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

@Anonycat  
I wonder what will happen NEXT after that. She will take over the throne of Thorax or what?

@E-123  
Going by what the current show staff think it’s writing genius, I suppose Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy will all glow, tranform into beautiful versions of themselves, get a friendship montage and walk into the sunset while Twi and company comment how much they have grown and how proud they are about them.  
Hey, that is basically how it worked for Poochie.

So I’m slightly buzzed at the moment and slightly bored so what better time than to write up my thoughts on the first half of the season!
 
So overall, this season is challenging season 2’s spot for me as one of the best seasons of the show, at least this first half. There was only one real clunker here (Uprooted) with the rest at worse being just ok. There has been a lot of effort to me put into this season in term of writing.  
First off the Mane 6 are being written well here. No longer there because the writers feel they have to put them in, instead there because they feel like they can add something, do some character exploration of the Mane 6. Like Sweet and Smokey isn’t really about Fluttershy but they use her character in a way that makes sense, is good for the episode and give her character a chance to shine, and they’ve done that with all of the Mane 6 sans Pinkie who simply hasn’t had an episode yet. And they’re also doing the thing I’ve wanted them to do with the Mane 6 for a while now, have them interact with the secondary cast. Like who would have expected Yona and Rarity to have some moments together or Fluttershy and Garble? Expanding their role while not necessarily overshadowing it.  
Another thing is that the school is much better used here that part of me now thinks a bunch of these episodes were originally planed for season 8 but then they got word in that there was going to be a season 9 so they took a bunch of episodes and held them off for season 9 and then rushed in a bunch of subpar episodes to fill in the gap for season 8. Like She’s All Yak actually has the Mane 6 be involved with helping a student instead of blowing off the school, ignoring the school or actively showing why they’d be terrible at the school. And because of that the Student 6, while not all that engaging still, come across as much more natural than how forced they felt in season 8.  
And on to Starlight. Yes yes I still don’t like her but after 3 fucking seasons, they finally FINALLY have figured out the role she should have always been in Secondary Support. Not getting the fucking lion’s share of the season or getting shoved into stuff and showcasing “just how good she is”, no instead here she has 4 scenes (one as exposition, another where she’s just there to be written off and another where she’s mind controlled) and one episode dedicated to her and her group but that’s it. So yes she’s still there but it’s at the rate it really should have been at, at a Discord/Big Mac level of appearance.  
As for the stories in and of themselves, like I said the only really bad one IMO is Uprooted, and that was in how overall boring it was. The rest of the episodes at worse are middling and even then I have to be rather critical on them. Like Common Ground is a nice episode. Sure it doesn’t have a ton of energy and seems to be more a celebrity vehicle but it’s got a unique moral and good characterization so I still enjoyed it. Student Consul’s plot is held together by the thinnest of paper but its got really witty banter. But really a lot of these episode really showcase a good showcasing of the character IMO that gives them more of a grounding on them than say the overblown fan service that was season 7.
 
So my overall ranking at the moment is:
 
2>9a>=5>4>1=7>8>6>3
 
Lets see how the second half goes

@Anonycat  
Poochie?

@E-123  
What he unflinchingly calls Starlight.

@E-123  
What @PonyPon said.

@Anonycat  
Poochie died on his way back to his home planet… Starlight’s still alive. Is she gonna sacrifice herself and turn into a statue to save the day in the finale?

@hironakamura
 
Turn into statue? What’s with this show and it’s constant need to turn living beings into stone?

@Twi Clown  
Because some people want her to go the TT Terra route.

@The Equestrian Zodiac
 
Sorry but I don’t watch Teen Titans so I’m not inclined to such end for pretty much anyone.

@Twi Clown  
OR get banished to Limbo like the Apple Parents.
 
But its actually a trope used by a specific kind of character being “too good for this world.” Normally it would be death but to make it kid friendly, they just turn into a statue, or get banished, or sleep a forever dreamless sleep.

@hironakamura
 
Don’t you think a better destiny for any character should be, you know, living A-OK? I would feel like shit if a character I like dies or suffer any of the mentioned fates like Twilight, so I would never propose those fates for her.

The Beginning Of The End:8.8  
Uprooted:9.1  
Twilight’s Seven:9.2  
The Point of No Return:9.4  
Common Ground:9.3  
She’s All Yak:9.0  
Frenemies: 9.3  
Sweet and Smoky:8.2
 
 
 
>>2048607t (merged)
 
Time to rehash something i wrote for the episode:
 

@Anonycat  
Idea: the original Changelings transformed because their original form was forced on them and had no individuality. But since Chrysalis has always had a unique look and likes her current form, maybe she can keep it even when good.
 
Also, if they have a happy ending with a big montage and a musical number, it will be amazing perfection!!!

Am I the only one who is fully satisfied with the first half of the S9 (I’m counting also eps 10 to 13, watched those already)? Most of its eps have been really good in my eyes, and I haven’t seen any kind of derailment/flanderization in character portrayal (the closest think to that I can think of is Twilight freaking out over… highlighters in Uprooted, that’s the only moment I legitimately disliked in the season so far…).
 
Granted I do have a few gripes with the season: Uprooted could have been done better, it was basically Castle Sweet Castle with the Young 6 instead of the Mane 6 and without most of its emotional parts; and while I liked them, I think that She’s All Yak and Going too Seed could have been putted aside for something more important/engaging. But these are minor problems, nothing in the season made me mad so far (surely nothing was bad like Non-Compete Clause, Matter of Principals and Yakity Sax, THOSE are what I define BAD episodes). Overall I’m very satisfied of the season so far, I don’t see anything wrong in it so far….

@Twi Clown  
Its a joke. I don’t think this show can handle death even though its a very heroic way to end character arcs. Look at Optimus Prime. He dies all the time. Then Hasbro back pedals and he comes back to life.

They should kill off Celestia, Luna and Discord, so that the Mane Six feel completely helpless against the villains and then they actually lose to them in their inital battle, because the villains now have the power of friendship too. And at the time, their friendship is stronger since the Mane Six started blaming each other for the death of the Princesses and Discord.

What’s the next episode?

@Selaphiel
 
Going to Seed, i think.

@Mildgyth  
I think they could have easily solved the episode’s problem.
 
Dragon eggs not hatching!?
 
Easy!
 
Just hop onto a bike and ride back and forth for 400 times or so. Until they hatch.

@Twi Clown  
Because for the show staff, too many things are taken for granite.  

@Mildgyth  
That was one of the worst episodes of all time to me. I give it a 0/10.

Wait, Going to Seed fucks up the entire time line of the Apple family.

@EotD  
Drink, & it’ll make some sense.