Finale Thoughts · 4:15am Oct 13th, 2019
Okay, now that the finale has come and gone. It's time to reflect. "The Ending of the End" was an excellent end to the series, if not for one gripe. Because I dislike future flash episodes due to how they usually do something that rubs me the wrong way, this will mostly be about "The Last Problem".
Warning! Finale Spoilers Ahead!
- To start with, Twilight. Ever since Twilight became an alicorn, I was okay with it as long as she didn't get the tall and possibly immortal Celestia look because I felt she was not a true alicorn like Celestia and Luna were, and it was too much change to the character. So what happened in "The Last Problem"? She got the tall and possibly immortal Celestia look. Then, there's her being passed the throne. I think, if season eight hadn't happened or we got a few more seasons of Twilight running her school, I would've been fine with her receiving the throne because she hadn't had a concrete occupation. When she began running her school, I was so happy that she had a new position after Starlight stopped being her student, and it made sense since she taught Starlight. So, I thought it was too quick of a jump to something new when she was named the next ruler of Equestria. She had just gotten her school started, and then she had to leave it in the hooves of Starlight, Sunburst, and Trixie? Too fast. With Twilight starting her school, it would've made more sense for Celestia, who spent a thousand years running Equestria alone, to hand over the reins to Luna to rule on her own for a while. Luna probably has more ruling experience than Twilight anyway.
- Like Twilight, I had an issue with Spike's future design. Something about it just seems wrong. I know it's how Spike imagined himself to grow up to be, but it doesn't look right in reality. How I would've designed him would be to give him a look more like Ember and Smolder's. Taller, but still scrawny with maybe a bit of muscle building up in the arms, and bigger wings for size. Other than that, him still assisting Twilight and being an ambassador for the different creatures' international relations is fine. Unlike Twilight, he didn't have a position to jump too quickly from.
- The rest of the mane cast is alright. They all seem to be where I would've figured they would be in the future, except maybe Rarity. I wouldn't have seen her in Yakyakistan. As for the AppleDash implications, I wouldn't have thought of that either. I just never saw them that way. Otherwise, I'm okay with Fluttershy and Discord's implied relationship as well as Pinkie having a kid with Cheese. I ship CheesePie so Lil' Cheese is a delight in my eyes.
- Luster Dawn's design screams Starlight and Sunburst's future child. Her coat and mane/tail coloring match what we've seen of most parent/child genetics on the show, and her cutie mark looks similar to Sunburst's mark. Her studious nature brings to mind Sunburst, and her initial disinterest in friendship makes me think of Starlight, but yet all her moments in Ponyville and her lack of familiarity with the mane cast clash against that possible headcanon.
- I was surprised by where some of the Student Six went. Gallus never struck me as a royal guard-type. When I first saw the ending song, I thought he would've fit better in the school instead of in the guard. I wouldn't have considered Yona for running one of Rarity's stores either, but it makes sense when Rarity is apparently a hit in Yakyakistan. (Yay for her and Sandbar staying strong together!) Smolder and Ocellus, I could see hanging out at the school. If anyone was going to have aspirations beyond the school, I thought it would be Silverstream with her hinted interest in the Wonderbolts. Speaking of the Wonderbolts, I'm surprised it's still an all-pegasus group in the future.
- As for other characters in regards to The Last Problem, I was disappointed we didn't see Celestia and Luna, and Shining's family in the future Crystal Empire. Older Pound, Pumpkin, Cheese Sandwich, and Gummy was a surprise. What did Gummy do to grow that big? Fall into a barrel of toxic waste? Did somebody cast a growth spell on him? I did like that the CMC got a promotion from tutors to teachers at Twilight's school. That was nice. Also, Sunburst sporting that wicked beard, wow!
In case you're wondering, my gripe with "The Ending of the End" is that Grogar ended up being a total cop-out. He was built up to be this big, final villain, and the good things I heard from other fans increased that build-up. So, to find out that Grogar was actually Discord in disguise... that didn't sit well with me. If Discord had been upfront about his intentions at the beginning of the season, and tried to redeem Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy the way the mane cast did for him, maybe even turn the Legion of Doom into their own little evil family, that would've been a lot better than what canon did. The three villains' companionship seemed to make them behave better. If instead of turning them to stone, they had put the three of them into Tartarus again and let them live together like a family, I would've been happy. Ooh, or maybe the legion's lair could've been used as a form of house arrest, and the three of them were forbidden to leave it unless the crown approves an outing or an appointment or something.
So those are my thoughts, and these are the reasons why I will forever believe the show ended at "The Ending of the End" and not "The Last Problem". If I do more FiM fics later on, I probably will have a different future in store compared to the one canon gave to the cast. Thanks for reading!
Yeah I agree with a good amount of what you say here. Grogar was a total copout. What was the point in having him there if he turned out to be a phony? Ah well, I get to use him as the main villain in my fanfics. Others do as well. The writers wanted us to go crazy with our fanfics.
5192456
Thanks for your comment on my finale thoughts! Honestly, Discord should've been upfront with what he was trying to do, and save us all the hype about Grogar.
What'd you think of my issues with The Last Problem and my alternate ending for the Legion of Doom?
5198162
Not bad. I personally might have liked to see them redemed even though I hate chrysalis. My biggest problem with the finale was that twilight looked like she could outlive her friends. I made a few fics to counter that. Hope you'll check them out. At least the writers left it up to us, as Jim Miller said they dont know how long everyone lives including twilight. Sad that so many want her to outlive them.
5198182
Yeah, I didn't like that she could possibly outlive them either. Really, just the whole moving back to Canterlot and copying Celestia's look rubbed me the wrong way.
5198678
I know, that was kind of a cheap redesign.
Honestly was really mixed on the finale.
On one hand(er.. hoof), I was glad that Spike didn't get shafted. In fact he actually got included in the rainbow laser, closest we could get for him being the fabled 7th element the fandom often spoke of from time to time.
Though on the other.. err hoof, aside from the Grogar twist(which made me want to punch Discord so hard for what his plan did to Spike, Luna and Chrysalis). I felt like the Royal Sisters did not get a good sendoff.
They just lose their magic(and rather embarrassing for them) and all they could do is just distract the trio(and even that is overshadowed by Starlight's rescue attempt). I am not even counting the statue part since how its controversial but it also made the sisters look bad. With the whole issue with the trio but also affirmed that the sisters can't deal with villains until AFTER they are powerless and already dealt with by Twilight&co.
Like that's it. Its just the royal sisters get smacked with the worf effect AGAIN(and on their very last days as rulers) and just ultimately sidelined from the final fight. Not even included in the final rainbow laser despite they wielded the Elements before and their cutie marks were on the tree of harmony. Its like losing their connection to the Elements means all significance the sisters should have in terms of harmony stuff must be disregarded then. Pretty much losing the ability to the Elements means the sisters are screwed big time.
Really.. Luna and Celestia could have done much more in this series finale. Especially Luna since she started the show off with her story and being the first antagonist(as Nightmare Moon), I feel like she could have gotten something to make things come full circle. Like starting off in the show as a antagonist but ending the show with having a huge hero moment(no, distracting the trio did not count for that, meant like a huge unique hero moment for Luna). I felt like the writers wasted a huge opportunity there for Luna..
Honestly I was really not fond of Luna retiring, it still felt like she's still in Celestia's shadow. She only just got back to ruling for a few years at most, she didn't enjoy her destiny as dreamguardian and raising the moon for much long(apparently giving up the throne means she can't raise the moon anymore). The 1000 years gap from the NMM fiasco really can't be ignored..
I didn't like her retiring but her basically ending her rule on a bad note because of Discord's iffy plan really made it worse for me.
It just stings so badly, it felt like Luna had gotten a pretty bad sendoff.
Sorry about the rant.. just how the finale handled the sisters(especially Luna for me) left me.. well feeling bitter inside.
I still have more thoughts like on Chrysalis in the finale too but I haven't straighten up those thoughts yet.
5238513
Thanks for your thoughts on the finale. I too thought it was great that Spike was included in the Friendship Beam. He hasn't gotten a chance to contribute to big villain fights since the Crystal Empire returned.
Yeah, more could have been done with Celestia and Luna. I like the idea of bringing Nightmare Moon full circle, or at least giving Luna a chance to directly save the day after being the first pony who needed to be saved.
I definitely agree that Luna retiring was not a good idea. Celestia can retire since she ruled alone for one thousand years. She's earned a well-deserved rest, but Luna just got back not that long ago. I really think instead of hoofing the crown to Twilight, Celestia should've stepped down while leaving Luna in charge. Luna could've even found her own protege to take over her dream duties so she could rule during the day.
Don't apologize for the rant. It is very justified with how sloppy the finale was.
5242027
Honestly with how the sisters weren't included in the rainbow laser, it makes it look like they are ultimately "placeholders" for the REAL heroes to arrive. And once said heroes arrive, the sisters are tossed aside, like that's it. Destiny has screwed them over. The sisters get NOTHING. Their significance is not acknowledged.
It bothers me inside on how Luna comes back from the moon only to ultimately end up falling flat on her face time and time again instead of getting the chance to truly redeem herself. She can't freaking save the day anymore unlike in the past.
I feel like Luna is still in Celestia's shadow and is most likely not going to be remembered as much as Celestia big time honestly.
It felt like destiny screwed Luna over big time in favor of Twilight.
As for Chrysalis, I really didn't like what happened to her. Guess you can say I have a soft spot for her.
While she's a great villain I rather her reform than suffer a fate basically worse than death. Especially since its Discord's fault she ends up like this. Seriously, if he kept his filthy chaotic claws off of her then she wouldn't be this huge threat, she wouldn't be off the deep end further.
Before someone goes "But she rejected the chance to reform in Frienemies", honestly she is still not in the right state of mind when she choose that. Her mental health still seems bad and its going to take more than that scenario to get her to reform.
She needs freaking help, not being used as cannon fodder to boost Twilight's darn confidence(which would most likely go up in smoke if she's going to start falling flat on her face like how the Royal Sisters suffered when they are rulers).
Honestly.. I just can't stop imagining Chrysalis with this sympathetic self and such. Like she's tragic in some way and needs help to show her the way.
Yeah, I can see how you would believe destiny screwed over the royal sisters. Just remember that it's the show writers' fault that they never got proper chances to save the day. Heck, it might not even be them. It might've been the executives since the executives rejecting proposals for reformed Diamond Tiara episodes was the reason we never got speaking lines from her again after Crusaders of the Lost Mark.
AS for Chrysalis, I don't think she really needed to be reformed. I think it would've been okay if she, Tirek, and Cozy Glow befriended each other without changing their core personalities.
5243023
That was the reason? Don't suppose you have the source?
I don't have the source, but there are claims around here that the writers said that in an interview on Equestria Daily or something.
5243023
Out-of-universe its the writers' fault, yes
But it doesn't excuse the in-universe thing on why Luna and Celestia got screwed over.
I prefer at least Chrysalis not getting screwed over.
Btw, please remember to directly reply to me instead of just posting a comment since I didn't get the notice of your reply and I just found out about your reply 3 months later. Oof..
5304460
Yeah, probably dropped the ball on that reply. My bad.
5304467
Its ok
What do you think the writers should have done for Luna there?
5304471
Not sure at the moment. Would have to think on it for a while.
5304476
Ok
Honestly.. I think how things went for Celestia and (especially) Luna in the fiale for me affected me deep inside or something.
5304488
I can understand that. Everyone has the possibility of being deeply affected when a character they're attached to doesn't get the ending you imagined they would get. Like, I'm not a major fan of the Young Six, and I still thought where they ended up in the Last Problem was weird.
5304493
I felt like Luna deserved much better than how the writers treated her in crisis stuff due to the fact she is THE Esemble Dark Horse there.
Like why didn't her popularity deter the writers from shafting her?
5304495
No idea. Maybe they wanted to, but the executives overrode their choices. I know that Voltron infamously wanted to go in a different direction than what they ended up doing, but executives forced them to go with what they demanded.
5304500
Why the heck didn't the executives realize its a bad move in shafting a popular character like Luna like that?
Why did they see it necessary to screw her over like that?
5304510
Again, I don't know.
5304514
I felt like it brought up some painful memories on how another character from another show was handled.
Specifically the show Bakugan.
5304516
I remember Bakugan, but let's keep this conversation to MLP. That's what the blog post is about.
5304520
I am bringing up Bakugan due to they had a character similar to how Luna was handled.
Its still MLP-related due to comparing a character(Hydranoid) to what happened with Luna there.
So yeah.. still on-topic about MLP due to that.
5192456
Given the three's attitudes, a "higher power" was needed to form a group of them without them all turning on each other in five minutes flat. Once they learned to actually work together, though, he was redundant.
As for the ending... well I don't agree with everything they did with it, but I do like that they did it, and it's easily ignorable if you don't.
Even though this is a year old, I want inject my own thoughts.
I do agree about Grogar being cop-out. But, here’s the thing. I get why they went with the twist, because they wanted the focus to be on villains the heroes had fought before. Not some new guy they’ve never met.
The problem with “Grogar” is that there was no build up with him(aside from a fleeting reference in a children’s book in season 7), they just dropped him in our lap. Had they built him up it would’ve been different, but they didn’t. So I understand the logic.
But then there’s the flawed nature of Discord’s plan. Understandably so. Given his personality I’m not surprised his plan was highly flawed.
And regarding Celestia and Luna retiring, if had to guess the reason behind having Luna retire. I bet it’s because the writers didn’t want to separate them again. They wanted them to be together.
And once again, I fail to see how the future designs of the characters are such a big issue(particularly Twilight & Spike). I just don’t get it.
I do agree that it’s a shame we didn’t see Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Shining Armor, or Flurry Heart, but it’s not a dealbreaker for me.
I’m sure I’ve missed some things, but I still enjoyed the finale. And loved the epilogue. Sorry you didn’t feel the same way. But it is what it is, and I accept it. I look forward to seeing how Season 10 fills the gap.
Though I will admit I do enjoy The Ending of the End: Love and Tolerance Edition a lot.