My Review of MLP: FIM season 9 episode 17 The Summer Sun Setback · 12:59am Aug 30th, 2020
Grading Scale:
A (fantastic episode)
A- (an excellent episode with at least one flaw)
B+ (a great episode with a couple of flaws)
B (a good episode which still could have been better)
B- (a good episode with numerous flaws but still rewatchable)
C+ (a decent episode)
C (eh... it’s not terrible but not good either)
C- (it’s not worth rewatching although it does have good elements)
D+ (a bad episode with a few good things in it)
D (a really bad episode with wasted potential)
D- (a terrible episode with badly written characters and butchered moral)
F (horrible and unwatchable)
************
Hey there. Here is my review of MLP: FIM season 9 episode 17 The Summer Sun Setback. When I first watched this episode, I loved it; it was amazing; it was great; it opened so many doors for fan theories and speculations of what would happen next later on in the season and ultimately for the finale. But as I rewatched the episode a few times, I noticed multiple things therein that hardly made any sense and somewhat got me thinking if Michael Vogel actually paid any attention to his own writing. Yes, this episode is a follow up to “Frenemies” which was also written by the same writer; however, just because this has Grogar and the other villains in it doesn’t make it any better. So let’s go:
The episode opens with my favorite badass getting ready to head to his personal mission. Cozy stops him and asks him where he is heading. He tells her that since she and her allies failed to retrieve the Bewitching Bell, he needs another powerful artifact to destroy Twilight and her friends. Once he exits the cavern, Cozy shouts, “He’s gone!” Umm... Cozy? You do know he can still hear you, right? He was still just within earshot when you shouted to your comrades. He should’ve said, “What was that, Cozy Glow?! I can still hear you! I’m not deaf!” Was he really that deaf?
They express distrust towards Grogar as they think he’s hiding something from them. While they were so eager to betray him with his own bell, they had to figure out how to utilize it. Then Cozy said this questionable line:
Twilight Sparkle may be the worst, but she does know stuff. She once said the archives at Canterlot have a restricted area.
What? Wait... hold on a minute. Why would Twilight tell Cozy of all ponies that they have a restricted area of the Canterlot archives? Even before Cozy was revealed to be evil, what motivated Twilight to inform Cozy that they have a restricted section of sensitive information? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of keeping that place a secret? She should not tell anyone about restricted libraries that could be used for dangerous purposes. That alone tells me that Twilight is really that dumb. Great job, Twilight. Instead of keeping it as a secret, you just opened your mouth and said that you have a private section of the archives. Plot convenience obviously 🙄.
It really makes me question Celestia and Luna’s choice of making Twilight their heir to the throne even more. Speaking of which, the said princesses come to Twilight to remind her that their time of retirement has nearly come and must have their last Summer Sun Celebration. Ughhh... great. We now have a third episode of this season that addresses the season’s main story arch. It now involves this Summer Sun Celebration that Twilight and her friends must prepare. Twilight claims that she has long gotten over her habit of freak outs since she learned to delegate royal duties in their absence.
Really, Twilight? Really? Because it surely went well for you from the last episode! Speaking of which, has there been a time skip between this episode and last episode? How long has it been already? Because... nah, I’ll talk about it at the end of this review. Once she relays this announcement to her friends, they fear that it might freak out Twilight as it appeared to be a heavy responsibility. She remains calm as she lays down plans for her friends on what to do to make the celebration a memorable one. Discord suddenly comes along and volunteers to help her. Oh, and one funny thing I noticed: Twilight wrote something on that little note for Discord for like... half a second. (Chuckles) What the heck? It looked like she wrote just a word on it.
Anyway, the Treacherous Trio hide together behind some barrels to spy on the ponies. They notice how they have increased extreme measures of security around the castle. Thus, they have to find a way in there. Oh, and I love how Tirek caught that bird flying down safely in his hands. That’s sweet............... what? What are you guys looking at me for? I’m just pointing that out.
Chrysalis disguises herself as a female guard and attempts to enter the palace. The doors are locked and can only be opened by a guard’s magical lock. Her’s does not work at all. So she nervously walks away while she mimics a guard’s voice. Okay, how come that didn’t raise the suspicion of the guards? Why didn’t they just detain her and ask her questions if she has an ID, if she’s a real guard, or why she was being so nervous? Because clearly... THEY HAVE NEVER SEEN THAT GUARD BEFORE!!! Are the guards really that stupid and untrained?! Oh, but it gets worse later on!
They see their enemies appear in a flash just not too far from them. Wow, and they somehow didn’t spot three villains hiding via peripheral vision... despite being a little up close. (Sigh) So they discuss a significant role they will play into preparing for the final celebration while Discord doesn’t do anything “Discordy”. After they leave, the villains hatch a plan to get into the castle. And they carry it out... through the most illogical and stupid way possible.
While Pinkie needlessly eats the cupcakes that prompted Applejack to pull her away, Tirek begins to drain the magic out of several earth ponies. Whoa, whoa, whoa... hold up. Why are they still wearing cutie marks? Didn’t the cutie marks disappear in “Twilight’s Kingdom” when Tirek absorbed all their magic? Why are they still on their flanks? Animators, what were you guys thinking? Braeburn knows that someone was behind those bushes because HE SAW THOSE ORANGE BEAMS EMERGE FROM THEM!! Or at least a part of it! Then he immediately assumed that it was the food that made them so weak. Yeah, right. Because feeling sick from bad food is the same as feeling almost lifeless without magic. Because they always compared magic to “life force”... twice in this season. Great writing, Mr. Vogel. 🤦🏻♂️
( EDIT: Another thing I forgot to mention: it took hundreds of ponies’ magic to turn Tirek into his third form in “Twilight’s Kingdom”; but here, he drained only three earth ponies’ magic and he suddenly grew into his third form.
Great continuity!!)
A paranoid pegasus panics over the heavy duty of controlling the weather. Cozy shows up in a pretense to help him. He asks, “Who are you?” Excuse me? You have no idea who Cozy Glow is? The very pegasus filly who nearly drained all the magic of Equestria... and you barely know her name? Celestia didn’t bother to inform the whole nation of who was the culprit behind the nationwide magic drainage? Didn’t she tell them, or was he living under a rock this whole time? DETAILS ARE IMPORTANT!!!!
And he somehow didn’t notice her bitchass evil face when she said she will “take care of everything!” with a sinister voice. Are ponies really that deficient in intelligence??
Chrysalis disguises herself as the same camera mare to manipulate a group of firework unicorns and to feed their species’ ego and pride. They didn’t bother asking her questions, they just met this stranger, and they should’ve told her that she has no right to tell them what they should think or how they should act as unicorns. But nope! Fuck logic because they easily swallowed it like it was a delightful chocolate cake that has feces inside. Gullible idiots...
The Mane Six are happy that everything went well until... chaos followed which Discord himself was even puzzled by. They are shocked to see how everything they were working on suddenly went up in smoke. And what do they do next? Hide the truth from Twilight lest she falls back into her habit of freaking out. Applejack, I’m so sorry they didn’t listen to your advice. They should have been honest to Twilight and trusted her to not panic. Wait... hold on... Discord was afraid of that too?
Then later in the episode, he was hoping that Twilight would freak out despite the fact that he was with the ponies and Spike in not telling her the truth. PICK A SIDE AND STICK WITH IT, DISCORD!! Same to you, Mr. Vogel!
When the villains were about to break into the palace doors, a guard sees Cozy before him and smiles at him. Then Tirek shows up behind him whose shadow he spotted and turned to see him moments before his magic was drained. WHY DIDN’T HE REPORT TO CELESTIA AND LUNA THAT THE VILLAINS RETURNED?! He could’ve saved the whole city if he just opened his mouth and said something!! And don’t say to me, “Well, he must’ve gotten amnesia from Tirek’s magic absorption!” That’s ridiculous because that didn’t happen with everyone else when they lost their magic back in the season 4 finale, right? He didn’t get knocked out, punched, or smashed against a wall. Why didn’t he say anything?
Thanks for making that goose so useless by having him sneak behind the villains to see what they were up to... then get tricked by Chrysalis in disguise of a goose and have him walk away. What was the point of that? It’s almost like Michael Vogel wanted to do something with that random goose then quickly changed his mind saying, “Nope, fuck that! Bad idea!” You can’t really do that.
And where did Cozy get that random paper clip to unlock that gate? That’s very convenient! And when she finally spotted that book about Grogar’s Bell, she grabbed... a book with a key as its cover... and smashed the book’s chains with no effort... Logic? What’s that?! They must be some very weak chains that Celestia selected.
Twilight sees the truth of what’s happening, the paranoid pegasus never told Twilight that it was a pink pegasus filly’s idea that the weather was out of control, Twilight scolds them all, and... suddenly gets all calm and collected. Mr. Vogel... if you wanted to create enough character development for Twilight, you have to do it right. We just watched an episode where Twilight freaked out over a Trivia game and now we abruptly have an episode where Twilight is all better and calm??? Did we miss an episode or something?? Like I mentioned earlier, was there a time skip? WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!
So all the characters are back to normal... through a damn montage even though we have no idea how Rarity got the uproarious unicorns back to happiness and content, or how the earth ponies were better again before Tirek returned their magic back to them. Vogel skipped character interaction, development, and conflict resolution even though they said they were going to solve it. Why didn’t we see the specifics? SHOW, DON’T TELL!!
You know, you just might be ready for whatever comes next, your majesty.
Another important line of dialogue a character has said that will be addressed in my review of “The Ending of the End”.
So the episode ends with Grogar going on his relic hunt for the next day and the Treacherous Trio getting ready for the next stage of their plan. And then... Cozy says this line:
You know, it really was super easy to get all those pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies to turn on each other!
WHAT? We didn’t see any of that in this episode! We only saw the unicorns getting all angry and rebellious, but the earth ponies and pegasi where facing their own problems. None of the races turned on each other. (Facepalm) Michael Vogel was payed to write that line and... he somehow forgot what he was writing about?? How the hell did he get away with that?! Did none of the story editors catch that error? It serves nothing but as a foreshadow for the finale. That’s it. Here... it’s out of place.
Oh my word... so many plot holes and irritating inconsistencies in... one episode. If you love this episode, that’s fine. But for me, this episode’s writing was atrocious. The characters were all idiots, the character development was rushed/nearly absent, and the plot doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. Michael Vogel did an excellent job with “Frenemies”, but here he fell off the wagon. That’s very disappointing. I give this episode another F.
Peace.
What I don't understand is why not just burn the forbidden stuff instead of locking it up.
5345133
Probably for documentation purposes. Here's a better question. Why not make the forbidden shit harder to get to?
5345236
Don't know.
5345133
5345236
I agree
5345331
Thanks.
5345333
Welcome
You know Mr. J, I always wonder:
Could Fire Flare, aka this mare that appeared in this episode....
derpicdn.net/img/view/2019/8/25/2126800__safe_artist-colon-cheezedoodle96_fire+flare_the+summer+sun+setback_spoiler-colon-s09e17_clothes_female_looking+at+you_mare_raised+eyebrow_rais.png
.... could actually be Sunset Shimmer's mother?
derpicdn.net/img/view/2020/5/19/2352767__safe_artist-colon-andoanimalia_sunset+shimmer_pony_unicorn_equestria+girls_equestria+girls+series_forgotten+friendship_cute_open+mouth_shimmerbetes_sim.png
I mean.... they do both share a similar color scheme plus they are both Unicorns after all.
Know what I mean?
5345417
I can care less since she is a one-shot character that came out of the writer’s ass.
But nice theory.
5345427
Okie. ^^'
Thanks. :) I mean.... -sigh- if there's anything.... I'm still annoyed that EG didn't get proper closure. :/
5345417
I like this theory. Since they look alike in same, but different. Also, I always like to think that Sunset is related to Sunburst in some way. Also out of all the background characters Fireflare have a cool design
5346087
Yep =3
5346122
Also, want to ask. If you make a Student oc for the school of friendship and yes, I called it a student oc. What would he/her role would be in the school? And who would he/she be best friend with?
5346132
Eh Heh Heh... that would be a toughie for me. ^^'
Btw, my comment on the next episode blog post from Mr. J has been added. ;3
5346135
Let me see