The Beginning of the End

As you may or may not be aware the final season of the Horse Show begun airing a couple of weeks ago. Now, I'm way behind on it, but I have seen the season premiere; appropriately titled The Beginning of the End and so, I thought I'd write something about it.
This was an interesting premiere. While The Cutie Map remains my favorite MLP season premiere, this one was definitely enjoyable and it gives me hope that the show's last season will be a good one. It really deserves it.

Discord was in top-form these episodes, being far portrayed in them than he has been in quite a while. Because I do feel that Discord's character has gotten a bit stale in later seasons. With the exception of Discordant Harmony, most episodes featuring him have tended to follow the same formula: Discord throws a fit because he's not at the center of attention, learns not to be such a spoiled brat and apologizes (except that one time when Starlight apologized to him, for some reason). Lather, rinse repeat. My point is, it's gotten quite old and predictable and predictable is not a word that should be associated with the Lord of Chaos.

So, its with great pleasure that I can say that I loved Discord here. This is exactly the kind of reformed Discord I want to see, someone who is snarky and self-absorbed, but nonetheless has his heart in the right place and genuinely has his friends' best interest at heart. Bravo to the writers and, as usual, a bravo to Mr. DeLancie for a great performance.

That said, my favorite part of these episodes were definitely the scenes spent with the villains. I just love villain team-ups like this and I really do hope that we get to see more of Grogar's Guild of Calamitous Intent as the season unfolds and that this isn't kept on the back-burner until the series finale. Basically, I want there to be at least a scene every other episodes showing the bad guys just hanging out, plotting their evil schemes. Or, even an entire episode centered entirely around the villains, with the heroes only being mentioned or, at the most, having a cameo.

Finally, I loved Twilight's hair-flip when she deflected Sombra's magic. Great little moment that.