Fun fact about this episode, it originally aired about a week before Halloween due to being bumped around in episode order and that made it a sort of The Nightmare Before Christmas situation, having a Christmas themed episode before Halloween. Yes, that's right, we got our second bite at a holiday episode after "Scare Master" was another attempt at the Halloween episode (which sadly still fell flat). This time around, rather than focus on the entire mane six we were just going to focus

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After a Rarity episode where Spike was inexplicably absent when the rest of the mane six showed up, Spike got an episode to himself once again. People had actually been joking that, up until "Sweet and Elite" Spike was the new main character owing to him appearing in even "Sisterhooves Social" when Twilight was absent completely. And there's no denying that with performances such as "Lesson Zero" under his belt Spike seemed to have become a character that the writers were beginning to

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And so, Season 3 came to an end and with it the show writers were led to believe the show was wrapping up for good at 65 episodes. In fact, that was Hasbro's plan for the longest time, just hit that magic 65 number and sell the show in syndication (even though that practice had long since fallen out of style). And the one tasked with basically making Hasbro's wishes come true and turn Twilight into an alicorn princess, was none other than fan favorite writer M. A. Larson whose most recent work

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Season 5 had briefly soared to new heights by the time "Slice of Life" came out, but "Princess Spike" brought it all crashing back down to Earth. Yet we had another new writer immediately making their debut in the form of Nick Confalone, a writer who would prove to ultimately have staying power but also one who would tarnish his reputation in the fandom by penning some forgettable stories and bringing the Equestria Girls spin-off franchise to a low it never really recovered from. Just like

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Hasbro didn't even bother with fanfare for this one, they just dropped it on Netflix and that was that. Interestingly enough, this movie came out on Netflix before Season 6 had finished airing, kind of funny how that works. But there were no pony spoilers this time around so everything was all good. The Equestria Girls franchise was changing hands once again, this time passing to Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco who were just starting to come into their own as a result of "Gauntlet of Fire".

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So now we have the other half of Season 7's "premiere", an episode that was written by Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco and starred Starlight Glimmer, but aside from that there is nothing that would link it to the previous episode. "Celestial Advice" had certainly been different, but for the most part it had just felt like it was shilling Starlight Glimmer and offered up nothing new, no season of direction for Season 7. This episode would offer up something potentially more exciting, though in

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At long last, Season 7 decided to settle on a theme that would define it: These "pillars" from ancient Equestria, a sort of mane six before the mane six. The IDW comics had already begun promoting this theme with a stand alone series entitled "Legends of Magic" which had replaced their long running "Friends Forever" series in early 2017 (by a quirk of release schedules the first "Legends of Magic" was actually released before the last "Friends Forever"). Yet it was only now, sixteen episodes

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Oh boy, Season 8. It's been a while, hasn't it? After Season 7 became arguably the show's greatest season and marked an improvement in quality, this season arguably almost killed the show's legacy. Even to this day, some regard it as one of the worst if not the worst outright season of the show.

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Season 8 hadn't been focusing on the school or the student/young six all that much up to this point, and when it had it usually wasn't for the best considering the utter disaster that was "Non-Compete Clause". Meanwhile, we had a lot of episodes using cliches or plots that had been done before, and it seemed like they weren't putting enough of a unique take on them. So it was that we had a Spike episode, which was not automatically a guaranteed success considering Season 7 had given him the

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Hey, remember how great "Rock Solid Friendship" was from last season? Well, I guess Nick Confalone wanted to do a sequel to it here. I mean after all, Nick is writing this episode and it's focused on Maud and Pinkie. The whole point of this episode was that Maud was getting a boyfriend that Pinkie couldn't stand. Yet many regard this as the first true misstep of Season 8, especially with the ship it introduced. And considering the many blunders Season 8 committed that's saying a lot. But has

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Season 8 seemed to hit an abrupt dry patch after "The Hearth's Warming Club". Not a single episode seemed to debut to positive reception as even "Road to Friendship" seemed to be panned upon release (though not quite as much as what had come before it). But this episode promised the return of a fan favorite villain in Lightning Dust, something fans had been wanting to see for years. Nick Confalone was writing this episode, coming off his less than stellar performance in "The Break Up Break

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So it was that Season 8 would introduce a new celebrity character in the form of famous musician/comedian Rachel Bloom, and would feature a map mission that would actually have two mane six members instead of anyone else. Most people can't stop gushing over this episode and what it introduced, and what's most surprising is that this episode was written by a one off writer named Gregory Bosignore who had previously done work for various plays. There may be a reason for that, though, considering

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*Sigh*, I originally planned to skip over this re-review because I didn't have much new to really say on it. But I felt like it wouldn't be fair to do that when I'm going to re-review the next two two parters, and this would thus be the only two parter (and season finale) I would be skipping. Plus, we now have "The Ending of the End" for an arguably worse season finale with an equally stupid plot twist in the villains department. What's most odd about this two parter is that it's written by two

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Season 5 unveiled some new writers as well, though nowhere near as many as had been introduced in Season 4. Jonna Lewis and Kristine Songco were introduced, the two having previously worked together on Butch Hartman shows like The Fairly Odd Parents (which Ed Valentine had also written for) and T.U.F.F. Puppy. Meghan McCarthy was also credited as story editor here, which may be either an indicator that this episode was meant to be the Season 5 premiere originally, or how it's been

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This is the last of the re-reviews, because in a sense this was the end of what could be said to be the golden years of the IDW comics (at least of their original run). Starting with the next issue it was going to be all downhill with only a few occasional shining examples that never quite seemed to turn the corner, and eventually resulted in the comics tying in completely with the show canon and tossing out their own continuity they'd established. And I think my reviews of everything from IDW

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After ten episodes, Season 7 still had only one or two episodes that were not hotly contested. Even the long awaited royal sisters episode "A Royal Problem" was hotly debated, with some really liking it, others despising it, and others still regarding it as a mixed bag. Meanwhile, the early airings on Treehouse T.V. in Canada kept on rolling, at least through the first half. But the U.S. was going to take an abrupt halt in the airings right at the beginning of summer, with this being the last

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Season 9 at last found some consistent quality near the end of its first half. Ironically, it was a Starlight Glimmer focus episode that first brought things back to a good level of quality, as "Student Counsel" showcased how far Starlight had come as a character. Then there was "The Last Crusade", which finally showcased Scootaloo's family and home situation, though it was not without controversy and not just because of her aunts. Still, for the first time all season, Season 9 had back to back

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This is it, the grand finale for all of FiM. After nine seasons and just over 220 episodes, this is how it all ends. It really does seem fitting that they would end it not with one more two parter but with a mostly stand alone episode, perhaps because "The Ending of The End" was so polarizing because of a badly thought out twist that destroyed a character, on top of some other questionable writing decisions that made what should've been an epic final battle feel kind of like a let down. And

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Season 8 finally had an episode that made use of its changes to the status quo with "Surf and/or Turf", which many said was FiM tackling the trickly subject of divorce (though I personally don't see it). However, the episode also felt at times like it was more of a belated commercial for the 2017 movie rather than an actual episode, and the School of Friendship itself was only sort of relevant to it. And now it was time for something completely different: Princess Celestia's very own focus

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Season 8 returned to the airwaves around August, like always, but the first episode to greet viewers was the absolute disaster that was "A Matter of Principals", in which Discord became the latest character to be completely ruined. And the worst part was he got off scot free for his actions. Things seemed to be better with "The Hearth's Warming Club", which finally let the student/young six hold an episode mostly on their own. And thus we come to this episode, penned by Chris "Doc" Wyatt and

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