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

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@rdibp  
They’re both good, but in different ways. “Sparkle’s Seven” is a good kinda meta episode, and is mostly harmless in a fun way. “Frenemies” is great because it’s a character episode for villains. In my opinion, the episode was made by their rejection of friendship at the end. Without that, it would’ve been not quite as good.
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Finally watched the episode. It was okay. Couple observations:
 
  1. Chrysalis appears to be the most powerful and capable of the trio, given that she got the farthest by far in the attempt to retrieve the bell. Again, it just speaks to how versatile Changelings are as a whole, especially given that even at young ages they’re capable of transforming themselves into gigantic creatures. Also, her love-sucking was definitely a bit disturbing, especially since we never saw her do it that way before, at least to my knowledge. I mean, when she was siphoning out Shining Armor’s love, she never really seemed to need to actually full-boar suck it out of his body.
     
  2. Cozy is utterly powerless, so much so that I almost wonder what use Grogar even has for her. And I’m under the belief that Cozy might not have ever been snatched up by Grogar if she weren’t in Tartarus, where she didn’t belong in the first place. Because as I’ve constantly said, she posed no threat to Equestria on her own, and she’s a fucking child who deserved something just a little bit more lenient than the equivalent of pony hell with zero due process.
     
  3. I now feel that the three of them will likely share the same fate when this is over. Whether they reform or not, they’re all going down together. And I’m fairly conflicted by this because I want Cozy to reform since it would show everyone how messed up it was for them to chuck her in Tartarus without a chance, but I never want Chrysalis to reform, ever.
     
  4. I don’t understand why they’re now plotting against Grogar, if I’m honest. It just doesn’t seem particularly wise, especially since how, at the end of the day, they all want the same thing. And given how easily Grogar overpowered the three of them at the beginning of the episode, they’re probably just digging their own graves.
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@Spinny  
@2. I also really wondered why Grogar got Cozy initially. She has nothing to add that the others cannot cover as well in terms of power-levels, or scheming etc. It not seems that he might have actually picked her because she CAN make the villains “friends” and thus making them stronger as a unit against the ponies, she’s only abused friendship in the past but she still KNOWS how-to-friend / work together
Background Pony #3797
Also, her love-sucking was definitely a bit disturbing, especially since we never saw her do it that way before, at least to my knowledge.
Actually, they showed her doing it in “To Where and Back Again”.  
 
So at least once before now.
 
 
@Spinny  
  1. Cozy is utterly powerless, so much so that I almost wonder what use Grogar even has for her. And I’m under the belief that Cozy might not have ever been snatched up by Grogar if she weren’t in Tartarus, where she didn’t belong in the first place. Because as I’ve constantly said, she posed no threat to Equestria on her own, and she’s a fucking child who deserved something just a little bit more lenient than the equivalent of pony hell with zero due process.
… Seriously? I have to be honest, Cozy is the one that scares me most out of the three. And for good reason too. I mean, yes, Chrysalis is powerful, and her love feeding is all kinds of unnerving, and those transformative abilities of hers are a considerable advantage, both for fighting and getting the drop on the unwary. But, she’s also got great and powerful Trixie levels of self absorbed haughtiness, and has lost time and again from being so wrapped up in her own perceived greatness and brilliant planning that she misses crucial flaws or weaknesses that could stop her. As for Tirek, he certainly demonstrated in this episode that he has some brains to go with the brawn, but his hunger for power makes him predictable and easy to track. Not to mention that, until he reaches a certain point of power consumption, he doesn’t seem to have the strength to make it on his own. And I doubt very much Discord is going to be around to help a second time, were he to try it.
 
But Cozy Glow? She ran a long con on the Princess of Friendship, deceiving her, all her friends, the CMC, the student six, and countless others without ever revealing her true purpose. Time and again she demonstrated manipulation skills, twisting words and meanings to suit her goals and turn others against each other without them realizing it had happened. And the few times those around her did start to notice that there was something altogether off about her? She used her cloying false sweetness and apparent innocence to “golly” her way out of trouble. And all to achieve her ultimate goal of (very nearly) draining all the magic in Equestria, something even one of her fellow villains, Tirek, thought was excessive.
 
No, Cozy scares me. She knows the friendship lessons, she knows personal details about the ponies the villains are going up against, and underneath that façade of sugary sweetness is a monster who wouldn’t hesitate for a second to exploit that patiently acquired knowledge to do terrible, terrible things.
 
So I’m not surprised in the slightest Grogar recruited her. He’d be a fool to throw away an inside look at the life of Twilight Sparkle, and the kind of resourcefulness that almost beat her.
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Finally getting a chance to see Frenemies after being largely gone all weekend. Amazing song, and wow, Cozy has really gone off the deep end now.
 
Superb episode overall and some interesting implications for the season metaplot.
Background Pony #BBFC
wow, Cozy has really gone off the deep end now.
I contend we’re just finally seeing the side of herself she was keeping hidden all along.
Spinny
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@EotD
 
Still, this seems like the exact sort of reason why the villains’ schemes fail. Too much backstabbing and mistrust among them.
 
@ILoveMyoozik
 
Yeah, I figured I might be wrong about that. I actually haven’t seen TWABA since it first aired, I don’t think.
 
@Background Pony #DFD9
 
Sure, Cozy is cunning and strategic, but she’s fairly worthless where it matters most. Hell, the episode showed that even her manipulation routine isn’t always effective.
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Well, I was stupid and probably shouldn’t have been in the S9 spoiler thread since all these early Italian airings. Now I know just a bit more than I really want to and wish I could erase it from my memory.
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I’ve been massively spoiled on ep 11. I didn’t know they were still airing them outside of the US. I thought it was just 8 9 and 10
Spinny
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@Nightweaver20xx
 
There’s only one more left to go for the first half of the season, right? At least that’ll be it for a while.
 
Of course, avoiding spoilers in the meantime is still going to be a bitch.
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