Text Review Roundup: "Dragon Dropped"

I'll write separately about this soon, but the announcement that the final three episodes (ever!) of Friendship is Magic will be shown on Saturday, 12th October means that the end will happen during UK PonyCon weekend. We'd all better stock up on tissues... anyway, that's for another post, so right now it's off to TRR to see what the text-based reviewers thought of "Dragon Dropped".

The general reception for this episode was all over the place, with no real consensus at all. Several reviewers did feel that the ep didn't do anything really new, and others lamented the lack of a definitive resolution to the Sparity plotline – which, after all, began in the very first episode of the show. The comedy was generally appreciated, however. For a change, my assessment was below the average.

Cuddlepug – very positive (graded A-; "will resonate with a lot of people, no matter what age you are [...] poignant [...] that Friendship is Magic touches on [changing friendships] in its final season is fitting... and a little melancholic.")

Dark Qiviut – extremely positive ("Like in ["Sonic Rainboom"], Rarity’s bad side here was thoroughly explored while not making her unlikeable or out of character [... Gabby and Spike] show excellent chemistry [...] Rarity’s best episode of the show. If it’s her last, a phenomenal conclusion.")

DrakeyC – negative ("I want to care [about the resolution] but it's so trite and rushed that it comes off as kinda insincere [...] we get no closure on Sparity at all, no change in their relationship, no real development from either of them.")

Dramamaster829 – mixed ("While I won't say that this episode was 'terrible' by any means, there were a few funny moments, for me the premise of this episode was something I've already seen before.")

JDPrime22 – very positive (rated 9/10; "I really did enjoy this one. It shows us that Spike isn't just subjugated to Rarity's beck and call. And yeah, Rarity was a little out of line here and there, but [...s]he learned her lesson and Gabby was still as awesome as ever.")

Louder Yay – slightly negative (rated 2/5; "main character regression to suit the story, rather than a story being written around said character as she is now. [...] This is just the sort of territory that a really accomplished Friendship is Magic episode could have explored in a mature and complex way [though the ep was at least] quite funny")

Mike Cartoon Pony – mixed ("another Season 9 episode that not only reflects very poorly on the growth and maturity of a long-time character, but also writes them unappealingly in some aspects (though to a much less damaging degree then “2, 4, 6, Greaaat” [...a] decently funny one with some neat recurring gags, undermined, like some previous episodes, by recursive character writing")

MLEEP Reviews – largely positive (rated 8/10; "quite an entertaining case of the classic 'love triangle' situation even if it's a plot that we have seen countless times before")

Present Perfect – underwhelmed ("It wasn’t great, it wasn’t bad, it just was. Though as someone in stream said, Rarity’s last episode was this? [...] we haven’t really gotten any resolution [to Sparity] It was fun. It just wasn’t an episode about anything I particularly care about")

SuperPinkBrony12 – underwhelmed ("Rarity still remains a character I'm not entirely sure if [Haber] knows how to write properly [...] a lot of scenes that just feel like filler [...] feels like an eleven minute episode stretched into [22.]")

The Railfan Brony – very negative (rated Terrible; "just a stereotypical "someone gets jealous when their close friend hangs out with someone else" plot [...] so boring and cliched that you'll end up forgetting about it six hours after watching it.")

TheDragonWarlock – fairly positive (rated 8/10; "I think it manages to handle the jealous story line good, albeit rather predictable [...] The comedy itself is also good [but i]t does suffer from some questionable writing for both Rarity and Spike.")