S8E12 Marks For Effort Review · 4:02pm Jun 2nd, 2018
The CMC decide public school sucks and want to go to a private school.
I'll start by saying I like this episode for finally showing what the School of Friendship actually does, which is a lot of teamwork and bonding exercizes from a company retreat. Honestly this is another reason the School of Friendship concept doesn't gel for me, it's expecting us to buy into the idea that these non-pony races don't understand how to be nice to each other or give each other compliments. Frankly it's a narrow and rather racist worldview. But I digress.
I was interested in this episode... and then Applejack saw the farm. And I let out a long "oh noooo..." Please tell me the episode isn't doing this please tell me... it is. Time to watch the CMC act annoying and obnoxious and stage scenes of them misbehaving to convince Twilight and company they belong in her school. Twilight shoots them down and the reason is obvious - Cheerilee's school and Twilight's school are not the same, Cheerilee is an actual education, Twilight is about friendship and teamwork and etc. Fortunately we get one act of this and then move on.
The CMC then meet a student of the school, Cozy Glow, and villain. Villain. Possibly Chrysalis, possibly not, either way, villain. Like, okay, even if I hadn't read the synopsis for a later episode, something about this kid just didn't sit right. Can't put my finger on it but I wasn't buying it. But you could see how in-universe the CMC could be convinced to help her. Cozy bungles a test on purpose for some really dumb reason, making Twilight act extremely OOC and presume the CMC sabotaged her. Fortunately Starlight is here to make it all better. Cutie Mark Crusader Tutors, YAY!
Ep was... fine. The first act with the CMC acting badly was lame, Cozy Glow was cute but again, something is up. Twilight's OOC was plain frustrating. Starlight got two scenes in this episode and used it to steal it all. Seriously she's great in this. Also Spike has a good joke in the intro. Other, meh. I do like the resolution at least.
Considering how the majority of the students seem to be ponies, it says a lot more Equestria at large. I guess Ponyville really is the friendliest place on this planet.
And yeah, this one is clearly act one for a later reveal, and as such feels padded to heck. Though I did like the Dead Dragons' Society joke.
How I feel about this episode:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/6/2/1747934.png
I wouldn't say that. I think it's more so guiding the younger generation along a better path. Considering the fact that we've seen how dragons and Griffin's treat one another, changelings are slowly integrating into Society after being told for Generations by an evil queen that Ponies are meant to be prey nothing more, Yaks can be ridiculously stubborn, and the hippogryphs / Sea Ponies are slowly integrating into the world as well.
I see this more as their way of teaching the younger generation to reach out to others better.
Twilight's OOC has to be one of the worst contrived conflicts in the entire show's history. I don't even buy the in universe logic behind it.
4874803
Careful, people don't take kindly to optimistic points of view around these parts. You've gotta offset it with a healthy dose of cynicism.
4874801
Why does Starlight's cup have a screaming spirit trying to escape? I thought she was reformed...
I clocked out of this one after the first act because I had better things to do. <.< The part with them teaching Cozy Glow friendship and demonstrating why they don't need to go to Remedial Friendship College was good, I laughed at Starlight being useless, and I was surprised by Cozy throwing the test, but otherwise I just don't give two shits about the fucking friendship school and, oh, look, now more characters get to put their lives on hold and be Twilight's friendship slaves. :| Fuck this season.
4874801
Oh man, where can I get a Discovery Family mug like Starlight? :V
Honestly, if you're going to say one character is gonna be OOC because of a certain act, then you gotta say EVERYPONY has an OOC moment. I would even go so far as to say everypony else is OOC for not wanting the CMC to participate in their school. The most glaring example being Rainbow Dash pushing Scootaloo out of her class.
As of right now, when people say that characters are being OOC, I feel like they're just saying that to defend their actions. OOC is the very reason why I hated Daring Done?, but when I saw reviews of that, pretty much NO ONE points out how OOC Rainbow was at the end of that one. But when somepony like Twilight does something like that, they use the excuse OOC.