Tags
Applejack, finale, Fluttershy, Luster Dawn, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, Pinkie Pie, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, review, Spike, The Last Problem, The Magic of Friendship Grows, Twilight Sparkle
Synopsis:
Many years after the events of “The Ending of the End”, Princess Twilight Sparkle (who also now runs Celestia’s former School of Magic) and Royal Advisor Spike have a meeting with the former’s top magic student: Luster Dawn. Luster isn’t sure the school is the right place for her as Twilight has placed an emphasis on friendship, and she sees friendship as largely a waste considering the fact that, in spite of Twilight’s own history, she now seemingly rules Equestria alone–indicating that friendships are doomed to inevitably fade. This prompts Twilight to tell her the story of her coronation day:
Twilight Sparkle and Spike are preparing to leave the Castle of Friendship for Canterlot Castle for the last time, and the reality of the situation that she is leaving her friends behind is beginning to dawn on Twilight. She attempts to go to each of the Mane Six, but all of them apparently brush her off and are totally focusing on making her coronation perfect. The end result leaves Twilight depressed and saddened and, when it’s time to leave, she angrily vents her feelings to them before she sets out–at which point they reveal they were all focusing so much on her coronation to try and not think about the fact they were losing her as well. While the six share a good cry, unfortunately this ends up delaying all of them, and although they all rush off to Canterlot together their respective planning is ruined and the coronation is a spectacular disaster. Nevertheless, the fact they were able to do it together allows the girls to take it in stride, and, for her first decree as ruler of Equestria, Twilight establishes the monthly “Council of Friendship” to allow them all to continue to be together and maintain their friendship.
Twilight concludes her tale as the rest of the Mane Six arrive, revealing they not only continue to rule Equestria together but have maintained their friendship all these years. Luster realizes that friendships don’t have to fade away and, as such, they are more important than she originally thought. Nevertheless, she worries she’s spent so much time on studying she doesn’t know where to start. As a result, Twilight sends her to Ponyville to learn about friendship, and the episode ends with the Mane Six and Spike wishing Luster well as she runs off with her first new friends.
Review:
At long last, here we are. Although IDW Comics at last was released to have full creative control to write their own concept of what Season Ten might be, this is, for most conventional purposes, where the story of “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” at last comes to a close.
Lots to say here, so let’s get started with the episode itself.
First and foremost, the advantage of knowing this was the final season enabled the writers to give this series the send off it deserved. Rather than trying to squash the events of this episode into “The Ending of the End”, we get an entire episode devoted to an epilogue. And really, after nine seasons, this show deserved that–a way to close things out that didn’t require sharing screen time with villains or a dramatic plot. And in probably the best way it could have handled it, it both closed out the final chapter on the Mane Six while showing how their relationships with each other gave rise to the Equestria of the future.
It has its flaws, as many episodes do. Twilight teleports the girls onto the train rather than all the way to Canterlot for one thing. Cadance, Shining Armor, and Flurry Heart are largely forgotten as characters except for a stained glass window. Celestia and Luna’s final appearance isn’t quite as big as it could have been. An annoying thing is that while the girls seem to have advanced past being middle-aged in the finale, Lil’ Cheese and Big Mac and Sugar Belle’s son appear to not be that old. And while the resolution to this episode was fitting, it was also predictable and…has kind of been done. Ever since Sunset Shimmer wrote “Dear Princess Twilight” at the conclusion of “Rainbow Rocks” we had a sense that things had come full circle. It seemed to happen again at a smaller scale when Twilight brought Starlight Glimmer to Ponyville at the end of Season Five.
Alright, all that crud is out of the way… Ignoring all that, this episode was great.
Much like its predecessor “Slice of Life”, this episode managed to not only cap the series but tie in to the audience’s own heartstrings. After nine seasons of fun, friendship, and happiness, for those of us who stuck with the series to the bitter end, this whole episode is like saying goodbye to a good friend. When I watched it, as much as it reminded me of how much happiness and joy it had given me, the fact that it was the finale kept giving it a bittersweet feeling. Enough to where it left a hole behind when it was finally gone. How I realized I had gone on my last adventure with the Mane Six and that, like with all good stories, it was finally time to close the book and put it back on the shelf. For all the negativity, the criticism, and the fandom toxicity, the show was still something warm, bright, and comforting. (Ironically, it went away right when the world probably needed it the most…right before the 2020 pandemic struck.) When the girls break down and cry with Twilight…I think all of us were crying a bit as well when it was finally time to say goodbye.
However, just as it should have, it went out with one final lesson: about how important it is to make sure your own friendships never die out. That for all those still watching, this friendship might be over, but now it’s time to go out and cherish the ones you have. Wrapped up with an emotional and satisfying end to those six wonderful mares and the world they shared with us, the show not only managed to cross that final hurdle but burst through the finishing line.
And now, looking back, I find myself wondering about the phenomenon that was “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”.
It was a wild ride to say the least and while it picked up a lot of passengers along the way…sadly a lot of us got off the train before it hit this final station.
“My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” came out at the confluence of a new wave of writers and animators. Individuals who had grown up in the 80s and 90s. This was an interesting time, because we were the first real generation to have lasting, fond memories of our animated programs. For better or for worse, the constant attempts to make merchandisable cartoons in those eras left a lasting impact on our nostalgia. To this day, we remember them with fondness and grace. However, our generation also grew up in the era where anime and manga became mainstream. Slowly, the societal viewpoint that cartoons and comics are “just for kids” had faded away. As a result, this show came out when a revolution arrived. When American cartoons tried to make their shows as appealing for the adults in the audience as the kids. It was part of that wave that started with “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and in the gang along with “Adventure Time”, “Steven Universe”, and “Gravity Falls”.
Many more have come since then, to the point where it’s more of the new standard. As that happened, viewership dropped off. There was a brief time in which the show’s fan community seemed to take a life of its own. Around Season Three and Season Four, we had an ever-growing number of individuals putting out beautiful fanart, spectacular fan music, and animations and fanfictions that were honestly breathtaking. More and more bronies and pegasisters were entering the vernacular at cons and it was gradually getting accepted. IDW Comics actually made a killing by embracing it.
And yet, all of that dropped off as the fans became toxic. Criticism and gatekeeping ran rampant and drove away new and old fans alike. The initial surge of popularity that came with the show’s freshness and ingenuity diminished as newer and better programs came. And unlike many of the others, this series was ultimately designed to sell toys for Hasbro. The network it aired on likely kept it around for lack of any other better programming that yielded real revenue, even as it kept changing ownership hands, to the point where many of us wondered if it would simply be cancelled before getting a proper season closure.
So…what does that mean? Was this show never more than an act of luck combined with a desire for profit? Did it get by on novelty alone? Was it just the flavor of the week?
I can’t speak for the fan community, or what’s left of it, as a whole…but it was never that to me.
Ultimately, “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” will always be something that had far more care, attention, and love put into it than it deserved. What could have been a shameless cash grab or just pandering to whatever made kids go ooh and ahh or simply laugh instead ended up being a wonderfully written, charming, colorful, wholesome piece of work. And while people may complain that it lost some of the magic once Lauren Faust and the original writers moved on, I maintain that some of it always stayed behind. There were always points of brilliance in every season. There were always times that made me giggle. There were always moments that impressed me. The mere fact that after nine seasons I felt myself mist up during the final episode and knew I’d be sad to see it go meant that it was something precious to me.
What I will always remember this show for is that it didn’t let its original purpose dictate it. While whoever produced this show only had the interest of selling little dolls from a popular franchise, everyone else who was involved was intent on telling a good story with good characterization. And that, really, is what makes “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” not only a great series but, I dare say, superior to what we’re getting today for most kid’s entertainment. When Disney tries to cash in on nostalgia, you know they’re trying to cash in on nostalgia. When Hollywood tries to signal virtues to sell something, you know they’re trying to signal virtues to sell something.
The people behind this series had more integrity than that. Their first and foremost priority was making great characters. The Mane Six and many others in the series were ultimately more dynamic, more realistic, and more complex than any other characters you would find on a Y-rated show. And it was because they were so fun, dynamic, and wonderfully made that you could get away with them putting out fantastic episodes over things like going to a party or running a race or saying hi to a new person in town. They had such energy and personality that the show managed to be wonderful by just showing you how wonderful individual people can be.
Nowadays, so many things try to tell people…and especially girls…that there’s some sort of set of traits you have to show off to be great. That there’s some checklist that basically amounts to making a character a Mary Sue to be someone to look up to. This series showed something that is growing increasingly (and scarily) controversial: showing that you can admire flawed heroes. That flaws are things not to never have but things to either grow past, to recognize and deal with, or to even be humble enough to lean on someone else to help you overcome them. That being great isn’t an end destination but something you continue to work toward and learn your whole life.
Most of all, and best of all, it shows that there’s not this one archetype of a “strong female character”. Twilight is a socially awkward nerd. Applejack is a brash and stubborn farm girl. Rainbow Dash is a cocky and arrogant athlete. Pinkie Pie is a silly, overexuberant clown. Fluttershy is a shy and meek recluse. Rarity is a somewhat shallow drama queen. And you know what else they all are? They’re all strong, they’re all independent, and they’re all heroes and role models in their own right, without any of them showing that any of the others are inferior to them.
Wow…it’s almost like being a strong character isn’t because you can beat up a bunch of guys or succeed at everything, but because your character is, you know, STRONG.
Unfortunately, in retrospect, there’s one item in this episode that made me fear for any potential future.
When Rainbow Dash and Applejack walk in, their dialogue suggests that they’re now a couple. Now, fans had been putting “Appledash” in shippings together for years. Ever since “Fall Weather Friends”. However, even though this season even called out that term as a joke, the writers have always been against it. In most of their interactions with each other, Rainbow Dash and Applejack are competitive and trying to outdo one another. There were never any true indications of any romantic attraction (in fact, in spite of Pinkie Pie getting married, Rarity was the only character in nine seasons of the main series who ever showed any indication of desiring a romantic relationship). And the show already had two lesbian couples: Lyra/Bon Bon and Aunt Holiday/Aunt Loftie. Yet they wanted to put this in as well.
That…makes me a bit nervous. Nowadays, more and more shows and movies are putting characters and things into them just to check boxes, rather than putting any meat or character behind it. A character is there just to show a thing rather than being a good character. One of the things I liked about “Steven Universe” was that even though a large part of it dealt with themes of gender and orientation, its characters and plot were so well rounded and developed that I feel it was something that everyone could appreciate. The show even went out of its way to have characters who modern society would simply outright dismiss and ignore as bigoted and prejudicial as being complicated in their own right, and made attempts to sympathize with them, their background, and their personality rather than just say they’re “trash people who should be shunned”.
With the news of the new G5 series that’s coming, and the fact that the show’s new staff is calling out a number of “virtue buzzwords” about their main character, I’m anxious about the future. In my experience, whenever a show’s staff feels the need to call that out about their character and draw attention to that as their main appeal…it usually means they don’t have much of a character other than that to go off of. It usually means that the point is an agenda rather than a story. It usually means they’ll soon dismiss their critics by saying: “oh, you just hate __________ or __________ and that’s why you don’t like the show”, while it will get undue praise simply for checking another box.
It makes me fearful, and a bit curious, as to whether or not “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” is a show that could even get made today without having to slap people over the head with a few obvious moral lessons. Like it or hate it, this show treated its audience with respect and intelligence for the most part. And I hope, if nothing else, that will remain its legacy. Even if G5 tries to flush that away (I’m already uncomfortable with the fact “The Last Problem” ends with Princess Twilight Sparkle turning Equestria into an interspecies utopia…while the focus at the get-go of the new series is going to be how Equestria has degenerated into racism and segregation), I hope that’s a legacy people not only remember about it but continue to love about it. I hope one day that the life the series had of its own returns or at least endures from now on, just like shows like “Star Trek” and “Doctor Who” before it.
To close on this episode and the entire series, I will quote Captain Kirk in “Star Trek: Generations”.
“It was fun.”
Fun Facts:
Although this was the final episode, one last special featuring the MLP:FIM Mane Six aired the following week, “Rainbow Roadtrip”.
Canterlot has expanded greatly, now extending all the way down the mountain and through and over it.
Kirins ended up being so popular from Season Eight that they feature prominently throughout this episode in spite of only appearing in “The Sound of Silence” and “The Ending of the End”.
The older statues are still present in Canterlot, but have gotten older and more cracked.
Spike mentions Abyssinia. Although this location appears continuously in the IDW Comics, this is one of the few references to it in the main series.
Twilight Sparkle, obviously, closely resembles Princess Celestia now, not only in height but also in barding. Her mane also now flutters of its own accord and sparkles as well. Her crown is literally the fusion of Celestia and Luna’s.
Luster Dawn is voiced by Sabrina Pitre. While she has some other voice acting roles (including in the MLP Movie and “Rainbow Roadtrip”), she’s more known for her film editing career.
Stained glass panes of events that happened sometime over history: The CMCs accomplished something (impossible to tell because the glass pane is only partially revealed); the Student Six triumphed over what looks like a large lava monster; Flurry Heart doing something with the Crystal Heart. Naturally, there’s also a stained glass window of the victory over Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow…although neither the bison nor the kirins are included in it.
Countess Coloratura cameos on the cover of the Foal Free Press that features the victory over the three villains. Derpy/Muffins apparently has made it big…baking muffins. There’s also a picture of Lyra and Bon Bon’s wedding. Cranky Doodle Donkey gets an article…for some reason.
Twilight…you could have teleported to Canterlot instead of the train to Canterlot… :X
Gordon Ramsey Pony appears yet again in the Canterlot Kitchens. They really got a lot of mileage out of that cameo…
Many of the one-shot characters from throughout the series appear during the coronation. Among the guests: the dragon all the way from Season One’s “Dragonshy”, Tempest Shadow/Fizzlepop Berrytwist, Capper (his one and only series appearance), Doctor Whooves alongside a pony with a “Rose” for a Cutie Mark (they actually appeared in “The Ending of the End” as well), and Babs Seed (her only other appearance).
On re-watching, I really dig Luna’s summation of the coronation: “Close enough.” 🙂
“Boneless” is up to his sixth incarnation.
Lil’ Cheese has her Cutie Mark. It’s a…cheese pie. She appears to share some of her mother’s “abilities”.
In spite of how physically young they are, Celestia and Luna retired to Silver Sholls.
So…the Castle of Friendship was just abandoned when Twilight left? 😛
With less than a minute to go in the entire series, Sunset Shimmer finally appears in a regular series episode…kinda. 😦
Luster Dawn’s new friends from Ponyville include a yak, a griffon, a kirin, and an earth pony stallion with a hamburger for a Cutie Mark. In all of this new interspeciesism…did ponies embrace being carnivores?
The final episode ends with the closing of the storybook opened at the start of the first episode.
Where Characters Ended Up:
Gallus Griffon – Joined the Royal Guard of Canterlot. While one could make the argument this is merely reflecting of how the future Equestria is a place for all species, I tend to think that what happened with Gallus is that he eventually found his true “home” in Equestria and considered himself more a pony than a griffon. The fact that Gallus isn’t much larger than he was as a child indicates that griffons age very slowly.
Princess Flurry Heart – Accomplished something monumental, but we never know what exactly. The only indication is a stained glass window in the royal hall that has an older version of her with the Crystal Heart.
Pinkie Pie – The only one of the Mane Six to have a family (married Cheese Sandwich; had a daughter Lil’ Cheese). Her mane has grown larger and wilder, and the “hammerspace” that it makes up is now looser and exuding materials.
Rarity – Opened international boutiques for all sorts of creatures. The fact her mane has begun to turn gray indicates she might be the oldest of the Mane Six, although based on the Season One flashback she can’t be by much.
Rainbow Dash – Apparently moved up in the Wonderbolts, although she looks as if she might have retired by the end of the series. Dialogue suggests she married Applejack.
Applejack – Never left the farm, but that only figures. She braids her tail now and wears a kerchief like Granny Smith used to. Dialogue suggests she married Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy – Still maintains the Animal Sanctuary and lives with Discord, although it’s unclear if they’re more than friends.
Discord – Is still Discord. 😛 He apparently is still a fan of “Ogres and Oubliettes”, although it looks like Spike and Big Macintosh don’t have time for it anymore. He apparently assists with the sanctuary by using his own chaos dimension to house and transport additional animals.
Diamond Tiara & Silver Spoon: Elected to remain in Ponyville.
Lyra and Bon Bon: Elected to remain in Ponyville.
Derpy: Still a mailpony. You rock on, Derpy.
Carrot & Pound Cake: Took over Sugarcube Corner from their parents. They still keep in touch with Pinkie Pie and her family.
Cheese Sandwich: Is still a super duper party pony to this day.
Gummy: Eventually grew to full size. Yikes.
Silverstream: Possibly an instructor at the School of Friendship. She appears to have moved to Ponyville.
Starlight Glimmer: Still headmare of the School of Friendship.
Sunburst: Still vice headmare of the School of Friendship.
Trixie Lulamoon: Still head counsellor of the School of Friendship. She finally swapped out her starry cloak for a starry suit.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders: Full-time instructors at the School of Friendship.
Ocellus: Possibly an instructor at the School of Friendship. She appears to have moved to Ponyville.
Smolder: Possibly an instructor at the School of Friendship. She appears to have moved to Ponyville.
Big Macintosh & Sugar Belle: Still run Sweet Apple Acres together. They have an unnamed stallion son, but based on his Cutie Mark, his name is probably something like “Apple Cupcake”. 😛
Yona Yak: Took over Rarity’s original Carousel Boutique. Appears to have married Sandbar.
Sandbar: Appears to have married Yona.
Angel Bunny: Sired an entire brood of wretched hellspawn.
Rating:
4.5 Stars out of 5