Oct
13th
2019
Points of Canon: S9x24-26 - The Ending of the End / The Last Problem · 11:10pm Oct 13th, 2019
Let’s get this over with. Technically I missed dissecting a special, but well, there won’t be any more after I’m done with that, right? Right?
The Ending of the End
- Chronology markers: This is part of the Season 9 bookend, but there’s a gap between the two-parter and the final final episode during which the Canterlot Castle is rebuilt, which some episodes can drift into. Likewise, some episodes are not forbidden from floating past the bookend entirely. In particular, the throne room is remodeled again, requiring any shots of the throne room with two thrones to precede this episode. Of course, every episode depicting the adventures of the villainous trio must precede this one, since that’s when they get stoned.
“Hey there, my unicorn friend. Have you heard?” I want you to seriously think about this scene for a moment. So you’re on your way to do your job. You’re busy. And some complete stranger addresses you with a “Have you heard?”
And you engage them in conversation anyway.
If this is not indicative of pony mindset, I don’t know what is.
- “I know their crops have been underperforming…” The only way this entire dialogue makes sense is if unicorn agriculture specialists do not exist, and that control over agriculture is racially based. Considering that whenever someone needs plants right this instant, it’s exclusively Twilight making them grow, this is strange.
“I did my part freaking out the Pegasi.”
- Nobody knows they have escaped. Still.
- Cozy Glow’s arrest probably wasn’t a matter of national news either, though this is up for debate.
“Grogar’s Bell. This artifact can steal any creature’s magic. It holds that magic until it is released by this spell. Which means all the power inside is ours for the taking!”
- Notice that Tirek, or whoever, made a hiding spot for the bell
without alerting Grogarbelieving Grogar wasn’t alerted. - Why exactly would this be so desirable when Tirek can already do this by himself is another question that probably won’t get an answer. The magic already in the bell is indeed useful. But after that, what exactly is the point?
- Notice also that a manual, complete with a castable spell, is also available. Just where the hell did they get it and how?
- Also, apparently, they all can cast this spell.
- And the thing works. Now, the only way it can work as shown – turning Cozy Glow alicorn, no less – is by actually containing previously stolen magic. Which, as we later find out, belonged to the original Grogar, but I wonder how exactly did it get into the bell.
- Notice that Tirek, or whoever, made a hiding spot for the bell
- “Twilight Sparkle’s coronation is today, and we are going to ruin it with this artifact.” Notice that we never find out what this thing was supposed to do: For some reason, Cozy Glow destroys it immediately.
“Oh, way ahead of you, Grogar.”
- Changeling slime, first appearing all the way back in A Canterlot Wedding, is spat out, rather than produced in any other manner.
- All three villains can cast bolts. Including Cozy Glow, who has apparently acquired some instinctual understanding of how to do that.
- “Wait. Discord was Grogar? Like, the whole time? Should we follow him?” You should seriously think why exactly was he doing that, but of course that’s beyond you, Cozy Glow.
“Should we tell her that we’ve cleared out our royal suites so she and Spike can move in?”
- As of the conclusion of this episode Celestia and Luna don’t plan to stay in Canterlot Castle.
- Notice the throne room got remodeled again, with the double thrones being replaced by a singular one. This is a chronology marker.
- “It’s not every day the princesses that have ruled Equestria for hundreds of moons retire and pass all their responsibilities on to your and your friends.” Now, we know for a fact that Celestia, at least, ruled Equestria for over 1111 years by this point, so Spike can’t be referring to years. Notably, he can be referring to week-scale moons: As of this moment, the series can’t contain more than about six years, which would make “hundreds” of week-scale moons but not month-scale moons. Way to confuse everyone, Spike. See my general investigations into moons.
“A new position I created for you.”
- No position of “royal adviser” existed prior to that.
- Notice that while the coronation itself is still upcoming, Twilight is already making executive decisions in her own name, complete with regalia.
- While Spike puts the medal on, it is missing in subsequent scenes anyway, even though they take off immediately before he can put it away. See cartoon resolution.
- “Is that before or after the royal marshmallow-eating-contest gown?” A royal marshmallow eating contest is part of the planned festivities. Or at least, a believable joke.
“Put the bits in the mail slot.”
- What’s Lemon Hearts doing answering the door in a “thread shop?…”
- Never mind that she didn’t even ask Rarity what color thread she wanted…
- “It’s the first shift in royal power in over a millenium.” Rarity is obviously incorrect, seeing as Luna exists, and was allowed at least some royal power on reemergence, but we’ll have to let this slide.
- “And watchin’ me like he thought I’d steal the silver!” Ponies use table silver at least occasionally. When we don’t see them.
- “My aching metatarsals!” Discord has them. On at least one foot. I suppose he could have any bone he likes, though.
- “Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.” Either Discord can actually resurrect Sombra, or, as I originally theorized when this happened, Sombra was a simulacrum all along. You know which explanation I prefer.
- “All my chaos magic is… gone. Trapped in Grogar’s Bell.” Unless Discord is lying, again, Grogar’s Bell is a genuine historical artifact introduced by the actual Grogar. In which case Discord’s also an idiot. Seeing how a substantial amount of magic does get transferred into Cozy Glow later, we have to accept the latter.
- “Send a letter to Star Swirl! Tell him we need the Pillars to guard the border of Canterlot!” Star Swirl is capable of self-levitation. Not particularly surprising, but I don’t think he did it before. The location he receives the letter in seems to be the Pony China as seen in Campfire Tales. You know, the one somewhere in Pennsylvania.
“Fools! Now I have more power than all of you!”
- Size equals magical power, it appears. If the correspondence holds in the general case, it means that Celestia is more powerful than Luna, and Cozy Glow full of Discord’s magic is more powerful than both.
- Chaos magic is inherently different from other kinds of magical power, even though the bell works on it anyway.
“Where’d you get that? A daily affirmations calendar?”
- Do ponies even have daily affirmations calendars? Yes, I’m still of the opinion that Cozy Glow is not actually a pony. We’ll never know the truth now.
- Notice that she somehow disabled five adult guards. I know the Royal Guard is typically portrayed as useless, but this is a new low.
“Canterlot depends on us!”
- Notice that Stygian still isn’t welcome in this exclusive club of Pillars.
- Tirek destroying rock pillars by jumping involves him being capable of something like a few hundred metric tons worth of force.
- “Magic seasoned with age. Delicious.” Notice that as Tirek drains Rockhoof, the latter devolves to his original pre-power-up weakling state. The mechanics of this remain unexplained, as nothing of the sort ever happened to anyone else Tirek drained.
- “You didn’t make an appointment!” Starlight is capable of aggressive teleport all the way to polar regions from Central Equestria. The right way to win this fight would be to teleport Chrysalis outside the atmosphere, but well…
“Now I’ll have all eternity to take my revenge on you!”
- Chrysalis spins the cocoon in real time for the first time on screen. Yes, it comes out of the mouth as well.
- I wonder if we should take it as an indication that cocooning permits indefinite suspended animation or not.
- Cozy Glow dispatches the Royal Guard with a portal, instead of using any number of more lethal or more amusing spells. Guess she’s just bored.
“That’s the problem with you magic-types. You’re so reliant on all your special power, you forget to use your brains!”
- …she said, after using magic power on them for an extended period of time.
- Also notably, this does not impede the Sisters from flying less than a minute later.
- “Fly, my pretties!” The geeze are still a feature of the throne room.
- “Didn’t you all notice something was wrong in Equestria?” Evidently they didn’t, which is one of the biggest problems with this whole episode.
- “Too bad you never taught that in school.” Notice that it’s Rarity throwing the stone, rather than, say, Applejack, who is more capable of doing it, or Rainbow, who is more inclined to do it.
“And now for your complete destruction!”
- Notice how Cozy Glow is the only one calling for murder.
- Notice how nobody’s worrying about celestial motion, for that matter. In fact, this topic is quietly shuffled under the carpet and stays there until the end of the season.
- “Is that big, strong minotaur that scared of one little pony?” Wait, minotaur? Huh? Why?! Even more bizarrely, Tirek does not correct her or get offended. Even more bizarrely, minutes later Discord calls Tirek a centaur anyway.
- “Careful. Too close and the shards cancel even our powers.” Only, just a minute ago, Cozy Glow was at least a meter closer to the cave the Mane 5 are sealed in, and did not suffer any observable discomfort.
- “How about ‘pathetic centaur who uses magic to compensate for the fact that deep down he’s afraid he’ll never be enough to please dear old dad, King Vorak?’” This is a direct reference to the events of FIENDship is Magic #2 and is the only appearance of the name of Vorak anywhere in primary canon. Which could be an acknowledgment of a useful part of secondary lore, but too little, too late. Especially considering the whole mess created by Shadow Play history scheduling disaster, which directly touches on this issue.
- “Did he, though?!” So darkstone shards can be destroyed by magic blasts?… In which particular cases?
- “No way! She’s always needed you guys!” Starlight has a specialized spell for getting rid of changeling slime, or can adapt one.
- “They really have turned ponies against each other.” And the Mane 6 are the only multi-tribal group of friends in Equestria, right. And Big Mac with Sugar Belle are the only inter-tribal couple. </sarcasm>
- “Please, stay calm!” Notably, in the crowd before the town hall, Big Mac and Sugar Belle are together, and so are Maud and Mudbriar, but Bon-Bon stands alone. Lyra in fact turns up in the SGU at around the same time.
- “They’re blocking Cloudsdale!” …Actually, whatever the hell for? There’s a rational reason to install cloud cover in case celestial motion is compromised, but Cloudsdale is above this cloud layer.
- “I know where Twilight is!” Trains still mysteriously don’t just run on time, but lightning fast.
“I was so worried! Where are the princesses?” This is a new room in Crystal Empire we have not seen previously. Notable details:
- One of the cups has a tea bag label hanging out of it. We’ve seen those before, but rarely that clearly.
- A box of tissues, the pull-out kind.
- Several crystals under glass domes, one of them floating mysteriously.
- In lieu of the traditional corkboard, pins, and yarn, Twilight – or someone else – used sticky tape to stick paper to the window and still used yarn, despite it normally being impossible to stick pins into glass.
- “That’s just a Hearth’s Warming Eve story.” The windigos are (or were, until this episode) widely believed to be mythical, even though they actually aren’t.
“That’s enchanted wind! We can’t control it!”
- Really? By whom, the windigos?…
- What exactly is Scootaloo doing in this crowd, when we know she is effectively flightless?
“Fortify the shields around the School of Magic!” Ponies can collaborate on shield spells, which was in question before. Notable ponies in the crowd:
- Lyra Heartstrings. Who really should be somewhere else. The full complement of Canterlot Friends, including Moondancer, are here, in fact. Even Amethyst Star is here.
- Rarity’s parents.
- Night Light and Twilight Velvet, who were in town for the coronation but not anywhere near it.
- Sunburst’s and Starlight’s observable parents. Why the hell are they in Canterlot when Starlight isn’t remains unexplained.
- “Equestria’s been falling apart around us, and I didn’t even notice!” And neither did Celestia, but nobody thinks to tell Twilight that.
- “Sometimes even the Princess of Friendship needs a reminder that there’s more to the Magic of Friendship than rainbow lasers.” Is this the first time ever the blast of Elements is called “rainbow laser” in primary canon? Because I think it is.
- “You need to stay here and protect Flurry Heart. If we don’t… If things don’t work out, she’s Equestria’s last hope.” Wait. Why?…
- “The same thing we do every time, Pinkie. Try to save the world!” Now this is just pandering.
- “The windigos are ancient magic.” According to Tirek, at least. Exact meaning of the statement unclear.
- “Ugh, can we get on with this please?” Notice that as Twilight teleports the team out of the way of the blast, they are standing right next to each other, but upon emerging, Twilight is at least a few meters away from them. And since we see the flash of the teleport, we know that this is the way they appeared – Twilight didn’t have time to rush away from them to peek over the bushes.
- “Not annoying! Distracting!” Rarity uses the same crystal shield Pedestrian Rarity uses all the time. Did she do this before?…
“It’s not me!” Notable characters in the joint force:
- Sunburst, who has not appeared anywhere up until then.
- Fizzlepop Berrytwist, who exists.
- Ember, Thorax, as well as assorted named griffons and hippogriffs, as well as the Kirin Leader, Autumn Blaze and Prince Rutherford.
- Flim and Flam. What the hell are those two doing here, I have no idea.
- Little Strong Heart.
- “I don’t understand. How are you all here?” What I don’t understand is how they are all here, and windigos are still up in the sky. With the logistical difficulties of assembling so many representatives of the various races in the same place, this had to have been going on for a while, and they shouldn’t have manifested at all. In any case, they had to have moved at near light speed to get this done, but we already know that all space has gone out of Equestria by the last episode.
- “The more creatures who know about friendship, the safer we’ll be.” Twilight is standing right next to Moondancer now, but doesn’t acknowledge her, again. I suppose now’s not the time, but well… At least she’s hanging out with her parents.
“The Pillars knew this! That’s why they created the Elements of Harmony!”
- Errr… Pretty sure the Pillars had no idea what they were creating at all. At best, a very vague one.
- Who is teleporting the prisoners to the field and how remains unexplained: Twilight’s horn is not being used. The effect is radically different as well. Presumably, direct harmony action.
“Perhaps maybe I should…”
- Discord is also capable of flight even though his magic should be in the bell.
- Apparently, the bell acts as a queue, i.e. first-in-first-out, since the problem the villains had with it was being unable to extract alicorn magic without extracting chaos magic first.
- “May I help? Please?” And now, Discord does turn ponies into stone. Good job crossing your line, Discord.
- “Post-apocalyptic donuts.” How did ponies stumble on the word “apocalypse” which is derived from Ancient Greek word meaning “revelation,” is anyone’s guess.
The Last Problem
- Chronology markers: This is the last one, during which Twilight is actually crowned (again). It obviously requires some time to repair the destruction of the throne room inflicted just prior, but with the way cross-continental transportation is instant now, we have no idea how much time it took. The framing scenes of the episode refer to a distant future, which further complicates matters. However, it definitely references the events of The Ending of the End in its present day portion.
In the grim dark future of Equestria, there is only…
“Making peace between Abyssinians and the Diamond Dogs has not been easy.”
- Upon repairs to the castle, the throne room gets remodeled again
- Diamond dogs have their own nation, which we will never see now.
- Abyssinians are indeed called that in conversation.
- Twilight does eventually grow to Celestia’s size and body type, and does acquire a self-waving mane.
- Royal Guard will start accepting foreigners.
- “This is your top student?” How exactly does one get to be Twilight’s top student with a friendship-centric curriculum and still reject it?
“Friendships take work, and there’s no guarantee they’ll last.” Notable stained glass windows contain:
- The old window of Twilight’s ascension.
- A depiction of the events of The Ending of the End
- Adult Flurry Heart.
- The Student Six doing… something. A monster is involved.
- The Tree of Harmony.
- “Sorry I’m late. But it is so hard to find a sitter with a sense of humor for Li’l Cheese.” Official ship.
- “Maybe we could get to places on time if you let me do some of the chores instead of always doing everything yourself.” And looks like another official ship.
- “Discord’s headed to an O&O convention or he’d be joining us.” And one more official ship. Why doesn’t Rarity get one?…
Notable ponies observed in Ponyville:
- Adult Cake Twins.
- Adult CMC teaching in the School of Friendship.
- A son of Big Mac and Sugar Belle, an earth pony.
And during the montage, Sunset Shimmer appears on a background image as an afterthought.
Back to modern day
“When we were all fighting to save Equestria from Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow, I was too busy to think about it.”
- Twilight is packing for a move to Canterlot Castle, which by itself would require The Ending of the End to complete, but then she references that directly anyway.
- She is using an issue of Foal Free Press to illustrate it. This is still a thing, ever since Ponyville Confidential, and beyond photos of other interesting things contains what appears to be an ad. Equestria has newspaper ads. Oh, and an announcement of Lyra and Bon-Bon’s marriage on page 4, pinning this particular event down.
- “Well, since I’ll be in charge of all the Canterlot galas from now on, I’ll have to go there a lot more.” Pinkie got the job. Good to know.
- “I was just struck with a sudden inspiration to change my design for your gown by including the webs of these star spiders. They glow for a short while after they’re spun. They won’t have much time to weave the sash, but the effect will be dazzling.” Not something we knew about star spiders before.
- “That’s nice, but you should be more worried about missing the train to Canterlot!” Just ask Starlight to teleport you directly, sheesh.
- “Well, they waited, but when you didn’t show, they thought you must’ve meant to meet outside of Canterlot.” Notice the earth pony janitor on the plateau patently not accessible except by air.
Notable visitors observed at the coronation:
- Canterlot Friends, including Moondancer.
- Lyra and Bon-Bon together.
- Rutherford.
- Big Daddy McColt and Ma Hooffield.
- Zecora, whom we nearly forgot about by now.
- Gilda.
- Capper and Fizzlepop Berrytwist, who exist.
- Dusty Pages.
- Sassy Saddle.
- Doctor Whooves, who hangs out with Roseluck this season rather than with Derpy.
- Pillars, who finally decided to include Stygian for once.
- Zephyr Breeze.
- Quibble Pants with family.
- A.K. Yearling.
- Star Tracker.
- “We hope you’ll come and visit us in Silver Shoals.” You’d think they would find a more interesting place to retire to.
…Thematically, this is very good, but visually… ugh…
I suppose I should say something in conclusion, eventually, but I’ll leave that to a dedicated post.
What about the movie, where they completely failed to exist at all?
We're still reasonably sure her scooter shenanigans are pegasus magic, right? At least as far as "pegasus magic" is a thing that exists, which the show seems to have been trying to argue against since the season 8 finale without much success.
"There is no profit to be made in the destruction of the planet. It is very bad for business." -Kingpin, in a Spider-Man cartoon.
IDW's still making comics and outright referring to the upcoming ones as "Season 10" the way they did with Buffy (or maybe that was some other publisher, but the point still stands)
Now that you pointed it out, the show has a lot of plot hole and a lot BS magic shenanigans, then again the show is still targeting young audience not full-grown logical thinking adults. *sigh* there still a lot of unanswered questions left hanging to who is really grogar and where is he, what other ancient magic out there if it had capabilities to create the windigo, and much more, that we may never find out.
I believe that cozy ain't a pony at all she too smart, too cunning and the only villain who bluntly want to kill her enemy while her two friend doesn't, she a resin in jar of jelly bean. We all know that ponies of Equestria are too trusting and naive almost to the point of irate some of the times. That pretty much a big question on who and where she came from, again we may not get an answer.
Again it was discord fault once more, messing thing that he should not have, in my eye discord should had been a spirit of mischief, we all know what a true god of chaos will do if his in Equestria. If he did not lay his mismatched claw those baddies may get a chance to reform, yes it will take time and effort to change them. In my opinion.
Wish things had gone differently, so time for me to wait for a fanfic about the what-if and get the reform goodness.
Man what a Finale!
Yup.
It's a classic trading relationship with competitive and relative advantage. Most unicorns don't learn agriculture because there's an entire race of ponies for whom it makes more sense to focus on that subject. Also he's probably repeating rumors Chrysalis spread earlier in a different disguise.
At least her picture wasn't published.
Tirek didn't realize it when he started researching the bell. But remember how Tirek originally needed to hit certain power tiers to drain more powerful beings of their magic? The Bell doesn't seem to have that limitation. And it lets anyone absorb the magic, and at this point even Tirek has learned the value of allies.
Very good question. But remember that Tirek already created that incredibly complex ritual for Cozy in Season 8, so he's a master dark wizard. Maybe that was his journal, and Tirek insists on making it look really nice?
My guess here is that if anyone can cast the spell while using the bell as a foci, Gusty swiped the bell, used it on Grogar, and stuck it in Mount Everhoof after getting wardings from a friendly unicorn. Grogar probably died out a millennium ago.
It probably didn't do anything anyway.
OMG! Somepony pick up one of Equestria's handful of phones, because I bucking called it!
Well, that Grogar was really Discord. Not that he was staging false flag attacks to boost government confidence.
In Discworld terms, she's a "seamstress."
Well, we all know how cheap and easy clone creation is.
Yeah, Grogar was real, the artifact was real, and Discord is an idiot. I think Alara Rodgers once explained it really well, that Discord is great at incredibly elaborate plans when he wants to, but he doesn't really get contingencies or backups if anything goes wrong.
This actually fits well with the comics, that issue that Pinkie tried to take over the Chaos Dimension. It also suggests that a lot of Discord's weirdness might be caused in part by his magic.
Well now she's a statue.
An alicorn with blasts is a little out of their weight class.
Also, the fact that Cozy turned into a normal alicorn, instead of some kind of demonic monster, is interesting. Apparently becoming an alicorn does not have a moral component. And that Grogar on his own was 3 times as magically powerful as an alicorn.
I think they had the Hulk do this in old comics.
Yeah its weird. May have something to do with his cutie mark giving him magic strength.
She may not be able to teleport someone away from her.
She dropped them in the moat/duck pond. I'd say still fairly amusing.
And a reference to Discord being in Vorak's court for a time, as he was in the comic!
Yeah, the race-war angle was definitely the weak part of this episode.
Fallout: Equestria reference?
I would take it as a nod to the idea that because Flurry Heart was born an alicorn, she's stronger than Cadance or Twilight.
Yeah, very odd. Heck, I would guess it means that the real Grogar, Father of Monsters, created them himself.
Feels like the end if Neverending Story.
Good to know.
Well, maybe he knows what you suspect about Cozy.
Sunset Shimmer used it when describing what Sci-Twi almost did.
They showed it in the comics, but I think they showed it on the map and it was pretty far north. Presumably those Diamond Dogs moved, as burrowing creatures tend to.
I don't think Dawn is ever referred to as a "personal" student. Maybe she's just a student at the school with the highest grades in magical theory?
She's married to her boutiques!
Which seems like Equestria's paper of record at this point.
There could be some stairs carved out like a tunnel. But yeah, he doesn't even get a Wonderbolts-related uniform or anything.
Wasn't that place actually fairly exciting?
The one thing I really didn't like at the end was that they turned the villains to stone instead of trying to reform them. I think the original plan of the writers was that Discord was setting them up to be reformed, but they realized they didn't want to put in the time/other reasons so they re-wrote things this episode to make it about Twilight's "confidence."
I hope in Season 10 in the comics they tackle reforming those three.
Overall though, fantastic ending, combination of great action sequence and heart-warming visions of the future.
WAIT!
derpicdn.net/img/view/2019/9/7/2138197.png
That image from the newspaper seems to be showing the villains taken out from stone and being reformed! What do you guys think?
Wow. So here we are. It's the end. I've been following this show for eight and a half years.
I don't know where to begin.
For a moment I thought Discord was going to say he was trying to redeem the villains like the Mane Six did, but they went with DWK's plot about testing Twilight instead.
We got "The same thing we do every time, Pinkie."
We got Pinkie the chaos goddess.
Lyra and Bonbon got married.
The Princesses are going to Silver Shoals. Seriously? The retirement home?!
Celestia gave a speech about a change in rulership being as natural as the rising of the sun, which I guess is true since she initiates both.
Pinkie ended up with Weird Al.
Are Applejack and Rainbow Dash together now? Maybe they're just roommates, or RD was offering to do some of her chores just to be a nice friend.
How long has the timeskip been? Nearly everyone who was using the teen/young adult model before now has wrinkles under their eyes to indicate age, except Sandbar -- implying he must have been close to the low end of the range before and is now at the upper end.
Sandbar and Yona in proximity doesn't necessarily make them a couple, same for Starlight and Sunburst.
The CMC are grown up and have graduated and are teaching now. The Cake Twins are using the teen/young adult model.
Granny Smith and the pets are gone, but Angel has six descendants and Winona has three.
I cried at the ending song. Didn't we all?
It could've just been a prop for Discord to justify Discord using his powers.
After the swan thing? I'd believe it.
Maybe she called her order ahead?
Stygian's their friend but he's not a fighter. The Mane Six are used to bringing everyone along anyway, but the Pillars are a D&D adventuring party. Stygian is a guy with expert levels who gives them intel, he's their friend but he's not a party member; If they brought him in dungeons he'd get killed.
Oh right, we got this line too! Also the stupid-looking fans are still on the palace.
I figured Discord was baiting him and he saw through it.
Who DIDN'T EVEN GET A LINE!
Since the Sisters don't actually have living close relatives and Twilight's not even married, the line of succession is pretty short. If the adults all fall, Flurry would be the last heir to the Equestrian and Crystal Empire throne, which might make her a symbol for ponies (of all three tribes plus the crystal ponies) to rally and unify around in a hypothetical 'the heroes all die' situation.
Yeah...
Yeah, that really stung. Nopony even acts like it's sad but tragic, they stone them with glee!
This is a shoop, I can tell because of the pixels. Actual image:
media.discordapp.net/attachments/351321807120498689/633176301984940043/SPOILER_unknown.png
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When they completely fail to exist, at least it’s undefined whether they’re doing something worthwhile elsewhere or not.
Yes, but I’m more concerned about her logistical difficulties in this case.
They kept a continuity of their own, however patchy, and then the televised canon ignored it.
They arranged for close tie-ins with televised canon, and then televised canon bungled it up – see in particular Uncommon Bond and surrounding episodes and issues.
At this stage, whatever they write is no more than fanfic, really, one of the reasons I stopped paying attention to later issues.
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I resent the very idea of ever accepting this fact as an excuse of shoddy writing.
This would basically assume that as long as someone’s disadvantaged in some way, – and I won’t deny younger audience isn’t as good at logical thinking, on average, as I might be, and this is definitely a disadvantage they eventually grow out of – it is permissible to take advantage of their weakness to save yourself effort.
Which is a despicable thing to assume.
Pretty sure we’re not getting one, or, if we accept the comic “Season 10,” the one we get will be disappointing and lackluster.
If you ask me, she’s a HiE, delivered to Equestria against her will and transformed into a pony, with a mission to steal magic for her off-world masters.
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Culminating the trend, it would be an excellent finale if the rest of the series didn’t exist.
As it is, it’s just good.
Well, it could have been worse.
Yes, but well, wouldn’t earth pony farmers hire a unicorn accountant at least on occasion? Division of labor within an otherwise single industry is a thing.
A possibility.
Certainly the best explanation we have right now.
It definitely had to do something. Remember, Discord’s original plan was for a false flag operation, presenting Twilight with a credible threat with a huge safety net behind it in case she did fail.
Since the threat must be credible, so must be the artifact he wanted to give them for the purpose.
Oh my.
As a side note… Destroying the Tree of Harmony actually is in Discord’s interest even if he genuinely believes in working for Equestria. It’s like breaking the gun which your now life partner hid in the safe with the intent to use on you should you try to strangle them in their sleep. Something that would keep hanging over his head forever otherwise.
There’s actually no indication she also became bulletproof along the way. Nobody even tries to put a spear through her, either.
Which is actually very damaging to canon, not that anyone notices.
Trixie can do the reverse, though, why not?
Possible.
If the sun can no longer be moved, pegasi might still produce a semblance of night by installing and removing cloud cover, but they would need to install it above their own cities, lest they suffer in the same way…
Maybe the only reason anyone else knew is because Discord knew, even.
My question is mostly about “If the curriculum is friendship-centric, and you’re a top student, how exactly do you pass your exams and get high marks without actually agreeing with the values of friendship?…” Being a “personal” student is irrelevant in this case.
I have a different place in mind for “Aporia” but we’ll get there when we get there. Sometime this century.
5138833
Some signs hint at 20-30 years range, others at 10-15. Take your pick.
Yes. He’s their tactician, as his comic story indicates.
Actually, no, Discord says “centaur” while Chrysalis says “minotaur.”
They still regret being transformed back from houseplants.
5138955
That is the most...believable thing actually, she probably from EG and accidentally stumble in the portal and stayed there out of curiosity and changed against her will. She may actually have a troubled past, and gotten a taste of power and got drunk with it and seek to use that power to bring vengeance. And without confirmation, if the portal is secured anyone can get in there unnoticed or unless I'm wrong?
5138966
There’s no indication either portal is secured in any way, actually.
5138975
Wow, Equestria still surprise me on their security measures and military on how AWFUL THEY ARE AT IT.
5138980
I would worry more about the CHS portal, actually. Which is in a public place, with children running around, always open, and anyone can stumble in and end up right in the Friendship Castle.
5138981
True CHS portal have a high risk of random people falling into it unintentionally, and I expected for sunset human friend to point out the security risk being they... you know Human and all, unfortunately, they really are a mirror version of Equestria with their shitty security as well. One would think that the government would step up and deal with the magic BS in their soil.
I feel like writers don't know what to do with entire season nine so they took old Faust idea about how she planned to end a show and run with it.
Maybe it's just me but I feel like they discard lots of friendship things just to shoehorn Twilight into Celestia Mk2.
I've been having friendly arguments with a friend over the AJ and RD "pairing."
They're like "oh, it's meant to be ambiguous by the show notes" and "maybe she was just helping get chores done to make it on time"
Which, while I agree are plausible... c'mon. It might have originally been ambiguous, but it didn't end up looking that way in the final cut.
5138955
Of course. But Chrysalis has probably been going around in lots of different aliases spreading false info. Also, I think later on Tirek mentions he actually went out and sabotaged the crops for real.
That's true. And Discord would be dumb enough to give them a real, dangerous artifact.
That may be a fair point. He may also have had less inherent trust in the tree after it nearly killed a few students in those trials of its.
Killing the tree shuts off the map, which may well have snitched on Discord's plan by flagging a friendship problem in the Legion of Doom or something. And Discord correctly predicted the Mane 6 could make use of Rainbow Lasers without the Elements, so by killing the Tree he has mainly ensured that no future Bearers (ones that don't contain a pegasus he ends up marrying) come into fruition.
Ah, I can't believe I fell into that trap! I hate when other people fall into that, assume that "power" in one area (like magical blast strength) automatically translates into power in all other things, like durability.
I mean, I guess she has the strength of a powerful earth pony now, but that shouldn't do much against sharp spears. Also turns out those fans were useless, since Cozy just flew right up.
To be fair, Flurry Heart didn't exactly do anything noble to earn it either.
Fair question. Making things disappear for her act is something Trixie might be motivated to study really hard at, but that's probably a stretch. Even so, the StarlightxChrysalis fight seems to show Starlight is more skilled and strategic at dueling Chrysalis, Chrysalis just overwhelms her with brute force in the end.
Luster isn't a student at the school of friendship, she's a student at Celestia's old school that Twilight now teaches. I guess Twilight added friendship lessons to the curriculum, but only at the end, and that's the part Luster is trying to skip.
It's a weird opposite of the two going to the Undying Lands in LoTR. It seems like they are passing on their immortality to Twilight when they give her the new combined crown, and they want to finish their mortal days with paintball sessions.
Discord, who I figured would retired when the Regal Sisters did, seems more active than ever, his chaos dimension seems like it is almost merged with Sweetfeather Sanctuary.
5139705
Remember that golden apple tree mentioned offhand in The Best Night Ever?
Well, they don’t either.
Now that the show is over the writers technically can't disprove my theory that Cozy Glow is another one of Being X's victims, who figured out that if she stole all the magic in Equestria and fled she could go be a godlike being somewhere and stick it to Being X. :|
Oh my Celestia I just realized: Sombra's voice was different because Discord's never met him! He only showed up when Discord was stoned, both times! So he couldn't recreate the voice.
5140547
‼
BULLSHIT DISCORD! COMPELTE BULLSHIT ON YOUR PART!!!!!! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Note these answers were derived from theory and knowledge based in the tv show proper, I have not read the comics and don't plan to anytime soon.
So they all can use it presumably. In general the episode was pretty dumb when it came to mechanics. Discord's magic is supposedly unusable by the other villains yet we see Tirek do just that in Twilight's Kingdom. Likewise, Twilight's Kingdom established that Discord can sense transference's of magic, so he should've known the bell was in use.
In the Summer Sun Setback they steal a book about Grogar's bell and this is implied to be the same one. As for why there is such a book, I can't say for sure, but at least one theory I read had Gusty the Great trying to figure out the bell's secrets, and it makes sense that their would've been notes taken during that process.
After they absorb magic from the bell.
We see from the pictures in the book the magic is implied to be stolen from other ponies.
Probably to prevent Grogar from using it. After all they already have magic.
If you look carefully all the spells she uses as an alicorn are variants of magic she's seen done before, blasting and shield effects are both modeled in Frenemies and the warp gate she uses is reminiscent of the one Neighsay uses to get the jump on her in School Raze.
I don't understand this sentence. Are you condemning Cozy for not following him? Because that was Chrysalis's call. Of course she could be condemned for following Chrysalis but that's a different issue altogether.
That is a common assumption but given the fact that all the decisions we see made in show seem to go through Celestia, do we in fact know that Luna has any real authority?
Yes thank you! I thought the same thing! (At least after the Grogar Twist.)
Sometimes but not always Chrysalis in "Canterlot Wedding" was superior to Celestia despite being smaller than her.
As of Season 9 because, retcons!
She's a ailcorn with considerable magic at her disposal. And if there's one thing this series portrays consistently on a regular basis, it is that magic is superior to all else.
Or not particularly violent towards those who can't stand a reasonable chance of fighting against her. We see her pass on using violent methods more than once in the series.
Hardly the first time (School Raze parts 1 and 2). The way I see it magic has little to nothing to do with lift, but rather creatures actually use their wings to attain lift and magic enables them to better navigate and steer, as well as reducing the creatures weight and therefore the strain required to keep said creature in the air. The reason Tirek leaves his victims grounded is because he takes a portion of their life force as well, leaving them too weak to muster up the energy needed to fly.
She hates them and has seen them foil her plans more than once. If that wasn't enough, in the previous episode, they beat her up and Spike tries to set her on fire. Honestly, I am surprised she held out this long.
There is at least a possibility that these conditions are what allow the windigos to return. At any rate the sun remains suspend in the air. Given the magical artifact designed to allow anyone to move the sun and the moon that they set up in Between The Dark And The Dawn it seems likely someone would've noticed that issue eventually.
Given the similarities between body shapes, it's at least possible there is a relation.
Exactly.
Probably when there's a overload of magic or other power source close by. We see a similar method used in To Where And Back Again where a overdose of love destroys Chrysalis's throne.
Not what they were saying. The bulk of Equestrian society has turned against each other which is a lot easier to believe.
Presumably to keep aircraft of other species out.
Probably.
Most likely she was brought there by other pegasi (assuming you mean Cloudsdale).
Or perhaps the magic mixes together in the bell making it impossible to separate unless you know what you're doing.
Whelp that's Discord for you (at least during Season 8 through 9).
Since she has presumably taken over The School for Gifted Unicorns she may not teach friendship as part of her specific curriculum anymore hence the trip to Ponyvile.
5139456
That's pretty much exactly what they did.
5174511
I assume you mean Cozy since she's a pony? Probably because, as of Season 8, Discord had acquired a nasty habit of shifting blame for his nonsense onto his victims, and he needed someone to sic the Royal Sisters on, after the battle was over. The Team Three just happened to be convenient.
5222073
Yeah well, it goes against his rules of what he said in his debut. -_-
5222186
True but the Discord we see in Season 8 is already starting to drift away from his original portrayal. The original conception of Discord would absolutely own his own nonsense, as opposed to making it out to be the fault of someone else as he does with Starlight in A Matter of Principles.
5222493
Which is why, if one rewrote the episodes Discord appeared in, mainly Season 9 of course, he would have his original portrayal and wouldn't succumb to what the writers gave him in the final two seasons. :/
5222495
True enough.
5222497
Besides, after all, I still firmly believe what he said in his debut.
5222498
Well I have no problem if you don't consider the finale cannon. Plenty of people ignore Seasons 8 through 9 and that is fine with me.
5222508
Yeah, I mean..... aside from the OOC Discord scenario, I obviously still hate the Season 9 arc altogether since it made no sense whatsoever. :/
And FYI, I don't hate Season 8 altogether, it did introduce characters that I love from that season, most notably Silverstream and Autumn Blaze for examples X3
5222510
I am pretty sure Autumn Blaze was introduced earlier than that, but I know what you mean. There was very little to recommend Season 9, a few character arcs and that's it.
Edit: Never mind I was wrong about when Autumn was introduced.
5222531
Yeah, that's one of the reasons for of Season 9: Don't focus on the main characters and focus on the other characters so that they can get arcs of their own!
5222537
Fluttershy actually is shown to grow quite a bit. And yes it would have been nice to see her lay down the law in her relationship with Discord (or else ditch him altogether), but in all honesty even if you don't like the episodes or think maybe Fluttershy is a bit reckless in said episodes the fact is that "Daring Doubt" and "Sweet and Smoky" have her being a lot more bold in regards to her relationships than she usually is portrayed as being.
5222542
For me, I would love if the Student Six got more focus, especially Silverstream (For me) and Ocellus (For of one my UK Friends who loves her. X3)
5222543
To each their own. I kind of feel little to nothing regarding the Young Six, one way or another.
5222543
That was probably a little harsh. Truth is, I feel like they could have been great characters had they been developed more, but I have severe doubts about the writers post movie being able to deliver that level of development.