This probably should've come out two days ago but WHOOPS.

 

WEAK SEASON

 

So let's get this out of the way: The story arc in this season sucked. This show proved in the previous two seasons that it sucks at story arcs and this season changed nothing. I'll go into more detail in my bottom 5, but for now let's talk about the episodes in between.

Since this was the last season, it had the responsibility of either wrapping up story arcs or simply ending things for the mane six on a high note. I'd say only two of the mane six got strong sendoffs. 

The biggest problem with this season was how out of touch it was with the rest of the show. Character regression and/or flanderization was way too common and there were many blatant continuity errors. This was because of both new writers having to rely on the terrible cheat sheets given to them, and story editors who weren't doing their job. If a new writer forgets that Rainbow Dash literally trained Fluttershy in cheering in season 1 because Sonic Rainboom wasn't on their cheat sheet of episodes to watch, the story editor should catch that and do something about it. But no. One of the story editors started writing with the cheat sheets and I don't know what was going on with Josh Haber. So we got episodes like 2, 4, 6 Greaaat and A Trivial Pursuit which butchered their spotlight character.

I guess I should talk about the characters now. 

Pinkie barely did anything outside of her spotlight episode and "co-star" role. She was fine in The Last Laugh despite only being there to support Cheese Sandwich's story. She didn't get to do anything funny or face some kind of internal conflict. Just some tacked on stuff about questioning her life's purpose, which only got addressed at the beginning and end and put her exactly where she was before the episode. But whatever. At least we're not getting Yakity-Sax. But it is weird that the episode didn't develop the relationship between Pinkie and Cheese. The romance between them was about the same as it was after Pinkie Pride. You could easily see it, but there isn't enough for it to be anything but speculation. You'd think they'd be a bit more direct since they actually got together in the finale.

Her only other big appearance was A Trivial Pursuit where she got shafted hard. She didn't actually do much aside from saying a couple bad jokes and getting kicked out of the plot. I also think she was wasted in Sparkle's Seven. Her big thing was wanting to go to space which was shown through a little fantasy bit. And then she just did nothing. Cool.

I'll talk more about Twilight in the bottom 5. But for now, I'll say that she got the worst final episode out of any of the mane six.

Rainbow Dash got another pretty bad final episode, but she was okay in Common Ground and Daring Doubt.

Rarity's last episode sucked, which is a shame because Josh Haber has written Rarity well in the past. Dragon Dropped showed Rarity at her worst. That's already pretty bad, but the fact that it's her last spotlight episode makes it even worse. Why focus Rarity's last spotlight episode on Spike? I know that's always been a thing in the show, but there's so many more important parts of Rarity's character to focus on. All she got aside from that is She's All Yak where she somehow forgot the basic message of "be yourself" just because she agreed that Yona should act more like a pony and less like a yak. I liked her in Sparkle's Seven though.

Applejack and Fluttershy won season 9 because I actually liked their final episodes.

Applejack's final episode focused on her family which was a pretty obvious move. Still, the obvious move was the best move. She was actually portrayed respectfully and went out on a high note. Her other appearances weren't too bad either. She could certainly be exaggerated, but not to the horrible extents of Twilight and Rarity.

Fluttershy's final episode also made a lot of sense. In general, this season had the best characterization of Fluttershy since season 6. The only kinda iffy thing done with her character was being so willing to believe Caballeron and Ahuizotl in Daring Doubt. I know she's forgiving, but she didn't start reforming Discord until Celestia told her to. And even then, she knew Discord's intentions. She was just oblivious in Daring Doubt. But she was still generally the best out of the mane six in this season.

The CMC regressed in Growing Up is Hard to Do. Now they're being lectured about responsibility and being treated like little kids when Scootaloo joined the Washouts last season and Sweetie Belle brushed off Rarity in favor of her responsibilities in season 7. And then there's The Last Crusade which blatantly contradicted Parental Glideance and showed off how horrible Scootaloo's parents were. 

Starlight is garbage. Just like last season, I started to like her until I was reminded why I hate her in the finale. I also hate her because she stopped Trixie from being a developed character. She was stuck being comic relief in Starlight stories, though she was good comic relief.

Outside of the characters, I have to mention the memefaces. While watching season 8, I was surprised by how tame a lot of the faces were. I had this mindset that things got way too exaggerated in the later seasons and I was pleasantly surprised. As it turns out, I was just thinking about season 9. This season went off model way too often and it looked disgusting. This show is not Ren and Stimpy. We don't need the characters to have a different face in every shot. Some episodes were stuffed to the brim with memefaces which makes it even worse. It completely ruined the charm and cuteness of the show.

I have other problems with the season that I didn't talk about above, but I think it would make more sense to talk about them in the bottom 5. But first, here are some of the few episode I actually liked.

TOP 5:

5. Frenemies: On its own, this is a very strong episode. It has a solid song, it's funny, and there's some really nice bonding between the villains. The problem is that the larger context of the season ruins this episode. It seems like the point of this episode is to show that the villains can get along and might even be reformed, but they're still arguing and betraying each other in the finale and they don't get reformed. So now this episode is pointless. Nice.

4. Student Counsel: Trixie carries this episode. I don't care about Starlight and Terramar somehow thinks Silverstream being missing is Starlight's fault when she was just closing up for break. Terramar in general is annoying. And so is Silverstream before she goes missing. Plus, why didn't Starlight check the treehouse? It wouldn't have made much sense if she didn't know about it, but it'd still be better than what happens in the episode. But, Trixie is funny so I like this episode. There's not much more to say about it. Trixie is great and some of the other characters get some good jokes in too.

3. She Talks to Angel: I can't believe we hadn't gotten an episode about the relationship between Fluttershy and Angel before this. It seems so obvious, so I'm glad it was addressed before the end of the show. The conflict between Fluttershy and Angel makes sense and the body swap plot works well. Andrea Libman does a really great job and keeps the episode entertaining throughout. It's dumb that Fluttershy is trying to force carnivores to be vegan, but the rest of the episode is solid enough for me to ignore that.

2. The Big Mac Question: This is a better version of The Break Up Breakdown. That one has better Spike and Discord banter, but this one doesn't have all of the misunderstanding stuff. This is a very fun episode though I think the second half is better than the first. It's also the strongest Sugar Belle and Big Mac episode emotionally. The ending is very sweet and the format of the episode is reminiscent of The Saddle Row Review, which I like. It's nice to get all of the characters that were involved in this trio of episodes (as well as some from The Perfect Pear) together for the finale to this mini plotline.

1. Going to Seed: I rewatched Apple Family Reunion recently and I liked it a lot more than I expected to. It's a comfy episode hanging out with the Apple Family. This episode gives me a lot of Apple Family Reunion vibes which I like a lot. It's a nice and cozy episode, free from all of the problems surrounding it. I like seeing Applejack get caught up in the search for the Great Seedling and there's a lot of cute bonding between Applejack and Apple Bloom. This is proof that even the worst of seasons can still have a gem or two inside.



BOTTOM 5:

5. 2, 4, 6, Greaaat: This is pathetic for Rainbow Dash's final episode. Even outside of the her being blatantly out of character, why is Dash's final episode at the school? We have barely seen her as a teacher. She should be out there doing some stunt or flying with the Wonderbolts or something. Not teaching at Twilight's stupid school.

But it's even worse since she's so out of character. I know watching a TV show can be hard, but the writer seriously couldn't watch more than the three episodes on their cheat sheet? Really? And of course it's not a Rainbow Dash episode without someone going behind her back to teach her a lesson. Twilight has no right to be all high and mighty based on the garbage she does in A Trivial Pursuit.

4. The Ending of the End: Oh boy. Now it's time to talk about the big story arc. So let's start with Discord being Grogar. That is probably the worst thing Discord has ever done. He sets four villains loose and lets three of them get even more powerful than him just to make Twilight more confident. I don't buy it. If this was only a test, maybe Discord shouldn't have sent the Legion of Doom after one of the most powerful relics in Equestria. And he doesn't monitor them at all to see if they're lying or doing anything evil. It's like he was asking to be backstabbed. Literally nothing about this makes sense without Discord being a twist villain. 

The Legion of Doom are really dumb in this episode. They have Grogar's bell, but they never think it's a good idea to take away the mane six's magic. Or for Tirek to take their magic. They have a perfect opportunity when they invade Canterlot. The mane six are all right there, but instead they just keep blasting some random piece of rubble even though their magic was powerful enough to break Twilight's shield. Speaking of Tirek, the Legion of Doom talk about not knowing how to control Discord's magic. That makes me think that nobody making this episode watched Twilight's Kingdom sine Tirek took Discord's magic in that episode and was fine. But I guess he forgot. 

There are many more issues with this episode, but I'll quickly mention a couple others. The racism stuff makes no sense, especially when the Wendigos appear. Apparently only Sandbar and some other random kids remember the Hearth's Warming play. Starlight goes back to being overpowered, getting a one on one fight with Chrysalis that tries way too hard to be cool. And then of course she has to be the first one to escape and save everyone else. The pillars are useless. They put up no fight against Tirek and only show up for the big rainbow laser at the end, which I don't think needed them. It's not like the laser was more powerful with them. The students are also pointless. They convince their races to help fight the Legion of Doom, but most of those races already had characters that could've been used. And for all of the talk about how much Twilight has grown, she still ends up whining in the Crystal Empire and everyone else still has to motivate her to actually do something. It makes all of that shit in The Summer Sun Setback even worse. Speaking of which:

3. The Summer Sun Setback: This is mostly just a boringly bad episode. The Legion of Doom's plans are not well thought out and should not have worked as well as they do. Tirek is barely hiding and risking a lot by stealing peoples' magic, you know, since he's done all of this before and some of them might recognize how it feels. Also there's a continuity error since Tirek's victims don't lose their cutie marks when they did in Twilight's Kingdom. Cozy Glow somehow disrupts all of the weather on her own. Where were the other pegasi? And those unicorns are really quick to turn against what they seemed to enjoy doing before Chrysalis shows up. And there's a lot of boring stuff with the mane six trying to keep mess from Twilight.

But what really destroys this episode for me is how Twilight is treated. This episode tries to convince me that Twilight has gone through character growth over the course of this season. Oh wait. It doesn't try to convince me. It tells me and expects me to not question anything. Discord's line about character growth being boring is up there as one of the worst lines of dialogue in the whole show. This episode comes right after A Trivial Pursuit and that's something something that can't be handwaved away in one line. This is some of the laziest writing of the entire show. It's just screaming in your face, "Hey guys, Twilight is better now! I swear! Please, please believe me!" Well I don't believe it. Believable character growth doesn't happen off screen.

2. The Beginning of the End: The Ending of the End is much more flawed than this episode, but it's also more interesting. I can laugh at how incompetent that episode is while this one is just frustrating. It starts all of the garbage about Celestia and Luna retiring which is so dumb. Celestia retiring is stupid, but Luna retiring is even worse. Luna just got back recently, but she already wants to leave? She spent a thousand years in the moon after trying to rule Equestria by force. Now she wants to give it up? And Twilight has no choice in this. It's the same problem from Magical Mystery Cure of her role being forced on her except this one's even worse since you can't ignore being ruler of Equestria. And everything about "Twilighting" is horrible and needs to die. How is it that nobody else is nervous about ruling Equestria... somehow. I still don't get how the rest of them are ruling with Twilight. The season makes it seem like that's what's going to happen, but that doesn't make sense for a lot of the reasons them teaching at Twilight's school makes no sense, along with some others. Also, the others are so condescending towards Twilight when her freaking out is perfectly justified. Celestia and Luna say they're going to give Twilight the crown in a couple days, which is incredibly stupid since they should've known how Twilight would react. That should be concerning, but the rest of the mane six are annoyingly calm. 

And that's not even getting into the actual plot of the episode. Sombra's new voice is horrible. I know some people like it, but it completely ruins him for me. He's not threatening. But that's also because of how overpowered he is for no reason. He takes over the Crystal Empire way too quickly and then is defeated soon after. There's no time to care. And then he's able to destroy the Tree of Harmony seemingly solely for shock value and to sell toys since it still has a connection to the students in Uprooted and changes into a treehouse. The second part isn't any better since Sombra still isn't threatening. There are attempts at drama with the other characters being brainwashed, but everything is so quick that it barely registers. And apparently they don't need the elements for a rainbow laser. 

This is also the start of the Legion of Doom arc which I've already complained about. I guess I'll add that replacing Cozy Glow with Sombra would have been a lot better. Well, with a better voice for Sombra. Or maybe it could've been Chrysalis and Tirek on their own. 

1. A Trivial Pursuit: All of the mane six got horrible appearances in the last two seasons, but this might be the worst. Okay, it's not quite as bad as Yakity-Sax, but it's close. This is an episode about Twilight assuming Pinkie's a moron and ruining the game for everyone just because she's insane. Seriously, Twilight assumes Pinkie will ruin everything even before she does anything. And while Pinkie does make one stupid answer, she apologizes and resolves to do what Twilight says from then on. But Twilight seems to think that Pinkie isn't capable of being anything other than a complete dumbass because she doesn't let Pinkie do anything. Pinkie doesn't continue to do stupid things to justify Twilight getting more crazy. Twilight gets crazier because she genuinely thinks Pinkie can't do anything right. Even when there's a topic that Pinkie is good at, Twilight has such little trust in Pinkie that she distracts her. Long story short, Twilight is the worst. It's fine for Twilight to have flaws, but this is way too far. She wasn't even this much of an asshole in season 1, back when she was just getting used to having friends.

Outside of Twilight's behavior, this is probably the most childish episode of the show. Half of the jokes are just Twilight making WaCkY faces and yelling. I can count the amount of jokes I liked on one hand. And since this is a comedy episode, that is a very bad thing. 

I mentioned the memefaces earlier, but this is where it's at its worst. Some of them look extremely ugly and uncomfortable. Twilight's crazy faces in Lesson Zero only showed up when she was at her worst. They were supposed to be uncomfortable to some degree. The faces in this episode are more over the top, go on for longer, and are played entirely for comedy. That uncomfortable feeling ruins a lot of the jokes and serves to make Twilight behavior in this episode even worse.

This is supposed to be the ruler of Equestria? She shrugs it off in The Summer Sun Setback, but I think this reveals some very deep rooted issues that will surely bite her in the ass at some point in the future. She's definitely not fit for the throne based on this episode.

Also, this episode doesn't deserve to say all of the ship names. If you're going to go so far as to say TwiPie, show why people like and ship TwiPie. Don't give us an episode where one of them assumes the other can't do anything right and tries to get rid of them. Same goes to AppleDash, but more so since they get together in the finale. Their rivalry in this episode isn't as bad as it was in Non-Compete Clause, but it's certainly not going to convince anyone that they'd make a good couple. They haven't had solid shipping fuel since probably season 4.



My overall opinion on the season lines up pretty well with DannyJ's on Fimfiction. If you don't think I explained my thoughts on the season 9 arc or certain episodes well enough, his reviews are close to my thoughts. I obviously don't agree with him about everything, but the important stuff about the season arc lines up.
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/930390/dannyj-reviews-mlp-season-9-part-1

 

 

Time for the show as a whole:

OKAY SHOW

 

It's kinda unfortunate what happened to this show. It used to be a nice and fun show. Not especially groundbreaking, but the characters were engaging and fun to be around, everything was cute, and the world had enough detail to be interesting and had enough vagueness to inspire a lot of theories and speculation. 

And then, season 8 attacked.

The show had been on a general decline since season 3, but I still like seasons 3 and 4 overall. And while I may not like season 5, it was at least trying new things and it felt like it had respect for what came before. I can see why a lot of people like season 5 and consider it to be one of their favorites. And season 7 had a first half that reeked of burnout and some hints what was to come with the awful stuff with the pillars, but I can accept its existence because of The Perfect Pear and the fact that the second half was generally decent.

But I can't defend seasons 8 and 9. They felt like they had no respect for the history of the show with some things that completely contradicted the point of the show (the School of Friendship) and so much character regression. It's hard to decide which season is worse, but I don't think it really matters. They're both a stain on an otherwise solid show and I don't consider them canon (aside from Going to Seed which can be easily separated since it doesn't reference anything around it).

Time for an overall top and bottom 20:

 

BOTTOM 20:

20. Spike At Your Service

19. Owl's Well That Ends Well

18. Daring Don't

17. School Raze

16. Non-Compete Clause

15. The Summer Sun Setback

14. Princess Spike

13. Twilight's Kingdom

12. Fluttershy Leans In

11. What About Discord

10. Shadow Play

9. Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep

8. The Beginning of the End

7. Rainbow Falls

6. Three's a Crowd

5. A Royal Problem

4. Every Little Thing She Does

3. A Trivial Pursuit

2. School Daze

1. Yakity-Sax

 

TOP 20:

20. Luna Eclipsed

19. Hearth's Warming Eve

18. The Saddle Row Review

17. Hurricane Fluttershy

16. Castle-Mania

15. The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows

14. The Cutie Mark Chronicles

13. Sonic Rainboom

12. Lesson Zero

11. Party Of One

10. It's About Time

9. Rarity Investigates

8. Testing Testing 1, 2, 3

7. Dungeons and Discords

6. The Perfect Pear

5. Pinkie Pride

4. Sisterhooves Social

3. The Last Roundup

2. Magic Duel

1. Stranger Than Fanfiction