The "School Raze" two parter is yet another Season 8 episode that could have been a lot more. 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic's' season finales were a bit up and down (with Season 1's "The Best Night Ever" and Season 4's "Twilight's Kingdom" being by far the best ones), with none of them massively misfiring but those two were in a different league to the rest in a good way. Although Season 8 was one of the show's most inconsistent seasons, it did have great moments.
Sadly, "School Raze Part 1" isn't one of them. Same goes with the second part. It isn't a misfire, in the way that especially "Non-Compete Clause", "Yakity-Sax", "A Matter of Principals" and "The End in Friend" were. But it is nowhere close to the great level of "Horse Play", "The Hearth's Warming Club", "What Lies Beneath" and especially "Sounds of Silence". Instead it is somewhat like "The Mean 6", in that it had fantastic potential and had all the makings of a great episode but did too little with it. Of the two parts, Part 1 came off a little weaker and was not hugely memorable apart from one scene. Part 2 was very flawed but was more eventful and did more with enough of the characters, too much of Part 1 is bland.
Part 1 does have good things. All the episodes in the season, including the misfires, were beautifully animated and it is no exception here, with the vibrant atmospheric colours and richly detailed backgrounds the animation is great and is at times some of the season's most ambitious. The music has groove and also a lot of atmosphere, fitting beautifully. Have no issues with the voice work, all the regulars and Student Six are nigh on perfect and Sunni Westbrook sears at the end. While not caring for Neighsay here, it is always a plus hearing Maurice LaMarche and even more so when he is using the voice he used for voicing Brain from 'Pinky and the Brain'.
When it comes to the storytelling in "School Raze Part 1" the best part is the ending, as it is the most dramatic the episode gets and did give off intensity. The reveal doesn't feel like it came out of nowhere, as there was foreshadowing or strong suspection earlier in the season. Sadly though on a side note it was not much of a surprise, as it and the character it mainly centres around were heavily spoiled at the time before airing. The Student Six are very well characterised and love their distinct personalities and how they interact.
However, the episode felt on the bland side. It is quite thin when it comes to the drama and spends too much time setting things up, it's only at the reveal when there is a proper glimpse of a story. The writing did intrigue at times but generally it was too heavy on exposition, and other parts were aimless. It does suffer in my view from having too many characters, and unfortunately too many of them were underused or pointless (the Cutie Mark Crusaders could have been left out completely, the episode does nothing really with them).
Tirek is particularly wronged, one of the show's best ever villains reduced to an underwritten clueless buffoon and it was something of an insult really. The pacing does drag from the story being too slight and the writing not being tight enough.
All in all, watchable but a bit of a potential waste sad to say. Humble opinion of course. 5/10.
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