May the muffins be forever in your favour."School Raze" Review: The Most INTENSE Season Finale Ever · 12:08am Oct 15th, 2018
The season finale has arrived..... And, wow, was this an INTENSE Finale! I hardly know where to begin..... Cozy Glow turning out as a villain and as plain evil, Chancellor Neighsay turning out as the lesser evil and even getting overthrown by Cozy Glow, Cozy Glow's brilliant and flawless plan where she thought on absolutely everything, how she got everypony on her side by simply acting charming, nice and adorable, Tirek as evil mentor pulling the strings from the background, the initial question whether Cozy Glow or Chancellor Neighsay are the one who is behind everything, that the show has a villain who is a foal (child!) now, the Student Six being the big heroes and saving Equestria from Cozy's plan, that Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle finally got a chance to shine by having a hoof in saving Equestria, the amazing irony of the villain being a pony rather than the non-pony creatures Chancellor Neighsay accused of being the ones responsible because of his rascism and, lastly, that Celestia and Luna went so far to lock a foal in Tartarus.
This finale is packed with plot twists and suspense and it's hard to decide where to start this review, but I think I will begin with Cozy Glow.....
That she is evil, it came as a surprise to me. I did not look at any leaks or watch any early releases and all I really knew was the fandom at large being convinced that she is evil, for some reason. There have only been two moments in this season that really made her appear as ominous; one being the way she looked at the picture of Twilight's Element of Harmony when Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle helped her with studying and the other one, when she looked down into the caverns under the school and made this ominous remark.
The former one seemed to get confirmed at first, when it looked like she lured Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle into a trap to bring them into trouble with Twilight, but it got resolved quickly when it turned out that she had only good intentions and wanted to help them becoming accepted as students that way. Which made the ominous remark she should make later ambiguous, at worst. She managed to appear completely as a naive, innocent and nice little filly, who is clumsy in her approach sometimes, but has a heart of gold and only the best of intentions, with A-class acting skills you would not expect a foal that young to have.
Paranoia and leaks not withstanding, one could really not expect that she would turn out as this, a young and wicked mind obsessed with power, by purely watching the episodes. I adored her for being what she presented herself as, pure and unfiltered cuteness on four hooves, vulnerable and sensitive while struggling with learning what she wanted to learn and being incredibly thankful if somepony helped her and paying it back tenfold, so it shocks me to see her like this. This was a brilliantly-executed and very effective plot twist.
Usually, when I see a villain in MLP: FiM, I loathe them for endangering Equestria while simultaneously praising them for being good at what they're doing, for being a very big threat. And I also have to give Cozy Glow this credit of having thought on everything; getting the Mane Six out of the way by luring them to Tirek and getting them locked inside Tartarus (Did anyone else notice how Twilight, our expert in all things magic, was surprised that the "Key of Infinite Entrance" only worked once? Clearly Cozy manipulated it somehow so that it would destroy itself after the first use.) and even banishing all the magic from Equestria into another realm so that nopony could try to stop her.
But, for the first time ever, I am hoping that a villain will become reformed. So far, I only wanted Equestria to be safe whatever needs to be done with a villain for that. But this time, with Cozy Glow, I hope that she can better herself, see the error of her ways and return to the surface as a free citizen of Equestria.
Right now, I'm not even sure what to think of Cozy Glow after what she did. My first reaction, right after seeing everything for the first time, was to believe in her and saying that she can learn. Then it was thinking that she is very dangerous with the skills she has and relief that she is locked up in Tartarus now where she can't be of harm to Equestria anymore. But overall, I am clueless what to think of her now.
Part of me sees why the treatment she gets now is necessary, especially considering how even getting stopped and imprisoned did not change her mind even slightly, but another part of me still likes her.
I don't know whether or not this will change in the next weeks when I get used to the thought of what she is, but right now, I am hoping that she will eventually learn and let go of her obsession with power.
We also don't know yet how her letter exchange with Tirek went down exactly; if she wrote him specifically to get advice on it how to drain Equestria of all magic from someone who has the experience she lacks or if she wrote him for an innocent reason and Tirek abused their exchange to twist her mind. Tirek words were very ambigious, so the possibility that Cozy was turned around and twisted by him gives me a bit of sollace and hope that she can turn good.
Speaking of Tirek, this also brings us to the first plot twist of the episode. Everyone thought that Tirek is completely secured in Tartarus and that he has no way of doing anything to Equestria. That he had a letter exchange with someone from the outside and used this letter exchange to give instructions on how to bend Equestria to its knees was completely unexpected. Up until this finale, it never occured to me that prisoners of Tartarus could be allowed the privilege to receive and send letters, but in hindsight it makes sense, it's common for prisons that this is the norm for most prisoners and Equestria has shown similarities with Earth countless times before. However, apparently letters never got checked for their content so far, which is a serious flaw in Tartarus' security system, one that definitely won't happen anymore now after Cozy talked with Tirek to prepare her dark plans.
I was always reckoning with it that Tirek would be breaking out of Tartarus again eventually, but that he would take the chance and harm Equestria again for revenge when somepony contacts him with a letter is something I never thought would happen. This was a completely unexpected thing to happen and I'm even glad for it that we never learned more about Tartarus before this episode now, as this gave us a very innovative and unique villain return. His influence reaches even beyond Tartarus to connect with other "criminals" (it feels tough to call Cozy that, but I guess it is as it is now), which means he's an even more dangerous villain than we previously thought.
Which brings me to Chancellor Neighsay. When everything started, I was fully suspecting that he is behind everything, that he drains Equestria's magic and will arrange something that makes it look like other nations attack while Equestria is weak then, so he can rile Equestria up against these nations. His appearance at the school turned out as surprisingly tame then, compared to what he could have done, with wanting to warn Twilight about the disappearance of magic, but also berating her again about non-pony students, as he thought that Sandbar, Gallus, Yona, Smolder, Ocellus and Silverstream were responsible for everything.
That he got overthrown by Cozy Glow, even with such ease, and that her own plan was a lot more sinister than the reason for his appearance at the school was another huge surprise of the Finale.
There was a lot of irony here, with him expecting that Silverstream and her friends are behind it, only to find out that it is a pony, a member of the race he values so much, who is responsible for everything he accused them off. It shattered his beliefs and world view completely, it seems, which is a very deserving comeuppance for his previous actions. More got added to that irony when all of the pony students completely fell for Cozy Glow's charm, but when it were Gallus and Smolder, two non-pony creatures, who became suspicious of Cozy Glow and didn't trust her.
Although, even with that, I don't actually believe that Neighsay really changed. People with such extreme views as he has, they never change their views that easily, if at all, so his turnaround is not believable right now. I think he is only stumped and momentarily paralyzed after he had his views challenged like that and that this is the reason why he was so humble and friendly all of a sudden. It's hard to tell if he will make Twilight more trouble in the future or if he will stay away from her school out of shame from now on, but it's not likely that he will change the way he thinks about non-pony creatures anytime soon.
But either way, it was a huge surprise seeing him in such a role where everything that we saw before had given the impression that he will take steps against Twilight's school and Silverstream and her friends in a fatal way because of his hatred and his extreme views.
Both of these plot twists, Cozy Glow turning out evil and Chancellor Neighsay becoming beaten by a bigger threat and being more helpful than a danger in the end, were brilliantly prepared by showing Cozy Glow as a flawed, but otherwise completely innocent filly and by depicting Chancellor Neighsay in a way that one could only predict that he is going to be the season finale's big villain when he tries to get revenge on Twilight for opposing him.
It's for these two plot twists alone already that this Finale is one of the best of the entire show and can easily match, if not even surpass, "A Canterlot Wedding" and "Shadow Play". But it isn't where "School Raze" stops to be great.
What makes this season finale truly outstanding and elevates it above the others, is, that we now have a villain who is a foal. About three and a half years ago, I developed a theory about the Season 5 Opener before it aired and was saying how interesting it would be if it turns out that the villain is a filly who manipulated the entire village and forced its will on the village ponies by wielding some powerful magic that it could instantly use against anypony that doesn't think the way it wants them to think, because a villain who is still a child is not something you see in other shows and would be quite revolutionary and groundbreaking because children aren't commonly seen as being able to be that evil. Even with the reveal of Starlight Glimmer, this is a thought that didn't leave me since then. And now, albeit without powerful magic, we got that, a villain who is still a child!
Personally, it pains me to see that Cozy Glow is evil, but objectively-speaking, this outcome is excellent for the show. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic always had creative and unusual ideas and that Cozy Glow is already evil, power-obsessed and an incredibly good villain despite still being a child adds another one. Especially during times when Hasbro actively thinks about whether or not to end MLP: FiM with Season 9, this is something the show can definitely use.
And with Cozy Glow having been imprisoned in Tartarus for what she did, the episode even goes the extra mile: Not only did we get to see a child who is a villain, we also saw this child getting thrown into prison. In a prison deep underground that is guarded by a gigantic, three-headed beast, inside a tiny cage. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic always was a daring show, but this elevates it onto a whole other level and beats everything that has been there before.
Everyone who is a likely threat to the kingdom (or the world) gets imprisoned in a deep, dark place without sunlight, fresh air or any kind of comfort, even children. Equestria is a hardcore place.
Last, but not least, it makes me happy that Silverstream and her friends got to save Equestria by stopping Cozy Glow's plan! They were incredibly selfless with doing that. Even though the entire school could have exploded by removing the artifacts from Cozy's magical contraption as they stated, which likely would have killed them if that would have happened, they stuck around and pulled out the artifacts. They have risked their lives and did what needed to be done in the face of death, all to save Equestria from being at Cozy's mercy. And I loved their remarks about practicing for graduation because they saved Equestria and therefore thought they are ready to graduate now, before Twilight corrected them on that.
Before the Finale aired, I was spoiled with a thumbnail on YouTube that showed them in graduation outfits and feared that they will be graduating from Twilight's school soon, as that would likely mean that they leave the show again when they return to their homelands, so I am more than glad that it wasn't a real graduation. Twilight speaking about several semesters in her school made me very relieved.
What amazed me even more, though, was that Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle got a chance to help saving Equestria. They could not contribute much to this goal in the end, as Cozy Glow immediately looked through their distraction, but they did manage to distract her long enough for Silverstream and the others to free Chancellor Neighsay. Which culminated in it that Celestia and Luna were there to stop Cozy from fleeing into the other direction and that the royal guard was there to arrest Cozy after they had her cornered, so it is thanks to them that Cozy Glow can't try the same thing somewhere else.
I also liked that, for once, we saw background ponies helping a little and enjoyed it how the trio of students we've already seen since "School Daze" got speaking roles and contributed something to the events, but for the most part, I am overjoyed that Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle finally got a piece of the hero cake. Especially this made this season end on the best note possible for me!
And with that, Season 8 is over. It was once again an incredible season that raised the bar higher and this season finale, while not the most epic in a classical sense (that title still goes to the Season 7 Finale!), was definitely the most thrilling and intense one.
The cliffhanger it leaves us on and all the open questions that remain now, regarding Cozy Glow, her future and also the motivations she had, but also regarding Chrysalis, leave me more excited for the next season than ever and I also can't wait to see Silverstream and the rest of her gang again, as well as my Crusaders of course!
Cheers to Season 8 and already Cheers to Season 9! Great things will await us after this hiatus.
Can you break it into more paragraphs?
Now, don't you Think tartarus is unfitting as Punishment for a Child?
4953382
As a punishment? Yes. Though I would argue that imprisonment can be unfitting as a punishment for anyone, regardless of age. Locking someone up as a general punishment is not suited to make someone see their wrong behavior, it would need custom punishments tailored to the individual crime that was committed. And even that should only be utilized when all else, therapy, finding the solution for the problem the culprit has that drove them to do that, ect., failed. Only for the more hopeless cases.
However, the reason why Cozy Glow is imprisoned in Tartarus now, it isn't to punish her, it's to keep Equestria safe, because she has proven to be very dangerous and has also not shown any signs of remorse after she got stopped and not even after ending up in prison. On the contrary, she seems all the more determined to gain power now and would definitely do the same thing again if she got the chance.
So, with that in mind, I approve of that solution, for now. Though, I hope she can see the error of her ways one day and become free again. For the first time ever, I am hoping for a villain to be reformed.
4953329
Maybe later. I am sick right now and I got a ton of fic updates and new stories to care for anyway.
4953893
Yeah. Just find in Ethic it Looks kinda wrong for a Kids Show to be thrown Into hell. No offense
4953895
Well, it's good that it's not a pure kids show then, isn't it? Besides, I'm okay with it if children get to see hard stuff, too. Children, even human children, can take much more than the average member of society gives them credit for.
4953924
Yeah. Though a Bit questionsable at First. Ironically, i Read some Stories where she gets a milder Punishment or where She has parents who step in. In that regard, would be Shocking for parents to hear their Child punished like that
4953925
Indeed. I've seen that story with her parents trying to break her free from Tartarus and I plan to read it soon, it's a really brilliant idea.
And for questionable, Equestria is a different world with different culture where children are a lot more capable of certain things than human children are, so they need to do what they need to do.
And there will definitely be an interesting future with Cozy Glow, I can't wait to see her again. I doubt that Twilight will give up on her.
4953939
Me too. As for questionable, I meant the reactions to punish a child like that. It's understandable eyes, but still could create controversy ans outrage to some
4953941
Some popular person once said that controversies are always a good thing. And I can see why, it gets people to talk about the show. Complaints would be bad, but controversies create attention for the show and that can only help it.
4953991
Yes. Though not only in real life but in Equestria as well to some ponies I guess.
4953992
Probably. But that's for Season 9 to answer. It's going to be interesting once the hiatus is over.
4954011
Indeed.