Help! My Heart is Full of Pony! - Cozy Glow · 9:30pm Apr 14th, 2020
Cozy Glow was just plain evil. A lot of people craved a back story, or a shot at redemption for her, but personally, I think she got oodles of character development just in the behavior that we were permitted to witness.
Just look at Starlight Glimmer. Did we really feel we knew her any better after catching a glimpse at her childhood experience of watching Sunburst move away? She didn't truly come to life until a season later, when we got to observe her navigate everyday situations.
Cozy Glow didn't need a back story. She was a dynamic personality right from the start, and one of the smartest villains that the show ever had. I don't know about you, but I love that she was just plain evil. It made her that much more enjoyable to watch.
Discuss. -Sprocket
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Agreed.
Some people have objected to the idea of a child being locked up in a cage in Tartarus, then turned to stone. They think society should be better than retribution. And yes, from an adult perspective, Cozy Glow's punishment is hard to swallow.
But MLP is still a children's show, and from that perspective it makes perfect sense. The show has had a lot of examples of villains who sees the error of their ways and say sorry. They commit great crimes - like grand treason - but they're forgiven, because they're sorry. Cozy Glow is an example of a villain who's NOT sorry. The thing she did were on a par with Starlight or Trixie, but without repentance there can be no redemption.
Of everyone in the Legion of Doom, Cozy’s story was the one I was least curious about. The villains I always wanted to see origins of were Tirek, then Chrysalis. With Tirek I just wanted to know if Scorpan would get his own story, and to find out if there's a whole land of centaurs and gargoyles.
For Chrysalis, to see how much of her refusal to reform is just her upbringing or not, and explore her relation with the hive. Did she know that their physical transformation was even possible? Was she just purposely trying to keep her people down? Why did she decide to have her people step out of the shadows, and become military despots?
Grow Gaars I was interested in because it’s commonly thought he’s Discord’s “father,“ and I had a theory that he had some to do with Celestia and Luna as well. Origins tell us about the character sure, but when done right tell us their environment; and we already know SO MUCH about Equestria, I want to see some other part of the world.
(This is part of a huge blog post I did myself about Cozy. I got into posting my own mini-essays because I was inspired by this series of yours, Sprocket.)
5242578
I have no idea why people get so upset over her going to Tartarus. Although MLP means a lot to me, I don’t take every aspect and decision in it as moral gospel. I grew up with plenty of shows that had children and teenagers as protagonist and villains, and those villains would end up in jail as well. Kids Next Door, Powerpuff Girls, Kim Possible, those are just off the top of my head. When I was a kid, I never got the literal message of “disturbed minors belong in jail.” I just thought that it was fun to see kids being treated like adults. It made me feel like I was respected by the show.
I very much agree, Sprocket. Cozy was manipulative, cunning and completely focused on her goal of stealing away all of the friendship magic from Equestria. Though her stated goal was to be the most powerful ruler once she had gained it, she was maniacal enough that she could have easily been swayed to pursue even more sinister goals and rewards. It really makes one wonder if she truly wasn't a child but a small adult, using her childlike charm and status to work to her advantage. Even at the end, she was completely unrepentant. And just as evil and frightening.
People REALLY get too hung up on 'needing' this or that, just because other time it has happened. Agreed, there really isn't anything knowing her backstory would add. She was just a straight up sociopath. Would it have been interesting? Yes. Was it needed? No.
5242578
Which is hilarious given the number who bitch about how Starlight didn't suffer enough as punishment for what she did. Also, nothing about anything done to Cozy was about retribution, it was about preventing her from screwing over the entire planet, like she'd already done TWICE! The first time you knowingly try wipe out a fundamental force of reality,and make damn clear you'll do so again if it gets you what you want, any 'she's just a kid' excuse becomes null and void.
5242634
Do agree, Grogar's backstory would have been great more for the worldbuilding it would give then anything about Grogar himself.
I'm not sure whether I like more the view you illuminate here (and, as usual, thanks) or various ones I've seen in fanfiction and the like, but I'm glad we have both. She is interesting. :)