Talk:My Little Pony Best Gift Ever/@comment-1319156-20181030054014

I'm not giving any "You Tried" medals, but if I did, this would be a recipient.

The biggest problem this special faces is how blatantly obvious the outcome was. That's a huge problem with Mike Vogel as a writer. They try to build up to an exciting climax, but you already know how it's gonna end. When he worked with Josh Haber on Stranger Than Fan Fiction and To Where and Back Again, it wasn't as huge an issue. But when Vogel goes solo, it's a big problem.

The story left me completely uninvested. It's just an amalgamation of previous episodes thrown into a blender running at 44 minutes - Twilight freaking out a la Lesson Zero, Fluttershy and Applejack confronting the Flim Flam brothers yet again (Viva Las Pegasus, Friendship University), Pinkie and yaks for the fourth time in the series, etc. Heck, even the title feels similar to The Best Night Ever!

This is lazy storytelling, and it's a sign that the show is becoming creatively stale. Much as I enjoyed season eight for the most part, at times, it felt like it was just coasting along with Sounds of Silence and The Maud Couple. And if it is true that season nine will be premiere next October, I'd say the team deserved a break; hopefully it'll give them a chance to recharge for next season.

For the most part, there's very little to discuss. It's the most boring holiday special I've ever seen, and it doesn't even register under mediocrity. Sure, there's humor (especially with Rainbow Dash and Discord; give those two an episode, I say!), but even that feels too familiar at times. It just feels like a load of filler that's designed to only be watched once, even when it's not the Christmas season.

At least it's better than Confalone's contributions to EG.