: Excellent (9/10)

Spice Up Your Life

Written by Michael Vogel

And it's back to mediocre territory we go...

No, it's not because of Pinkie that I don't think the episode holds up. Believe it or not, she's actually very well-written. She already knew what made the Tasty Treat stand out, and was even supportive of Saffron and her father keeping it that way. In fact, I dare say it's one of her best portrayals in the show.

Speaking of which, it's Rarity who falls flat, believe it or not. She thinks the only way to save the Tasty Treat is to be like every other restaurant. Yeah, this completely contradicts what was learned in Canterlot Boutique; if everyone followed the same trend, then you don't stand out at all. So you'd think she'd have learned from that episode about following trends, but... nope.

Yes, granted, she's not a chef, but still. And even though she does call out Zesty Gourmand for being hypocritical at the end, that doesn't Rarity any less of an idiot in this episode. It's disappointing for her character, and it hurts the message slightly.

Other than that, it's typical Vogel. A plot that isn't interesting (though at least this time, he didn't try retelling a story that had been done to death in media) and a character being rewritten just to allow the story to happen. Surprisingly, no gimmicks are involved, which is kind of ironic since the Tasty Treat had its own gimmick. It's not Vogel's worst episode as there are interesting elements here and there, but it still doesn't stick out in terms of theme or story.

Rating: Bad (3/10)

Stranger Than Fan Fiction

Written by Josh Haber and Michael Vogel

Speaking of Vogel, when it comes down to solo scripts, they're pretty bland and insipid. But when it comes to collaborations, his problems seem to disappear. A similar thing, I think, can be said for Josh Haber (who also co-wrote this episode) and Nicole Dubuc (unless it's a gimmicky piece of dreck like Sparkle's Seven), but they do at least have their own individual styles of writing which, for me, makes them stand out more.

But getting back to this episode; you know how Fame and Misfortune received hate for having a black and white perspective on the fanbase when it comes to discussions and how characters should be perceived? Well, this episode is that except infinitely more entertaining, and the perspective on the fanbase is more of a shade of gray.

Not only that, the satire is far more subtle; the first act shows how sometimes, a small disagreement can lead to the breaking of friendships, sometimes for good, which I know all too well myself. Especially if it involves something regarding a popular franchise... (I could make the comparisons all day!)

But in fairness to Quibble Pants, I don't think he means to be condescending when it comes to his stance on the later Daring Do books. In any case, it was likely poor communication and how he presented it that got Rainbow Dash upset with him. She prefers it when she does cool stunts and he prefers the titular character solving puzzles. Both of which they present to the other really well.

It's also really funny how oblivious Quibble was to the danger he and Rainbow were in when kidnapped; he couldn't tell the line from fantasy and reality until much later in the adventure. Just listen to how casual he is about being captured. It's hilarious!

When I first reviewed it, I called it the best of season six, and three years later? I still think it's the best of season six. It's funny as hell, the story is gripping, and the character interactions were some of the best of the entire series. Oh, and did I mention that Patton Oswalt killed it with his performance?

Rating: Excellent (10/10)

My Little Pony Revisited: Season 6, Episodes 1-7

Five seasons down, one more to go. We've now reached the season that, for a couple of years, I've declared the worst of My Little Pony. Let's see if that comment still rings true, shall we?

The Crystalling

Written by Josh Haber

If you've watched the sixth episode of The Emotions' Corner, To Glimmer or Not To Glimmer?, then you'll already know about how I feel towards her roles during season six. However, for this revisit (as well as revisits of every other episode she's in), I'm taking Starlight Glimmer's roles out of the equation, and instead, I'll be talking about the episodes on their own merits. One thing I'll say about Starlight's role here, however, is that it's funny that she doesn't know her way around Twilight's castle and yet in The Cutie Re-Mark, she knew where the throne room was no problem.

Anyway, the first outing of season six, The Crystalling, is a boring, poorly-paced slog.

The premiere is one of two stories; one focusing on Starlight and Sunburst, and the other focusing on the wayward yet adorable newborn known as Flurry Heart. I'll get the former out of the way first. Long and short, it's as disposable as Sunburst himself. You could remove it entirely and lose nothing.

Moving onto the Flurry Heart story, a.k.a. the main story, it's not much better than the other subplot. The main conflict is basically The Crystal Empire minus the Sombra invasion. Not to mention how something as natural as a snowstorm is barely even a threat. Sure, there's the dreadful thought of hypothermia, but seriously? Is that really the best they could do?

Also, I know I said I wasn't talking about Starlight's role in great detail, but considering that Twilight is her teacher, you'd think the latter would show a bit more responsibility in helping the former with her first friendship lesson. Yes, I know the birth of Flurry Heart and the accidental destruction of the Crystal Heart were a big deal, but still. (And no, lampshading it doesn't make it less of an issue.) Even then, like I mentioned, why did Twilight bother bringing Starlight to the Crystal Empire to begin with?

On top of that, following a list to make friends just feels like an insult to the target audience's intelligence. Given that Twilight is the Princess of Friendship, you'd think she'd have a bit more common sense, especially since it's a lesson she learned back in season one!

Overall, this is the worst series premiere because there's nothing to gain out of watching it. The story is blatantly unoriginal, the pacing is sluggish, and Sunburst on whole is absolutely worthless. If you want an episode that does Flurry Heart justice, there's A Flurry of Emotions from next season, so just watch that instead.

Rating: Terrible (0/10)

The Gift of the Maud Pie

Story by Michael P. Fox, Wil Fox and Josh Haber
Written by Michael P. Fox and Wil Fox

This is pretty much an MLP-styled retelling of The Gift of the Magi (as if the title didn't already give it away), but is it really necessary to copy plotlines from traditional Christmas stories when the writers have no ideas?

That's a bit harsh, in fairness, because this is a sweet episode and portrays Pinkie and Maud's sisterly relationship in a more down to earth light. The heart's in the right place, especially with Pinkie willing to do anything to get something - anything - for Maud. Especially with that rock pouch. That being said, in the first act at least, the gag with Pinkie's cannon gets repetitive fast, and Pinkie having to reluctantly give it away for the rock pouch must've been really hard for her.

It's also not very common for Pinkie and Rarity to get a starring role together. The latter's role here served as a nice little build up to The Saddle Row Review, and seeing her interact with the Pie sisters and reacting to their interactions were funny. It's even nicer how the ending resolved Rarity's little subplot. But the episode based around that was... we'll get to that.

Admittedly, there's not much else to talk about here. However, I've kind of fallen out of love with Maud in recent years, mostly due to frequent exposure after her debut. I liked her role here, don't get me wrong, but if you're going to feature a popular character, then their role needs to make sense for the plot, not just shoehorned for the sake of pleasing older fans. Once in a while appearances are very special, but if you feature a character too often, then their appearances no longer feel special.

Rating: Excellent (9/10)

On Your Marks

Story by Dave Polsky
Written by Josh Haber and Dave Polsky

When I first got into the show, Apple Bloom wasn't really a character I'd rank in my personal Top 10. I mean, she was nice enough, but that was pretty much it. And then this episode came around.

Even when I first watched it back when it first aired, I could relate to the situation Apple Bloom found herself in with trying to find something she liked doing. Heck, her solo song hit home for me. There are things I'm good at and things that, at best, I can do an okay job and could probably work better as part of a team. Finding something you'd like to do for a living on your own is never an easy task. And when you've achieved a goal you set yourself on doing... well, where do you go next?

I should probably get to the story. This is how I feel Crusaders of the Lost Mark should've gone; no rubbish with redeeming an outright bully for no reason other than to contrive an ending, no gluing two stories back to back. Just simple character growth and development.

As a matter of fact, the episode itself is very character driven. Seeing the Crusaders talking to the Cake twins was adorable, and them interacting with Bulk Biceps was hilarious. But the best dynamic of the lot was Apple Bloom helping Tender Taps embrace his true destiny (maybe that was also a nod to Michelle's dancing talent in real life?). Heck, the Crusaders trying out each others' favorite hobbies and promptly failing where one of them succeeds was funny.

Overall, there isn't much to say about an episode that just does everything right. And the moral about finding one's purpose in life was fantastic. It's too bad this episode doesn't enough recognition...

Rating: Excellent (10/10)

Gauntlet of Fire

Written by Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco

Speaking of fan favorites...!

Long and short, this episode is everything Dragon Quest should've been. Proper world-building with the dragons, a view on the dragons that isn't black and white, and a moral that's not horribly botched.

One of the dragon traditions is that every eon (I think that's what it is), the current Dragon Lord must step down and whoever claims the bloodstone scepter will be his successor. That happens to be Ember, his daughter. She's a cool character, very much the antithesis of Garble by proving not all dragons are jerks for the sake of being jerks. She's even willing to work with Spike to win the Gauntlet of Fire and learned about helping others in need.

And then there's Garble; still the jerk he was in Dragon Quest, but all the humiliation he suffered trying to beat Spike and Ember was very much justified. And being forced by Spike to hug every dragon he comes across was just the cherry on top of the humiliation cake. Although how Spike, Rarity and Twilight knew his name despite it not being said once in his debut, I don't know.

That minor problem aside, it's Spike's greatest episode since Equestria Games, and the morals about size being insignificant and emotional strength being greater than physical strength were both very well done. It's easy to see why people love this episode; in fact, a number of my favorites from the show overall are by Joanna and Kristine.

Rating: Excellent (10/10)

No Second Prances

Written by Nick Confalone

This is another episode I've had a personal hatred for ever since it aired. But I was never really satisfied with the original review because I didn't delve into the full details about the problems I had.

Let's start off with the contrivances in the story; first of which being Trixie's behavior. After Magic Duel, her last appearance, you'd think she'd become a more humble pony, right? Well, not here, because this episode completely backpedals her character to how it was in Boast Busters. Come to think of it, every appearance she makes afterward seems to ignore her character development from Magic Duel, so what was the point of said episode in the first place?

And then there's Twilight, who went through an entire character arc in the first five seasons that was completely ignored to allow this story to happen! And this is because she outright tries to keep Starlight from befriending Trixie! Yes, I know Twilight has had bad experiences with Trixie before, but no matter what you say, this is not the kind of behavior expected from Twilight, especially as it goes against her role as the Princess of Friendship.

Also, if we're expected to believe Twilight really is the Princess of Friendship, then why did she still hold a grudge against Trixie, something that she'd surely have gotten over by now, for taking over Ponyville under the influence of the Alicorn Amulet, and yet gave Starlight a chance despite almost causing a paradox? Either Twilight is paranoid, hypocritical asshole, or the writers like to selectively choose their own continuity (especially given how bloated the writing staff is for every season since the fourth). And frankly, neither option is off the table. In fact, this is probably the episode where Twilight's idiotic behavior stems from.

Then there's the pacing; it's some of the worst of the entire show. The first act is completely pointless - you could cut it out entirely and nothing would be lost - and the references to past actions are not only forced down your throat, they're a constant distraction from the story. Yes, we get that Starlight and Trixie have done things they're not proud of, can we please move on from that?

And now comes the ending where Trixie seems to attempt suicide. Nick Confalone said that wasn't the intention, but whatever it was, I'm sure it would not have been any better than what was shown (though, to be fair, no explanation's better than a bad one). Before this, Twilight confronts both Starlight and Trixie about it and even breaks up their friendship, potentially resulting in Trixie attempting to get herself eaten! And what does Twilight get for her behavior? Nothing! No punishment, no calling out, she's just left to her duties as if nothing happened. And no, saying sorry doesn't easily fix the problem, because by the nineteen-and-a-half-minute mark, it's too little too late. Is it just me, or did I almost want Starlight and Trixie to both punch Twilight for how stupid she was?

This episode is abhorrent, plain and simple. The moral about forgiveness is botched so horribly that it paints the lead character as an unlikable Karma Houdini, the implications surrounding the ending are horrifying, and the overall product just... sucks.

If there's anything this episode taught me, it's that Nick Confalone seems to have no clue as to how to write for a kids' show, completely screwing up the themes he had to work with. And considering that he also wrote Forgotten Friendship which introduced us to the sociopath known as Wallflower Blush, it's not out of the question. If these scripts were written for an adult series, I'd forgive it somewhat, but for children? No! Just... no!

Rating: Atrocious (-10/10)

Newbie Dash

Story by Dave Polsky and Dave Rapp
Written by Dave Rapp

Same situation, different episode. Except this time, they're teaching children about what it's like to be in the military. Now, there's a big problem with this; the minimum age (at least in the United States) for joining the military is around 17 or 18, depending on whether you have parental consent. My Little Pony is aimed at young girls, so how many are expected to have a relative who is/was in the military? And how many of those would even care for the show to begin with? Hell, how are kids even expected to relate to the episode's events?

Yeah, the subject matter for the episode is far too mature by the show's standards. But that isn't the only problem this episode faces. Essentially, this is the episode where Rainbow Dash officially joins the Wonderbolts, and they portray it in a completely appalling manner.

On her first day, Rainbow Dash makes a mistake and the rest of the Wonderbolts never let her forget about the incident and keep calling her "Rainbow Crash", a traumatizing name from her foalhood. And she never talks to Spitfire and/or Soarin - the two Wonderbolts she has a close friendship with - about this. Yes, I know that if she did, the plot wouldn't exist, but if that was literally all Dash had to do, then the story (and by extension, the torment she receives) is pointless.

Because of this, Rainbow Dash gets treated like dirt all because of that incident, and whilst you sympathize with her, you still have to wonder what she even sees in the Wonderbolts to begin with. Yes, it's been her lifelong dream, but what kind of message does this tell children? Keep working alongside your heroes when they keep treating you like crap and act like jerks? That is seriously messed up!

This episode is a terrible way to conclude Rainbow Dash's arc. It's mean-spirited to her for no reason except for being mean-spirited for the sake of being mean-spirited, the theme is, again, botched up so badly, and the overall allegory for the military just doesn't work for the series. Oh, and the Wonderbolts' turnaround at the end feels extremely forced and felt like it was done just to make Rainbow Dash feel special. There is nothing good about this episode at all.

Rating: Atrocious (-10/10)

The Problems with My Little Pony's Last Season (So Far)

It's safe to say that many of my views on My Little Pony's ninth and final season of the show have been controversial, to say the least. It's even gotten to the point I got harassed over my views on The Last Crusade and Between Dark and Dawn, but to put things into perspective, and hopefully shut up those complaining about my views being "wrong" (for the record, no one's perspective is right or wrong - people have the right to say how they feel, whether or not you agree with them; it's a non-issue), I'll go over all the problems I've had with season nine thus far. All I want to say my piece and leave it at that.

Introduction

By the time My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic comes to an end, it will have lasted for nine years, which is a fairly long time for a children's show to run. However, by comparison, The Fairly OddParents had been running for sixteen years, likely having ended due to Butch Hartman's departure from Nickelodeon; SpongeBob SquarePants has been running for twenty years and is still going on to this day despite Stephen Hillenberg's death; The Simpsons has been going on for thirty years, thirty-two if you include the shorts that were a part of The Tracey Ullman Show; Thomas the Tank Engine's thirty-five year history is well-documented, and then there are the shows running at fifty years or longer like Sesame Street and Jeopardy!.

Which leads me onto the question; does longevity equate to quality? The short answer is, no, it doesn't. As Mr. Enter explains in his review for The Big Fairy Share Scare:

"After about four seasons, most shows start to decay quickly. We may see the signs before then - the show will start reusing concepts, flanderizing characters, have more and more animation errors, and the people who care about the show, either out of passion or for monetary gain, will desperately do anything in their power to keep it alive. And that this effort tends to make the show worse and worse."

He didn't know this at the time - January 24, 2016, when the most recent episode was The Cutie Re-Mark, where we saw Starlight get integrated into the main cast - but that quote seemed to have been written with My Little Pony in mind. Except maybe the animation errors, but you get the point.

The Problem with Re-Hashings

It would be fair to say that for the last few seasons, the show has been reusing older concepts and tried to either freshen them up, fix up some of the mistakes from the original story, or do neither. It Ain't Easy Being Breezies from the fourth season is a prime example of how to fix up an older episode, Putting Your Hoof Down from two seasons previous. Not only did this episode portray Fluttershy in a more sympathetic light (and even strengthened her character development), the moral was also handled correctly about finding the right balance between tough love and tenderness.

On a similar note, Gauntlet of Fire fixed up most, if not all, of the mistakes Dragon Quest suffered by expanding on dragon culture, showing that not every dragon was a complete jerk, showcasing Spike's strengths very well, and keeping Garble an antagonist (for three more seasons, at least).

But re-hashing older ideas can often be a negative. Every Little Thing She Does practically rewrote Lesson Zero and tried to change a few things to stand out from the season two episode but flopped; 28 Pranks Later amplified all the problems The Mysterious Mare Do Well had, and The Mean 6 completely undid Chrysalis' deviousness and charisma that she had in To Where and Back Again and made The Return of Harmony better than it already was.

Long and short, season nine thus far has been the nadir for rehashing older concepts. An episode most guilty of this, according to many fans, myself included, was Uprooted, which was a near beat for beat retelling of Castle Sweet Castle with the Young Six taking the place of the Mane Six (barring Twilight and Spike) and the Tree of Harmony taking the place of Golden Oak Library.

However, that pales in comparison to The Point of No Return; the episode was yet another retreading of Lesson Zero, with bits of Amending Fences thrown into the mix, made even more tedious and unfunny, and it completely assassinates Twilight's character development. The same thing can be said about Between Dark and Dawn in which the B-plot copied the conflict from Princess Spike and made Twilight look more incompetent than usual, and it back-pedaled Celestia and Luna's development from A Royal Problem mixed with Road to Friendship. Heck, Common Ground and She's All Yak felt interchangeable in how they handled the "be yourself" moral, and they were back to back.

There's more, but I feel I've already made my point. Watching every episode of the season up to this point, I feel as though every episode thus far has been chopped up and spliced together, because they were chopped up and spliced together. Nothing has any sort of coherence to it, which brings me onto the next point...

Where's the Big Story Arc?

The big story arc of the show is that Twilight is to be taking over for Celestia and Luna at the end of the season, and by extension, the show. It was originally conceived by Lauren Faust when she was working on the school, but the more I think about it, the more I feel like they just dug it up because, according to Hasbro, "it's the last season and we got to end it somehow!"

In The Beginning of the End, we get the bombshell that Celestia and Luna are planning to retire and pass on all of their duties to Twilight and her friends. But then Sombra returns after being revived and even takes over the minds of everyone in Ponyville and Canterlot before being defeated again.

Then what?

The only other episode to feature the four major villains - Grogar, Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow - was Frenemies, but that was it. Similarly, the only episode that's aired so far that even mentioned Celestia and Luna retiring soon was Between Dark and Dawn, and there will be an episode focusing on their last Summer Sun Celebration as leaders of Equestria this August (The Summer Sun Setback).

Save for a few mentions about Sombra's recent invasion, there's nothing about season nine that actually feels like it's the last season of the show, or that there's an arc going on. How differently would Sparkle's Seven have fared, I wonder, if it had aired during season six? Remove the references to Sombra and the story remains exactly the same.

There is no story arc taking place, and there never has been. Hell, there's no reason for this arc to take place at all. Twilight and her friends already have their own duties and lives to worry about, so there is no reason for Celestia and Luna to heap all of their duties onto them for the finale. It all feels like there was no thought put into it whatsoever. You could easily be forgiven into thinking that there's no arc going on.

Continuity Confusion and Parental Problems

"Ya know, some ponies would dream of having parents like that ... I never thought I'd be the best at anything, because nopony ever told me." - Scootaloo, 5/20/2017

Two seasons, five episodes and a feature length movie later, we're finally introduced to Scootaloo's parents. In the middle of the last season. Where do I begin with the problems?

First of all, they come from literally nowhere. We're given no build up to their presence in Equestria and they turn up just for the sake of The Last Crusade happening. When A Canterlot Wedding was first announced, people freaked out over Shining Armor being Twilight's big brother despite that we'd never seen him or Cadance before, but A) there was enough of an idea as to why that was the case, and B) most importantly, it was during the second season of the show, back when it was a huge deal. And since that episode had aired, the backlash had long since died down and Shining and Cadance have been more or less accepted into the series.

With fifteen episodes left to go by the time of airing, we're suddenly forced to care about a pair of new characters we've never seen before in a shallow attempt at building upon an already well-established character.

When the English dub of The Last Crusade was leaked after its premature airing in Italy, fans went nuts over it, but by the time it had aired for real in America, the reaction had cooled off, and some began to notice the flaws of the episode, which brings me onto the next problem; the implication that Scootaloo's parents don't care for her.

Scootaloo builds them up as being awesome parents, but Parental Glideance implied that her relationship with them wasn't that great. Heck, Flight to the Finish never saw Scootaloo with a caretaker or guardian in sight. The pieces do not go together.

By the time, Shutter Snap and Mane Allgood finally return to Scootaloo's life, they plan on bringing her with them to Shire Lanka. All of a sudden they care for her, and that was after Sombra's recent attack. Never mind the fact that Scootaloo had survived Nightmare Moon's return, Discord's return, Chrysalis' first invasion, the Everfree Forest attacking Ponyville, Tirek's rampage, the invasion of the Storm King, and just before Sombra's revival, Cozy Glow's brief reign of terror. So them worrying about Sombra's attack on Ponyville and Canterlot completely loses merit when you realize that Scootaloo's parents never bothered to check on her after the previous invasions.

If Shutter Snap and Mane Allgood actually loved their daughter, then why did they never bother checking on her after all the invasions in the previous eight seasons and the movie? On a similar note, if they care for their jobs, then why did they have a daughter in the first place? Either they're complete idiots, neglectful parents, or a combination of both. They might as well be the worst parents in Equestria (at least with Spoiled Rich, she was intentionally written as a bad parent).

When you're a parent, being there for your children should always be top priority, regardless of what job you have. Because they didn't bother being there for her, Shutter Snap and Mane Allgood completely missed out on many of Scootaloo's great achievements which seems to imply to me that their (apparent) sole appearance says, "You should leave your only child to other family members, and they'll still accept you regardless of how focused you were on your job." That is an incredibly harmful message as far as I'm aware, especially to children that may actually have neglectful parents.

Fan-Service Taken Too Far?

I start this section off with a controversial statement; the Brony fandom has been pandered to for far too long. Now obviously, this is nothing new. Fan-service has been incorporated into the show since the early days (season two's The Last Roundup is the earliest example I can think of). The thing with fan-service is, it's a double-edged sword. There are ways to incorporate fan-service properly (Amending Fences), and there are ways that it has been incorporated poorly (Slice of Life).

In the case of season nine, more often than not, it tends to fall into the latter category.

Case in point, Aunts Holiday and Lofty. Them being talked about as an LGBT couple was a huge deal before the episode aired in America, except A) we already saw it in Italy and B) we already knew about them from a chapter book from two years ago (Riddle of the Rusty Horseshoe, to be exact). In retrospect, there was nothing to be hyped up about, especially as they overshadowed the entirety of The Last Crusade.

In my review, I praised it for being progressive, but now, the novelty has worn off and instead, it just comes across as hollow pandering to the LGBT fanbase - and in case anyone starts stabbing their keyboards accusing me for homophobia, let me make this clear: I am not anti-LGBT. Whatever a person's sexuality is, I'll support them, unless they're an incredibly vile person. (The personality is completely separate from a person's sexuality, for the record.)

Shoving a pair of LGBT characters in the middle of the last season almost sounds like it's something they couldn't bother doing in the early seasons. Not only that, making a press statement about your characters being gay could lead to PR trouble; just look at what happened when it was confirmed that LeFou in the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast was gay, only to have him dance with a male partner for a few seconds during the final scene. (You'd have to watch it for yourself to know what I'm talking about.) Just imagine if Dumbledore was outright "outed" in the late 1990s; how many people would have cared about Harry Potter after that?

To be honest, I feel that the Thomas and Friends episode Rosie is Red did far more for the LGBT community than The Last Crusade ever did with the two workmen looking at each other lovingly. And this was an episode where that little moment didn't even need to be included!

Heck, the entirety of the Good Omens miniseries on Amazon Prime contributed a lot to the LGBT community, largely due to the fantastic chemistry between Michael Sheen as Aziraphale and David Tennant as Crowley. Yeah, I know the book said that angels don't have a sexuality unless they really make the effort, but still. If anyone told me they were in love, I'd believe it.

What do Holiday and Lofty contribute? That Scootaloo has a family? That's pretty much it. It felt as though the writers just didn't care and said it was all in the manual. Wow, I focused a lot on the LGBT topic more than I initially intended.

Getting back to the fan-pandering issue, a general theme I noticed is that the writers seem to include fan favorite characters purely for the sake of pleasing older fans. The sole possible exception seems to be Zephyr Breeze in Sparkle's Seven, as an idea by Ashleigh Ball cause apparently, she seems to like seeing Rainbow Dash suffer (no disrespect to Miss Ball, of course). Not to mention Zephyr isn't exactly everyone's favorite...

Then in the episode immediately after, The Point of No Return, Moon Dancer makes a speaking cameo at the Tasty Treat and was rendered redundant for the rest of the episode. Moving on.

Terramar and Mud Briar both made a return in Student Counsel alongside semi-regulars Maud Pie and Trixie, almost as if the writers were telling us, "Hey! These guys were introduced in the previous season! Remember them? Anyone? Huh?!" (Okay, maybe they didn't say that, but you get the point.) It almost feels like a distraction from the fact that the episode was a boring, sluggishly paced slog, though from what I read, Mud Briar is at least becoming more self-aware, so... maybe not as annoying?

Apart from Celestia and Luna getting a starring role in Between Dark and Dawn, the song featured a lot of cameos ranging from Discord to the Flim Flam brothers to Thorax to even a cameo by Capper. But they're so brief it's easy to miss them; they come and go quicker than a Stan Lee cameo (R.I.P., you utter legend). I only mention that now because it had nothing to do with the remainder of the episode.

And then there's the presence of Scootaloo's family which... I've moaned about enough already.

The only episode where it seemed to make sense to bring back a fan favorite was Common Ground with Quibble Pants. Not only did the episode expand on his personality beyond Daring Do, it even made him a more relatable character to the audience. And that was so far the best episode of the season.

The Stories Equestria May Never Tell

So instead of just pandering to older fans for the sake of pandering to older fans, why couldn't the writers have instead focused on story arcs that needed expanding upon?

The Young Six potentially becoming the new Element bearers is a great example of potential not being built upon. They were one of the best parts of season eight, if not the best. Heck, I'd argue the whole season did the school concept way better than Equestria Girls ever did. If School Raze and Uprooted were anything to go by, we could've had a great story arc to show them becoming the next bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Instead, what they got thus far were a pair of stories that could easily have been in season eight. That's a huge waste right there.

Not only that, there was opportunity to have some closure with Babs Seed and the Manehattan Crusaders. What we got instead was a voiceless cameo in The Last Crusade. It's most frustrating when you consider that the last time she got a mention was getting her cutie mark in Bloom and Gloom, but even then, it felt like an afterthought.

What about seeing the Cake twins grow up and start to enter school? Or Flurry Heart? Or how Coco Pommel is managing fashion business on her own? Or Big Mac and Sugar Belle taking their relationship to a new level with marriage? Heck, what is Moon Dancer like outside of her circle of friends, especially as she's been given nothing since Amending Fences? Anything would've been great! But no, we had to focus (or as much focus as the season will allow) on a Princess who doesn't deserve what she'll achieve by the finale...

Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Danger

Out of all the Mane Six post-season five, Twilight has received the worst treatment when it comes to character derailment. Yeah, Pinkie can be a mind-numbing idiot at her worst, but she still displays common sense... sometimes. Rainbow Dash can turn into an over-the-top jerkish smartass, but again, that's only on the odd occasion. Applejack sometimes abuses her Element and Starlight tends to get the short end of the stick from the writers, but neither get starring roles that often.

But Twilight? In a lot of her recent starring roles, with exceptions such as Top Bolt and A Flurry of Emotions, she's either an insufferable hypocrite (No Second Prances) or an over-reacting idiot (Marks for Effort). Season nine has Twilight at her worst in the latter category, and cranked up to eleven.

The stress over taking over for Celestia and Luna I can understand... sort of, but at this point, Twilight should be a lot more composed than she was in Lesson Zero. I mean, in Sparkle's Seven, she's practically hellbent on beating Shining Armor just for a tinfoil crown - I think it should've been thrown away by now - making the 200th episode feel more anticlimactic and low stakes than it really was.

It didn't help that it was followed up by The Point of No Return, the one episode where I practically gave up on Twilight as a character. I wouldn't remember that episode at all if it wasn't the one I decided Twilight had completely lost it. The only thing I genuinely remember is that it's a terrible rip-off of Lesson Zero.

If that episode was the point where I gave up on Twilight, then Between Dark and Dawn was where I felt that Celestia and Luna will have blood on their hooves when she takes over. For me, that was the real point of no return for the final season. The season being boring, rehashing ideas and doing nothing with them, not bothering with the potential in side characters. That episode was the straw that broke the pony's back.

Put simply, the episode told me that when Twilight takes over for Celestia and Luna, things will fall into complete chaos and probably end up being worse than before the events of Nightmare Moon's return. In the real world, people are being killed because of incompetent politicians not doing their job properly. To suggest that Equestria will be a mess when Twilight starts to rule it is one of the most horrifying things the show has ever suggested, and she is supposed to be the character we root for. At this stage, I feel like rooting for Grogar and his Legion of Doom, even if Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow have lost their edge (though Cozy Glow had none to begin with, but I digress).

Equestria needs a leader it can trust to feel safe, and Twilight Sparkle isn't. Not anymore. Her character development has been completely undermined by her behavior in season nine alone, and it's absolutely heartbreaking to see her character twisted and broken beyond recognition. Proofreading your scripts is important, and Between Dark and Dawn is a prime example as to why; otherwise, you'll just end up implanting unfortunate implications.

"But if Twilight isn't fit to rule Equestria when Celestia and Luna retire, who is?" That's easy to answer; Fluttershy would've been a far better choice than Twilight. Let's look back at her greatest moments.

Dragonshy. Hurricane Fluttershy. Keep Calm and Flutter On. It Ain't Easy Being Breezies.

Even if we don't know, Fluttershy has always been the true hero of the series. Not Twilight - Fluttershy. Whether it be confronting a dragon about his snoring being harmful to his surroundings, helping Discord learn to change his ways, helping the Breezies home, or helping to provide the last wingpower to create a tornado to lift the required water for Cloudsdale's rainy season, Fluttershy has always been the hero of My Little Pony. Maybe not in number or profile, but unquestionably spirit.

She's the character who you cried for when she remembered the trauma of being mocked in flight school for her flying abilities. And then you urged her on to provide that little bit of wingpower needed to complete the tornado, and then you cheered for her when she succeeded.

The long and short is that Fluttershy had the strongest character arc out of the Mane Six. From the start, she was incredibly shy and withdrawn, afraid to stand up for herself, but as the series progressed, she grew more and more out of her shell to the point she chewed out Garble for his bullying of Spike. And the sad irony is that as she was the most popular of the Mane Six when the series began, people seemed to stop caring about her as it went on, and nobody noticed her character growth.

That is why I feel Fluttershy would've been a better choice for Princess than Twilight. That is why she's my favorite out of the Mane Six. And that is why I love her most recent outings like A Health of Information.

If you're a Twilight Sparkle fan, stick to the first five seasons. At least back then, her freakouts and moments of self-doubt could be defended, even in It's About Time to an extent. But no thanks to Gail Simone in her sole script thus far, Twilight's charm as a character has been destroyed, and I don't think there's a very high chance she'll ever recover from it.

Not-So-Terrifying Villains?

I've already brought up the poor messages implying that parental abandonment is perfectly acceptable as long as the kid is on good terms with you (The Last Crusade) and that someone diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia is perfectly fit to rule a land (The Point of No Return, Between Dark and Dawn). But there's one more that I've yet to bring up...

Frenemies felt my wrath when I first covered it. It's storyline was reprehensible, and the overall message practically spelled out to me that "criminals are not bad, they're just misunderstood". That may be true with some, but what happens if you translate that message to focus on criminals who don't care at all for what they're doing?

In the episode, Cozy Glow, Tirek and Chrysalis practically felt no shame over what they have done. In School Raze, Twilight's Kingdom, A Canterlot Wedding and To Where and Back Again, it was made crystal clear that they were villains the audience should root against. And then all of a sudden, Frenemies basically undermines all of that by saying they weren't evil villains all along working for an even bigger baddie, just misunderstood. Hell, it even implied that they might go through a villain redemption for the finale!

There are way too many villain redemptions as it is, but if you give that to Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow, it will completely undermine what made then great villains to begin with (or in Cozy's case, more hateful than she already is). Their one episode together was practically conceived without a care for any negative implications it could have in the series. In fact, that one sentence summarizes how poor the final season has been thus far.

Final Thoughts

It was T.S. Eliot who once said, "The world will end not with a bang, but with a whimper." That one line sums up My Little Pony and its final season perfectly. It almost felt as though Hasbro didn't care anymore about what Lauren Faust had created and barely put any effort into making season nine really feel like it was the last season. A lot of the episodes felt like they could've been in any of the previous eight and nothing would change.

The sad fact is that there's a good season hidden somewhere. Seriously, if they didn't force in a character arc about Twilight taking over Equestria, it would've served as a nice, gentle goodbye to the fans, showcasing perfectly what made the show great to begin with.

But as season nine currently stands, the trailer Hasbro released on the official YouTube account feels like a lie. The previous eight seasons had more effort put into them, and even with season six, which I used to consider the worst of the show, at least there it had some great ideas hidden among the bad ones. Season nine had no ideas, and even when they did, they were terrible ones.

Which brings me onto the million dollar question; do I think the second half of the season will be better? No. While yes, we're getting the return of Weird Al Yankovic as Cheese Sandwich and a hopefully interesting finale to cap off the show, it still doesn't change the fact that to me, the first half of season nine has been a complete mess and only exists so Hasbro could flog it off to the world as the last season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

My Little Pony Revisited: Season 5, Episodes 20-26

Season five has been quite interesting to revisit, to say the least, but in which direction will these last six episodes take it?

The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows

Written by Gillian M. Berrow

There's only two problems that this episode faces; the 22-minute timeframe doesn't do the episode much justice at all. To be fair, the episode as a whole is far more comedy driven than plot driven, kind of like how SpongeBob became successful. And this sort of branches off onto the other problem. Why was it stated that Shining Armor and Cadance were held up only to turn up a minute after it was said? A bit of false tension? Either way, it's pointless and just there to pad out the runtime.

Nitpicking aside, this is a really funny episode with a simple conflict that fit Pinkie really well. It's also ironic she'd go through the stress of trying to keep the secret away from Twilight, especially after what she told Twilight in Green Isn't Your Color. Not to mention how funny it is the way she reacts to anything relating to Shining Armor and Cadance having a baby.

Rating: Excellent (9/10)

Hearthbreakers

Written by Nick Confalone

Considering the hit-or-miss quality of the middle season thus far, I think it says a lot when an episode of (mostly) average quality turns up twenty in.

I like the idea of two families coming together over the holidays to learn about differing traditions from one another, but unfortunately, it suffers by having the exact same problems that Party Pooped did (ironically, also by Confalone). One tribe offends the other despite their good intentions, and both involve Pinkie Pie.

One difference, however, is that Pinkie's family are given somewhat distinct personalities as opposed to the yaks being interchangeable with each other. But even then, they kind of feel like afterthoughts; we can see Marble Pie is introverted and Limestone can be aggressive... but that's it. As for the parents? Erm... kind of religious?

In addition, the "get the exciting family to bond with the not-so-exciting family" has vague shades of Maud Pie (the episode, not the character), and we get a recap of Hearth's Warming Eve (again, the episode, not the holiday). The latter is kind of unnecessary, but then again, some first-time viewers watching this prior to the season two episode may not know why the holiday is celebrated, so I guess I can understand why it was included.

Apart from that though, the overall result is pretty boring for the most part. Inoffensive, but you'll likely forget about it after watching it. At least the plot is coherent and the Pie family doesn't border on over-the-top unlikable so... that's a nice thing to know?

Rating: Okay (4/10)

What About Discord?

Written by Neal Dusedau

Well, well, well. We meet again. An episode that's so hated it practically sealed Neal Dusedau's fate as a writer for the show. But is it really that awful?

Let's start off with the fact that all of a sudden, the Mane Six (barring Twilight) are friends with Discord. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie (sort of), I can understand, but why Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash? Because last I checked, they're usually not on good terms with Discord.

The pacing in this episode is horrible. The story is so paper-thin that it's almost as if they forced in comedy and pop-culture references just to pad it out and make it interesting. Not only that, they keep repeating the jokes instead of explaining what the Mane Five and Discord did over the three days Twilight was re-organizing her books, constantly repeating "you just had to be there" to rub it in her face. And the audiences' collective face as well.

Further adding onto the padding is Zecora's role. You could cut it out and lose nothing in the process.

The message the episode wants to display is that "it's okay to be jealous". Fine, that's their intention, and if they stuck with that, this wouldn't be a problem... except Discord deliberately left Twilight out of her friends' weekend just to screw with her. "I messed with you just so you could learn something, but that's okay since we're friends."

Another problem with teaching the lesson is that the narrative is so convoluted that it never takes the time to decide who we're meant to root for. Should we root for Twilight given how much she's left out, or should we root for Discord because she has a history of mistrusting him? The episode goes... both directions and yet neither direction at the same time, making it more confused than it really is.

It doesn't help that the episode ended with Discord shrinking in size, as if he was getting his own taste of medicine for being a jerk to Twilight. If Twilight was the one we were rooting for from the get go, and that Discord was the one taking his behavior too far (kind of like Three's a Crowd, which did this way better), this would've been fine.

While not the worst episode the show has spewed, it's still really bad, but on the whole, it's pointless in the long run. You could skip over this episode and you'd lose nothing in the long run. I think it's safe to say that season five was not a good one for Discord, especially since seasons before and after this one did him better justice.

Rating: Bad (1/10)

The Hooffields and McColts

Written by Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco

So Twilight and Fluttershy finally go on a Map Mission together. And... the outcome is pretty average on whole. The overall plot is very much akin to the family feud plot trope like Romeo and Juliet, minus the romance plotline, and... that's kind of it. There isn't really much to say.

Well, one thing I can say is that Fluttershy's characterization here was better than it was in Scare Master. She's concerned about the animals' safety and need, and even learns from them as to why the titular families were feuding for many years. It was all because their first ancestors couldn't agree and come to a compromise. Very good; it connects to the message about animal protection nicely.

But other than that, it's a bit on the run-of-the-mill side compared to most of Joanna and Kristine's scripts. At least it's better than Legend of Everfree.

Rating: Okay (6/10)

The Mane Attraction

Written by Amy Keating Rogers

So here it is; Amy Keating Rogers' swan song for My Little Pony. Having recently rewatched all of her episodes, I feel that some have aged worse than others, the worst offenders being A Friend in Deed and Crusaders of the Lost Mark. This one, however, stands up now like it did back in 2015. Maybe better.

Although this might not have been the intention, the music showcases the difference between music that's outright auto-tuned and relies on flashy effects and sounds to distract you from the singing that may be awful underneath, and the music that's written from the heart.

The song under the Countess persona perfectly demonstrates the former. It's not a great song, absolutely, but it perfectly shows why some people seem to forget what made music good in the first place. That's where her piano ballad at the end comes in. Rara is reflecting on the mistakes she's made in the past and wants to make a fresh start beginning with this song. Rara is more than a musician; she's an average pony like anyone else. No less, no more.

Oh, and did I mention how cute the flashback was, as well as hanging out with the foals?

Too bad Svengallop, one of the most hated characters of the series (and rightfully so), didn't see that. Much as my stance on Pinkie has soured a lot, even she didn't deserve to be berated by him. Thank goodness Rara saw through that (with Applejack's help) and cut herself off from him entirely.

That being said, the "be yourself" message was really good, despite that it's become a cliche in children's media by now, and the additional messages about encouragement vs. influence and the difference between a true friend and a false "friend" added to it, making it even better. The fact that it was Rara, a celebrity, learning it made it even stronger.

All in all, it ended Amy's time with the show on a bang, and is the heartwarming episode Crusaders of the Lost Mark wished it could be. But there's still one more episode out of this hit-or-miss season...

Rating: Excellent (10/10)

The Cutie Re-Mark

Written by Josh Haber

Out of all the episodes in season five, this was probably the most frustrating for me to review. When I first reviewed it in 2015, I thought it was okay, but then I thought it was bad and when I rewrote the original review, I said it was terrible. It mostly came down to Starlight Glimmer and how her arc was the handled, but the more I thought about it, the less it became the main problem I had with The Cutie Re-Mark.

I'll get this out of the way; yes, Starlight's backstory was poorly handled, but not because of how it tied into her motivations. It's because Sunburst was an unnecessary addition. Future episodes featuring him prove just how useless he is, not to mention Starlight barely mentions him whenever she's on screen. Hell, it got to the point he didn't even appear during Sombra's second invasion of the Crystal Empire in The Beginning of the End.

There's a very simple way to fix up Starlight's backstory; instead of having Sunburst be there as her only friend, you could have Starlight explain that when she was a teenager, she didn't get her cutie mark and was bullied for it. By the time she finally got her cutie mark, Starlight resented the fact that she got it so late and would hold onto that grudge for years to come. In a sense, it's like what might've happened had Apple Bloom never met with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo and connected with them and formed the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

And then Twilight tells Starlight that holding onto that grudge wasn't healthy and she shouldn't have let bullying get to her. Just because a few select ponies tormented you, that doesn't mean you should burn the world because of them. It's that simple a fix. But to be honest, I feel people only bring it up because of their hatred for Starlight, which is ironic when you consider that Diamond Tiara's in Crusaders of the Lost Mark was sloppily handled, even more so than Starlight's, and yet the frilly pink brat gets sympathy.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I can talk about why the episode is actually bad. Let's start with the time travel gimmick for the finale; it's extremely confusing and it's not properly explained how it works.

For one thing, Twilight and Spike consistently end up back in the same moment with Starlight before the latter stops little Rainbow Dash from performing the Sonic Rainboom. We've seen Twilight and Spike go back multiple times over, and never once do they encounter themselves.

I've seen the Futurama movie Bender's Big Score where Professor Farnsworth explains that time paradox duplicates are doomed to die for good. For example, earlier in the movie, Hermes is decapitated by accident and Bender goes back in time to retrieve and earlier version of his body, only to lose it again during the wedding. Later on, we see Lars calling of his wedding with Leela and it turns out he's a duplicate of Fry having sent himself to the past. Trust me; you'd have to watch it to know what I mean.

Another direction they could've taken is from Stephen King's 11/22/63. In the novel, there's a 1950s-themed diner with a time portal and every journey through said portal takes the traveler to the exact same time - September 9, 1958, two minutes before noon. Past events can be changed, but subsequent use of the portal will "reset" the timeline and render all changes made on the previous journey null and void.

Had The Cutie Re-Mark gone a similar direction to one or both of the above, it would've cleared up the headache of figuring out how we still ended up with one Twilight, one Spike and one Starlight. Speaking of, where is she in all of the bad timelines, and why didn't Twilight and Spike think of dragging Starlight into one of the timelines earlier as opposed to 35 minutes in? The initial shock of landing in the Sombra and Chrysalis timelines I could buy, but why not just before they landed in the Nightmare Moon timeline?

After that is brief glimpses of the Tirek, Discord and Flim Flam brothers timelines, each somehow worse than the previous. Seriously! How could Flim and Flam taking over Sweet Apple Acres (and by extension, the Equestrian industry) be worse than Discord pulling a Ponyville riddled with chaos? They're average, everyday ponies whose worst crimes have been conning ponies out of their money!

If you want to know how each timeline would've gone from bad to worse, this is how the order should've gone, with the worst that could've happened in each timeline; Flim and Flam (with Equestria being far more industrial than ever), Nightmare Moon (when it's dark 24/7), Discord (with the world in endless chaos), Chrysalis (nothing but lush vegetation ruling the land), Sombra (with Equestria at war with the Crystal Empire), Tirek (with him causing more destruction than ever), and the wasteland. Just... a wasteland.

To be fair, Nightmare Moon was more threatening than she was in the season one premiere, but I don't believe for a second that her timeline is worse than Sombra or Chrysalis. At worst, it's dark 24/7. And bringing the other timelines into consideration, how was she defeated in every one of them? In the normal timeline, she was the first foe the Mane Six defeated! In Discord's timeline, we saw her back to normal as Luna, so if the Mane Six didn't defeat her, then how did Discord defeat her and, by extension, transformed her back into Luna? And how was Discord beaten by Chrysalis, who was then beaten by Sombra, who was then beaten by Tirek? If you think the last few paragraphs are confused, they're nothing compared to the episode itself!

And if Starlight's plan was to stop the Mane Six from getting their cutie marks by stopping the Sonic Rainboom, then how did they end up with the cutie marks they had in the original timeline? In the Chrysalis timeline, they're clearly visible (even though Rainbow, Applejack and Rarity were replaced by Changelings, but that's beside the point), so surely that must mean they still got their cutie marks in the other timelines as well, which would've made Starlight's plan kind of pointless. And again, the worst her actions did was somehow cause a different villain to take over, or in one case, led to a wasteland apocalypse.

On top of all that, Spike and Twilight never seem to suffer any ill effects when travelling back and forth through time. Spike hatched when Twilight lost control of her magic as a filly during her entrance exam, and years later after learning about friendship, she became an alicorn. Surely if neither of those events happened, Spike would feel himself start to fade out of existence and Twilight feel her flight skills start to get weaker?

It could've been like the first Back to the Future movie when Marty accidentally messes up his parents' first meeting, and when he realizes that a photograph of him and his siblings is starting to fade from existence, it's a literal race against time to get his parents together and share their first kiss so he can be born. Seriously, how is it that the simple things are so complicated to understand? It could've made the stakes even higher for Twilight and Spike to stop Starlight from causing a paradox.

Long and short, the problem with The Cutie Re-Mark is not Starlight's redemption arc. That's actually really easy to fix by removing Sunburst. No, the real problem with the episode is that the time travel action is riddled with plot holes, and it would take a lot of re-writing in order to make the whole thing work.

That said, there are redeeming moments. The opening with Twilight encountering Starlight in the crowd during a speech was a nice segue into the main conflict, Twilight and Spike facing off against the antagonist without the rest of the Mane Six is a nice breath of fresh air, and the Sombra timeline does a good job in making you feel for the ponies suffering under his wrath. It really looked like a complete hell hole.

But at the end of the day, the poor decision making in how Starlight's backstory should be handled, as well as the countless plot holes in the time travel, makes it feel like a letdown. With a bit of a rewrite, this could be great. As it is, it's a big change in the show's structure in all the wrong ways.

Rating: Bad (2/10)

Final Season Ranking: Okay (5/10)