Student Counsel Review (Spoilers for American Fans!) · 4:00pm May 28th, 2019
Just like the previous episode, this one has been aired early so if you're waiting for it to air on Discovery Family, well you know the drill.
Anyway, this episode is our Starlight focused episode and considering they've been dialing back on her presence in this final season she most certainly could use the attention. Our writer is Josh Haber, who of course wrote the episodes that redeemed Starlight and began her redemption process, so he's no stranger to writing for her. He was also responsible for "Common Ground" this season, so he seems to be doing quite well, but is it possible he messed up? Well, let's find out.
We begin with Trixie taking Starlight on a picnic lunch, and Starlight has cast a spell on her door so that whenever it opens a bracelet she's wearing on her front left hoof will glow. She keeps teleporting back and forth between her office and the picnic with Trixie, and Trixie is naturally quite upset. I guess this pretty much confirms that she is living in Ponyville now, even if she probably still sleeps in her wagon.
School is about to let out for Spring break, and Starlight is the last one at the school (seems pretty unfair to stick her with the responsibility when it's Twilight's school). She's up to her neck in students with problems, chief among them is Silverstream because she's going to be spending time with her family back at Mount Aris, but they'll be seaponies and there are things on land she really wants to explain to them. She really is just like Aerial from The Little Mermaid.
Starlight tries to get some shopping done with Trixie for an upcoming party hosted at Maud's cavern, which even Sunburst is going to be at. But Starlight has to keep teleporting back to the school to tend to problems, many of them related to Silverstream. It gets to the point where Trixie stages an improtu intervention and basically convinces Starlight to close down her office for Spring break. Hey, at least she doesn't throw unwanted guests out.
The party's in full swing at Maud's place, even if the cake is completely solid. But then suddenly Terramar shows up, revealing that Silverstream never came home, and her parents are already worried sick. Starlight blames herself for not being there for Silverstream and does the sensible thing, she leaves the party and goes to the school to search for Silverstream. She and Terramar don't find a trace of Silverstream anywhere, until they check her bedroom and conclude she must've gone into the Everfree Forest to do research on cockatrices. As they come back out front, they bump into Maud, Trixie, Sunburst, and even Mud Briar who all want to help join a search party (Mud Briar actually kind of looks cute in one or two scenes). Trixie leads them all into the Everfree Forest and causes them to get lost, hoping to intentionally invoke the whole "I don't want to meet it, so I'm going to meet it". It's too bad she didn't split up the gang, that's usually how the monster first shows itself.
They eventually find an entire migrating flock of cockatrices, and have to run away. They make it out of there, only for Mud Briar to be turned to stone. And Maud is surprisingly okay with this.
The group runs all the way to the entrance to the Castle of the Two Sisters, and then Starlight remembers the new Treehouse of Harmony (just called the students' treehouse). Man, they're really trying to push that new playset. Anyway, they go in there and find Silverstream, who has befriended a cockatrice (probably helps that she's part bird). She returns to the party and gets Mudbriar turned back to normal, then admits Starlight wasn't really helpful on all the land based things she kept bugging her over. While Starlight decides to set up established hours for Silverstream (and other students) to visit her. I guess now she actually has something to do.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Well, considering all the details that have been revealed about the other episodes, this one seems to have nothing that really attracts fan attention right out the gate. Which is a shame because it's definitely an improvement over the past two episodes. The episode does kind of feel like a holdover script from Season 8 with only a little bit of retooling to fit Season 9, but it's nice that they haven't forgotten Starlight. It's really saying something when she actually does the sensible and responsible thing for once. The addition of Trixie, Sunburst, and Maud kind of makes it feel like a sort of celebration of Starlight's progress, and it wouldn't surprise me if this is her last hurrah in the spotlight. I am a little annoyed at how they just wrote out all the mane six and Spike for this story, at the least they could've come up with a better in-universe excuse for some of them (Rarity's managing her boutiques, Rainbow Dash is with the Wonderbolts, Fluttershy is overseeing her shelter, etc.). It was nice to see some development for Silverstream, even if it's not on the same level as what we got for her in "What Lies Beneath". But I feel like the episode missed a chance to point out how irresponsible it was for her to not go home and not tell anyone where she was going. In the end, I give this episode a borderline B+/A-, putting it above "She's All Yak" which was brought down by a clumsily written third act, but below "The Beginning of the End" which definitely offered more even if they kind of messed up on Sombra.
Now, the next episode is going to be quite interesting, it's "The Last Crusade" in which some unexpected ponies show up in Ponyville and threaten to bring an end to the Cutie Mark Crusaders. While I'm already convinced they're not going to do that, there's some speculation from the fandom that has turned out to be true. But I won't tell you more until I see the episode for myself, hopefully tomorrow. All I can say is, it's finally going to address something about Scootaloo.
I also loved this episode, though this one is the first one I love of the season that didn't land in my top ten episodes overall.
For me, if anything, I feel that this episode confirmed the school needs more than Starlight Glimmer to be a student councilor. I mean 7 ponies running a entire school without any back up?
This episode kind of reminds me of Once Upon a Zepplin where the moral is something that involves balance of work and leisure. I enjoyed the parts where Maud is enjoying Mud Bruiar as a rock! I also thought it was kind of selfish of Trixie to pressure Starlight into stop doing her job. Trixie could’ve waited until Starlight was done with Silverstream. It was good to see Terramar back while having a significant role in the episode.
It's episodes like this that make me really hate Trixie. Maud was hilarious, though.
5071436 Why? Trixie may have been kind of pushy, but she had a good point. Starlight can't ignore her obligations to her friends. And Trixie was part of the search party to find Silverstream. The one who harbors most of the blame is Silverstream for not going back home and not telling anyone where she'd be. We just had that happen in "Uprooted", why would she think it's a good idea to do it again?
5071578
Because Trixie was once again acting like a self-centered twat. When a fellow student tries to get into Starlight's office, she roughly pulls him back and says that Starlight's office will be closed for the remainder of the day without Starlight's consent. When this same student tries to get Starlight's attention, Trixie glares at him, forcing him to leave. He never got his problem resolved. Then when the group finds out that Silverstream is missing, Starlight is the only one who's worried while Trixie is literally standing there in the background stuffing her face with cake with an indifferent expression on her face. Between episodes like this and "Road to Friendship" I really have to question why these two are friends. They do nothing but constantly annoy each other at best and are a bad influence on each other at worst, bringing out the bad wualities in the other. Yes, helping Sunburst with the party was important because she had made a promise to a friend, but it's not as important as the well-being of her students. Your obligations to your school and students should come first over your friends.
Actually, no. Silverstream had her parents permission to go into the Everfree Forest.
5071588 No she didn't, she was doing it to complete a class project but left no note and Terramar even mentioned that the hippogriffs were looking for her.
5071602 I was talking about "Uprooted." There was an entire montage dedicated to the Young Six getting their parents' permission.
5071672 That was only after Thorax showed up and revealed they hadn't gotten permission the first time. Gallus and probably Smolder are excuseable, their leaders wouldn't really care. But Prince Rutherford and Queen Novo especially would throw a fit if their student left without mentioning anything. Least we forget, Silverstream is Novo's niece.
5071805 Grandpa Gruff certainly wouldn't care, but I can't see Ember not being concerned about Smolder's well-being. As the Dragon Lord, she is personally responsible for her subjects, just as Queen Novo and Princess Celestia are personally responsible for their subjects. Queen Novo even commanded her entire colony to move from Mount Aries to Seaquestria just for their own personal safety, and Celestia went head to head with Chrysalis when her subjects were threatened.
This episode was a good one; it was a good moral to balance work and life. It also reminds me a little of me with my work schedule. It was an interesting twist with the cockatrices.