 |
| "Let me be crystal clear: Real Pony Fanfic about me is not permitted in this school!" |
S8E26: "School Raze, part 2"
13 Oct 2018My original rating: ★★★★ (for both parts)
IMDb score: 8.3
The one with Mane Six marionettesThoughts: This final episode of Season 8 is certainly packed with stuff, and that's really its main problem: it's too packed with stuff. We have Cozy Glow, Neighsay's sudden change of heart, the CMC's semi-comedic diversion, Starlight stuck in that magical prison until she isn't, the Young Six saving the day, Celestia asking for trouble at the end, a lengthy diversion to Tartarus, Tirek playing his own part... it goes on and on. I actually did still enjoy most of it. The students in particular are great and almost deserve that graduation they don't get, though I'll never stop finding "Land of Hope and Glory" disorientating in a US-style school. Cozy's manipulation is interesting on and off, though as with so much else the knowledge that we never do get a backstory grates here too. Overall? Half as much stuff given twice as much time could have made this a classic. As it is, it's fun but not amazing. So as with part 1, down it goes from four to three stars.
Choice quote: Spike: "Um... there's seven of us."
New rating: ★★★
And at last it's the end of the penultimate season of Friendship is Magic! If your memory stretches back far enough, you'll recall that after each season I do a recap post. I'll be doing the same again this time around – including the all-important average score. (If you've worked that out for yourself already, please don't spoil me!) Then of course we'll be on the home straight.
I can't even remember what happens in this, and I'm not sure I ever watched it a second time. I would wager it seemed nice enough at the time, what with all that happening, but obviously none of it's stuck with me.
ReplyDeleteOh boy, where do I begin with this finale? This is one of finales where, the more you think about it, the worse it becomes.
ReplyDeleteThe plot twist with Cozy Glow being the true villain was pretty much a non-shock to begin with; even in Marks for Effort, she looked suspicious. And the further season eight progressed and the more Cozy Glow appeared, the more that the season suddenly changed direction from fighting against the establishment to having evil come from within. And how in the name of Tartarus does she know about Tirek and even became pen pals with him? There's no backstory to it whatsoever!
And that's not even getting into how stupid Cozy Glow's plan is. She wants to become empress of Equestria... by taking away the land's magic, and it will disappear by the end of the third day. Seriously, what would she gain out of it? She'd have nothing to rule over at all, making her plan meaningless!
Then there's the handling redemption, and it shows just how hypocritical Twilight and her friends can be. Neighsay, a known racist who didn't show any redeeming qualities beforehand, is given a slap on the hoof after the Young Six save him, whereas Cozy Glow, a (granted, rather disturbed) child, is sent to Tartarus. Oh, and Princess Luna and Starlight Glimmer, also redeemed antagonists, make appearances. Either redeem all your antagonists or don't! This "both ways" approach makes it morally confused at best and borderline dangerous and hypocritical at worst.
So yeah, School Raze is an underwhelming mess of a finale and doesn't give a clear direction as to what season eight was trying to accomplish. And now that I think about it, this finale as a whole caused a lot of problems that would eventually creep their way into season nine, but I'll get to that when we get to it.
And one more thing; why do both parts each have an individual writer? Haber and Dubuc have co-written episodes before and since, so what was stopping them from co-writing both halves?