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S9E02: "The Beginning of the End, part 2"
6 April 2019My original rating: ★★★★ (for both parts)
IMDb score: 8.7
The one with extreme forestryThoughts: 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...
"extreme forestry", this is the one where the Mane Six take to the Everfree with garden shears, then? that was... such a choice, ugh
ReplyDeleteYes, that's the one. I didn't actually mind that, in a stupid kind of way.
DeleteAnd so Repeats resumes with the main show! (I skipped over Spring Breakdown and the shorts since I hadn't seen the former, nor do I plan to, and I don't remember anything about the latter.)
ReplyDeleteSo, The Beginning of the End... It's a thing... I think.
In all seriousness, though, it's really underwhelming for the final season premiere, and what makes it more disappointing is that it's Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco's final episode. Especially considering that their last script was The Perfect Pear.
But really drags this premiere (and by extension, the entire season) down for me is the idea of Celestia and Luna retiring in favor of Twilight. I hate it. It is an idea that should never have been attempted to begin with, and it raises far too many questions. And that's ignoring how Twilight is treated as if her freakouts are a cute little quirk, as if it's her only personality trait, which completely underscores her character in previous seasons.
Oh, and King Sombra is so underwhelming throughout. Instead of being this big, mysterious threat we saw in The Crystal Empire, he is an incredibly generic bad guy with little going for him. He may as well be the most irrelevant character of the final season. Which may as well sum up the premiere as a whole; it talks big, but it's got little going for it.