Best (And Worst) of Season 9 · 12:05am Nov 21st, 2019
Well, figured it was about time I got around to doing this, now that I'm taking a very short break from writing.
Best Song
The Magic of Friendship Grows
There's no question I'm going to give this to the series' closing number. Daniel Ingram and the other songwriters of the show have done an amazing job these past nine years, and they certainly went out on a high note. The fact that the cast sang in the order that Twilight met them in episode 1 was a phenomenal touch.
(Runner-up: Better Way To Be Bad)
Most Unexpected Moment
Li'l Cheese
I think the way they went about the final episode, leaving quite a bit up to fan speculation, was the best way they could go about it. Pinkie Pie is the only one shown to have clearly started a family.
Hardest Heartstrings Puller
The Last Problem
Just, this entire last episode. In my head, it was at least a 20-year jump, and there are so many pause-worthy moments, especially in the closing minutes, to see how Ponyville and it's populace has changed, and in some ways, stayed the same.
Best Face
Cozy Glow in General
Do I need to say more?
Best Background Gag
Lyra and Bon Bon
Part of me doesn't want to call it a 'gag', but the way this ship moved from fanon to canon was certainly blink-and-you'll-miss-it.
The newspaper shown in the final episode showed that they did indeed tie the knot.
Worst Episode
2, 4, 6, Greaaat
And once again, (part of) the Student Six end up saving what very little is salvageable from this train wreck. Part of me wonders why Silverstream isn't part of the squad, then part of me understands why she isn't; she could be a cheer squad all on her own.
Still, Rainbow, and especially Twilight, suffer some of the worst character reversions in the entire show here.
Worst Character
Cozy Glow
This isn't so much a critique on Cozy Glow, as it is on the writers for Seasons 8 and 9, who confessed that they really hadn't thought up any origin story for Cozy, and went with the child villain purely for the unexpected nature of it.
The Last Jedi taught us all; subversion for the sake of subversion does. Not. Fucking. Work.
Period.
Cozy Glow is a textbook psychopath, which was a great twist, but without an origin, it's all for naught.
There is one single avenue she has to become absolutely amazing; the comics. Here's hoping IDW can do what DHX didn't.
Well, there are my opinions. Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments below!
For a lot of these “best of” listicles and polls for Season 9, I feel like each one needs a separate version of where people can’t count stuff from the last episode.
Well maybe we shouldn’t be “attacking” an artist for a product?
That's my goal for sure! I want it to be done for Cozy to give her the proper love! ;-;
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You create a series-ending villain with no origin story in mind, and put her there SOLELY for subversion's sake?
That, and ALL art, is absolutely open to criticism.
Same
5158257
Criticism, truly useful criticism in good faith, is not suppose be an attack on someone.
(EDIT)
And to be clear I think everything else you’ve posted here is fair criticism and appropriate, even if I don’t totally agree with it. We just shouldn’t conflate the process with some synonymous with hurting someone.
They needed more back stories for certain characters.
Some of the villains are there for being evil yes but what made them that way in the first place. They're made nor born.
Oh snap, I didn’t realize!
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I really, REALLY wanted to see what Starlight did when she got her cutie mark. What was she doing when she got it? How did she feel?
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Probably the same thing than what Sunburst did but with a lot more practice and effort
5158261
Poorly worded; I meant critique more than 'attack'.
I would agree that I would have loved to get more backstory on Cozy Glow, but as a villain, I still consider her to be the best villain in S9. She was totally out to kill the Mane Six, and if she got her way back when they were trapped (rather than Chrysalis intervening), things would have ended much differently.
Totally agree with episode 15 being the worst episode. I didn't realize that they sang in the order Twilight met them before though, but now that I think about it, that is what they did and I love the song even more knowing that.
It looks like we have different views when it comes to Cozy Glow. Would I like to know her origins, of course. I however like to think she has horrible parents who simply dumped her at Twilight's school and that is why she is the way she is. That is why she got in touch with Tirek....to get back at ponykind, those who she felt had wronged her in general. Now I personally like her quite a bit. She is adorable and she truly is a little baddie that out of the three, I think would have been the last to reform. I could see had they brought in Gram Gram, she would have got Tirek reformed and probably grabbed him by the ear and dragged him home. I'm sure they could have found one way or another to get Chrysi to reform but Cozy, she was simply too far gone to reform. The only ones she was going to befriend were fellow bad guys.
It looks like we have differences on the worst episode too. For me it was The Last Problem. I simply did not care for that episode at all. I wasn't a fan of Twilight being a re-color of Celestia.....well I was never a fan of Tia and Luna retiring to start with. I wasn't a fan of them just discarding Friendship Castle because suddenly Twilight had to move to Canterlot to run the country. I absolutely hated them having Pinkie get married and have a kid. She never reminded me of that type and the implied Fluttershy x Discord, that was beyond horrible in my opinion. And I didn't like how they had Starlight and Trixie dressing up in their handling the school and the mere presence of sunburst was.....ugh, disgusting and the beard made him cringe material....but then again facial hair on ponies just ain't natural to start with....it makes them look too human. And Spike, he looks like a steroid popping body builder, a FREAK.
And Luster, just another Twilight....basically starting the same cycle all over again. Overall regarding the episode, only "Uncommon Bond" is worse than it is. Sorry to those who liked it but I simply didn't like this "many moons in the future thing." I think they could have made the battle in episodes 24 and 25 more epic, carried it over into 26 and then spent the last 10 minutes on Twilight's coronation.
We can sure hope the Season 10 comics give us some back story. Otherwise we'll have to look at the "unendorsed" fanfics here. Yes, since its conception I have found the IDW comics to be like stories "By Bronies, For Bronies", but not until the continuity errors started to get bigger did I decide they weren't canon.
However, if we don't get anything on Cozy Glow, I'll just say she was as much born evil as The Good Son. Seriously, that's the kind of vibe I got once I realized how evil she actually was.