My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Season 7 Finale: "Shadow Play" (SPOILERS) · 4:31pm Oct 28th, 2017
In which the regular series writers show the movie writers how it's supposed to be done.
The end of season 7 begins with a disturbing echo of the past: a journal left behind by Starswirl the Bearded, which tells a tale remarkably similar to the very storybook legend that started everything seven years ago. The story of the Pillars of Equestria and the Pony of Shadows sounds a lot like the story of the Elements of Harmony and Nightmare Moon, meaning history has a strange way of repeating itself even in Equestria.
Hey, remember that spooky shadow from the third episode of season four? It just became relevant! Also, the legendary ponies from the campfire stories were all apparently real.
Twilight, Sunburst, and their friends research the journal to try to discover the final fate of Starswirl the Bearded, whose disappearance is the greatest mystery in the history of Equestria.
Their research leads them to Ponehenge, a fabled mystical site at the base of Foal Mountain. There, they witness a vision of how the Pillars of Equestria combined their power to contain the Pony of Shadows, sacrificing themselves in the process.
Twilight solves the mystery of how Starswirl and his friends banished the Pony of Shadows--and themselves in the process--and comes up with a way to rescue the Pillars from Limbo, where they've been trapped for all time with the Pony of Shadows. All this season's legend episodes come into play; the Mane Six disperse across Equestria to recover the Pillars' artifacts of power.
It's the Elements of Harmony AND the Rainbow Power Keys combined into a single quest!
Ugh, Garble. Hoped we'd never see that scaly dick ever again.
So anyway, they get the things, Twilight does the spell, the Pillars of Equestria return...and so does the Pony of Shadows. Equestria is doomed. Whoops!
The Pony of Shadows destroys Ponehenge. Twilight and Starlight manage to drive the weakened Pony of Shadows back, and he retreats until he can recover his strength.
Starswirl's kind of a dick.
Oh, and surprise surprise--the Castle of Friendship was created by the Pillars of Equestria, indirectly--they planted the seed that became the Tree of Harmony.
Anyway, Starswirl is a dismissive dick to Twilight, which upsets her and makes her sad, but she decides to prove her worth to him by finding a way to banish the Pony of Shadows back to Limbo without sacrificing the Pillars again. Oh, and no matter what they do, the Elements of Harmony are going to have to be sacrificed, leaving the Tree of Harmony permanently defenseless against the Everfree Forest.
Starswirl's kind of a MASSIVE dick.
Starlight wonders if banishment is the only option, if the Pony of Shadows can be reformed, and talks to the Pillars to try to find out more about who and what he was before.
HOLY SHIT THE SIRENS! Equestria Girls just became show canon!!
Anyway, the Pillars and the Mane Six (and Starlight) face down Stygian in the Well of Shade. When they open the portal and start pushing the darkness in, Twilight sees Stygian, the pony, struggling within the darkness, and flies in to talk to him. Starlight was right--it was a friendship problem! Twilight and Starlight drag Stygian out of the darkness and convince him that friendship is the answer he really seeks. The Pillars, confronted with their own dickish behavior to their old friend, help save him, and the darkness is banished.
The Elements of Harmony don't vanish, because they were used the right way, and once again, all is well in Equestria, friendship is magic, and a thousand year old friendship is repaired.
"Starswirl didn't understand friendship the way you do," indeed--remember that?
Man, so much from seasons past came into play here, and from THIS season also! And the Sirens, and...I just...
I can't even!
That was EPIC!
10/10.
Post-season ranking and breakdown blogs to come later.
Me at the start of part one: "OMC! Starswirl made the Elements!"
Me at the end of part one: "Wait, you didn't see this coming? WTH?"
Is it just me or did Twilight get bad at this whole friendship thing lately? This episode, and the movie, she's been dropping a lot of balls.
They all got picked up in the end, but still.
While I prefer the movie over this, that's more because it actually IS a movie rather than just a two parter.
However, I still love this episode a lot.
It's my new favorite two-parter, my second favorite episode of the season, and my third favorite episode of the series
Yeah, Starswirl's a dick. As they say: "Pride is a deadly sin."
This episode also makes Equestria Girls canon.
Twilight:" Starswirl guess what? I found those flying seaponies you banned to another dimension......."
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Which I mentioned in the blog, if you'll look again.
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Nah man.
It was just her turn to hold the idiot-ball.
But seriously... How could she NOT predict that returning the pillars from banishment, the same ones that kept Pony of Shadows prisoner, would also bring back pony of shadows?!
That shit is like tier 1 logic.
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I just woke up
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It's always been canon the staff themselves have said they consider it canon it's just that some people in the fandom can be ridiculously stubborn.
The sirens cameo was a treat. Not only did the legends play a big roll but we also got a lot of callbacks to previous seasons, which is welcome.
I think the main theme/arc of this season was the past, and how it affects your present and future. Besides the legends a lot of episodes talked about the past and how some characters were letting it affect them now and others focused on the future. A good theme of the season I say.
I like how the tree of harmony was able to grow beyond what the previous 6 heroes had probably intended. It embodied the best virtue of each individual, and for a time it simply banished or sealed away problems. Then when the Mane 6 inherit the elements, it began to work to reform, rather than simply defeat...I’m rambling random stuff. Whoops.
Anyway...Will this episode have any noticeable effect on “I am NOT a ‘Bratty Daughter’!...BAKA!”?
Part one: Twilight, undoing a seal on a portal is a bad idea.
Part two: Twilight, have you forgotten Starswhirl's flaw? Twilight, have you forgotten what the Map sends you to do?
is this the end of mlp i hope not
Time for a fetch-quest!
He got humiliated by best pony and best dragon, that's a plus in my book!
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To be fair, she probably thought the spell they were using could free the Legends and leave the PoS sealed away. She didn't know it'd be a package deal.
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Well, remember this quote from Daring Don't:
It's fine to look up to Daring Do, but you've put her so high up on a pedestal, you can't even see your own worth anymore!
Now switch Daring Do with Starswirl.
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Here's hoping that Season 8 is just as good if not better!
Now I know a few fans are going to state that this messes up the established timeline for what happened1000 years ago, but I think i have the perfect way to tie it all together.
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Uhh, no. Season 8's already been confirmed waaaaay back at the start of the year.
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why the fuck that would've been a good way to end the series
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So...you don't want MLP to be over, but you're mad that it's not...?
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its just season 8 could be worse and ruin the whole series if it ends at 8
I can only say two things about the season 7 ending..
1)By and far as good, if not BETTER than the season 4 ending
and
media1.tenor.com/images/a9254815ed0758551dbe0b9098bddefe/tenor.gif?itemid=3795282
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I still consider it being a package deal kind of obvious logic.
It's like if a person tricked a tiger into a cage with him to get it away from others and there was a one-time lock on the door.
IF a person destroys the lock that keeps the person inside, the tiger will also be freed.
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There's a difference though, we're talking about magic here.
I think this has to be my new favorite finale; it was just awesome. What really took me by surprise was that the elements were created by the pillars. It's cool that EQG is now canon, plus seeing the Sirens was awesome. Yeah, Starswirl was a really big douche, but it was nice to see him get over himself, and that he mentored Celestia and Luna; I always thought the two of them were older than Starswirl, especially when Tirek came onto the scene, and Celestia mentioned Scorpan befriended a young wizard, who was depicted as Starswirl. My two favorite artifact retrievals had to be AJ when she bucked that boulder away, and Spike and RD teaching Garble another lesson; he really never does learn. (In S8, or future seasons, they should make a Spike and RD episode that involves them trying to solve a friendship problem between Ember and Gilda in Griffonstone. Just saying.)
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Eeyup.
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The show still has, at least, 2 more seasons after 8.
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Eeyup.
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Totally awesome.
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hopefully 10 will be great
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Eeyup.
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One can only hope.
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hope is useless the only way hope can be useful is against dispair
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Okay.
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nvm no one ever gets the reference
There's one thing that seriously annoyed me (apart from the Elements being on-demand now again—I thought we learned from the whole Accord fiasco):
The Good Guys have to say they're sorry. The Bad Guy, even if he was kind of a woobie, got away without it. That's not okay. It may be just one detail, but it's really messing things up for me.
Just one little "I'm sorry too". Just... something. But no. Being a dick is apparently worse than being a monster. Not a single moment during all of it did I feel Stygian felt an ounce of regret for what happened other than it biting him right in the ass.
Redemption shouldn't come this easy.
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Danganronpa?
Best season yet. This show is going through reversed seasonal rot.
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yes finally *blows up like gar*
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That's stupid.
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its really not if you think about it if things can go wrong it will go wrong their's a possibility that it can get worse dob't say their isn't trust me
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No, I mean it's stupid to just assume season 8 will "ruin MLP" and expect the worst.
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i guess your right i'm being pesstimestic
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God let's hope so.
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Got my fingers crossed Sunburst and Sunset are siblings!
For me, the most memorable (not necessarily the best) part was Pinkie grabbing AJ in a way only she could legitimately get away with.
I liked the whole thing, but it felt like it should have been a three parter.
I know! That was one of the main highlights for me! I do hope that they bring those three back, whether it be an EG spin-off, or another EG Special.
Aside from that, I liked the finale, but there were parts that bothered me.
1) Applejack's show of strength - Now, I know that AJ's pretty strong, but Maud level strength? That was a bit much.
2) Starswirl's reunion with Celestia and Luna - I felt the interaction was downplayed. Granted, there was only about a minute or two left in the episode, but still. I mean, the princesses are seeing their mentor again, after over a thousand years, when they probably thought he was long since dead. Granted, Starswirl may not have been the warmest individual, but I would have like to have seen the sisters shed some joyful tears, maybe even a hug.
Oh well, at least they brought Celestia and Luna back at the end. If they had ended the episode, with the those two not reuniting with their long lost teacher... Oh I would have been peeved!
3) The Pony of Shadows - Don't get me wrong, I thought the character was pretty cool. I just always kind of figured that the Pony of Shadows would have somehow been connected to Luna and her transformation into Nightmare Moon, or maybe even King Sombra and how he became what he became.
Anyway, overall a good end to a great season. Here's hoping that Season 8 will be just a epic.
Yeah Starswirl turning out to be a dick was a given. I called that when it was revealed in Rainbow Rocks that he had dumped the Sirens on the CHS world, and his appearances in the comics only reinforced things.
You get a redemption arch and you get a redemption arch. Everyone get's a redemption arch.
Dude. I just had a super-sad thought.
We know Somnambula saved Prince Hisan, right? She even had a village named for her.
But there doesn't seem to be that royal family around anymore.
What if Hisan was so heartbroken when Somnambula vanished that he never had any kids?
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I don’t know if I’m alone in this or not, but I never liked pony Sunset’s design.