On Abdication · 5:18pm Apr 6th, 2019
Welcome to the final season!
I hope your episode stream didn't misbehave like mine did. What was up with that?
So let's talk about "The Beginning of the End" before you start thinking about replacing me.
The moral here is difficult to pin down properly, since it's rooted in balance between two conflicting principles. Twilight speaks at the end of needing to ask for help, and she's not wrong; the Mane Six could never have handled both the Everfree Forest and King Sombra on their own (though I question their choice to prioritize Ponyville over all of Equestria), just as Sombra was wrong to think he could conquer the Crystal Empire alone. But at the same time, Discord was working to convince the Mane Six that they are strong enough to handle crises themselves, just as Twilight's friends were trying before everything went to hell that we got this, you got this, we got this together, and they're not wrong either.
You need to believe in yourself, but not so much that your brain falls out you can't admit when you're biting off more than you can chew. And I won't claim it's an easy balance to find; I don't think any of us are really qualified to identify that threshold for ourselves. But listening to where others think the boundary is can help.
It's good that they acknowledged that 'Tia and Luna almost never do anything, but I'm not sure about the logic that they don't need to do anything anymore because Twilight and her friends take care of everything because 'Tia and Luna refuse to help and make others do everything. It seems rather circular, not to mention how if this is the longest period of harmony that Equestria's enjoyed in a long time then I really wouldn't want to see how often Equestria gets invaded when it's not experiencing elevated harmony.
Also, isn't there a bunch of routine governance that hasn't ever been delegated to the Mane Six? There must be more to ruling Equestria than just shooting villains with magic lasers; a country does not run itself. How were the Mane Six supposed to find time for that in addition to teaching and performing their normal jobs?
But at least they eventually realized that it's rude to quit without even giving two weeks notice. They could have at least tried to make their abdication not seem completely impulsive.
Or they realized that if they actually retired then they'd lose their spot in the opening. And nopony wants to get written out of the opening.
I have to say, I'm impressed by Discord's restraint in keeping his speech after he was "injured" completely serious. You know he was tempted to throw in some wisecracks but held it back because it would ruin the effect.
I don't know if those ponies appreciate the effort he puts into annoying them into self-improvement.
I am definitely psyched to have a recurring Evil League of Evil that includes Chryssy and hopefully a still-insane-with-the-hope-of-being-the-Empress-of-Friendship Cozy Glow. As long as she acts like she did in "School Raze," I love Cozy almost as much as Chryssy. They're good bad horses.
I feel like I should talk about the relation to the comics, but what is there to say? They're parallel universes. We've been over this plenty of times. This isn't the same Sombra who was reformed by Hope, or for that matter the one who turned evil for Celestia (obviously), and it's not the Chryssy who left the country because she hates Umbrum ponies and hasn't been heard from since.
It is kind of funny how the Siege of the Crystal Empire foreshadowed the No-Elements Friendship Beam. Sombra just can't win against those six putting their heads and hearts together.