Twilight, Queen of Poneskos · 7:45pm May 10th, 2014
Huh. I was just going for a card pun, but "Poneskos" sounds like a pretty awesome place name. I'm going to have to remember that one.
Anyway, my reactions to the finale are copious enough that I thought I'd split them and the cards (coming tomorrow, on schedule.) Spoilers for those avoiding them, because I know this is far from the first blog of its kind today. Now, in roughly chronological order:
To anyone who complains about Flash Sentry's line and the apparent lies of the McCarthy Hype Train™, that's not him being a character. That's him being a loudspeaker. Heck, it's the same thing pony Flash was doing in Equestria Girls; he's announcing foreign dignitaries.
That first song was beautiful enough to bring me to tears, but it was rather unhelpful. I do like how Luna got to sing and act as the voice of underappreciated-princess experience, but it amounted to a musical equivalent of telling the Crusaders "It'll come when it's time." That doesn't address the actual issue.
(On a related note, Postgraduate Work is not going to be affected by this episode. Interpret that as you will.)
Tirek was expecting three princesses, which means that Cadence existed before Luna's banishment. This raises a number of questions. IAside from her being a quintuplet, my dynastic reincarnation hypothesis may carry some weight. I really hope this wrinkle is explored further. (The show's writers probably won't, but that means we get to.)
Also, I wasn't expecting Scorpan to be mentioned at all. When he was, I honestly expected him to figure into Tirek's defeat. At least, in a more direct manner. I wonder what he's up to...
I expect to see keyblade versions of the various Keys of Harmony within the week.
I never realized how many "the Mane Six do research" scenes there were until I started making cards. No wonder I've made a disproportionate number of blue cards…
I quite liked the visual echo of the end of "Magical Mystery Cure" when Twilight flew to Canterlot. And the return of the haunting Discord sound after his Face Heel Turn was quite nice, as was the Ironic Echo after Tirek's sudden but inevitable betrayal.
Derpy could've totally kicked Tirek's ass if she'd gotten to him earlier. I guess the other pegasi might have been a bit helpful as well.
Celestia's plan… okay, Operation: Captain Planet worked fairly well, but not telling the rest of the Mane Six was just a big pile of dumb. Heck, Twilight could've cited the plundervine debacle as an example of why it was a big pile of dumb. I guess Tia was just unthinkingly desperate.
Who else cheered when they saw Twilight's mane flow when she was empowered and during sunrise? Seriously, I've been waiting for that all season. I think there was similar motion on all six at the conclusion. Definitely Dash, I saw the zigs zag.
The visual effect on Discord's magic in mid-transit was several kinds of awesome.
Okay, wow. This is not a show that give us many full-fledged, no-holds-barred, both-parties-are-actively-trying-to-hurt-the-other-from-the-start fight scenes. Especially not Dragonball Z-level laser fights. Also, four alicorns roughly equal one draconequus plus the population of Equestria plus one monkey-faced, Bolas-horned centauroid.
Apparently, Rainbow Power requires three times as much security as activating a nuclear arsenal.
Even Tirek gets more mercy than Sombra. No wonder the former stayed away from the Crystal Empire. Probably wanted to wait until he was powerful enough to nuke the site from orbit.
The Mane Six moved with the rainbow waveform and personally helped set things right. I'm pretty sure Rainbow Power entails transformation into a harmony elemental. A non-world-destroying one.
The true purpose of the Lockbox of Harmony makes perfect sense. After all, it was in the middle of a flower. What do flowers do? They make seeds.
Twilight's castle seems to come with a non-orbital friendship cannon. And a throne for Spike, which is more than Luna gets.
Finally, Rainbow Power's eyesore color schemes have an explanation: trees don't have eyes. The Mane Six's mega evolutions were literally designed by a blind person. It was probably trying to make them attractive to pollinators.
Discord needs a throne.
The episode was craaaaaaap.
It does say that Cadance was the princess of the crystal empire, so yeah, she had to be there for Luna's banishment.
Meh.
Quick google image search yielded interesting keyblade versions of the elements, but not the keys yet.
Also... Princess Celestia sleeps in her crown, her shoes, and her regalia.
Good job animators, good job!
At first I was annoyed that everyone was spelling it "Tirek" when the original spelled it "Tirac." Then I watched the credits to be certain, and they spelled it "Tirek." I guess we can use the different spellings to differentiate the versions.
Anywho, This is a good time to make a card for "Sudden but Inevitable Betrayal." I picture Tirek as being a leveler who levels up while simultaneously weakening other creatures "(Cost): Put a drain counter on target creature, then put a level counter on Tirek. Creatures with drain counters on them are 0/1 with no abilities." Or something like that.
Tree fashion, the root of Amy bad design scheme.
So, did Celestia really do the whole power transfer solely so Twilight would be empowered to defeat Tirek, and not at all for the stated reason of hiding their power from him? Because the stated reason makes no sense in many different ways, not least of which is that Tirek realistically had to know about Twilight (he had been skulking around Equestria since early in season 2, for crying out loud), and even if he didn't, Celestia had just said that Discord had betrayed them, and could tell Tirek everything Tirek didn't know. And yet in spite of the fact that Tirek realistically had to know, he apparently didn't
Stupid non-euphemistic plotholes...
2097292
Even better: he's an eldrazi.
I like to assume that this entire time he's been on the couch, idly surfing channels and complaining about how bored he is.
2096839
Discord already has a throne, silly.
2096924
As I said, within the week. Pony artists are fast, but they're not machines. Well, not most of them
2097292 2097707
Both interesting takes, but not what I went with. You'll see come the morrow.
2097617
Unless the tree is Fluttershy. Who actually has eyes.
2097689
Here's the skinny:
1. Tirek was laying low until he had recovered enough to start draining magic. Given that horned, monkey-headed centaurs are going to attract attention, he was probably living as far from civilization as possible. Not exactly in a position to catch up on the news. Heck, he didn't know Discord was free.
2. Discord was withholding information until he fully trusted Tirek. (Read: was given a shiny bauble.) Note how he brushes off his Discy Sense when Tirek asks about it.
3. Celestia's plan worked. No alicorn magic for Tirek in Canterlot. The ploy was undone solely by Celestia's obsession with stained glass windows.
2098747
"Seen it. Seen it. Wrote it. Seen it twice. Ugh. How long does it take to get chips? Tirek missed his favorite soap opera. All of it."
Since Tirek escaped during season two it seems much more likely that he simply caught news of the Crystal Empire in the same ways everyone else did.
2098817
Well, I think if everyone else can say that Celestia knows everything and has planned everything out and always intended for whatever outcome occurs even though it's the exact opposite of what she says, then Tirek should be able to plot and deceive his way through a story as well.
Like I said over on my blog, I think Tirek probably did know about Discord, and probably knew much more about everything than he let on. His stated ignorance about Twilight could have been a test to see if Discord was preparing to betray him before he could betray Discord. Being a clever villain, at least at first, he would have been gathering intelligence in preparation for his plan. And if Tirek actually was the Pony of Shadows, which would have been a perfect cover for him while he laid low, then he would have seen Twilight directly.
2099630
Possible, but that means his news feed cut out at some point between "The Crystal Empire" and "Keep Calm and Flutter On," which raises the question of why. And how he established it in the first place.
2100036
I think Celestia was being up front this time around. She was terrified to the point of losing most tactical acumen (no, don't let your friends help, they'll somehow be in more danger than they already are simply through Tirek's existence.) I never said it was a good plan, only that it worked. For a time.
Tirek wouldn't have raged impotently if he knew about a fourth alicorn. That's just not his style. Even if he didn't know where she was, he would've at least mentioned her just to see the expression on Celestia's face as he crushed her last hope.
As for Discord, Tirek may or may not have known about him, but that knowledge does nothing to preclude having a contingency in place. Tirek spent more than a millennium trapped in Tartarus. He probably devoted more than a few years thinking about how to turn the draconequus with honeyed words. And the current changeling queen, Sombra, Scorpan, maybe Luna...
Of course, this is just my opinion versus yours. I haven't even decided how I'm integrating Season 3 into my stories, much less S4.
2100290
Sorry, I didn't want to start an argument or anything
2100290 ...greedy merchants, diamond dogs, jealous sorcerers, dragons of various ages, earth pony farmers with horn envy, Pegasi with horn envy, autocorrects that insist on capitalizing species names, spoiled rich kids, an isolated zebra, an evil goat wizard, an innocent trusting child, and how much longer does this list go on? *streatches far into distance* ...well a millennium is a stupidly long time to plan.
This... is the best headcanon ever.
2097025
I like to think she was so dead tired she just flopped into bed the night before.
2098817
>>Celestia's obsession with stained glass windows
New Headcanon: Celestia is trying to invent a Liminid projector.
This contained some of the best explanations for anything I've ever read.