Last three reviews before the finale

Jeez, it's been nearly 2 months since the last blog post. Well, on a side note, so far, the store's December, our biggest month of the year (obviously) in the shipping environment, is going very well considering I was a little nervous after October and November. Granted, the difference between last year and this year wasn't staggering, but I recognize that some people got used to coming in and seeing the previous owner and, now that he's not here anymore, have moved on. Even though I've been at the same store myself 5 or so separate times and everyone knows me there, but whatever, all good. Numbers are solid and I hope they continue to be.

I'll try to remember what I can about these episodes. I also haven't seen the finale in English yet, so where I see stuff about there being a cliffhanger or something I simply don't recall, but I was watching it in dutch when it first came out, so maybe there was a translation thing or I just don't recall by experience. I'll watch it over again later.

Anyway, What Lies Beneath. Another Young 6 episode, and this time, we get some more retroactive confirmation for me! Apparently, the tree and map are sentient. I gotta say, seeing it take the form of Twilight and act the way it was was kinda cool. As soon as I saw her all glowy and sparkly, I knew it had to be the tree. Kind of makes you wonder why in the world it sends people to various places to deal with personal problems. Like, for instance, why did it send Rainbow and Pinkie to go to Griffonstone and make up with Gilda? As far as I know, nothing's really come about because of it, and I don't THINK Gilda had anything to do with Gallus or Gabby showing up in Ponyville, although Gabby came of her own accord after seeing Gilda interact with Pinkie and what came from that if I recall correctly. Still, if Gabby never showed up in Ponyville, the overarching story wouldn't change at all. Anywho, it was interesting what kinds of fears and tests the tree put them through. Who knew Yona was arachnophobic or Gallus was claustrophobic? I can easily see Silver Stream going into panic mode over the Storm King and Ocellus being afraid that she's still a changeling which makes her rotten to the core deep down. Smolder's was great. Sandbar's was alright. Guess they were trying to build on that whole pony master race idea that Chancellor Neighsay was spouting off about. Kind of an odd place for the tree to make itself known, sticking out of an air vent in the library of all places. But, eh, its roots run deep I guess. Overall, was a nice episode, solid 8 out of 10. Decent humor, character development was solid. Thumbs up!

Sounds of Silence. Hello, darkness my old.....oh wait, wrong thing. Okay, so here, we have more world building, this time with some Chinese style (I think) dragon-pony things called Kirins, who are fucking adorable. And yes, Autumn Blaze is new waifu of the week/season. This was a strange episode, but the humor was fucking amazing, especially seeing angry Flutters. I mean, REALLY angry Flutters. Haven't seen her like this since.......errr....The Best Night Ever? I'm not counting Power Ponies, because as funny as Flutterhulk was, the reason she got upset was ha-ha ridiculous, but that was kind of the point. The song was a lot of fun too, 10/10 song, and we haven't had one of those in a while aside from Perfect Pair. Gotta give the VA all the credit in the world, she NAILED the role and her script was really great too. Very poetic for the most part. Plus, she kind of went a little entertainingly bonkers in isolation. What I found really odd about it is that the other Kirin needed to be told that arguing isn't a huge deal and that talking things out and finding manageable ways to channel anger is fine. Like......who would need to be told this? Seems like something that should be obvious enough. I couldn't help but laugh a bit when Autumn Blaze told the one who 'spoke' up to just write down what he was trying to say. Isn't that sort of the problem that Ariel had? Kek. Either way, was a really fun episode despite what should be an obvious moral. Plus, didn't we get something like this with Starlight/Trixie episode at the beginning of Season 8 touch on? Anyway, 9/10. Autumn Blaze was a damn gem. Hope we see more of them, but probably won't happen. Only 1 more season left, as far as we know.

Father Knows Beast. I think it was obvious enough that Sludge wasn't going to be Spike's dad from the get-go. Played the scumbag Steve role pretty well. Would still like to see his actual parents, but we probably won't see it happen. Think the only way we may is through Ember somehow. Maybe her dad knows every dragon out there somehow and could track them down. Would be nice, but I wouldn't count on it at this stage. I also can't remember how Sludge found out about Spike, been a while since I saw the episode. A few parts of the episode felt a bit slow, like when we were watching his recovery. However, there were a couple nice emotional impacts, both centering around Twilight and Spike rejecting her and eventually accepting her as a parent/family. Really sweet. Also liked when Spike and Smolder were chatting things up. Frankly, Smolder I think is the best thing that's happened to Spike since Rarity. She doesn't bullshit him and treats him decently despite typical dragon behavior. I wonder if Celestia will ever come clean and just admit she snatched the egg on a raid or something. Though perhaps she just found it somewhere by chance in a place where his parents used to stay and just abandoned or something, I dunno. And even that raises a question or two regarding her entry test for her School for Gifted Unicorns. Like, does EVERY unicorn have to try and hatch a dragon egg or was that just for Twilight? Hm. Eh, speculation is fun sometimes. Anywho, episode was alright, nothing super exciting. In the end, we're back to square one and really didn't learn or accomplish much other than 'this dragon stopped by and was a lying asshole and left'. We have been over the whole 'Twilight and the other ponies are my real family' before a couple times. What may have been better is if we actually did meet his parents and he had to choose between staying and going and that they WEREN'T dicks. Could have been a decent message about what makes a family for you similarly to Surf and/or Turf. Could have expanded upon it. Sadly, that did not happen here. Overall for me, 6/10. Another average Spike episode with a few decent spots on it.

Last episode to go. Also need to start working on the last chapter of Sweat 3 and its simultaneous side story which I haven't started yet. Though considering I'm going to be done downloading the Hitman 2016 series reboot shortly as the free trial I decided to download off Steam as I've always been a fan of the franchise entertained me a lot and the whole game is probably going to distract me some more. I wonder what creative ways I'll be able to kill folks. Until then!