SPOILERS FOR END OF SEASON · 9:26pm Oct 9th, 2017
As the title implies, I decided to watch the season’s remaining episodes. Last season’s finale got spoiled for me before I found out even through synopses what was going to happen, so I wanted to get a jump on it before it happened to me again. Everything below the break has heavy spoilers for the last episodes of the season, so unless you’ve watched them like me, I HIGHLY advise not clicking this blog if you don’t want spoilers. Those of you that have watched them, c'mon in.
So, here are my breakdowns and thoughts about each of the next episodes after only one watch. These aren’t reviews, just my own summaries and thoughts about the episodes. I haven’t gone back to re-watch them before writing this out, so I may be forgetting stuff that I would have written or commented on otherwise. If you’ve clicked into here and have something to say, please feel free to debate with me and anyone else, but do be civil.
Episode 23: Secrets and Pies
Current Wikipedia Synopsis: Pinkie Pie suspects Rainbow Dash of secretly hating her pies.
Okay, this was basically pure fluff to me, and not very good fluff. As far as I recall, there was nothing to add to any of the characters’ personalities except that Rainbow Dash doesn’t like pie. That’s it. For those of you that are still hovering over the debate about whether or not Rainbow is gay, maybe you could take that innuendo to be another reason that she isn’t. I don’t care anymore at this point, but me having the sick mindset I do, that thought came to me.
Like I said, this seemed like pure fluff. After another (apparently Pinkie’s been doing this for years) random gift of a delicious pie for Rainbow Dash (delivered to her at Wonderbolt HQ—Pinkie’s world-altering powers at work again by her being able to walk on clouds without pegasus magic), Pinkie discovers said pie in the garbage. After a bit of sleuthing, Pinkie figures out that Rainbow has never eaten one of her gift pies and then proceeds to badger Rainbow into eating one because she can’t believe that Rainbow would lie to her. We learn through a series of flashbacks that while Rainbow hasn’t eaten any of Pinkie’s pies, she almost never actually throws them away, instead giving them to others so they can enjoy them. Rainbow never wanted to tell Pinkie she didn’t like her pies because seeing Rainbow like them made her really happy, and Rainbow didn’t want to crush her feelings, and so kept up with the lie. In the end, Pinkie accepts this and decides that even if Rainbow doesn’t like her pies, she’s always given others an opportunity to, and that makes Pinkie happy, too.
Like, really? There was no point to this episode. We don’t even get a real reason as to why Rainbow doesn’t like pie. Supposedly it isn’t just Pinkie’s, but all pie. There may have been some stupid reason in there, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy. The only thing(s) that really held this episode together were Pinkie’s antics at trying to get Rainbow to eat a pie, and the lengths that Rainbow went to to avoid it, and even those weren’t always satisfying. This was just dumb.
Episode 24: Uncommon Bond
Current Wikipedia Synopsis: Starlight Glimmer worries that Sunburst has more in common with her other friends than he does with her.
This made up for Secrets and Pies to me. While some of the episode’s actual content wasn’t always great, the premise of it more than made up for it. The fact that the synopsis says OTHER friends is very appropriate, because while the episode focuses on Twilight as the starter, the friends it means are Trixie and Maud, and I just found that amazing. Basically, Starlight is really excited for a visit from Sunburst to Ponyville, and is all geared up to do stuff together like they used to do when they were younger. Upon discovering that Sunburst doesn’t really care that much for any of it anymore (other than magic, and that attempt goes awry), Starlight gets really down in the dumps.
Of course, before this case of the dumps occurs, Sunburst is introduced to Starlight’s friends (other than Twilight, obviously) through matters of happenstance. The first pony Sunburst finds a commonality with is Twilight via antiquing, not all the other reasons that many have already shipped the two of them for. Starlight of course finds this boring as all hell and lets Sunburst and Twilight have their fun.
In an attempt to remind Sunburst that they used to drink apple juice boxes together all the time (…desperate much?), Starlight brings him to Sweet Apple Acres, and after bucking a few apples down from a tree—hey, she’s a hell of a lot better at it than Twilight was—they run into Trixie napping in a tree Rainbow Dash-style. Turns out Sunburst also has not only an interest, but an affinity for stage magic. Starlight of course has seen this a million times, so she lets them ramble for a while.
Starlight then makes an even more desperate attempt by breaking the seal on the Mirror Pool Cavern to show Sunburst ‘real magic,’ and the two of them run into Maud. Maud’s living cavern is connected to the Mirror Pool’s, so after some introductions, Sunburst then finds a common interest with Maud in geology, and it’s another facehoof from Starlight.
When Starlight finally writes a new spell to not only create the surroundings of Sunburst’s old home, but also turn them back to foal-age so they could relive playing one of their old favorite board games (which Starlight also attempted earlier in the episode to a partial failure), Sunburst basically goes, “Woah, hold up there,” and accidentally hurts Starlight’s feelings, badly. Both of them begin to wonder if they have anything in common anymore and whether or not they’re even still friends. Sunburst then makes an attempt at recreating a pony-sized version of Starlight’s favored board game with Twilight, Trixie, and Maud’s help to cheer her up. All in all, it works out.
Like I said, while the content of the episode is really kind of meh, the premise and the likely resulting fic fuel is great. I’m anticipating quite a few TwiBurst, TrixBurst, and MaudBurst fics coming from this (I’m particularly looking forward to what some of the more creative types can come up with for Maud).
However, the most important part of this episode is the end, where there’s a setup for the finale. While Sunburst was antiquing with Twilight, he bought a ‘mystery barrel’ (paraphrasing), where there could be anything inside. On the train back to the Crystal Empire, he pops open the barrel and after taking one item out, we see a silver-ish book. Said book shimmers a bit—much like the old book that Celestia sends to Twilight containing Starswirl the Bearded’s incomplete spell that Twilight finished to become an alicorn—then the episode fades out. Hmmm…
Episode 25: Shadow Play Part One
Current Wikipedia Synopsis: Twilight Sparkle sets out to rescue her idol, the historical Star Swirl the Bearded, from a thousand-year imprisonment.
I have to admit, the second I saw that book shimmer at the end of episode 24, I got excited. Obviously even the limited synopsis gave a pretty big spoiler as to what was going to happen, but it still sounded pretty cool. And I will also admit, I did re-watch the beginning of this episode so I could get some of this description more accuratetly.
The very beginning of the episode is a voiceover of Starswirl the Bearded talking about ‘the best elements within us’ that ‘can spread light and virtue.’ That one line alone made me realize that these elements were going to be, if not the Elements of Harmony, then complements to them, and I was right: Strength, Bravery, Healing, Beauty, Hope, and Sorcery. Each of these elements were represented by ponies of the past, including Starswirl himself. He called the group the Pillars of Light (I’m pretty sure—someone correct me if I’m wrong), and much like the Mane 6, the Pillars had to confront a pony—who originally gathered them together—when he supposedly became power-hungry and turned to darkness in revenge for being cast away by them, becoming the Pony of Shadows (sound familiar?). In the process of ‘facing this fiend,’ they sacrifice themselves ‘with the only plan they have,’ but not before planting a seed that they hoped ‘would grow into a force that would stand against the darkness for all time.’ This voiceover turns out to be Sunburst reading what is revealed to be the last entry of Starswirl’s journal—the book from the mystery barrel—aloud to Celestia, Luna, the Mane 6, Spike, and Starlight.
Even without the visual accompaniments the episode provides, it’s pretty easy to figure out that the seed becomes the Tree of Harmony, and the ‘force that stands against the darkness’ is the Elements. However, what the visual does reveal which we may not have known (though it was probably fairly easy to figure out anyway) was who the Pillars of Light were (in the same order listed above): Rockhoof, Flash Magnus, Meadowbrook, Mistmane, Somnambula, and of course, Starswirl himself. Each of these were ponies that we’ve learned over previous episodes in the season that the Mane 6 had a connection with somehow, mainly through knowledge of their legends, and each of their pillars complements another key trait of each of the Mane 6 (though Sorcery and Magic are just about the same in my eyes).
After a long and grueling research session (literally days nonstop), Twilight learns that the Pillars banished the Pony of Shadows to Limbo, and brought themselves with him in the process, as it was the only way to do so. Realizing that Limbo is essentially frozen in time, and that the Pillars could be brought back even after 1000 years, Twilight becomes obsessed with being able to free her idol (as the synopsis says), and writes a spell to do so. They discover that the banishment site was Ponehenge (*groan*), and after accidentally placing the journal down on one of the stones and triggering a magical visual/flashback, they discover that the spell requires an important artifact that belonged to each of the Pillars. Each of the Mane 6 knows where to go because the map at the Crystal Castle has located the artifacts for them, and they claim that they don’t need to determine who’s going to get which one. Applejack goes for Rockhoof’s plow, Rainbow (accompanied by Spike to the Dragon Lands) goes for Flash’s shield, Fluttershy for Meadowbrook’s mask, Rarity for Mistmane’s mystical flower, and Pinkie for Somnambula’s blindfold. The journal is Starswirl’s artifact, so Twilight remains behind to refine her spell. Meanwhile, Starlight is unsure about the whole endeavor, believing that the Pillars likely knew what they were doing by staying in Limbo to keep the Pony of Shadows contained. The Mane 6 are pretty set on the idea, though, so after gathering the artifacts and activating Twilight’s spell at Ponehenge, they successfully bring back the six Pillars, who quite literally land on their own pillars—the rocks of Ponehenge. Twilight is ecstatic, and immediately begins fangirling at Starswirl. Starswirl, however, responds with, “What have you done??” When Twilight explains that she freed the Pillars from Limbo, Starswirl cries, “You can’t only bring the Pillars back!” Cue the dark clouds and the appearance of the Pony of Shadows, thunder, lightning, hoof stomp, cut to black. Thus ends Part One.
Addition ~one week later: It was pointed out to me by Crystal Moose that the Pony of Shadows has been brought up before, back in S4E3: Castle Mane-ia. Seems Josh Haber finally had the opportunity to close that loop that he started three seasons ago. I didn't recall any mention of the Pony of Shadows between then and now.
Episode 26: Shadow Play Part Two
Current Wikipedia Synopsis: After releasing Equestria's ancient heroes from limbo, Twilight and her friends must work together to defeat the Pony of Shadows.
After the recap of Part One, we see Starswirl yell at Twilight to send the Pony of Shadows back to Limbo, but she doesn’t have a spell to do so—she had only made a spell to bring the Pillars (and unintentionally the Pony of Shadows) back. The Pony of Shadows makes an attempt to attack Starswirl with magic, but Twilight counters. The Pony of Shadows comments that Twilight is indeed powerful, but not enough to take him on. With another, more powerful attempt at Twilight, Starlight then joins in, and with Starswirl’s assistance, they cause the Pony of Shadows to flinch and retreat, looking to make himself more powerful before attacking again.
After bringing the Pillars back to the Crystal Castle and showing them the map—they’re pretty impressed, to say the least—we see some interaction between each of the Mane 6 and their counterparts. Each of them get along swimmingly, except for (and for me this wasn’t a surprise) Twilight and Starswirl. It was one of those ‘maybe it’s better not to meet your idols’ instances. Starswirl is adamant about banishing the Pony of Shadows once again, but Starlight attempts to reason that since the Pony of Shadows was originally a regular pony also, maybe they could just talk with him. Starswirl says no, and determines that banishing him is the only way. Twilight creates a spell to do so, and Starswirl shrugs her off. When the rest of the Mane 6 defend her, saying that Twilight earned her wings by completing one of Starswirl’s own spells, the rest of the Pillars agree that Twilight’s work is at least worth considering. Starswirl concedes, and finds that her current progress was an attempt at recreating a banishment without needing to sacrifice the Pillars once again so they could remain in Equestria. Starswirl determines that something needs to be sacrificed, and an almost unanimous though hesitant decision is that the physical Elements of Harmony would make for a good substitute. The fact that the Tree of Harmony would likely die, and Equestria would suffer, is brought up with this decision, but Starswirl counters that if the Pony of Shadows remains in Equestria, the entire world would suffer.
After gathering the Elements from the Tree of Harmony, the gang goes back to the map, wondering where they’ll find the Pony of Shadows. Up to now since his retreat, little black swirls on the map had shown ‘places of darkness’ where the Pony of Shadows would have gone to gather power, but these places were known as such back in the old times. They are now places like Manehattan and other prosperous locations where the Pony of Shadows wouldn’t have been able to gather darkness after all. This time, however, the Mane 6’s cutie marks shimmer and all land on the map at a place called Hollow Shades, where it’s determined that this is clearly the Pony of Shadows’ current location. Starlight notes that this is what happened every time the girls had had to face a friendship problem, so perhaps the Pony of Shadows was looking for friendship after all. Of course, Starswirl scoffs at her, and Twilight, not wanting to go against her idol, goes along.
Now while Twilight and Starswirl had been working on the final version of the banishment spell, Starlight approached the rest of the Pillars to ask about the pony who became the Pony of Shadows. It turns out that he had originally been a pony named Stigeon, who had gathered the Pillars together to create a force for good. However, by their accounts, it still seemed like his intentions for the power they offered were for his own gain, so the gang heads to Hollow Shades to do what must be done. When they arrive, they call for the Pony of Shadows, and are then thrust down into an ancient ruin, which is apparently where Stigeon went when the Pillars cast him away. It was here that the shadows corrupted him, and he began his plot for revenge.
Starswirl of course, wants to take no chances, and tells the Pillars and the Mane 6 (with Elements) to begin the banishment process. A portal is once again opened to Limbo, and we see the Pony of Shadows being sucked in. However, because of the nature of the Elements, instead of just banishing the Pony of Shadows, we see the Shadows being stripped away from Stigeon as well. The Pony of Shadows does not want to let go of Stigeon, though, so Twilight, finally realizing her duties to Friendship, dives into the essence of the Shadows and finds Stigeon, sitting there solemnly. After a brief conversation, we learn that Stigeon never had any self-serving intentions for power, but that he simply wanted some respect, and when his friends, the Pillars, turned him away because of what they assumed was happening, he grew bitter. We now know that Stigeon wants to believe Twilight in that he can reunite with his friends, but he is skeptical. We then see Starlight approach inside the shadows—clearly she dove in as well—and help convince Stigeon to take a shot. We then see the three of them fly out of the Shadows, the banishment spell solely on the Shadows completed, and not only are the Pillars and Stigeon still there, but so are the Elements of Harmony. Stigeon and the Pillars have a reunion and make amends, and Starlight has a minor ‘I told you so’ moment. Starswirl concedes that he clearly did not know the magic of friendship when creating his magic, and just had to be shown the right path.
Cut to Canterlot, where Celestia and Luna are happily reuniting with their old teacher, asking if he’ll stay to teach at Celestia’s school, as his wisdom would be great to have. Starswirl declines, saying that he wants to travel this new world and see what he can learn himself, and the remaining Pillars say the same. Starswirl also claims that if Celestia is looking for wisdom, she need look no further than her own pupil. Cue Twilight’s sparkly eyes at finally being praised by her idol. Starlight makes a comment that sometimes Twilight should have trusted her own instincts when it came to friendship, and Twilight says she was glad she had her own student to remind her.
The episode basically ends there. Because I haven’t re-watched the second episode, I’m sure there are some points I forgot or got wrong, so please don’t hesitate to call me out on them.
So in terms of the finale as a whole, I’m actually a little bit torn. There’s a lot of stuff to like and not necessarily like, depending on who you are and what characters you do or don’t like. For those of you that really dislike Glim Glam, even though she was kind of an integral part of the finale, she wasn’t the constant focus. We get a lot of interaction between the Mane 6, and Starlight really just seems to be the eventual voice of reason in the end, reminding them that this really was a giant friendship lesson after all. If the fact that Starlight has that much impact on the finale still bothers you, then I guess you may not be thrilled.
In terms of the villain, it was more like another Nightmare Moon situation—good pony turned bad in need of redemption—but in this case the idea of friendship needed to be reminded, not discovered. It was a semi-new villain this time, but not really. This actually leads me to the things that I really disliked about the finale.
Celestia and Luna weren’t called in once. NOT ONCE. Yes, I get that we’re at a point where Twilight and friends can handle themselves, but there are a lot of factors at play here. One, Starswirl the Bearded, Celestia and Luna’s old teacher whom they greatly respected, just returned from Limbo. Even with the Pony of Shadows released, Twilight didn’t think to have at the very least a small reunion? Even in other storylines like this, there’s some kind of “Reunion later, help save the world now” kind of element. I mean yeah, she's probably listening to Starswirl, but come on. But most importantly for me, WHY WAS LUNA NOT CALLED IN? This was basically a complete repeat of the Nightmare Moon incident (as I mentioned above) from beginning to end—jealousy, lack of respect, corruption by darkness, revenge plot—and she would have been the best pony to consult. She would have had a much better idea as to how the Shadows would have thought, most likely much like the Nightmare. Of course, an opportunity for Best Princess to have some screen time is something I always hope for, so maybe I’m a bit biased.
Frankly, that’s about it in terms of the finale, but after seeing the end, I’m now wondering where the show is going to go now that season 8 has been confirmed for 26 episodes. Legendary figures have now reappeared in the land of Equestria. Are they going to be brought in again at a later date? Are they going to go find their descendants? Chrysalis is still on the loose, while Thorax and Pharynx are holding down the fort at the Changeling hive, so there’s always options there. I’ve seen a number of people speculating that the show is likely on course for Starlight to become the next alicorn. Based on her screen time pattern, it really wouldn’t surprise me, and it would be a great merchandising opportunity for Hasbro. Show-wise, what kind of filler will they need to make it happen, and will they manage to give us some more episodes that seem somewhat unnecessary that will turn out to be crucial in the long run?
By that, of course, I speak of Campfire Tales. I wrote that episode off fairly quickly. I thought the tales were fun, but not that important. Boy was I wrong. Rockhoof, Flash Magnus, and Mistmane all turned out to be crucial legendary figures who are now once again back in the world (Meadowbrook's and Somnambula's legends were introduced to us while interwoven in other plotlines, and I personally think that was cooler). Will the writers pull something like that off again, bringing in more Equestrian lore before giving Starlight an opportunity to use said lore for her own ascension? And if Starlight becoming the next alicorn IS the next big thing, will Twilight be the catalyst who actually brings her to the ascension realm like Celestia was for Twilight? It would be her ultimate lesson, wouldn’t it?
There’s plenty to debate and discuss. I’m happy to hear what everyone has to say. I usually don’t get this lengthy in blogs, so if you stuck around this long, thanks. I’m not expecting the view count to be very high.
Until next time, everyone!
—LD
PS: There's a reason I wrote out 'Pony of Shadows' every time I mentioned him...
