A Matter of Principals and The Hearth's Warming Club Review · 5:32pm Aug 4th, 2018
Just when you thought the leaks and early airings were done, they're back with a vengence. It turns out that "Yakity Sax" did not air out of order, it was just a special preview for whatever reason (why it instead of "A Matter of Principals" is anyone's guess, they could've then kicked off the second half proper with this and "Friendship University" to take the edge off of Australia's early airings). But now episodes are airing early again in Australia, just like "Discordant Harmony" and "The Perfect Pear" did last season. I had hoped to catch "A Matter of Principals" early but the pitch corrected upload got taken down from DailyMotion. In any case, with the second half of Season 8 now kicking off, were these episodes able to help boost a struggling season or simply prove that the school theme that Hasbro ordered is a case of upsetting the goose that laid the golden egg? Well, let's find out.
First is "A Matter of Principals" written by Nicole Dubac, whose previous solo foray into writing was the disastorus "Marks for Effort" and I'm not gonna beat around the bush here she not only didn't improve but somehow managed to do even worse. I'm starting to see why she collabs with Michael Vogel for the Ponyville Mysteries books, she needs someone to hold her in check and tell her no (why Josh Haber isn't doing that I have no idea).
The episode starts off innocently enough, Twilight announces a scavenger hunt (she calls it a "Spellvenger Hunt" and at this point I'm getting tired of these attempts at being clever, why do they feel like just calling it what it is is a bad thing?) but her cutie mark starts glowing after she announces the first team (Silverstream and Gallus). It turns out that all of her friends have been called too, to a far away place, and they can't take the students with them. Somehow Twilight didn't bother to fill her friends in on the fact that she'd prepared for just such a contigency, despite the fact that Neighsay expressed his concern about Twilight leaving the school unattended. I'm starting to get sick of writing choices that make the speciesist look like the one in the right when that is clearly not intentional.
Twilight's plan is to have Starlight take over despite being a guidance counselor and no ellaboration on Spike's part (why they couldn't make Spike the guidance counselor and Starlight vice-principal I have no idea, the vice-principal would by default take over if the principal or academic head were unavailable, just as the vice-president takes over if the president is at all unable to carry out their duties). We instead get a reference to "Princess Spike" to explain why Spike isn't allowed to be in charge, never mind the fact that Spike was punished for the good things he did to help Twilight but not the bad and selfish things he did in Twilight's name that were clearly for him.
But despite those bumps everything is proceeding smoothly and I would honestly have loved to just have this be the conflict of the episode, Starlight in charge of the school with only Spike to help her keep things running smoothly. Of course that's not the case, Discord shows up fully intent on taking over for Twilight and mentioning that he has never been invited to the school since it was set up. But it's clear that he's only mad with Starlight for taking the position of headmare when he thinks somehow that he is more entitled to it just because he says so. To be fair Discord is the kind of character who might think such a thing, and at first all he really does is take over the office while Starlight is getting things ready for the next day. But it quickly goes downhill when it turns out that Discord already hired substitute teachers (why that was not priority one for Twilight or Starlight, I don't know). We have Iron Will, who you know is supposed to be a bad guy after the events of "Once Upon a Zeppelin" (though to be fair I detest him being labeled as such when the worst he did before then was give Fluttershy questionable advice that she took the wrong way). And also Cranky Doodle Donkey, who is just a jerk that uses the students to give him a field trip. I guess Nicole assumed the scene of Cranky blowing on Derpy for a printing error made him a bad guy, even though it was his wedding Derpy wrongly advertised.
Discord also happens to have put a dragon sneeze tree in charge of one class, causing poor Smolder to breath fire with each sneeze and scare off the students (along with Yona bursting through a wall and thumping her chest like The Hulk). Starlight rightfully tells Discord to leave while she tries to get things under control. The next day she brings in three (yes only three) substitute teachers, Spitfire, Trixie, and Maud. Spitfire and Maud are understandable, they have experience and in Spitfire's case she has prior teaching endevors. But Trixie feels like a stretch (though I suppose this establishes that Trixie lives in Ponyville because how else could Starlight contact her on such short notice). Still, at least Trixie actually tries to do her job decently (even if she's performing a magic trick, a little bit of entertainment isn't bad if it gets the students to learn). That is until Discord keeps harassing her and interrupting class, to the point where he makes her pull an Ursa Major out of her hat. I'm pretty sure even Trixie would be traumatized by that! Maybe if this was "All Bottled Up" or "To Change a Changeling" Trixie that would be justifiable, but here Trixie has not done anything to deserve such treatment. Yes, I know she and Discord have quarreled before, but Discord crosses a line from playful teasing to outright malicious intent.
It gets worse during gym class when Discord summons a bug bear to motivate the students to run faster and ignores all their pleas to stop. It gets to the point where Yona is nearly eaten and then impaled on the bug bear's stinger! And I thought her drowning was horrifying! Starlight steps in again and tells Discord to rightfully knock it off and Discord retorts by calling Starlight incompetent and power hungry! Maybe in late Season 5 and early Season 6 these complaints would be justified, after all fans hurled such criticisms at Starlight when it was announced she'd be joining the main cast! But by now Starlight has more or less proven that she is indeed reformed and not the same pony she used to be, so this just makes Discord an unsympathetic jerk! To that end Starlight blasts him completely, seemingly killing him in front of the students!
Starlight insists rather nervously that she only banished him from school grounds and then later there's the comment about how only his body got banished and not his ghost (which feels like a work around because obviously they didn't want to imply Starlight had actually killed someone. That would've been a stretch to begin with considering Discord appears to be immortal). Then as she starts to doubt herself, Spike reigns her in and tells her it's time for the scavenger hunt. The student six are split up as follows: Gallus and Silverstream, Ocellus and Smolder, and Sandbar and Yona. We get a little bit of detail about some of the hidden artifacts Celestia loned to the school, before the paintings and the suits of armor start to come to life and the stairs turn into quicksand, scaring the students yet again into thinking that the school is haunted! Starlight calls out to Discord's spirit and at first condemns him for his bad behavior, but then apologizes to him for not letting him be part of the school in spite of all his selfish behavior. And that is all it takes to get Discord to stop, giving him what he wants without holding him accountable. It only gets worse when it turns out that the map mission for the mane six was a hoax set up by Discord, he cast a spell on their cutie marks to look like a summons from the map. And bear in mind that he did this to Fluttershy, the one pony he's seemed to always care about behaving in front of.
Now it's on to "The Hearth's Warming Club" and it's written by Brian Hohlfeld the mastermind behind "Surf and/or Turf" which from a story standpoint was really weak but from a character and worldbuilding standpoint allowed Twilight to get in one of her better performances in a season that seems intent on derailing her character and also was the first time I think we had ever a CMC episode focused on Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo's friendship. The title is an homeage to "The Breakfast Club" which I haven't seen, so I can't tell you how much that affects this episode. The episode starts with Twilight dismissing classes for a two week holiday break (because at this point it's been established that Hearth's Warming is Christmas, and at least here in the states all schools have a two week break for Christmas and New Year's). The student six are sent to their dorms to pack for the train ride back to their home lands, and then a cloaked figure pours some kind of powder on the Hearth's Warming tree to turn the fire into purple goo that gets all over everything. Twilight and Rainbow Dash (as well as Spike) give chase and tail the figure into the student dorms before it appears to vanish. The back door is locked and the student six haven't left yet. But it's not quite a locked room mystery despite the episode trying to treat it as such, because this is a world where teleportation exists, so the figure could've easily done that. Heck, since Discord can visit the school and can disappear at will, how do they know he didn't do it? I'd probably be less critical of this detail if it weren't relevant to the plot. Twilight decides to interrogate the students one by one when none of them will confess to a crime that she doesn't even know they committed. And if none confess, all of them have to stay over the break for one on one friendship lessons. It's not as bad as "Marks for Effort" when Twilight accused the CMC and punished them without any proof, but it's still a huge leap of logic. She really has no right to do such a thing to the students when she doesn't know whether any of them actually did the prank. Imagine how bad she'd look if it turned out to be NOT be one of the students and she'd already punished them while the real culprit got away with zero consequences!
So Gallus is called in first and Ocellus is the first to share her Hearth's Warming story, about how she got to take home a guide to the holidays to her hive last year and they kind of took things a little too literally. Ocellus is next to be called in and Yona is next to share her story, Yaks don't celebrate Hearth's Warming they have a holiday that involves mostly smashing but also kind of involves some other stuff. It turns out that Yona's hair used to be even longer, but it was braided during the holiday as part of a yak tradition (and she has a big family).
Sandbar is called in next and Smolder shares her story of the holidays, or rather a story she tells during the dragon's celebration of the holidays, about how a weak little dragon was able to take over as dragon lord and stick the old one outside in the cold all alone. Kind of feels like a regression for her after "Molt Down" but I'm just going to assume that this takes place before that episode (seeing as she doesn't mention her brother, who she mentioned in that episode). When Sandbar comes back and Silverstream is called in, Sandbar shares his story. It's just a quick little one about how his Hearth's Warming Doll almost fell into the fire, but it doesn't do anything to flesh him out (the doll isn't even given any kind of significance like say it was a gift from his parents or grandparents, or that it was the first one he ever made by himself). Smolder and Yona are the last two to be called in for interrogation and Silverstream shares perhaps the best holiday story yet. For three whole days the entire Hippogriff kingdom celebrates the defeat of the Storm King. On the first day they celebrate underwater in Seaquestria, on the second day they go on land to celebrate on Mount Aris, and on the third day they all celebrate together and that night Queen Novo gives out presents (I guess that makes her her nation's Santa Claus, though I guess it's like the White House Easter Egg Roll and Christmas traditions in the capitals of various nations in which the head of state participates in the ceremonies). Would've been nice to get a nod to Terramar though, but I guess maybe that adds fuel to the fire about the speculation of his parents being divorced?
Everyone starts to argue with one another about who really did it and how it isn't fair that they should all be kept at school because one of them pulled the prank. Gallus decides enough is enough and silences them all, revealing his heart. It turns out that he doesn't have any family, even Grandpa Gruff has no real connection to him (likely he's just Gallus' designated guardian) and the griffons simply pretend to tolerate each other (though we do get to see Gabby and Gilda, kind of a shame that their efforts to bring friendship and crusader values to Griffonstone seem to be in vain). And thus he confesses that it was he who did the prank. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Spike overhear and tell him that while he'll still have to stay during the holiday and clean up, he doesn't need extra friendship lessons after seeing how he and the other students bond. It's nice, but we really should've been getting this a lot sooner (it's the same thing as "Twilight Time" where after over half a season of Twilight's princess status being ignored suddenly it's relevant). But they still have to clean up first, so to pass the time they start singing carols.
And those are the stories, so what do I think of the episodes? Well there's no beating around the bush for "A Matter of Principals" it sucked and sucked big time! Discord is extremely OOC, regressing all the way back to his Season 4 behavior (arguably even lower than that since Season 4 Discord at least never seemed to enjoy putting others in danger) and referencing stuff like "Princess Spike" only serves to make the parallels here all the more insulting! And then of course there's the matter of Twilight not having substitute teachers, Starlight seeming to kill Discord in front of the students (even if she didn't the students would no doubt be tramutized to see Discord just suddenly vanish so dramatically and painfully), and of course Discord being the one who gets an apology despite his immoral behavior! What few good moments there are are overshadowed by how horrible everything else, though at least I appreciate that Starlight points out putting students in danger crosses a line, something that "Non-Compete Clause" didn't seem to consider, so I just barely put it above that episode but it still gets a F! "The Hearth's Warming Club" is better despite a rather clunky set-up, aside from Sandbar and maybe Smolder all the student six get a chance to shine and develop. Twilight is handled slightly better here, though she's still wrong to accuse anyone without proof. Towards the end it becomes obvious that Gallus is the one who did it, but I did appreciate that it was concealed up until then and that even when he told the truth he still had to clean up the mess. I kind of wish that episode had been expanded or even made into the plot for the holiday special we're getting later this year, but as it stands it's a welcome breath of fresh air that I give a B to, putting it above "The Break-Up Break Down" which used a very cliched plot (even Shrek did it, the film that put Dreamworks on the map) but below a now resurgent "School Daze" which has FINALLY been justified in its existence!
Now the early airings will continue, but I plan to at least review "Friendship University" when it airs here in the states. So check back next week when Twilight and Rarity investigate a rival school of friendship and find Starswirl teaching.
I personally completely and utterly ADORE Matter of Principals, and consider it among the top 5 of the series. The only episodes from this season that I like more than it are Parent Map and Mean Six.
I also really love Hearth's Warming Club, though mostly for the last few minutes.
For me, it's the 5th best episode of the season and the 10th best of the series.
It also made Gallus my favorite student, knocking Smolder into second place.
With these two episodes, season 8 has tied season 7 for the amount of episodes in my top 20, at 8 apiece. And with 8 episodes to go (counting Yakity Sax as having already aired, and the finale as one episode), chances are VERY good that it'll get more entries.
14 sucked, 15 was alright. đ
To be honest, yeah, neither episode is a go-to episode for me. To be truthfully honest, both seemed to have the same message. Cause trouble for everyone else, so you're not the only one feeling bad since you feel left out. Not something I think is the best tactic when teaching youngsters about friendship.
In the most recent Hearts and Hooves Day episode "The Break Up Break Down", Spike did say to Discord, "For a formally friendless immortal despot, your pretty cynical." So, yeah he is immortal in canon and no one can deny that claim. What type of immortality he has, I am not sure. I don't know if it's the immortal type that just can't die by aging, or the type that can't die from any kind of reason, be it killing, age, or illness.
As for Princesses being immortal, I can't rightfully say, since the show hasn't canonized that notion yet, or disproven it, but come on, existing for over 1000 years and not looking a day over 30? I wan't some clarification on Alicorn longevity. I know Granny Smith is like 105, give or take a few years, but that's small in comparison to the Princesses longevity. And Granny looks like she's seen better days. Also, what happened to Grand Pear? I wanna see him again.
I don't recall Spike being punished at all in "Princess Spike."
The only instance of that was in "Marks for Effort." It hasn't been throughout the whole season.
How so?
4914014 Are you saying you only liked only EIGHT episodes out of season seven?
4914285
No.
I liked pretty much every episode of season 7 (I'd be hard pressed to say I fully dislike ANY episode, though the one that premiered today in Australia comes close).
Right now, though, season 7 has 8 episodes that I'd call the cream of the crop for the show.
4914106 15 looks like a breath of fresh air after 14 and 18 bombed.
4914281
She showed that she could care about others and have feelings, and here she went back to being "I'm too awesome for friendship".
4914469
Huh? XD
Why episode 14 an F Again come on. Me it was not bad to me. But im didn't like discord on el14 okay. Because he mess up everything anand ep15 an B. For me I give it n B- because. That one was good. But im sad about that Gallus. Didn't had an family. It like im don't like be alone or don't have family but im do have family with my parents and brother and sister. And. Im like to see fanfics. Of Gallus. Of how born he was. And. Like im don't care that episode 14 was bad or not OK.
After going through a wave of games that took up a lot of my time, I finally got around to watching these.
So far, I can only sum it up like this. Never have I seen a Season with so many terrible episodes for a long time.
4915382 You didn't like either of these episodes?
I think the biggest highlight regarding âA Matter of Principalsâ (which, in my opinion, is actually better than most people say) is that it actually shows Discord isnât in love with Fluttershy at all and that FlutterCord is far from likely to happen.
Think about it.
If Discord was in love with Fluttershy, wouldnât he be going to great lengths to make sure sheâd be safe? And that wherever he sent her, it wouldnât be anywhere dangerous?