Almost to the end of the Spring Semester at my college, so Common Ground will be my first episode of the Summer break! UCF hasn't been very easy - and I'm working on alota projects right now, including some kinda cinematography project I gotta do today, so hopefully I have time to write this review! You'll know it when you see it! ;) Ready for our final third episode?
Wow! Almost a whole week till I was finally making this review! Alrighty then let's get to it! So we have our first Student Six episode of the season! Though I'm hoping we're not gonna get too much attention with them because even though they're supposed to be the Mane Six's successors, there's still so much between the Mane 7 that still needs to be done, and the Student Six came awfully late (sounds like a personal problem lol). So this episode is pretty much a sequel to What Lies Beneath mostly, because we have the return of Tree of Harmony's Twilight Sparkle form! So the spirit of the Tree still lives, despite the Tree itself shattering from King Sombra's magic! In fact, the Tree is so alive that it regenerates in the end! Tree is Time Lord confirmed - or maybe a TARDIS!
As much as it was nice to see the Student 6 again, as everyone else felt, this was just Castle Sweet Castle again, which I'm not really surprised. I was hoping that there was something else to it instead of just an episode about the Student Six having different ideas of how to memorialize the Tree, and of course Yona being best voice of reason, further proving yaks are indeed best, but there was more to it! The friendship the Student Six have brought had the Tree become reborn from the ashes, like a phoenix! Only it's not really a Tree, more like a Tree house. Are the Elements of Harmony back? Kinda sorta. Not in physical form anymore! The spirit of the Tree now lives within the Mane Six, Student Six, and probably the Pillars too! I actually thought it would take more to get the Tree reborn, like the Student 6 would plant a new seed, and a seventh character would bloom it, which would be where the Seventh Element comes in.
With all the clues and easter eggs in the past, I woulda thought the Seventh Element woulda been a thing. We saw the six stones in Friendship is Magic, part 2, and the stone again within the stash in Secret of my Excess, then we saw a picture in Shadow Play - Part 1 showing all the Elements of Harmony, including Twilight's who's in the bottom, and then there were six branches, which made the Seventh Element theory still alive. Now, I'm not sure what to think. It could still be alive, but in what way?
Now people actually thought the Student 6 were gonna actually be the new Elements, but there were a few problems I noticed about that. In School Raze - Part 2, the Student 6 had colorful auras that matched a certain particular Element a Mane 6 uses. Gallus was magic, Sandbar was honesty, Smolder was loyalty]], etc. Now when we saw the Tree of Harmony give those colors to the Student 6, they had different colors: Smolder was generosity, Sandbar was magic, Gallus was loyalty, etc. It makes no sense whatsoever! The colors were pretty disorganized. It's like if the writers wanted to give the Student 6 new elements, they dunno what to give them.
So anyhoo, it had a strong beginning with the Student 6 reacting to the destruction of the Tree, the middle was quite boring and expecting, but it had a strong ending! What each of the Student 6 did to memorize the Tree was pretty funny, but also a bit cringeworthy in a respect, but there are people in real life who do stuff like this - they can't agree on something so they go their own paths. I did like the song, even though it wasn't very special, it was pretty much the same as any other song in the series in terms of genre and style. What was really special about it is the Student 6 singing it! The Student 6 are a really cute group of friends - however, I just hope they don't take over the series because there's still alota unfinished arcs within the main cast. It was nice seeing Thorax again, but I was hoping he'd interact with Spike, which is long overdo. Ember had a cameo which was nice! Grampa Gruff's part was hilarious, and we gotta see Terramar and Sky Beak and Ocean Flow, and with Silverstream too! Speaking of Silverstream, it's her dream to be a Wonderbolt? That's a potential episode with Rainbow Dash right there! Oh and hey, the Castle of the Two Sisters finally got renovated, 5 seasons later!
So it was a good episode, but not really a great episode. This episode felt like it took away better story opportunities. Having no Tree and no Elements coulda given us a big gap of suspense between the premiere and the finale, much like season 4! Now that the Tree problem is solved now, it makes ya wonder what the conflict in the finale is gonna be? How are the Mane Six, Student Six, Starlight Glimmer, Spike, or any other main character gonna fill in their roles in the finale? Let's hope there's more to this! The Student 6 just being the new elements and saving the day in the end, it feels like an expecting and lazy ending, so let's hope it doesn't turn out that way.
