My Review of MLP: FIM season 8 episode 19 Road to Friendship · 9:48pm Nov 11th, 2023
Grading Scale:
A (fantastic episode)
A- (an excellent episode with at least one flaw)
B+ (a great episode with a couple of flaws)
B (a good episode which still could have been better)
B- (a good episode with numerous flaws but still rewatchable)
C+ (a decent episode)
C (eh... it’s not terrible but not good either)
C- (it’s not worth rewatching although it does have good elements)
D+ (a bad episode with a few good things in it)
D (a really bad episode with wasted potential)
D- (a terrible episode with badly written characters and butchered moral)
F (horrible and unwatchable)
Greetings, folks. This is Mr. J back with another MLP episode review for today. This afternoon, I will be reviewing the nineteenth episode of season 8 entitled “Road to Friendship”. This episode had a nice start and was onto something interesting; unfortunately, things got way out of hand and turned into a complete disaster for both Starlight, Trixie, and…myself.
The episode starts with Starlight and Trixie having a blast together as they were performing magical tricks together at their magic show. Afterwards, Twilight and Cadence thanked them for their electrifying performance. They even took notice of how much chemistry they have together. Yeah, yeah, we get it, these unicorns are best friends forever. 🙄 Luckily, the rest of the episode will prove them wrong.
Trixie has so much junk in her carriage and just so happens to meet this random stallion from Saddle Arabia and asked if she can perform a magic show there. Trixie doubts the possibility thereof, seeing that she has difficulty trying to fit everything inside as It’s small. She eventually accepts and asks Starlight if she wants to go to Saddle Arabia with her. Starlight eagerly accepts the invitation and left her student counseling duty to someone else during her absence.
So our duo set off to a new adventure and start singing a song about it…although they said they aren’t like Twilight and the others who do likewise. I can’t tell if that was supposed to be an inside joke or something but whatever.
As they arrived at the desert village of Somnambula, their cheerful spirit instantly dies off once tempers begin to fray. Starlight wastes bits on a falafel which resulted in leaving out some items to purchase for their food supply. Later on, they find every inn full so they could not make a reservation.
Their sarcastic, pissed off attitude grew even worse as they had a very hard time sleeping together in the same caravan. (Sigh) I’m getting sick and tired of their “friendship”, to be honest. These girls are incredibly toxic to each other and have been that way ever since they became friends in season 6. They had a very rocky start, a disastrous progression in season 7, and it got a lot worse here.
I don’t give a fuck what anyone says; these two are not fit to be friends together. Here you have an egocentric narcissist who loves talking in the third person, and you also have a former dictator who brainwashed an entire village into believing that cutie marks were bad all because her childhood friend moved away. Pair them together, and I guarantee you they will always bring the worst out of each other.
Starlight herself was the worst out of the bunch because she had the audacity to trade away Trixie’s carriage in exchange for Hoo’Far’s although it was never hers to begin with!! She did this behind her back and out of spite, ignoring the fact that it was her life and her home she traded away. I get that friends make mistakes all the time, but that cruel act was nothing more than petty, spiteful, and blatantly selfish.
I really hate saying this, but Starlight is no better than Trixie. I hate Trixie with a passion, but holy shit, Starlight, you are a piss-awful friend. Why are the writers insisting in making Trixie the victim every time she gets into an argument with Starlight? Does Josh Haber hate Starlight or something?
Starlight has serious anger issues, and it amazes me Twilight chose her to become a student counselor at the school. The fact she has a snappy attitude alongside her tendency to lose her temper, brainwash ponies, and blast people who irritate her yet still keeps her job is just…terrifying and shocking. And she later on becomes the principal in season 9! How is she not in an asylum at this point?
Dear goodness, I need to bring this to a close. Trixie runs off angry, stops Hoo’Far from going anywhere with her carriage, Starlight apologizes for what she did, they kiss and make up, and Trixie gets her prized home back. So although their Saddle Arabia trip was a disaster, their friendship is apparently stronger than before. Yeeeeaah, that’s a big fat lie right there.
Honestly, this episode proves that these girls shouldn’t be friends. Sometimes, they bicker like an old married couple, and they constantly bring the worst out of each other. How the hell are they even friends? It was hard for me to enjoy this episode because of that. This gets a solid D.
Peace out.
It's no wonder that the "Friendship School" is a complete and other failure!!!! Because despite that, and Twilight's rule.
The ponies still separate each other for stupid, backwards thinking, racial/prejudice/xenophobic views for the third damn time in G5!!??
Hasbro Writer's aren't very good at their jobs to make good characters and story telling?
Agree to disagree, of course. I always enjoyed their chemistry, and I think what particularly helps their friendship click is simply the fact that they’re both reforms with a common past. Not to mention they’re willing to work through the problems they create despite their difference in personalities.
Ironic that you’d ask that, really. Mainly considering he was the guy who wrote the very episode in which Starlight reforms.
In retrospect, this once again proves my theory that the 8th & 9th seasons were driven by poor management at its finest. Josh Haber can normally create episodes that are fun to watch, but his work in all two seasons seems to be much more polarizing compared to before.
Damn. Never thought I'd see this part of their friendship before, given how I've seen most fanart portray them as best friends, yet seeing this is quite shocking to hear.