Season 9 Discussion Thread [Warning: SPOILERS!!!!!]

@Background Pony #8C52  
At least since the genie is out of the bottle, it hurts a little less.

@Background Pony #8C52  
Perhaps because the worship and slavish devotion of a certain group of “fans” has convinced said writers they can do no wrong? That, maybe, just maybe, they know that whatever nonsense they peddle it will be defended to the death by the adoring ”you can’t criticize The Holy Writers because I SAY SO” types that have become so prevalent?

@Vivace
 
As for the people who went something like “hey, why didn’t Chrysalis just ask for food for her poor children…”
 
Well, it became obvious that not all of that would work out, y’know… on account of that not being who Chrysalis is.
 
(Aside from her probably not being their biological mother)

This is twilight and her friends after 20 years we talking about.

I honestly feel like people big up these things as not making any sense. For weeks I’ve been hearing about how the Discord reveal doesn’t make any sense and they just instantly forgive him for it and yadda yadda yadda.
 
But then I watched the episode and, like, this plan completely fits with how he’s been acting this entire season. And they are PISSED at him about it. He needed to literally save their lives for them to get that he was genuinely sorry.
 
And no, this isn’t just me liking EVERYTHING the show does. I found the second part of the finale pretty weak. It’s a repeat of Twilight’s dilemma from The Beginning of the End, which just isn’t that interesting, and the one new wrinkle they have for it, they don’t focus on enough (which is that all of Twi’s confidence crumbled because she believed it was all built on a lie). That and the whole “All ponies are turned on each other” thing doesn’t get nearly enough focus to be truly believable.
 
 
There’s already plenty in this two parter that doesn’t get enough time, I don’t know how you would’ve included Grogar being another boss fight as well.

@gingerninja666
 
All we got to suggest him being the entire team-up was his engineered “defeat” to Sombra and his speech. Even then, he laid it on thick, it was exaggerated, even for him.
 
The rest, being able to flawlessly mimic Grogar through using some form of magic that’s far too stable to be his own chaos magic and the bell happening to contain “modular” magic that can fit anyone it’s given to, those were complete ass-pulls.
 
There’s a reason nobody saw it coming. The first 5 minutes of the episode are essentially smacking the viewer over the head while yelling “ARE YOU SURPRISED?”.
 
Yes, it does explain how the goat with a divination tool isn’t able to figure out that his all-powerful artifact is in the same building as he is, it also made for an impressively paced two parter which snuffed out the unnecessary right away, it did manage to do some good.
 
But that twist? Fuck that twist. It was nipped in the bud the moment we saw “Grogar” cast spells as though they were his own, even when nobody was watching with the summoning/resurrection circle that brought back Sombra.
 
“He’s so good at chaos magic that he’s able to cast any spell now, except he only does it in this particular scenario just because, lol”.

@gingerninja666  
maybe make it a three parter, or give it more build-up episodes.
 
i refuse to believe they couldn’t make room.

Here’s my take on the Appledash stuff they’re talking in the finale. If they want to say that they’re in a relationship, they did a bad job at it, because there isn’t a whole lot for me to go on. It leaves me with more questions than answers. Maybe Rainbow Dash was trying to pick up Applejack from the farm, and she suggested doing the chores herself so Applejack doesn’t take so long. Also that pairing would feel really forced and surprising given the popularity of Rarijack. But what I think is actually going to happen is that in a conversation on Twitter, Appledash will either be shot down, or left to the viewers interpretation. I would be shocked if they confirmed it.

@PonyPon
 
I actually agree that it should’ve been a three parter. but if it was then the extra part should’ve been put towards the Trio’s plan to turn Equestria against itself. You needed a Summer Sun Setback tier caper, only on a grander scale, for that to be believable.
 
The biggest missed potential for me wasn’t the Grogar thing. The best thing about the Discord twist, from a narrative standpoint, is that by revealing that everything Twi has done is seemingly a lie, it’s also the perfect way to shatter her confidence in a natural way. After how well she’s been doing, how confident she’s been getting, having this bombshell dropped on her is brilliant I think. It’s a great darkest hour set up before the final second wind. It’s the culimination of Discord’s dickish mentorship, which he was doing more in this season but also it’s been a staple of Twi’s relationship with him for seasons. The missed opportunity is that how he crushed her personally isn’t given enough time. He should’ve made amends to HER, not to Twi’s friends.
 
The Discord twist doesn’t bother me because I think it’s a more interesting conflict. The finale’s failing is in not capitalizing on that as much as it should’ve.

@gingerninja666  
The problem is the twists feel like a last minute change.

@gingerninja666  
It was strange that Grogar hadn’t had plenty time to explain a better plan to defeat the mane6, Starlight or the young6…But I remember Starlight final plan was only messed Twilight´s head up for all eternity and I didn’t give any buck about better villan plan for the rest of the show.

@PonyPon  
There’s a lot of stupid bullshit in the season they could have easily gotten rid of to make the season’s main arc more coherent, but there’s still a ton of bullshit in the finale they still got to fix
 
The twist is still god awful. Grogar was a great villain in G1 and showed a ton of promise in G4 and for them to pull the rug under us for the sake of going “OH WE GOT YOU GOOD!” is a huge slap in the face to anyone who wanted to see him in FiM on top of making Discord a huge piece of shit who actively ruins the whole season and some of the best episodes.

@Wiimeiser
 
I dunno, maybe they were, but in retrospect, Discord got a LOT of focus in The Beginning of the End. Like, early on the episode makes it clear the whole two parter is only happening because Discord is allowing it to happen. It’s flat out said that he could’ve stepped in and stopped Sombra at any time. But he didn’t because he wanted to teach them a lesson. So already we had evidence that he was willing to let people believe that they were at risk. Which came to a conclusion in the finale. Then in Summer Sun Setback he was talking to himself knowingly about how the gang are ready “for WHATEVER comes next”. We then instantly see Grogar right after.
 
As I said, it could’ve been a last minute decision, but it still fits with how he’s been acting.

I wasn’t the only one who had some appreciation for how Celestia was pissed off at Discord in the first part, right?
 

@AC97  
Probably not, but more than likely not for the same reasons

@Kiryu-Chan
 
I wonder if the twist would’ve been more accepted if they just didn’t use the name Grogar.
 
I don’t think it made Discord look like a monster, but that angle would still be there for those who were bothered by it. But you also wouldn’t have the added weight of the show seemingly promising “Grogar”
 
The twist reminds me of the Mandarin twist from Iron Man 3. I HATED that twist more than words could describe when I first saw the film. So I do sympathize. Now though, watching the film again, I genuinely like it a lot more.

@Background Pony #3359  
AppleDash is also pretty popular, & Rarijack is given way more subtext in EqG, which is pretty distinct from the rest of FiM.

@Vivace  
I haven’t seen Appledash in years.

@Background Pony #8C52  
Opinions on the twist aside, I could so buy Discord saying all of those lines.

@Background Pony #80A3  
Or maybe the writers aren’t ruled by fan opinion, but rather have their own ideas?
 
 
@Background Pony #3359  
They clearly want to strongly but deniably hint at it - and in spoken lines, so it can be omitted from certain dubs.

@Latecomer  
In other words, it’s up to the viewer’s interpretation?

@gingerninja666  

 
Even as someone who thought the Mandarin Twist was hilarious I totally understand why people hated it especially given he was supposed to be one of Iron Man’s bigger foes. It got bad enough that they had to confirm him to be real when the movie was released on Blu Ray
 
That said it was still better executed there than here. Killian gets a lot of spotlight and makes it really obvious he was the major antagonist in the move while the twist made more sense in context of the story with him being the mastermind behind everything. The twist with Discord just causes a lot more damage than it does helps and the excuse of it being “a test for Twilight”, “Discord just being Discord” are terrible excuses

@Background Pony #3359  
Yep!

@Background Pony #357C
 
Celestia showing real anger is kind of just something I like hearing and seeing, y’know?
 
Probably because I appreciate Nicole Oliver’s voice.

@Kiryu-Chan  
There are really two aspects to the twist - the Discord part and Grogar being a red herring - and I do think they’re being conflated a bit. I’m a lot more in favour of the latter than the former.