A Royal Problem · 11:20pm May 20th, 2017
Yet mair new episodes! I doubt I'll provide commentary for all or even most of them, largely due to predominantly having thoughts that aren't worth the effort of sharing or which are already possessed by plenty of folk, but I'll make an exception in a few cases. This is one of them.
Spoilers for A Royal Problem yonder!
- More of a focus on the princesses was on my wishlist for this season. It's always nice to see a wishlist being acted on. 
- At this point, I think it's best to just take 'Starlight Glimmer tries to solve every problem through brainwashing or involuntary switching of a pony's most fundamental aspects of being' as a running gag. Frankly, if she ever resolves a friendship problem normally, I'll be disappointed.
- Not entirely convinced of the merits of doing the above on the two who need to keep the sun and moon turning, granted, but what-have-you.
- Luna is the best reassurer.
- That nightmare of Luna's before Celestia and Starlight intervened. What even the christ.
- And goodness me, most relevant to my current and possible-future interests, Celestia's Nightmare confirmed. Not entirely won over by the name 'Daybreaker', but that's scarcely a nitpick. All she needs now is a character tag and the world's set.
- One note of critique amidst all the enthusiasm, why not: I'm not sold on the notion that lapses on communication or disregard for one another's duties coming about between the sisters, especially when that very same problem could have compounded the problem of Luna's first descent into Nightmaredom, and especially when the two have long experience in ruling and collaboration in said ruling, even allowing for a thousand-year gap. Heck, said gap would have surely made Celestia even more excruciatingly aware of the importance of Luna's duties, if she was either obliged to attend to them herself or to leave Equestria's dreams unguarded. Still a good episode even past that critique, but something else that could have provided an excuse to delve into Celestia's dreamrealm could have worked a treat. Not that I'm nearly clever enough or currently sufficiently inebriated to come up with that 'something'.
- That last line from Luna. Perfect.
Haven't watched the episode yet, so this comment is entirely based on the information in your blog.
Starlight still not considering the consequences of her actions is hardly surprising at this stage, though if Twilight doesn't set her straight then there will be problems.
The sisters getting into arguements over how they rule, who's job is harder and what not is kind of bothering to me. It goes against the fact that they both suffered greatly from Luna's banishment. You think they would be supportive of each other. I mean, Celestia did say that "we were meant to rule together" in the second part of the very first episode. I personally believe that Celestia should've of been undserstanding with Luna instead of getting into an arguement.
Now you made me curious to see the episode for myself. I hope it is still a good episode despite my conflicts with what you have told me about it just now.
Edit: I watched the episode. It wasn't bad, but it could've been better. I will give it a full review later.
I didn't mind the name Daybreaker. Though, yeah, I think Celestia in particular having so little regard for the importance of her sister's duties is a major lapse in characterisation. That bothered me.
Also, it's a Starlight episode, so that's an automatic fifty point deduction.4540728
...You are aware of the basic concept that most companies can't accept or go on the record as reading unsolicited material, and therefore they can't use the fandom name for actual legal reasons, right?
As for the episode itself, an utter daylight. I find Daybreaker works better as a name with a The. "I am... the Daybreaker."
4540793
You are right. I guess that I am letting my judgement get ahead of myself. As for Daybreaker herself ... I think I can get used to it. Your view of the name does make sense. I haven't considered it that way. Thank you for reminding me to be more open minded.
4540807 Personally, I always recommend actually waiting until an episode happens to start posting thoughts about it. You would not believe all the hilarious misreadings this fandom did when a bunch of changeling fanatics only got spoiled about the transformation, but got all their data from biased sources.
Aside from the episode making Starlight even more special and inexplicably overpowered (what with the map calling her despite not being connected to the elements and deciding that she alone doesn't need any help, as well as her ability to cast spells on the princesses that they have no power to resist or undo), it was a decent episode when it could have been so much worse. I didn't mind the Daybreaker name myself... I've heard some rather tortured fan versions of an evil Celestia name.
On a side note, Twilight almost always comes out looking worse for Starlight episodes. I feel like season 1 Twilight would slap her current self in the face and tell her to get a grip.
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True that. I just got ahead of myself. Should've watched the episode first before commenting. I think the laspes in character bothered me and that lead me into nictpicking stuff I wouldn't have a problem with otherwise. I did watch the episode after making that comment though. It was a decent episode despite the break in character with Celestia. I will be posting an unbiased comment with my thoughts on the episode later. Well, I say unbiased, but no one can remove bias completely. It's part of being human.
As soon as I saw Daybreaker, I immediately wondered if we'd get a canon name for her, and honestly, when I heard it, I liked it. I've always felt like Solar Flare wasn't aggressive enough, Daymare Sun was just a catastrophe, and most others tried too hard to retain the dichotomy with Nightmare Moon.
I think you all are disregarding the part where Luna says that she couldn't help in the dream because she had Celestia's magic. That implies that even though Celestia would raise the moon she didn't/couldn't dream walk, which was the major role of Luna. So It makes sense that she wouldn't appreciate her sister's role given that she only dealt with the single easiest aspect of it for a millennium.
Daybreaker is an entirely delectable name for an all-conquering, maddened Goddess of the Sun, but only if you put the word "The" in front of it. The Daybreaker. It has a nice ring to it, in a slightly death-metal, Warhammer-esque fashion
I look forward to all possible future fics with her in it.
Teeth falling out are one of the more common dreams out there, believed to stem from overwhelming stress or feelings of powerlessness.
Also, that scene takes on a extra layer of horror: Luna's probably used to lucid dreaming. Here, she might not have been able to do it. She might not have been aware of it in the dream, but on a sub-subconscious level, she'd know that something was inexpressibly wrong.
Yeah, this was a great episode.
Rather liked this episode. I'll admit some disappointment to having Starlight brute-force her way through things, but to be honest the impression I got was almost like the writers wanted a Celestia and Luna swap episode and saw Starlight as the most expedient way to do that.
I really liked the Daybreaker scene, especially how she was brought about by Celestia deciding not to bother with anyone in her way anymore (or considering the rest of the episode, perhaps it could be Celestia snapping under the strain of having to be the perfect unfailing leader every waking second of the day for centuries on end and deciding to that public relations can burn in hell?), it made a nice contrast to actual Celestia and to Nightmare Moon -- I liked the idea of NMM being the result of Luna having too little self esteem and Daybreaker being the result of Celestia having too much, so to speak.
Although this likely will require me to rework my pet theory that the reason the Sisters keep getting worfed is less a failure to use their powers for plot reasons and more we, the fandom, having built up an overly powerful image of them. Eh, so it goes.
Definitely an episode to rewatch.
Name opinion update: Shortly after writing this post, I remembered that 'Daybreak' is an actual thing, rather than two words bolted together. It's grown on me since, being the sucker for decent horse-themed wordplay that I am.
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"Brainwash and/or mark-swap everypony. That'll solve everything!"
"Starlight, that's not even slightly ethi-"
"Let me play to my strengths, damnit!"
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It's an unhappy lapse, agreed. Especially when a lack of appreciation for said duties caused the whole rise of Nightmare Moon and Luna's subsequent banishment in the first place. A reworked conflict where Celestia might have taken too much of an interest in Luna's duties to point of overbearingness could have been good to work with.
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Great minds and a' that. 'Daybreaker' definitely benefits from a 'the' preceding it. Just 'Daybreak' rings a wee bit better as a name on its own to my mind.
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Spells which even princesses can resist or undo do seem a bit out-of-order for Starlight, and I think that whole bit could have worked better (and spared Starlight more of my teasing) if she'd applied the spell with their consent. Mind you, if that's really a talent she's got, there's undoubtedly a few nefarious powers out there that'd be all too happy to take advantage.
4540912
True, all that. Count me a Daybreaker convert now.
4541084
I get that, though if dreamwalking had been a vital duty which Celestia couldn't handle, wouldn't that have made Luna's absence from it all the starker? Even if Celestia couldn't have the personal experience of it, there'd still be noticeable effects to Equestria's wellbeing (spates of nightmares, attacks by dream-based predators, what-have-you) which would run unchecked during Luna's banishment, and would be gratifyingly checked again when she returned.
4541191
Huh. I've never had that particular dream or heard that particular interpretation, but that's good, understated work by the show's writers if it was intentional. I've learned something.
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I roll with hesitation to let their powers go all-out, due to their own self-awareness of how badly things could go wrong. They probably could brute-force their way through most of the show's problems if they put their minds to it. Unfortunately, if they get far too used to throwing out vast amounts of power and rolling over every challenger ... then there's no real mental barrier left stopping the alicorn deciding to do whatever they like, and damn the consequences and opinions of others. And once you're at that point, lapsing into full-blown Nightmare Moon/Daybreaker territory's inevitable.
4541297 The 'Can't dream magic' bit I admit I am headcanoning as 'Celestia can, but Luna isn't familiar with how Suncasting works, and so hasn't figured it out yet, because dreamwalking via Suncasting is not intuitive. Whereas, with Mooncasting, Celestia can basically go right into a dream - but as we saw she doesn't realize how much power she has and how it is tied to emotion, hence her stumbles.
As for not getting along - to me I think it's more a 'Families fight' story, where even when deep down both of you know you are both being irrational, it's become less about that and more about feeling slighted to a degree that being right no longer matters; having your emotions validated is what matters more, and since the other party isn't doing that, you fall back on doing it yourself.
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I can buy that. Pride and perceived emotional slights are tricky things to work past, probably even for age-old pony princesses.
4541497 Especially in your world where there is a parasite whispering to them whenever it can, if you think about it! I mean, given Celestia has resisted so far...and I am sure Luna's would love to get out again.
4541297
My main hesitation with going with this view is that to me it seems to imply there's no middle ground between using none of their power and (eventually, at least) using all their power with no restraint -- essentially, that there's no potential for moderation or using magic in a way besides as a metaphorical blunt sledgehammer to bash down problems -- and that Celestia doesn't really have an option besides being a monster or not being able to provide effective security for her subjects, even in situations that might only require her to use a very small sliver of power more to avoid putting a lot of people in danger. Essentially it strikes me as going down a slippery slope to avoid a slippery slope -- "I fear what I will become if I lose all inhibition, so I will avoid using any significant amount of my power even when this handicapping puts myself, my kingdom and my subjects in clear and immediate danger". I'm sure there's arguments accounting for this, but to me the likeliest interpretation of how frequently Luna and Celestia get defeated has always seemed to be more of an issue of can't rather than won't.
(Basically, I tend to see them in a sort of middle tier between regular ponies and the really heavy hitters like Discord. They're basically superhuman (superequine?) and beyond what regular ponies can ever achieve in terms of power, but they still have limits -- throw enough bodies/changelings at them and they'll wear down eventually, and even if they went full Nightmare Moon/Daybreaker, I still don't think they'd be able to overpower the likes of Discord or a sufficiently fed Tirek.)
4544767 I'm sure there is a middle ground... but are the Sisters themselves sure? And more chillingly, are they sure they can stay within it?