The Beginning of the End Review · 5:31pm Apr 6th, 2019
Well folks, the final season is upon us. We've got just 26 episodes left and then the show is over. It's been quite a ride, full of ups and downs. Some even say the show should've ended long ago, and there's no denying that many shows wish they'd have had this kind of longevity. Alas, nothing lasts forever and all good things must come to an end eventually. Considering that most of our pony fix so far this year has been a series of "Encore" shorts and the underwhelming "Spring Breakdown", the bar's been set kind of low for this season premiere. Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco have returned to write it, they've had their ups and downs and were absent from Season 8. They've never written a two parter premiere or finale though (I still believe "Celestial Advice" was meant to be that, before Hasbro insisted on two separate episodes for whatever reason), and while their writing in Season 7 did give us some of the best episodes of the season's first half (particularly "A Royal Problem" and "The Perfect Pear"), as story editors they were pretty bad. Has their time away from the show allowed for a fresh perspective after Season 8 ended on such a dud? Or has it only signaled that much like the episode title the quality of writing is about to reach a terminal state of badness? Well, let's find out.
The two parter kicks off kind of harping back to "The Return of Harmony" and even some other premieres and finales, the mane six being called to Canterlot by an urgent memo. There, Celestia and Luna reveal that nothing is the matter (Trollestia strikes again) and that in fact they've decided that since Equestria is so peaceful now, they're going to retire and Twilight and her friends will take over. Luna mentions wanting to see Silver Bay, but I guess Celestia could always pursue that acting career she toyed with.
It's worth mentioning that Lauren Faust's original vision called for Twilight to replace Celestia (the student becomes the teacher), so in a way I guess I shouldn't complain that they're expanding it to include Luna and Twilight's friends. If you think about it, many of Twilight's greatest accomplishments have been through the help of her friends. That's not to say she hasn't scored solo victories (converting Sunset Shimmer, Starlight Glimmer, and Tempest Shadow, and as much as I give flack for it her school does seem to have produced some positive results in spite of Cozy Glow). What happens next is that the episode spends a lot of time lampshading Twilight's freak outs (I guess when you hang around her long enough you start to get to know how she functions) and even the fact that Celestia and Luna have basically never actually done anything when evil has threatened Equestria in the past, It's really saying something when it took Cozy Glow of all villains to make them finally do something.
Speaking of Cozy Glow, she's still trying to befriend Tirek and Tirek just keeps ignoring her. Chrysalis is still rambling on to herself (now talking to carved projections of changelings, she really has fallen). And an unseen figure resurrects King Sombra. Oh, and he has a new voice now.
But who has brought them all together, you ask? Grogar, a sentient ram with magical bells around a collar. One of which he uses to restore Tirek to his natural, hulking state. Tirek exposits that Grogar conquered the land that was to become Equestria, creating vicious monsters that swallowed up anything they wanted. Gusty the Great eventually rose up and defeated Grogar, but only weakened him temporarily, and now he's been biding his time. They don't really explain how he was able to bring all the villains together though. It's not like Power Rangers where during their original planned final season they revealed all the villains belonged to this greater alliance that wanted to rule the universe. It's kind of a weak set up to create our Injustice League (basically the modern day equivalent of The Legion of Doom), with Grogar as our Lex Luthor.
Sombra insists that he can do it all alone, and so Grogar cuts him a deal. He'll allow Sombra to strike out on his own and take back the Crystal Empire, and if he succeeds he's allowed to keep it all for himself. If he fails, Sombra is to return to Grogar and serve him, with the alternative being that if he declines the deal he'll be cast back into the darkness. Naturally, Sombra agrees, confident of victory. Meanwhile, it seems even Starlight knows how Twilight functions, and Twilight tells Starlight she wants her to take over not just the school but also the castle. Naturally, Starlight objects since it didn't exactly go well the last time she was in charge. Still, I have to give them props for having it be so that for once Starlight isn't the one who knocks sense into Twilight. Once or twice is fine, but when she seems to be the only one who can do it gets old really fast.
Sombra somehow manages to get back into the Crystal Empire and take over (and Flurry Heart seems to have matured enough to say actual words. I swear, she actually says "Mama". So she's gotta be at least one year old, probably two). Twilight gets the message, and decides to use the Elements of Harmony since she doesn't want to take any chances. Discord points out that they didn't need them last time, but when Twilight objects that he could defeat Sombra instead Discord naturally declines. Not exactly sure why he's worried, he could easily handle Sombra. My guess is, he wouldn't be able to take all the credit for himself, and even if he's reformed he's still gonna wanna be the big hero. Either that, or he's afraid of being captured again.
So the mane six rush in to battle Sombra, and he immediately hits them with his trump card, their worst fears. We only get to see Twilight's, it's as predictable as you could imagine (she fears letting everypony down). But in a clever twist it turns out that she and her friends prepared for such a move, they wanted Sombra to do it so that he would be distracted. Meanwhile, Spike frees Shining Armor, Cadence, and Flurry Heart (but not Sunburst, in fact he doesn't even appear among the brainwashed crowd. Bit of a wasted opportunity). Sombra gets blasted again and it looks like it's all well that ends well. Of course it's never that easy. Somehow, Sombra manages to find the Tree of Harmony and destroys it, shattering the Elements of Harmony as Part 1 ends.
Part 2 begins with Twilight trying to put the Elements of Harmony back together, while Rainbow Dash and the rest of the mane six try to fight him head on. It goes about as well as you'd expect. Sombra easily defeats and imprisons them, deciding that he'll set his sights on all of Equestria. Even more surprising than that though, Pinkie Pie is for once without a joke or a funny comment. The same Pinkie who's all about giggling at ghosts.
Not willing to just do nothing (even without a plan) Twilight starts digging her way out and her friends all join in. Alas, they're too late to stop Sombra from brainwashing all of Ponyville. And to make matters worse, the Everfree Forest can now invade again since the Tree of Harmony can't hold it back. So while Sombra marches on an unoccupied Canterlot (very irresponsible of the royal sisters to leave it unprotected, and no the guards are not adequate), the mane six try to fight a bunch of vines. But they don't go for the obvious solution.
Just as the mane six start to tire out though (I should mention that Spike and Starlight are brainwashed, though the whereabouts of the student six aren't known) Celestia and Luna come to their rescue. It turns out that Starswirl the Bearded alerted them the moment he sensed the Tree of Harmony was destroyed, and points out an interesting fact. Until the Tree of Harmony had grown, someone or something had to keep the Everfree Forest under control. Who else could've done the job but the very pillars who planted the seed for the tree in the first place? Worth noting is that while Starswirl mentions the other pillars, none of them appear. Not even Mistmane, who is supposed to have been in the Crystal Empire (come to think of it, where the heck are Flash Magnus and Rockhoof?).
The mane six head to Canterlot, ultimately bypassing their friends and teleporting into the castle interior. Discord finally shows up and after a good deal of pleading he finally agrees to help out. For a time it seems like he's going to defeat Sombra singlehandedly. But then Sombra hurls a blast towards Fluttershy and Discord gets in the way for the obvious heroic sacrifice. Thankfully, unlike Piccolo, he doesn't die afterward.
Discord appears to have been drained of all his powers somehow, but he gives a rousing speech that convinces the mane six to get up and keep marching towards Sombra. It enables them to summon up the magic of friendship and defeat him, this time killing him off for good. Man, Sombra just can't catch a break, can he?
Celestia and Luna arrive, and then they announce that they're not going to fully retire just yet. They realize (rightfully so) that they dropped the decision on Twilight and her friends very suddenly and without giving them to properly prepare. Then Discord reveals that he was faking being injured the whole time and he storms off as everyone laughs. Meanwhile, Cozy Glow seems to be trying to play peacemaker between Chrysalis and Tirek (kind of ironic that she thought of friendship as mere power, yet she's the one who seems the most willing to apply it to others even when they want nothing to do with her). Grogar breaks up it, revealing that Sombra is dead and that he hopes the other villains will now work with him instead of opposing him. They all more or less agree, and the episode (and two parter) ends with them laughing (Grogar laughs evilly, but the other villains laugh kind of nervously).
And that's the story, so what do I think of the two parter? Well, I have to admit it begins rather suddenly, and by the end they admit that yes, it's a concept that probably isn't quite ready to brought to fruition just yet. Grogar is a pretty interesting villain, but I feel like they messed up with Sombra. They give him more of a personality this time around, more speaking lines, but they make his victory way too easy. He never really has to fight or strategize, everything's given to him with very little effort. It doesn't help that for the most part the mane six are kind of useless, everyone else keeps bailing them out. And a key rule in writing team-ups and crossovers is that you don't want to make one side look good by making the other side look weak. You need to give both sides an equal contribution. That's why "Shadow Play" worked, even if the focus was on the pillars the mane six weren't completely sidelined and helpless, it felt like they contributed to the victory and that both sides could only achieve it together. Here, almost everyone else looks good, but the mane six only really shine through at the end. Grogar is interesting for a Lex Luthor expy, though I feel like his design leaves a little something to be desired in terms of threat (kind of wish they'd have reused the Storm King's model and tied him to Grogar somehow) but I'm sure that's because he's going to come into play at the very end of the season. Discord admitting to faking his injury probably isn't a surprise, but again it feels like he could do more now that he's reformed. Like the mane six he doesn't do much, and his original appearance is very abrupt (like they wanted to include him for some reason, perhaps because they couldn't think of anyone else to give the rousing speech). All in all, this two parter does do a good job of setting up plot threads to be followed through on later in the season, but it seems like it had too many ideas that it wanted to tackle and not even time to properly develop them. In the end, I give it an A-. Definitely the strongest premiere we've had since "The Cutie Map" back in Season 5, but time will tell if it can stick the landing. After all, Season 8 didn't start out bad.
Well, next week already promises to pick up from where this premiere left off with "Uprooted" when the Tree of Harmony summons the student six and they discover that the tree has been destroyed. Wonder if they'll build on the fact that it could talk to them.
Well this is sad...
5039423 Yeah, it is.
Thanks for sharing this. And, yeah, I DO hope the final season does a better job on following through on its potential than the previous season. At least this two-parter learned from SOME of the super-hero movies by NOT having the heroes try to fight ALL the villains at once right away, but, rather, leaving MOST of the other villains still available for later in the series with Grogar willing to play the long game.
Of course, one of the future volumes of your "What If?" series (most likely Ten or Eleven) IS going to require a VERY subtle alteration (because your "What If?" series has Chrysalis and Cozy as one and the same [which would have made more sense anyway]), but that could be better in the long run.
5039449 I could always resurrect the Storm King, and a handwave could be that the ressurection was flawed and didn't fully restore him, to explain why he sounds different.
In my opinion, I feel the entire premire is rather....rushed. By that I mean everything goes so damn fast and is not completely thought through (likely purposely done so). It goes from point A to Z and hardly stops at the others for less than 2 seconds! Sheesh!
5039459 Yeah, I kind of got that feeling too. Much like Celestia and Luna's decision, they just drop stuff on us without really giving us much time to react.
5039460
Exactly! I mean, geeze! Give a pony time to let it SINK IN before dropping a bombshell like that!
5039463 Give them credit, at least they realized their mistake and followed their own advice. As Rodimus Prime will attest, there can be any number of problems when a successor is suddenly thrust into a leadership role without prior notice or preparation.
5039465
True.
5039452
That could work. I just meant it would only be a THREE villain team up (counting Grogar) instead of a FOUR villain team-up after the Storm King was taken care of.
5039479 But it'd be down to two after Sombra's defeat. At least with Storm King the magic number would be preserved, and Grogar could keep Storm King as a back-up. Counting on the ponies to counter Chrysalis and Tirek easily, but not expecting the Storm King.
Season nine seems to start off pretty fine, let's hope this season be better then the previous season.
5039482
Point taken. I will freely admit I misinterpreted what you meant.
It does make me wonder if with this season, most of the episodes will be one huge story arc to lead us into the series finale.
And the fact that Grogar did not find some way to bring back Nightmare Moon, while a bit disappointing, since she was the villain that started this whole generation, that gives me hopes for something else. Though it was a great shout out to see Celestia and Luna turn into Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker again in Twilight's fear vision. Though, the fact that it wasn't Starlight's psyche that was seeing Daybreaker this time, that got me a tad curious. I'm pretty certain Starlight didn't tell Twilight exactly what Daybreaker looked like. Sure, she may have mentioned Celestia's potential dark form, but the fact that Twilight has seen Celestia's dark form in the same way has gotten me curious.
I do wonder if Celesita, Luna, and the Pillars are aware of Grogar's existance. Twilight I can understand not knowing, even Cadence. But I wonder about the Royal Sisters and the Pillars.
Chrysalis I can understand bringing into the fold of Grogar's plan, being the tactiction she was before her meltdown of losing everything that was hers, Triek, with him I see 50/50 of why he's on board, but Sombra and Cozy Glow?............ that's a mystery of what potential he really sees in those two.
Also, big disappointment on not seeing Scootaloo in the crowd, with Dash trying to snap her out of it, or even getting a mention by Dash about being mind controlled before they got to Ponyville. Way to be a big sister there Dash.
And why do I get a sneaky suspicion that the Mane 6's Super Elemental form will either be used by them or the Student 6, or possibly both, in the series finale.
Hasbro's got a lot of loopholes to fill, and they better not disappoint.
For me, this is the best premiere yet, with the one criticism I have being some odd pacing
5039562 Pacing is definitely this two parter's biggest problem. It's the inverse of "The Crystalling" which can drag on and on throughout the first part without much of substance. Here, it seems intent to through as much at you as it can from the get go, without giving you a lot of time to breath.
All I want for this season is Chrysalis Reformation. IT'S ALL I ASK FOR HER!
The premiere was a good way to start season 9. It was good to see the Mane Six use the elements again and use the magic without the elements. It was also good to see Discord being less of an annoyance this time and showing the Mane Six that they don’t always need special beings or artifacts to save Equestria. Another part I liked was when Cozy tries to help Tirek and Chrysalis get along with each other . The only thing missing in this episode would be the Pony of Shadows or the Pillars of Equestria. I can’t wait to see what Grogar and the villains will do to stop the Mane Six. My guess is that they’ll separate the Mane Six or trick each of the girls somehow. Now that I think about it, this kinda reminds me of the season 4 premiere as Twilight has to deal with a new position, the girls lose the elements, the Everfree forest was invading, the Princesses weren’t present until close to the end, and Discord giving confusing messages that were intentional.
5039459
I can get behind that.
Well, you gotta love Discord pulling a Discord and teaching the mane 6 they don't need the elements, because they are the physical manifestations of those elements. Also, I really wonder how Chryssie and Tirek will do in the rest of season 9.
5040004
Exactly!
5040001 Didn't notice that similarity until just now.
5040001 5040049
While I would say it is a reboot to the Season 4 premiere, it does have it's differences. The elements of tree of harmony were destroyed rather then taken off to weaken the tree this time round. And isn't it kind of odd how things reverted back to normal once Sombra was truly defeated. Also, I do believe the tree has a few more tricks up it's sleeve, being as it is connected to the Castle and School of Friendship. I feel it saw the eventuality of what just happened and has plans for the road ahead.
5040121 That wouldn't surprise me. Elements or not it's still a tree. No tree, no matter how powerful, can live forever.
Anyone wanna take bets on which one of the villains is going to back stab the others first?
5040240 My money's on either Cozy Glow or Chrysalis, given their deceptive natures.
5040236
Tell that to the Sequoia trees. They're thousands of years old.
5040295
Chrysalis is unstable and will likely do it at the first moment she believes she can get an advantage, Cozy is smart enough to play the long game and wait for the perfect moment, and as for Tirek I'd say it depends on how powered up he gets.
5040240
I think Chryssie will betray them.
5040001
I can see what you mean now.
You know, now that ithink about it. The tree really idn't dea.d I mean it did plant a new seed aka the Castel fo Frineship. so isn't the caslte the Tree of harmony 2.0? i mean , if the map still works it's still alive