Episode Re-Review: The Last Problem · 4:11pm Jul 18th, 2021
This is it, the grand finale for all of FiM. After nine seasons and just over 220 episodes, this is how it all ends. It really does seem fitting that they would end it not with one more two parter but with a mostly stand alone episode, perhaps because "The Ending of The End" was so polarizing because of a badly thought out twist that destroyed a character, on top of some other questionable writing decisions that made what should've been an epic final battle feel kind of like a let down. And since Josh Haber had taken the reigns of the show by now and the episode scripts were being finalized in late 2017 when the big movie had just wrapped up, it was fitting that he would get the final episode all to himself. Yet there are quite a few who insist on declaring that this episode is bad or that it's not canon (I'm not one of them). Every ending is always going to be controversial no matter what, though as shows like The Simpsons will attest it's important to end at some point, preferably before things really get bad. We know there were lots of things they wanted to do in Season 9 that they ultimately decided against, and we now know that the Season 10 comics by IDW are coming to an end, meaning FiM will see an end to its continuity outside of fan works. With all that in mind, is this the final episode that the show deserved? Or did it only cause FiM to go out not with a bang but a whimper? Well, let's find out. Get ready for the feels.
The episode begins with a title card stating "Many Moons Later", which would work better if we ever found out what moons is in measurement. Supposedly it's a decade or so after the events of "The Ending of The End", but if that's the case why not just say it outright?
Anyway, The Treehouse of Harmony is now an official landmark that tourists come to visit, and the Legion of Doom are still trapped in stone from what we can see. Then we cut to Canterlot as we see what Twilight and Spike look like now. Spike's design is really good, not gonna lie. It feels like the kind of design you'd expect him to have all grown-up. Twilight's, however, is just a lazy recoloring of Celestia's character model. And it's jarring to hear them both speak in the same voice they've always spoken. You'd think Spike at least would have the pitch on his voice lowered to go along with his increase in size. They never say it outright, but Twilight is officially a queen and not a princess. So I guess that makes her like Elsa of Arendale.
And because the cycle must repeat itself, Twilight has a student of her own in the form of Luster Dawn. It's worth mentioning that Luster Dawn was supposedly planned to be the child of Starlight Glimmer and Sunburst, which may explain her color scheme. However, Jim Miller shot down the idea because he thought it wouldn't make sense. And I have to agree to an extent. Because if Luster Dawn was Starlight's daughter, I have a hard time believing she wouldn't know the truth about Twilight's friends or come to believe what she believes here, that there's no need for friendship because Twilight doesn't see her friends anymore. Naturally, Twilight says that that's nonsense and decides to tell her student a little story, making most of this episode a flashback.
The flashback takes place shortly after the events of "The Ending of The End" and is mostly just to tell the story of Twilight's official coronation as the new supreme ruler of Equestria. I'm a little bit miffed that she has to pack up and move back to Canterlot with Spike in tow. I don't see why she couldn't issue a decree moving the capitol city to Ponyville. There's historical prescedent for various countries moving their capitols for a variety of reasons, sometimes political and sometimes strategic (I mean, the U.S. originally had a capitol in New York City, then Philadelphia and then Washington D.C.). But that aside, Twilight is getting ready to leave and is more than a little unhappy at having to say goodbye to the place she's spent her past several years in. She decides to go talk to her friends, who are all busy with their own preparations for the coronation ceremony. But none of them seem the least bit concerned. They all state that things change and that stuff like this is inevitable.
This causes Twilight to have something of a breakdown when she thinks her friends don't care at all that she's leaving. It isn't until the day the coronation is to be held that her friends show up and see this breakdown, causing them to confess that they're actually sad to see her go. The reason for their earlier indifference is because they were trying not to think about it in the hopes that it would make it easier to cope with. However, they kind of mess up when Rainbow Dash yet again tries to act tough and cool and has to be shamed into feeling the same way. Maybe in some cases it was funny, but here it just makes her unlikeable.
So after this tearful confession, Twilight realizes that she's late for the train that's supposed to take her to Canterlot. She and her friends all rush out the door, blowing past Starlight Glimmer who had a gift she wants to give Twilight. Twilight then decides to just teleport herself, Spike and their friends into the train (which is apparently a public express and not a privately charted one, maybe that's for security purposes even though we don't see any royal guards anywhere?). But CJ still won't be catching up to this train anytime soon.
Lots of last minute preparations have to be carried out as a result of Twilight nearly missing the train. Still, she arrives in Canterlot and it looks as if everything will be just fine. Oddly enough, only Twilight is dressed up for the occasion. No one else in the audience is wearing anything special, and none of Twilight's friends or even the royal sisters really seem to be wearing anything fancy. I'm going to assume the animators did this just to save time so they wouldn't have to bother animating dresses and suits. But it still feels weird to see everyone all dressed up when Twilight debuted as a princess, and this coronation is apparently not a formal occasion despite it being the first transfer of power in over a century.
And somethings go wrong due to the fireworks being set off earlier than planned, the Wonderbolts flying into the wrong position, a star spider escaping its pen and getting onto Twilight's dress and things like that. Twilight even has to make a leap down from the balcony to avoid an explosion. There's also a mix-up in the food and beverages that was caused by a sleep deprived Big Macintosh, which Applejack glares at him for. But that's pretty rude of Applejack to do. She knows her brother is a married stallion now and doesn't have as much free time as he probably used to have. Why was it up to him to double check things and not Applejack herself?
The flashback ends for a while as Luster Dawn questions what the point of it was. But Twilight explains that the coronation being a disaster was not what was important. Then, one by one all of her friends show up. Pinkie Pie arrives first with a child in tow named Lil' Cheese (though Jim Miller said the actual name was probably something like Cheese Slice). Now, according to both Jim and Josh, Lil' Cheese is supposed to be a boy. However, the animators clearly reused Pinkie Pie's filly model which led most people to assume Lil' Cheese was a girl. It seems that Josh Haber never communicated his intentions to the animators, so they only knew Lil' Cheese was Pinkie Pie's kid and decided to save time by recycling Pinkie's filly model. This also means that CheesePie is officially canon, since who else do you think Pinkie could've had a kid with that would be named Lil' Cheese?
Rarity shows up next with a bit of grey hair (Pinkie has a lot of candy stuck to her mane and tail) and mentions Yakyakistan, though we don't know if she has a boutique there or if she was there on vacation. After that, we have Rainbow Dash and Applejack entering as they mention chores. Supposedly, this is meant to be them arguing like an old married couple. But it's vague as to what's going on with them, so it's not an outright confirmation of AppleDash. What is interesting to note is that Rainbow Dash now has Spitfire's hairstyle, and Applejack is wearing Granny Smith's necktie. Fluttershy is the last to arrive, looking fairly good with her restyled mane and tail. Discord is with her just to drop off a packed lunch, and Fluttershy says he's on his way to an Ogres & Oubliettes convention. Again, they don't say if she and Discord are living together or not, so it's vague as to what could be going on with them. I have to say though, I'm not the biggest fan of Applejack or Fluttershy's designs, something about the way they style themselves just feels off. Anyway, we only know for sure that CheesePie and LyraBon are canon (we saw a picture of the latter on their honeymoon in a newspaper earlier). Luster Dawn then questions how they could all be here if they never saw each other again after the coronation. But Twilight resumes the flashback as she explains the rest of her story and what really happened.
In the flashback, Twilight makes her way to the table as she and all her friends laugh off the absurdity of the coronation and how bad the ceremony went. Then Celestia and Luna stop by, now without their crowns and horseshoes (they molded their crowns into a joint crown for Twilight to wear) in order to express their support. They then mention that they'll be retiring to Silver Shoals in case Twilight needs them. After that, Starlight and Spike show up and reveal that they'd been busy in the weeks leading up to the coronation gathering memories for a special book that Twilight would take with her. This was the framing device for some questionable clip shows that as of yet have not officially aired but were posted on YouTube in 2020 (I think they were meant to be aired in the run-up to this episode, before Discovery Family opted to merge it with "The Ending of The End" just to be done with the show).
This makes Twilight realize that her friendships are important and need to be maintained. So she decides that her first order of business is to establish a council of friendship that will meet "once a moon" (I guess once a month or so?). And that's just what she and her friends are doing in the present. Friendships can change Equestria, and Twilight wants Luster Dawn to experience that too. She then decides to send her student to Ponyville as the episode, Season 9 and the show end with one final song in the form of "The Magic of Friendship Grows". It's a beautiful song with a lot of interesting visuals. We see Pound and Pumpkin Cake all grown up and running Sugarcube Corner (Gummy's also all grown-up and Cheese Sandwich has a grey hair or two, I'll bet Gummy is a terrific bodyguard), Starlight and Sunburst are together at the School of Friendship (Sunburst looks so good with that full beard of his) though Trixie is there too. I should mention that Gallus was seen earlier serving as captain of the guard under Twilight, though his character model wasn't changed. We then see Smolder, Ocellus and Silverstream at the school, while Sandbar and Yona are apparently together at Carousel Boutique (they could be living there temporarily or working at it, and despite what I initially thought the pony we see exit the boutique has no similarities to them so it doesn't automatically confirm the ship). We even see the CMC with their adult designs from "Growing Up is Hard To Do", the only thing that that episode served any kind of purpose in.
From there, the song takes on a sort of anime opening/ending as each mane six member gets a background with all sorts of characters related to them (and some with no connections at all). We then see Luster Dawn go off with a few other creatures, including a griffon, a dragon, a buffalo (glad someone remembered they exist) and a kirin. I should also mention that the bags seen under the eyes of all the mane six minus Twilight were apparently an animation error. Fittingly the final scene sees the book from the first episode be closed.
And that's the story, so what do I think of the episode? Quite honestly, I know it be an unpopular opinion but I think this was as good a send off as FiM could've asked for. It's by no means perfect and seems to exist primarily to show off Twilight's coronation since they probably decided they couldn't cram it into "The Ending of The End". But I think it's great that they showed that this is not the end but a new beginning, even if it's kind of the cliche "Where are they now?" kind of ending. It really does feel like the quality of the show was at a tipping point and could only go downhill from here, and given what the unofficial Season 10 has shown us I think that's a valid point. No one would've wanted to see this show end up like The Simpsons.
I do think this episode could've been expanded to show more, particularly with Luster Dawn. And the things the animators did convey a sense of hurry up and get it done, which seems to be the mentality behind most of Season 9. It's maybe not the best ending ever, but it's as good an ending I think the show could've hoped for. The story of Twilight and her friends is complete, but there is still lots of areas for expansion in fanfiction. As for Twilight appearing to be immortal here animation error or otherwise even though G5 has officially confirmed even she is dead, it was never stated for sure that alicorns were immortal. Notice that we didn't see Celestia and Luna, or even Cadence in the future. It's possible that alicorns live longer, or that connection to the crown prolongs your life span. But we knew Celestia to be over a thousand years old but not thousands of years old. It's entirely possible that Twilight is aging, albeit slowly and she intends to start preparing Luster Dawn to one day succeed her.
So ultimately, I'm willing to give this episode an A+. Season 9 as a whole is an improvement over Season 8, not that that's saying much when Season 8 was almost the worst season of the show. But it seemed to inherit a lot of Season 8's flaws due to the faster turnaround rate, particularly in the student/young six and Cozy Glow. So ultimately, it falls short of being the best season of the show by a good margin. A good final season but as "The Ending of The End" can attest it could've and should've been given more time to be the best it could be. And with that, my re-reviews have officially come to a close. Thank you all for joining me on this journey.
This is my favorite TV show finale of all time.
It's one of only a handful of episodes that made me tear up multiple times.
As for season 9 as a whole, I really like it.
Seasons 7-9 in general is my favorite era of the show, with my overall favorite season usually being either 8 or 9.
Personally, I was not impressed by this episode in the slightest. For a time I was neutral towards it, but now...not so much.
When it comes to being canon with the rest of the show, the future scenes held the least amount of plausibleness. Not only was the time gap between it and the present time unclear, but the depiction of this supposed “future” was openly unbelievable. It left too many questions that are generated in a way that hardly gives much creative encouragement, and the scenes contradicted the present time too much. To me, at least.
Luster Dawn had no reason at all to question why Friendship was needed since the answers were right in front of her, and she was also nothing but a carbon copy of Twilight. Not to mention the very existence of the character was questionable. Had the moments in the present also been translated to something more emotional and heartfelt rather than be like a situational comedy then this episode would’ve felt like a conclusion. And, while Lyra and Bon Bon were never my favorite characters from the beginning and them becoming a couple was something I expected, the revelation that they officially became a lesbian couple did leave me peeved, because it openly put the show in the list of ones that are all “politically correct”.
All in all, I honestly prefer “The Ending of the End” more.
5556698
My favorites are Seasons 1-7, as well as the 2017 MLP Movie.
Oh also, I'm one of those people who don't really consider what AJ and Dash said to each other to really mean anything significant shipping wise.
Okay despite the reputation of season 8 and 9 got it wasn't that bad that people keep raving about yes there is some is opportunities to use the characters and how they can go a different way but it's not that bad and I think they ended the series pretty well if you ask me
Edit and I'm not too surprised that people still don't agree what I said and that's why I got this dislike but that's just my opinion if you don't like it that's fine but I still say it's not that bad of a seasons
5556740
😃Me too!
So after over half a year, I bet it feels good to finally be done with this re-review project of yours.
Also, yeah even in spite of its flaws, this episode was a better send-off to Friendship is Magic than Holidays Unwrapped was to Equestria Girls.
Last but not least, with this being the series finale, it's time for me to share the first and last speaking lines of the main cast and some of the supporting characters. Now similar to what I did with Chrysalis in the previous re-review, I'm actually going to be using Applejack, Spike, and Spitfire's second lines since technically their first spoken lines are "Yeehaw!", "Ow!", and "Uuh!", respectively, and I just don't feel like those one word sentences work well to introduce their characters.
Applejack
Big Macintosh
Fluttershy
Gallus
Pinkie Pie
Princess Celestia
Princess Luna
Rainbow Dash
Rarity
Spike
Spitfire
Starlight Glimmer
Twilight Sparkle
5556758
Ditto.
This episode sucked as badly as Seasons 8 & 9 mostly because it followed through with most of the terrible concepts introduced in said seasons. They really should've just stopped at Season 7 and the 2017 movie...
5556698 I wouldn't say this is the greatest TV show finale of all time. It might be one of the better ones from its year, but I've seen better finales in both animation and live action, both in western animation and in Japanese anime.
5556865 Season 9 would've been better had they had time to learn from the mistakes of Season 8, which would've benefitted from Hasbro not pushing that School of Friendship into the penultimate season. Why shake things up so much and then render them completely moot next season in the finale?
5556708 "The Ending of The End" would've been better if not for that stupid Grogar twist. If it's in character for Discord to do something so unnecessary, so stupid and so reckless, show no remorse for it even when caught, and actively stab the villains he aided in the back while escaping consequences, then he is a bad character that should not be on the good guys' side anymore. He should be trapped in stone again for all time since apparently even Fluttershy can no longer be counted on to serve as a morality anchor for him. That one twist almost singlehandedly ruins so many other things throughout the two parter, though it also doesn't help that Cozy Glow continues to be a weak link, the villains we see don't do anything interesting and benefit largely from ponies being stupid and easily manipulated, the windigos returning feels more like window dressing than anything else and the pillars, the royal sisters, Shining Armor and Cadence and even the CMC are all denied opportunities to shine.
5556875
I don’t deny that one, but still…”The Last Problem” was even more problematic than “The Ending of the End” in so many ways, and it’s all because of the things I mentioned. All the setbacks the Main Six had also made them look like incompetents more than anything else.
5556876 Oh really? They've had setbacks so many other times at important events. I mean heck, their first ever Gala was a disaster. Why is this particular instance supposedly them being incompetent? They were prepared, but their plans got thrown out of whack because they had to say goodbye to Twilight.
5556878
Because it does not give a great impression of whether Twilight will prove to be a great sole leader of Equestria or not. The Gala was different since Twilight didn’t have to prepare for something that was on a greater scale than that. She didn’t have to worry about the responsibilities of ruling Equestria then.
5556884 So you're going to judge her ability to rule based on things that were out of her control? Things that she had no role in? Maybe you should be judging her based on her reaction to all of it. Her reaction to the unexpected. Besides, a true test of a ruler is not in a time of peace or during a coronation, it is during a crisis.
5556891
*sighs* You’re right. I shouldn’t.
However, I just wish Twilight’s coronation didn’t play out like it did. It was too much like a needless situational comedy because of all that happened. Not to mention the entire episode felt like a mindless filler more than something genuine. If they had focused straight up on the coronation while giving the story a sense of something genuine and heartfelt, then this episode would’ve likely been better. The whole thing with Luster Dawn also gave the indication that Twilight’s story was part of an Equestrian life cycle that would continue with her protege, which is a prospect I wasn’t fond of.
5556895 Come on, Sunset Shimmer alone established that Twilight was not exactly unique in being a student of Princess Celestia. In fact, you really think Twilight having a personal student is any different than what she was already doing with Starlight Glimmer in Season 6?
5556905
Different times. Different circumstances. With them, it didn’t seem like they were going to become princesses later on. In contrast to them, whatever sort of plans that were laid out for Luster weren’t very genuine either. The relationship between Twilight and Luster also felt more like a rehashing of Twilight and Celestia’s teacher-student relationship, and so did the circumstances revolving around Luster.
5556911 What plans? The only thing the episode for sure established was Luster being sent to Ponyville to learn about friendship. It's pure speculation on my part that Luster Dawn could be a successor to Twilight one day. It's entirely possible that even if that's the case, Luster Dawn will reject that destiny.
5556913
Or become a corrupt antagonist later on considering she wasn’t all that likable, no?
5556914 You don't like her as a leader at all?
5556929
What?
5556931 You believe Luster Dawn would become a corrupt antagonist based solely on what we saw in one episode? For the record, Twilight was just as dismissive of friendship back in Season 1 in the pilot.
5556934
No. I’m just asking if that could become a possibility.
Luster’s honestly one of my least favorite characters because of her bland personality and overall character.
5556936
Well to be fair, this is the final episode and roughly half of its story is told in flashback. Those details alone pretty much guaranteed that Luster Dawn's character wasn't going to be fleshed out.
Where did you hear Twilight is confirmed dead?
5556955
Another reason for why I’m not fond of this episode, and for why I don’t like Luster Dawn.
The show team introduces a new character, and they don’t put any care in her to help her stand out?
They didn’t even think about whether her very existence would be logical or how it would work. There’s not even a single explicit reason for her to question friendship in the first place considering she’s constantly playing witness to the benefits of it herself.
This I agree on. Twilight’s “future design” was openly lazy and unoriginal, and it’s another reason for why I dislike this episode. It makes Luna and Celestia less unique as characters too, and it does not leave me with a good feeling about Twilight.
5556934
Even if Luster likely won’t become a villain, you can’t deny that she’s an openly bland and uninteresting character, can you? And that the direction things were ultimately getting taken in with her was openly cliche?
5557272 How does a recoloring of a character model do anything to change one's perceptions of a character? It just sounds like you're looking for any excuse not to like the episode just because.
5557260 There's been tons of characters introduced for one episode only that arguably didn't stand out much. Why single out Luster Dawn for being arguably in the same boat as Moondancer, a Twilight expy who doesn't believe in friendship?
5557308
Hey, I’m just saying. They could’ve done so much better with Twilight’s design. It’s all part of my displeasure with the overall depiction of this “future”, and the direction of the story as a whole.
Plus, Moondancer honestly had a lot more personality and sense of dimension. Whereas Luster…not so much. She was basically a one-dimensional unicorn who doesn’t seem to be the kind anyone would really care for.
5557312 Just because you don't care for her doesn't mean others don't anymore than it means that because you care about a character that others automatically feel the same way.
5557336
I want to say I know what you’re talking about, but I’m not exactly sure. Would you care to clarify?
Meh.
Twilight is still not a capable ruler. I mean... Tia and Lulu forced it on her for no god damn reason. >:/