Friendship is Card Games: A Horse Shoe-In · 11:34am Sep 15th, 2019
Echoes of several episodes come together in… something like a harmony. 
At the very least, it’s not shattering any—
Make that not shattering many windows. Let’s get started before I have to update that further.
Looks like Starlight finally got a pet. Phyllis may not be exactly what Fluttershy had in mind, but she certainly works. (Hmm. Fluttershy trying to find the perfect pet for Starlight. Has anyone explored that idea before?)
I do wonder what Trixiemergency made Starlight take off early. I’m going to say an unacceptably chunky hay smoothie.
One of those echoing episodes I mentioned? “The Ticket Master.” One of the quieter notes, but Spike’s gone from skipping past Celestia’s boilerplate to reciting all of Twilight’s. Honestly, that drives home the impending transfer of power more than anything else Twilight has to do this episode.
Starlight’s covered for Twilight every time the latter’s had to run off to save Equestria since the school was built? How many times has that come up? All we know about is the Cozy Glow incident… and possibly cutting off some international incidents during “Uprooted.”
I figured/dreaded Trixie would get the counselor position even before she gave Starlight the idea for a vice headpony. (Seriously, between the applicants and who ended up getting the position, it’s an even gender divide.) Empathy may not be Trixie’s strongest suit, but goodness knows she’s improved.
And there’s the echo of “Student Counsel.” Apparently a brush with petrification wasn’t enough to completely quell Trixie’s neediness. DrakeyC’s idea for a sitcom where Trixie squats on Starlight and Sunburst’s lawn keeps looking more and more feasible.
Good to know Rarity’s making Twilight’s coronation gown this time. I remain convinced that Celestia designed the horrors from “Magical Mystery Cure” herself to ensure confidentiality about Operation Flying Bookworm.
Trixie channeling Bender is strangely hilarious.
You’d think Trixie would’ve managed the substituting fairly well. She’s the one with experience, and this time Discord isn’t sabotaging her.
Kudos to Octavia for seamlessly switching gears when Pinkie initiated a genre switch. I imagine they’ve collaborated a few times since that first Gala. At the very least, Vinyl’s helped her loosen up.
I do love a good Rube Goldberg device.
I find myself wondering just what Abraxius the Bold got up to, and by what calendar year 1322 is. Trixie may claim his exploits wasn’t very interesting, but she was probably assessing page count more than anything.
Yeah, Spoiled wasn’t long for these tryouts. Though I do wonder how she reacted when Starlight told her. I can’t imagine it was pretty.
I’m still not sure what to make of Ocellus apparently having a nuclear family. Though given how much emphasis is made on non-parental guardians, I still think that changelings mimic pony family structures much as they do Hearth’s Warming traditions, with the same level of understanding.
I legitimately want to see Yona smashing ignorance and superstition. The Klingon scientific community would approve.
Sky Beak does not know how to handle this strange Boolean horse.
Given that Grandpa Gruff is basically Griffonstone’s only lifeline to still-functional nation-states—I’m sure Gilda’s trying her best, but this is an uphill battle that makes Sisyphus look like a guy moving into a second-floor apartment—I can’t imagine anyone was happy that he got banished. Even if Trixie has no power to enforce that decree.
Nice to see Big Mac take his dismissal with dignity. Not that I expected anything less, but in a Starlight episode, emotional maturity is always a welcome change of pace. 
I do like how many crystals are in Starlight’s office. Birthday and Hearth’s Warming gifts from Maud, no doubt.
Seeing Dr. Hooves and Octavia in the spotlight again was nice, but I didn’t realize this episode was going full “Slice of Life” until the field trip portion. And I do appreciate how Starlight is immediately leery of any experiments involving time travel.
Also, given the series involved, that cephalopod is either the Face of Boe or Squirk.
Trixie can apparently teleport quite a few cubic yards of terrain to her person, to say nothing of holding a shield against the impact. That seems like a very impressive magical feat to me.
So… what exactly did Starlight do to the bees? The hive’s still there. I don’t think she just unsummoned them back to the bog. 
Well, at least Starlight isn’t literally bottling up her emotions this time…
Oh hey, the failsafe spell actually worked this time.
To be fair to Starlight, it’s not that she strung Trixie along so much as Trixie prefers to live in her delusions rather than the actual world.
For all of the attacks on Trixie’s competence, it’s not like most of the Mane Six knew what they were doing when they became teachers either…
I still can’t believe they made the name “Dr. Hooves” actually canon. I was perfectly happy calling him Time Turner. (Or Dr. Turner, as a nice compromise.) Also, Octavia is apparently the only being on the show or staff with any appreciation for how much time education takes. (Okay, okay, I’ll leave it at that. For this week.)
Flurry’s apparently aging, despite all evidence to the contrary.
Given Trixie’s new position, I wonder if she’ll settle down and move out of her wagon. I wonder if she’ll realize she can. I could easily see her try to schedule tours around student appointments. At least there’s summer vacation.
The “Phyllis, NO!” shot is an excellent microcosm of Starlight’s problems throughout the episode, as exemplified both by her desperate attempts to retain Trixie and her excitement at getting to work with Sunburst. She still has the abandonment issues that led to her making a cult village nopony could ever leave. Saying “Goodbye” remains a very painful act for her, no matter how minor the bond being cut may be. She wants to avoid that pain however she can. In this case, she was fortunate enough to find a way to do so while still fulfilling the tasks she needed to.
All told, this was certainly a fun episode. Not a stand-out one, but not bad by any stretch of the imagination. Now, let’s look over this week’s curriculum:
Play to the Audience W
Instant
Remove any number of verse counters from among Songs you control. Distribute that many verse counters among those Songs.
Draw a card.
A good remix makes any song accessible.
Determined Stride 2W
Enchantment
At the beginning of combat on your turn, target creature you control gains indestructible and vigilance until end of turn.
“Ninety percent of success is looking like you know what you’re doing.”
—Trixie Lulamoon, academy counselor
Terrain Displacement 1U
Instant
Choose a basic land type. Any number of target lands you control become that type until end of turn.
Draw a card.
“Why hike when you can bring the scenery to you?”
—Trixie Lulamoon, academy counselor
Changeling Progenitor 3U
Creature — Shapeshifter Spellshaper
3U, T, Discard a card: Create a token that’s a copy of target creature.
Before or after reform, every one of a changeling’s organ systems is infinitely reconfigurable.
2/2
Procedural Assembler 3U
Creature – Pony Rigger
At the beginning of your end step, if you didn’t crank a Contraption this turn, Procedural Assembler assembles a Contraption. (Put the top card of your Contraption deck face up onto one of your sprockets.)
“Science is the right of all sapient beings.”
2/2
Academy Headmare 3UU
Creature — Unicorn Wizard
When Academy Headmare enters the battlefield, you become the monarch.
If you would draw a card except the first one you draw in each of your draw steps and you’re the monarch, draw two cards instead.
“The princess trusts me with their futures. I won’t let her down.”
2/3
Benthic Entangler 4UU
Creature — Octopus
When Benthic Entangler enters the battlefield, if it was cast, target player skips their next untap step.
Suspend 3 — 1UU
Whenever a time counter is removed from Benthic Entangler while it’s exiled, tap target creature an opponent controls. That creature doesn’t untap during its controller’s untap step for as long as Benthic Entangler is exiled with a time counter on it.
4/4
Narrow the Field 1B
Instant
Destroy target creature if its controller controls more creatures than you.
Spoiled found that actually being dismissed wasn’t nearly as much fun as dismissing somepony else.
Private Equity 2B
Sorcery
Target player loses 3 life and you gain 3 life. Create a Treasure token. (It’s an artifact with “T, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color.”)
“Daddy sees money as a cycle. Mother sees it as a game, one where the highest score wins.”
—Diamond Tiara
Crackling Cloud R
Sorcery
Choose one —
• Crackling Cloud deals 2 damage to target creature.
• Target creature can’t block this turn.
Entwine 2 (Choose both if you pay the entwine cost.)
Quantum Flux 1R
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast this spell, discard two cards.
Flip a coin. If you win the flip, draw four cards. Otherwise, draw two cards.
“Collapse wavefunctions at your own peril.”
—Princess Twilight Sparkle
Flashbee Hive 2R
Creature — Insect
Defender
Whenever Flashbee Hive is dealt damage, create that many 1/1 red Insect creature tokens with flying.
Whenever Flashbee Hive or another Insect you control dies, Flashbee Hive deals 1 damage to any target.
0/3
Counselor’s Philodendron 1G
Creature — Plant
Whenever you cast a creature spell, scry 1.
“Everypony needs a stable, reliable, relatively normal friend. Twilight has Applejack. I have Phyllis.”
—Starlight Glimmer
0/3
Do Lunch 1G
Instant
Any number of target players each create two Food tokens. (They’re artifacts with “2, T, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.”)
“An absolute must if you’re going to get a hoofhold in high places.”
—Rarity, Bearer of Generosity
Naptime Supervisor 2G
Creature — Unicorn Advisor
As long as Naptime Supervisor is tapped, tapped creatures you control have hexproof.
“Hey, it’s not like they’ll learn anything if they’re too exhausted to think.”
2/2
Apple Family Mender 3G
Creature — Pony Artificer
Adamant — When Apple Family Mender enters the battlefield, if at least three green mana was spent to cast it, return target permanent card from your graveyard to your hand.
“Every basket I fix is one we don’t have to buy.”
3/3
Yak Researcher 4G
Creature — Ox Scientist
Trample
Yak Researcher’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand.
She smashes what is seen as impossible, sifting knowledge from the rubble.
*/*
Royal Napkin 2
Artifact
Adamant — 3: Royal Napkin becomes a 3/3 artifact creature until end of turn. If at least three mana of the same color was spent to activate this ability, it becomes a 4/4 artifact creature until end of turn instead.
“Every detail matters at a state dinner.”
—Lemon Hearts, royal event coordinator
Nurture-Matic
Artifact — Contraption
Whenever you crank Nurture-Matic, bolster 1, then bolster 1 again. (To bolster 1, choose a creature with the least toughness among creatures you control and put a +1/+1 counter on it. Then do it again.) 
Abraxius the Bold RGWU
Legendary Creature — Pony Soldier
Haste, hexproof, vigilance
Whenever Abraxius the Bold attacks, you may have attacking creatures you control have base power and toughness X/X until end of turn, where X is the number of those creatures.
2/4
Purchase Loyalty XUB
Sorcery
Choose one —
• Gain control of target creature with converted mana cost X or less.
• Return target creature card with converted mana cost X or less from a graveyard to the battlefield under your control.
Born 1W
Sorcery
Populate. (Create a token that’s a copy of a creature token you control.)
Rule 3G
Sorcery
Aftermath (Cast this spell only from your graveyard. Then exile it.)
Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control for each other creature you control.
Sounds like a marvelous train wreck. I really should get around to seeing the second-half of season eight, as well as this one.
It'd be called Squirk, but have at least as many references to Doctor Who as the Doctor himself already has. Also, said Doctor was probably taking out the other G1 threats offscreen, including a would-be Abyssinian tyrant. (Since nothing can stop the Smooze, he settled for making it less threatening)
Narrow the Field's flavor text is either not parsing correctly or just incomplete.
Obligatory "stupid complicated game" award goes to Procedural Assembler this time. You can pile all your Contraptions onto one sprocket and still get something on the other turns via it and however many clones you create, and the clock of doom will let you trim that down to "turn" singular.
To me, this totally was a standout episode. Starlight’s arc has been long and bumpy, but it says a lot about her progress to see her demonstrating competence while undertaking the hellishly adult task of interviewing staff. This was the girl who would’ve just mind-controlled everyone and gone for a long lunch three seasons ago. Now her arc is reasonably complete
and we can aggressively ship her with Sunburst since they work together now and can get their office romance on.Getting to see Spoiled, Octavia, and Doctor Hooves chew some scenery offered both fun and a bit more closure to Starlight’s season 5 origins. I loved the mini repeat of the Cello-Dubstep thing and Hooves lab from Slice of Life, as well as Spoiled being Spoiled. Callbacks to SoL are obviously a bit of fan-pandering in the same vein that they’ve done before, but seeing it done like this at the end of the show feels more like a goodbye than pandering. Plus, given that Big Jim recently mentioned that the suits at Hasbro shot down further episodes with Diamond Tiara & Silver Spoon, seeing Spoiled again is probably an oblique goodbye to them, too.
Oh, and Trixie was suitably ridiculous, too—yet she also demonstrates personal growth. I never saw that coming for her.
So I guess, in the end, the episode scores major points with me for what it does to wrap up the arcs of its characters. FiM is truly ending, but it’s building to an ending that feels satisfying and deliberate. Episodes like this leave me feeling happy, if wistful.
Yes. All one time. Obviously, she is perfect for the job and adequately prepared. :V
Has the Great and Powerful Bender been forgotten in the annals of fandom history? :C I mean, it happened at a shit con, so I wouldn't be surprised...
Yeah, this precisely. New changeling society is inherently hilarious. :D
I can't believe Dr. Whooves killed Squirk. D:
Yeah, that line about Twilight and her friends being competent at and invested in teaching really did not jive with. . . basically every single episode featuring TSSF. How competent were Rainbow and Applejack in Non-Compete Clause? How invested was Rainbow in 2-4-6-Great?
I haven't seen a pony get this attached to vegetation since Applejack with Bloomberg.
That's my headcanon: after their Queen Mother was deposed, King Thorax started assigning nymphs to individual adults and couples to raise. Makes as much sense as any other theory.
Also, how did Twilight know the exact location to teleport that section of swamp back to? Somewhere in Froggy Swamp there's probably a barren crater and a little mound a mile away.
Anyway, this was a good episode. I'm legitimately not sure if Trixie sucks as a teacher or she was phoning it in because she was so sure Starlight was going to pick her. Probably a combination of the two. I hope that Starlight calls Octavia, Dr. Whooves and Big Mac back when the new teaching positions open up. And yeah, it is nice to finally get confirmation of the Doctor's name.
The circle is now complete
Yaks make best Hadron collider, smash all the particles.
Also when Discord was just messing with them.
True. Conflicted on Trixie getting that position. While Starlight did give a number of good qualities for the job Trixie has, the biggest being how hard she will go to the mat for the students it really was great seeing her stand up for Gallus, it brushed over the rather large number of negative qualities that would make this... problematic. Do we really want Trixie giving life advice to kids? Sure, one could look at the stuff Starlight's done and ask the same thing, but Starlight works because she realizes that stuff was wrong, where and why she went wrong, and can turn that into object lessons to better prevent others from making those same mistakes.
Trixie meanwhile doesn't see anything she's ever done as a mistake for more then a few seconds. She makes constant screw ups due to failure to think about things or consider anypony beyond herself and her needs. Plus, while standing up for the students is great, there does need to be a measure of diplomacy to it as well, or you could just make things worse.
Then again, when has this school ever had hiring practices that make sense? Sunburst is pretty much the only staff ever hired for the place who is actually fully qualified and fit for the job.
Well, maybe if this was Magic, but history? Yeah, Trixie isn't going to care enough to try.
That does seem the most likely.
Damn, I missed that one..... yeah totally a Face reference.
Pony aging, how does it work?
5121410
Unless the spell wasn't a direct teleport, but more of a magical CTRL-Z, simply reversing previous spells, and so sending it back to wherever it came from without needing to be targeted by her.
If the Lings are doing pony nuclear family structures as imitation, this raises the question of whether Thorax is laying all the eggs.
I wonder what misunderstandings they might get through imitating families without really getting it. Maybe getting very into traditional gender roles to the point of parody but swapping which one they are as the situation dictates.
5121411
https://m.Also here’s the full thing. The actors are switching around the rules, the Great and Powerful Bender is seen three. But the whole thing’s worth a watch.
5121407
Rainbow still manage to straighten herself out in a day, and she was still technically invested in the school... Just a different part.
We all pretend Non-Compete Clause isn’t canon.
5121489
Oh wow, someone animated it? :) I've seen the original panel, I didn't know it had been animated ^^
5121427
Yep: Failsafe spell.
5121526
Which explains why it didn't work against Discord. Discord doesn't have "spells" as such. He just does whatever the hell he wants, and it works because he has crazy amounts of magic and magical amounts of crazy. (Face it, all the really powerful casters are completely insane, which might help explain why Celestia is as useless as she is)
5121529
Pretty much.
They're really threatening to move Twilight to Canterlot. I remain dubious that it'll ultimately happen (both for friendship reasons -- not all of the Mane 6 are likely to follow her there -- and because it leaves a giant empty castle sitting on the outskirts of Ponyville), so now I'm really curious as to how they'll resolve that in the finale.
Apropos of nothing, but here's a thought I had recently -- how long after Twilight ascends to additional power will ponies begin to take her name in vain, as they do with Celestia? I don't have the ambition to write it, but her reaction upon hearing that for the first time might be an interesting mini-fic.
While I agree with you on changelings mimicking the family structures they've seen the ponies use, I'm pretty sure the mention of guardians was simply to acknowledge that Grandpa Gruff was at the meeting.
To me, Octavia sounded different than she did in "Slice of Life," so I paused on the credits to see if it was the same actress (it was). While I was there, I noticed that the name of the changeling student was accidentally printed as "OCellus." I assume this means it's canon that she's Irish.
5121529
Discord seems to do what he does by merging his realm of Chaos with Equestria. And since he has absolute cosmic power in that realm...
5121542
Maybe Celestia and Luna will move into Twilight's castle.
5121542
Nae, laddy, that'd be O'Cellus
I'm pretty sure changeling do reproduce in somewhat normal family units, it's just that Thorax and Pharynx happen to be Queen Cheeselegs' direct offspring.
I... I am not okay with this.
The episode is nice. If you cut out the first 40 seconds, that is.
"I'll be moving to Canterlot."
...So, that one fanfic author who posted a joke about the possibility of Twilight leaving Ponyville in chapter 5 of an ongoing story I had already subscribed to was actually giving me spoilers, go figure. Something about that did seem fishy, but I'd convinced myself it couldn't have been real, that it must've been just their speculation. Probably was in that acursed trailer I didn't watch. I never watch those. Hasbro gives away too much.
I... I hate season 9.
I strongly hate season 9.
I hate season 9 to the point I wish Gen 4 had ended with season 8.
Most episodes are great.
But some are just...
Just heartbreaking, depressing, alienating, inducing feelings of loss, dread, anxiety and stress, making it clear the writers don't share our values and basically want to "end pony" irregardless of the fandom intending to go on past the show.
All I can see is the show writers trampling over the very foundation on which everything we've build together in nearly 9 years is grounded on, defiling the one thing I love most about this show: The fanfiction scene.
There's always been change. There have always been casualties of headcanons lost, fanfictions jeopardized, writers discouraged from continuing their stories. The show gives, the show takes.
It's not always an equivalent exchange, as shown with the season six finale...
But this is ridiculous.
This is... everything. It's everything. Everything.
Or, maybe 90% of everything? Still pretty much everything
The tagline on my account is 120% accurate: "I watch it for the fanfiction. No, really."
The show itself takes a distant 2nd place, if not an outright third, behind the collective efforts of thousands of people to craft a more expansive world than a 22-minute episodic television show could ever offer on its own.
It has been, for me, since at least season 3. Not because the show got allegedly "worse", but because the fanfiction got better.
Now it feels like the writers are doing their best to take pony away from us, regardless of the fact the fandom wants to continue past the show that spawned it.
"The Summer-Sun Setback" (s9e17) was the second worst experience I've had watching an episode in the entire show run, from the moment I read the title.
(Okay, granted, the place I read the title was a URL that had it cut off slightly, leaving it as "The Summer Sun Sets", which implies something much worse - or is about Sunset Shimmer somehow - but by the time the correct episode title showed on screen my fears had already been confirmed. 😞)
Turns out, I'm still not over the "immortal goddess of the sun retires, lol" thing, it just takes one wrong poke to shatter that whole calm and peace. And that episode kept poking me with a pointy knife into my heart for over 20 minutes.
Given Twilight's speech at the end, I guess it objectively ended the best possible way given the setup, but the damage was done.
It was impossible to enjoy, when the stakes were so ludicrously high. I recognized the parts that were supposed to make me smile, that were supposed to make me say "wow, awesome". They instead made me feel disconnected, depressed, and experience a sense of loss. Even Twilight's character growth, in the context of that particular episode, just made me feel alienated from the character on-screen.
...If you saw an episode titled "Somepony you care about literally bucking dies, guess who, lol!", and the writers had already killed several times before, you wouldn't be able to laugh at the jokes in the episode either, no matter how the whole thing actually ended.
And that was my preview of the "grand show finale".
(...Please don't give me spoilers. Or rumors. Or speculation based on maybe-spoilers. That will only make things worse.
)
...You know what's funny? I predicted the plot of "Dragon Dropped" as a possible episode. Not through spoilers, nor even from seeing a trailer. (I never watch those, Hasbro gives away too much.)
No, I predicted the plot of "Dragon Dropped", as part of my worst case speculation, before s9 had even started, in the month leading up to the s9 premiere, after being "informed" (read: spoiler'd) through fimfiction's featured box of all places, of the show writer's "amazing plan" to send Celestia and Luna into retirement.
Well, how could they "conclude" the Spike X Rarity subplot, for example? They can't make them kiss, they've portrayed Spike as too young, they couldn't show that on TV.
So the only other thing they could do is for Spike to find someone else.
I'm not even a big shipper. But messing with literally the oldest ship in the fandom?
It didn't exactly fill me with confidence when one of my "worst case speculations" actually canonically happened.
Oh sure, you can read it differently. That's the saving grace of that episode. But you can only do that until they canonically decide to break that fragile "unobserved quantum state", and I think it's pretty obvious the writers see it as a "Rarity got friendzoned and had to learn to accept it"-metaphor episode. (Well either that, or she's in a herd with Spike and Gabi, but that won't fly with a TV-Y rating.)
And today, another one of those moon-shot "it's so absurd the writers can't possibly be that stupid" moments came to pass.
Twilight announced she'll be leaving Ponyville.
They must know. They must know they're hurting us. They can't not know. And they still chose to do it.
I've lost my trust in the writers the moments they announced Celestia's retirement, but by now it's been so thoroughly trampled and spat on, the writers may as well be an alien artificial intelligence gestalt, judging by how well their values line up with mine.
I hate this season. I am not okay with this.
Maybe we can all collectively just declare season 9 non-canonical, or something... 😞
Please, DON'T give me SPOILERS, or rumors, or speculation based on maybe-spoilers, that will only make it worse.
At this point, even the titles are spoilers that can ruin the entire episode.
Heck, no, at this point, I make an active effort to cover part of the screen so I don't see the title while I'm already watching the episode, it's gotten that bad. -_-
5121396
At the end, it startled me how much Starlight has progressed. This whole time, she actually FORGOT about SUNBURST. Holy shit. On top of that, not once does she try to solve a problem using her magic, except for countering Trixie's own and frying the flash bees. Sunburst gets a fitting conclusion to his show-long journey as well. Not only is he now TEACHING magic, he's probably the only adult in the whole school that comes close to proper credentials*! Trixie... does not get that kind of send off.
I thought Trixie was being uncharacteristically douchey this episode. Well, maybe not 'uncharacteristically,' but it felt like a serious regression, compared to Student Counsel and Road to Friendship, where she was way more sensitive to her friend, and even when she did get snippy, we felt like she had some ground to stand on. It's kind of a bummer this is being presented as an end point for her. Though it would be a fat lie to say I wasn't chuckling at the antics everytime she was on screen. Starlight letting her go along with this despite all deductive reasoning fits with what we saw in Student Counsel, where Starlight was overcompensating with the friendliness. HOWEVER...
5121424
Largely in agreement, although that scene helps partly redeem her portrayal this episode, and actually sells me on the premise of her being a guidance counselor.
We've seen Trixie get angry before, but this is the only time (I can think of) where she was angry over how someone ELSE was being treated. Grandpa Gruff with Gallus. She's strongly opinionated about how much parents should show affection towards kids. It makes me wonder how much of that has to do with a magician-dad from Las Pegasus. Or how much she DOESN'T have to do with him...
Then there's the mess with Gallus and Gruff. So the former has made it clear that he doesn't have family, yet the latter is assigned to be his guardian. Combined with how we saw Gilda, Gabby and some other griffon toddler eating dinner with the guy, despite him not seeming to have any wife or kids, it seems Gruff just takes in kids who don't have anyone. This probably makes him the most generous person in all Griffonstone. But it's clear that even with his personal obligation to children, he's not that well suited towards them. Maybe it's the decades of hard living in an impoverished city. Maybe being old enough to have watched his state fail. Maybe advanced age has robbed him of the energy to put into empathy. Trixie probably doesn't have any context about that, but she knows Gallus isn't getting the affection he needs, and won't hesitate to be in his corner and call it out.
"Gallus doesn't need to know I'm proud of him." But children, even teenagers, DO need that. When that line gets uttered, we see Gallus's face DROP. He gives such a pained look towards the only parental figure in his life. He wants to say something, or maybe hear something, but he just doesn't know how.
derpicdn.net/img/2019/9/14/2144264/large.png
That was an interesting side plot for this show. The questions we're left asking about Trixie, Gallus, and Gruff puts this scene on the level of things like Marble crying at Big Mac and Sugar Belle, or the line "Applejack cries on the inside."
*5121399
We're all just pass the point of caring about this show handling any concepts of degrees and training. The closest we've gotten to secondary education in Equestria is Maude's 'Rocktorate,' and some other schools Pinkie referenced in "2, 4, 6 Greaaat." Actually, both those had to do with our Element of Laughter... Education is literally gag fodder. Which is a bit of a shame, this episode actually explored things like the mindset and communication skills needed in education. Also, I DID just do a small essay about Trixie fitting as a counselor, so...
**Actually, forget Diamond Tiara and her mother, has Starlight ever had a scene with any of the CMC? I'm sure they've shared scenes together, but was there ever a conversation?
5121765
I can't fully blame the writers, given the whole "School of Friendship" thing was an executive mandate, but yeah they really have not tried all that hard to care about just what skills/training you need to be a competent teacher. As you also noted, Sunburst is pretty much the first pony to work at the school who is actually legit qualified to do so.
5121635
derpicdn.net/img/view/2019/9/16/2145691.png
There. I fixed the problem.
Doesn't change my feelings on the overall situation, but it's better than nothing.
5121635
...are you OK? You sound like you could use a hug.
As for the cards themselves, this was another fun batch, though I admit i'm still not entirely used to the Throne of Eldraine mechanics. Here are a couple of thoughts on specific cards:
Narrow the Field: I'm not entirely sold on this being a black card. While direct creature destruction is traditionally black's turf, balancing effects have typically belonged to white.
Do Lunch: Am I the only one who finds it a touch odd that Food is implemented as artifacts?
Abraxias the Bold: Why, oh, WHY did you go putting this guy in blue? He'd've made perfect Ghired tech! Also, I'm fairly certain that he's supposed to be legendary...
Born (to) Rule: Ahh, HERE'S our Ghired tech!
Anyway, that's all from me for now. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for Daring Doubt.
I am pretty much on board with Trixie's journey ending where it does. Every time it's explained to her what she's doing to antagonize people, she either tries to blameshift or she's the picture of defensive befuddlement because she doesn't want to appear weak. She's the embodiment of the phrase "You can only help some people so much."