Season 9 Discussion Thread [NO SPOILERS, DF airings only]

Background Pony #0592
>Spike blushes at Gabby near the end  
>Spike gets depressed when Gabby doesn’t want to hang out with him anymore  
>Gabby feeds Spike a cherry from her milkshake  
>Gabby reacts to seeing Spike and Rarity together like someone walking in on their spouse having an affair
 
Are we supposed to believe Spike and Gabby are just friends?
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Free the Tantabus
A really well written episode all around, especially for the characters. Not a single hair was out of character. One of the best of the season, tbh. RIP my ship. 9/10
JP
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I miss the show so much
That was a fun episode.
 
Lots of weird faics, Gabby came back (I’ve been waiting for that), Twilight starting to get pissed off at Rarity, and more.
LeoNero
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A Tale For The Ages - Celebrated MLP's 35th Anniversary and FiM's 8th Anniversary

Shine On U Crazy Diamond
I surprisingly really liked this episode. Also i think this episode kind of tells us that Spike is over his Rarity crush. Plus a good moral about sharing friends. And i did like the dynamic between Spike and Gabby.
 
B+
rdibp
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Kerfuffle lover
Really not feeling this episode all that much.
 
It was pretty good up until the middle of the second act when I realized what this episode was going for. Still has a lot of amusing moments and faics, but I’m just not a fan of these romantic/jealousy plots. Maybe my opinion will change later in the future, since I see a lot of people liked it.
 
 
GREAT:
 
  1. Sparkle’s Seven  
  2. Between Dark and Dawn  
  3. Frenemies  
    ––––––––––––––––  
    GOOD:
     
  4. The Beginning of the End  
  5. The Summer Sun Setback  
  6. Going to Seed  
  7. She Talks to Angel  
  8. She’s All Yak  
    ———————————  
    OKAY:
     
  9. The Last Laugh  
  10. The Point of No Return  
  11. A Trivial Pursuit  
  12. Student Counsel  
  13. Sweet and Smoky  
  14. The Last Crusade  
  15. Common Ground  
    ——————————  
    AVERAGE:
     
    16. Dragon Dropped  
  16. Uprooted  
    ————————————  
    BAD:
     
  17. 2, 4, 6, Greaaat
Mr.Myoozik
StarTrix Forever! - Derpi Supporter
Silly Pony - Celebrated the 13th anniversary of MLP:FIM, and 40 years of MLP!
Shimmering Smile - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of Equestria Girls!
Solar Hero - Went above and beyond for the Solar Deity, drawing from the power of the sun itself to bring balance to the fight against the Lunar Insurrection (April Fools 2023).
Flower Trio - Helped others get their OC into the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
King Sombra - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of The Crystal Empire!
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Tree of Harmony - Drew someone's OC for the 2022 Community Collab

Music Connoisseur
So Spike has three unicorns, two dragons, a changeling king, a draconequus, a horse, an owl and now a griffon as a friend? This kid really knows his diversity when it comes to friendships. And poor Rarity getting cucked throughout.
 
Overall, I thought this episode was good, not great but I’d rewatch it again.  
Final Ranking: B+
Background Pony #4AE9
So Spike basically rejects Rarity and chooses Gabby. That’s the implication, at least.
 
Good episode. Rarity was hilarious, especially in the beginning with her apologies. Twilight worked as the straight man of the episode, and I loved how cute Spike and Gabby were together.
 
RIP Sparity (2010 - 2019)
Poison Trail
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Elements of Harmony - Had an OC in the 2022 Community Collab
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Wallet After Summer Sale -

Another episode that needed to pull an earlier version of a character to check off something from the bucket list.
 
Rarity owns multiple businesses, but still had to resort to petty manipulation to convince her sidekick she’s been taking for granted all this time to be taken advantage of? She’s never come to realize that he won’t always be around to be her tool and that he somehow could seemingly screw her over anytime ? Also might’ve broke a couple laws related to slavery work
 
It’s pretty much Rarity’s Day Off, or what happens when you find out a character truly is incompetent at their job.
Holofan4life
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I II II L
  1. Between Dark and Dawn
     
  2. Student Counsel
     
  3. Frenemies
     
  4. The Summer Sun Setback
     
  5. Sparkle’s Seven
     
  6. That’s A Laugh
     
  7. 2,4,6, Greaaat
     
  8. The Point of No Return
     
  9. A Trivial Problem
     
  10. The Last Crusade
     
  11. Common Ground
     
  12. She talks to Angel
     
  13. Dragon Dropped
     
  14. Sweet and Smoky
     
  15. She’s All Yak
     
  16. The Beginning of the End
     
  17. Going to Seed
     
  18. Uprooted
Background Pony #4AE9
@ILoveMyoozik  
Lol at Rarity getting cucked. The moral of the episode was basically Rarity learning her place and accepting that she’ll never be anything more than Spike’s side-piece. Never his main girl.
Background Pony #4AE9
@Poison Trail  
Just because Rarity is a successful entrepreneur doesn’t mean she can’t be petty and dumb in her personal life. Besides, it’s not like Spike is her employee. It makes sense that Rarity would take his time and affection for granted.
Spinny
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Resident Spin Fetishist
Why do I seriously feel like I’ve seen this episode before, back when it was called Forever Filly?
 
Starlight has only appeared in five episodes this season. It’s clear by now that she won’t be getting another increase, and she’ll probably be lucky to match her season 6 number, which was eight episodes. For the record, she appeared in 14 episodes last season.
rdibp
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Friendship, Art, and Magic (2018) - Celebrated Derpibooru's six year anniversary with friends.
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Not a Llama - Happy April Fools Day!
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Kerfuffle lover
@ILoveMyoozik  
At least Discord was a believable character to have jealousy get the better of him and would solve it with mischief.
 
The writing in this episode could’ve passed for season 1. Seeing Rarity like this and having a lesson like this so far in the series is really awkward.
AWGear
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The Devil's Advocate
Welp, I guess we are back to bad episodes… sadly. :c
 
This episode has alot in common with “Hard to say Anything”. Probably the most annoying of those things is that we (again) bring back a minor character from the past, who ethier has an annoying personaliy (Gabby) or had no original personality at all (Sugar Belle), and have them interact as ethier a close friend (Gabby) or a lover (Sugar Belle) with one of the main characters of the show. There is another thing that connects those female characters, and that is a complete lack of negative traits. They are characters destined to be perfect, because the only thing you can “accuse them” of is a lack of inteligence in thier inicial appearance (Gabby thinking that a Gryphon can have cutie mark; Sugar Belle beliving in Starlight’s ideals without questioning it). Just as much as it was a mistake to bring back Sugar Belle and not do anything with them, it’s as bad with Gabby, if not even worse due to her overly excited personality, which comes of as obnoxious. They could at least make her somewhat flawed, because the story now comes out as biased.
 
It’s supposed to make Rarity as the “evil one” for making Spike spend all his time with her, making him have no energy to hang out with Gabby. This makes it feel tough, like the writters have double standards against her, because when Gabby does litterally the same thing at the beguin of the episode, it’s concidered to be fine. Actually, an idea from “Hard to say anything” would work much better with this episode, if you had Gabby and Rarity trying to win over Spike’s time, just to see in the end how much are they hurting him. Instead, this is the second time of the season (first time was “She’s All Yak”) when Rarity comes off as the Bad Guy. She didn’t have a single, positive appearance this season (because for some reason, the only Dragon centred episode went to Fluttershy, instead of sticking with the Twilight-Rarity duo, as it always used to) which makes it come out as even worse of an episode.
 
Another, relationship related thing I have to mentoin, is that I’m getting sick of LyraBon. Thier moments together in the show were always adorable just because they seem to happen rarely and always carried some “meaning” with them (like the scene on Hearts and Hooves day, where they give eachother gifts). Nowdays tough, I’m pretty sure that they have appeared together in almost every episode of the season. This rubbs those scenes out of thier charm, making them feel less as a “nod” towards the fandom, and more like obnoxious fanservice. It’s kinda like when Game developers are trying to make Easter Eggs as obvious as it’s possible, instead of doing the normal thing and keeping them as “gentle” as it can get.
 
Last thing that has become a staple of this season are the horribly unfitting faces. This episode is probably the worst offender in that category due to one scene. You can find it here: 2096236. Instead of looking “cute” or anything, it looks like Twilight has a toothache and her face got swollen. Those kind of faces don’t fit the show and should be rammed into every episode.
 
Now, to the positives of this one. Spike was as cool as he always is, which is a good thing. I loved the reference to Power Ponies during the episode, since it feels like that “series” was completly abandoned after it’s inicial episode. Seeing how other M6 act while helping Rarity was also a nice touch, since we rarely see them alone.
 
In the end, it wasn’t a good episode, but wasn’t at least as bad as “Hard to say anything”. I wouldn’t say that this is a re-watchable episode, but i wouldn’t mind seeing it once again, just for the laughs. I kinda wish it wouldn’t air just after such fantastic episode as last weeks, since it pales in comparasing.
 
Hope that next week’s episode will be better.
Mr.Myoozik
StarTrix Forever! - Derpi Supporter
Silly Pony - Celebrated the 13th anniversary of MLP:FIM, and 40 years of MLP!
Shimmering Smile - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of Equestria Girls!
Solar Hero - Went above and beyond for the Solar Deity, drawing from the power of the sun itself to bring balance to the fight against the Lunar Insurrection (April Fools 2023).
Flower Trio - Helped others get their OC into the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
Roseluck - Had their OC in the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
King Sombra - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of The Crystal Empire!
A Lovely Nightmare Night - Celebrated the 12th anniversary of MLP:FIM!
Princess of Love - Extra special version for those who participated in the Canterlot Wedding 10th anniversary event by contributing art.
Tree of Harmony - Drew someone's OC for the 2022 Community Collab

Music Connoisseur
@rdibp  
Yeah, I woul feel for Rarity in this episode if I didn’t already exhaust my feelings to Discord in that one.
 
And the way how she acted also reminded me of Forever Filly, which was an episode that I don’t have good thoughts on.
 
@LeoNero  
Right?
Vivace
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My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
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Artist -

“ShimSham my GlimGlams”
Hard to listen and write at the same time.
 
“I AIN’T SPIKE!” Yeah, this really doesn’t count as Rarijack ship tease.
 
Slights really are big deals to ponies.
 
This apology is hilariously narmy.
 
Again?! God, Rarity is being a gut-buster.
 
Looks like his crush on you has passed, Rarity.
 
When did this happen?
 
Aw, Grandpa Gruff cares.
 
A withdrawal Spike.
 
Is this music gonna come with lyrics later on?
 
Rarity, how did you do this before you met Spike? The way you’re doing it now?
 
Deal with that sowing machine.
 
Walking up on him felt like Uncommon Bond. Don’t steal Starlight’s schtick.
 
Too much last-minute stuff.
 
Two whole days without hanging out with Gabby? You weren’t concerned about doing that toward Rarity. And with all the shit you’ve had to do since S6, hanging out with Gabby has got to be rather new, which means you’re more attached to her than you’ve been to the likes of Ember, Thorax, Smolder, etc. Last time I saw you this attached to some pony was in Spike at your Service. Wait, have these hangouts being going on since S8?
 
PowerPony Palooza.
 
Question, Rarity: why have you chosen not to include Gabby? You could build a relationship with her too. You really do have a greed problem.
 
Do the sad eyes seem emotionally manipulative?
 
Gabby can really fake a smile.
 
Nopony can figure things out until Twilight’s in the picture.
 
Has Rarity been Discorded? I mean, this is pretty much the same premise as Make New Friends, But Keep Discord, and Rarity was present for Discord’s jealousy meltdown. I wonder if Fluttershy recognized the parallel when Rarity was venting to her. How would she have indirectly referenced the event?
 
“I know! But now, I have to share him!” I wonder if that will suggest anything for the finale.
 
Ha! Twilight pulling a Rarity after an eye roll.
 
This apology routine is still kinda comical.
 
“You apologize a lot.”
 
So Gabby was on the brink of doing what Rarity did? I feel like that kind of back-and-forth might’ve been more fun to watch.
 
What enabled you to spend time with Rarity now, Spike?
 
Yes, Pinkie, that’s how using the basket works. Even though your tone of voice refers to Sparity. Also, too loud.
 
9x14 (The Last Laugh): 75  
9x15 (2, 4, 6, Greaaat): 67  
9x16 (A Trivial Pursuit): 72  
9x17 (Summer Sun Setback): 76  
9x18 (She Talks to Angel): 72  
9x19 (Dragon Dropped): 70
cheezedoodle
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Moderator
TagZombie: AC15, Atk +8
Thank you, writers, for confirming that Rarity:  
  • Still craves Spike’s attention in diva-like fashion  
  • Views him as a dear, sweet friend and adoring fan, not a love interest  
  • Still takes him for granted after all this time
     
    Revisiting Rarity’s greedy side… It’s always been there, hiding beneath the surface. She may be generous with her possessions and her time, but she’s also terribly good at looking out for #1, more than any of her friends.
     
    The gem mining sequences with the rest of her friends seemed unnecessary. How hard is it to hold a basket where she can drop a gem into? Why does she even need a helper? She can presumably telekinese a basket, gem, and pick at the same time. I guess it’s more about the company than the help. Although in that case they could have written it differently, making the others competent helpers but just not as satisfying to talk with. As far as they contributed to the story, these were the episode’s weak parts, other than their comedy aspects.
     
    Good to see Gabby again, and surprising to find her and Spike in a close friendship, borderline relationship. I wonder how they met? Rarity’s spite does a great job of torpedoing their relationship. She could’ve just given those convention tickets to Gabby and Spike if she was truly apologetic.
     
    Pretty mature episode, and a necessary one. Glad it happened.
     
     
    @Miss Shy  
Question, why can’t Gabby hang out with the Crusaders?
 
They’re like, twelve and she’s about 17?
 
@Spinny  
Starlight has only appeared in five episodes this season. It’s clear by now that she won’t be getting another increase, and she’ll probably be lucky to match her season 6 number, which was eight episodes. For the record, she appeared in 14 episodes last season.
 
Starlight is a supporting character.
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