School Daze Parts 1 and 2 Review · 5:09am Mar 25th, 2018
It's later than usual, but better late than never. Anyway, going into this season is quite interesting because a lot has already been made known about it. Some episodes were even leaked without background audio, another had its ending revealed in a magazine, all 26 episodes have had their synopsis' released, and we know already that there's a Season 9 in the works. We also know that this seasons is going to attempt to be more overarching in its narrative, something that hasn't been attempted since the keys in Season 4. And we're getting six new supporting characters. Seems like a pretty tall order, even for a seasoned writing team of Michael Vogel and Nicole Dubac, who are responsible for the Ponyville Mysteries chapter books, though the story here is credited to Josh Haber, who is returning as story editor once again. Considering Haber saved Season 7 from a downhill spiral, and Vogel and Dubac have high quality attached to their names, was this experienced trio up to the task of handling all that was thrown at them for this season premiere? Well, let's find out.
Right from the get go, the premiere canonizes the movie and expands the map, meaning that it does indeed take place after "Shadow Play" since the map was clearly seen unaltered before then (not sure it was a good idea to say the movie took place after a finale that none of the movie staff had seen yet, unless someone clued them in). And I'm grateful they don't spoil the twist on Tempest Shadow's name (most of you probably know it by now, but for those who haven't I won't spoil it here). The mane six and Starlight all express their amazement at this, wondering if they'll have to embark on more friendship missions (though they seem to be forgetting the map has to call on them to do so first) and Fluttershy boldly declares she's had enough exciting adventures for one life time.
Twilight decides that instead of going on friendship missions, the solution is to open a school of friendship and have the girls all teach there (Twilight herself is the principal and Starlight is a guidance counselor, I'm assuming Spike is vice principal or an assistant counselor). I suppose the logic is to try and solve potential friendship problems before they occur. But I feel like expanding the map to justify this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The movie's events alone would motivate Twilight to want to spread friendship across Equestria, and her character is just the sort that would think a school is the answer.
So Twilight goes to Canterlot to ask Princess Celestia for advice, seeing as she runs her own school and has been a teacher for a long time.
Celestia mentions the EEA, which governs and dictates the entire educational world of Equestria, and hold the final say in whether a school is allowed to stay open. It's headed by Chancellor Neighsay, voiced by Maurice LaMarche. He's had many voice acting roles over the years, and even has Canadian citizenship, but he's best know for being the voice of Brain in Pinky and the Brain (which was originally a series of short skits in Animaniacs before it was spun-off into its own show). He's demonstrated that he can play against type casting though, including Mr. Freeze in the Batman Arkham series, and Chief Charlie Burns in Transformers: Rescue Bots. As for the chancellor himself, I think the best way to describe him is like a male Spoiled Rich, only worse. Heck, I get some serious Doloris Umbridge vibes off him, and Doloris is easily one of the most hated characters in Harry Potter, for good reason.
Mistakeningly believing the school is to ensure the defense of Equestria, Neighsay approves it but vows to stop by to see with his own two eyes on Friends and Family Day. The rest of the mane six aren't entirely sure if they're up to the idea of teaching, especially when Twilight insists they do things by the book to meet EEA standards. And from here we meet the student six as I'm gonna be calling them: Sandbar who is a surfer dude earth pony, Gallus who is a sarcastic griffon with Rainbow Dash's coat color, Yona who is a clumsy but fun loving yak, Smolder who is Scootaloo in dragon form even down to the colors (I don't know if she's voiced by Madeline Peters, at times it sounds like her but at other times it doesn't), Ocellus who is a shy but intelligent changeling, and Silverstream who is basically a mix between Pinkie Pie and Princess Skystar. We get to see the leaders of each tribe (except Queen Novo who is mentioned), including Prince Rutherford, Ember, and Thorax. But surprisingly the griffons are represented by Grandpa Gruff, who's still as grouchy as he was last we saw him (I guess his knowledge of the last king of Griffonstone makes him leader by default). And then we get our first song "By The Book", which has a Disney vibe to it. It's alright, nothing really special. It's a montage song though.
Twilight's insistence on doing things by the books leads to predictably bad results, you can't really teach about things like honesty, laughter, or loyalty. You can explain the idea behind them, but real world experience is needed to understand what they're like. Kindness and generosity can be taught, but they can be taught at any time, you don't need an entire class devoted solely to them. So the students get bored, and Gallus and Smolder convince the others to ditch class on Friends and Family Day. They do so, after Ocellus transforms into Rarity to fool Fluttershy.
Chancellor Neighsay shows up at that moment, and things quickly get out of control. The student six cause a commotion on top of ditching class, and Neighsay is shocked to learn that the school is being attended by non ponies and taught by the mane six. After offending all the leaders of the different nations, he seals up the school building (which is right next to Twilight's castle) with a special spell and disappears, ending part one. See what I mean about this guy being a male Spoiled Rich?
Part two opens with Twilight burying herself in a fortress of pillows and sobbing to herself. Spike and the mane six try to cheer her up in a variety of ways, including a hug from Angel Bunny (I guess Harry was busy) and even cupcakes. Though Pinkie mentions that if she'd known it was a pity party she would've brought ice cream. I guess Rarity's not the only one who's into stress eating.
It's Starlight, however, who solves the problem with some "tough love". And once again, it's not really her fault, it's the fault of the writers for not handling her redemption better from the start that makes scenes like these tougher to genuinely enjoy. It doesn't help that they still on occasion have the tendency to shill Starlight. It's not as bad as "Shadow Play" where they overplayed Starlight's role, but you could swap her for Spike and nothing would truly change. I can see why the scene called for Starlight though. Anyway, Twilight sends her friends to go round up the students while she deals with the school itself, but they all learn that the student six have gone missing. All that was found was a note indicating their refusal to go back home (it's never made clear where Sand Bar lives though. He's an earth pony, but he could be from anywhere in Equestria). The leaders all gather in Canterlot, each accusing (without proof) the others of hiding the students, with only Thorax not being interested in playing the blame game since the changelings don't have the force to deal with an international incident. Heck, he even has to remind Ember that they're friends.
The mane six, meanwhile, try to figure out where the students might be. And all of a sudden, who should show up but Sand Bar, ordering several batches of cupcakes? From here, the mane six deduce that he knows where the student six are hiding out. It's a little too on the nose, especially when Applejack and Rarity admit to already having seen Sand Bar earlier that same day. You'd think that the first sighting would've at least prompted them to mention it to the others. Anyway, they tail Sand Bar and it turns out he and the other students are hanging out at the Castle of the Two Sisters, which hasn't seen any use or screen time since Season 4 (I can't help but wonder if the original plans were for it to be spruced up and become Twilight's new castle, before Hasbro decided a shiny new crystal castle would look better on a toy set). All of a sudden, they're attacked by these hedgehog like creatures with quills that can puncture pillows. Somehow, even Smolder seems worried despite dragons have super thick scales (meaning that unless the quills are magical or poison tipped, Smolder shouldn't take any damage from the creatures). Luckily, the mane six rescue the students in a quick montage (and Spike gets in on it too, even though he gets chased off during his solo scene). And right after Fluttershy suggests dealing with them nicely, Pinkie loads them up into her party cannon and fires them into the sky (luckily with parachutes).
Everyone meets back up at the school as Twilight undoes the lock spell with her magic (kind of makes one wonder how much magical power is needed to undo a lock spell, and if anyone with above average power can do it, what's the point of casting it) and this alerts Chancellor Neighsay who shows up as racist as ever. He once again insults the leaders to their faces, but Princess Celestia halts them and convinces Twilight to plead her case to the chancellor. Hey, at least she's actually doing something in a two parter for a change.
Twilight tells Chancellor Neighsay where he can stick his rules, because she's running her special school her way ("screw the rules, I have friendship!"). When he protests the idea of a school consisting of non pony students, Princess Celestia reminds him of the schools in Equestria that combine the three pony races. And here, a villain who probably should see the error of their ways and have a reason to undergo redemption (he's a bureaucrat and regulations and standards are important) instead remains a villain. I can't help but wonder though if that's because he'll crop back up later in the season? I can't see him teaming up with any major threats, he's too prideful for that. But I could see him becoming a pawn of a greater power (we know Chrysalis and Tirek will be coming back later this season), or being tricked into serving as a distraction. And hey, at least unlike last time, there's a reason why no one stops the villain from getting away.
We get the second song "Friendship Always Wins" (lampshaded in universe) and one by one all the leaders agree to let their student stay, except for Grandpa Gruff who tries to force Gallus to come back home, but Gallus refuses. And we end part two (and the premiere) with a Photo Finish photo of the school, the students, and the staff (it's worth noting the intro didn't change for this two parter, we'll have to see if it changes later on this season).
And that's the story, so what do I think of the two parter? Well, despite some of the criticisms I pointed out above, particularly on the map and the clue to the students' location, there's nothing majorly wrong with this premiere. They took into account the criticisms people were gonna have with the concept, brought them up, and addressed them in a believable fashion while selling us on the school itself. The new characters will no doubt be more focused on as time progresses, and here they were mostly side characters, but the premiere did a good job of getting us interested in seeing them progress in their studies and grow as characters. Just like with "Shadow Play" this two parter understood that just because the mane six aren't the focus here, doesn't mean you can't give them screen time. Chancellor Neighsay was a good love to hate antagonist, which I largely attribute to Maurice LaMarche's outstanding voice work. And it was great to see Princess Celestia play a bigger role in a two parter than she normally gets, a hopeful sign that the progress she made in Season 7 won't be abandoned in Season 8. I can't quite give this premiere an A+, as there some things that feel iffy and hold it back, but I'm willing to give it a solid A. In terms of premieres, it easily eclipses Season 7, whose premiere is weighed down hard by "All Bottled Up" and even surpasses "The Crystal Empire" which tried to fit the mane six's personalities into the story but didn't always succeed (and had severe mood whiplash in a lot of spots), but that's only good enough to bump it up to third place, "Princess Twilight Sparkle" and "The Cutie Map a.k.a Cutie Markless" are tough premieres to stand up to. But own on its own merits, this premiere starts Season 8 off on the right track.
Next week could be Season 8's first chance to score bragging rights, we have "The Maud Couple" in which Maud Pie gets a boyfriend, yes a boyfriend! And Pinkie can't stand him in the least! It's already been confirmed that Nick Confalone will write the episode, and you should already know he was responsible for "Rock Solid Friendship". So this feels like it's gonna be a direct follow-up to that episode, here's to hoping Nick can do a good job.
This is my personal favorite premiere at the moment, which continues the trend that's been going on since The Crystal Empire, where each premiere is better than the last.
Starlight being the one to talk sense into Twilight is reason number 1,624,428 that she's my pick for best character.
As for the new characters, Smolder is easily my favorite, with Gallus being a close second. And both of them are among my favorite characters of the entire series, knocking Tirek out of the top 20 and Chrysalis into spot 20.
Well, it's been a very long time since I last saw an MLP episode (probably because with my story writing, I've moved onto other franchises) and the two-parter was a good way to start the Season. Now fingers crossed they have learnt from their errors from the last Season and the next episode seems very promising.
I completely fail to see how Chancellor Neighsay is wrong in his views. I don't approve of his racism but he had every right to be suspicious of the rest of the races.
4826124 Maybe the changelings and dragons since few ponies know of their new leaders' change of heart. But the yaks have never been indicated to be a threat to Equestria, and the hippogriffs were at least diplomatic allies if Celestia and Luna knew their leader.
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If they were truly allies then why didn't Queen Novo send someone to ask for Celestia's aid?
4826188 They were living in isolation for decades because of the Storm King.
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They had underwater access to Equestria, so unless the Storm King had aquatic minions(and given from what we've seen, he didn't), they could have asked for her help at any time.
Smolder is voiced by Shannon Chan-Kent (VA for silver spoon, but sounds like she is using her Biskit twins voice from LPS).
Here I'm hoping this Season turns out to be good.
So far, I only saw one story address the accusation Ember made towards Thorax, but even then, it wasn’t the main focus. Though like others, I still felt bad for the poor guy.
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Here’s a point I wish had been brought up: If he was so afraid of these other races, then why did he insult them to their faces? Why didn’t he keep his mouth shut around them? It sounds as if he was just a hatemonger trying to justify himself.
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It seems as if Ember did make things up with Thorax. In the Seasons 8-9 intro, they are shown flying together, seemingly in a game of chase.
When people say things like “shill” and “pander”, I think they are just mad that the work doesn’t give them what they want.
As far as I can see, Starlight has a healthier sense of self-respect than any of the Mane 6. In Season 9, Fluttershy may have finally started to approach Starlight’s self-assertiveness.
Too many people blame Neighsay for everything that went wrong, and I used to be one of them. Now I realize that his words should have meant nothing. The fact he almost got more than he bargained for exposes a serious diplomatic failure on the part of the Princesses. This isn’t the first time they’ve made poor decisions about who should enter Equestria.
If I’d been in Twilight’s place, I would have wanted the yaks to leave the first moment they proved themselves unworthy. Would I have thought to run this by Celestia first? Or would I have, unilaterally, asked them to leave? Would I have been paralyzed wondering whether to contact Celestia first? If Spike weren’t there, would I have dared to leave the room unattended to search for Celestia?
Now that I’ve had the time to think it through, I think I would make a unilateral decision — if I had no way to conveniently contact her. Otherwise, if she wanted me to continue, I would tell her that it’s her project now.
Looking back at “Triple Threat”, it turns out that Spike had good reason to fear that two foreign leaders may not like each other — even if they are ones he’s befriended. The problem was he let his emotions control him rather than inform him.
It seems the EEA is its own governing body. They certainly don’t act as if they work for the Princesses. It appears Celestia had no legal power to fire Neighsay, which sounds like another poor excuse to make her ineffectual.
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Okay, how so though?
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You might say that’s some major fanfic material.
I imagine Ember, once she had time to cool off, felt secretly ashamed of threatening to burn down the other kingdoms. But she didn’t feel like apologizing because she didn’t want to look or feel weak.
From there, Thorax might have timidly approached her and apologized for possibly hurting her feelings. Finally, Ember says she’s the one who owes him an apology. Thorax tries awkwardly to find the right words to say, but then Ember might say “let’s just forget this ever happened”.
Thorax might finally say, “I’m happy to have you back. You mean a lot to me.” He starts to sniffle, and Ember does, too. Finally, she gives him a hug. She asks him not to tell anyone else about her apology, since it would make her feel vulnerable.
Thorax perfectly understands. He doesn’t want to do anything to hurt a friend. He gives her a big hug, too.
From what I’ve seen, this is a highly plausible scenario. It would fit perfectly with the potential ship teasing of them flying together in the Seasons 8-9 theme. It would explain why Ember and Thorax still enjoy each other’s company.