I've thought about this for a while, and I haven't seen the episodes in some time but were the alternate timelines in Cutie Re-mark needed? The only possible alternate timeline would be the Nightmare Moon one, but the rest seem like filler. Don't get me wrong, those are cool ideas...but to what end? Honestly, they probably don't matter because the whole time travel plot was undone. But what do you guys think?

7678907
Actually at least part of these alternative timeliness seem plausible. No Twilight (or Twilight replacement) to deal with Nightmare could lead to Celestia actually solving problem on her own, only to later loose to Changeling invasion or get in ruinous war with Sombra etc. So, it was possible. But was it necessary? Hell no. Twilight, who spent her life studying magic or something should have trashed Glim Glam who doesn't even have formal magical education after Nightmare episode and sent her straiggt to Tartarus, to put her out of our sight and out of our minds.

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That's assuming that Celestia could take Nightmare Moon, but she needed the elements according to that flashback in the season 4 premiere. I've heard some say Twilight held back against Starlight throughout the fight. I don't necessarily agree with this, but what do you think?

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Twilight holding back would be bad writing, as Glimglam is literally ruining the entire world with her bullshit.

She's written in kind of a Mary Sue fashion. She's way too strong, too skilled and everyone likes her almost immediately after she becomes a "good guy".

Not that she ever really changed. She keeps being egomaniac after her redemption and does more stupid shit in later episodes.

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Some say her cutie special talent is creating spells, not manipulating cutie marks. Do you think that's true? If so, that is so weird for one pony to have that much power.

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Even if that was her mark, that would just mean that she can create spells easily. That does NOT mean she should be able to overpower an alicorn.

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I don't think so either, but some use her ability to manipulate cutie marks as evidence of her power as a unicorn. They say the time travel makes sense as she manipulated the Tree of Harmony and used Starswirl's spell.

7679146

That's assuming that Celestia could take Nightmare Moon, but she needed the elements according to that flashback in the season 4 premiere.

Celestia had thousand years for all training montages she could ever need. And that is assuming that visions induced by shady zebra potion utilising dark magic actually were accurate. In my fic, for example, they weren't and situation was coloured by Twilight expectations, which turned three years of brutal civil war into fifteen minutes fight.

I've heard some say Twilight held back against Starlight throughout the fight. I don't necessarily agree with this, but what do you think?

It isn't that Twilight held back. It is that Glimglam is just that good. Bullshit if you ask me, but whatever.
In my headcanon her performance is result of Twilight failing to replicate time travel spell as intended and as a result powering it on her own, instead of leeching power from Tree of Harmony.

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What makes you think Twilight wasn't holding back? I agree with you about Starlight's magic, but it's never explained how she became so skilled with magic compared to Twilight. Twilight had years of study under her belt, but Glimmer can just do these things because she studied. All magic required training, but we're just supposed to assume she did it off-screen. They could have just said she stole the Alicorn Amulet and boosted her power, but nope.

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I thought Twilight had simply gotten rusty over the course of Season 5. How else can you justify Twilight easily blocking Starlight's attack at the climax of the premiere, only for her to flounder hard in the finale?

Some say the beam spell was meant to penetrate shields, and Starlight was surprised she blocked it. Some people go as far as to downplay Starlight's power, they don't think what she did in the season 5 finale is all that impressive. Of course, I think that person was just gaslighting

7680309

What makes you think Twilight wasn't holding back?

Situation was critical. Starlight was messing with timeline, creating one bad end after another. Even if Twilight held back at first, for whatever reason, despite having absolutely no motivation for that, she would stop on the second try instead of trying to reason with her even after Glimglam curbstomped her several times in the row.

I agree with you about Starlight's magic, but it's never explained how she became so skilled with magic compared to Twilight. Twilight had years of study under her belt, but Glimmer can just do these things because she studied. All magic required training, but we're just supposed to assume she did it off-screen. They could have just said she stole the Alicorn Amulet and boosted her power, but nope.

Problem with that is you can't just self-study yourself to that level in that timeframe. Like, sure, you could train with common stuff. You could get good enough result, but that result would be someone closer to Trixie (so, hedge wizard who knows several different spells but not the goddamned archmage) and absolutely wouldn't be anywhere close to what Starlight demonstrates both in the beggining and later in series. Because, ultimately, magic requires not only training but also study. You know, things like magical theory? Things taught at places like Celestia's School for Unicorns, and which you probably can't find in some random library in Manehattan. But nope, despite having no formal magical education, Starlight is good enough not only to repeatedly overpower someone who is supposed to be some sort of magical prodigy too and that is before being trained by best mages in the land since she was, like six and becoming alicorn, but also to invent spells which were considered impossible before such her advanced time travel spell and cutiemark removal. Hell, she shouldn't even be able to improve spells, because, again, no formal magical education!

So, yeah, this is bullshit, Glimglam is blatant Mary Sue and she is one of the main reasons why, when writing MLP fics I just ignore anything past season four.

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Some fans also try to justify her time travel magic by saying she took control of the Tree of Harmony and that she used Starswirl's scroll to time travel, not her own magic. That's stupid. Without any formal education, she shouldn't know how to do those things. She just can, but it's never explained how she knew how to do those things or how she managed to steal the scroll. It's never explained how she knew where the scroll was. I don't hate Starlight, I'm personally indifferent to her, but the number of contrivances the show employs with her is just insane. We're just supposed to take the show's word for it that she trained off-screen. It's nuts.