My Review of MLP: FIM season 8 episodes 1 & 2: School Daze · 10:43pm Jun 3rd, 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, everyone! This is Mr. J back with a MLP episode review! It’s been a couple years since we’ve done this sort of stuff, hasn’t it? Man, time flies by so quickly! And yes, before you ask, I still remember just how piss-awful season 9 is; but what about season 8, hm? Is the eighth season just as bad or just slightly worse than the final season? Well, only one way to find out as we delve into the season 8 premiere entitled: “School Daze”!
Now, to be honest, this two-parter was actually the very first episode I ever watched from MLP. Yep, you heard me right, this was the episode that introduced me to the show as I discovered both the show and the fandom back in the summer of 2018. It was such an unforgettable moment when I first watched this two-parter when I was visiting my father in NYC at the time.
I don’t remember if I ever liked this premiere when it first came out around that time, but the question is: what do I think of it now? Join me as we take another trip down memory lane for season 8’s “School Daze”!
The first part begins with the Mane Six and Spike discovering that Equestria has grown bigger for quite some time now. Ever since the defeat of the Storm King, the land has expanded to different places that left a lot of potential for Twilight and her friends to utilize. Even Tempest/Fizzlepop Berrytwist was thrilled enough to spread what she learned about friendship and the news of the Storm King’s defeat to other countries in the world. Hehe, of course, it’s a very smart idea to justify the reason why she isn’t in this season…seeing that her voice actress was most likely expensive for this show.
Seeing that many creatures outside Equestria may not know anything about friendship, Twilight decides to open…a brand new school to teach friendship.
Alright, Princess Twily, you sit the fuck down ‘cause we’re gonna talk of this stupidity! First off, how in the absolute hell are you gonna teach friendship or the very concept thereof to every pony and creature out there?? Do you not realize just how utterly ridiculous that sounds? Because friendship isn’t something you teach; it’s something you have to experience and practice as an individual. This whole concept of making the School of Friendship makes zero sense in hindsight.
So Twilight talks to Celestia about it, and she approves her choice as well! I’m sorry, WHAT??? Celestia herself AGREES with her imbecilic protégé that it was a genuinely good idea?? Didn’t she herself explicitly state in season 1 that friendship doesn’t require schools to learn it or some shit? You can only learn friendship through social interactions, right? So why is she on board with this bullshit?
Now before Twilight could start, she would have to seek for the approval from the EEA in order for the school to be accredited. So she does so, and things seem to work according to plan…for now.
Now that the School of Friendship is officially open, Twilight welcomes not only the pony students but also the non-ponies as well! And this is where we are introduced to the uninteresting, boring, carbon copied Young Six or Student Six: Sandbar, Gallus, Yona, Ocellus, Silverstream, and Smolder. As I’ve said many times in my season 9 reviews, they barely served any useful purpose in the final seasons of the show besides being the younger versions of the Mane Six.
I mean, come on, look at them! Ocellus is like Fluttershy, Smolder seems to be like Rainbow Dash…sort of, Gallus is either Apple—no wait, I take that back. Smolder is like Applejack, Gallus is either Rainbow Dash, Yona can be either Rarity or Applejack (I have no clue!!), Silverstream is 100% Pinkie Pie, and Sandbar is similar to Twilight. There, I solved the puzzle!! Haha! It’s not that hard to tell them apart…….right?
Anywho, I never liked these guys, and I still don’t. Later on, they have an entire musical number that showcases them enjoying their education until Twilight reinforces the EEA rules—making everything seem boring and restrictive. Wherefore, they start skipping their classes and wandering off to a random lake all by themselves.
The Young Six seem to hate each other as they express the primary personality traits of their respective species until they experience what they’ve already learned from the classes they took. They slowly start liking each other, enjoying each other’s company, and having some actual fun as new friends. Honestly…it feels kinda rushed.
It’s like they blended two different plots in a blender and squeezed them into this two-parter. First, we’re trying to win the approval of the EEA by making our institution into something that’ll make everyone miserable, and now we are already having our new characters learn their friendship lessons…just that quickly. I’m sorry, who’s learning something again? The characters whom we’ve been familiar with and connected with since the start of the show, or a bunch of new toys—I mean, young characters introduced this late in the show? You guys see where I’m going with this?
What’s the point of making them the students if they are already quick learners? I genuinely don’t understand the purpose of these characters.
Moving on, Chancellor Neighsay visits the premises to check on Twilight’s progress—making sure everything is following their EEA guidelines. Meanwhile, Twilight, Starlight, and Rainbow distract him with other things as they realize their new students are missing.
The Young Six, however, have too much fun they ended up crashing against one of the building structures of the school where all the other ponies and the non-pony rulers have gathered. Seeing the destruction of the gathering, Neighsay is incensed at the sight.
But when Twilight reveals that the creatures are also students, the chancellor is enraged and tells her that the creatures cause nothing but harm to all the ponies. This is the first time this show has tackled the hot topic of racism, and I will talk more about that once I review the episodes where Neighsay makes his next appearances.
He furthermore accuses Twilight of being disorganized, hiring irresponsible teachers, being negligent, and allowing students to skip classes which resulted in the destruction of public property and the endangering of bystanders in the area.
Frankly, he does make some valid points. Yes, he was completely out of line with his unnecessary racism, but he wasn’t entirely wrong. They were being irresponsible and negligent in their educational duties, and since Twilight was the principal, it makes it her fault by default. Hey, that rhymed!
But here is another issue with this two-parter; Neighsay makes some valid points about them being completely irresponsible teachers yet the writers had to deem him as completely wrong ONLY because he is racist—or speciesist, for that matter. Just because he is racist doesn’t negate his points about their wrongdoing. It’s like the episode wants us to forget about what they did wrong and only wants us to focus on the fact that he is intolerant of other species. That’s just straight-up manipulative, in my opinion.
So he closes down the school. Oh, no, the day is ruined! Ahhhh, you see how sad I am for them?! (Sarcasm)
Now we jump to part 2 where Twilight is upset and depressed about her failure. Aww, the cute, beautiful pony is all sad and heartbroken. How emotional! Let me play the world's smallest violin for her. *plays it softly*
After her friends try to cheer her up, she decides to be alone and behold what could have been a successful school. Starlight shows up, however, and plays the role of a “tough love” giver. She tells her she gave up too easily and shouldn’t let anyone tell her how to run her school or to whom she should teach friendship. Slapping the EEA guidebook away, Starlight encourages her to be what she always has been: the Princess of Friendship. This indeed does lighten Twilight’s spirits, and she gathers her friends about the re-opening of the school—without the approval of the EEA.
Meanwhile, the non-pony rulers reveal to our heroes the Young Six are missing and accuse both Princess Celestia and each other they are hiding them from the other. They threaten civil war if their students are not found soon as they express doubt and anger over the harsh treatment they received from Neighsay.
As Twilight creates a plan with her friends to find the missing students, Sandbar walks inside Sugarcube Corner and receives all the cupcakes for his friends. They then deduce their location and seek to find them.
The Young Six are seen at the Castle of the Two Sisters where they share laughs, food, and have a great time until they are attacked by the puckwudgies. Are they supposed to be the Equestrian versions of porcupines or something?
But before they could be harmed, the Mane Seven and Spike come to the rescue! They are either hugged, nailed to the tree trunks, blasted to the sky, or are harmlessly knocked off. Honestly, this is all cute and kid-friendly, but this is not something kids should practice when facing off porcupines or any other animals crawling around. “Hey, kids, you see that squirrel or porcupine or small mammal minding its own business or facing you? Go hug it! Grab it! Nothing bad will happen!”
Yeah, no, that doesn’t work in reality as animals can easily be scared or threatened and can do serious harm to children if not treated carefully. So don’t do what Fluttershy did, kids. It’s not safe.
Anyway, Twilight promises them things will be different at the School of Friendship and assures them it will be open to teach friendship their way regardless what the EEA says. So Twilight breaks the seal, and Neighsay shows up again.
Basically, she tells him to fuck off and not dictate how they run their school. He walks off in the most villiany way possible in his portal, foreshadowing his reoccurring antagonist role. So the Young Six stay at the School of Friendship and begin their life-changing journey therein.
So what do I think of this episode overall? It’s a bad start to a new season where the quality of the series all goes downhill. That was truly…the beginning of the end. See what I did there? But yeah, the premise was poorly-written, the concept retcons the fundamental principle of friendship, the new characters are boring, the episode overlooks Neighsay’s valid criticisms of their school by highlighting his racism, and the musical numbers are just annoying to listen to.
It’s not entirely terrible though because it does try to teach the lesson about being your best self when teaching or preaching to others and not letting anyone else tell you otherwise. That’s the moral that saves this episode; other than that, this was so bad. It gets a solid D.
Peace!
Beside from Ocellus, these episodes are on the low end for me.
This is both reasonable and hard to swallow.
To this day for me this was the worst season of fim. I just didn't enjoy this season as I was hoping for. I still feel like the third season of transformers g1 did the concept of taking place after a movie much better (even though I'm not fond the third season of G1 as the first two seasons it's still better than this season).
Out of curiosity…
What were your thoughts on Maurice LaMarche’s performance as Neighsay?
5731714
He was decent.
Shockingly, I've still not seen the last two seasons.
5731730
By Primus!!
5731723
I thought so too.
Chancellor Neighsay was never one of my favorite characters to begin with, but I also thought that Maurice LaMarche & My Little Pony mixed incredibly well. I only wish he had gotten the opportunity to voice more than one character, because it would’ve been a great showcase of his talents as a voice chameleon.
Then again, this was how I also felt about Phil LaMarr and his involvement as Alphabittle in MLP: ANG.
5731746
Oh trust me, it's not the only thing I've been behind on, whether it's been by two seasons or more.
Despite having not seen Seasons 8 & 9 in a long time, I will say this:
Even I felt critical of the “School of Friendship” concept. It was too contradictory to an important quote from Season 1, which is that Friendship can never be taught in a school. As a whole, the entirety of it also felt too much like an advocacy for Socialism rather than a way of genuinely teaching the importance of community and friendship, which was something I similarly felt about the overall story and messages of MLP: ANG.
At least we got to hear THE Maurice LaMarche appear in MLP.
When a supposed villain(and I'm using the word very loosely here) makes much more sense than the heroes, the world has gone crazy.