Episode Re-Review: The Ending of the End, Parts 1 and 2 · 6:20pm Jul 17th, 2021
This is it, the big one. The penultimate episode/episodes of the show and the final two parter. Originally, this two parter got bundled back to back with "The Last Problem" to be part of a prime time finale for all of FiM, on a Saturday night in October when most people were likely watching college football games (it's almost like Discovery Family wanted to kill the show by ensuring it got as low as possible in ratings). Much like "School Raze" this two parter has two different writers with Part 1 being written by Nicole Dubac just like last time, though this time around Part 2 is penned by Michael Vogel (Josh Haber would get the next and final episode "The Last Problem"). However, there's no denying that this two parter and the episode that followed it are full of controversy. I even know one reviewer on DeviantArt who went so far as to label this the second worst episode of the whole show and a big part of why he considered Season 9 to be the worst season of the show. And for many others, a controversial twist overshadows a whole lot of developments that occur throughout this two parter. So, is this two parter at least decent, especially after "School Raze" so utterly lowered the bar and "The Beginning of the End" was now clearly setting up for what was to happen here? Well, let's find out.
Part 1 begins with Chrysalis using her photographer's disguise once again, and I guess it's somehow an important enough pony for random passerbys to listen. A random pony believes the disguised Chrysalis when she mentions that earth ponies are having trouble growing their crops and are doing it on purpose to spite the pegasi and unicorns. This in turn causes the unicorns and pegasi to grow distrustful of the earth ponies, including Mrs. Cake who wonders why she's being given the cold shoulder. Of course, we learn that this is all actually the work of the three villains, including Tirek and Cozy Glow who have been spending time in Grogar's absence messing with the three pony tribes to turn them against each other. Yet only now are they ready to use the book that they found back in "The Summer Sun Setback" to learn how to use Grogar's Bewitching Bell against him. And it's only now that Grogar is coming back, with a device that he intends to use as part of his plan to carry out an attack during Twilight's coronation. I suppose simply storming in and attacking Twilight as she's about to be crowned is out of the question?
But the three villains ambush Grogar using their newfound powers from the bell, and succeed in draining all his magic. This reveals that Grogar was in fact Discord the whole time. Supposedly, the real Grogar has been imprisoned inside his bell for centuries.
With all this newfound power in the bell, the three villains become super strong. Heck, Cozy Glow becomes an alicorn for unexplained reasons. But when she tries to take on a more nightmare like form with the chaos magic, she is unable to control it and the villains decide not to use it. They also stupidly let Discord slip away so he can warn the ponies, not the last time they'll make such obvious mistakes. And it's not like they suddenly became better, they became stronger because of a plot device. Though, for the record, why not let Cozy Glow harness the chaos magic and use it against Chrysalis and Tirek? She'll probably burn herself out defeating them both, leaving her easily vulnerable.
While all this is going on, Twilight is finally getting ready for her coronation in Canterlot. And Luna mentions "Our little Twilight, all grown up" as we see Luna's throne being carted away as we learn through exposition that she and Celestia will be moving out of the castle. As for Twilight, her first act as the soon to be new ruler is to make Spike her official royal advisor. Hey, at least she knows he won't stab her in the back like Jafar tried to do to the Saltan.
Yet it seems all is not well, Twilight's friends find that the city of Canterlot is unusually hostile and almost like a ghost town. Nopony seems to trust one another anymore. Twilight initially isn't worried about this, confident that she can sort out the problem. But before long, Discord shows up out of breath and confesses to his crime. He's been masquarding as Grogar all along, and was responsible for bringing Sombra back from the dead, as well as busting Cozy Glow and Tirek out of Tartarus and bringing Chrysalis along for the ride. Why did he do all of this, you may ask? It was apparently part of a plan of his to give Twilight the confidence she needed to become ruler. His intent was for her to defeat the villains on her coronation day and that would be it. And at no point did he ever think that this would backfire on him. He honestly believed that uniting villains that were either dead or no longer a threat was a good idea.
This twist was planned from the very beginning, from the very moment they settled on Grogar. But I have to ask, why did anyone think that was a good idea? If this is in character for Discord, then he has become a bad character. If it's in character for someone to screw up so badly and do morally questionable things, and yet they think it's totally okay, then that character is not a character we should be seeing as a "good guy". Some try to defend this by saying that Discord is just doing what Princess Celestia always seemed to do in a crisis. But considering Discord was a witness to these plans backfiring and was even responsible for one of them backfiring, he should know better. To those who say this is better than using the real Grogar because the real Grogar had no character, I must ask you: Why bother using Grogar at all then if the intent was to reuse old villains? Why not just have the villains unite on their own? What did we get out of all of this besides teasing and trolling of fans who had actually clamored for Grogar to show up, and were actually interested in what he could bring to the table as a villain who seemed to be aware of friendship? Every bad thing that happens in Season 9 is now Discord's fault, and he even claims he was acting as a "safety net". Yet apparently he didn't think it was a violation of said net when things happened like Sombra destroying the Tree of Harmony or the villains stealing magic. We know he can sense these things, and we know he had a way to keep an eye on them. So why did he ever take them at their word? Why did he not check to make sure they would fail at retrieving the bell and that there was no way they could ever learn how to use it? Nothing about this twist makes sense either in-universe or out of universe. All it does is destroy Discord's character for the sake of a twist that would make The Last Jedi blush.
Naturally, Princess Celestia is upset by this as are so many others, though some of their arguments (such as Rarity complaining about being the one who made Twilight's dress) feel kind of petty and shallow. But all Discord ever offers up in his defense is that according to him "It seemed like a good idea". He never apologizes for messing up, he never says he's sorry for going behind his friends' backs like this or enacting a plan that he didn't need to enact since even he could see Twilight was gaining the confidence to be a leader and a ruler all by herself. This feels like Pinkie Pie's bad behavior in "Filli Vanilli" on steroids, how every time she was on-screen she made things worse and never once understood what she did was wrong. This feels like a mix of Seasons 4-9 Spongebob and Patrick in Spongebob Squarepants, where their stupidity and ignorance were dialed up to the level where they destroyed everyone else's lives with no remorse and no consequences. Was it really so hard for them to write a sincere apology for Discord? You know it's bad when Applejack can say that he's learned nothing about friendship and we the audience believe her.
Plus, why was Cozy Glow even part of the deal? What did Cozy Glow have besides being in Season 8 when Chrysalis and Tirek were no longer threats? It's not like Cozy Glow was this all powerful threat, she only got by because everyone around her was dumb enough to swallow her obvious lies and never question anything she did until near the end. Making the student/young six the only ones to ever rightfully question her didn't make Cozy Glow a competent villain. It only made her a very bad twist villain and villain sue. Chrysalis and Tirek at least had something to fall back on if their attempts at manipulation failed, we saw in Season9 that Cozy Glow couldn't function at all if she couldn't manipulate or deceive someone.
But I guess when you keep ordering seasons before your current one is done, these kind of mistakes happen. You don't have time to learn what works and what doesn't work, because had they waited for Season 8 to be done they would've learned from fans that Cozy Glow was a failure that blew up in their faces. It's not even like they stopped doing reformations after she came along, because Season 9 gave us unwanted redemptions of villains like Garble and Ahuizotl that made no sense. I apologize for the ranting, but these are the kind of things that need to be thought of if you're going to be doing twists like this. Anyway, all that ranting aside, Twilight opts to have a series of defenses put around vital points in order to try to deter the villains. But when we see the pillars fight Tirek, it's sadly a complete curbstomp battle in Tirek's favor that even goes so far as to canonize the stupidity of Rockhoof's legend story from "Campfire Tales" in that he just grew big out of the blue thanks to his shovel. I have no idea why they thought to canonize that, it takes away any kind of appeal Rockhoof might have had.
We do get a mostly better fight between Starlight Glimmer and Chrysalis when Chrysalis tries to attack the School of Friendship. Though sadly, despite it taking place in a snowy mountain we don't get any kind of Star Wars reference.
As for Cozy Glow, she manages to make it past all that extra security Shining Armor set up (because potatoes) and attack the throne room, taking down Twilight with a single shot. And when Princess Celestia and Princess Luna jump into the fray, they get taken out easily thanks to the bell draining their magic. So the royal sisters' last big chance to shine, and yet again they get taken out of the fight before they can do anything. At least "The Beginning of the End" allowed them to actually be useful. We then see how much of a joke Cozy Glow really is when the rest of the mane six utilize things like party cannons and guard geese to repel her with ease. So Cozy Glow has to be saved by the dues ex machina intervention of both Tirek and Chrysalis, who must then obviously gloat that they turned everypony against each other. The three villains then combine their strengths, and yet suddenly Rarity is able to produce a barrier with her magic as she and everypony else (along with Spike) convinces Twilight to run away. And Part 1 ends with the castle being destroyed. It sure does take a lot of abuse, doesn't it?
Following the obligatory recap, Part 2 begins with all of the heroes defeated and trapped beneath Canterlot in the catacombs as we see that the shards of Chrysalis' throne have now been used to block off magic over their cells. The villains then debate amongst themselves what to do with their prisoners. Tirek proposes the obvious solution of killing them on the spot since they're too dangerous to be allowed to live. But Chrysalis wants to leave them alive until they've been robed of all hope. And Cozy Glow agrees, wanting to toy with them some more. They also still refuse to use Discord's chaos magic, which is what motivates the rest of the mane six, Spike, Starlight and the royal sisters to ask Discord to do something to fix what he broke. Discord's idea of "fixing" things is to propose an offer to the villains to teach them how to use his chaos magic. But it turns out to be a ruse since Tirek rightfully doesn't trust him. And Discord replies by suggesting Tirek has daddy issues, referencing the IDW Fiendship is Magic comics which is the only place where Tirek's father ever appeared (and it was suggest Discord was a member of said father's court). I'm surprised he doesn't mention how both Tirek and Chrysalis either betrayed or humiliated him, which only makes you further wonder why he would ever work with them or trust them when he's made the mistake of underestimating them before.
This angers Tirek enough to set off a blast, destroying the shards and setting everyone free. But then the rest of the mane six and Spike are told to go find Twilight wherever she may be, while the rest of the freed group will try to fight the villains (don't see how they think they can win). And we won't get to see how this fight plays out, meaning we're robbed once again of a chance to see the royal sisters shine. Much like "School Raze" it wouldn't surprise me if the problem in this two parter was overcrowding, especially since the student/young six have thus far yet to play a role of any sort and have had a reduced role throughout Season 9. But of course, we all know that these characters will not prevail since if they did there would be no plot. Yet then we find out that the unicorns are all holed up inside Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns as the windigos have apparently come back. Yes, that's right, after only appearing in two fictional works with no indication as to whether they were real or not, the windigos have in fact been made real out of the blue. Yet they really don't seem to carry much of a presence, their existence feels like an afterthought to ramp up the tensions and the stakes more than they already did.
We see the same thing playing out across Cloudsdale and Ponyville, and yet someponies claim the windigos aren't real. Twilight isn't in Ponyville though, and neither is she in Canterlot. Instead, the rest of the mane six find her in the Crystal Empire where she's been for some time. And because the windigos have come back, Twilight is back to freaking out and has lost all hope and confidence in herself. So this further undermines Discord's plan since he basically ended up gaslighting Twilight, making her believe her earlier victories amounted to nothing.
Applejack manages to get through to Twilight, convincing her not to give up even though things look bad. And this motivates Twilight to come up with a plan, though she rules out letting Shining Armor, Cadence or Flurry Heart getting involved since she claims they're Equestria's last line of defense. But if Twilight can't stop the windigos then there's no Equestria that will be left to defend, so it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to rule out extra help. Meanwhile, Sandbar and two random OCs that we never saw before rally the towns of Ponyville, Cloudsdale and Canterlot to come together to help out. Could they really not have made this the CMC's big moment to shine? They're pretty much the only characters of significance who get no role at all here, once again being shunted aside. At least when we had OCs for "School Raze" it was because it was part of a contest, and when we had OCs before then it was through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Here, there's no contest and no special organization, the OCs are here just because the writers apparently never gave thought to the CMC. If anything, the CMC being together despite their different species would carry more weight than these OCs. Heck, the Cutie Mark Crusaders already built on this several seasons ago, why not call back to it?
Interestingly, we do get a Pinky and the Brain reference when Pinkie Pie asks Twilight what they're gonna do, and Twilight replies with "The same thing we do every time, Pinkie."
Twilight's plan involves using herself, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash as a distraction since they're the obvious combatants. Meanwhile, Applejack Rarity, Fluttershy and Spike will sneak behind the enemy lines and try to steal the bell, thus using the magic drain against the evil three. And the three villains are now aware of the windigos and have different ideas about what to do with them. Tirek and Cozy Glow want to get rid of them right away, viewing them as a threat to their plans. But Chrysalis wants to keep them around so she can get rid of them herself and become a hero to the ponies (despite taking over their land by force). I guess she's really taking after Bane from The Dark Knight Rises in that she wants to truly break the spirits of everyone before ending their lives.
The fight begins and initially seems to go according to plan, but eventually the villains find out about the ruse and call an end to the combat by threatening to pluck Spike's wings if the heroes don't surrender. The mane six do so and prepare to accept their fate, but they are spared by a powerful magic barrier as an army of ponies and non-ponies show up to save the day. The creatures are the result of the student/young six rallying their respective kingdoms to come and help, so even the student/young six get a role to play and yet the CMC get nothing.
Seeing this huge army (which includes cameos from Neighsay and Tempest, kind of wish the show had been willing to let their VAs come back, as well as an appearance by Flim and Flam of all ponies, so I guess they don't see a profit to the end of the world) inspires Twilight and the rest of the mane six to power up. And the past, present and future of harmony all being together in the same place creates a powerful rainbow that is enough to finally defeat the three villains. Originally, this was going to be the end of them, they would be turned to stone and that was it. But it was decided that wouldn't be good, and so it's changed to the villains surviving in their original state. And Chrysalis remains as defiant as ever, before it's revealed that Pinkie Pie took Discord's chaos magic from the bell in a pretty funny scene. It's too bad this doesn't lead into a fight against a giant, chaotic Pinkie Pie though.
Instead, Discord takes back his powers from the bell with no objections and no consequences. He's even allowed to decide what the punishment should be for the three villains he released and brought together. And no one bats an eye at this, no one says how wrong this is. Discord is allowed to escape punishment without even saying he was sorry, and gets to stab the villain trio in the back. His idea of punishment for them is to have them be trapped in stone forever. You know, the same thing he made sound like it was the worst possible thing you could ever do. So I guess Discord is okay with turning others into stone as long as you don't do it to him.
From there, Twilight is officially made the ruler and gives her first order: Postponing the coronation until the castle is repaired. Plus, she wants to attend to something with the "six best friends in my life". Starlight is inexplicably absent from this event, donuts at Donut Joe's, which is a callback to the end of "The Best Night Ever" where the mane six and Spike all gathered there after the gala. And Part 2 ends with an "Everyone laughs ending".
And that's the story, so what do I think of the two parter? Quite honestly, it's amazing to me how one decision could almost singlehandedly ruin what should've been an incredible finale. There was so much riding on this last two parter, so many expectations that people had. And just like The Last Jedi and "The Best Night Ever" before that it opts to throw that all away, this time for the sake of a twist that is just insulting. No matter what kind of defense you try to muster up for Discord's whole masquarading as Grogar, it doesn't work and it doesn't make sense. In addition to all the things I already mentioned about why he didn't need to do this, about why his plan would never work, there's one key detail that needs to be addressed: Who made him the boss of when Twilight needed to learn a lesson? Hasn't he already twice tried to do this just to mess with her and have it backfire spectacularly on him? The very definition of insanity is doing the exact same thing and expecting different results every single time. Did Discord really believe his plan would work? And assuming it did, did he think his friends would understand him? They wouldn't, they would rightfully point out all the things I pointed out. Discord's whole plan only made things worse and caused what he tried to prevent. Twilight gained the confidence to be a ruler without his help, and his attempt at "helping" just caused her to revert back to her old ways. And the worst thing of all is, Discord does all of this and yet he gets off completely scot free. He's never punished for it. At no point does anyone wonder if he's worth keeping around. They're all perfectly content to let him keep going around despite having proven to be a danger to everyone around him.
If you can look past that, however, and look past a lot of the other questionable decisions such as the relatively pointless windigo return or the CMC getting no role at all to play, this two parter is actually decent. It's like the Star Wars prequels, particularly episodes I and III, there are good moments sprinkled throughout but you have to sift through a lot of filth and a lot of bad moments to get to them. The final battle was pretty good, not gonna lie. But I'm still going to be miffed at how we know nothing about Cozy Glow, and how she's the villain who doesn't get redeemed even though less deserving ones do. I'm fine with Tirek and Chrysalis being turned to stone given that they had their chances and squandered them (though Tirek did seem to show signs that maybe he wasn't completely irreedeemable on his own). But Cozy Glow was never given a fair chance to plead her case, no one ever tried to find out why she was so messed up. They just deemed her a lost cause and threw her away without bothering to ask why. It wouldn't be so much of a problem if she were not a child. But she is, and therefore I need to have a very good reason to believe that she's a monster on par with Chrysalis, Tirek and Sombra. And since we don't get that I'm left scratching my head wondering why she even exists.
I really wish I knew what they were thinking when they settled on this two parter finale as it is, because in many aspects it's a let down riddled with questionable decisions. But there are enough good moments for me to not fail it outright. I give Part 1 a narrow B- and Part 2 a borderline B-/B for an overall two parter grade of solid B-. It's barely able to qualify as good, but especially for the final battle it deserved to be so much better.
Well, there's only one episode left to re-review now and it's probably one that you're all going to be quite curious on given its mixed reception within the fan base. I'm of course talking about "The Last Problem", which if you don't count the clip shows that were released in 2020 it's the last official piece of G4 media at least on the FiM side (the last official G4 media piece would be "Equestria Girls: Holiday Unwrapped" a very medicore send-off).
As quoted from a thread I once made:
pbs.twimg.com/media/Ehz2WSLVkAEiyx_?format=jpg&name=large
As stated in this very verse, even a child is capable of doing terrible things beyond compare. Whether they were never guided by an adult or come from an abusive family hardly matters, because all people are capable of sin, no matter the age.
There is no such thing as an entirely pure person, and no one is immune to sin. In the case of Cozy Glow, she made her choice to do terrible things and paid the price for it. Being a child does not excuse anything.
Also, I’m actually quite content that Cozy was turned to stone. I never even believed that she was a child to begin with despite looking like one or her saying that she’s one. Her reasons for being evil don’t even relate to friendship to begin with, so why should she be redeemed?
I think the real problem regarding Discord is that he was never given any successor to the episode. The production team likely didn’t think that what he did would leave a bad taste in people’s mouths, and without something to succeed this episode people have begun to question whether it was worth reforming him.
Also, I’m strongly of the opinion that the twist was better than having the real deal make an appearance in Season 9. Like I once said before, Grogar is a villain with potential to be part of more than just one season of a show, and having him appear so late to the party would’ve completely undermined the character to the point of underuse. Especially since he was basically translated as a mere one-dimensional stick character with no personality whatsoever. Before it turned out to be Discord, I hardly cared for him in the slightest because he was coming off as a nobody despite his stories and shows of power.
He’s the father of monsters, so what?
It was never enough to solidify him as a threat.
Going with the twist was also a lot better than taking the story into a direction that would’ve been obvious and cliche from the beginning, which is having the Legion of Doom team up with the Main Six to fight the real Grogar later until they reform in the end.
Plus, at least the twist wasn’t as out of nowhere or nonsensical as the one with Ahuizotl saying that he’s a relic guardian in “Daring Doubt”, and “The Ending of the End” had a much more canonically believable plot than “Daring Doubt”, “The Last Crusade”, and “The Last Problem” ever did.
Despite Discord's royal buck-up in this two-parter, I'd still say A Matter of Principals is his worst appearance in the entire series. I mean, at least he expressed remorse for what he did and made an effort to fix his mistake here. Plus, as The Hero of Tomorrow said in his Top 17 Least Favorite MLP: FIM Episodes video: "At least he thought he was doing the right thing."
Also, there are about 16 characters who make their final speaking appearance in this two-parter, so naturally I feel the need to share their first and last speaking lines. However, in the case of Chrysalis, I'm actually going to use her first line spoken in her true form from Part 2 of A Canterlot Wedding rather than her first line spoken overall while disguised as Cadance from Part 1.
Cozy Glow
Discord
Granny Smith
Lord Tirek
Mayor Mare
Ocellus
Princess Cadance
Queen Chrysalis
Rockhoof
Sandbar
Silverstream
Smolder
Star Swirl the Bearded
Thorax
Trixie
Yona
5556284 I'm sorry, but you can't expect me to believe a child is evil for no reason at all and that's the end of it. You have to give me a very good reason why this child is so messed up that nothing can save them or get them to change. And we don't get that with Cozy Glow. There are too many gaps to fill in. Is she really a filly? Does she have a family? Where did she come from? Why does she have such a warped view of friendship? We need to know about these things, they can't be left vague if she's going to be labeled a "monster".
5556289 The twist was never a good idea, and as I've said numerous times before Grogar had potential. If they didn't want to use him, fine. They weren't under any obligation to do so. And neither were they under the obligation to lie to fans by playing up Grogar as a big deal just to pull the rug out from under fans who actually did want to see him. There was no need to use the twist to make the villains come together if they were supposed to be the ones we focused on all along. All the twist did was ruin Discord's character, making him into a bad character who has learned nothing.
5556348
All I’m saying is that even a child isn’t immune to becoming evil or doing bad things. There are many children who also tread down the wrong path despite growing up with a loving family or being surrounded by good friends. Every person has a choice to make in life no matter the age, and Cozy Glow is no exception. But, I will agree that I had wished there had been an in-canon explanation behind how and why she became evil.
Whether you had seen PBS Kids’s “Wordgirl” is something I don’t know, but there are three main villains in that show who are children.
5556360 Yeah, but none of them are villains who get fates worse than death while the adult villains around them either get reformed or get away.
I wouldn't say that "No matter what kind of defense you try to muster up for Discord's whole masquarading as Grogar, it doesn't work and it doesn't make sense." That's throwing subjectivity out the window. There are plenty of good counters to that, and it does make sense for Discord. He's always been reckless and not thought things through, and even if you don't consider it enough, the Mane 6 DID treat him hostiley for a while until he made up for it.
While I'll admit that this does have issues, I still love the overall product to the point that it's among my favorite episodes.
Chaos Pinkie alone pretty much makes it all worth it to me
And while I love Cozy Glow and the other villains, I'm definitely one of those who think they deserved getting turned to stone. I feel like what they did and tried to do is far worse than anything the other villains had done
5556362
All the same, a child villain really isn’t anything new to begin with. Regardless of whether the child villains in “Wordgirl” were living under a good household or not, they CHOSE to become villains. The same can very much be said for Cozy Glow.
Besides that, who’s to say Cozy’s really a child?
5556368
Exactly!
Thank you.
5556386
So did I. Glad I’m not alone in that regard.
5556387
Uh...well she is a child. Literally.
5556395
Well, there’s also the possibility that she’s really a pony who couldn’t grow past the age and physicality she was depicted with. It would make a lot of sense.
5556368 Again, if it's in character for Discord to do what he does here, then he has become a bad character that should not be treated as an ally.
5556400 But they never tell us that. We know literally nothing about Cozy Glow. She's evil because potatoes and that's it.
5556406
It’s only a theory.
Regardless of Cozy being a kid, that doesn’t excuse all she’s done in the slightest. She paid the price and got what was coming to her for her crimes, and for that I’m happy. It literally sickens me that people would think she should get off scot free just because she’s a child or that her punishment is too cruel for her because of her age.
I mean, come on!
If you were watching another show with a child as the villain, would you want them to go to jail for their crimes? Or to try reasoning with them despite the fact that it’s clearly impossible?
5556582 I would want due process to be dealt out. I would want to know why a child villain is this horrible thing. The inspirations for Cozy Glow work because of their setting. Darla Dimple is shown to be psychotic and messed up due to being a child actor, we see how bad she is and how she's beyond redemption. And Baby Doll is established to be an adult stuck in a child's boy, which affected her career and drove her down a dark path. We get nothing like that for Cozy Glow. We are simply told she is evil and that she thinks friendship literally translates into power for reasons. We never learn anything beyond that.
5556400
Would it make sense? I don't see why you would make that assumption with no proof.
5556406
He's not a bad character. He would be bad if he never got punished for his wrongdoings, which he was. And while he definitely did fuck up, that doesn't mean he shouldn't be treated as an ally period. He's done a lot of bad, but he's also done a lot of good.
5556982 He was not punished here, even though that meant he was responsible for everything bad that happened in Season 9. And need I remind you, he showed no remorse and thought that everything he was doing was a good idea. He actually thought that bringing back threats that were no longer relevant and letting them do as they please was a good idea, and it never occurred to him that maybe he might be endangering others including his friends he's supposed to care so much about.
5557128
Like I said, "he definitely did fuck up." But he also made up for it and was harshly reprimanded. And he did consider that he was putting them in danger. That's why he was planning to step in and take care of the trio if things got out of hand. He just underestiamted their teamwork because all he saw of them was that they hated each other.
5557309 Yes, he was reprimanded for it. But he never had to face consequences for it. He got to suggest their fate with a smug grin on his face, and no one batted an eye at this. And what was his defense? The same thing he kept saying every single time it was brought up, to him it sounded like a good idea at the time. Discord doesn't seem to even understand what he did wrong, he just knows that he did a bad thing because he got caught. He doesn't realize that he never should've done what he did.
5557337
Fluttershy's attitude towards him was his punishment. She's who he values most, and knowing that she felt betrayed and couldn't even look at him without crying hurt far more than any conventional punishment,
Yeah he was a bit nonchalant about it I'll give you that, but I don't think that's a big deal.
I'm pretty sure he did realize when he saw everyone locked up with him. His "I'm sorry" sounded genuine.
5557424 Yet he still gleefully suggests punishing the same villains he helped to free and empower, and no one bats an eye at letting him regain his powers after all he's done. He should not be trusted again so easily. We need to see him actually face consequences on-screen, not off-screen. Just saying sorry isn't enough if he's not shown to understand what he did wrong or made to apologize to anyone he ever wronged.
5557596
Especially on its own.
I mean...it's his magic. It's like taking a body part from someone. I already talked about the punishment he did face.
He was shown to understand what he did wrong though. And he did apologize.
It's been almost two years since this final two-parter aired, and i've really grown sour on it ever since. There have been episodes of Friendship is Magic I would consider bad, but this one has ended up being the only episode of the entire show that I actually hate. Perhaps it doesn't have the worst characterizations all around, or the worst animation, or the worst jokes, or the worst storyline (or lack thereof), it just has enough bad in all of those categories that after all I enjoyed from the show, it left me feeling angry with an awful taste in my mouth.
I still don't get the mentality behind the Grogar twist. As a part of the story, what the heck did it do besides make for an easy way to remove Discord's magic as a threat to the villains? Heck, even that's kind of hollow, because I doubt he was planning to intervene in the final battle anyway, because it was Twilight and company's fight to win, not his. Also, the fact that Big Jim essentially responded to questions about the twist and Grogar getting the shaft with "You thought the new guy was going to be important? Don't be ridiculous." really painted him as out-of-touch with the fandom, and overall, including Grogar in G4 in any form felt like an out-of-season April Fool's joke that took months to get to the punchline.
Now for something related to the trio's enhanced forms. Chrysalis? If her "crown" didn't look like three quarters of a spiky compression wrap and her colour scheme had a few more desaturated greens, i'd be perfectly fine with it. Tirek? Honestly, after he had been fantasizing about his final form in Frenemies, and the fact that they had already shown his third form twice in Season 9, it feels underwhelming that they use the latter for the finale. I know the villains were all sharing the Bewitching Bell's magic, but if just a little sample of Grogar's magic could immediately buff him up to his second form, a much greater dose seriously just gives him the same size and power boost he got from absorbing magic from Chrysalis, not to mention a single Earth Pony? Cozy Glow? Oh, Alicorn Cozy Glow. Never in my life have I not needed something in the slightest, and never known until I received it. She was truly at her best using words and outward charm as her weapons; take that away and she's more of a piece of evil cardboard than she was before.
Even with them working together, the episode as it is, at least for me, did little to justify any of these three taking the main villain spotlight again. They just came across a three has-beens inconveniencing Equestria for an afternoon and defining the word insanity, when we could've potentially gotten a new enemy with more savviness and some creative new ways of opposing the forces of good. That is, you know, if they put in the effort.
But okay, if Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow had to be the final bosses of the show no matter what, because they had some close history with the heroes, fair enough. Let's assume that their attack on Equestria needed to be about their revenge, all done exclusively on their terms, and they were the sole obstacle standing between the heroes and peace for all the ponies and creatures across the world. Let's say that the whole thing had to be told in a two-part episode, no more than that, and that Big Jim, Nicole Dubuc and Michael Vogel would've defied anyone who dared to object to their direction. This episode will be made, it will be a two-parter because of tradition, it will have this trio as the final antagonists, and it will end with their (and the Windigos') utter humiliation by a friendship rainbow beam, no 'its', 'ands' or 'buts' about it. Fine. They had every right to make it that way. So in that case, I say this to the writers.
Storytelling on an animated T.V. show 101: double-check your script so you don't waste precious animation frames on junk that's ultimately pointless! It's not just the twist, either.
Did we really need to namedrop Grogar, show him in any shape or form, say the doomsday artifact belonged to him or establish him as the Father of Monsters, the beasts that have caused trouble since Season 1, when nothing is going to be done with that? This was the final season, pretty late to be world-building for world-building's sake.
Did we really need to have the Tree of Harmony come back to life when in the moment of truth, besides a mention from Twilight of it's initial demise by Sombra, it goes completely forgotten? As far as I know, a playset of the revived Tree never got made, so it doesn't even have money as an excuse.
Did we really need to have these episodes of Twilight overcoming her character flaws and evolving into a confident leader in interesting, non-violent ways (following the Sombra conflict) when at the end, it's just ends up going in a circle, she has amnesia about the lesson regarding the Elements of Harmony's power that Discord taught her and the others back in The Beginning of the End, and the thing that caps off her journey just amounts to using magical friendship to overpower bad guys, something the show had been growing past for the last several seasons? Oh no, wait, they needed an excuse to have the Windigos fly around in the sky just pathetically making it dark and blowing slightly cold winds.
To end off this behemoth of a comment, I want to say this regarding the fact that Discord was basically responsible for the series' final conflict. If they absolutely had to go down that route, couldn't they have at least axed the whole Grogar disguise thing and made his part in the villains' preparations and eventual stirring of this nationwide crisis a lot more... hands-off? Obviously, him being misguided in his plans was intentional, but he still could've made a very Discord-y mistake without directly setting up what could've been the Council of Friendship's final battle. And you know what, I can't talk about this episode without mentioning this piece of retroactive stupidity that still boggles my mind. Did he really expect the trio to stay loyal to him after all the abuse he gave them in his Grogar facade, especially when in the past, he's been a victim of Tirek's deception, not to mention that of the changelings when they worked for Chrysalis? He couldn't have convinced them more to double-cross him if he threatened to barbeque and eat Chrysalis, force Tirek to ride on a pogo stick in a clown suit, and make Cozy Glow his underage concubine. And then he had the gall to show wariness of Tirek in Part 2. (deep breath) Alright, i'm done.
5560048 I think you summed up what's wrong with the Grogar twist and the mentality behind it pretty well. There is no reason for it to exist outside of just trolling fans who did want to see Grogar, especially when they kept hyping up what they knew was not real.
You know what this twist made me realize? Every single omnipotent character just sucks in general. They are always either:
1. a jerk (or villain at worst), whenever they are asked why they just do not capture or kill the heroes right away they always pull the "that would be boring" card. Even worse if the villain is a recurring character and pull the exact same gambit again proving they learned nothing from last time.
2. amorally neutral or live in a higher plane of existence so they do not care (whatever that means), they dislike picking sides and it is never explained why.
3. a "hero", their powers always get stolen whenever the most needed.
Conclusion: omnipotence makes you dumb and lazy. I can understand omnipotent villains at some level but not the other two. What is the point introducing a powerful character if you are not gonna use their powers anyway? "Because there would be no conflict!" Here is a solution: stop making omnipotent characters, give them limits and/or weaknesses! Having a magic nullifier artifact or just getting their powers taken away do no count, that is just lazy writing.
Here is a comment i found on Derpibooru, i copypasted it here: