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

@Vivace  
lel k can see why the last episode somehow failed for me

@Vivace  
That was part of it but I’m pretty sure The Last Problem the title is referring to is how to keep friendships going over the years when everyone has different things to do. Which the answer is that you have to make a conscious effort to work at it.

Yunno when I figured out about today’s episode? Grandpa Gruff might actually be a better griffin than we think! I mean, think about it: Gallus never had a family, knowing griffin culture they wouldn’t even consider taking him in, but Grandpa Gruff did take him in and raised him as his own! Now, yeah, I’m sure he’s always been a jerk to him, but that’s how griffins are.
 
Not only that, but Gruff is constantly sending Gabby to Ponyville for updates on Gallus, I mean WHY would he do that if he didn’t care? And in today’s episode, Gruff said “Gallus doesn’t need to know I’m proud of him.”, that’s implying he IS proud of him, but he wouldn’t say it. He’s grouchy and bitter on the outside, but in the inside, he has a heart of gold! I like Grandpa Gruff!

@Background Pony #8A54  
@cheezedoodle  

 

And now I really wonder who that chick is, and how Gabby fits in.

@IceKitsune  
Yeah, that’s a more thorough explanation.

Headcanon time:
 
Grampa Gruff always treats his charges sternly, encourages them to be rambunctious, and feigns indifference to their troubles, but actually has a heart of gold and keeps a close watch on them, because he knows that griffon culture is tough and these kids need to be tough and independent to survive out there. He’s most concerned about Gabby, because someday some griffon is going to take advantage of her earnest, trusting nature.

@IceKitsune  
@Vivace  
I mean, if it hasn’t by now, how could it?

Semi relevant, but personally I would have enjoyed Dragon Dropped if instead of the boring and sueish Gabby, Spike’s secret penpal has been Gilda, and how part of the episode had been about Rarity trying to figure out how these two could have become friends, and her clumsy efforts to prove that Gilda was trying to take advantage of Spike all along.  
Because if Spike could befriend a walking nuke like Ember, why not befriending Gilda as well?

Good episode, right?  
Starlight is talking to plants  
What does Twilight want?  
Starlight to be her successor?  
Twilight needs to be where right now?  
Poor plant  
Theme  
Next week we’ll be up to scratch  
Trixie is acting like an obsessive girlfriend  
So hire Trixie, Maud and Sunburst then?  
A vice headmare will be a great idea, they exist in real life…  
Great and powerful, huh?  
Oh no, it’s Spoiled Rich  
That’s not Chantal Strand  
Octavia of all ponies?  
Trixie…  
Big Mac ain’t so bad here…  
Spoiled on the other hand…  
Octavia and the doc are doing fine, they’ll be music and science  
Trixie needs to learn to do better  
Yeah, Spoiled is a no, but Trixie… Just isn’t great with the boring stufff…  
Seriously Phyllis?  
Parent-teacher conferences  
Another thing for the Bingo  
Octavia and Doc are okay, Trixie is…  
Use your words, Mac  
Trixie just started a war  
Mac at least left willingly…  
And we have the story for the second half of the episode  
Trixie could do it  
Some of the students are enjoying it  
Doc screws up here, but can’t say he didn’t try  
Captain obvious  
She’s doing what?  
Oh, it’s those electric bees again  
Teamwork? That wasn’t teamwork  
And Octavia wins  
Starlight is making a big mistake  
Did Tara just phone it in here?  
This anger/regret cycle is why I relate to Starlight  
At least they quit of their own volition. It was their choice.  
Sunburst, of course  
He’s hired  
The new what?  
Trixie can try…  
Oh, that was Chantal Strand. Wat
 
@Anonycat  
Probably didn’t want to get Gilda’s VA, I don’t know who voices Gabby. What did the leaked script say I wonder?

@Anonycat  
Gabby is fine but her voice.

@Hakirayleigh  
I think that squeak is really endearing.

@Hakirayleigh  
Gabby was a shameless Nu-staff effort to push a character who was totally better than all other Griffins made by the original show staff, especially since the series had previously made clear that Griffins are greedy, agressive and selfish by nature, so Gilda deciding to be nice was a huge deal for her whole race and suddenly boom, here comes this new character who’s practically a Griffin messiah.  
That’s the same reason why I couldn’t like Smolder no matter how much I tried to.

@Anonycat
 
And it worked.

@Dustcan  
For some people, yes. For others, definitely not.

@Anonycat  
It’s almost like it’s a lesson for real life: they’re suggesting that young people have the opportunity to rise above the prejudices and habits of their culture or family.
 
Smolder, Ember, Spike, Yona, Silverstream, Ocellus, Gabby, and Gallus are all examples.

@Anonycat  

Perhaps it was due to this problematic idea that it was felt a nice griffin was necessary?
 
Or perhaps it was simply felt that viewers wouldn’t care whether or not Gabby got her cutie mark if she was a jerk.

@cheezedoodle  
Or it was simply a shameless effort from the new staff to shove aside the original staff’s characters and push their own stuff to get sure it could get them a place on G4’s legacy before the series ended. Who knows?

One of the main failings of the series is that it really never did give us a reason to care about the other races.
 
“A handful of them are achtually decent people!” doesn’t really help when at their core they… really don’t bring anything to the table.
 
Like, thanks, but they’ll just stick to their own people since they tend to not be assholes on average and are ponies, the most powerful race in Equestria now, having domesticated or exterminated any found to be too spooky-looking for their taste.
 
No example are as egregious as the damn yaks, parodied endlessly as having destruction embedded in their culture and all ways of life, including music. We’re told that they’re important, but then we get shit like Yona trying to break out of the stereotype only to instantly devastate a ball room and have everyone trip over eachother apologizing for it to avoid a diplomatic event.

@Anonycat  
Me, because that argument is dumb and the idea of griffons all being like that was barely a season old at that point anyway.
 
 
@Poison Trail  
Yeah, that’s what Equestria did for the last thousand years or so. It’s a wonder how quickly things move when your Princess of Friendship decides alliances count!

@Poison Trail  
They did have a Star Trek kind of Planet of Hats problem with the other races.

@Anonycat  

 
Yes, I’m certain that “solidifying their legacy” was priority #1 in the minds of the season 8 and 9 writers. Jesus Christ.
 
@Poison Trail  
The other races are expies for strange cultures with different traditions that aren’t “wrong” so much as they are “different” and potentially intimidating. The show just teaches that it’s worth it to see things from their perspective and try to get along with them.

@cheezedoodle  
Really? Because it mostly seems to me that their cultures exist as negatives to be overwritten by pony cultural values. Hence the Equestrian-backed regime changes and the mission Indian Friendship School.

Gabby certainly made the underlying problem with the griffins seem less relevant.
 
And it’s unfortunate because abject poverty is so far removed from friendship’s realm of influence that i would have liked to see how they tackled that.
 
Surely we could have lost one yak episode to go back for a second look.

@cheezedoodle  
In the Silverstream case, The Queen Novo was the only with issues about another creatures…The other ones were ok with ponies.