Offseason General Show Chat

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Re: Offseason General Show Chat

Postby doodlesplat (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 5:38 am

She certainly was the one who made that mistake. However, I suppose a town or five in chaos is a small price to pay for uncovering the next alicorn. I've always wanted to headcanon that setting up a podunk town near Canterlot was all part of a plan to have a potential student take residence there, 'studying' magic, without endangering the capital city proper. I mean, in terms of architecture, everything in that area is easy to rebuild. As if foreseeing the need for even more damage mitigation, Ponyville is surrounded by expanses of sparsely populated woods and fields and mountains should they ever need to be blown up. It's simply sound empire management.
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Postby DerFurShur (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 5:43 am

Wellllllllll I'm just saying Celestia did send Applejack's family to go settle some land right on the edge of a supposedly dangerous Forrest that hid the castle she used to share with her sister and still housed the most powerful magical macguffins in their world (at that time)
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Postby PaulloDEC (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 5:44 am

doodlesplat wrote:She certainly was the one who made that mistake. However, I suppose a town or five in chaos is a small price to pay for uncovering the next alicorn. I've always wanted to headcanon that setting up a podunk town near Canterlot was all part of a plan to have a potential student take residence there, 'studying' magic, without endangering the capital city proper. I mean, in terms of architecture, everything in that area is easy to rebuild. As if foreseeing the need for even more damage mitigation, Ponyville is surrounded by expanses of sparsely populated woods and fields and mountains should they ever need to be blown up. It's simply sound empire management.
:-I


Ha! I love this! Even the name is kinda fishy; "Ponyville"? That's essentially like calling a human village "Person Town".

DerFurShur wrote:Wellllllllll I'm just saying Celestia did send Applejack's family to go settle some land right on the edge of a supposedly dangerous Forrest that hid the castle she used to share with her sister and still housed the most powerful magical macguffins in their world (at that time)


The evidence is mounting you guys :starity:
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Postby The Doctor (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 5:48 am

While I still enjoyed MMC a lot, it would have worked better as a culmination of Twilight's growth over the season. The only buildup was Celestia and Luna looking meaningfully at that book at the end of Crystal Empire. The only other test Twilight was given the entire season was to reform Discord, where she gives it about 10 seconds of thought before telling Celestia to smeg off, and going to find her book on brainwashing.
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Postby ShieldedDiamond (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 5:54 am

PaulloDEC wrote:
But wasn't the spell a deliberate trap in the first place? All it took for it to be triggered was for Twilight to read the thing, so I always assumed that the initial mistake was part of Celestia's ongoing plan to test Twilight in a variety of nasty and stressful ways. Now that I think about it, I guess that one is kinda open to interpretation.

Failing that, I'm not sure I follow your line of thinking. What would you have had Celestia do? Should she have withheld Twilight's promotion for making a mistake? Punish her? Or recognise that her ability to correct her mistakes, as well as her ability to complete a spell written by possibly the most accomplished magic-user in the history of the realm qualifies her for greater things?


I don't see how it was a whole thing set up by Celestia, because all they said was it was something left unfinished by Starswirl. I don't know, maybe he died. What I'm saying is, Celestia didn't need to do anything. Twilight made a mistake, and fixed it. That should have been the end, that should have been the finale. But I really don't see why it deserves a promotion. I mean what, I'll go back in time and cause the Nazis to win WW2, then I fix my error, and then I should be elected president because I can time travel? Clearly if I can make an error as big as causing the Nazis to win WW2, even if I fix it, I'm not a master of time travel because I can make pretty big mistakes.

I really can't say anything about Celestia though, because I believe saying it was a long term scheme by Celestia is looking too much into it. Because I can't see anything to point to why that would be a reason, and it isn't like this is some intellectual property that has things to be debated about like that. All I see this as is poor writing. The reason they give for Twilight becoming a princess just wasn't good enough, and didn't make sense.
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Postby Perpetual Lurker (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 5:59 am

The "mistake" was literally just reading a few lines aloud in proximity to the Elements. She didn't even try to cast the spell. It just happened. How in the world is that even Twilight's fault? Plus, fixing the problem and completing the spell were two separate events. Fixing the problem merely gave her inspiration for completing the spell.

IMO, Celestia knew exactly what Twilight was destined for as soon as she saw her cutie mark. The Journal of the Two Sisters implied as much.
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Postby PaulloDEC (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 6:04 am

The Doctor wrote:While I still enjoyed MMC a lot, it would have worked better as a culmination of Twilight's growth over the season. The only buildup was Celestia and Luna looking meaningfully at that book at the end of Crystal Empire. The only other test Twilight was given the entire season was to reform Discord, where she gives it about 10 seconds of thought before telling Celestia to smeg off, and going to find her book on brainwashing.


A few more hints at it would've been nice. Episodes like "Too Many Pinkie Pies" and "Magic Duel" could easily have had little codas added to imply Twilight's progress was being observed. Then again, that might've been a little heavy handed I guess.

ShieldedDiamond wrote:
I don't see how it was a whole thing set up by Celestia, because all they said was it was something left unfinished by Starswirl. I don't know, maybe he died. What I'm saying is, Celestia didn't need to do anything. Twilight made a mistake, and fixed it. That should have been the end, that should have been the finale. But I really don't see why it deserves a promotion. I mean what, I'll go back in time and cause the Nazis to win WW2, then I fix my error, and then I should be elected president because I can time travel? Clearly if I can make an error as big as causing the Nazis to win WW2, even if I fix it, I'm not a master of time travel because I can make pretty big mistakes.

I really can't say anything about Celestia though, because I believe saying it was a long term scheme by Celestia is looking too much into it. Because I can't see anything to point to why that would be a reason, and it isn't like this is some intellectual property that has things to be debated about like that. All I see this as is poor writing. The reason they give for Twilight becoming a princess just wasn't good enough, and didn't make sense.


Ah, so you were against the promotion in general? I can't really argue against that.

Your WW2 analogy doesn't exactly fit. This would be more like the President tasking you to travel back in time and solve a riddle that has baffled mankind for a thousand years. You make a mistake in the process (causing a moderate amount of upset for the citizens of a small village) but ultimately succeed in both fixing your mistake AND solving the riddle. The President, impressed by your resourcefulness, then invites you to become Vice President :party:

As for whether or not Celestia masterminded it all, it just seems consistent with her past actions to me. She knows what Starswirl is like, and she has a detailed knowledge of magic herself. There's a good chance that she'd have had some idea of what the spell was, even if she wasn't able to finish it herself. We even know that Luna is in on the whole thing, adding another wise and powerful character to the scheme. The whole thing seems like exactly the kind of needlessly traumatic scenario that Celestia would test Twilight with to me.

Perpetual Lurker wrote:The "mistake" was literally just reading a few lines aloud in proximity to the Elements. She didn't even try to cast the spell. It just happened. How in the world is that even Twilight's fault? Plus, fixing the problem and completing the spell were two separate events. Fixing the problem merely gave her inspiration for completing the spell.

IMO, Celestia knew exactly what Twilight was destined for as soon as she saw her cutie mark. The Journal of the Two Sisters implied as much.


And then there's that, too. The Journal also strongly implies that Star Swirl himself travelled far enough into the future to witness Twilight Sparkle, which justs adds to the likelihood of the whole ordeal being carefully orchestrated.
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Postby DerFurShur (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 6:06 am

It's kind of a test in that Celestia sent her an unfinished spell with the hope that Twilight would finish it, which she did. She then gets a magical promotion because Hasbro.... er magic.

Not really that hard to figure out :pinkieshrug:

As for Chessmaster Celestia, yeah it requires looking into things a little too much but it's interesting how all these coincidences all connect in plausible ways, not to mention the show intentional likes to nail home that destiny is a thing and a powerful one at that. So when you have a world in which powerful magical forces are seemingly in control of near anything, having Celestia act as either an architect of all these coincidences, or as someone who can see the writing on the walls and know how to plan accordingly isn't that much of a stretch.
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Postby Sobana (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 6:11 am

Twilight becoming a princess makes prefect sense to me. Especially considering that she is the Princess of Friendship. This wasn't just something that happened solely in the confines of season three final. We have been seeing her grow in understanding about friendship since she figured out how to defeat Nightmare Moon. Every episode gradually developed deeper meaning of friendship for her until she became the living embodiment of friendship and ascended to higher level of enlightenment. It was even hinted to in the title of the show "Friendship is Magic" and now she gained the magic of friendship.

The important thing to remember this show is about steady growth rather then maintaining status quo. Some change slightly over a long course while others have dramatic changes in short periods of time. Twilight becoming a princess was the inevitable change that was going to happen like the cutie mark crusaders eventually getting their cutie marks.
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Postby The Doctor (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 6:16 am

ShieldedDiamond wrote:
I don't see how it was a whole thing set up by Celestia, because all they said was it was something left unfinished by Starswirl. I don't know, maybe he died. What I'm saying is, Celestia didn't need to do anything. Twilight made a mistake, and fixed it. That should have been the end, that should have been the finale. But I really don't see why it deserves a promotion. I mean what, I'll go back in time and cause the Nazis to win WW2, then I fix my error, and then I should be elected president because I can time travel? Clearly if I can make an error as big as causing the Nazis to win WW2, even if I fix it, I'm not a master of time travel because I can make pretty big mistakes.

I really can't say anything about Celestia though, because I believe saying it was a long term scheme by Celestia is looking too much into it. Because I can't see anything to point to why that would be a reason, and it isn't like this is some intellectual property that has things to be debated about like that. All I see this as is poor writing. The reason they give for Twilight becoming a princess just wasn't good enough, and didn't make sense.


Keep in mind MMC is when Twilight learns that she can just magic her way out of everything. The way she solved it was just planting a seed, and watching it grow. In this case, telling Fluttershy to help Rainbow Dash. She solved the problem in almost the same way Celestia set things in motion for Twilight and friends to help save Luna.

Twilight could have just done this, and stayed a Unicorn though.

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Again though, I do like MMC quite a bit, but I was quite disappointed with how her being a Princess was handled in S4, and would press a big red "Twilight is a Unicorn again" button in a heartbeat.
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Postby ShieldedDiamond (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 6:25 am

Perpetual Lurker wrote:The "mistake" was literally just reading a few lines aloud in proximity to the Elements. She didn't even try to cast the spell. It just happened. How in the world is that even Twilight's fault? Plus, fixing the problem and completing the spell were two separate events. Fixing the problem merely gave her inspiration for completing the spell.


I'm pretty sure all you have to do to make a spell work is read it. You'd think of all people Twilight would know that. And no, they weren't separate events, because in order to fix it, it had to be completed.
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Postby Perpetual Lurker (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 6:32 am

I think you're misremembering things a bit. The whole "True True Friend" sequence was her fixing the problem. After the song was over, she got the inspiration to complete the spell.

As for reading spells, we've literally never seen another spell with a verbal component in the series, much less one that casts itself regardless of the will of the person reading it.
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Postby PaulloDEC (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 6:41 am

ShieldedDiamond wrote:
I'm pretty sure all you have to do to make a spell work is read it. You'd think of all people Twilight would know that.


You could even say that it's implausible that Twilight Sparkle, a highly-knowledgeable magic user, would do such a thing if she had any reasonable expectation that it might have an effect...
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Postby ShieldedDiamond (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 6:57 am

Perpetual Lurker wrote:I think you're misremembering things a bit. The whole "True True Friend" sequence was her fixing the problem. After the song was over, she got the inspiration to complete the spell.


Then I am misremembering things, because I thought by doing that it somehow completed the spell.

PaulloDEC wrote:
You could even say that it's implausible that Twilight Sparkle, a highly-knowledgeable magic user, would do such a thing if she had any reasonable expectation that it might have an effect...


I can't tell what you're implying with this, but it doesn't look like you're agreeing with me.
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Postby ROBOT B9 (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 7:16 am

Personally, Twilight becoming a princess makes perfect sense to me...I believe that Celestia had planned it all along and MMC was a test to see if she was right in her assumptions.
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Postby PaulloDEC (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 7:37 am

ShieldedDiamond wrote:I can't tell what you're implying with this, but it doesn't look like you're agreeing with me.


I wasn't agreeing with you, but actually having now re-watched the scene in question I'm going to have to adjust my position. Twilight does in fact say that she "...cast the spell to find out what it was." She notes at the time that "It doesn't make sense... it doesn't even rhyme!", so presumably she didn't expect it to do anything.

In any case, Shielded wins a point on this one; the initial casting of the spell seems like a poor decision on Twilight's part.
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Postby ShieldedDiamond (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 8:30 am

Yes, I know you weren't agreeing with me, but I was asking what you were implying with that, because you just reworded what I said with italics. I was saying that it didn't make sense that Twilight did that, because you would expect someone like her would realize saying magic words would have an effect, and you shouldn't just cast spells without knowing what they do.

Which goes back to my point that I don't care Twilight became a Princess, but MMC is one of the most poorly written episodes. (Though that doesn't make it one of the worst.)
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Postby Sobana (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 10:09 am

What do you consider the worse and why?
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Postby PaulloDEC (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 10:30 am

ShieldedDiamond wrote:Yes, I know you weren't agreeing with me, but I was asking what you were implying with that, because you just reworded what I said with italics. I was saying that it didn't make sense that Twilight did that, because you would expect someone like her would realize saying magic words would have an effect, and you shouldn't just cast spells without knowing what they do.


Sorry, I did have a post drafted up to clarify, but when I realised I'd gotten the events of the episode wrong I stopped writing it. Essentially my point was that Twilight would have to be incompetent to make such an elementary mistake, and we know Twilight isn't incompetent, therefore there must be something else going on.

Also, I actually wrote that post from scratch with italics for emphasis. Didn't intend for it to look like a rewording of anything you'd said.
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Postby DerFurShur (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 2:00 pm

It's not really incompetence though.

Celestia sent her the spell and pretty much laid out the bait with the whole "yeah not even Starswirl could complete this, maybe give it a try Twilight"

So Twilight tries it out like she was asked to, and it triggers without her knowing so then it's her responsibility to fix it, which she does.

But again how is it incompeincompetent of her to be given a task by Celestia, do it, have something go wrong, and then she fixes it anyway?
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Postby Headless Horse (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 3:01 pm

Well, you'd think she'd have treated it more with kid gloves, investigated it under lab conditions, etc.

I know that if I were a chemistry student and the prof gave me a mystery substance to try to identify, step one wouldn't be "drink it"
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Postby DerFurShur (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 3:09 pm

But what are the necessary lab conditions for testing a new spell besides doing it? Especially when Celestia didn't even tell her what it might do, if anything at all.
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 3:13 pm

The Doctor wrote:The only other test Twilight was given the entire season was to reform Discord, where she gives it about 10 seconds of thought before telling Celestia to smeg off, and going to find her book on brainwashing.

I would've been happier with Twilight becoming a princess if her test for it had been this. That is to say, if she had to figure out how to bring Discord around (by herself, in the same way that Fluttershy did it herself in the actual episode) and learned that friendship, not brute-force magic, was the key, I think that would've been a better means of demonstrating how she's grown between the beginning of the series and now. Plus, it'd be something she did all by herself, whereas the work that the other five did in MMC resulted in Twilight getting almost all the credit for it. That imbalance of attention is what bugged me the most about her ascension.
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Postby Just Scuds (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 3:30 pm

:pcstare: :"Twilight, if you can read without moving your lips, you can look at a spell without casting it. That was extremely irresponsible of you, Twilight."
:shock:
:gotcha: :"On the other hoof, it was irresponsible of me to send you the book just cold."
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:dwi: :"On the other hoof, you can't make an omlette without cracking a few eggs. So you can't make a Princess without cracking a few ... uh ... heads."
:-/ :"My friends never asked to be part of my princesshood test."
:prettywings: :"On the other hoof, they're all very supportive and forgiving. And it's not just your friends, the entire town suffered from, say, the effects of a unicorn being given control of the weather."
:facehoof:
:pcstare: :"On the other hoof, all's well that ends well. The ends justified the means."
:-I :"Uh."
:areyousure: :"On the other hoof, I have a responsibility to my subjects, and putting them at risk just for creating a new princess is an abdication of those responsibilities, so thankfully they don't think too hard about things like this."
:twonk: :"You're all outta hooves!"
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Postby Headless Horse (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 5:35 pm

DerFurShur wrote:But what are the necessary lab conditions for testing a new spell besides doing it? Especially when Celestia didn't even tell her what it might do, if anything at all.


This would have been a perfect opportunity to show Twilight having set up a big magic research lab in the library's basement, with protective anti-magic fields and time-reversal Omega 13 type spells in place to mitigate disasters. It would have drawn on all kinds of things from past episodes (the machinery from Feeling Pinkie Keen, the time travel spell from It's About Time, etc), not to mention tying into that crazy setup she had in EQG2.

I would think that if she's serious about being an independent magic researcher and stuff, she'd have done all kinds of things like this in her free time while we were busy paying attention to her friends befriending donkeys and practicing for the Olympics and stuff.
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Postby DerFurShur (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 5:41 pm

Eh in an episode already strapped for time, wasting time on unnecessary exposition seems like not the best idea.
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 5:43 pm

DerFurShur wrote:in an episode already strapped for time

And that, I think, is the main reason why MMC had so many troubles. It had to be incredibly dense with the major plot points and thus did not have much time for filling the story out with details and feelings.
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Postby Mr. Big (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 5:52 pm

I don't think the show will end with everyone becoming princesses. Instead, it will end with something where all the other ponies fulfill their goals or something that extends their talents

Applejack becomes a bigger success with her farm.
Rarity opens a line of shops all over Equestria
Rainbow Dash finally becomes a Wonderbolt
Fluttershy opens a big animal sanctuary
Pinkie Pie...not sure what will happen to her.

See? There's a way to give a satisfactory ending without making everyone alicorns.
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Postby PonyHag714 (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 5:57 pm

And then show Spike and the CMC, with Twilight's voiceover: "And don't worry about Ponyville...it's in good hooves."
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Postby Just Scuds (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 6:10 pm

Bakertoons wrote:Pinkie Pie...not sure what will happen to her.


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Postby ROBOT B9 (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 7:01 pm

No, no, no. Pinkie will be the one who orchestrated the entire show after all. :)
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Postby PaulloDEC (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 10:35 pm

Headless Horse wrote:Well, you'd think she'd have treated it more with kid gloves, investigated it under lab conditions, etc.

I know that if I were a chemistry student and the prof gave me a mystery substance to try to identify, step one wouldn't be "drink it"


Yup. This is why I'm running with the theory that Twilight only cast the spell in the first place because it looked like nonsense (as she comments, "It doesn't make sense... it doesn't even rhyme!"). Kinda like when you're messing around in Qbasic as a kid, and even though you know your program won't work you hit run anyway, because why not, right?

I also like to think that the whole thing might've been something Star Swirl planned for Twilight thousands of years earlier. If anyone could (and would) write a spell that appears as if it shouldn't work, but actually has an incredibly specific purpose relevant only to the bearer of the Elements of Harmony, it'd be him.
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Postby ShieldedDiamond (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 10:55 pm

Sobana wrote:What do you consider the worse and why?


MMMystery is the worst episode. Poor writing, poor message, out of character actions, but I've already gotten into that hundreds of times.

Bakertoons wrote:I don't think the show will end with everyone becoming princesses. Instead, it will end with something where all the other ponies fulfill their goals or something that extends their talents

Applejack becomes a bigger success with her farm.
Rarity opens a line of shops all over Equestria
Rainbow Dash finally becomes a Wonderbolt
Fluttershy opens a big animal sanctuary
Pinkie Pie...not sure what will happen to her.

See? There's a way to give a satisfactory ending without making everyone alicorns.


The issue with that is that it isn't satisfactory, because they've all pretty much already have that.

Rarity is known all throughout Manehattan and Canterlot, taking awards home every time.
Rainbow Dash has had the opportunity to be a Wonderbolt several times, turned it down each time.
Fluttershy already has a big animal sanctuary, her home.
And Applejack is already a big success, as has been, as evident with her cider business or whatever.

It might have been satisfactory if it was the season 1 finale, but at this point all of that has been done to death. Especially the Rainbow Dash Wonderbolt thing, that's ridiculous how many times she's encountered them and practically turned them down.
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Postby Fizzbuzz (?) » Sun Dec 14, 2014 11:59 pm

Honestly, I don't even think Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, or Applejack have any particular ambitions. Applejack seems primarily concerned with growing apples and taking care of her sister, Pinkie Pie just wants everyone to be happy, and Fluttershy loves animals and mostly seems to just want to be with them (and she seems to want happiness for others, too, though that's mostly limited to the other five since unlike Pinkie she doesn't interact much with anyone she doesn't know).
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Postby The Doctor (?) » Mon Dec 15, 2014 12:14 am

Applejack seems like she would like to expand the family business if given the opportunity. Best Night Ever, SSCS6000 as examples.

Fully agree that Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy don't have grand ambitions. They're exactly where they want to be.
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Postby ShieldedDiamond (?) » Mon Dec 15, 2014 12:21 am

But even still, Applejack really hasn't done much compared to Rarity and Rainbow Dash who actively have been doing things (well at least Rarity hasn't turned down everything along the way), so I think that does leave Applejack with, even though a handful of times she's shown wanting to expand, she isn't really actively doing anything about it. So I feel that puts her in the "no goals" camp.
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Postby Marimo (?) » Mon Dec 15, 2014 1:04 am

ShieldedDiamond wrote:Rainbow Dash has had the opportunity to be a Wonderbolt several times, turned it down each time.

...

Especially the Rainbow Dash Wonderbolt thing, that's ridiculous how many times she's encountered them and practically turned them down.

She hasn't been offered to be a Wonderbolt. The closest that's happened is when she turned down being a Cloudsdale representative for the relay race. Just because it was an opportunity to compete alongside some Wonderbolts doesn't mean it was an offer to join the Wonderbolts team.

In fact the last time her Wonderbolts plot came up, she made it onto the reserve team.
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Postby SlateSlabrock (?) » Mon Dec 15, 2014 1:18 am

DerFurShur wrote:As for Chessmaster Celestia, yeah it requires looking into things a little too much but it's interesting how all these coincidences all connect in plausible ways, not to mention the show intentional likes to nail home that destiny is a thing and a powerful one at that. So when you have a world in which powerful magical forces are seemingly in control of near anything, having Celestia act as either an architect of all these coincidences, or as someone who can see the writing on the walls and know how to plan accordingly isn't that much of a stretch.

The show struggles with whether it wants Celestia to be Gandalf and know everything or Dumbledore and merely have some good intuition and some obvious failures. But in this particular case, she's clearly been planning at least since the beginning of the season, so it's not a stretch to assume she had been grooming Twilight for leadership all along. When we see the Tree of Harmony in season 4, it's even more likely that this was not just some random one-off goof-up on her part.
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Postby ShieldedDiamond (?) » Mon Dec 15, 2014 1:35 am

Marimo wrote:She hasn't been offered to be a Wonderbolt. The closest that's happened is when she turned down being a Cloudsdale representative for the relay race. Just because it was an opportunity to compete alongside some Wonderbolts doesn't mean it was an offer to join the Wonderbolts team.

In fact the last time her Wonderbolts plot came up, she made it onto the reserve team.


What about that entire episode about her being in the Academy and she left? And while it's not "being a Wonderbolt" she got to save their life and hang out with them. My point is, the Wonderbolt thing has been done to death.
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Postby Marimo (?) » Mon Dec 15, 2014 1:56 am

ShieldedDiamond wrote:
What about that entire episode about her being in the Academy and she left? And while it's not "being a Wonderbolt" she got to save their life and hang out with them. My point is, the Wonderbolt thing has been done to death.

She didn't leave the Academy. Not permanently at least. The ending clearly shows her coming back after initially quitting. While the full purpose of it isn't clearly explained, presumably clearing the Academy is just one of the requirements needed.

Her being able to hand out with the Wonderbolts after saving their life is not being offered to join them and her turning them down.

And yeah, of course they're going to keep bringing up the Wonderbolts. It's Rainbow Dash's ongoing story arc.
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