But since I posted my most recent story it has gotten over three hundred reads in under three days and a whole lot of comments. So color me dopamine and serotonin flush!Well played, M.A. Larson. You just saved a universe! · 6:09pm Feb 17th, 2013
I watched the episode, and honestly I was floored! Why?
Because the mythology of Season 1 has been restored. Explicitely. Wow! It just feels good to have Celestia be more than an absentee landlord (and not to forget: get a song!) And as a bonus... the fanfiction community gets the pleasure of NOT having to revise or throw away everything we've written in the past three years! Even the Equestria-as-a-runaway-simulation from my story Relic still works ("vid windows" in Twilight's conversion, er, I mean ascension dream...)
Think about it. This episode by M.A. Larson was a tour de force! Compared to all the possible ways this could have been played, he was able to (and I can't believe the writing staff were able to pull this off):
- Have a mane six character die and be resurrected, thus restoring the goddess status of Celestia and the alicorns,
- Put the focus on the value of friendship, the real philosophical heart of the series and the reason (IMHO) that it resonates so strongly with all us non-six-year-old-girl type fans,
- Show that a true geek's dedication to science, enlightened with morality based on fellowship, is the path to truth, even for young female geeks
- Give Hasbro the marketing push for Twilicorn without driving the whole MLP:FIM mythos to jump the shark, SAVING THE FUTURE for all its fans. There is ACTUALLY HOPE for season four!
Larson managed something truly remarkable. No, it's not what we could have aspired to had Lauren Faust remained in charge, but it's something I (and I would hope most the fans of the series) can live with. MLP:FIM has not been ruined.
Thank you, M.A. Larson!
Dafaddah breaths a major sigh of relief!
My problem is where Season 4 will go. Does this mean Twilight now knows everything there is about friendship? If so, then where does that leave the plot of the show?
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I suspect Twilight's lessons about friendship are just beginning. There are a lot of directions this could go:
- Giving increasing responsibilities in Equestria, Twilight has to learn about the consequences of her actions ion a broader context, especially the unintended consequences
- This might provide scope for expansion of the concept of friendship: Ambassador Twilight visits Saddle Arabia, the Gryphons, Dragons, Zebras, etc...
- What will happen to the EoH with Twi as an Alicorn? Will they be passed on to a new generation of younger ponies (an expanded CMC?) BTW - this would appeal to the younger crowd.
- Will Twilight begin to work with Discord to learn about his magic (Hey, didn't we discuss this idea while you were writing Tooth and Nail?)
What do you think?
Regards,
Dafaddah
Starswirl's unfinished masterpiece.
Cast it properly and you die.
Nope, not going with that interpretation.
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Microshazm reads from a book.
Microshazm adlibs a few more more lines.
Bright lights, poof, smoke, and where the Shazm stood is a scorch mark on the ground in the shape of his cutie mark. What do I assume? (And what is his cutie mark?)
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You assume Starswirl's masterpiece teleports the caster into a swirl of stars for an hour or two.
And my cutie mark is a shazm. No, you can't imagine what it looks like. You must see it for yourself.
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Starswirl's masterpiece just scrambled the mane six's cutie marks. It was Twilight's new and improved version that left the burn marks on the floor, etc.
BTW - the one thing I really disliked about the episode (other than being a three-parter compressed into a single 22 minutes preview) is the slur against Starswirl's good name. I'll just have to work it into Renaissance Pony somehow.
Dafaddah
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It was unfinished and not meant to cast. I think it'd be rather crazy that adding friendship into the equation makes it a suicide spell.
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What if it was a spell to bake a cake? Screwing with it could end up baking the spellcaster instead!
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It's suicide with a chance of Alicornhood. And who honestly considers Twilight as sane? Especially when it comes to matters of
sciencemagicfriendship.Yay!
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Season 4 Episode 1: Cake of Destiny
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Interesting in fact, if the spell was trying to create alicorns and not simply some destiny whatever, it makes Starswirl quite scary and the Element of Magic as well since I doubt anyone else could've cast it at all. Or maybe Starswirl was only writing it for the future generations - such virtue!
Anyway, Occam's Razor ahoy: the only one who had been there during all those space YouTube moments was Twilight -> the space YouTube was inside her sparkly head (while her body was out there gathering stardust to make her wings or something).
842531>>841052>>841398 and 839450
I just had an intriguing thought.
The spell only affected the bearers of the EOH. What if that spell was the means Starswirl used to transfer the EOH away from Celestia and Luna, I.e. transfer their related destinies into the EOH items themselves.
Then, what Twilight achieved was nothing les than affecting destiny directly, hence deserving ascension to alicornhood.
Dafaddah
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as that sounds, it'd actually make Twilicorn more plausible, and since the spell was different from Starswirl's version, it doesn't undermine the rest of the Mane Six as element bearers. The good thing about 'destiny' here is that it's pretty much a fantasy concept and thus open for interpretations and deviations.
The more you look at it, the more you have to overthink to make any of it work. Celestia lied about the spell being unfinished? She just scrubbed off the last lines Starswirl had used for Twilight to make her own? As