blorp.bot.nu/o/visual_cuisine

※Use a VPN and make sure you have a Hexbear account. Be aware that the uploads have two subtitle tracks: SDH and non-SDH subtitles, listed as “English” and “Latin” respectively for technical reasons. Let’s thank Aer once again for all her good work in providing these uploads and subtitles for us.

I feel a strange sort of tristesse at the fact that this is our last watch party before the series finale, even though I consciously know we still have more MLP G4 content, more MLP content from other generations, more brony content, and more horse girl cartoons to watch after FiM proper. I guess it’s because watching the end of FiM sort of takes me back to 2019.

The rest of this post may contain spoilers.

What's the chef cookin' tonight?

“Dragon Dropped”

The last Rarity and Spike episode sees Rarity worried she’s done something to upset Spike when he suddenly doesn’t seem as interested in her. Gabby is in this episode — remember her from “The Fault In Our Cutie Marks” (S6E19)? That was a good 'un.

“A Horse Shoe-In”

Starlight Yeltsin is set to take over the school from Twilight, and hires a vice headmare in preparation. Trixie assumes it’s gonna be her and acts like a bit of a dick about it, and this causes some relationship troubles between our two favorite ponies who are Totally Not bucking each other yuri style off-screen at a mildly alarming frequency.

“Daring Doubt”

The last Daring Do episode has Dr. Caballeron take on the pen name and persona of “Groom Q. Q. Martingale”, releasing books showing an alternate perspective on Daring Do. The persona of “Groom Q. Q. Martingale”, it goes without saying, is Totally Not based on any real human being who may or may not have had a bit of a moment in pop culture in 2019 due to a wildly popular TV adaptation of his books ending that year.

“Growing Up Is Hard To Do”

The last CMC episode has the Ojamajos magically get aged up and learn about how wisdom and maturity can’t be rushed. I guess this episode is half-closure for the fact that we don’t get to see our Ojamajos grow up for real.

This episode contains our first musical number of the night.

“The Big Mac Question”

And this is it: The last episode of MLP:FiM before the three-part series finale, and it’s dedicated to Big Mac proposing to Sugar Belle and the two of them getting married. Discord’s in this one, too.

Given how much of a side character Big Mac is, and how Sugar Belle was a bit of a late entry into the series, with this episode being literally only her fourth — and final! — speaking role… it is on the surface a bit of an odd choice to have Big Mac and Sugar Belle’s mostly off-screen relationship be the focus of what we might call the series “pre-finale”. Yet it also just feels oddly appropriate somehow? I think part of why it feels appropriate is because it’s not only closure for this relationship that most of us weren’t super invested in, but also that this episode is a more symbolic sort of closure on the Apple family’s dead parents, who are honored in this episode by Big Mac’s wedding taking place under the same tree that his parents married under in “The Perfect Pear” (S7E13).

And weddings are just generally an opportunity for a lot of characters to gather together, I guess.

Rainbow Rocks prelude shorts

“Music To My Ears”, “Guitar Centered”, “Hamstocalypse Now”, “Pinkie On The One”, “Player Piano”, “A Case for the Bass”, “Shake Your Tail”, and “Perfect Day for Fun” compiled into a single video and subtitled by our dear Aer. Maybe a bit of an odd choice to watch these shorts now when it’s been so long since we saw the Rainbow Rocks movie, but that’s just how the cookie crumbles and all that.

Content warnings
  • Bats in caves (Dragon Dropped)
  • Bees and other bugs (A Horse Shoe-In, Daring Doubt)
  • Colonial pilfering (Daring Doubt)
  • Bodily transformation: aging up (Growing Up Is Hard To Do)

Please say if there’s anything you’d like me to add or change.

♫ Uniting nations at the speeeed of liiiiight ♫
[epic sax solo]
♫ Station of the '20s — TV☆3SIS! ♫