You're all missing the worst part of the finale... · 1:34am Feb 18th, 2013
Which is, of course, Luna's dress. I mean, just look at it:
Ewwwwwwwww...
What the bleeding hell were they thinking? Purple and gold on dark blue? Oh, nonononononono.
And that crown? Or the frilly little leg thingies? Or the weird cloud pattern? Dear god, Luna, being out of the loop for a thousand years is no excuse. That'd be an ugly dress in any time period.
Oh, but don't think I'm finished. You see, Luna in a dress is a fairly silly concept to begin with. The Luna of seasons two and three is a dark and terrible thing, rightly feared by most of the populace. No barrier of sleep can stand against her, nor halt her from her purpose. She is vengeance; she is the night.
Nananana BATMARE!
Celestia, on the other hand, knows how to rock a dress:
Apparently only with her eyes closed and tail shorn off, but I digress
So what, pray tell, is this?
Yes, I am ignoring the alicorn in the room that is Twilight's choice of attire, thank you very much
(Though I do like the little hair change Twi's got here. Mimicking your mentor, much?)
I mean, the size is wrong for her and waaaay too tight around the midriff. When you've got a figure like Celestia's, you don't want your clothes to be too body hugging lest you end up looking like a skeleton. And then there's the colour scheme: I mean, what? Did you have to steal a carpet or pair of curtains to make this, Celestia? What is up with that pattern?
And then there's the crown, which kinda looks like Princess Platinum's from Hearth's Warming Eve and so should, by rights, be triggering all sorts head canoney goodness, but all I can really think is "Man, Celestia looks silly in that.
"And also the teeniest bit like a dude."
In fact, most of the dresses this episode are defunct. What happened to the elegant and personalised ensemble we saw in the gala episodes? Whither did it go, and when will it return?
I mean, just look at these ugly, ugly dresses! Luna, Celestia, the main five and... Ohhh...
Okay, I really like this one. Episode saved.
Other important things to note from this episode:
1) Spells need to rhyme in order to function properly, and that rhyme scheme seems fixed to a couplet with no regards to rhythm or metre. Makes me wonder what the hell Zecora's up to, rhyming in that scheme all the time...
Calling it now: final episode is Zecora unleashing the spell she's spent all of the show building up. It will be glorious and friendshippy.
2) There is such a thing as too many songs. It was like listening to watching Les Mis all over again.
3) Celestia's singing voice has exactly the same effect on me as her speaking voice:
Stop it, Celestia. You're making me accept this episode.
4) Pinkie can squeeze more emotion out of a small smile before being shoved on stage than Applejack and Rarity can evoke through hoards of silent tears.
5) Starswirl the Bearded apparently wrote spells that only work when you're next to the elements of harmony and are, yourself, the element of magic, both when the spell is 'broken' and when it is 'fixed'.
Unless there was no spell and it was all just an excuse for Celestia to warp Twilight off to a magical, mystical land of swirly light fixtures. Which she would never do because Celestia never pulls strings behind the scene.
Never.
6) Twilight becoming an Alicorn wouldn't screw up that much of my headcanon and would weirdly support some of it.
7) The Derp is back/Hasbro would at least try to placate us a little bit.
8) I'd be more ok with Alicorn!Twilight than Princess!Twilight, if only because Princess!Twilight comes with an ugly, ugly dress.
9) Changing you cutie mark apparently changes both your memories and the memories of everyone else. Twilight's immune only because she's the caster, and Spike just goes along with whatever she says.
What other explanation for the Apple family accepting Pinkie doing AJ's jobs is there? Either way, though, the implications of that are as dark as they come. Memory manipulation on a massive scale is, of course, the premise of Background Pony, or that story SS&E wrote which is famed for being able to draw water from stones.
Dark shizz, in other words. The darkest, fridge horror-iest type of shizz.
10) The episode gets better if you shove in a few "and then time passed" between various sections.
Y'know, it gets better if you try and fix the terrible pacing.
I guess that what I'm saying is that it should've been a two parter.
That's all.
Tyrant Celestia forced Luna to wear it.
841086
That bitch!
Celestia is clearly wearing a pony kimono.
And of course Luna belongs in a dress on important occasions. Just not that dress. Alternatively, barding and long cloak.
I think the dresses were all chosen just for that one picture you posted, with dark-blue and purple ponies and three gold-and-purple dresses in front of a gold-and-purple hallway. Obviously they're going to print it on a jigsaw puzzle.
You should also be grateful for Rainbow's hat.
Remind me to go through the credits and see if Applejack is credited with Wardrobe.
This is relevant to the topic at hand.
841245
And a European crown. Talk about a culture clash; the diplomat in Celestia should be ashamed.
And I'd say Luna would look more comfortable in barding than a dress. Using your "Personalities on FiM can be equated to those of little girls" theory, I'd say Celestia's more the type of girl to hold tea parties and lead small children around by the hand, whilst Luna's more the type of girl to run round chasing boys with sticks (can be interpreted as either holding the stick) and trying to catch sheep in their meadows. Luna and formal events don't really mesh in my mind.
I guess that's why we never really saw her at Cadence's wedding or The Grand Galloping Gala before. In fact, that's now my headcanon.
841428
The part of me that's strangely content to waste a few hours of life putting back together an image somebody else broke is weirdly pleased by this.
Even if I'd have to hide the Luna jigsaw pieces.
And I am not grateful for Rainbow Hood. Or her hat.
841549
No go there, I'm afraid. We get to see Rarity making one of the dresses. The only excuse is that she wasn't really herself at the time, and even then, isn't her talent supposed to be about crystals? Maybe that's where AJ was going wrong... I'd always thought Rarity's talent was about the application of crystals to dresses... hmm...
843794
That is the most relevant thing I have ever seen. I'm glad to know I'm not alone in my distaste.
I read through EQD's recap hoping to see some note on the dresses, but alas: Cereal Velocity did not deign to have any comments which weren't bland and unprovocative. Par for the course, I guess.
This post is truth. Though I do have to take mild umbrage at the "too much music" bit. I was totally okay with this being a musical episode. All of the songs were great until Celestia sang. (Then my ears exploded from awesome and everything after that just couldn't compare.)
846434 But that wasn't Rainbow Hood. She was pimpin'. Don't be hatin'.
25.media.tumblr.com/b2a47c4cc42c199212c560d445821337/tumblr_mic9aialDa1ro8dkoo1_400.png
848015
Most of my problems with the music were the same problems I had with Les Mis: Singing over serious scenes doesn't really work because the characters singing breaks immersion. It's kinda hard to take Twi's anguish seriously when she's busy crooning about it.
I will agree that the songs were enjoyable, though. I haven't been able to rewatch Celestia's, though, out of the certainty that when I start I will not be able to stop.
And that was so Rainbow Hood. Where else did you think all the crystals in Cadence's mane went?
848133
I think the musical that caused me to stop feeling that music broke immersion was Buffy The Vampire Slayer's musical episode. It lampshaded the music by wrapping the plot around it; someone summoned a demon whose special power was spreading chaos and destruction via music.
This led to a couple of glorious moments, like when the passionate-yet-troubled-protagonist-couple sang a duet to the audience about how they loved each other and both wanted things to work out, but were hiding from each other all of their fears and negative opinions in hopes they could just ignore them and let love make it work.
Then, in the very next scene, they're having a screaming match about it on the street. As long as they were singing, Musical Logic applied and the things they're singing are just inner monologue, but the instant the song ended, of course they both had heard absolutely everything they just confessed.
Since then, I haven't been able to watch an MLP song without my brain short-circuiting to: this is a land of magical talking ponies, so of course Musical Logic is a real thing. If a protagonist leaps up and starts singing, an enchantment effect sweeps across the entire scene and if you're there you've just been mentally whammied to participate. It's at least as real as Pinkie Sense.
If it breaks immersion, it's only because you're trying to play by Earth rules.
846434
I have been waiting a long time now to see the Princess of the Night in a dress, so I share some of your disappointment.
I think I know what happened: that's actually her nightgown, or rather, her daygown. Since Twilight was inconsiderate enough to hold her coronation in the middle of the day, somepony had to get Luna out of bed for it, and she simply came as-is (that's her bedtime tiara, too).
And you don't want to be the pony who has to get Luna out of bed. Believe me, I know. (Long story.)
848181
The Buffy example's kinda interesting given the fandom's reaction to Chrysalis/Cadence doing the exact same thing whilst walking up the aisle. I can remember a few people trying to make it into a legitimate plot-hole rather than just the one off joke it started as. I dunno; maybe that episode broke them?
Related, I have noticed whilst re-watching season three that you could make a legitimate fanon distinction between magic and spells, spells being effects produced by rhyme. Twilight noticeably points out that Starswirl's spell "doesn't even rhyme", and Pinkie uses a couplet (or a tercet/triplet, I forget) when using the mirror pool. You could, of course, extend this towards song being an advanced form of rhyme, and thus a type of spell, much as you suggested.
I'm adopting it as headcanon, anyway, and making it so that "normal" pony poetry is done entirely though slant rhyme. It'll make it interesting to write at any rate.
848201
I'd like that explanation to make sense, but it doesn't explain the golden... yoke? Bib? Do we have a name for that thing? Anyway, it's still there and I could imagine sleeping on it would hurt.
I don't think there's any real way around it: Luna just has a despicable taste in dresses and Celestia chose her dress in order to make Luna's look a little bit better. Or maybe it was the other way round, who knows.
There may even be a story in that somewhere. Hmm...
848296
You bastard.
I hope you're happy. Been prodding at this for two weeks. Just sent 5,000 words off to the prereaders.
887329
Awesome sauce. It's an interestingly linguistic piece of headcanon, and it'll be intriguing to see even part of it explored.
By pre-readers do you mean your own unique set, or the Pre-readers, who are important and well known enough to warrant a capital and all the gravitas that comes with it?
887442
The former, although it'll go to the latter once the former are done with it! (I can also sling a link by PM if you're curious. It ended up as something of an homage to the S3 finale with heavy influence from the Buffy discussion above.)
889726
Go right ahead. From what you've said, it'll be interesting thing to read.
Celestia's dress was the worst and Luna's wasn't very good, but I'm shocked and appalled that nopony seems to care about the implicit insult in Luna's crown. One does not cap the crown of the Night Princess with a golden moon. Gold is the color of the sun. For that matter, they swapped out Luna's normal black regalia for a set of golden regalia. The golden regalia and golden crown scream 'these were produced during the pre-Nightmare period when everypony treated Luna as irrelevant next to Celestia'.
895878
And (finally) posted, now that it's got the EqD stamp of approval.
987303
But but but Luna is irrelevant next to Celestia. Blue on blue princess pone is nice and all, but multi-coloured with white princess pone remains best princess pone.
As for the moon-crown part, take a look at the suspicious hole inside her bib. I'm fairly confident it wasn't made with the idea of belittling Luna in mind; I'm fairly confident it wasn't made with Luna in mind at all, and when it came time to clothe her in a dress, they just dug out one of Celestia's old ones, cut the moon out, stuck it on the matching crown and said, "There: Princess Luna can wear this."
And like a fool, she did.
987335
i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/6907238912/h69563B7B/
And oh man, I completely forgot to defecate opinions out for when you notified my originally, didn't I? Eep.
Also, what happened to the glasses, Clark?
987522
Oh wow, the hole.
I never noticed that. The golden crown on the moon and the moon-shaped hole in her golden peytral.
That's... horrible. You're a horrible person.
987522
)
The hipster glasses were part of a subtle secondary gag for April Fool's. (I don't think I'm allowed to wear them any more now that I've finally gotten a story in the featurebox eeeeee squeee.
No worries — I know how things can get. I've got at least three editing commitments clamoring for my own attention right now and a writing commission breathing down my neck.
987529 987522
That's … oh sweet stars. So magnificently horrible in its plausibility. I think I need to go curl up in a dark corner for a week.
987529>>988202
This thread seems to be heading towards unacceptable levels of "Sad Luna" fanon development. We must throw Luna a party to remedy this.
images.plurk.com/1d389374099701e88bd9392d43ec2f9c.jpg
Oh, for the love of -- Cheer up you miserable, blue git!
988323
You forgot the last panel.
Perhaps the cutiemarks of all ponies are somehow interconnected? What affects some, affects the wearers of the others. Only the caster was excepted (Twilight Sparkle) and Spike, who was not connected to the magical Cutie-Net.