Review: My Little Pony Season 9 Episodes 1 and 2: The Beginning of the End

Once upon a time I loved this show more than any other, but in recent years I've began to see some issues with the writing, characters, and even the setting. As this is the final season of the show that was one of the largest influences of my art I decided to take a good look at some of the episodes in this season.

Today I start with the first two episodes in this season. A quick summery of the episode is; Twilight Sparkle and friends are tasked becoming Princess Luna and Princess Celestia's replacements as they want to retire out of the blue. Twilight struggles with this sudden task and responsibility as King Sombra returns to take over the world. 

Out of that summery let's first tackle the major issue I saw right away. The only pony upset about this new responsibility is Twilight Sparkle, everyone else was fine with it. Given what we know of the characters Applejack, and Fluttershy, I'd imagine they'd both have major issues with this new role as Applejack has a family to look after and a farm, and Fluttershy never struck me as someone who could take responsibility for a country or deal with politics, in fact she seems to break down when things get too hard socially. Yet only Twilight, and possibly Discord actually had problems with this responsibility being given to the group. It felt a bit forced if you ask me.

Next we have the issue of King Sombra's actual return. In the comics they spent a lot of time giving him backstory so you could understand why he hated ponies, and especially the Crystal Empire. You could understand and relate to him, so his journey there was really emotional. In these two episodes he's one of the most flat villains I've ever seen. I know this series has had a real problem with badly written villains but they already had a wonderful resource to draw from, the comics, and they chose to yet again completely ignore the good writing in favor of flat writing. His goals are boring, and his defeat wasn't even predictable, it was poorly handled. He was defeated by Twilight and friends when they were told why they were good enough to defeat him, they didn't discover why they could win, but were told very directly by Discord of all characters. It took away the emotional triumph that should have been there. 

But at least they pulled a dragon ball z style death for Sombra, that was something.

Speaking of telling and not showing, there were quite a few instances in these two episodes of the characters telling us how they felt, or why they were doing something instead of showing us. To call back to Sombra's defeat here, it was a poor mirror to the first two episodes in the series where the mane six discovered they represented the elements of harmony through trials that tested them and realized it only at the end without anyone giving them the answers. Show don't tell has never been more important.

Other elements that don't exactly make sense, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna just wanting to quit without properly teaching the characters anything. Sure Twilight and friends can beat up the bad guys, but other than Twilight none of them know much about politics at all. Twilight on the other hand has consistently almost started wars, destroyed the country or gotten everyone in deep trouble with her lack of understanding some basic things. It's like giving a very flammable object to a pyromaniac and saying, "I know you won't light this on fire because I am too lazy to take care of it myself."

The animation on the other hand was pretty decent as far as My Little Pony goes. The super cute and brightly colored visuals were actually really nicely balanced against the dark colors used with regards to the bad guy, unfortunately it also made it look a lot like what Discord did to Ponyville back in season 2, only... not as cool or emotional. 

One good point I can add to this is sadly bittersweet. Discord actually seems to have grown into a real good guy, and was there as a supportive role for Twilight helping her and the others grow into their new responsibilities. Unfortunately this is bittersweet as it does go against what Discord stood for, and who he is as a person. His character was shafted to fit this role of support character when just about anyone really could have fit here.

Another issue was something that has been an ongoing problem for a long time, but with the series coming closer to an end, it is more important now than ever before to get this right. The characters have special abilities and are competent in unique ways. For example there were perfect opportunities for Rarity's ability to sense gems, aka Sombra's big deal, Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom, Pinkie's Pinkie Sense, and Fluttershy's Stare. None of which were used when the characters were trying to use their own power to take back their home. I'm giving the writers the benefit of the doubt here only because I hope they will cover this at the end of the season, but at this point I think the writers have forgotten what made the characters so special in the beginning. 

In all honesty unlike Adventure Time's amazing but short ending, or the Diamond Days special from Steven Universe, I hold very little hope for this final season of MLP to be good. The magic that made the series good was in the early days, when the characters having unique abilities were key to the stories which all served to cause good drama and conflict. Now the stories are very liner, too obvious, and the unique character attributes are all but gone completely.

I can only hope that the series can end with a rainboom, and not a dying whimper.