season 5 finale thoughts · 8:00pm Nov 29th, 2015
So today I finally saw the season 5 finally. I would like to give my thoughts on all of season 5 but for now this will have to do. To start off with, I'm just so-so with it. It has a lot of problems, but nothing that made me angery like with the end of season 2 or the annoyingly short musical nature of season 3.
The main problems are Starlight and the alternet Equestria's. Sure seeing all the ways Equestria would be screwed without the mane six is interesting, but seeing them like this raises plot holes. I mean, shouldn't all the villians be having something of a world war to see who wins? And doesn't this make Celestia look more and more like a useless ruler? Even when I saw the first world I was thinking to myself that Celestia and Luna defeated Sombra a thousand years ago without any magical help. Did Celestia lose her skills from eating too much cake? And what does it say when it looks like Nightmare Moon is running things so smoothly in her timeline when it is the excact same day...er night.
Starlight's backstory made me and my wife groan. I just...wow. It felt so lazy. But what made me upset was what they did with her in the end. Redemtion and friendship with no penilty for what she did. I'm sorry, but no. She messed with the time frame for petty reasons. She needs punishment of some kind. If she becomes the Element of Courage in season 6 I will be so pissed.
I also think that they missed a good opertunity. Just have Twilight stay in the first world and connect with her friends and return with them to stop Starlight, showing that they are friends no matter what Starlight does to the past. That something more powerful than her will always connect them. Something that not even Twilight fully understands but wants to learn more about.
That all being said there were many good elements. Like I said, the various worlds were interesting and I liked it when Twilight showed Starlight the results of her actions. And bat ponies! Maybe letting Starlight live in one of those worlds for a bit to see how badly she screwed things up.
#52 · 16h, 52m ago · · ·
Her friend ditching her wasn't the reasoning behind trying to make anypony miserable, or destroying Equestria (which wasn't even her plan at any point). She went off and created her own commune. She wasn't all innocent in that, since the personalities of the people living there seemed warped (or maybe Starlight just recruited the ponies without any spines), and she'd probably be charged with assault for the stunt she pulled with the Mane 6. But at that time, she thought her efforts were justified, and then all the results of her efforts (perhaps years' worth) were stripped from her.
In fact, credit to this story arc, Starlight's loss felt way more touching than someone dating your ex, or winning at a contest of skill or popularity. That's a resentment that plenty of stories (including this show at times) have used to start something with an antagonist. But in the Cutie Map, Starlight was evicted from a homestead she probably built with her own hooves, and her beliefs were spat on. What probably even stung worse was the rejection of the community she built. It's made clear that Starlight thinks friendship and cooperation are only really achieved when the playing field is leveled. We all know Starlight was lying to every pony about her sameness,' but I think it can be drawn easily that she viewed the townsponies of “Our Town” as her social circle. Having them turn on her as a mob must have hurt.
So now, Starlight’s out to hurt Twilight as deeply as she can. So she targets something both dear to Twilight, and also the source of Twilight’s recent achievements: the Mane 6… 5, whatever. One of the flaws most present throughout this episode is the expected fallout from this plan. It never seemed to occur to Starlight that the Element holders directly stopped a war or apocalypse on multiple occasions.
There were a few lines that seemed to indicate what the staff may have been conveying, and while I think it’s pretty weighty, I don’t blame anyone for not catching on to it, or just not being convinced. Starlight doesn’t believe (or doesn’t want to accept) that a fellowship of ponies coming together by chance is so crucial to society and the world. This is has to do with a lesson here we don’t get in much most media at all: people are not all equal. There are people who can do a job better than you, so they’ll get the accolades, while you won’t. There are people who objectively do more for society, so people give more of a crap about those people than they do you. So I’m guessing that Starlight’s vision of the world is that anypony else, or any organization, were equally viable for dealing with the numerous threats to Equestria. The fact that in some timelines, Equestria survived Nightmare Moon and Discord, and then get ripped apart by someone else down the line, partially supports this.
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I get what your trying to say. But I think it could have been better. I mean, in the year she was out of Our Town, with all the research she did it never occured that there was a chance that undoing this union might cause those events to be undone. And if that was the episodes intent, wouldn't it have been better if it focused more on Starlight trying to figure out how things went so wrong. Trying to wrap her brain around what was happening and maybe going back in time to fix it herself and failing everytime because she didn't have the skills.
I think the last future was the villain all out war, since there was nothing left. And I agree that Starlight's backstory while traumatizing for a kid to someone older it's like, really, that's what you're upset about? The biggest problem with Starlight for me is her magic power. She can go toe to toe with twilight while constantly keeping herself a float in the air.
I know it's not impossible for unicorns to be that strong, Twilight, star swirl are good examples of this, but it feels like the staff made Starlight OP. I don't know maybe it cause I'm not real fond of her character that I'm a little bias against her for this.
I feel like, once again, they were trying to do too many things in too short of time. It was basically just a clipshow with none of the alternate universes really mattering. Cool as they were, they could've all been edited out without it making a difference to the plot.
What they should have done is have Twilight meet Starlight in those alternate universes. Each time, she - and we - would get a glimpse who Starlight could have been instead of a smug narcissist with a messiah complex. We'd get to see her as someone you'd actually want to reform. Each time, we'd be freshly slapped in the face by asshole Starlight. And each time, Twilight would pick up another seemingly minor biographical detail which she would ultimately use to psychologically disarm the mainline Starlight instead of having it all infodumped at the last minute.
3579766 That's also a good point. Twilight is an alicorn and the element of magic so why is she having so much trouble with Starlight?
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But honestly, it’s a problem that’s been with the show since the beginning. Most of the time, ponies do not acknowledge what a big deal the Mane 6 are, or what they’ve done. No one acknowledges how unstable the nation can be, no celebrity or politician tries to woo the Elements for popularity, the government doesn’t ever give them a monetary reward to help them pay off debt, and they rarely even garner much attention at whichever location they go to.
Actually, Starlight has more of an excuse than anyone else in Equestria, since she lived in a dirty town in the armpit of nowhere, then spent the rest of this season on the run. Although I’d think she’d have learned something while doing all that stalking of Twilight, which I’m not really sure was the point of now. Plus, she must have noticed when the sun came up late that one time… Still, I think her sense of injustice could have kept her in denial. But my point is that the biggest hole in this episode isn’t unique or especially crippling.
3580187 Twilight is not combat trained, she is used to solving her problems by either running or using the elements, she doesn't have much finesse as proven by her battle against Tirek. she also is used to her problems being solved by the friendship cannon, rather than sheer wit and combat capability. Starlight is self trained for combat, and has the advantage of martial skill over Twilight, While twilight might have the power advantage between the two.
3580672 wish they could have shown that since it looked like Starlight was just as strong and smarter than Twilight
3581069 You can be a grade a genius but still get your but kicked in a fight against a street rat. Twilight is smart, but has become so used to her friends helping her, that she probably doesn't know how to go one on one. Where as Staright has been on her own since the debacle at "Our Town" And has had plenty of time to practice in similar ways to Trixie, without looking for a quick out such as the Alicorn Amulet.
3580187 Actually I had an idea to that last night. Maybe it's less of Starlight being on par with Twilight magically, but more of Twilight being tired from traveling through time multiple times back to back. We did see when Twilight went to the back Nightmare moon future she barely had any magic left to fight of timber wolves. If I remember that is when the big fight took place, but she still would have cast the time spell at least three times by then and from Starlight's explanation when Twilight casts the time spell, Starlight is sent back too, meaning Twilight maybe forking over the magic for Starlight to come back too. Leaving Starlight well rested and Twilight wasting large amounts of magic to travel through time and then she fights.
So maybe Starlight isn't more powerful, at least going with that theory.
Honestly, none of the other timelines but Nightmare Moon's should exist. Without the mane 6 Nightmare Moon wins. Discord is not loose, Chryssy wouldn't likely invade, Sombra would be whooped, Tirek would likely still be in Tartarus sicne i bet NMM would have stronger security.
Sunset returning and having a resistance would have been interesting.
Starlight is OP. Twilight is an alicorn AND the Element of Magic. Starlight could not get her that tired in a few minutes.
This season suffered from lazy writing and poor idea's with a handful of gems.
Even Friendship Games was wasted potential. No a game here. 1000 Year change does this what if far better.