Why Cozy Glow had no free will in Season 9, but why the ending is okay. · 7:05pm January 29th
You read the title right. I believe that Cozy Glow actually lacked any free will in terms of the outcome in Season 9. In short, she was led down the evil path, which ended in punishment, but that doesn't mean she was immune to any potentially different outcome. That's the short version, let's get into the long version...
It all started when Cozy Glow is forced out of Tartarus and into Grogar's lair, and in his own words, demands that they join him. He is very demanding to all of them. In Frenemies, he pins them against the wall, threatening violence against all three of them, asserting that this is a fraction of his power, which to me implies he'd be willing to harm them more if he had the remainder of his power. He uses this assertiveness to force them to climb Mt. Everhoof together. If Cozy Glow was to be reformed, this is not the way to do it. We saw in School Raze where her moral compass points. She takes great pleasure in causing mischief and destruction. The only way Cozy is gonna change her ways, is if somepony intervenes, and convinces her of something else. That isn't going to happen when she's surrounded by two of Equestria's biggest baddies, and a sniveling lying shapeshifter(who we'll get back to) forcing her to express her evil tendencies.
Grogar/Discord should've anticipated some sort of betrayal by the villains. They're villains after all, so that's on him for being reckless, and assembling such a dangerous group. The Ending of the End's entire conflict IS Discord's fault. He brought them together. He told them about the bell, and where to find it. And he forgot he assembled a team of villains, and got cocky and let the situation get out of control. Aside from some scolding, there isn't any significant punishment or anger at Discord, which I think is a very dangerous precedent.
All of this is to say, Discord crafted Evil Alicorn Cozy Glow. Yes, Cozy Glow had the mischievous nature that was a key ingredient in this. But Discord forced her down this path.
Cozy had no option in this scenario. The only option I guess would've been if she had a change of heart somehow while at Grogar's lair, and fled to warn Equestria about the impending attack, but why would she do that? Especially after Grogar physically threatened her if she doesn't do what she asks him to do. So there's a risk in snitching on Grogar, plus there's the risk of how Twilight would react if she saw Cozy Glow free from Tartarus. Would she even believe Cozy?
This hypothetical scenario could never have panned out, because of the creatures surrounding her. Cozy has a close alliance with Tirek, so of course she'll stick with him. And Chrysalis and her backstabbing plan, Tirek goes with it, and so does Cozy, who loves a good backstabbing anyway.
The last time Cozy Glow made a decision herself that affected her future, was when she created the spell in School Raze. Of course Cozy wasn't going to change her mind immediately in School Raze. She is vengeful. She is a bratty little demon. But it's not impossible, it's just going to take a little more than a mellow dramatic speech about how she doesn't get friendship. I'm not saying it's unreasonable that Cozy paid for her actions, but I think the domino effect that came out that started from her mischievous actions in the school were a bit absurd.
Bottom line, Cozy Glow, from the moment Cozy was taken out of Tartarus and recruited by Discord/Grogar, was truly the beginning of her end.
From Season 9 onward, it may seem like Cozy has a choice, but she doesn't. And this gets a little philosophical, but indeed, Cozy Glow has no free will in Season 9. She didn't choose to join Grogar, she was forced to. Her alicorn rampage across Equestria, was simply due to her already pre-existing evil nature, fostered by Discord's plan, and then further fostered by Chrysalis' backstabbing plan. Cozy didn't decide anything. She didn't plot anything. She was simply led thru the motions of whatever her contemporaries had planned for her. You leave a villain with a bunch of other villains, and of course bad things were going to happen.
Am I making excuses for Cozy? No. By no means is that the point of this blog. The point I'm trying to make is that Cozy Glow is a filly, and she's very impressionable. Very few of her decisions in Season 9 came from her, but rather from those around her.
Cozy's fate in Ending of the End was out of her control. By not having the proper nurturing to reform her, and having the literal opposite, it was only inevitable that she would do something of this sort. After her defeat, her fate was again out of her control, as she didn't even have an opportunity to plea for forgiveness, before Discord, the one who dragged her into this in the first place, decided that she deserved to turned to stone, because she executed the actions that he had fostered himself. Which if you asked me, is quite the backwards logic. The decision to put in her stone was a very poorly judged one. And with not a single tear shed from Cozy's misfortune, that leaves me to shed all the tears myself.
To the people who say Cozy Glow got what she deserved, I say nay. I instead say that she was unfairly led down a path of evil, and that her fate was decided long ago. She crossed the path of evil long before she ever could've foreseen how far things went. Perhaps it is still what she deserves in that respect, but I digress. Cozy posed no significant threat while in Tartarus. There isn't any reason Twilight couldn't have tried at a later date to talk sense into her, and come up with a plan, but I guess there were different priorities in mind.
I know a lot of people do prefer Cozy being evil, and think shed become a lot less interesting if she was reformed. And you know what, perhaps there is some truth to that. Here's the thing, and it's going to hurt saying this, but... I think Cozy Glow being turned to stone IS the best ending. Not because it is a good ending, but because I don't trust that Hasbro could've delivered a satisfying redemption for Cozy Glow. Now don't get me wrong, there's still a lot I don't like about the ending. I don't like how there's this debate that Cozy can or can't be reformed. I don't like the lack of evidence suggesting she was reformed, or could've been reformed. I don't like how unsympathetic everypony is at the end, and don't bat an eye at a filly being turned to stone. I don't like how they don't say anything about their future beyond Discord's line. But.... (I like big buts), death of the author, am I right. Who's to say Discord was literal when he said together forever? I sure hope he wasn't. But sometimes a sentence is just a sentence.
If you think that they shouldn't have ended the show the way they did, and Cozy should've been reformed right there, let me ask you something. Do you think that Hasbro would ever have made a series of episodes on the same scale as Cozy Chronicles? Or The Evil of Friendship Grows? Or any other Cozy Glow story? Absolutely not. I think that if Cozy begged for mercy, and was offered a chance to change immediately after her defeat, you would've seen a huge onslaught of fans complaining about yet another rushed and unconvincing redemption. Maybe that's what they were trying to avoid, but they endied up over compensating. But I digress, stone in this universe isn't permanent, but we'll get back to that.
I believe that in theory they could have made an exciting two part episode focused on Cozy, concluding with her reformation, if that was the goal from the start. That wasn't the goal for School Raze, or Ending of the End though. And in the case of the latter, there's a hundred other plot points being wrapped up, that sadly Cozy getting significant development or spotlight didn't seem possible.
I believe Cozy Glow is such an interesting and complex character. There is this divide in the fandom where, some fans truly see her as one of the most ruthless villains for no apparent reason, while the other side sees her as not much different from Luna, or Sunset, and believe a good nature can come out, based on that mountain top scene in Frenemies.
One analogy I've been using recently is thinking of Cozy and her layers. Be it an onion, or iceberg, whatever. On the surface you have Cozy Glow in Marks for Effort. Underneath that layer is School Raze Cozy Glow. You might think that's the real her, but I think there are more layers to Cozy deeper than even that. Is Cozy Glow almost embracing friendship in Frenemies a deeper layer? Is it closer to Cozy's true nature? Perhaps. What is the true nature of Cozy Glow? It's just another one of the great mysteries of life. And you know what. I think that's just fine. If you like Cozy Glow as a ruthless villain (and don't mind her extra cruel punishment) then that's okay. If you like Cozy Glow and wish she had the happiest outcome, and are sad that she got quite the opposite, then that's fine too. I believe that there is enough evidence to suggest either outcome being plausible for Cozy Glow. Being in stone isn't the end, perhaps it's only the beginning. Sometimes we need to be at our lowest point in order to climb and reach our highest point. Perhaps Cozy's happiest days are yet to come. Cozy Glow will get what she deserves. What she deserves is up for you to decide.
There isn't anything suggesting the stone is permanent, or temporary. It's truly what you want to interpret it as. That's the true beauty of Cozy Glow in general. What's her backstory? Her true nature? Who knows. She's like the inkblot of G4. I know some people will say "how can you see good in her when she's so evil?", but really, her character is so mysterious, and she's shown enough qualities either way, that either outcome is fine. You should all be fine with your own personal interpretations of Cozy Glow, and not worry so much about what others think. Don't obsess yourself with arguing against people who say Cozy Glow didn't deserve redemption. They're either trolls, or more likely, they just have their own opinion, and it isn't worth the energy or effort to try to convince them of your opinion. Cozy's nature isn't set in stone, as one might think. Cozy is free, and fluid. She lives rent free in my mind, and I'm forever grateful for that.
I think that's all I have to say on this subject matter. Thank you for reading, and I am sorry for the delay on the final chapters to my stories. All I have to say about that, is sadly I've kind of lost my motivation to finish those stories for now. The future of my writing is uncertain right now. But please stick around, we might all be surprised some day for all I know.
It might even go deeper than that based on how she responded to Twilight's question of "Why" at the end of School Raze Part 2: where she visibly cringes backwards for a second before launching into a nonsensical tirade that doesn't seem to try anything to rationalize her motivation to Twilight.
However, there's a precedent for her being afflicted by some sort of Magic that Compels someone to act in a certain way, be it verbal or physical: Cozy Glow could be under a Geas, and that her antagonism towards everyone around her in that moment of weakness asserted itself to keep Cozy from carefully wording hints at her Geas to others; now that her attempt to break it by removing all Magic that could be used to power it had been ruined.
5765491
Wow, that's actually a genius idea!
TL;DR: The stoning isn't inherently wrong, just the underdevelopment and lost potential of Cozy (and by extension, Chrysalis and Tirek) is.
Considering the stone spell on Discord was temporary, I'd have to say that this one probably is too. But considering it was Discord rather than the Elements of Harmony who cast this spell, I really have no idea. Also, it doesn't help the morbidness of the stoning considering we also know that it puts the victims to sleep (or at least is said to by Ocellus).
Overall, considering the fact that stoning has been dished out as a punishment before, I don't really contend the fact that it is unjust to do it on Cozy. The fact that Discord manipulating and threatening her, Tirek, and Chrysalis was not taken into account is extremely careless and hypocritical. The stoning is for sure very morally questionable, but not completely wrong. Overall, the part I'm most frustrated about is that Cozy had no development that even gave her a CHANCE to redeem herself prior to the Series Finale. If a character still chose evil after their backstory and motivations had been laid out, it would prove they couldn't be reasoned with. But if they hadn't, then it makes the punishment, especially in terms of MLP, premature and a disservice to the show's morals.
But I do definitely agree that the show writers could not be trusted to write a good redemption for Cozy. Even if I have come to terms with Starlight's, if the writers ever did try to write a Cozy redemption arc, I suspect it would be either rushed, undeveloped, or unresolved. Because The Ending of the End was the series finale, I believe the writers chose not to reform any of the The Legion of Doom because their redemptions wouldn't go anywhere with the show ending, while Starlight had 3 seasons to grow as a character after her redemption.
5765540
They could have at the very least had Cozys' story continue in G5 as a Main Character instead: where from her perspective of events and how she views Equestria compared to the G5 characters; we'd have a nice contrast to the events and characters we're familiar with. It would Eventually have built up into the events of G4 not as a heroic triumph; but as a tragedy of impulsiveness brought about by Princess Celestia's obsession with Destiny above all else that it resulted in her coming off as less of a fallible leader and more like a control freak that wanted things to play out exactly as she desired; regardless of how others felt and chose.
5765540
It is tough. There is a hypothetical scenario where the writers double down on Cozy's destructive tendencies, to where the punishment would've felt more warranted. Yeah she quite literally goes on a magic rampage through Equestria, but I think the presence of that scene in Frenemies where Cozy says "When you use your power to help others..." hinting at some development, and her terrified expression as she's turned to stone, hint a somepony who still wasn't deserving of such a swift and cruel punishment. If Frenemies was truly just a tease and not meant to set up anything, it was one heck of a tease.
5765560
I'm actually kind of glad Cozy Glow hasn't appeared in G5 so far. For similar reasons, I don't think G5 is really the place for her. Cozy deserves her own series, not as a side character or footnote, although your idea sounds pretty cool.