Help! My Heart is Full of Pony - Hearth's Warming Tail · 3:41am Dec 24th, 2021
Hearth's Warming Tail is, of course, a retelling of Dickens's A Christmas Carol, and Starlight Glimmer is a perfect choice to parallel Scrooge. Apart from being a reformed villainess, she is also the only main character to have plausible reasons for holiday indifference.
It's easy to get absorbed in that, and, of course, the musical numbers, (which are among Ingram's best work).
However, hidden in this episode is a rather nifty little bit of character development for Twilight Sparkle.
The episode begins with a festive musical number about preparing for the holiday, followed by GlimGlam...sitting it out. To get her into the spirit of Hearth's Warming, Twilight reads Starlight her own "favorite Hearth's Warming story."
Think about that for a second. Obviously this is a throwaway line, intended only to frame the larger narrative of the episode. However, it has some pretty interesting implications.
Twilight is ridiculously well read. She has doubtlessly read dozens, or even hundreds of Hearth's Warming stories.
But her favorite of all time is not some historical drama featuring Clover the Clever, (even though Clover was her idol, Starswirl's, protege).
No.
It's a story about somepony who thinks the way to make the world a better place is to shut out all distractions and study magic. It's a story about an academic with no friends.
Discuss.
-Sprocket
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I suspect it was a tale she read when younger but only appreciated later in life.
There are some things that we don’t realize about ourselves until someone or somepony shows us. And stories about others who are traveling the same path can open one’s eyes.
Just as the original tale reforms a troubled soul, so this one helps Starlight see things in a different light.
The light of Friendship!
This episode had an amazing Luna song
Thank you for your thoughts. :)