S08:E12 - Marks for Effort

[Thrond 3,272]

Cozy Glow seems genuinely sincere here. Aside from mistaking Twilight's cutie mark for "control," all of the hints to her true personality are really subtle; at times she seems faintly manipulative, but it seems to me like she really did care about the CMC. I'm not entirely sure what her game is in this episode. There's an alternate universe where her power-hungry attitude was slowly eroded by the school until she learned what friendship was really about. Then we wouldn't get some of the best episodes of season 9 though...

You can see for a brief moment that Twilight is genuinely sad to tell the CMC to stay away. She doesn't know what they actually did for Cozy, and she was already a little frustrated with them after they kept making a fuss about joining the school. And yet, I wonder if she would cut them more slack if she didn't have to consider what was best for the school. It also leaves room for the best scene Starlight Glimmer ever got. The school has been so good to her that I can barely imagine her without it anymore. 

Also, the mane six's classes seem pretty cool; contrast these with what they were trying to do in the premiere, and the new classes just seem so much more natural. There are a lot of episodes this season which use the school gimmick to great effect, but this has a good claim to being the absolute best of them; this episode would absolutely not be possible before this season. The high points of season 8 are so fresh that I would have happily watched a whole show at that level of quality. 

Edited April 14, 2020 by AlexanderThrond

[JMTV99 1,363]

So, this was the episode introduced Cozy Glow. Eh, I wasn't all that impressed. I find her character very annoying, wasn't all that compelling, and I just can't take her seriously. Even as the final villain of the series, she wasn't all interesting. A filly who wants to learn about friendship is one thing, but taking advantage of the power of friendship without any explanation nor a backstory just left me very confused and annoyed.

But that's from Season 9. On her own appearance in this episode, she's somewhat tolerable, but she didn't grab me all that much. 

As for the main plot of this episode? CMC wants to become teachers at The Friendship School? Really? That's a bit too soon, IMO.

Plus, I don't like Twilight's attitude towards the CMCs in this episode. It didn't really sit right with me since I thought she was really cool with them before.

Besides Starlight's meme face that got a laugh out of me, this episode overall was just BLECH! It's nothing special.

[Moony the Cat 3,707]

Even though Cozy Glow was kind off spoilered to me trough the fandom, i still enjoyed her introduction and she just seems to be a really nice character. Overall i enjoyed this Episode.

[Antiyonder 1,448]

The episode is present on this compilation at the 21:31 mark:

A solo video will be posted when uploaded.

[Night Sky 1,118]

Cozy Glow is terrifying. 

Somehow, with extreme subtlety, she is right there advertising that she's a negligent psychopath in plain sight. 

If you look at how she's drawn, every individual feature is rendered the same as every other pony. 

But the overall effect is not the same as every other pony, and Cozy Glow is a machine who is greater than the sum of her parts. 

It shows the mastery of the animators, by this point in the series, they had perfected their craft. 

Beyond something intangible that can never be defined exactly in how she is assembled, there are subtle cues in her facial expressions, and in her choice of wordings, and of course her actions. 

It is all entirely textbook, but you have to consider these traits in context.

Even in our world, Cozy Glow would be a monster, but in Equestria she's utterly terrifying. 

By this point in the series, Equestria was a halcyon multiracial, multi cultural society. 

Threats were there on the outside, not from within. 

Starlight Glimmer and Trixie had been out of line, but they'd been brought to heel and were repentant. 

Twilight Sparkle was growing up to be something of an administrator, focused on applying the rules fairly and getting more used to telling ponies No. 

Some amount of complacency was setting in. 

Equestria was ripe for Cozy Glow, and so the Harvester cometh. 

But lest you think I'm demonizing her, I think Cozy Glow is a lush, brilliant, alluring and thrilling character, wonderfully rendered. 

She's a work of art because she's the devil. 

And, be notified thou, I do not regard her as the worst of the worst. 

Dante said that the lowest place in Hell, being gnashed forever in Satan's three mouths, this is reserved only for traitors to benefactors, and Cozy Glow is a traitor to her benefactors. 

But in point of fact, I disagree with Dante. 

There is one thing worse, more terrifying, and more dangerous, more disgusting to me than what Cozy Glow does and how she treats ponies. 

What is that?

It's all the ponies who defend her. 

It isn't even about whether or not they are or are not just like her. 

To me, it's immaterial why any pony would defend Cozy Glow. 

Sure, there is some explanation somewhere about why she is the way she is, but there is no justification, and make no mistake, it's us or her.

You don't have to like it, but if you can't keep it straight, other ponies are going to get hurt.

Cozy Glow is all the more interesting because the rest of us really can't psychoanalyze her. 

She's both interesting and opaque, like the inside of a black hole. 

The motivations of her would be defenders are not interesting to me at all. 

Some say she was just a child who needed love. 

Equestria would have given her that.

Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer were her hostesses and the School of Friendship did not fail her. 

The CMC, much to their own detriment, went above and beyond for her. 

If you defend Cozy Glow, we can't be cool. 

Too bad.

I'm entirely serious right now.

MLP FIM did not shy away from confronting serious matters, questions and challenges that any living being is going to have to grapple with sooner or later. 

Whether you're a human, or a Gorilla or a Pony, I think you're going to have to navigate encountering an individual like Cozy Glow at least once before all is said and done. 

The problem of ponies like Cozy Glow is one of the central problems any sophisticated being is going to be faced with in life. 

If you defend, apologize for, or otherwise advocate for Cozy Glow, you zig where I zag. 

I'm not saying that any pony should necessarily care or fuss over that. 

Nothing rises or falls because of my estimations, not at all. 

I'm just throwing that out there. 

I don't enjoy drawing lines in the sand, but some lines need to be drawn. 

I know whereof I speak. 

Because of my profession, I've spent far more time with Cozy Glow than most other ponies ever will. 

End of (irrelevant) imao speech.