The Cutie Re-mark · 10:23pm Nov 28th, 2015
So, that season finale! I've been somewhat remiss on blethering about the episodes, and hopefully a sequence of disconnected rambling on this two-parter should make up for that somewhat.
Mild spoilers: it's affa fine.
Somewhat less mild spoilers, as well as aforementioned sequence of disconnected rambling: below the break and pretty picture.
1. The return of Starlight Glimmer wasn't an especial surprise - her fate had been left hanging after the episodes introducing her, and the few sightings of her throughout the season hinted that she was due some sort of grand return. Having a purely and obsessively revenge-oriented motive made sense, and the final means by which Twilight solved the problem made sense as well, in addition to being nicely congruent with the show's message. Starlight and the problem she created wasn't something to be brute-forced away. Empathy and talking one's way peacefully to the source of her issues was how the day was saved, and it's an exceedingly apt solution for the ethos of a show based around the importance of friendship and fostering positive connections with others. Previous more action-packed finales lost sight of that, fun though they may have been otherwise, and it's nice to see a dialogue being opened prevail over any amount of spellfire.
2. Not entirely convinced by Starlight's backstory, though, and her speech might have benefited from a few more elaborate arguments to drive home her convictions - "It's not just me, don't you see? They divide and ruin everypony!" - and that in turn could have given all the more strength to Twilight's message about her friendships emerging even past the most profound differences. Past that, however, I'm not going to nitpick. At the end of the day, it's a show aimed at a young demographic. I'd rather focus on its high level of overall quality rather on a few quibbles.
3. A few comedic moments stuck out for me, especially the sequence where Starlight's attempt to foil the Rainboom consisted of an anti-bullying message to the foals involved. Villains being savvy enough to run with heroic methods is always a delight, as are the floundering reactions of heroes to these methods. ("I'm just teaching them that bullying is wrong." "Well ... stop that!")
Also, this moment.
Undignified cackling may have happened, I shan't lie.
4. The various bad futures were a delight, all drawing upon past villains and the consequences of their victories. Some of them were admirably creative and dark, such as the Equestria at war with the Crystal Empire. One stood out for me, though - the bleak and windblown wasteland that Twilight and Starlight returned to at the last. No explanation given, only implications and complete bleakness. Chilling and excellent in equal measures.
5. Overall, I'd peg this at among my favourite of the two-parters, rivaled only by 'The Return of Harmony'. A superb ending to a fine season, and the prospect of at least another season and a feature film to come leaves me optimistic. 
I admire your choice to not quibble. I'm finding it exceedingly difficult.
I'm amazed they got away with this: the implications are simple, even for a child; the reason nothing is alive is because everything died.
I was a little disappointed with Starlight's "why I'm nuts" speech; I understand the limitations the show staff operate under, but they could have done better than her buddy going to boarding school.
Also, that time spell needs to go. I can picture the Crown's response to it's near apocalyptic misuse now...
Additionally, if you are or anyone is interested, my own VERY SPOILER FILLED thoughts are here.
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Now I'm curious to discover your own thoughts, my good FanOfMostEverything.
I assume that friendship remains card games...
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It does, just as FiCG remains on a Sunday morning schedule. I like using earlier blogs as a way to collect my thoughts.
I love that particular time loop in the gif so much.
The various alternate presents are going to keep writers busy for a year. guarantee.
One thing that I've always considered, and if they ever close production on MLP:FIM, I hope they resolve this.
If Scootaloo learns how to fly reliably, her parents will take her back to Cloudsdale (my headcanon)
If Sweetie Belle gets good with magic, she will wind up going to Celestia's school in Canterlot.
If Apple Bloom gets good with... apples, she's going to be stuck in Ponyville and unable to follow either of her friends.
What would make a bang-up final series final episode would be if all three happened, and the CMC go forth to bring their cutie mark boosting skills to all three towns, unicorn, earth pony, and pegasus.
(I've played with the concept in Letters From a Little Princess Monster, and it makes a very hefty plot club. I'm just determining where to apply it.)
Yeah, the anti-bullying scene was just plain evil brilliance.
That's one of my favorite villain scenes in the show, now.
Also, apologies for falling behind on the Palaververse posts again. I'll get caught up in the next few days.
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Each to their own approach. I've got nothing against quibblers, not at all. There's never much harm in thinking, 'Where did that go wrong, and how could it have been made better?' It's just a personal approach of mine towards the show, which I'm generally willing to grant a lot of leeway.
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It is an astoundingly dark image in terms of its implications, isn't it? I'd struggle to imagine most other media aimed at children getting away with it.
Had a look over your own thoughts, and I concur with most of them. I'll also admit to wishing they'd done a bit more with the other mane six, as and when they showed up - just to reinforce the value of Twilight's friendships and what had been lost. Likewise looking forward to what they might do with Starlight next season.
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It's beautiful. If gifs ever become printable and framable, I'll hang it from my wall and giggle at it for hours at a time.
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No doubt about that. Several well-defined alternate timelines - especially the Sombra and Chrysalis ones - should keep writers here engaged for ages and bajillions of words at a time.
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Ooh, that is a good plot club. Sufficiently poignant, and with plenty of scope for other friendship-affirming morals.
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Nae worries about Palaververse-missing. The posts shan't go anywhere.
Loved this one as well. Especially the scene from the gif. That was gold.
If I were to quibble, my real problem with the episode was the lack of causality. A timeline for each villain victory is interesting, especially in what fanfics can now do with them, but I would've liked to see a clear indication for how exactly each one ended up with a different villain on top, or more specifically, where the other villains are in each given timeline. Each timeline seems to imply that the featured villain defeated all their challengers, but I don't know how or why for most of them.
It only makes sense, for example, that Discord and Nightmare Moon must have clashed at some point, but why was Nightmare victorious in one timeline and Discord in another? How was Chrysalis able to defeat either of them? How was Sombra? How the hell are the Flim Flam Brothers dominant in one timeline? The only one that really makes total sense without needing to think about it is the Tirek timeline, because he is canonically one of the most powerful characters in the series at full strength, so I have no problem believing that he was able to take down all the others.
Personally, the way I would've done it would be to have just one big timeline where it's a villain free-for-all, and Twilight can't immediately time travel back to stop Starlight, so she has to get help from the alternate versions of her friends, the princesses, and maybe even Nightmare Moon and Discord since they were reformed in the primary timeline. More time focused on a single setting would give more time to develop it, and you could do more with all the alternate characters. But that's just me.
Still, though, like I said, this episode makes for some interesting fanfic possibilities. I especially look forward to seeing how you incorporate this into Palaververse lore.
3575464 Oh yeah, the Nightmare Moon timeline was just amazing. Apparently eternal night is survivable and also fashionable! Yeah, I really liked Rarity in that one and the armor the others was wearing was awesome. The war with Sombra timeline was like the opening stages of the Fallout Equestria timeline. But something to make you think. Without the Rainboom, Twilight Sparkle never becomes Celestia's student so she probably never turns into the studious OCD Purple-Smart Pony we all know and love. In other words, without the Rainboom. Twilight Sparkle may actually grow up to be normal and well adjusted!
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Causality-wise, if I had to roll with anything, I'd go for a good old-fashioned butterfly effect arising from how exactly Starlight/Twilight bollocksed up the future. A Rainbow Dash frozen mid-race may have different outcomes from some bullies being taught not to bully or Rainbow Dash being frozen just before the race or Rainbow Dash being creeped out by the weirdly insistent alicorn. These subtly different outcomes spawn their own knock-on effects, and before you know it, you're up to your withers in eternal night or changelings or what-have-you.
Hand-wavey as all hell, I'll admit, but it's what I'd roll with if I was a show-writer looking to deliver some recognizable spectacle and looking to contrive a reason for it. That said, your alternate approach sounds rad as all hell, and I wouldn't mind watching it (or even reading a story about it, hint, etc).
Palaververse-wise, there's gratifyingly little incongruent about it. The industrial nature of alternate-Equestria's war footing is especially nicely compatible. I'm sure the rest of the Palaververse would have their own lovely altered states in each of the other timelines, but considering the relatively neat and contained resolution in the episode itself ...
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Good point about Twilight as well, though I suspect there's only so much joy to be gained in being normal and well-adjusted in a world undergoing various flavours of apocalypse.
A lovely amount of design and creativity in each of the alternate timelines, I agree. At least eternal night looks fabulous.
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Honestly I kinda already had a story planned about an alternate timeline villain free-for-all even before the finale was a thing, so...
What I mean to say, though, is that I'd be very curious to see the alternate versions of the other Palaververse nations. Like what on Earth would Capra be up to in a world where Equestria is perpetually at war with King Sombra? What would they be doing in a world where Discord was never defeated, considering how much of a problem he was the first time? What about the Flim Flam Bros timeline? Would there even still BE a Capric Empire after those two were finished with them?!
3575820 Well it comes down to where Twilight ends up. I could see her serving as a minor mage in Celestia's army against Sombra. In a pod feeding Changelings in Canterlot, as Nightmare Moon's Royal stargazer. I doubt Discord would even notice her and well the Tirek timeline just looked like Tirek was smashing the joint up. And in it all, with her old friends she had in Canterlot like Moondancer, Minuette, and Lyra Heartstrings.
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Capric Empire? That's an odd name for the Great Ungulan Mercantile Empire, civilian. Remember now, purchase your citizenship today and you get a free viewing of one of the displayed antiquated rulers our gracious Lord-Presidents overthrew. A crown, would you believe it? A crown with a mouthy streak and a lot of bad language to dispense, so be sure to cover your foals' ears, now.
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The fanfic potential for this really is massive.
All plausible outcomes for her.
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The Flim Flam timeline is truly the darkest future of all.
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I know. All these impressionable youngsters, learning all the nasty language Capric has to offer.
I think I actually figured out what might have caused the wasteland: Ahuizotl. The plot Rainbow helped foil was him trying to magnify the sun's power, so maybe that was a timeline where he succeeded and killed everything. I don't think that's actually what the writers had in mind for that scene, but I think it works.
Aside from the usual quibbles that come from time travel plots, I only really have two complaints. First, her redemption was way too easy. They probably should have just stuck to her making amends with the village, instead of suddenly being best friends with everyone. The second is Starlight changing her mind for basically no reason after revealing her backstory. If they had switched the backstory with her being shown the terrible future she caused and have that change her mind, I think it would have made a lot more sense.
My only problem was the speed of Starlight's about face. Again, rushed with a song but they are time constrained.
The one future that stuck out as most unlikely was the Flim Flam brothers one. They were only minor villains. The others I could buy as they were threats to the whole of Equestria.
3575949 I want to live in the Greater Ungulan Mercantile Empire more than anything!
3576616 For the wasteland timeline, I assumed that was a future where Shining Armor and Cadance got together and had a kid several years earlier, allowing Skyla the Endbringer, Alicorn of the Apocalypse, to be birthed into the world.
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Ahuizotl's a decent enough in-universe explanation for the final wasteland. That switching of the wasteland and backstory you suggest could also work well.
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Flim and Flam's future does seem a little bit unlikely compared to the others, I will admit. But, ah, maybe capitalism's just gone really, really unchecked in their timeline? Or something? I've got nothing.
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Glad to hear it, civilian! Here's where you can sign up to pay for your daily supplies of oxygen and water, deductible from whatever paypacket you receive in your employment. Remember, full citizenship and voting rights are only one easy payment away! Obey the law and make good profit, and you'll definitely go down in the list for being fed as fuel to one of the steam-powered monstrosities.
3577781 Don't forget the daily cheerful musicals sung by our overlords piped into the work factories!
My headcanon is that the wasteland was the result of a war between Nightmare Moon, dIScoRD, Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, Tirek, & Ahuizotl. A war between immotals would be devastating.
Also, if each future was worse then one before it, then how in the world did Flim & Flam create a future worse then one dominated by Sombra, Queen Chrysalis, or Nightmare Moon? I just thought it was kinda funny.
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A war between all villains at once would be pretty appropriately devastating, no doubt there.
I'm afraid that I didn't much care for the finale myself, for a number of reasons. It occurs to me, though, that I might have been much more impressed with Starlight Glimmer's little backstory if it was about how getting *her own* cutie mark got her sent away to school as a prodigy, separating her from her only friends, and how being the absolute best at magic just made others jealous and isolated her further.
Sure, it turns her into even more of a Twilight Sparkle clone, but she was always meant to be one... Only the major difference was that Twilight was fine being friendless for so long while it drove Starlight to be bitter. Plus, it would inject an interesting dose of self-hatred of her own abilities as the driving force behind her call for Absolute Equality which would have helped to offset the sheer pettiness she displays otherwise.
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Ooh, now that could have been a very interesting approach. Self-loathing for her own cutie mark and its knock-on effects would cast her actions in an interesting light, as well as offset her pettiness as you mention. It would make her into even more of a Twilight Sparkle clone as you mention ... but when you're a unicorn prodigy called 'Starlight Glimmer', you were really doomed from the start there.
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I like the Ahuizotl explanation for the barren wasteland, but I've got a better one... Nightmare Moon. What happens when she brings about eternal night? All plants die. Everypony starves or freezes.
In the first timeline, she preserved the Everfree Forest with magic - but in the second timeline, she hasn't bothered.
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...Why wouldn't she? I know the fandom is very attatched to the "Nightmare Moon's an idiot; everyone would've died if she won" school of thought, but her dominant timeline very clearly showed that she planned for that, and that her eternal night would have been survivable.
3591541 Myself, I'm partial to "Nightmare Moon was a villain; (almost) everyone would've died, and that was her plan." In her timeline, we never got to look beyond the ponies immediately around her palace, whom she probably left alive so she could still have servants.
(Sure, the writers probably didn't intend the spin I'm putting on the Nightmare Moon timeline - but until I'm contradicted, I'm running with it!)
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Well, agreeing to disagree then. I go by the explanation that requires the least assumptions.