Season 9 · 7:21pm Apr 6th, 2019
Well, here we are. This is my 100th blog post. I figured that such a milestone deserved to be something fairly important. So I thought I'd give you my thoughts on the last ever season opener. Spoilers obviously follow.
Well, first of all, Sombra. There goes my Hannibal style headcanon from Tales From Day Court. I felt it was a bit of a shame he was just another cackling madman, and we sadly didn't get to see much in the way of backstory either. I guess we'll never know too, considering he's now been killed off for the second time, and no horn fragment this time either. It would have nice to know his motivations. And if I'm honest, I didn't much care for his VA either. No disrespect to the guy, the work was solid, I just wish it had been something a bit more unique, or at least similar to that rasping baritone Jim Miller gave us.
Oh, actually, while we're on the subject of Sombra, remember my one-shot fic 'Exile'? Well, I just got a review by PresentPerfect, and it was recommended to boot. So there's at least some good news about Sombra. Now, on to the rest of the opener.
We have a new villain. This guy does look to be interesting. This is only the second time we've seen a team up in MLP and with both Chrysalis and Tirek on board, Grogar looks to be one dangerous customer. From what I understood, this guy is the oldest villain as well; pre-Equestrian. While he's not yet done much, the fact that he can pull ponies out of Tartarus and the shadow realm Sombra ended up in hints at his magical ability. Now if only the poor old goat knew that their was a rainbow of friendship with his name on it.
Then there was the other plot point; Celestia and Luna's retirement. I'll admit, this one had me worried. But so far, it seems to make sense. They're not rushing into it and just writing Celestia and Luna out. Although I am curious what they'll do after the finale. Will they really hand everything over to Twilight and the girls? In any case, I'm optimistic about the idea and look forward to seeing what happens.
Finally, the opener itself. I have to admit it was...meh. While the whole villain team up was interesting, the whole Sombra storyline just felt rushed. As I said, we never really got to see his motives and there was a serious case of the Worf Effect going on...repeatedly. His brief takeover just felt way too easy to fit in with what we already know, particularly how it is possible to break mind control spells.
And then we have the Tree. Seriously, Hasbro, why do you keep killing our trees? First the library and now this. Next week, it seems like this will get resolved in some way. As we saw in Season 8, the Tree is alive and has the ability to manifest itself to speak to ponies, so I don't think it's apparent destruction will have too much of an impact, besides removing the physical Elements. If Hasbro isn't brave enough to kill villains, it won't kill the Tree.
But on to positives. As I said, the overarching plot of this final season looks to be a promising one. It seems as though Starlight will be dealing with the school focused episodes, leaving Twilight and the others free to deal with friendship missions and a few villains. And I have to say, Discord, was bloody brilliant. Not only a nice nod to de Lancie's Star Trek past, but he was once again the master of the long con. I'm curious though to see how he measures up to Grogar.
The only other thing I have to say is in relation to the princesses. It would have been nice to see them in Discord's role in the episode. Considering they kerb stomped Sombra last time, it would have been great to see the two of then show up, and blast him back to the Stone Age. It's the last season, those two deserve one time in the spotlight. Well, at least they didn't get mind controlled. I just can't help but feel that the lesson 'it's okay to ask for help' could have been done better by Celestia and Luna coming to save the day for a change.
Anyway, that's what I think; not great, but not terrible either, a nice middle of the road episode. What do you guys think?
Discord in Ultimate Troll mode, saying on screen what people were typing in comments in the side channel just seconds earlier. I wonder if they played the animatics to studio crew and then wrote Discords lines to their responses. I mean, the whole non linear time being here.
The entire show after the mind grab looked just like the mind grab was in effect, One step forward, two steps back, counteracted by premeditated actions at every tune? Discord down? All they needed was the corner of the screen to flicker as the holodeck projectors wernt precicely synched and they would have the whole show.
At first I thought Grogar was voiced or close styled similar to Megabyte, etc but its a different VA? I mean, if youre going to have a cartoon villain, get the one that people remember, long after they forgot.
When all said and done, I highly suspect Grogars going down, and Cosy is going to be Jar Jar The Emperor.
5039561 Yeah, I was kinda hoping that Chrysalis would get one last throw of the dice, maybe even a redemption, of sorts. But it looks like she's been demoted to dragon along with Tirek. Cozy's inclusion didn't really make much sense to me. She has no magical power to speak of and is just a sociopathic kid. Sombra meanwhile just felt like a waste and killed thousands of Sombra headcanons, Chrysalis could have easily had that little brief victory. There were two directions this season could have gone, Chrysalis' third time's the charm, or Cozy and Tirek's revenge. Grogar, while a nice nod to the past, well, he's not really going to have that much time to develop. Just seems like a missed opportunity to me. Like I said, C+, not great, but not the Season 8 opener either. I just want everything tied up in a neat bow, and with Grogar now in the picture, I'm not sure if they'll be able to really wrap everything up in 24 episodes.
Am I the only one who kept imagining that Sombra was voiced by an over-the-top Tim Curry?
5039731 I was honestly hoping for something a bit more aristocratic. maybe a Hopkins sound a like, or at least something with a bit more gravitas like the late John Hurt. The VA we got just felt a tad generic, like the rest of Sombra's character in the episode and a far cry from the previous bad-ass voice he had. I mean, seriously, all he did was mind control about two dozen ponies and cover everything in crystals.
We know for a fact that he hasn't even actually killed the Tree of Harmony because of next week's synopsis. And as successful as he was, that was only because Discord was playing with him to troll Twilight, and the princesses were too busy holding back the Everfree. Considering this guy was bested the previous two times without the Elements, I was surprised to see he thought he'd do any better on his third attempt. He just didn't feel that threatening. I found myself saying 'okay, how long until Discord or Tia rocks up and puts him in his place?'; there was never any doubt as to what would happen. The loss of the Tree only came as an inconvenience, when it should have been much more jarring.