The Twilicorn, Something I need to get off my chest

This is something I wrote at a comment for the Mysterious Mr Enter's review of Magical Mystery Cure. I have not changed it because I had so much raw emotion I got out that I Want it to be read as intended, I just needed to get this off my chest.

I was hoping you could change my opinion on this episode, and just to be clear before I watched this review I only watched Magical Mystery Cure once, when it came out, and that was the last Friendship is Magic episode I watched for over a year including the ones that came before it. I hoped a fresh review perspective could change my opinion and help me calm down the anger I have, and you know what it did. I no longer hate this episode. I still don't really care for the songs but I've heard so much worse since then and I've come to appreciate what I've heard here to the point that I can let the logic bends slide and enjoy the absurd musical for what it is, so thank you for that. I still hate the twilicorn, I hate that thing with a fiery passion unlike any I've ever felt for another fictional character.

Before anyone replies to this I'm going to do my best not to counter your points but rather make y own indepedent of your statements.

Let me make some things clear: first I _never_ liked Twilight (or any of the mane six for that matter) as an alicorn or a princess, never, not in fanfiction, not in fan-art, not in fan-comics and especially not in the show or the official comics. I've always hated the concept of "ascension" (though not the idea of immortality since some great fanfiction has explored the implications of the Mane six outliving everyone they ever knew) and long before this episode aired or the twilicorn was revealed I refused to read comics or fanfiction if twilight or any of the mane six stayed an alicorn at the end (though if it was temporary I would read it to see how it went) so no one tell me "oh you liked when fans did it so why does the show not get to" because you're wrong, I always hated this concept and I still do.

Second: I am a cynic and a pessimist so I tend to expect the worst of everything and I admit it's a defense mechanism so I don't get disappointed and so I can say "told you so" when things do go wrong, that being said I wasn't immediately going to hate this episode when I first saw it, and on reflection I still only hate the ending, everything from the explosion on Twilight onwards and to this day I love reading fanfiction where Twilight doesn't become the twilicorn even though such stories are nearly impossible to find, at least new ones now.

With that said, I hate the twilicorn so much that to this day I have spasms every time I see that thing flap its wings and I can't watch any episode the twilicorn appears in without cringing. I've tried, so many times over the last three years to either accept or ignore it and every single time it just keeps drilling into my skull, over and over and over and I can't stop it. I understand that you're trying to explain things here, MrEnter and I haven't lost any respect for you and while I agree about your assessment on the episode, the concept to this day infuriates me.

"Just get over it" is something I've had lodged at me a lot since I made my sentiments known and its part of why I stopped trying to participate in the "brony" community (looking at fan creations does not count) and actually destroyed my ability to write fanfiction for this series despite my enthusiasm for writing in general. I have stopped to think about why, after three years, I still bitch about this, why I still hate it, and why I can't just let it go, and I don't know if I have a complete answer, but I will try to give my answer. First I felt betrayed, and yes I know it's completely stupid to feel betrayed by a tv show but it's honestly how I feel. I feel that twilight becoming a princess would have one of two outcomes 1: the show would be all about her and go back to season one's shoehorning her into every episode, or 2: twilight being a princess would factor into so few episodes that it would turn out to be completely pointless, either way I didn't watch the show after this so I can't say for sure but it seems like it's the latter because after reading episode synopses for seasons 4-6 I can count one one hand the number of episodes where twilight being a princess actually affects the story in any significant way (two-parters each count as one episode for this purpose) at least in a way that can be rewritten with no actual changes to the story of those episodes.

Second: I know this was a mandate and while you pointed out that Rarity was a mandate to include fashion in a show aimed at girls that was an example of turning lemons into lemonade by making her a fashion designer to avoid the typical cliche of girls being into fashion "just because" but whoever was in charge here didn't have a working juicer, which is to say they did not know how to make a lemon into lemonade. I have dozens of ways that I could say to change the story in order to make the twilicorn go away or not come to be but listing them would be pointless as I know no one cares.

Third: after I stopped watching Friendship is magic, I found three other cartoons (and one show I like the concept of but can't watch) that all do stuff I love, and do some things that Friendship is Magic does so much better: Gravity Falls which has a better overarching storyline, Star vs the Forces of Evil which does a princess character a million times better and has better comedy, Adventure Time which has better world building (fyi this is the show I can't watch, I know Adventure Time is good but watching it leaves feeling like Homer Simpson after eating taffy), and Steven Universe which has much better music, songs, actions scenes, and growth of a character to some sort of ascension we can see coming. I just listed what each show does best IMO but truthfully I think each of these shows does all of those elements better than Friendship is Magic (the princess thing notwithstanding) and they are now some of my favorite shows, hell probably my three favorite cartoons of all time (again Adventure Time is good but it's just too surreal or bizarre for me).

I've tried watching a few episode of the show since then, both before and after season 3, and I still can't watch it Friendship is Magic has been turned toxic to me now and I can't find myself enjoying it no matter how much I want to. I've tried to argue to myself and other that FiM was "never as good was we built it up to be" but now I can't really agree with that assertion as much as I once did, but despite that the twilicorn has made me unable to enjoy this show on any level either because of its presence or because I know that both it and Equestria Girls are coming and the dread is just too much for me to bear. Other things independent of this episode's events have made me not want to go back to watching it, first is Crusaders of the Lost Mark which completely fucks up the CMC by asking us to completely forget that we knew their talents for years and was just an excuse to keep the three of them locked into the same story over and over and over with no change either out of fear of laziness. Second: while the characters in the show are not being flanderized, the show itself kind of is, because every single moral sees to have devolved into: "Friendship is the answer" at least as much as I can see especially with the recent season finale.

I will leave with this, if Magical Mystery Cure had been the series finale, with maybe a real movie to wrap things up (fuck equestria girls) then I might have been able to just accept this and move on, but the show sticks around and constantly reminds me of something I once enjoyed now turned into something I can't bear to even be around. Friendship is magic is going to have a seventh season so let me ask you this: how many shows can go on for seven seasons without season rot setting in? I just know that if it doesn't end soon it's going to take a nose dive as the creative team's energy runs out or ti ends on a veritable thud of an ending.

Now excuse me, I need some therapy with Crimson Clover World Ignition.

Comments

[marinus18]

The Twilight becoming an alicorn thing wasn't actually the main thing that bothered me, it was that she was no longer Celestia's student.

I disagree with the notion that Star does the Princess thing better. It does a lot of it good but lacks the force that season 2 MLP had. It might only be 1 thing but it's a very critical one. Princess Celestia just radiates a sense of authority the way queen Moon can't.

A big thing that still allows me to be a brony is that the fandom always felt semi-independent from the show. It is of course connected to it but it really stands by itself. I never much cared all that much for the show to begin with, it's strong fanfics and art that brought me in and that I continue to care about.

I'm also trying to get into Star but is just doesn't have the power that MLP had and misses out on quite a few of it's elements.