My Review of MLP: FIM season 9 episodes 24-25, The Ending of the End · 11:30pm May 21st, 2021

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)

Greetings, everyone! Here is my review of the two-part finale of the ninth season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: “The Ending of the End”! We are finally here at the grand finale of the entire series, ladies and gentlemen, so this is gonna be quite one load of a review. What do I think of this finale as a whole, you may ask? Well, there’s only one way to find out as we delve into this episode: The Ending of the End. That title is a little pretentious and redundant although I am aware they are echoing the title of the premiere itself like what they had done for season 8. It sounds cool at face value, but it makes little sense.

Wouldn’t it be better to call it “The Endgame of Friendship”? Or “The Triumph of Friendship”? In that way, things will come full circle as well as echo the very theme of the show: Friendship is Magic. Anyway, let’s go.

The first part of the finale begins with Chrysalis in disguise accomplishing her part of the plan in turning everypony against each other. Again, I am flabbergasted at the ponies’ stupidity in seeing any evidence or logic behind her words. They are instantly against each other because of what one person said and that was it. Their intelligence must be that low, huh? Thus, she retreats to Grogar’s cavern where her co-conspirators were waiting for her.

They scheme that if the Magic of Friendship were to be eradicated from Equestria, Twilight and her friends will be helpless and powerless against their might. To add to that, Cozy states this line:

No friendship, no magic! It’s so obvious when you think about it. I did my part in freaking out the Pegasi.

Okay, there are two things I have for Cozy Glow as the following: 1). Since when did you ever believe that Friendship is Magic? Your entire philosophy was that friendship is power, not magic. Not once did you ever agree to the notion that friendship was beyond that. What made you change your mind? 2). How exactly did you terrorize the Pegasi? Did you scare them by revealing yourself to them in person and they actually recognized you for the crimes you committed in Equestria, or did you warn them of something terrible that happened from other ponies while they had no clue of who you were? Details and information—they matter. Her first line in this episode filled me with many questions with not enough answers.

Tirek reveals what he discovered from reading the book about Grogar’s Bell: the ancient artifact can steal anypony’s magic and hold that magic inside until the user releases it by using a specific spell and absorbs it for himself. So now we have yet another plot device that steals magic. First, it was the thing Sci-Twi used to turn into Midnight Sparkle in Friendship Games, then the Staff of Scannas from the MLP movie, and now this? Why can’t we have any weapon that is more original and doesn’t use the same old gimmick Tirek possesses?

Just as the Treacherous Trio unite together, they activate the Bewitching Bell and absorb all of Grogar’s magic. Cozy Glow’s an alicorn? Okay, that’s cool, I’ll admit. Chrysalis has her queenly attire with greener eyes? That’s even more cool. And Tirek is finally in his fourth form again? That’s awesome—oh, wait, that’s his third form. Aww, I really wanted to see his fourth form again like in season 4. Oh well, his third form is cool too... although one would think Grogar’s magic was powerful enough to spring him into his fullest form. Oh well...

Later, Grogar arrives back home after his long absence. He holds a new artifact which was later destroyed by Cozy Glow. No name, no details about that thing whatsoever, so why even bring it anyway? Chrysalis traps his front hooves with her goo instead of going for his horns. I don’t understand why she didn’t goo his horns so that he would be rendered defenseless. Plus, he just stands there and acts all surprised that he was about to be betrayed. He doesn’t even shoot his magic to free his hooves. That was... underwhelming.

He struggles to move until he sees his own Bell before him. As they activate it with their empowered magic, they drain him of all his power. Suddenly, “Grogar” transforms into a draconequus and falls on the ground, taking his former allies by surprise. As Tirek says, that was completely unexpected. Thus, we have the infamous twist of the entire season, folks: Discord was Grogar the entire time.

Now, for those of you who have actually read my blog about my revisitation of the Grogar twist, you remember that I no longer have any grudge or problems with the twist anymore. I don’t really want to repeat myself, so I ask you guys who haven’t read that blog to read it when you have the time. You will see my changed opinions on Grogar and on the twist itself. Let’s move on...

Seeing his powers completely drained, Discord flees on foot and escapes. The villains decides to let him go and finalize their plan to attack Equestria. Honestly, that was a big mistake on their part because then Discord would tell his friends of their plans and have them prepare to fight them. But I gotta say, that’s what villains often do: let their ego cloud their judgement and make way for their downfall. So, that was pretty in character for Chrysalis to say.

Meanwhile, the Royal Sisters redecorate their throne room for Twilight to finally take their place as the new ruler of the land. Twilight appoints Spike as her royal advisor which was a genuinely touching moment. For me, I am actually happy that Spike gets even more recognition and love after all the things he has done for and with Twilight and what they went through together. I think Nicole Dubuc wrote that scene very well.

Later on, things get very spicy around Canterlot as everypony is now against each other based on their race. Nicole is taking notes from season eight, isn’t she? The rest of Twilight’s friends are confused as to what is truly going on... except maybe Rarity as she was pretty naïve about the situation.

Discord meets up with them and nervously confesses his huge role in resurrecting Sombra and recruiting the villains together. This is where we see Celestia and Luna question him in the throne room as he reveals the exact reason why he did all this as Grogar. He orchestrated his own legion and planned to attack Twilight’s coronation in the high hopes of boosting her confidence to defeat her greatest enemies and be the ruler everyone can look up to.

Unfortunately, it only served to dwindle her confidence as everything seemed to overwhelm her as she heard the truth. Guys, look, I can honestly say I forgive Discord for what he had done. I really do forgive him; although he suffered no consequences at the end, I think him being betrayed and depowered by the villains and getting scolded by his friends was punishment enough. He even risked his life to set them free later on. But that still doesn’t mean I like him for what he is. I’m still pretty much distant from him for the most part.

He then tells them their plot of conquering Equestria and urges them to hasten themselves as they could strike at any moment. After the encouragement of Celestia and Luna, Twilight gladly tells Spike to bring in the Pillars of Equestria and Starlight into this as the ultimate battle for the fate of Equestria commences.

Then we jump back to the villains as Cozy settles the argument between Chrysalis and Tirek. As they discuss about using Discord’s chaos powers, Tirek says this questionable line:

But taking it all would be madness! It’s impossible for any other creature to control!

There are yet another two things I have for Tirek here as the following: 1). Don’t you remember how you were perfectly capable of absorbing Discord’s magic in “Twilight’s Kingdom”? How come you never addressed that? What you could have done was have either Chrysalis or Cozy absorb that magic and you could drain them to absorb the chaos powers like before. It’s not that difficult to accomplish. 2). Why wasn’t this information spoken sooner if it was that important? This new information about Discord’s powers could have been stated sooner like around seasons 6 or 5. It just feels like a last-minute addition that went absolutely nowhere.

After a series of shenanigans with Cozy messing with chaos magic, the Trio finally put their main plan into action and set out to conquer “everywhere”. Yeah, don’t attack the cities, the Crystal Empire, or the countries beyond Equestria... just the School of Friendship and Canterlot. That’s “everywhere” alright. 🙄

As Twilight was giving her dramatic speech of using the power of Friendship, Cozy barges in and attacks Twilight and her friends. Tirek battles the Pillars with no dialogue whatsoever with the very one responsible for changing Scropan’s mind and his shattered relationship with him and underwhelmingly defeats the Pillars and steals their magic. The legendary Pillars, folks. They nearly did nothing throughout this whole finale and were instantly taken out. It just further solidifies how ultimately boring and useless they are. Cozy takes out the Royal Guards like nothing. They (the unicorn guards) just run to her as she was hovering in the air. Strategy and intelligence? What are those?

Although the fight scene between Starlight and Chrysalis was epic and worth the hype, I wish Starlight was rather sympathetic towards her and pleaded for her to change instead of being cocky. It would have been consistent with her character if she said:

“Chrysalis, you don’t have to do this. It’s not too late for you to change! Revenge will never bring back what you have lost!”

Is that too much to ask for? Why is she suddenly all cocky towards her when she should have been reluctant to fight her? Oh well...

I don’t really care that Celestia and Luna were easily defeated by Cozy since they are among my least favorite characters of this series. After a brief fight scene with the Mane Six and Spike, Tirek and Chrysalis regroup with Cozy and have their enemies cornered. After they monologued of how they turned everypony against each other and how useless their friendship power will be, they destroy half the city of Canterlot (I’m not sure if they mass-murdered those ponies in the process) and attempt to kill Twilight.

Rarity saves her with a boulder and helps her friends use the same one to shield them from the Trio’s magical beam. Wow, that massive blast was enough to send half the city to oblivion yet it was not enough to destroy one single boulder on impact? Can we have some consistency please?

Her friends urge Twilight to escape before they could reach to her. Umm... why couldn’t she just teleport them all with her to safety? She could have used that boulder to knock the villains unconscious and then teleport herself and her friends with her out of the castle. That simple. Thus, we transition to part 2:

The villains take our heroes under the catacombs of Canterlot Castle and imprison them with Chrysalis’s goo and the remaining shards of her throne to block their magic. I’m actually curious if Spike’s fire breathing can burn through the sticky substance or maybe he couldn’t because they are magic-powered as well. I dunno because if it’s the former, then he should have at least used his fire breath to free himself and his friends from the Trio’s clutches. Eh, I guess plot convenience is more important.

Oh, and I’m just gonna say this to Michael Vogel: Tirek is not a minotaur; he is a centaur. Learn the difference between both mythological species before you insert them into any future script of yours next time. Google is your friend, good sir. 🙂

As the villains argue with each other as to who is the greatest, Discord is filled with remorse over his actions that led up to this. However, once he sees the Treacherous Trio fight over the bell and try to figure out what to do with his chaos magic, he thinks of a plan and puts it to action. Now, this whole scene was absolutely brilliant on the part of Discord. This is my favorite part of the finale right here.

Here we see him call out Tirek for the way he deceived him in the season 4 finale when they teamed up together. Then he preceded to insult him to his face and, as the icing on the cake, remind him of his past with his old father King Vorak. That was a great way to give some sort of background for Tirek in this to give us some clear understanding of why he turned evil in the long run. I wish Michael Vogel would have seized the opportunity to also give more depth to Cozy in this.

Angered by the mere mention of his dad, Tirek blasted Discord right on the shard he was holding to deflect that blast to hit the one on top of Starlight’s cage. Wait, I thought Chrysalis’s throne shards block their magic? Ahhh, I see. If that shard Discord held cancelled out Tirek’s magic instead of merely blocking it, then Discord’s escape plan would have failed. Ha, the plot armor is strong with this one.

Starlight frees herself, teleports away from their magical assaults, and uses her magic wave to free everyone from their cages. Why couldn’t Tirek drain her magic beforehand? Or at least use the bell to take away her powers? She’s one of the most powerful unicorns in Equestria, so why leave her magic untouched?

As Twilight’s friends escape, Discord and the others try to hold off the villains to give them time to find Twilight. Outside, the Mane Five and Spike discover the unicorns hiding in the School for Gifted Unicorns for their own safety with their own races. They go to Ponyville only to find the earth ponies in a state of perplexity and fear. Seeing Twilight absent from the town, Spike got the idea where she might be: the Crystal Empire.

They find Twilight in a state of anxiety and hopelessness as she tried to find every way to save her friends but couldn’t. After a series of ramblings and complaints of their failures and mistakes and how there is no more hope, her friends remind her of the impact she had made in their lives and how powerful the Magic of Friendship really is and what it has done for them. Encouraged, they have a group hug and conclude that the Magic of Friendship is more deep than just mere rainbow lasers. Remember that for later, folks.

Yes, this was a wholesome moment between our heroes as they give Twilight some tough love and some reminders of how they endured trials like this before. This right here is the very core of the show which this season and last season didn’t do very well in emphasizing as it was crowded with bad writing and poor execution. This scene was just perfect for me, and I really enjoyed this moment.

Oh, and nice Pinky and the Brain reference, Mr. Vogel.

The Windigoes return and bring about a blithering winter chill throughout all Equestria as friendship has been pushed out. Twilight comes up with a plan to stop the villains from taking over Equestria.

After the villains put the prisoners back in their cells, they discover the Windigoes flying around in a circle. As they debate whether they should destroy them or not, Cozy detects Twilight and her friends from afar. Thus, they teleport from the castle to the field through the Bell’s portal. Huh, that was kinda cool. It wasn’t that cold for you down there was it, Cozy?

Then we have a battle scene between our heroes and the villains. And honestly... it was a bit underwhelming yet okay at the same time. It was nice seeing Spike being there for Rarity and she being there for Spike as well to hold off Chrysalis. At the end, Chrysalis demanded they all stand down lest she tear off Spike’s wings. That was definitely something that nearly warranted an R rating for that scene alone. Quite brutal for a kid’s show, huh?

As Twilight and her friends brace themselves to sacrifice their lives, the Trio prepare to eradicate them. Wow, so they were ready to die, weren’t they? That’s a very brave sentiment, but there is one thing Twilight forgot to do. Twilight can teleport. She could have easily teleported herself and her friends from harm’s way which marks it the second time she forgot to do that.

Then suddenly, all of Equestria comes to the battle field and fights off the villains while the unicorns shield their protectors from harm.

Then we have a meaningless flashback and monologue of how the Young Six united every one in Equestria... including the non-ponies who were clearly not victims of the Trio’s lies and deceptions. Was Mr. Vogel that desperate to have the Young Six do something for the finale? Why seriously bring them into all this? That was completely stupid and meaningless.

Twilight finally gives her overly zealous speech of the true power of friendship as she unites the Pillars, her friends, and the Young Six to form what? A freaking rainbow laser. You literally said there is more to the Magic of Friendship than rainbow lasers, and what do you use? A rainbow laser to defeat your enemies. How amazing... 🤦🏻‍♂️

Why were the villains just standing there as they listened to her speech? Move! Do something! Shoot her! Hello?

Thus, they are anticlimactically defeated and robbed of their power. Enraged, Chrysalis swears that they will return until they were hit by a gigantic cupcake thanks to Pinkie Pie. Honestly, that whole scene with Chaotic Pinkie was really cringeworthy and a waste of time. Nothing more, nothing less.

Now here is yet the second most controversial moment of the finale... this:

Accepting Discord’s suggestion, both he and the Royal Sisters turn the final villains of the series into stone, ending their terror forever. What do I think of this? For me, as I said before, I prefer Tirek and Chrysalis to remain unreformed. However, Cozy is way too underdeveloped and badly written as a villain to be considered a reformable character. I don’t really care they were turned to stone, but I am actually amazed that not a single individual attempted to reach out to the villains and sought to appeal to them.

Weren’t they incessantly determined to reform almost all the villains they encountered throughout the series? How come they never once thought about reaching out to the villains and asking them to change their ways out of compassion and sympathy? Now, it could be because they literally attempted to murder them earlier that it made them cross the line, but if that is the case, they have to prove they are the better person and not stoop to their level.

This was a perfect opportunity even for Thorax and the Changelings to reach out to Chrysalis, but that never happened. Neither the Young Six nor the CMCs attempted to reach out to Cozy and plead for her to change. I wouldn’t have cared, but it would have been nice to see the attempt. That’s all.

The very show is all about love, tolerance, and friendship yet nobody made any friends in this finale nor have they attempted to show the villains any love or mercy. That’s funny, it’s actually funny to me. Half the fandom are complaining that a kid was turned to stone. Yeah, sure, keep simping for a poorly written villain who tried to kill Twilight and her friends. Yes, her being turned to stone was a bit too far, but she doesn’t deserve any redemption or sympathy from me because she has no backstory or deep motivation to justify that other than being all about “POWER!” and that’s it.

Also, I don’t think Discord has any right to suggest their punishment when he is the very one who orchestrated their escape and formation. Again, I forgive Discord for what he had done for his purely good intentions, but he is in no position to suggest anything in terms of their punishment. That’s all I got for him.

At the end, Twilight finally sees herself as fully ready to become the new ruler of Equestria. As a way to finally relax with her best friends, she has them eat at Joe’s Donut Shop as a callback to season 1. That was kinda cool to see that.

Wow, that was honestly a LOT of things to cover! This finale has its solid good moments, but it is overwhelmingly filled with plot holes, inconsistencies, and below average writing. The plot was completely rushed, and the ending of this finale was fairly anticlimactic and underwhelming. While it is not as awful as I formerly thought it was, it is still a big mess that has its good moments. Therefore, I will rate this two-parter with a D+.

Now for the epilogue episode for tomorrow! Peace!