Nothing's wrong; I've just been on holiday!

A few days in Scotland, where I had a lovely time. I'm now back, and the My Little Repeats for "Sparkle's Seven" will be up by Sunday at the latest. :)

My Little Repeats 203: "Uprooted"

Admittedly Terramar here looks to be growing out of his mum's head – but hay, seaponies, right?

S9E03: "Uprooted"

13 April 2019

My original rating: ★★★ (just)

IMDb score: 6.7

The one with sapling headphones

Thoughts: The students were frequently the highlight of Season 8, but I didn't get that from this episode. After the intro recalling "What Lies Beneath" (oh joy, more cruelty towards Gallus) I felt Nicole Dubuc's ep was often slow and felt stretched to fill its 22 minutes, and some of the conflict felt forced. I'm still not sure how I feel about the "New Tree" being canonically seen in the G5 film! The permission slip montage is overlong and fairly dull, though it was nice to see Terramar again for a few moments. The song was okay but not much more, and the visuals were fairly nice but not amazing. A few good lines, but not enough. All in all, a bit of a re-run of "Castle Sweet Castle" from S5, but not as good. This is being nudged down to a two-star rating.

Choice quote: Silverstream: "It's impressionism!"

New rating: ★★

Next up will be "Sparkle's Seven", which I am going to count as the 200th episode whatever Wikipedia says. It was definitely promoted as such at the time, so calling it 199 out of an arbitrary decision not to count "Best Gift Ever" can get in the sea. I quite liked the ep in 2019.

My Little Repeats 202: "The Beginning of the End, part 2"

Real artists' "bad" drawings are always much too good!

S9E02: "The Beginning of the End, part 2"

6 April 2019

My original rating: ★★★★ (for both parts)

IMDb score: 8.7

The one with extreme forestry

Thoughts: The IMDb scores for this are quite something. Yes, I know they're not exactly reliable, but they're not nothing either. Plenty of people genuinely loved this episode, and I really liked it at the time. Rainbow is upset by the idea of Spike and Starlight being under Sombra's spell, but omits a certain other orange character beginning with S. Starswirl (hay, another one!) produces lore about Everfree out of nowhere; handy. Discord turns up from nowhere – well, maybe – and throws himself in front of Fluttershy as Sombra fires at her. At the time it was quite an affecting moment when it appeared Discord had no magic, though it didn't make much sense even before he admitted the truth that he'd lose to a straightforward OP unicorn. Sombra just standing around while Discord monologues is a bit eye-rolling too. The final Legion of Doom scene is quite fun, but again lessened by what we now know about Grogar. This one's also being bumped down to a three, but a lesser three than the first part.

Choice quote: Rarity: "Show me the muddy!"

New rating: ★★★

Next up will be "Uprooted", which I found underwhelming in 2019 despite its Student Six focus. It scraped a three. Will it maintain that in 2026? Only one way to find out...