Friendship is Card Games: The Cutie Re-Mark · 1:53pm Nov 29th, 2015
Wow. This was a doozy. Let’s throw up the page break to minimize spoilers beyond that.
I really like Twilight lecturing at CSGU. It gives a warm sense of coming full-circle, which ties in nicely with the overall theme of the episode.
I assume the earlier parts of Twilight’s lecture established a context for the audience when it comes to her and her friends, otherwise the lecture on the unifying aspects of the Rainboom would be virtually meaningless to them. Assuming, of course, they didn’t already know who the Bearers are, but that touches on something I’ll get back to.
Hmm. The visual effects for the modified time spell are similar to the dimensional tear to the puppet dimension. I suppose that’s just what the background of probability space looks like.
Huh. Cloud tarmac. Solid enough to support dragons and scrolls. Interesting.
Where are the flight camp counselors in all of this, letting strange unicorns fly around and disrupting their charges?
Okay, I understand why most of the marks failed to launch, but why did the animals wander away from Fluttershy? She had a whole musical number and everything! And did the test proctors seriously expect Twilight to hatch the egg? This ties into the fridge logic question of where all the hatched dragons are. Maybe she was just accepted into the school without becoming Celestia’s personal pupil. (Though she still had a princess for a foalsitter. I guess Celestia was still waiting for an excuse that never came.)
That holy crap moment when I realized that Sombra won in the new timeline was marvelous. That’s one of the nice bits of having so much to this episode; the promo couldn’t spoil all of it.
Why is Carrot Top living in a house with a boarded-up door? That just seems inefficient. I have to think Ponyville was invaded recently. There’s no other reason for why the aesthetics changed so much, especially for Sugarcube Corner… unless the gingerbread house motif was Pinkie’s idea.
Applejack still came back home. I guess duty necessitated it.
Sombra confirmed to have no cutie mark. Interesting.
Sombra-timeline Dash has a prosthetic wing. There’s a story there. Well, there are a lot of stories for that timeline, but that one stands out.
Damn. Equestria engaged in total war. It’s honestly kind of disturbing. At least megaspells aren’t being deployed.
Going back to before they went back to preemptively prevent the change to the timeline. I’m reminded of the JFK assassination debacle in Red Dwarf.
I admire Starlight’s thoroughness, though I still despise the unspeakable things she does to the concept of logic. That said, I do like the subtler touch with getting the bullies to lay off of Fluttershy. She’s a lot better with kids than I expected. In my experience, few bullies respond to the “How would you feel?” approach. Still, with all of the talk of equality, I’m surprised that none of the futures were a Starlight-led dystopia.
Also, Dash needs an adult. At least she noticed the whole alicorn thing. You’d think that’d be a formative experience for ponies, whether in the past or the alternate present. Heck, what happened to the Twilight of each timeline?
Ha! That Hard Reset reference had to be intentional.
I wasn’t expecting it, but how cool would it have been if part 2 had had a different theme animation?
Zecora is surprisingly well-versed in temporal mechanics.
Huh. The world didn’t freeze during eternal night. I suppose Nightmare Moon made arrangements for that. Maybe sealing Celestia in the moon gave it some life-support capabilities.
Also, I was briefly surprised by Nightmare Moon banishing Celestia to the moon rather than the sun, but it does make sense. I’ve always believed each sister can banish ponies to her respective celestial object.
If only Twilight had a peaceful moment to rework the spell and take out the clause that drags Starlight along. Or you know, had taken the time to throughly analyze it in the Sombra timeline, but it’s not like she knew she’d have more pressing issues in the following ones.
Wow. What happened with the Flimflam Brothers? Is this a world where they’re even worse at cost-benefit analysis than usual?
“Each worse than the last.” You heard it here, folks. The Flimflam Brothers are officially worse than any of the show’s major villains. On that note, some people have wondered why Nightmare Moon wasn’t reigning over every bad future. Well, the Mane Six may represent the best of all possible heroes, but that doesn’t make them the only ones. Whether it was other unlikely groups or Celestia’s contingencies, it’s clear that the Bearers as we know them aren’t Equestria’s only line of defense.
Also, where exactly was Starlight during the bad futures? I suppose from her perspective, she was still in the Cloudsdale of the past, getting dragged back only a few minutes each time Twilight travelled back. That would explain why we never saw her.
Whoa. What happened with that wasteland at the end? A lot of possibilities. (Also, note how the map seems to erode with each new timeline. In the Sombra and Chrysalis timelines, the thrones were present, if broken. By the time the wasteland came around, there’s nothing but the table itself, which looks a little lower than usual.)
Starlight’s origin is roughly what I expected. There was obviously a traumatic experience with cutie marks in her past, and she’s clearly prone to disproportionate response. That’s why this episode even exists.
The climax is the ultimate expression of an issue that has plagued the show: ponies not recognizing the deeds of the Mane Six. I can accept that Starlight didn’t know about the whole “Bearers of Harmony” thing back in her village; she’d clearly been out of the loop for a while. But she’s been stalking Twilight for months, including several stops in Canterlot. Did she miss the stained-glass windows? Worse, Twilight never mentions how she and her friends were instrumental in the villains’ defeats. Yes, her speeches about the value of friendship are clearly inspiring and her theories about the principle of friendship weakening because of the disrupted rainboom are intriguing, but there is a clear and direct causal link that she could’ve used. Of course, that assumes that Starlight would’ve been swayed by such minor trifles as “facts” and “logic.”
And then there’s Starlight’s arbitrary skepticism with the wasteland. You wrote the spell, Miss Handicapper General. You know exactly how it works. Twilight didn’t show you anything; that was your own handiwork! I suppose it could be denial, Starlight being unwilling to admit the costs of her actions, but we don’t get to see the struggle behind her eyes. That being said, it may have contributed to her redemption.
Finally, Starlight really comes across as a Villain Sue. Able to do what even Star Swirl could not! Able to keep herself aloft and fight an alicorn to a stalemate at the same time! The big appeal of her during the premiere was that she was just a normal pony gone bad. I can appreciate her defeat through lecture on a narrative level, but portraying her as this ungodly prodigy cheapens her character.
Still, for all of my grousing, I do like Starlight getting defeated by a friendship lecture after her infamous interruption of one during the premiere. Furthermore, it brings the nature of the season-wide foreshadowing to light. While her appearance in “What About Discord?” foretold the involvement of time travel, she was in “Amending Fences” because her character arc parallels Moondancer’s. A friend left her to do bigger and better things, and she was so hurt by it that she forsook friendship thenceforth. Of course, in Starlight’s case, her reaction was rather more extreme…
I feel the song weakened the episode. If it had ended on Starlight taking the first steps in the right direction or receiving the forgiveness of the ponies of Our Town, it would’ve been quietly powerful. Instead, I got a montage stuffed down my throat. I suspect there’s a quota to fill. Every finale has had at least one song.
Starlight’s redemption will likely be the crux of the Season 6 premiere. I just hope it’s better paced than the resolution here, and that it will make use of the Crusaders. If anypony needs their help, it’s Starlight. And, of course, there are now even more questions about the Cutie Map that need to be answered.
Also, it’s interesting to think about how this ties in with Friendship Games. Judging by how long Twilight was AFB, this debacle took a lot longer than it seemed, at least from an external perspective. Of course, the temporal flow between the two dimensions has always been a bit loose. Perhaps when the portal override was erased by the first new timeline, any temporal synchronization was lost… though if that were the case, shouldn’t Sunset have changed? This suggests that no new timelines were actually created. Instead, as per Zecora’s demonstration with the stream, the course of events simply shifted to a different but preexisting channel. Starlight may not have been destroying Equestria, but simply stranding Twilight in worlds where it was already being or had already been destroyed, which would explain why Twilight retained her wings and memories. Had no one ever touched the scroll, Starlight might never have been seen again.
In all, an incredible spectacle with a wealth of fanfiction fodder, but it came at the cost of the story. Starlight went from “I will destroy the world just to hurt you” to “I want to be friends” way too quickly, without even a Rainbow Beam of Fix Everything™ to justify the shift. Still, just as Sunset’s character arc needed more time to explore satisfactorily, so to does Starlight’s. As I noted above, we’ll have to wait and see what the writers do with her. In all, this was an enjoyable end to a great if rather twisted season. Here’s to Season 6, whenever it is.
Trueskin Salve 1W
Tribal Enchantment — Rebel Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and can’t be copied.
As long as enchanted creature is a Rebel, it has vigilance.
Ontological Inertia 4WW
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant permanent
Enchanted permanent can’t leave the battlefield.
Starlight’s spell ensured Twilight would bear witness to every moment of Equestria’s suffering.
Celestia Defiant 5WW
Legendary Creature — Avatar Soldier
Alicorn (This card is a Pony Pegasus Unicorn.)
Flying, vigilance, indestructible
Other creatures you control get +1/+1 and have vigilance.
”For Luna.”
4/4
Encasing Crystal 1U
Enchantment — Aura
Flash
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets -4/-0 and loses flying.
”What good are those wings now?”
—Starlight Glimmer
Practice Run 1U
Enchantment
U: Return target spell you control to its owner’s hand.
”I’ve never understood why ponies think perfectionism is a bad thing. Who doesn’t want everything to be perfect?”
—Princess Twilight Sparkle
Servant of Chrysalis 2UU
Creature — Shapeshifter
Whenever Servant of Chrysalis or a legendary creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may have Servant of Chrysalis become a copy of target creature and gain this ability.
0/1
Hard Reset 7UU
Instant
Take an extra turn after this one. End the turn.
”I have a good feeling about this next one.”
—Princess Twilight Sparkle
Void Blast 1BB
Instant
Put three -1/-1 counters on target creature.
”My sister gave me the chance to recover. I see no reason to extend the same mercy to any but her.”
—Nightmare Moon
Shadowbolt Honor Guard 3BB
Creature — Bat Pegasus Soldier
Flying
B: Shadowbolt Honor Guard gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
”As the stars serve the moon, we serve Equestria’s true queen.”
—Rainbow Dash, Shadowbolt captain
2/2
Sombra’s Legion 4BB
Creature — Pony Soldier
Whenever Sombra’s Legion attacks, regenerate it.
As relentless as the Crystal Empire’s expansion.
4/4
Nightmare Triumphant 5BB
Legendary Creature — Nightmare Avatar
Alicorn
Flying, indestructible, protection from black
All permanents are black in addition to their other colors.
All lands are Swamps in addition to their other types.
5/5
Crystalquake 1R
Sorcery
Crystalquake deals 3 damage to target creature.
Awaken 3—4R (If you cast this spell for 4R, also put three +1/+1 counters on target land you control and it becomes a 0/0 Elemental creature with haste. It’s still a land.)
Rainbow, the Lynchpin 3R
Legendary Creature — Pegasus Child
Flying
When Rainbow, the Lynchpin dies, each player shuffles all permanents he or she owns into his or her library, then reveals that many cards from the top of his or her library. Each player puts all non-Aura permanent cards revealed this way onto the battlefield, then does the same for Aura cards, then puts all other cards revealed this way on the bottom of his or her library.
2/1
Witness the Wasteland 3R
Sorcery
Witness the Wasteland deals X damage to target player, where X is the number of land cards in all graveyards.
Few ponies appreciate the true cost of war.
Flimflam Ravagers 4R
Creature — Unicorn Rigger
Assemble 3R (3R: Put a colorless Contraption artifact token onto the battlefield. Assemble only as a sorcery.)
Sacrifice two Contraptions: Destroy target land.
Thneeds don’t make themselves.
2/2
Clown Around 5RR
Sorcery
Target creature fights another target creature.
Chaotic 2RR (You may cast this card for its chaotic cost. If you do, choose its targets at random.)
“Don’t worry, I’ll patch you up later. Perhaps with flannel.”
—Discord
Timberwolf Pack 2G
Creature — Elemental Wolf
(bg)(bg): Regenerate Timberwolf Pack
Persist (When this creature dies, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)
3/2
Everfree Survivalists 3GG
Creature — Pony Warrior Rebel
When Everfree Survivalists enters the battlefield, destroy target artifact or enchantment. If you do, put X +1/+1 counters on Everfree Survivalists, where X is the destroyed permanent’s converted mana cost.
2/2
Applejack, Assembly Worker WU
Legendary Creature — Pony Artificer
Whenever you activate an activated ability of an artifact, you gain 1 life.
”Equestria’s like a machine. If even one pony can’t pull her weight, the whole place will come crashing down.”
2/2
Distracting Battle RW
Instant
Cast Distracting Battle only during combat, before attackers are declared.
Target creature attacking player controls attacks this turn if able. Target creature that player doesn’t control blocks this turn if able. Other creatures can’t attack or block this turn.
Zecora, Rebel Leader BGW
Legendary Creature — Zebra Rebel
X, T: Search your graveyard, hand, and/or library for a Rebel permanent card with converted mana cost less than X and put it onto the battlefield. If you searched your library this way, shuffle it.
”If victory we cannot clinch, we’ll make them pay for every inch.”
2/2
Starlight’s Spite 1WB
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast Starlight’s Spite, sacrifice X permanents.
Each other player sacrifices X permanents.
”You took everything from me. I’m just returning the favor.”
Anthem of Redemption 2(wb)
Enchantment — Song
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on Anthem of Redemption.
3(wb), Sacrifice Anthem of Redemption: Return target creature card with power X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, where X is the number of verse counters on Anthem of Redemption.
Starlight Omnitemporal 3WU
Legendary Creature — Unicorn Wizard
Flash
When Starlight Omnitemporal enters the battlefield, counter target spell.
3WU: Exile Starlight, then return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control.
"You can't win. I'll make sure of it."
2/2
Rarity, Lunar Majordomo 3WB
Legendary Creature — Unicorn Advisor
Whenever a permanent is put into an opponent’s graveyard, you may return target permanent card from your graveyard to your hand.
”We’re doing incredible things with leather nowanights.”
1/3
Fluttershy, Changeling Bane 3RG
Legendary Creature — Pegasus Rebel
Flying, first strike, protection from blue
Fluttershy, Changeling Bane can’t be copied.
Damage that would be dealt by Fluttershy can’t be prevented.
3/3
Pinkamena, Pulverizer 3WBR
Legendary Creature — Pony Soldier
Deathtouch, trample
If a source would deal 3 or less damage to Pinkamena, Pulverizer, prevent that damage.
She’ll wipe your face off that smile.
4/4
Warp Fate 7UB
Sorcery
Search target player’s graveyard, hand, and library for five cards. Exile those cards and Warp Fate, then restart the game, leaving all cards exiled this way in exile.
For want of a rainboom, the future was lost.
Tirek’s Devastation 7BRG
Sorcery
When you cast Tirek’s Devastation, if you didn’t spend mana to cast it, exile it.
Destroy all permanents you don’t control.
”I have taken all I want from this land. I have no further use for it.”
Also, in honor of Spike’s “Well, that didn’t work,” it only feels appropriate to include this:
Fighting Twilight is something I've noticed a lot of people comment on, but a lot of them ignore several things about Starlight. Namely, she prepared an entire season for this, while Twilight sat around thinking everything was fine. The initial confrontations reflected this quite nicely with Starlight holding the upper hoof, then Twilight adapting, then Starlight adapting again, and then they continued on.
Also, what many have failed to realize is that Twilight and Starlight standing on equal footing in terms of power... well, look at it this way: yes, Starlight is able to float and fight after casting the Time Warp spell, but look at what Twilight is doing the entire episode. She's teleporting around like a madmare, fleeing for her life, casting and recasting the Time Warp spell which ends with her dragging two additional parties back (Spike and Starlight, as the latter worked the spell so Twilight would keep dragging her back) to the starting point.
All in all, this is a classic case of two master mages having it out. The difference in ability lays in the fact that Starlight set up the environment—both here and in the premier—to her advantage. Both times, Twilight had to figure out her plan and adapt her strategies to counter. Frankly, this makes her a very compelling villain (and character overall) because it shows that she recognizes she needs to plan this shit out rather than previous villains' "LOL! I'm powerful and now I throw magic stuff at you".
As for Starlight's backstory showing that she's a mare of disproportionate response... er... yeah, we kinda got that in the premier too ^^;
Overreaction and denial practically define Starlight Glimmer, if you ask me. Sunset has a ton of drive and ambition, but even during her villain phase, I don't think she'd gone to such psychotic extremes as Starlight did to get back at someone who defeated her.
As for the "fate of Equestria hanging in balance" thing, I guess Starlight's personal ideology means she couldn't accept the Mane Six's importance. There will be some other group of champions who will save Equestria from the dangers it shall face, and they will do just as good a job, because EQUALITY!!1! Only, for whatever reason, it doesn't work out as well in the long run (sometimes not even in the short run, or Nightmare Moon would never have ruled Equestria!)
Damn, do I ever want Twilight, Time-Snared to be a real card.
Headcanon accepted!
I assumed that this was after Tirek had sucked all the magic out of the world. And destroyed all the trees, of course.
Yeah, it was weird how downplayed that was in this episode. Part of me appreciates the rare subtlety for this show, but another part of me wishes that Twi had used the EoH to strengthen her case.
MY commetn while watching: IT was the only way she could do it and be original. Every other writer puts her into the sun.
Still i wish we could've seen more of the worlds, but then again each on was a two parter in itself. Then again, I always want to explore a new world that I am in.
Here Here! This was easily one of my fave seasons (2,4,5>1>3) wih a bunch of great moments. I can't wait to see what they bring in next.
I didn't expect that amount of feels when reading Celestia Defiant, gave that whole timeline a new outlook for me.
One point of note is Twilight's security, or rather, the lack of it. I know the writers want Twilight to be a sort of 'princess next door', but that castle needs something.
I'd make a comment, but I've already given my thoughts elsewhere.
I think that time constraints can be part of the reason why Starlight's turn face is so hard to take. However her abilities are certainly crazy powerful as you've pointed out; its difficult to imagine a unicorn going toe to toe with an alicorn and having Twilight deplete her mana reserves so quickly.
On that note..
AJ going from G to WU and all the other mane six being color shifted. Nice job with the time spiral/planar chaos good sir.
That desolate wasteland (in the show) had to be one of the most depressing things to look at considering this show's usual level of showing negative outcomes. Makes me wonder if any kids got hung up on that.
There is discussion on whether the show could have ended, but I always feel like that's the case with most season finales. Speaking of that ending, did you get a Muppet Movie (original) vibe from that pan out?
Reminds me a lot of my Great Changeling War, but in a more hopelessly-deadlocked situation and without the Mane Six playing a major part. And yes ... it was very disturbing. There was no hint that Equestria had become a tyranny for the sake of tyranny, it was worse: the relatively joyless and regimented society shown was simply the price of fighting the war, and the only alternative to fighting the war was letting Sombra conquer all, and impose a far worse tyranny.
They were doing a Temporal Fugue style battle, right out of Creatures of Light and Darkness (Roger Zelazny, 1969) -- complete with the usual devastation, though for subtler reasons than the mere focusing of physical force at one moment in time.
Starlight Glimmer is very manipulative when she's in her sweet-as-sugar mode, and enough of her rage peeks through that it might easily cow children. Also, when they saw that being nice to Fluttershy led to Fluttershy being nice back to them the behavior might well set up a virtuous circle. Fluttershy being nice (rather than shy or terrified) is hard to resist.
I suspect that, in all the Bad Futures, Starlight Glimmer suffered unhappy fates. Show may be making a point regarding the sort of socialist of which Starlight Glimmer is a parody: namely, that people like her very rarely succeed in making it to the top if they do succeed in crashing society. Starlight Glimmer's pocket dystopia survived as long as it did only because Equestria is a diverse, free and tolerant civilization. None of the destructive forces which threatened to take over or had taken over in any of the Bad Futures would have been at all friendly to Starlight Glimmer, and even in the least bad one (the War against the Crystal Empire) society was being regimented to support the war to the extent that there might have been no space for Our Town. (At least in that world, Starlight Glimmer was probably still alive.
Aside possibly from Nightmare Moon, she was the only being in any of the alternate timelines who realized what might happen if her timeline was changed in the past. This leads credence to Alara R Jones' idea that Zecora serves the Harmony itself. The Harmony, note, was aware of what was happening to the timelines.
The interesting thing about the Nightmare Moon segment was that there was one moment when what looked like Luna's personality peeked through -- when she was resenting her original banishment to the Moon. Also, at the end she lost because she held back against Twilight, just as in the Season One Opener. I was also pleased to see that I'm right about Nightmare Moon -- because she's a corrupted Luna, she still has Luna's desire for companionship, thus surrounds herself with other Ponies (and is able to win their loyalty and respect).
I myself was wondering what else had happened in that timeline, such that the Flam-Flam Brothers were apparently driving a giant Leveller (right out of Fern Gully) randomly across the landscape. I can't imagine they were really the main thing wrong with that timeline.
img13.deviantart.net/1362/i/2008/334/3/a/the_leveller_by_homicidalxfish.jpg
The map and thrones are a manifestation of the Harmony, which is a transtemporal force generated from life. As the worldlines were increasingly devastated, they were moving farther and farther from the Harmony and hence the Harmony was becoming weaker in them. This was the real clock against which Twilight was racing, whether she knew it or not -- if the bad futures had gotten bad enough, the Harmony would have been too weak to send her back to YOH 1490 Cloudsdale, and then she would have been stuck in the world into which she had been cast. Which might not have even been a survivable one (though an Alicorn and a Dragon each can survive some pretty extreme environments). Possibly she might have figured out a way to power the spell herself and try again. Possibly.
I think that Starlight Glimmer is a monomaniac, and it literally did not occur to her that any issue existed outside of getting her revenge on Twilight Sparkle by destroying her relationship with her circle of friends, until Twilight rubbed her nose in it by showing her the future she was making. Think of all the activists today who want to, for example, destroy the capitalist economy or the Western military, without considering what would be likely to replace them (mass poverty, and multi-lateral global war). They hate something, often for poorly-considered and emotional reasons, and they simply want to destroy it. Often, they simply assume without any evidence that their own favored utopian society would replace what they destroy.
Starlight Glimmer probably assumed that, without Twilight Sparkle in her way, there would come a Society of Sameness. But there wouldn't, both because her dream was inherently flawed, and because Equestria really does have enemies who would take advantage of a weaker Equestria to attack, and be more successful in their attacks.
This speaks to one of Twilight's weaknesses: namely that she can be a poor spontaneous communicator about anything other than her ideals. This was actually highlighted at the beginning of the episode, when we saw how often she felt she had to rehearse her lecture on the lectern to get it "perfect" (N.B. - She probably rehearsed it a lot more to herself in private, before that). Here she was trying again to communicate to Starlight Glimmer under a stressful situation (in actual combat) and the problem is that Starlight Glimmer actively rejected her ideals, and she hadn't won yet.
I'm guessing that it wasn't until Starlight Glimmer saw The Wasteland that she realized that she was destroying Equestria, rather than re-making it into her ideal Sameness. At that point, it may have occurred to her that, in that future, she herself -- and everypony she ever cared for, including Sunburst from her childhood, and Double Diamond and her former friends from Our Town -- was dead. Since her ultimate objective was to be able to keep friends by having them conform to her, this meant that she was failing, even if she defeated Twilight. That's when she gave up.
Definitely denial. Try to explain to an opponent of globalization that, absent relatively free trade, the whole world -- including the Third World that they claim to cherish -- would be a lot poorer. The Law of Comparative Advantage is fairly simple to explain and see in action (I tossed it into one of Rarity's interior monologues once as a throwaway, using the example of apples and garments), but try explaining it to someone who prefers to see the global economy as a giant conspiracy for capitalist super-exploitation (in the Leninist sense of the term) of the global proletariat.
Now imagine that you could show them a timeline in which, say, in 1990 we decided to agree with the opponent of globalization and all international trade ground to a halt. By 2015, things would be pretty bad. The mass starvation, the wars of conquest to seize resources that could no longer be purchased on the international market, shattered nations, heaps of corpses ...
... that's pretty much how Twilight finally convinced Starlight Glimmer.
But Twilight needed to make an internal realization too. She'd been fighting Starlight on the assumption that she was an implacable foe. Twilight's key realization was that Starlight never meant to destroy the world, and that Starlight didn't yet realize she was doing that.
Starlight is indeed awesomely powerful. As ZOMG pointed out, she had an advantage here because she'd prepared the battlefield in advance, but she was still able to fight Twilight to a stalemate on raw power, which means that she is both magically-powerful and highly-intelligent. This makes my theory that she was an earlier personal student of Celestia's all the more plausible.
That's the key, though -- Starlight didn't think she was destroying the world. At worst, she thought that she was shifting its worldline into one in which different things happened, but they were no worse than the things which happened in the one she'd known. At best, she may have assumed that she was only shifting Twilight into other worldlines -- which is actually possible, we don't precisely know the parallel-world physics here!
When Twilight showed Starlight that she was, in fact, destroying the world, more and more each loop, Starlight gave up. Starlight's malevolence proved to have its limits.
Of course Nightmare Moon didn't banish Celestia to the sun. There is no sun!
A couple of firsts from this episode:
Before now, nobody had ever said Chrysalis's name on screen. This episode was also the first to confirm that the rank and file changeling soldier was capable of equine speech, at least while transformed. That second one may seem like an obvious required secondary power, but it's actually been a subject of disagreement among the fandom since Canterlot Wedding.
Best thing to come out of the episode was the timeline where
Hitler wins WWIISombra starts an epic pony war, and RD's metal wing in particular. There are stories here, people! And the fact that Equestria has limb prosthesis that allows for uninhibited combat flight is especially wonderful to me. I just know some such magitech prosthesis will be making its way into Monster Hunter: Equestria. That, the pegasus battle armor, and Pinkie &Maud: Sisters of Battle were real highlights for me. I'd love it if the comic visited this timeline for an arc.Turns out the idea of sending Nightmare Moon back to deal with Starlight Glimmer was a pretty popular idea. I'm expecting a fanfic of that to hit the feature box any second now, if it hasn't already. Rarity finally got to play with her tapestries, so she's obviously in a good universe for her. And then there were the designs for the armor... I feel like the people in charge of coming up with new designs were having a wonderful time this episode.
As for the Flim Flam Apocalypse, I would have found a Diamond Tiara flavored one to be more believable.
Overall, I loved the episode aside from Starlight's start of darkness (though your pointing out her history of disproportionate retribution did alleviate that somewhat) and the closing song of instant redemption and friendship. Here's hoping the S6 premier is to this as the S4 opener was to Princess Twilight; that is to say, them expanding upon the implications and fallout in ways the previous finale didn't have time to explore.
As for your cards this time around, they're nice. Starlight's was particularly flavorful. I'm a little disappointed that Fluttershy is the wrong color to be used in a Zecora deck, though.
You know what they say.....villains act, heroes react. We have on the one hand someone making too big a deal of some minor reverse and blaming it on the wrong damned thing (which means that she should be blaming Sunburst himself and not his mark for his becoming a total dickhole who thought she was beneath him because she somehow slipped through the cracks of the admission process) and on the other, someone who assumed that given a song-and-dance routine, a disaffected extremist would see the light.
Also, we have to consider the fact that Celestia is probably declared them a state secret of some sort. While there are alternate universes out there where the indigenous Bearers are public figures, in the series, they seem to be poorly known to the extent that someone who just saw them as obstacles to her stupid unworkable plan doesn't know not to mess with them. Hell, she doesn't even quite realize that yanking the engine that's keeping the biosphere going the Hell out because she's still an angry child who won't calm down made the wasteland that terrifies her.
At first, I thought it was a case of Temporal Overwrite (Time Orphan)-style time travel, but after a few moments, I think it was more a case of Alternate Universe Split (Return New)-style.
For those who have no idea what those terms mean, it's a classification system for results of time travel I came up with almost half a year ago.
Temporal Overwrite means that it's one timeline, but changes to the past cause the future to be replaced, the "Time Orphan" subtype means that the one who causes the change is unaffected by the changes.
Alternate Universe Split means that the change to the past creates a new timeline (which is obvious), but the "Return New" subtype means that the time traveller comes back to the present in the universe created by their meddling.
I boiled time travel down to four types, each with two subtypes, which I'll post if anyone's interested.
3578633 I'm a huge nerd for time travel, but it never occurred to me to classify and name the different kinds
Starlight may have forced Twilight to use her magic to travel through time, allowing her to bring her to a standstill.
Whatever else I thought of the ep, the Castle of The Two Sisters looks BITCHIN'.
Or Twilight enchanted both with the cloud-walking spell.
Someone else mentioned it elsewhere but there is a good chance that a good number of the 'counselors' are probably post puberty ponies that are very interested in each other and would rather leave the foals to their own devices.
I guess his special talent isn't mind-controlling the population of an empire. Man, that'd be a great special talent to have. Rather narrow though. Not many empires around and all.
Though I guess you could go about and make an empire for the sole reason to mind-control the populace... .
But the writers are not allowed to read fanfiction. Though it's highly possible they picked it though though osmosis when interacting with the fandom.
*Narrows eyes* I see what you did there. (Emphasis my own.)
I do not know this acronym, what does it stand for?
And now for the cards.
Ontological Inertia; this is rather powerful. Fair costed but still very powerful. Considering it makes it so a creature cannot die nor be exiled or even bounced.
Hard Reset; I want this. So badly. Though it'd have to have all the reminder text that Time Stop does. And it'd probably cost at least another Blue.
That's an interesting way to do a 'The night will last... FOREVER!" game mechanic on Nightmare Triumphant. Also makes her unblockable.
You're missing your Alicorn reminder text. Would it not fit with her other text? It's not that many words, but every word counts. I can't really tell what would and would not fit in a card's text box. We do have something to base a card name off of though.
You need to mention how the cards are ordered on Rainbow, the Lynchpin, either "in any order" or "a random order".
Geeze, Timberwolf Pack is hard to keep dead. Just as it should be really.
I wasn't sure at first but I looked it up and the "active player" automatically becomes the "attacking player" as soon as the combat phase of their turn starts. Still, there are some wording issues on Distracting Battle that don't fit the spirit you probably wanted for this card.
In a multiplayer game there is nothing stopping the attacking player from picking a different player than the owner of the second target and having an unblockable attack. Maybe have it read something like the following;
There are two cards that use the vocabulary "second target creature" and I think the "first target creature" vocabulary is viable because of that. Also the "if able" clause is needed on the attacker as well, since you could very well target something with either summoning sickness or some other "cannot attack" rider.
Hum, Zecora, Rebel Leader is both better and worse than Lin Sivvi, considering the zebra can bring stuff directly back out of the graveyard without having to return them to the library first AND can drop stuff directly from your hand a la Piper as well, but a bit worse for being multicolor and not hitting the number that is X and only doing less-than. The multicolor bit might be a boon for a commander and some other cases but most of the time single color is better.
Also, flavor wise, why is she not a "Zebra Rebel Shaman"? I almost said "the shaman can bring" but went back and looked and she didn't have the creature type... .
Standard comment on Anthem of Redemption not following the main format of the other song names.
I almost feel that Starlight Omnitemporal should have the choice to counter an ability on entry as well but that's a bit wordy and not really needed.
Also, I love the word "Omnitemporal".
"Are you immortal?" "No, I am omnitemporal. There is no point in time that you can ever escape from me."
Did you mean forRarity, Lunar Majordomoto count permanents that wind up being milled or discarded? Because without a "from the battlefield" rider that's just what will happen.Also, "nowanights" is a great turn of phrase.
Edit: Ignore this, I went back and looked at the comprehensive rules on the matter; this was a confusion on my part between the terminology of "permanent" and "permanent card". The former can only ever be on the battlefield while the later can be in any viable game zone.
*Snerks after reading the flavor text on Pinkamena, Pulverizer*
Warp Fate is also a card I really want. Though restarting the game is something they are not likely to do very often. Mister Silver caused and is causing so many games to go to time and draw it's not funny.
Thirty cards, how many do we normally get? This feels like the normal amount, which I feel a bit shorted on because it was a double length episode.
I'm only half-serious about this.
3578633
I am so very interested in how you've boiled down time travel. Tell me about your four types please.
Sorry for the delay; had a nice Thanksgiving weekend outing with my family. (Incidentally, Trumbo is an awesome movie.)
3577742
There isn't a clear indication of how much magic the time travel spell demands from the caster. Most of the magic seems tied to the scroll and the Map, hence the threat at the end. That uncertainty plus the direct confrontation scene are what frustrate me. I'm fine with Starlight's cunning, just not with her appearing to overpower Twilight. It's like watching Superman flinch after Batman punches him.
3577787
The stories of those other groups of heroes would be fascinating to see. So much fanfic fuel in this episode...
3577841
If Planar Çhaos and Future Sight taught me anything, it's the power of brief glimpses of other timelines that carry deep implications.
3577852
Hopefully, she'll learn from this mistake. Don't leave the artifact connected to all of time and space available to the public. She's lucky no one's graffitied any of the thrones.
3578127
Funnily enough, Pinkie ended up the same colors that she always does. Odd, that.
And I'm afraid I haven't seen the original Muppets movie.
3579641 You make a good point with the scroll and map, so I'll put that to the side. However, there is still the matter of Twilight expending magic in each world—in fact, she has to start the time travel spell up with magic either way, even if it doesn't have such a large drain effect. So, that said, there is a bit of subtle nod to it, just not an overt "Twilight has cast impossibly difficult spell #57 and now has to walk into battle with another high class magic user".
Edit: Er, also, she overpowered Twilight when removing her mark in the premier. Another case of "I am more prepared" which then got Twilight coming back with "I can adapt to your shit."
3578253
Wait, did Nightmare Moon destroy the sun, or is the sun an elaborate hoax?
3578347
I know. So much fodder. So much. (Though changelings did imitate Twilight's "They're changelings, remember?" in the lead-up to the big fight montage in "A Canterlot Wedding." Still, demonstration that they're capable of more than parroting.)
And come on, look at that Fluttershy and tell me she wasn't made for the Gruul Clans.`
3578544
They had a freaking Star Wars medal ceremony at the end of "Return of Harmony"! The only way Celestia could keep the Bearers' identities secret after that would be through memory alteration, and even then, the stained-glass windows remain, though Tirek of all beings seems to be the only one who's ever looked at them. And even that doesn't justify moments like not letting an alicorn have a cab in "Rarity Takes Manehattan." (I have a headcanon explanation for that, but I shouldn't need one.)
3578633
The various types of time travel sound like an excellent topic for a blog, or even just another comment here. I'd love to read about your classification system.
3579095
As I noted with ZOMG, there's no indication of how much magic the spell demands from Twilight rather than the scroll or the Map. It's a possibility, but a definitive justification.
3578139
Great points all around, especially Twilight's communication issues and my failure to apply Hanlon's razor to Starlight's motives. (Though in her case, it was more ignorance than stupidity.) I reserved your post for a long, detailed response, only to realize that I didn't really have anything more to add, especially after rereading the episode transcript. Oops.
I didn't mention this, but in the context of the Shadow Wars Story Verse, the really amusing thing about Fluttershy being important to the rebellion is that Chrysalis would probably at some point get to speak Darth Vader's most famous line to Luke Skywalker -- and it would be perfectly true.
And I loved "Thneeds don't make themselves." Yes. The Flim-Flam Brothers basically became the Onceler on steroids!
3579638
I'm guessing it's a nonce shorthand for "away from book", by analogy with "AFK" for "away from keyboard" -- because the book is a lot like a chat program, y'see.
I think they were both shown walking on it immediately before Spike falls through the clouds nearby, but maybe he's on her back. Or do you mean she enchanted the walkway itself? I assume pegasi have some means of attaching regular stuff to cloudstuff -- otherwise, how would Dash keep things like books and turtle food in her house?
3580463
I haven't actually watched the episode so I don't know the events surrounded his comments. I was saying that Twilight might have put the enchantment on Spike and the scroll.
I like to think the "cloudwalking spell" is extremely simple and can be applied to a lot of things, both living and non, with great ease. But at the same time the idea that pegasi can make various types of clouds, like 'cloud tarmac' or 'industrial strength flooring' is also appealing.
Half a dozen of one, two times three of another... .
3579638
Vlad, stop talking about things you admit you don't understand. Heck, you shouldn't even be here. It's the season finale, man! Do you care nothing about spoilers?
Oh well. Since you're here, I should address your concerns:
Nightmare Triumphant: My personal convention is to include reminder text only for the first use of a keyword in a blog, leaving it implicit for the rest. Unlike with actual cards, I don't have to worry about people encountering mine in a random order. That said, it would certainly fit.
Rainbow, the Lynchpin: On the subject of text box concerns, I already had to tweak Warp World's text to fit in even less space than usual, given the necessity of giving Dash flying. Since the original doesn't make the "any order"/"random order" distinction, I saw no reason to make things harder for myself.
Distracting Battle: I'm aware of the bug and am willing to let it go for the sake of simplicity.
Zecora, Rebel Leader: Adding Shaman to Zecora's type line would make it longer than a member of the Theros pantheon. That's bad.
Anthem of Redemption: Standard response regarding overly long song title. In this case, "Friends Are Always There For You".
Rarity, Lunar Majordomo: Equestria has a proud tradition of leaving no pun unsaid. It needed to be done. Really, I will be disappointed with stories set in that timeline that don't make use of that pun.
As for card count, I have a self-imposed minimum of twenty cards per blog. I suppose thirty is lowballing it a bit for a two-parter, but I hope it was still worth the price of admission.
3579038
3579638
3579676
Here it is, straight from when I posted it in Spacebattles months ago:
One of the most important things here is that these things can blend. For example, Back to the Future uses the Destruction Paradox (Destabilization) result, but it also includes Alternate Universe Split (Return New and Return Old) and Temporal Overwrite (Memory Shft), almost all of which are prevalent in the second film:
Old Biff goes back in time and makes a new timeline before returning to his original present (AUSRO), where he then fades away (DPD). Doc and Marty go back from the original timeline and somehow jump tracks to the new one in the process (AUSRN), before going back further to Set Right Once Went Wrong. After they succeed, Doc in the DeLorean gets zapped back in time, sending a letter that Marty receives mere seconds afterwards (TOMS).
3580766
Very cool. Thanks for sharing!
3580681
Nope! I'm one of those people that actually enjoys reading about things before hand! I'm one of those people that'll read the TV Tropes page for a work then going on to fully enjoy said work myself. The majority of the time knowing about something ahead of time just hypes me more for that thing, to want to get to the really awesome stuff I know is coming myself.
Nightmare Triumphant; Fair enough about the reminder text for the blog and all, I just try and keep it all in order and a lot of times the higher rarity cards will lack the reminder text to save on space for other abilities so I wasn't sure if that was the case here or not.
Rainbow, the Lynchpin; *Face palm* I didn't catch the Warp World connection. From the Gathereer page we've both linked, in the rules section:
It seems it 'defaults' to "any order" if not otherwise stated.
Anthem of Redemption; I really love that we have this whole back and forth thing going on with the songs. Sometimes it's hard to tell intent on-line but I really feel that we are both taking this as friendly ribbing.
Whom else would be imposing a minimum on your other than yourself?
Probably one of the more disturbing implications of this finale - not unique to this finale, true, but definitely closer to the surface than usual - is how much the security of countless equines, hoofed animals, chimaeric species, and other sapient (and even sentient) creatures in Equestria rests on the utter virtues of maybe six ponies. You know that thing where a hero slaughters their way through millions of minions and then holds back on the Big Bad because "if you kill him you will be just like him"? It's awkward like that.
Then again, that implication has been true ever since the premier, where it took Celestia 1000 years just to find a decent enough friendship to power the Elements. Is Equestria really that meagre a place?
I was really disappointed they went this route, and not just because I'm unimpressed with the series' trend of redeeming villains. I think what made Starlight such an intriguing villain the first time around was that her villainy came not from sadism, greed, or selfishness - as with, say, Chrysalis or old Discord - nor from some tragic history borne of unfulfilled emotional needs - say, Nightmare Moon and reformed Discord - but from a philosophy and an ideology.
She had her own view of pony nature, did what she felt was right by it, and pigeon-holed dissenters and critics as evil and selfish threats to her vision of a harmonious world. And she isn't convinced at the end of it to change her mind! Finally, after four seasons, we have a villain closer to real life, something more mature than the usual stock bad guys, and yet just as capable of holding her own with them.
This finale gives us plenty of psychotic villain and petty villain and overpowered villain, but anything subtler has been removed. Now, she doesn't hold issues because of a commitment to a creed and a black-and-white view of reality. She does it because she has personal issues. Abandonment issues to boot, where the complexities of her position can be reduced to a single event. Confront the personal issues, and everything else gets washed away and all is hunky-dory again. To quote Syndrome of The Incredibles: "Lame, lame, lame, lame, lame!"
3584029
Well, according to prophecy, the lunar banishment had a thousand-year expiration date. Even if Celestia did find a half-dozen exemplars of harmonious virtue before then, they'd be long dead before they'd be needed. I suppose it's possible that they could've undone the banishment prematurely, much in the same way the Elements released Discord, but Nightmare Moon wouldn't be nearly as playful, and mortals are so fragile compared to an irate alicorn with a grudge against Element Bearers.
Celestia probably thought the best course of action was to let destiny take the reins, though depending on who you ask, that can mean anything from blind faith in Harmony to a millennium of selective breeding and social manipulation performed with the confidence that every gambit performed in the name of saving Luna was fated to succeed.
And while I've grown more mild towards Starlight's redemption, I do still agree that they removed the relative nuance that made her so disturbing in the premiere. (Relative nuance. She did perform a villainous monologue to nopony in "The Cutie Map, Part 1" to make it clear that she'd be our antagonist for this evening.)
3584143
I'm all for Celestia's hand (hoof?) being forced by a mysterious, um... well, force, I guess... but this seems a strange counterpoint to make. You can't mean she wasn't irate when she got out after a thousand years' imprisonment, surely? I also wonder why we should expect her to play around when she is eventually released. Even if Luna was subconsciously holding Nightmare Moon's worst excesses in check, I'd have thought she'd be just as obliging a few hundred years prior to the release date. And if this finale is any indication, Nightmare Moon still suffers from an enthusiastic embrace of the villain ball even when she's got no threat to deal with.
She enjoys her work. What's not to like?
To be fair, I'm leaning more on her potential than on everything shown previously about her character. Her petty and vengeful sides were established in the premier, and if she was an ideologue, she was certainly a hypocritical and/or self-conflicted one. I think a big deal-breaker with her "tragic backstory" explanation is that it reduces that intellectual side of her to an overblown rejection reaction; in other words, into something almost purely emotional. Moreover, it's a gross oversimplification of a character: surely, there's got to be more going on to get from "my friend abandoned me because he got his cutie mark" to Lord Amon with a side-order of "mwa-ha-ha revenge".
Well, that, and I'm tired of this show turning assholes into atoners, but that's a different kettle of fish.
3584196
When Nightmare Moon returned under her own power, she wanted to rule her ponies, not kill them. Heck, as we saw in this finale, she had contingencies in place to keep the planet from becoming a snowball during her eternal night. When she learned that ponies still knew of the Elements of Harmony, she tried to stop the Mane Six, but did so in ways that suggested she didn't really think they could do it, she'd rather scare them off than slay them, and/or she was completely insane. This is compounded by how she just stared in slack-jawed shock while Twilight delivered her first friendship speech.
Now, if she were summoned by six ponies who both possessed and demonstrated the ability to use the Elements? I don't think she'd be nearly as merciful. She'd probably see it as a matter of self-defense. It's possible that she'd be too shocked to lash out before the Bearers could get out a Rainbow Beam of Fix Everything™, but I don't see Celestia being comfortable with that risk.
As for Starlight, the beauty of fanfiction is that we can provide that more complex, nuanced backstory.
3584209
Her first move when the Mane Six set off was to drop them in a rockslide. Hugely effective at scaring them, granted, but I'd have thought, if she was merely scaring them away, that the dangerousness of the obstacles would increase the further in the team went. If anything, the opposite seems to happen.
But by that point, it'd already be too late for Nightmare Moon, wouldn't it? If they already had the Elements powered, then it's instant game over for her. Or if it isn't instant game over, then Celestia was clearly comfortable with the risk when she set Twilight on the path to the Elements. When Twilight did it, not only did Nightmare know exactly what they were doing and why long before there was any risk of Twilight reaching the room with the Elements in it, but she had every opportunity to make it impossible for them to achieve their task up to and including the moment Twilight launches into her (decent-length) speech and the Element of Magic appears.
Honestly, I think the thousand years thing was just a side-effect of the spell used to trap her in the moon, similar to how the Tree of Harmony could only fend off Discord's chaos seeds for so long. Celestia's compromised friendship magic was only just strong enough to hold her sister there, and Celestia knew it and began searching for more Bearers. That, and Celestia had some reason for waiting for a unicorn as strong as Twilight to show up, I guess, or else she had a hard time finding friendship in her entire country.
Huh. You made all the Mane Six in the bad futures adjacent colors.
Given that I represent the Virtues (and Friendship) with enemy colors, that's interesting.
3603469
It would be interesting, but it's not accurate. Pinkie's Mardu, Rarity's white-black, and Dash is monored... though technically speaking, she's not in a bad future yet.
3603483 ...I can read, I swear.
3603488
Obviously, Starlight went back in time and fiddled with my thought process. Don't ask me how; I'm not a unicorn.