• Member Since 20th Jul, 2015
  • offline last seen Oct 16th, 2019

Codex Ex Equus


The writing account of Deus Ex Equus.

More Blog Posts30

  • 250 weeks
    Season Nine (Spoilers, etc.)

    Just a few thoughts on a couple of recent episodes (you can probably guess at least two). Spoilers incoming, obviously.

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    13 comments · 1,925 views
  • 252 weeks
    What. (Frenemies spoilers, kind of)

    Okay, so obviously I'm going to be making a blog post about season nine, especially since Frenemies is pretty much the best episode the show's ever had. And I know it's also kind of late for me to post this compared to my usual times.

    But while I was writing it, I found something out, and it's legitimately freaking me out.

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    15 comments · 906 views
  • 259 weeks
    I've cracked the code on season nine

    Cozy Glow is the Storm King reborn.

    That's why she's so obsessed with getting control of a bunch of followers and taking over everything, she's just continuing from where she left off. Same reason she wants to be Queen, she's just getting her title back (adjusted to fit her new body).

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    3 comments · 544 views
  • 289 weeks
    Announcement

    I hope everyone's ready, because something big is coming tomorrow. Here's a preview image of it, I hope you enjoy it.

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    7 comments · 1,160 views
  • 289 weeks
    Season Eight Finale Part Two Translation (spoilers inside)

    Okay, get your spoilers down below.

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    5 comments · 570 views
Sep
2nd
2018

Season Eight Finale Part Two Translation (spoilers inside) · 11:33pm Sep 2nd, 2018

Okay, get your spoilers down below.
















Honestly, I feel like putting these big gaps in is pointless, but I really don't want to ruin things for anyone.
















So, after watching the finale with the translation, I gotta say, I think this is up there in terms of my favorite finales.

Granted, there are problems with it. Tartarus itself is rather underwhelming. It just looks like the back room at a pet shop. Also, the whole point of it seems to be to remove the Mane Six from the episode, but still give them something to do so people don't complain like they did with the season six finale. And Neighsay's "reformation" is still as lame as I said it was originally, in that he basically went "You're helping me? Guess I'm not a racist anymore!"

But this finale had what is probably the best twist since Queen Chrysalis first appeared, in the fact that there is no twist.

Cozy Glow, a child, is the villain. Period. She's not Queen Chrysalis in disguise, she's not working for Neighsay, she isn't an adult pretending to be a child (along the lines of the villain Baby Doll from the Batman Animated Series), she hasn't been corrupted by some MacGuffin or the other. She's just a straight-up psychopathic child who only wants power.

And, on top of all that, she gets thrown into Tartarus at the end. Honestly, I did not see any of that coming.

Let's see, any other things I missed before I go into full-on crazy mode about Chrysalis and season nine...

Well, apparently I was wrong about the students graduating. It turns out they dressed up like that because they assumed they were graduating, but Twilight actually says something like it takes more than one semester to graduate. Still, I have to wonder how much we'll see them in season nine, if at all. I can't see the budget department being too happy about having to pay six extra voice actors for an episode or two.

Tirek's role in this episode is funny, given that it emphasizes my point about Chrysalis in The Mean Six. Like I said, she was treated with respect in that episode: there were no jokes at her expense, no slapstick humor where she got hit in the head and saw stars, no comedic pratfalls where she slips and ends up in a lake. Then compare that to Tirek in this episode, where Pinkie basically tortures and mocks him for half the episode before Twilight steals his magic. Then at the end, when he gets his magic back, it hits him in the face and sends him flying. It's the complete opposite treatment. Also, the first time we've seen good characters do something like this to a villain (though, compared to a lot of kids' shows, it was nowhere near as bad as what you usually see).

Oh, and it's still hilarious how utterly useless the CMC were. Like, to the point where I have to wonder why they were even in the episode, seeing as how they literally did nothing.

Okay, enough of that, time for the craziness!

What if Cozy Glow is still Chrysalis?!

No, think about it! It's the long con! She pretends to be am evil child, gets caught and sent to Tartarus, where she makes friends with Tirek and they bust out. They confront her in the end, and boom! Queen Chrysalis out of nowhere! No one would ever see it coming! You can't defend against that!

Okay, but seriously.

That last line in the episode, Cozy Glow going "Hey neighbor, want to be friends?" to Tirek, is cool in a lot of ways.

First, this is the first time a season has ever ended on a 'down' note. Granted, it's not much, but instead of everyone having a happy party, the ending is two villains apparently teaming up.

It gets more interesting considering that statue of them from the second episode of season nine that was leaked. Originally, of course, the assumption was that they both ended up reformed in the season eight finale (in which case, this leaking actually made the finale more of a surprise).

Now, it could still be that they're involved in the season nine premiere in someway and do end up reformed. It could also be that they end up being turned into that statue (though I find that unlikely).

The most obvious outcome I see here? They escape from Tartarus in someway, and that statue is what gets left behind, as a way of mocking everyone who finds it. This happens at the end of the episode, naturally, setting up for the rest of the season.

Setting up for what? Well, let's think about it. We have Sombra coming back, along with the introduction of Grogar. Then these two theoretically escaping from Tartarus. And don't forget Chrysalis is still running around. Free the Pony of Shadows from Limbo and what do you get?

The Elements of Disharmony.

What's funny about that team, though, is that none of their goals are really compatible. Which is standard for villains teaming up, of course.

Sombra wants to, apparently, reenact World War One in Equestria, with slaves, and spread darkness and hate across the land (through his control of the Crystal Heart). Grogar... well, we don't know yet. Tirek wants to eat all the magic and destroy everything he sees. Cozy Glow wants absolute power over everything. And the Pony of Shadows wants... well, it was never really clear. Honestly, he was the worst villain that's been on the show. Everyone just said "He's evil!" And then he appeared and said "I'm evil!" And that was kind of it. I think there was something about spreading darkness across the land, like Sombra? Let's go with that.

Chrysalis, however, is kind of the odd one out there. She just wants revenge on a few ponies and then to be a Queen. And not even Queen of Equestria, like Cozy Glow. Just give her a hive of pretty much anything and she's happy.

Some of the villains can work together. Sombra and the Pony of Darkness seem like they'd get along well. I'm sure Tirek wouldn't mind helping them attack Equestria as long as he got to eat plenty of magic along the way and destroy everything in his path. Cozy Glow might have a bit of an issue with Sombra, though, given that they can't both rule. But maybe they could work something out and be co-dictators.

Again, though, all of that goes against what Chrysalis wants. She's going to have problems with Cozy Glow and Sombra wanting to be King/Queen. Not to mention that Tirek just wants to destroy everything, while Sombra and the Pony of Shadows want to spread darkness and hate everywhere, which would not only limit her power due to the lack of love but possibly kill her when she can't get anything to eat.

And on top of that, as I've said, she doesn't seem to really bear any grudge against her changelings. (I harp on this a bit, but there isn't a single thing she did that wasn't for the benefit of the changelings, at least as far as she could see. Even in her big speech with Starlight, everything she said consisted of "This is what we need to do, there's no other way. I'm doing this so we can eat.") All that she really cares about is that they hate her now and she can't be their Queen. So how exactly is she going to react if Sombra and the Pony of Shadows go "Oh yeah, we're going to destroy the food source of your former subjects" while Tirek is going "Hmm, be a shame if something happened to this big juicy target that looks like a hive"?

So if anyone is going to betray this gang of villains from within, it's going to be Chrysalis. Which sucks, because you know that sacrifice will result in her transforming.

Which is actually one of the more amusing things from the second episode of the finale. At one point, one of the students says something to Neighsay along the lines of "You're mean, but you aren't the meanest, so maybe you aren't so bad". And then Fluttershy tells all the creatures in Tartarus that "You're not monsters, just nice mysterious creatures". But how much do you want to be that none of that applies to Chrysalis or black changelings?

What's funny is how perfect bringing back the black changelings would work. It's a hive, right? So you have the Queen (or Kings, or whatever) . Then you have the workers gathering food—the transformed changelings. Then you have the soldiers, defending the hive—the black changelings.

(I know I said in a previous post that Changing a Changeling felt like a parody, but sometimes I wonder if it was the opposite—just a big "fuck you" to anyone who wanted the old changelings back and was saying they could work together to defend the hive or whatever. "Nope, not possible, the new changelings can take care of themselves and black changelings are evil 100% of the time even though they weren't that one time hahaha! Take that!")

And since I like pretending I know what the people on the show are thinking—what if the whole point of Cozy Glow is to reform Chrysalis?

I mean, I don't think I've seen a single reaction that isn't "Fuck Cozy Glow, she needs to die". She seems designed to be a character that is utterly unsympathetic and eminently hateable. So you put Chrysalis against her, and suddenly, hey, Chrysalis doesn't seem so bad. And it gets even worse when Cozy is teamed up with Tirek.

I bring this up a lot, but that's how you make Chrysalis into the Vegeta of the show. Vegeta was horrible and a murderer (and committed genocide rather regularly it seems) but then he got put up against Frieza, and suddenly, hey, Vegeta doesn't seem so bad. (Spoilers for Dragonball Super: And now Frieza's gotten that same treatment, fighting side-by-side with Goku to prevent their universe from being erased. Though how likely that is to stick is anyone's guess. Honestly, I kind of find it funny that Dragonball has roughly the same track record with reforming villains as My Little Pony does at this point.)

I wouldn't really be surprised to see Chrysalis being reformed but not changing happen as the last thing on the show. I've speculated before that there are marketing rules, or at least style guidelines, that say black characters can't be good guys. I mean, Lauren Faust did apparently think children would be frightened of Luna because her color scheme was too dark. One of the few things I've heard from her that made me say "What were you thinking?" The other being that one part of the show bible where the Diamond Dogs talked like gangsta rappers and wanted gems because they love 'bling'. With a foundation like that, no wonder all the black characters on this show are villains... (Please send all hate mail in PMs, thank you.)

Okay, and as my last big dose of crazy... what if season nine isn't actually going to be the end?

Nothing's been officially announced yet. They seem to be avoiding that question as much as possible at cons, too.

There was an email from Meghan McCarthy to one of the higher ups, discussing G5, that basically went "You want us to come up with a whole new world, start working on a new show, and write a movie for it in under two years? Go fuck yourself." (okay, I'm hyperbolizing the attitude she had there a bit)

But with no official announcement so far, I wonder if they didn't manage to bargain an extra season or two out of the executives. It wouldn't be that hard, I don't think. I mean, we knew the show was going on this long because the contract was through 2019. All they're doing with G5 is not renewing that contract and instead making a new show. As far as I know, there's no reason they couldn't simply renew the contract for another year or so. Ten seasons makes a nice round number.

Also, with the official numbers out for the movie, it looks like the budget was around 6 million, and it made over 60 million. That's a pretty damn good return on their investment. I mean, this is a bit hypocritical of me to say, but there's no reason they can't milk a few more season out of this, right?

And, to a degree, this kind of feels like how things were after season three, when there was no contract and no one really knew what the future of the show was.

Though, counterpoint: they would no doubt want to avoid announcing this for as long as possible. At least until season eight is officially over in the US. No one wants to buy toys for a show that's done, after all. And it's not like this is Game of Thrones or something where the final season gets announced years in advance.


Anyway... that's all I've got for now.

But look for another post, making an announcement, a bit after I post this. I'm splitting them up for people who don't like spoilers.

Comments ( 5 )

Finale has finally aired? Cool. Now to binge watch the whole season in one overnight session!

4930479
It aired in Denmark and Sweden, so the best you can get right now is fan subtitled versions.

Chryssi really does not play well with others. And even taking care of her Hive, never came off as because she really cared for them, as much as, they were HERS! and as extensions of her will, got what they needed, because Chryssi won't deny herself anything she wants. Even he speech in TWABA had a very generous helping of her simply wanting to be in charge, and gloating over how this makes her so great. It was never just about collecting Love, it was about doing so, while doing it in the way that best sated her ego and need to prove herself better then everybeing else.

Though doubt we'd get a full on team up of that level. Given the utter lack of context, that statue could be anything, another time line fracture, some dream, anything.

As to what Grogar would want..... him and SOmbra are pretty much made for each other. Hell a good chunk of Sombra was lifted fro Grogar in the first place. Evil, powerful dark sorcerer that ruled over a city that vanished out of time, only to return and for him to again try and enact his plan to enslave the world to his will. So can totaly see those two both working well together.

And as to the whole 'a child' thing, Cozy Glow is already extremely similar to the Batman TAS villain Baby Doll, both in design, and just general characteristics. She played the same thing, acting the cute, sweet, innocent waif that was all sweetness and love, while plotting to destroy all around her. And her thing, was she had a condition that caused her to never physically develop out of looking like a child, leaving her stuck always being treated as one and never taken seriously as an actress, only given the cutesy little kid roles.

I could totally see Cozy being in the same boat, and actually being an adult, just trapped in a foal's body.

4930527
See, that's one of the things that bothers me about the final part of TWABA. Chrysalis's speech is so vague and inconsistent that you can ascribe almost any motive to her. At one moment she's gushing that all the ponies will have to obey her, the next she cheering that the changelings have all the food they'll ever need. You can pretty much pick out any part of it you want and go "This is what Chrysalis is really like!" and get a different answer depending on how you feel about her.

If I wanted to be a jerk, I could say that it's poorly written because it's just a kids' show and they didn't really care, or that Starlight was all the writers cared about here so it literally didn't matter what the person she was talking to said. If I wanted to do my tinfoil hat stuff, I could say they purposefully wrote it that way so the fans could pick their favorite interpretation.

And yes, Baby Doll was the name! I'd seen people referencing her when theorizing she was an adult, but I couldn't remember the name or find anything through searching. I'll edit it into the post.

But honestly, that would be a really lame twist, especially at this point. If that is the case, it's something that should have been revealed in these episodes, not brought up later out of nowhere.

4930559 Unless it's not meant as a 'twist' so much as, just something in the background that never gets brought up, could still work.

As to Chryssi, except when saying that, she replies they will take all that love 'and bring it back here, to ME!' Everything was more focused on herself. Oh, oh oh..... Chryssi and Trixie getting into an Ego-Off!

I also kind of like the theory that she knew about the whole Neon Bug Moose thing, and was keeping it hidden from them to ensure her control over them. Or because she really did feel this way was better.

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