Episode Re-Review: The Beginning of the End Parts 1 and 2 · 7:57pm Jul 7th, 2021
Thus we come to Season 9, the season that some say was even worse than Season 8 which is no easy feat considering how much Season 8 seemed to drop the ball when it came to writing. It almost felt like self sabotage with how bad the School of Friendship was and how underutilized so many of its concepts were.
"The Best Gift Ever" did seem to get things back on track to an extent, though it has now been confirmed to be an "episode" within Season 9. But the story felt like it limited itself and had almost no idea that many of its concepts had already been done in Season 8. This season though had a chance to redeem the show, especially since "The Best Gift Ever" was followed up by a series of "Encore" shorts that felt like glorified fanfiction. Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco returned for what would be their final episodes here, setting the stage for the grand finale. But nowadays we know that a certain infamous twist was planned from the very beginning, even while the show and its surrounding media made a big deal out of hyping up Grogar and the final battle. So, with the knowledge of what was ultimately in store for Season 9 at the end, has this two parter still held up at least decently? Well, let's find out.
Part 1 begins with the mane six being called to Canterlot by the princesses, and we get the usual mane six introductions that just feel like they're thrown in because every two parter must remind us of the mane six's personalities no matter what. It definitely doesn't start off the best when Princess Celestia reveals that she called the mane six to Canterlot even though there was no emergency. And it's not like Twilight just assumed there was one, Celestia intentionally made a big deal out of nothing just because she could.
So what's behind the summons? Celestia and Luna have decided that they're going to step down and retire from being princesses. The original draft was going to mention that harmony was changing, whereas here they're just stepping down because they claim Equestria has enjoyed a prolonged period of peace (despite numerous threats big and small). And they intend to transfer leadership to Twilight and her friends, in the span of a few days no less. Discord happens to show up, initially thinking he might get the part, before noticing Twilight freaking out and panicking. But to be fair, Twilight's reaction is to be expected when she's been told that she'll be taking over in a matter of days. I do have to criticize the royal sisters for doing this, I really think the original draft was at least a start. I know Lauren Faust wanted Twilight to succeed Celestia much sooner, and I could see Luna stepping down because without her sister by her side ruling would have no meaning or purpose. But it really reflects what will become a problem for Season 9, a sense of just wanting to rush it out and be done with it. Considering this is Equestria's first transition of power in over a century, the lack of concern the royal sisters have for it (even if they're confident in Twilight's ability to lead) kind of makes them look OOC.
Twilight is still freaking out quite badly when she gets back to Ponyville, but thankfully her friends are there to support her. They even reveal that they have a name for the "process" Twilight goes through, which they call "Twilighting". And it's great that they're lampshading this here, though that does indicate that they know they've been playing this up more and more. In fact, there's a lot of lampshading going on here about how the princesses never seem to help in a crisis, though I don't like the claim from Rainbow Dash that was all part of a "test" to prepare Twilight for taking over. I somehow doubt the royal sisters anticipated every threat that would come their way or that Twilight and her friends would be able to solve it. We know Celestia can have visions of the future given what we saw in "Twilight's Kingdom", but we don't know how exactly they work or what she does and doesn't know. This isn't like some advanced foresight like Professor Charles' ability to see the future.
Then, Discord disappears as he claims he knows how this is going to play out. This is meant to foreshadow the later twist as we then cut to Cozy Glow, Tirek and Queen Chrysalis all being whisked away by some mysterious power. And said mysterious power also resurrects King Sombra from the dead. Worth mentioning is that King Sombra got a new voice here. His few spoken lines in "The Crystal Empire" were provided by Jim Miller (who also voiced numerous other cameo or short appearance characters), but here his voice is provided by Alvin Sanders who had previously been the voice of Flutterguy (though not the singing voice) in "Filli Vanilli". However, I don't know if it's the way he was directed, but Alvin seems to have missed the mark for who Sombra was. The voice sounds way too goofy and exaggerated for a villain who had previously been described as having "a heart black as night". Yeah, maybe it's cliche to have bad guys with deep voices, but I think there's a reason for that. Deep voices sound intimidating. That's why Darth Vader's voice is not provided by the same person who portrayed him in the suit.
All four villains are brought to a swamp in front of a huge skull, and it's revealed that they were all brought together by a villain who calls himself Grogar. Much like Tirek and The Smooze, Grogar is a reimagined G1 villain. However, his design doesn't lend itself much to end game threat since he just looks like an evil goat or grandpa. However, since he's bringing the four villains together as part of his plan, that kind of makes him a Lex Luthor since Lex Luthor is typically the head of the Legion of Doom that opposes the Justice League.
As for why Grogar has shown up now, he claims that he has been biding his time. According to Tirek, he is the father of monsters and once ruled over the land that would become Equestria. But a pony named Gusty the Great (also from G1) rose up and overthrew him, taking away his bewitching bell. Yet even that could not defeat him permanently, it only weakened him to the point where he had to spend over a thousand years slowly regaining his powers and biding his time. And he points out that each of the villains have failed because they don't work together, that teamwork and friendship is what allowed Twilight and her friends to prevail in every circumstance. And now he proposes using that very logic against them. However, King Sombra has no desire to join in. He believes that he can take back the Crystal Empire and all of Equestria all by himself. So now he's gone from never speaking at all to never shutting up. Honestly, it feels like they completely missed what King Sombra was supposed to be and have devolved him into a typical 80's cartoon villain.
Still, Grogar sends Sombra on his way by offering to let him keep whatever he can reclaim. But should he fail (and Grogar seems to think he will), Sombra is to return and pledge his loyalty to Grogar. Apparently, Grogar's magic makes Sombra immune to the Crystal Heart since he's able to march on the empire apparently with no trouble at all. Heck, Cadence is writing to Twilight for help and she and Shining Armor both thought the other was going to keep an eye on Flurry Heart. So naturally she is kidnapped by Sombra as she supposedly speaks her first word "Mama".
Twilight is surprisingly calm and collected upon receiving the news of Sombra's return, not even questioning how he could've come back. Discord doesn't seem to care, and claims that last time the Elements of Harmony weren't needed to defeat him. But Twilight wisely refuses to take chances. So she and the rest of the mane six go to get the Elements of Harmony and confront Sombra, who is waiting to show them all their worst fears. Interestingly, Twilight's fear sees Celestia and Luna turn into Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon respectively, which could imply either that Starlight told Twilight about Daybreaker, or that Daybreaker was a fear Twilight had originally.
However, Sombra ends up making the mistake of neglecting Spike, despite Spike being the one who indirectly contributed to Sombra's defeat the first time. He's able to break free and create enough of a distraction for Sombra to lose his grip on the mane six, who subsequently blast him with the Elements of Harmony. Rainbow Dash uses this to claim that they can handle anything, but Sombra inexplicably survives. His shadow/spirit then follows them to the Tree of Harmony (no word on how he learned of it) and destroys it completely, rendering the elements useless as Part 1 ends.
Following the recap in Part 2, Twilight is seen trying in vain to rebuild and restore the Elements of Harmony. And King Sombra gloats about his victory as he traps the mane six in crystal. I should mention that it's been established that this is taking place after the School of Friendship has let out for the summer, and Starlight is intended to take over for Twilight at the school. Anyway, Sombra then goes on to make the classic villain mistake of not killing his enemies when he has the chance. Instead, he leaves them trapped in crystal and decides to conquer Ponyville and Canterlot. Oddly enough, after this the rest of the mane six turn to Pinkie Pie as Rainbow Dash mentions how Pinkie usually says something funny to lift their spirits, which seems to imply they think Pinkie can only ever be happy and hyper, completely ignoring the times they've seen her not happy.
But Pinkie Pie says that "nothing about this is funny to me."
Still, the mane six do manage to eventually dig out as the rest of them convince Twilight that they need to try and soldier on for the sake of others. Yet they find most of Ponyville has been brainwashed and is under Sombra's control, including Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. But oddly enough, Scootaloo is nowhere to be seen during this, which led some to speculate that the events of "The Washouts" caused something of a falling out between her and Rainbow Dash.
They ruin Pinkie Pie's prior development though about having her break down in tears upon seeing the Cakes (including Mr. Cake and the twins) hauling a cake away. And she says that she's upset because it's "the ugliest cake I've ever seen", which reduces her to comedic relief after previously treating it like she was moving beyond it. The Cakes mean so much to Pinkie Pie, it's a shame they're so cheapened here.
Then, as if there isn't enough on the mane six's plate as it is, the Everfree Forest is now out of control due to the destruction of the Tree of Harmony. The mane six try to tame it with gardening tools, but it takes the aid of the royal sisters (who have abandoned Canterlot) and Starswirl the Bearded to get the forest under control again. Starswirl even claims that he "felt it in my bones" when the Tree of Harmony was destroyed.
Meanwhile, the abandoned Canterlot is easy overrun by Sombra, cheapening his victory when he never has to work for or fight for anything. Everyone just folds or is too incompetent to fend him off, which is a far cry from the stratigest he used to be. The mane six make it to Canterlot (somehow) but can't bring themselves to fight their friends, so they just teleport past them and into the throne room where Discord happens to be waiting. He offers to help them out, easily dispelling anything Sombra throws at him. But then Sombra senses Discord's close connection to Fluttershy and throws an attack at her, prompting Discord to jump in front of the blast to defend her. Fortunately, he doesn't die afterward.
Even while weakened though, Discord is able to inspire the mane six to realize that they had the elements inside of them all along. And this enables them to stand up to Sombra and defeat him for good, killing him off once again.
The royal sisters then come in and congratulate the mane six on their victory as Discord is soaking up the attention from his injury. But when Celestia and Luna announce that they're not going to be stepping down right away and will be taking time to train Twilight for the transition, Discord stands up and complains that his "sacrifice" was for nothing and leaves. But Twilight still wants to go through with the transition to ruling since she doesn't object. As for the other villains, they see through a crystal ball that Grogar provides when King Sombra is killed. And Grogar doesn't resurrect him, instead using Sombra as a means to get the other three villains to cooperate with him. Interestingly, we see Cozy Glow try to get Chrysalis and Tirek to befriend each other, showing that she does at least kind of get friendship in her own way, which just further begs the question of why she's deemed a lost cause.
And Part 2 ends with Grogar officiating his Legion of Doom as he vows to "bring Equestria to its knees" while the mean three laugh along with him.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the two parter? Well, I do think it kind of benefitted from the lowered standards of two parters and premieres as a result of the past few seasons, especially after "School Daze" and "School Raze" were less than stellar. So having a premiere that seemed actually decent was almost praiseworthy by comparison. Even with the knowledge now that they were setting up for the twist of Discord being Grogar so as to focus on the mean three (including Cozy Glow for some odd reason despite her being the least developed and least threatening of all the villains left un-reformed, if anything Sombra should've taken her place), I think it's a good set-up and a good two parter. There's a lot of lampshading going on here, which in and of itself is not a bad thing. Admittedly though, if you can lampshade something then you know you've gone too far on things like Twilight freaking out or the princesses being useless. And this two parter does seem to borrow a lot from other two parters, particularly from both "Princess Twilight Sparkle" and "Twilight's Kingdom" with hints of "The Crystal Empire" and "To Where and Back Again" thrown in. The main problem might be that at a time when the mane six are supposed to be proving they're leader material, they keep getting bailed out by others: The royal sisters, Starswirl, even Discord. It is a showcase of friendship, but the mane six themselves contribute little to the victory until the end. Grogar shows potential, and had they not gone through with the stupid twist they could've easily made him work as the end game threat. As it is, I give both Part 1 and Part 2 a very narrow A-. Still a good start to the show's final season, despite some problems.
I have nothing new to say on "Uprooted", so next up for a re-review is "Sparkle's Seven" which is the big 200th episode celebration. And considering what the show did for its 100th episode, the 200th episode definitely had some big shoes to fill.
Don’t you mean “The Beginning of the End”?
Even with the hindsight of the Grogar twist, I really enjoy this episode, to the point that it's among my favorite premieres (and 2-parters in general).
I REALLY like this version of Sombra.
Like, he actually HAS a personality now.
5551203 Fixed, thank you for noticing.
To be honest, I enjoy these episodes even if the plot of the season has some problems
Well, we're finally on the homestretch of these re-reviews!
I do remember back in your original review that you appreciated the fact this two-parter didn't have Starlight successfully knock sense into Twilight for once, much like how some appreciated her not getting to be the big hero in School Raze.
5551242
No problem.
I think we might be both fans of DBZA.
5551271 You would be correct.
You don't need to do everythng yourself to be a leader, that was actually a message of the episode iirc. And I wouldn't say the Mane 6 contribute little. They did a lot in the battle against Canterlot.
5551400 Did they really? They just sort of ran around to avoid fighting their friends, and only once Discord was out of commission did they find the courage to fight on their own against Sombra.
5551230
I agree.
In my opinion, Sombra’s return in “The Beginning of the End” was also his saving grace. Before the episode even came, there was a comic arc called “Siege of the Crystal Empire”. I intensely disliked that arc in part because of how his character was being handled and portrayed in that story, as well as due to him being reduced to a cliche reform in the end.
Honestly, before the revelation that Grogar turned out to be Discord in disguise came to light, I was openly disappointed by the character coming in the picture. His inclusion was one that I found to be extremely late to the party. The fact that he also had little screen time compared to the other villains, and no build-up and development throughout the season, made his presence not only all-the-more irritable…but useless. Literally. Compared to the other villains, he was basically just there. He didn’t contribute anything to the season at all other than just barking orders.
All of this was why I was happy Grogar turned out to actually be Discord, because if it was the real deal MLP probably would’ve had the most one-dimensional villain by far.
The Grogar plot twist wasn't really much of a twist given that they gave it away in this premiere. I literally predicted the "twist" after seeing this episode, then they pretty much confirmed it with "The Summer Sun Setback."
5551560
This is the exact opposite of why Grogar is so fondly remembered in G1 because he wasn't a one-dimensional villain.
5551694
In G1, that was most obvious. In G4, though...not so much. I mean, would having the real Grogar in Season 9 be necessary if he was hardly going to have development, build up, focus, or screen time in the long run?
Heck, he didn’t have much in the ways of a personality in Season 9 either. And like I said, all he ever did was bark orders at the other villains, so he was basically a useless figurehead who hardly did anything important.
In the end, if he was the real deal, he probably would’ve become one of my least favorite villains had the twist with Discord not happened.
5551759 There was much they could've done with him if they hadn't immediately settled on just using him for a twist. They already told us why he hadn't seen him before, and they spent "Frenemies" establishing that he already was stronger than all the previous villains even when he was supposedly not at full power.
5551768
Yay, I get it. But still...compared to Sombra, Chrysalis, Cozy Glow, and Tirek, Grogar was basically a worthless nobody that couldn’t be taken seriously no matter what sort of stories there were about him or displays that showed what he was capable of doing. He didn’t even have much of a connection to the Main Six to begin with, so his incorporation carried little in the ways of a meaning.
If the real deal made an appearance to become an antagonist, I’d prefer seeing that as part of an overarching series rather than in one season of FiM. As well as with a building connection between the heroes of that series and a greater amount of development, if I may add.
5551759 Hence why the season would've been better without him.
5551773 He was not a nobody. The self described "Father of monsters" that established villains respected seems like the perfect choice for an endgame level threat, if they had been willing to fully commit to him.
5551779
Exactly. Hardly any commitment was made on the character compared to the other villains, so that’s why the incorporation of the real deal would’ve been useless and wasteful beyond anything.
Sometimes...whenever I look back on many alternate stories where the real Grogar is there instead of Discord posing as him, I’d find myself either disliking Grogar even more or become happier that he turned out to not actually be in the ninth season at all.
5551402
I definitely remember them wwrapping up the citizens to prevent further fighting. Like the Fluttershy and Rainbow combo where they tricked the wonderbolts into flying into each other then wrapping them while they're down.
5551786 As I said, he would not have been had they committed to him as the final threat. A threat greater than even these three established villains put together. They already spent time from when they did focus on him establishing him as this big threat, the one who understood what the other villains could not. And to take all that away for the sake of a twist they had planned from the beginning was bad writing, all it did was waste a villain that fans had actually wanted to see while making a reformed villain look stupid and causing the three villains that had run their course to be given powers they didn't deserve to have.
5551839
Still would’ve been a waste of his potential if they incorporated him in Season 9, if you ask me. And again, you’re ignoring the fact that he had no build up, no development, and little screen time throughout the season, which was translating him as one-dimensional despite his stories and shows of power. In the end, he was still extremely useless compared to the other villains.
5551865 All that could've been changed had they not focused on the twist, had they intended to use him like promotional material lead people to believe. He had potential, he could've worked. They told us in "The Beginning of the End" why he was coming back now, and they spent time in "Frenemies" showing how powerful and all knowing he was. There was something out there that could've worked if they had really committed to using him as the endgame threat instead of a trio of villains that were played out and needed a power boosting macguffin to again be a threat.
5551869
Except for one thing:
Grogar honestly would’ve worked better if he was a recurring threat in more than just one season of the show, like Aku in “Samurai Jack”, Hacker in “Cyberchase”, and the Shredder in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”. Everything about incorporating the real Grogar in the ninth season would leave too much to be desired with the character. Even when they did seem to display how much of a threat he was and what he’s like in “Frenemies”, he was still openly useless. He was wasted because of how late to the party he was, and his potential was undermined because of him not appearing in more than just one season.
When I saw him, I was like, “Really? Really?! Now of all times?! Why couldn’t they bring him in much earlier?!”.
Openly, that’s why I considered the twist with Discord posing as Grogar to be the character’s saving grace. The only thing I ever got out of him because of his last minute appearance in Season 9 was that he was just some crazy goat man who isn’t as serious of a threat as he’s being made out to be, especially if he turned out to be the real deal.
Season 9 was nothing but TRASH.
5560936
I disagree. The “Siege of the Crystal Empire” comic was total garbage compared to “The Beginning of the End” and the rest of Season 9. And the biggest credit for why goes to the forgettable new characters, muddled storytelling, hideous art, and underused old characters.
5562328
You only wanted to copy over our bout from that recent thread in the King Sombra group, huh? :/
5562481
No, just voicing my thoughts and speaking out. That, and I just feel disgruntled.
5562486
k.
I have just one question:
Do you mean that Grogar would’ve been like Thanos was in the MCU had they committed to him more? Or something else entirely?
5566754 Maybe like Thonas, but probably more in line with just in general being a genre savy villain. The pieces were right there from what was shown of him to make him one, but nope they wanted a stupid twist with villains that were no longer a threat just because they happened to all be in Season 8.
5566762
I was just wondering.
Thanos was a different case because he had a great amount of development, buildup, personality, and screen time to help him stand out as a character.
Of course, he’s also another reason as to why I wouldn’t have liked the real Grogar being in the picture.
I think Thanos is a great villain, but as the so called “main character” of “Avengers: Infinity War”…not so much. The way he always got the best of his opponents, and managed to get what he wanted no matter what, made him come across as a great big Gary Stu. It made him openly irritable to me in some ways.
If Hasbro went down this sort of route with Grogar in Season 9, I would’ve been all-the-more infuriated and annoyed by him enough as I was already. Before the twist was uncovered, of course.
Any thoughts?