5u0myn0n4 can't move on. · 2:32am Apr 22nd, 2021
I just wrote a blog post a couple of weeks ago addressing one argument, here I go with another.
I'm probably going to regurgitate a lot of the same arguments, but I'll try my best to frame it as differently as I can.
They say never meet your heroes, and well, they say it for a reason. Recently I watched a video interview with Sunni Westbrook. Some of the things she said about Cozy were, not surprising I guess, but did jab just a little. For the most part she's fine with the ending as is, and that's respectable. Some of the stuff she said... actually staunchly reminds me of some of the things I've heard people on derpibooru I've gotten into fierce arguments with. Huh. Let's lay out the main points and address them one at a time.
"She has no redeemable qualities."
So here's the thing about this. I'll admit this is a sentiment I've been feeling lately. I've been thinking that perhaps I've gone too far in the other direction with the Golly it's a Tilogy Trilogy.
I even hinted at this in the last chapter of My Filly From Tartarus, where Cozy says that she's become "boring." In some ways she has, and it's something I fear I've been leaning too hard into. She was a fun villain after all.
It's just, the entire point of A Different Kind of Ending, was to twist the ending in a way where Twilight is determined to save Cozy Glow from suffering. Heck, in the fic, Cozy is about to shatter, and Twilight is determined to save her. Something she shows no interest in in canon.
A Different Kind of Ending ends with a Twilight who is determined to see Cozy through to the end, and a Cozy who is deeply afraid of the consequences of screwing up again. So the sequel carries that over. It isn't a villain Cozy story, because that's not what it was set up to be. But being it was my latest Cozy fic, I feel I've been thinking too much lately as Cozy as... something she isn't.
Admittingly, I am still unsure about the whole "I was expecting you to reform me". It's a line is probably something I would probably have taken out of the story if I could redo it. Someone in the comments called me out and said that Cozy here is trying to be something she never wanted to be, which to be honest isn't an unfair criticism. The conflict between Cozy and Twilight, it's from the perspective of someone who's made at their parent. It's Season 9. School Raze already happened. This time it's personal.
So while maybe I strayed too far from the source, the response to A Different Ending seems to imply that at least a few other people share my sentiment, and wish something closer to this happened in the actual finale. So at least I'm not totally alone.
Obviously being evil is a key component to her character, and this is something I understand, and sought to incorporate my other stories. In My Boyfriend Pip, she never really has Pip's best interests in mind. Everypony around her is a tool. Her offer to Pip was more... showing mercy to him I guess. The hallow promise of showing remorse on him in exchange for his unquestionable loyalty.
Throughout Cozy Chronicles, although she forms I tight bond with Lord Tirek and Queen Chrysalis, she does few favors for any other creature.
She even used everypony in her village to power up Tirek for her mission. The entire time she's on this fun journey, it's to find the Rainbow of Darkness, and her plan is to use it to lay waste to Equestria for good. I think Cozy Chronicles has a more believable ending that fits better with her character, that I won't go into here, but I explain it more in the very last chapter, and the author notes, and some comments I left on the final chapter.
Back to reality. If Cozy is irredeemable, then convey that better. Episodes like Frenemies and Summer Sun Set Back prove she isn't a psychopath, she has feelings. She's rotten to Rusty Bucket because he refuses to give her what she wants. But when she ends up cooperating with Lord Tirek and Queen Chrysalis, we see another side of her that never came out around Twilight. Obviously there's more to her to explore, but Twilight and co simply don't.
Replying to any criticism of the finale with "she's just irredeemable", I wouldn't go so far as to call it a fallacy, it definitely is not, but it's something you can throw at any argument arguing that Cozy could've or should've been redeemed. And while in that sense it bothers me, in a way, it holds more water because it matches better with what was depicted in the show. Which leads me to think that maybe I'm the one who has the wrong idea... but so long as Frenemies Cozy Glow exists, it's not a sentiment I can fully accept personally.
"she's evil and deserved her punishment"
As I have gone into time and time again, the last season did not do a great job conveying this. Don't have Cozy say shit like "when we worked together it felt better some how" in one of the episodes. Was she lying? She had no reason to lie in this moment. She wasn't trying to gain the upper hand on anyone. They succeeded, and this is what she had to herself. Tirek shared the same sentiment pretty much, and it was only Chrysalis who realized what was happening, and snapped out of it, and rejected friendship. She has her reasons, from her pov, it took her hive from her. She has a reason to be fearful of friendship.
If they wanted to leave Cozy unreformed, sure. But the execution was abysmal, and leaves so much to be desired. They say if you if you dehumanize characters, you don't feel for them. Writers attempt to dehumanize villains so the audience doesn't feel bad for them when they meet their ultimate fate. That's why time and time again the show writers show no interest in giving King Sombra any kind of depth. From how I see it, the writers see Sombra as more a force of nature, or a being of dark energy than a pony. That's why they have no issue blasting him into oblivion. But Cozy, and the other villains too, they made them very relatable in the last season. And that became a huge problem. They made villains that many people wanted to see succeed! Couple a somewhat divisive Twilight in S9, and the most in depth unreformed villains in the show, does the backlash come at any surprise?
Okay it's time to talk about Discord. Is Discord humanized or dehumanized. Is he nature or nurture? I don't care, because he screwed up. The fact that the Legion of Doom was all set up by an extremely idiotic Discord (for what reason? teach Twilight and friends about standing up for themsevles? Again??) is what knocks the finale down multiple pegs for me. The audacity and hypocrisy of that draconequus to bestow a terrifying punishment that HE knows is terrible, upon the creatures that HE assembled, really does make him out to be a jerk and a hypocrite. I don't see anything to like about Discord in this episode. They should have ended his character arc in Discordant Harmony.
"Stone was fine. It's just cartoon jail."
This is something I see brought up from time to time again. It's a fantasy punishment that can't really happen, so therefore it's not so bad.
A lot of people, even Sunni, more buy into the idea that Cozy is an adult who looks like a child. So in this case, sure she's an adult and she should know better, or had her chance or whatever. I don't use this as a point of argument because there is no evidence in the show to suggest this theory, other than her wits maybe. She could be an adult, or should could just be a very smart and toxic child. It can go either way.
Anyway her punishment. What she deserved? Maybe. But what bothers me is the implications. Never in the show's history have we seen such an extreme punishment conclude the arc of such a character like her. If she is a child, and she is in stone forever... like do I need to say why that's dark?
To immediately follow this with a time skip where there is no sign that she is ever freed just really rubs me the wrong way. We're supposed to feel proud of Twilight and her friends in that last shot, but I just can't. Not after what you did. Fluttershy says she sees good in all creatures, but that's just a strait up lie. Where was the trial? If she was so irredeemable, where was her menacing speech after her defeat about how much she hates friendship? Oh don't worry, Queen Chrysalis did all the talking for her. Should've kept your mouth shut, my queen. In School Raze, sure, she resents it. But after she's defeated in The ending of the End, she looks just so scared, and defenseless. Looks are deceiving, that's her whole shticks, but like, think for just slightly longer than a few moments before doing something extreme to her? At least listen to her? They don't do that in Ending of the End.
Whatever, the show is just a commercial for toys, so who has time to actually put thought into the series finale?
If you think Cozy will always be evil, then I'm sure there's nothing you see wrong about the finale. But from my perspective, as someone who sees somepony different in Frenemies, there's some seriously misplaced morals in The Ending of the End. I personally don't trust Discord one bit after what he did. So why do Celestia and Luna? Just feels like a double standard. It just seems regressive.
Honestly, if there's one takeaway from the interview I got, it's that, this is the end to a a children's cartoon and it's no big deal. It's certainly no reason to fall into a state of ever lasting depression hahahahah right? (God save me.)
Sometimes I wonder if I'm on the wrong side of history. Cozy Glow is a villain. She was created for the purpose of subverting audience expectations, in getting a villain from the least expecting place. Everything I've fought for and argued for, I'm just sitting here clowning around painting her as something she isn't, never was, and never wanted to be.
I guess that's it then. Her character is set in stone, and that's that...
...but wait.
Characters can change. If any show knows that, it's My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Ever heard of that show? There's loads of examples of characters changing.
I hate bringing up Starlight so often, but I do wonder about her a lot. Something I wonder about constantly is, what if Starlight Glimmer wasn't reformed? What if she was a villain up until the series finale. She made a great antagonist to Twilight Sparkle, and outwitted her at every turn.
Imagine a different Season 9. Discord (maybe even the real Grogar), assembles Twilight's worst enemies. Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, Lord Tirek, and Starlight Glimmer. (someone adapt this into a story) The show ends with 3 irredeemable villains, Tirek Chrysalis, and Starlight turned to stone because they just absolutely could be thought otherwise.
But that's not what we got because the writers chose to go the redemption route with Starlight, and she became one of the most beloved characters in the series. People liked evil Starlight, she seemed to sprout a new legion of fans in Season 6 onward. So what's the difference with Starlight and Cozy? We saw Starlight's past, and saw she was necessarily evil by nature, she just came up with a wacky ideology after losing her friend. We're to believe that Cozy is rotten by nature. But where as Starlight had a backstory, and evidence, Cozy just... exists. And we're supposed to take the word of a writing team who had almost no time to come up with a thoughtful ending. Even Diamond Tiara, who similarly was a rotten filly, they gave her a reason for her behavior, and changed her. The writers absolutely could have reformed Cozy (and the rest of the legion) if they wanted, but chose not to.
They reformed Starlight because they needed another main character to drag out the later seasons. But in Season 9, they knew they were done, so they just wrapped things up in quickest and dirtiest way possible.
We all have our own opinions, and it's fine what Sunni said. It is fun being so adorably evil after all. But at the end of the day, it's her take on the character, and we all have own individual takes.
No matter what, when I watch Season 9, I don't see an irredeemable villain who got what she deserved. I see a child who was misguided, and ended up being abused, and treated unfairly. But maybe I've just fallen into Cozy's trap, and this is exactly what she wants. We're all different people, and everyone has their own takeaway from any given piece of media. So while some people will still say "She got what she deserved so just move on." I can't help the way I feel.
At the end of the day it's fiction and anyone can make up whatever rules they want. At the very least, I wish Season 9 was a little more organized. If Cozy was truly irredeemable, then I would have liked to have seem them spend more than 30 seconds on her punishment. Or at least let her speak? Like geez.
If you want to build upon Frenemies, and explore a Cozy Glow who maybe can see more sides to friendship besides power? If you want to ignore that episode, and just build upon School Raze, that's fine too.
Anyway, I've been sitting here writing this for like 2 hours. Now if you excuse me I'm going to go outside... and think about Cozy Glow some more. Or maybe think about, I don't know, video games or something. This is why I wanted to move on and forget. My mind is in a very unhealthy place just thinking about Cozy. I promised one last story and I delivered it. Now, maybe it is time to move on... Hmm. Move onto what though? It's not like I have anything else going on in my life. I flunked out of college, I'm stuck at a cruddy job. Life's kind of crummy like that.
I feel like she did not have the freedom to express honestly what she wanted. They really try to shove certain things down our throats.
Such as some people cant change which again evil for the sake of evil is scientifically and logically non-existent...
5503696
Thank you. Glad this mess of words makes some semblance of sense.
5503739
If Cozy was irredeemable, and all those things, I would have liked to have heard it from the horse's mouth directly. Instead the writers just want us to take their word for it, despite episodes where she comes very close to making actual friends with Tirek and Chrysalis. At the end of School Raze, sure, but she changed a lot in Season 9. Shame they never built upon it.
I wouldn't go that far. In the real world, there are definitely some nasty people in real life, who have no reason, and cannot change. But life is stranger than fiction. You literally can't make this up is an expression for a reason. I'm not here to talk about the real world though, and I hate when people bring up irl examples of grimdark shit when talking about Cozy.
I feel fiction needs some semblance of ground. If she is evil for the sake of it, and nothing more, frankly that's boring. Not even spicing up with the twist that the filly turned out to be the villain did a whole lot. Being evil for the sake of being evil, doesn't make for an interesting villain, unless you make them entertaining. The best villains are those with real plans, years in the making, or long time adversaries with personal vendettas against the main characters. Cozy however makes up for the lame set up, and still manages to be a great villain due to her devious and entertaining personality. Using pretty much just her wits to outsmart everypony. She is so determined to meet her goal, and doesn't care who gets hurt in the process. She rejects Twilight, and grins at the end of School Raze. If this was the last we saw of her, I could more easily understand where Sunni is coming from. Everything she said in the interview makes it seem like she believes School Raze Cozy is the definitive Cozy, in effect implying that Frenemies is the outlier. If School Raze was the last we saw of Cozy, sure, but that's like if The Cutie Map was the last we saw of Starlight Glimmer. It wasn't, their characters changed as time went on. I believe that School Raze Cozy could exist, and still have been redeemed down the line.
People want to claim Cozy Glow is somehow THE MOST EVIL CHARACTER IN THE SHOW'S HISTORY, but I heavily disagree. Hot take: Nothing Cozy did was any worse than what Starlight did. Trapping Twilight and co in Tartarus, and nearly depleting all the magic? That's really bad. Really could have shaken society to say the least. Going back in time and stopping the single most important moment in the history of the mane 6's life, thus creating multiple timelines of war, famine, suffering, and death? All timelines where Spike was never born? (ever notice that? No Rainboom means Spike never hatched. That's messed up.) Nah, she's just misguided. Her childhood friend left her, poor baby. If you were sad about Sunburst leaving, there were a million things she could have done besides start a cult (study magic and try to enroll into the same school as him? Write him letters? F*cking talk to him??), but she chose to form a cult. So who's the one who's evil by nature again? Why does she get a pass but not Cozy? Cozy absolutely could have been reformed, and the only in-universe reason she wasn't was Dipcord and his infinitely gigantic ego. Seriously, how many times does he have to get his magic robbed from him due to his own stupidity before he learns his lesson?
In conclusion... they really should have fleshed out that last season.
5504592
Ι agree with you I was just saying that natural-born evil is nonexistent not that evil does not exist. Upbringing is very important!
5504663
Right. Upbringing is important. This is why I see Cozy in School Raze as a fun, devious, but ultimately kind of shallow villain all things considered. Being evil for the sake of it doesn’t make for an interesting long term villain. This would have been fine if she was just a one off character. But she wasn’t. She played a major role in the final season, which made her lack of backstory and quick and dirty punishment even more glaring. A character as unsuspecting as her begs for an explanation. If they weren’t going to flesh her out, why bring her back at all? Oh, cause it’s last season and we simply must have an Avengers style final battle against multiple villains. Shame the last season was as rushed and poorly planned as it was.