Thoughts on S9 Part 8: Right for the Wrong Reasons

Well everyone, here we are. The true final run to the end of the show begins now. Honestly, I don't think it's quite sunk in yet for me. It doesn't feel like the end of everything yet, not when there's so many ideas still kicking around in the fandom side of things. Heck, I said I was done and yet I still found myself coming up with story ideas last night. So in my eyes, FiM isn't gonna be over for quite some time, so I'm just gonna enjoy what little showtime we have left and dive straight back into the episodes. Here's to solid quality, fun times and more Starlight!

You've probably heard all about these eps already but just in case, standard unmarked spoilers abound.

Episode 14 - The Last Laugh:

There are a lot of ways that they could have ended the midseason hiatus, they ended up going big and bringing back Cheese Sandwich! The best choice, not just for the return of Weird Al but for the idea of Pinkie having someone she might be able to confide in. At long last, the plot catalyst is that Ponka has realised her lack of purpose compared to the others, especially Applejack. Then it got sidelined until the end when she realised her purpose was what she'd always been doing, which raises a few questions about exactly what she's going to do after this series. At least it was for an important cause: Getting the Cheese back on form.

Turns out it's the same problem we encountered back in Canterlot Boutique. Samey success without seeing the payoff is the death of motivation. At least it turned out that despite appearances, Sans Smirk was a decent guy with a positive vision who was just going about the art of comedy the wrong way. Rather than being an antagonist that was bad to the bone (not sorry). It does provide an insight into Equestria's developing technology levels though, enough that they've got the assembly line sorted out. Plus it provides a great setup for Weird Al to bust his lyrics with another song too, The Last Laugh being all you'd expect from him. Any episode/song that ends with Cheese Sandwich back at 100% is okay by me.

The end result is a good return from the break on form, proof that the 'solid if unspectacular' style of episode still holds strength. Same goes to the writers, the Fox brothers showing they still have it after a rough few years in writing pone. The momentum has been set up, let's get it going!

Episode 15 - 2, 4, 6, Greaaat:

I have a mantra for going into episodes blind: Everyone hates everything for every reason. It came in handy the last few weeks, I heard more about this episode than any of the leaked ones. Mainly how it's a trainwreck that completely destroys Rainbow Dash's character. Add in the fact the writer is Kaita Mpambara, a writer that can write quality as long as it's not focused on the mane 6, and any normal person would write this one off ages ago. I'm not normal, I have a soft spot for RD episodes everyone else hates and I went in rather unbiased. Did it work?

...Kind of.

Even I can't pretend it wasn't rough to see Dash's skewed priorities being pushed to the extreme, to the point of driving Yona to tears (you know how long Sandbar's gonna need to comfort her for that?) but as several people have pointed out, she has bad experience with cheer squads and is not one to deflect attention away from herself. Yes it was a bad show, but it wasn't out of character. Worth it to see her work through it though.

Elsewhere we had prime performances from Smolder and Twilight, which leads me to a question. Twilight is showing she's been taking notes from Celestia and to a degree, Discord, by laying out events so that Rainbow could learn her lesson herself. Those two have been doing it for years without major complaint, why is it when Twi suddenly does it, everyone thinks she's a self-righteous prick? Maybe they're just looking for targets since there's no Starlight to focus on. That's another general issue I've had with this season. In regular appearances, Twilight had more screentime and lines in this episode than she's had all season! And yet people will still complain she's getting too much. Best pony deserves better. Back on point, extra plus points for Celestia loosening up more and buckball taking off from grassroots to college league popularity, as well as Ocellus finally starting to work through the flaws that keep her as my least favourite of the young 6.

Overall...I may be easier on it than many will be, but even I can't say it was any better than a rough episode. Hopefully Dashie can pick herself up throughout the rest of the season, and ideally not get too blasted when the reaction vids come out. If nothing else, there's nowhere to go but up from here!

Episode Rankings:

1 - Frenemies
2 - The Last Crusade
3 - Sparkle's Seven
4 - She's All Yak
5 - The Beginning of the End
6 - The Last Laugh
7 - Between Dark and Dawn
8- Student Counsel
9 - Common Ground
10 - The Point of No Return
11 - Sweet and Smoky
12 - Uprooted
13 - 2, 4, 6, Greaaat
14 - Going to Seed

S9 Bingo: 8/25 (modified my personal one 'Spitfire episode' to 'Spitfire gets one last speaking role...Pleeeeeease')