ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 22/10/16 - Written by John Haber & Michael Vogel
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
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It's been awhile, since I last did an MLP Episode review on this blog. In fact, not since "Dungeons And Discords" got analysed back on the 1st September has one been posted. While analysing the episodes is still fun for me, putting it down in a blog every week proved difficult to maintain, especially when some episodes happened on the same weekends as WWE PPV's meaning I had to prioritise my wrestling reviews over them. However, even with that happening, I wasn't going to miss the finale, as it's always worth relaying an opinion on regardless of other things getting in the way, which thankfully this week of all weeks isn't a problem for once.
While the episode has been out for a week or two thanks to the unexpected POP TV airings here in the UK, I've somehow avoided spoilers outside of the brief synopsis that adorns the official pages with it revolving around Starlight Glimmer's position to be in charge of saving Equestria from a villain, and needing a group to help her. Outside of that, I have absolutely no clue what will happen. I can't believe I've managed to to avoid spoilers for this long, then again it'll help ensure this two-parter remains surprising on the first viewing. However, it's how it turns out on the SECOND viewing that's the most important and what this review is based on. It will define whether the end of Season 6 can be better than the average way it started back in March.
To put it bluntly, I can't wait any longer, lets dive into this thing!
While the episode has been out for a week or two thanks to the unexpected POP TV airings here in the UK, I've somehow avoided spoilers outside of the brief synopsis that adorns the official pages with it revolving around Starlight Glimmer's position to be in charge of saving Equestria from a villain, and needing a group to help her. Outside of that, I have absolutely no clue what will happen. I can't believe I've managed to to avoid spoilers for this long, then again it'll help ensure this two-parter remains surprising on the first viewing. However, it's how it turns out on the SECOND viewing that's the most important and what this review is based on. It will define whether the end of Season 6 can be better than the average way it started back in March.
To put it bluntly, I can't wait any longer, lets dive into this thing!
STORY AND NARRATIVE
If there's one thing I know about the synopsis that Discovery Family and Hasbro release about episodes, is that they often reveal too much. Thankfully, this two-parter had its synopsis remain intentionally vague, amplifying the notion that we're going to get surprises here. While some aspects did, what surprised me more was just how well constructed this whole story was, and it offered up a lot to be pleased about when looking past its apparent simplicity.
With two plot points of Starlight's anxiety about going back to 'Our Town' and the Changeling Invasion, it allowed the episode to have its underlying plot and be padded out to still have points of interest that all its time could be poured into something, meaning the state of equilibrium didn't last too long in this episode, getting progressively worse for a good reason, to fill the viewer with a sense of dread that a post-evil Starlight still had its dangers, as if "The Times Are A Changeling" wasn't apparent enough at highlighting. The structure of the story also bucked finale convention but leaving its ending open with Chrysalis rejecting the fate that befell Starlight herself and escaping, it leaves us with a revenge storyline that really intrigues and it was a great twist to ensure we were pumped about what would happen come next season, something last seasons finale failed to do. The pacing was consistently steady, not going too fast or slow and allowing for the music and character interactions to carry themselves without having to rush, with Discord teleporting our 'heroes' to the outskirts of The Changeling Kingdom and Thorax negating a reason to go to The Crystal Empire helping avoid any potential stretch of the story to ensure that the pace remained uniform without any unnecessary elements being added. Also, due to this finale having characters who've never been in this position before, the writers could play with our expectations some more, as when all seemed good in our 'heroes' favour, it still wasn't clear that they would get out alive, something that prior finales had fallen complacent on, as Starlight's inexperience in this kind of situation left us guessing whether it could be done. The balance of drama to comedy was skewed more in favour of the former, with minute elements of comedy coming through but not disrupting the dark mood of the episode as a whole, breaking up the tension but to allow the tone to remain remarkably consistent.
The episode also THRIVED on showcasing sublime continuity, with Starlight returning to 'Our Town' for the first time since the end of last seasons finale, Luna referencing how The Mane Six would help Starlight like they helped her post-Season 1 and her similarity to Twilight's pupil, Trixie being a great friend to Starlight while also intentionally getting under Twilight's skin after the events of "No Second Prances", Discord's love for Fluttershy being even more apparent and his resultant magical deficiency making him succumb to weakness and be put down a peg for the first time since "Make New Friends But Keep Discord" last season, Thorax had to return to his hive having left it at the end of "The Crystalling", and finally with Chrysalis returning for the first time since "A Canterlot Wedding" and referencing her past failings, all seemed right in giving this story enough weight to ensure all these characters felt worthy of tackling this story with what was behind them.
While I may sound incredibly positive in this long, detailed sum-up of the story, it wasn't without fault, however that fault for me would have some dire consequences that ensured that a top rating couldn't be reached. Firstly, The Changeling reveal was quite obvious and easily foreshadowed. If the dialogue changing and shifted character personalities didn't tip you off, the animation cues were there to support them, and even if THAT didn't work, the sight of Spike drawing stink lines around a pony before their reveal all but compounded things. Then again I'd already figured out through deduction and a process of elimination that Chrysalis was the ONLY former villain who could've made an appearance prior to the episode airing, so it wasn't a surprise to me, then again I don't think it was a surprise to many either, making this twist not have the bite expected. Secondly, and most damming of all was the sense of time didn't correlate with the pace of the episode at all. I say this because I wonder how the core characters arrived at the Sunset Festival with it being almost over when it hadn't started by the time The Changeling Invasion started. It was a week-long event as noted by Starlight, with her receiving her invitation and travelling with Trixie taking at least two in-world days to complete on its own, while traveling back probably taking another. The day the Changeling Invasion was uncovered is when it probably did start, with another day coming to view with the heroic quartet arriving at The Changeling Kingdom, they arrive at the hive by sundown, only for daylight to emerge when it is destroyed and thanks to Discord's teleportation taking no time, I'm certain its the same day of arrival in getting to the festival. To me, having the festival be 'almost over' given that length of time makes absolutely no sense and ruins the structure of the story with the most ridiculous of plot holes. Sure, I can understand the writers wanted the story to come to a close in a lovely resolution of this part of Starlight's story but doing it at the cost of world time progression wasn't a good idea as the hole it created leaves me with an inconsistency so bad, it comes at this categories cost.
So, as a result, while we got a very well structured, intense and fun story that was paced and toned to perfection with continuity and and a good use of narrative helping, it was foreshadowing and an inconsistency with time that stopped it from reaching the top marks it deserved. I'm sad to have to say that and it might be me nitpicking, but with FOUR DAYS having passed since watching the episode to have that issue still irritate me when it crosses my mind proves that this episodes story while great, fell at last hurdle after running a perfect race beforehand. It is something this episode didn't need to have happen to it, but as this is life, these things can happen sometimes and it's unfortunate to have leave a black mark on an otherwise great category for this episode.
With two plot points of Starlight's anxiety about going back to 'Our Town' and the Changeling Invasion, it allowed the episode to have its underlying plot and be padded out to still have points of interest that all its time could be poured into something, meaning the state of equilibrium didn't last too long in this episode, getting progressively worse for a good reason, to fill the viewer with a sense of dread that a post-evil Starlight still had its dangers, as if "The Times Are A Changeling" wasn't apparent enough at highlighting. The structure of the story also bucked finale convention but leaving its ending open with Chrysalis rejecting the fate that befell Starlight herself and escaping, it leaves us with a revenge storyline that really intrigues and it was a great twist to ensure we were pumped about what would happen come next season, something last seasons finale failed to do. The pacing was consistently steady, not going too fast or slow and allowing for the music and character interactions to carry themselves without having to rush, with Discord teleporting our 'heroes' to the outskirts of The Changeling Kingdom and Thorax negating a reason to go to The Crystal Empire helping avoid any potential stretch of the story to ensure that the pace remained uniform without any unnecessary elements being added. Also, due to this finale having characters who've never been in this position before, the writers could play with our expectations some more, as when all seemed good in our 'heroes' favour, it still wasn't clear that they would get out alive, something that prior finales had fallen complacent on, as Starlight's inexperience in this kind of situation left us guessing whether it could be done. The balance of drama to comedy was skewed more in favour of the former, with minute elements of comedy coming through but not disrupting the dark mood of the episode as a whole, breaking up the tension but to allow the tone to remain remarkably consistent.
The episode also THRIVED on showcasing sublime continuity, with Starlight returning to 'Our Town' for the first time since the end of last seasons finale, Luna referencing how The Mane Six would help Starlight like they helped her post-Season 1 and her similarity to Twilight's pupil, Trixie being a great friend to Starlight while also intentionally getting under Twilight's skin after the events of "No Second Prances", Discord's love for Fluttershy being even more apparent and his resultant magical deficiency making him succumb to weakness and be put down a peg for the first time since "Make New Friends But Keep Discord" last season, Thorax had to return to his hive having left it at the end of "The Crystalling", and finally with Chrysalis returning for the first time since "A Canterlot Wedding" and referencing her past failings, all seemed right in giving this story enough weight to ensure all these characters felt worthy of tackling this story with what was behind them.
While I may sound incredibly positive in this long, detailed sum-up of the story, it wasn't without fault, however that fault for me would have some dire consequences that ensured that a top rating couldn't be reached. Firstly, The Changeling reveal was quite obvious and easily foreshadowed. If the dialogue changing and shifted character personalities didn't tip you off, the animation cues were there to support them, and even if THAT didn't work, the sight of Spike drawing stink lines around a pony before their reveal all but compounded things. Then again I'd already figured out through deduction and a process of elimination that Chrysalis was the ONLY former villain who could've made an appearance prior to the episode airing, so it wasn't a surprise to me, then again I don't think it was a surprise to many either, making this twist not have the bite expected. Secondly, and most damming of all was the sense of time didn't correlate with the pace of the episode at all. I say this because I wonder how the core characters arrived at the Sunset Festival with it being almost over when it hadn't started by the time The Changeling Invasion started. It was a week-long event as noted by Starlight, with her receiving her invitation and travelling with Trixie taking at least two in-world days to complete on its own, while traveling back probably taking another. The day the Changeling Invasion was uncovered is when it probably did start, with another day coming to view with the heroic quartet arriving at The Changeling Kingdom, they arrive at the hive by sundown, only for daylight to emerge when it is destroyed and thanks to Discord's teleportation taking no time, I'm certain its the same day of arrival in getting to the festival. To me, having the festival be 'almost over' given that length of time makes absolutely no sense and ruins the structure of the story with the most ridiculous of plot holes. Sure, I can understand the writers wanted the story to come to a close in a lovely resolution of this part of Starlight's story but doing it at the cost of world time progression wasn't a good idea as the hole it created leaves me with an inconsistency so bad, it comes at this categories cost.
So, as a result, while we got a very well structured, intense and fun story that was paced and toned to perfection with continuity and and a good use of narrative helping, it was foreshadowing and an inconsistency with time that stopped it from reaching the top marks it deserved. I'm sad to have to say that and it might be me nitpicking, but with FOUR DAYS having passed since watching the episode to have that issue still irritate me when it crosses my mind proves that this episodes story while great, fell at last hurdle after running a perfect race beforehand. It is something this episode didn't need to have happen to it, but as this is life, these things can happen sometimes and it's unfortunate to have leave a black mark on an otherwise great category for this episode.
RATING: 4 out of 5.
WRITING AND VOICE ACTING
Instead of The Mane Six, we had four reformed villains take centre stage to save Equestria, with all of them showing their strengths and weaknesses while the quartet balance the tone by having two focus on the drama (Starlight and Thorax) while the other two created the comedic relief the episode needed (Discord and Trixie). All four characters got good development out of it as well, which makes this episode one of the best usages of a 'collection of secondary characters' I've seen on this show. Starlight got the biggest rub of this, showing herself to be a good leader in spite of her self-deprecation, using her past and worries as her biggest weapon as she helped save Equestria much like her teacher did five seasons prior. Trixie showed off her double edged sword personality with vigour, something that "No Second Prances" struggled with, reminding me why I love her so much. She was a good best friend to Starlight by offering her good advice and sacrificing herself for the good of the team, while also re-affirming her anti-Mane Six attitude that stemmed from prior seasons, which when combined with the hyperbolised amount of fear and reactions she had stemming from that initial interaction five seasons ago, made her come across in this episode as a much more elaborate character in comparison to the hatesink we first met in "Boast Busters", while proving more hilarious in the process. Discord was his usual over the top self, but added even more emotional complexity when it came to Fluttershy's wellbeing, which was quite incredible to see. Having the Lord Of Chaos losing his ability to do magic may have seemed a bit much, but in context it worked wonders for him in realising how useful he is without it, and by showing a weaker side of him we could see him in a more sympathetic eye, something his Season 5 episodes couldn't achieve where this episode and "Dungeons And Discords" managed to pull off with gusto. While that is all well and good, his position at the forefront of the comedy and his biting wit alongside made him feel important to the group despite not offering much once in The Changeling Kingdom. Thorax had the least amount of significant character progression of the four, still being the re-assured and curious critter that had obviously learnt a lot from being reformed, being the brains of the group to get the group going through the hive he once belonged to. However, even he showed weakness through a panic attack at any sight of problems occurring, noting his worries in "The Times They Are A Changeling" weren't a one off in his personality while his natural confidence in others came across nicely, using his love to go under a massive visual transformation that was lovely to see.
Chrysalis was the same totalitarian and self-absorbed villain we'd come to expect, but to see her rage had increased ten-fold and the fear factor was as strong as ever allowed to show flaws in her rhetoric, making her showcase her strengths and weaknesses like the main characters had. Her domineering presence was incredible and added even more tension and a sense of impending doom that few villains have accomplished in this series, which made her decline of reformation come as no real surprise but still shocking in how intense it was. She looked strong in defeat and left herself as part of the narrative for future episodes, which is something only Starlight Glimmer can be on par with. The Mane Six didn't have much time at all, but they all showcased their personalities that made their former elements come through in re-assuring Starlight, while their Changeling forms offered the shift in tone the episode needed to progress, with it being quite a stark and blunt shift at that. Finally, the members of 'Our Town' got little time, but what they did with it inside and outside of a dream helped realise Starlight's fears and issues, doing so with both sides of the emotional coin. On the voice acting front, we got ranged, emotional and vibrant performances from all concerned, our 'heroic qaurtet', Chrysalis, The Mane Six in normality and Changeling forms, Princess Luna and even the citizens of 'Our Town' in and out of dream sequences. It gave the episode some serious heft and made it feel like a big deal, which is all we can ask for.
All in all, in terms of the writing of the characters and voice acting, there was little to nothing I could critique. The characters got progression and were well built up, there was a great balance of humour, drama and downright terror in the sum of its parts and had voice acting that showed dynamic range from all concerned across its entire runtime. All in all, what more can I say? This finale did its job very well and I can't praise it enough, which is all I want from an episode on the level of this one.
RATING: 5 out of 5.
ANIMATION
Animation is usually a finale's best friend, with both working in tandem to give the end to a season the glorious send-off it deserves by knocking multiple visual home-runs out of the park. The last two season finales have been visual masterpieces with their variety, set pieces and attentions to detail that make them like diabetes for eyes, thanks to all those colourful E-numbers being thrown at the viewer. However, unlike those two, this episode threw a curveball, as animation took an unusually reserved seat to the party this time round.
To see this category be low-key at a point like this is disappointing, but that doesn't mean it didn't turn up. We had shifting locations, abstract elements messing with things, new designs and moments of utter brilliance with magic. Firstly, as it's become a thing, the wide range of facial expressions were glorious to look at, with the best ones coming from Starlight Glimmer, a pissed off Twilight and of course, Trixie who from narrowly escaping changelings in the castle to meeting Discord gave the expression performance of a lifetime, and I can't stop laughing at the sight of her screaming silently in Starlight's lovely bubble with so much fear imposed on her face, it was the highlight of the episode for me and I'm not kidding. I've just noted to Starlight's magic creating nice things, with her invisibility cloak and defensive barriers being a nice use of visual effects to add depth to her powers while Luna's capture resulting in the plughole effect was awesome. The aura and effect of Chrysalis's magic and the Changelings SHARING their love creating light effects in the only major set piece of the episode made it feel grand. Discord got his turn showing his elongated eyes and stretched face alongside his batch of world changing mayhem, Thorax's crystal wings were quite cute and the eventual shift in design for the Changelings themselves was just sublime. The Changeling hive thanks to its camera depth looking like Mount Doom, fitting of the episode sharing a title from The Hobbit, the design of the hive was great and the communication screen the changelings used as noted in the screenshot used some great whirl effects and those pods had nice detailing too.
It seems I've listed a lot here, so why does it rank low, as you can see below this paragraph considering? Well, as the animation elements were spaced out across the episode, they only served as a way to pad the episode and not distract from the story. Which I will congratulate it for, however as it was a finale having one low-key set piece that not until the changelings reveal their colourful forms felt disappointing in retrospect. The amount of fun transitions were restricted to two Changeling fly-ins, while the Changeling Mane Six used subtle visual cues to imply something was 'different', had their effects removed due to the voice acting doing no favours, not to mention re-using the same entrance to 'Our Town' three times didn't help with things. The animation category is assured a five most times because of the sheer insanity of it, to see it so underwhelming is disappointing, but given the tone of the episode and what it was doing, it didn't want to overshadow it and keep you reeled into the tense atmosphere it was creating, as a result the category suffers for it, but considering its limited presence at times, it had a good run and did well, despite the episode actively wanting to rebel against its norms.
To see this category be low-key at a point like this is disappointing, but that doesn't mean it didn't turn up. We had shifting locations, abstract elements messing with things, new designs and moments of utter brilliance with magic. Firstly, as it's become a thing, the wide range of facial expressions were glorious to look at, with the best ones coming from Starlight Glimmer, a pissed off Twilight and of course, Trixie who from narrowly escaping changelings in the castle to meeting Discord gave the expression performance of a lifetime, and I can't stop laughing at the sight of her screaming silently in Starlight's lovely bubble with so much fear imposed on her face, it was the highlight of the episode for me and I'm not kidding. I've just noted to Starlight's magic creating nice things, with her invisibility cloak and defensive barriers being a nice use of visual effects to add depth to her powers while Luna's capture resulting in the plughole effect was awesome. The aura and effect of Chrysalis's magic and the Changelings SHARING their love creating light effects in the only major set piece of the episode made it feel grand. Discord got his turn showing his elongated eyes and stretched face alongside his batch of world changing mayhem, Thorax's crystal wings were quite cute and the eventual shift in design for the Changelings themselves was just sublime. The Changeling hive thanks to its camera depth looking like Mount Doom, fitting of the episode sharing a title from The Hobbit, the design of the hive was great and the communication screen the changelings used as noted in the screenshot used some great whirl effects and those pods had nice detailing too.
It seems I've listed a lot here, so why does it rank low, as you can see below this paragraph considering? Well, as the animation elements were spaced out across the episode, they only served as a way to pad the episode and not distract from the story. Which I will congratulate it for, however as it was a finale having one low-key set piece that not until the changelings reveal their colourful forms felt disappointing in retrospect. The amount of fun transitions were restricted to two Changeling fly-ins, while the Changeling Mane Six used subtle visual cues to imply something was 'different', had their effects removed due to the voice acting doing no favours, not to mention re-using the same entrance to 'Our Town' three times didn't help with things. The animation category is assured a five most times because of the sheer insanity of it, to see it so underwhelming is disappointing, but given the tone of the episode and what it was doing, it didn't want to overshadow it and keep you reeled into the tense atmosphere it was creating, as a result the category suffers for it, but considering its limited presence at times, it had a good run and did well, despite the episode actively wanting to rebel against its norms.
RATING: 3 out of 5.
MESSAGE
Both of these messages occur with different pace and build-up, with one slowly progressing as the episode goes on, with the other springing in when convenient to ram home a point. In the case of the latter, thanks to the continuity of Starlight's past discretions and the growth Thorax has had since "The Times They Are A Changeling", the notion of focusing on embracing the unifying aspects of good leadership made thematic sense and unlike some of the putrid saccharine bile that is exuded from Twilight at times, the message carried immense emotional weight and significance, making it not only key to the episodes story but a lesson that anyone could take from it and apply to reality and not have any issues. The former, is the more protracted option but its effectiveness is still present, as we see Starlight build herself up (mostly against her will) from being resentful of leading to stepping up and showing her abilities in good light, especially being apparent when she encourages Discord to not be hard on his own abilities minus magic. She struck back at what she once fear and overcame her anxiety to take control for good this time and to have her confidence close the episode was a nice touch at showing how well made this message was. While these two messages were great, there was an underlying message to those socially anxious people out there thanks to Trixie's 'good' advice about consigning your problems to the past. It has even more weight when it's encompassed in the story, as the Changeling Invasion becomes bigger than Starlight's anxiety, it's a handy lesson that no matter how big your problem may seem, it's not as big as you think and there are other things worth worrying about.
The messages in this two-parter have worth, they have purpose, they have meaning and importantly enough sincerity and weight to be considered flawless, at least for me. The episode was built around them and it wasn't being shoved in your face, allowing them to come about naturally. It was a dictionary definition on how a message (or two) can be applied in an MLP episode and it was a fine exhibition to see, resulting in the highest rating on offer.
RATING: 5 out of 5.
MUSIC
Even though this is the case, I don't want to put a damper on what the score did in establishing settings, accompany moments and characters to give the story some vibrancy with multiple genres, pitches and tones on show to replicated the variety of characters on show. Trixie got her gypsy-sounding piano and strings to go with her 'mystical' element, Discord got his minimal accompaniment and a whimsical circus theme, Thorax got some magical sounding choral elements for his wings and a good amount of high octave keys and strings symbolising his importance. Starlight got most of the standard fare, but thanks to some joyous musical cues had her dialogue making me squeal in delight, and I'm looking at you description of the festival to 'Twilight', that was glorious. The music for the intro was fun and a good range of scale with the strings and wind instruments, and as the episode went on the tone of the music went with it getting more subtle and dark, allowing the Changelings threat to be amplified. We also got some lovely brass sections for when our four reformed villains didn't get along, emphasising their issues but also making their quabbles have a sense of irony to them.
All that was there served a purpose and didn't get lost within visuals that periodically showed themselves. However, while I can give the score credit for padding and adding things to the episode, much like the animation it took time to get going and went through chunks of the episode not striking a chord, this is particularly notable of the second episode, which outside of the standard fare and the dark ominous orchestral cues for Chrysalis's tirades not much came to the front. Thankfully we got a love subdued by mystical synth and string piece to make the Changeling revolt's aftermath feel special. Do you understand what I was alluding to earlier? The musical number while happily absent, was also what the music needed to round everything off. It feels weird to be both happy for its absence yet also feel aggrieved that the episode suffered partially without it. Nonetheless, the score did enough to keep its presence with just enough variety to make me notice, it's done its job and I can't be disappointed with that.
RATING: 3 out of 5.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The writing and message were some of the best all-round I've seen, with the story and narrative almost following in tow. The animation and music while supporting the story did enough to substantiate themselves and allow this episode to progress naturally and be a very entertaining and driven property that I couldn't shy away from as I was on the edge of my seat. We got an open ending and a villains decline of reformation, former villains running proceedings as main characters, a lack of animation flourishes and no musical number, which will ensure this finale was unique and gave us a sense of unpredictability for big episodes going forward knowing that this formula is seemingly dead and buried. However, in doing these brazen and brilliant changes, straying from convention is what created its problems. With a lack of major animation set pieces and a musical number, the visual and audio punch we'd usually come to expect wasn't as potent, however my frustration is more held towards the issues the story had though. While the music and animation did enough to give this episode the mark it will receive, if the inconsistencies with time and the predictable foreshadowing in the Changeling reveal weren't there, it would've gotten the lone rating mark the episode would've needed to score the twenty-one out of twenty-five nessecary to join the elite collection of episodes that I rank as the 'best'. To lose that honour by such small circumstances is incredibly frustrating, as such an enjoyable and fulfilling episode such as this one deserves to be there. Then again, it defied convention again by not using its status as a finale (or premiere) to force its way into my permanent good book, so this finale really doesn't want to conform, in knowing this I can actually be happy as from my standpoint, no finale or premiere will feel the same as this one, making it a truly unique experience.
This finale was expected to be the series last by some before the announcement of Season 7 came in the past fortnight, and this resounding success of an episode was a message from the crew that the show is still alive and well by throwing convention out the window and showing itself to be the ultimate kickstarter to where our hype for next season can begin and follow on from it. This finale did what one should do by leaving me wanting more, and as a result, the Spring can't come along soon enough. While this season may have started out back in March with me unsure of where the show was going, I can safely say that thanks to this finale, there is a clear direction for the show now and I couldn't be more happy at that. While this episode wasn't the outright best of the season, it was a fitting closure to a tumultuous period in this shows history showing what can happen if you power through and see things in a positive way, because anything can happen when you put all pieces in the right place, as this episode is mostly a testament to.
FINAL RATING: 20 out of 25.
LETTER GRADE: B+
Here's how Season 6 lines up in ascending order:
A HEARTH'S WARMING TAIL - 24/25, A
ON YOUR MARKS - 22/25, A-
EVERY LITTLE THING SHE DOES - 21/25, A-
TO WHERE AND BACK AGAIN - 20/25, B+
DUNGEONS & DISCORDS - 20/25, B+
GAUNTLET OF FIRE - 19/25, B+
STRANGER THAN FAN FICTION - 18/25, B
TOP BOLT - 18/25, B
THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGELING - 18/25, B
THE FAULT IN YOUR CUTIE MARKS - 16/25, B-
BUCK BALL SEASON - 16/25, B-
THE SADDLE ROW REVIEW - 13/25, C
FLUTTER BRUTTER - 13/25, C
28 PRANKS LATER - 12/25, C-
THE CRYSTALLING - 12/25, C-
SPICE UP YOUR LIFE - 11/25, C-
THE CART BEFORE THE PONIES - 10/25, D+
VIVA LAS PEGASUS - 8/25, D
THE GIFT OF MAUD PIE - 7/25, D-
NEWBIE DASH - 6/25, D-
NO SECOND PRANCES - 5/25, E+
APPLEJACK'S "DAY" OFF - 4/25, E+
WHERE THE APPLE LIES - 4/25, E+
P.P.O.V. (PONY POINT OF VIEW) - 3/25, E
While the list above highlights the entire rating list, I'm not yet done with this season. Next week, there will be a final analysis of the Season 6, highlighting the best and worst of it along with the results of my Predictions back in March, as well as the crowning of my Character Of The Season!
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I've been Freddy Thomas, you've been people reading. This has been an MLP Episode Review for The CC Network Blog. I'll see you all next time.
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