Revisiting the Final Season · 11:26am Oct 14th, 2021
A few months ago, I rewatched Season 9, and I liked it even better than the first time I saw it. There were still two episodes that I didn't care for: “3, 2, 1, Greaaat” and “Trivial Pursuit.” With both of those episodes, I went into them with the mindset that I would skip to the next episode when they started to annoy me. I only made it a few minutes into each episode.
Setting aside those episodes, I thoroughly enjoyed “Sparkle's Seven,” “Frenemies,” “Going to Seed,” “Between Dark and Dawn,” “The Big Mac Question,” and “The Ending of the End.”
And then there's “The Last Problem.” Right after it aired, I wrote:
Maybe this is a better episode that I'm giving it credit for and I'm just sad that FiM is over.
This turned out to be the case. When I rewatched the episode more than a year later, I was pleasantly surprised that most of the things that bothered me the first time don't irritate me anymore. I actually like seeing the Mane Six having their own careers while helping to lead Equestria, and I even appreciate seeing Pinkie's and Big Mac's children. The only thing I still don't like is another Lightword Time-of-day unicorn mare as the princess's special student. Is Twilight grooming a replacement so soon? And if so, does it have to be another unicorn? It does work as a framing device for the flashbacks, but they could just as easily have had the Mane Six and Spike reminisce about Twilight's coronation. That being said, the series still ends on a high note, which is more than I can say for most shows.
Twilight's been through the "immortal god-queen is surprisingly ineffectual in a crisis" routine too many times to not groom a Plan B. To say nothing of providing herself with a new generation of friends. It may sound callous, but it's better than pining after the other Bearers centuries after they pass on.
Yeah, I loved this season (it's in my top 3 or 4), and I also loved Trivial Pursuit honestly.
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Oof, depressing but blunt.