Series Thoughts: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Seasons 8 & 9)

• Released: 10 October 2012
• Developed by: Lauren Faust
• Amount of seasons: 9
• Seasons watched: 8, 9
• Rating: 3.5/5

Synopsis

The Mane 6 open a school of friendship for all kinds of creatures of Equestria, and Twilight gets ready for eventually taking over the throne after Celestia and Luna retire.

My Thoughts

The final two. Is it any better than the previous three seasons I took a look at? Well...eh? Kinda-ish?

In these two seasons, Twilight & friends open the School of Friendship, which is all fine and good, but it does lead to some insufferable episodes (e.g. the one where Starlight clashes with Discord, the one where Rainbow Dash and Rarity decide they can't be friends anymore, Applejack and Rainbow Dash competing AGAIN). I'm not saying the entire concept is ruined, but god I do hate some of the things they did it with. 

Also, since when are the Mane 6 qualified to be teachers? "They're not accredited" yeah, so? You still need teachers with a diploma, you can't just let anyone run a school. And do the Mane 6 even have time to teach? Last time I checked most of them already have fulltime jobs. And to answer your question, yes, the Mane 6 and their close acquaintances are the only staff at the school. They didn't hire actual accredited folk, they just decided that they're qualified and started the school.

Now, what I didn't expect to like with the school but ended up quite enjoying, are the Young 6. Are they amazing characters? No, and they're quite underutilized (considering how few central episodes they have in these last two seasons). But I do like them. While I of course still love our Mane 6, their stories are pretty much (safe a few aspects) over by now. Most of them are at this point where they want to be in life. Rarity has her fashion stores in Canterlot, Manehattan and Ponyville; Fluttershy her sanctuary; Rainbow Dash is a wonderbolt; etc.. And their characters have already gone through so much development that it just feels like the Young 6 actually should be getting a bit more limelight. Really, we didn't need episodes like the one where Rainbow Dash and Rarity suddenly turn against each other on a whim, or Dash and Applejack compete for yet another title. These episodes could've been better spent developing our new underutilized cast. 

Starlight is still insufferable, though. Like yeah, it seems like she's finally clueing in to the fact that she shouldn't be using her magic to alter people on a whim, but she's still an awful friend to Trixie a lot of the time (e.g. when she trades Trixie's wagon without even asking her). Having her be a student councilor and later headmare seems...questionable.

But the character whose development really went through the wringer in these two seasons (particularly the last) was the lord of chaos himself: Discord. His development in season 3 and 4 I have praised before, how really learned to accept friendship in the season 4 finale and became an ally to the Mane 6 for good. But all that well-written character development is thrown right out the window in season 9. Discord, under the guise of the necromancer Grogar, brings together three of the worst villains Equestria has ever known (and Cozy Glow). 

His excuse is that he's doing this to "boost Twilight's morale" before she becomes Equestria's main ruler, but that's honestly bullshit. By the time of the season 9 finale (before the shit with the villainous three went down) she already was plenty confident in herself, so outside of the whole Sombra conflict in the season opener the whole stuff with bringing Cozy, Chrysalis and Tirek together wasn't needed. 

And here I thought Discord cared about his friends? How is bringing together these awful villains not only endangering them, but also all of Equestria? Yikes man. And then, in the season 9 finale, he's forgiven way too soon. Seriously, this turn in his "character development" pretty much ruined his character for me. I thought post- season 4 redemption Discord was already a bit obnoxious a lot of the time, with his meta humor, but this is just destroying any goodwill I still had towards the character.

As for our villains: yeah, let's talk about them. Starting with the big "bad" from season 8: Cozy Glow. She sucks and is honestly one of the worst-ever villains in MLP history if you ask me. They were clearly trying to channel that one villain from Cats Don't Dance for her, but the execution of Cozy just sucks. She's introduced as this oh-so-pwecious foal and then literally seems to turn on a whim. There is no buildup to her becoming a villain. She's just suddenly in cahoots with Tirek in the season 8 finale.

In season 9 I thought that the coming together of villains had some interesting potential, but it sucks that Cozy Glow has to be one of the three finale villains. Couldn't it have been Sombra instead? And they also just...straight up sending her to hell in season 8 and turned her to stone in season 9. I get that she's evil and misguided, but she's still a kid, guys. As people running a school of friendship, shouldn't you try to redeem her by teaching her friendship instead of pretty much killing her? Yikes. 

Okay, let's talk animation: it's mostly still pretty much the same from the previous seasons, but one thing I really noticed they started doing in seasons 8 and 9 is making the expressions more extravagant a lot of the time. There are many new expressions seen in these two, particularly season 9, which was honestly quite fun to see. Other than that it's still the solid animation we've come to expect from Friendship is Magic.

Going back to characters, Twilight becoming Equestria's new ruler I actually like. It was Lauren Faust's original intention for the character, after all. I'm less fond of her alicorn form in the epilogue episode being just a Celestia recolor, though. But I do really like said episode and it's a better ending than the dreadful preceding two-parters.

So if I have so many criticisms, why did I rate it 0.5 points higher than the previous three seasons? Simply because I liked these last two seasons in general more than the episodes in the last three seasons, which I honestly thought were just mostly boring. I do think that this series kind of started to turn bad after season 4, but I do still like it and I'm glad I've seen it in its entirety twice now. Probably won't do it a third time, though.