Note: I'm reviewing "A Matter of Principals" now because I'm going by the episode order used in the Wikipedia article. That means "Yakity-Sax" will be treated as episode 18, despite having been previewed (and first seen by me) at the end of the mid-season hiatus. I did go back and forth about this a few times, but in the end I chose to stick with what I'm doing now.
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| Maybe they should just have made the marmoset a substitute teacher... |
S8E14: "A Matter of Principals"
4 Aug 2018
My original rating: ★★★
IMDb score: 6.4
Thoughts: Apart from the preview of "Yakity-Sax" as noted above, part two of S8 began with a double-header, of which this was the first. The whole Mane Six are called away on a map quest, and finally realise how the School of Friendship's setup is stupidly idiotic requires backup in these circumstances. So Starlight is made acting head mare, since Twilight couldn't be bothered to make her deputy to start with. Anyway, the ep gets going with Discord's interference with the selection of substitute teachers.¹ Iron Will's cameo is disappointing, we weirdly don't see Maud teaching at all, and Trixie's appointment is somewhat nepotistic but Discord's "how do you do, fellow kids?" take-off and bananaphone are mildly amusing, if both over-extended. (Pacing is often off by this point, as many have observed. So is dialogue, which doesn't much zing here.) Spike has quite a solid episode, and Starlight does too for the most part. But Discord is far too unpleasant to the students, and what he does to Yona is indefensible. He had that zap coming. I actually do like the idea that Discord feels left out of the School, and after that apology to him I reckon Starlight was clever enough to have it out with him later, away from the rest. But the execution before that rubs me up so much the wrong way that it significantly harms my enjoyment of the episode as a whole. Sadly, another one I'm knocking down to a two, albeit not as low a two as I'd feared.
¹ Supply teachers – though the American term is starting to gain ground in the UK too.
Choice quote: Gallus to Silverstream: "You've been underwater a long time. Haven't you?"
The gap before the last two words sounds weirdly unnatural, but it's still a fun line.
New rating: ★★
Next up, of course, will be the second episode in the aforementioned double-header, "The Hearth's Warming Club". That one was well received at the time, and I know I enjoyed it quite a bit. I hope I do again!
all I remember of this one is that Starlight blasting Discord in the face was incredibly cathartic at the time
ReplyDeleteYup, that's really all I remember about the episode, and it was a nice point. The rest didn't make any lasting impression on me, aside from feeling it was largely annoying.
DeleteYup. There are ways to write Discord so that most people _don't_ feel he should be incinerated—in theory.
DeleteOnly 39 episodes to go! (40 if you count Best Gift Ever) I didn't comment on Rollercoaster of Friendship because I couldn't be bothered. I would genuinely forget about said special if it wasn't the final EG production I ever watched. The spin-off got way too repetitive with its storylines, the characters no longer connected with me (not even Sunset Shimmer), and the music is just... there. In retrospect, Rainbow Rocks was probably just a fluke.
ReplyDeleteAs for A Matter of Principals? Yeah, my views have changed since I first saw it too. It's bad, but it's simply run of the mill bad. I put it above What About Discord? since Discord himself actually gets punished to a degree, even if it doesn't last. It's not his worst portrayal post-Season 4; that's gonna come much later on.