7705333

My issue is that after Twilight opened a school in Season 8 - an oddly inspired choice on the part of these particular writers - Season 9 coronating her robs Twilight on what felt like a natural direction for her character to take. Twilight the Headmare was a role she should have been allowed to play for longer.

Oh, I hated this too. It always seemed super insensitive on the part of the Princesses. Twilight only recently started that school which she clearly loves very much and has only gotten to run for a year or two at max, and they pick now to retire? They can't give it a few more years at least so she can enjoy her career? Doesn't help that they initially only give her 3 days to prepare, which even if Twilight had been fully ready at the time, that's super short notice to give her on something that involves upending her entire life. Really makes them come off as super selfish.

7705224
I've said this before on other forums, but the series Post-2017 Movie should have become much more different than the short-lived Little Miss Schoolhouse Plot coupled later with that Grogar Finale Plot that went absolutely nowhere. Seasons 8-9 should have focused on the aftermath of the Movie to show how badly things got messed up and the ramifications of everyone's decisions during the movie, with Twilight and Co. getting hit the hardest of all times since this wasn't anything like the previous times that Equestria suffered, but it ultimately shows just how incompetent and unprepared Twilight even is when it comes to the role of leading a nation. Her opponent in Season 8 would be Cozy Glow; though this version of Cozy would be a radical departure from the one we got in the show, instead of a Baby Doll expy that has a vague scheme of "Take Control of Equestria by Removing Magic", this Cozy is more mature and straightforward with her goals: "Protect Equestria from all Threats and Deprive Twilight Sparkle of Meaningful Victories." With it being shown throughout Season 8 that Cozy Glow had always been an element present within the show as she goes around cleaning up the various messes that Twilight and her friends left behind or business left unfinished entirely, along with her missions often overlapping with events from the show or as explanations to why some things were absent from it for so long.

The animals in the Canterlot Gardens avoiding Fluttershy due to Cozy's pets being Supernatural Fear Inducers that Cozy was attempting to free from their cage and they provided a perfect distraction.

That she was the one looking on them inside of The Castle of Two Sisters.

And that she alone was responsible for destroying the land around the Changeling Hive: as retaliation for their invasion of Canterlot, thereby making Cozy alone the biggest reason why they didn't try attacking Equestria again until Season 7 due to fear of triggering her Wrath again.

All of this would be codified in Twilight's first encounter with Cozy Glow and her faction; seeing the Mane Six as liabilities to them doing their current job: eradicating the last remnants of The Storm King's Army that refused to surrender and had broken apart to become various Warlords that have taken control over various towns and coastal ports. Twilight would try to talk with these Warlords to convince them to surrender, unaware of how the Satyrs who The Storm King is a part of and who the 9ther Warlords are as a whole operate exclusively on a combination of Blue-and-Orange Morality and Insane Troll Logic which dictates that Ponies as a whole are mindless animals that need to be punished for their crimes of developing a culture and civilization of their own without the express approval of the Satyrs, and that they feel justified in sterilizing the species and killing their youths in order to get their point across.
Cozy explains this, but Twilight disregards it and tries to negotiate. When those negotiations immediately turn sour with the Warlord demanding for the Princess of Friendship to die so the Satyr could feast on her corpse to gain her powers, Cozy steps in to kill the Warlord, before going on a Rampage to wipe out the rest of the fleet gathered over the town. Twilight insists that it wasn't necessary to destroy them. Only for Cozy to round and call Twilight Sparkle a Coward that has surrendered herself completely to the whims of Princess Celestia, and that her rule is built on a foundation that is slowly deteriorating into sand around her. What Cozy is doing is securing their nation and their people before the inevitable collapse takes their entire world down with the Sun Princess...

7704931

Season 8, meet comics. Comics, meet Season 8.

Heh. For me.... I would say the following instead:

Season 9, meet comics. Comics meet Season 9.

YOLO!

7705333
Twilight being an Alicorn in and of itself was never a real issue.

The big problem was, as you point out, it was a removal of agency and basically manipulating her from other characters.

We got a *lot* of good stuff involving her, the moments of nepotism, bias and hypocrisy don't devalue it so much as they make the overall journey less about Twilight and the process and more how she was forced to take the crown.

As you said, Twilight being crowned is the issue as it removed her story.

Her being an Alicorn wasn't anything to complain about.

7705373
Even Twilight being crowned could have been done well, if the writers were sufficiently motivated - but, not so soon after her becoming Headmare. If the writers knew that Season 9 was going to be Twilight’s coronation, then Season 8 never should have involved the friendship school. If they were dead-set on the friendship school, then Season 9 shouldn’t have had the coronation subplot, though like I said a flash-forward to the future showing Twilight as Princess of Equestria would have been fine, I think (though I personally would have made sure to include a line to the effect of making it clear that Celestia and Luna only retired and not that they died or went evil or anything).

I think my main issue is that the unity crystals really don’t feel like they help the plot, rather they’re constantly forcing the plot to focus on them. Bring the unity crystals together to restore magic. Ponies can’t argue anymore because the unity crystals might break. Steal one of the crystals to cripple ponykind. Make the Mane Six act OOC to explain how the crystals were created. I was okay with the crystals being the focal point in the movie and MYM because they were close in time the two are, but I was hoping the ponies’ magic would become less reliant on the crystals, but the comic pretty much blows apart that hope. If the crystals were an actual character, they’d be a Black Hole Sue imo.

7705373
Personally, I wasn't against Twilight being crowned as ruler. I could even see it as a natural progression of her journey. It's just S9 did a poor job explaining why it'dportraying it as being a good idea. Maybe if it was brought up in S8 and was a seasons long arc or it was implied in the final episode as something that could happen in future, I would like it better

7705373

The big problem was, as you point out, it was a removal of agency and basically manipulating her from other characters.

It's part of the reason why I have such a big stigma against the notion of Destiny in the show, since it makes it seem like Twilight is supposed to be forced into this specific mold that forces outside of her control have designed for her.

It's a major part why I absolutely love characters in media that struggle and fight to go against the grain, for good or for ill.

7705391
Destiny as a storytelling mechanic is something that desperately needs to die out.

7705391
A part of that is it also partly implies that no one has control.

No ones evil, their destiny is what they've done and the only reason they'd change is because a higher power deemed the need for it.

Redemption, good, evil, the very concept that choice exists can't coexist with destiny as a defining factor.

7705368
It's kinda of half and half in my view.

Season 9's main plot was terrible, but it wasn't anything I hadn't already anticipated anyway. Plus some of the side episodes (while dumb) at least felt like they were trying.

Season 8 was pretty much terrible across the board, with the only things I liked being Smolder and Cozy Glow, the latter of which wound up rotting in pony prison.

Pretty much nobody was consistently capable of outreach and communication (outside of those two).

Previously established intelligent characters were made even dumber than they had been in prior seasons. And everything and everyone was endlessly self absorbed.

It was all the things I had hated about other cartoon series, rolled into a big ugly mess.

Don't even get me started on Discord. Had it not been for "A Matter Of Principles" I might have bought his excuse in season 9.

As it is, he's proven to be enough of a liar that you can't trust anything out of his mouth, even now.

Having him go out messing with the Main Six proves that he never really matured as a character, but even that wouldn't have stun as much, had the truthfulness of his entire arc not been already called into question.

7705395
or at the very least used very sparingly with plenty more stories revolving around the whole Screw Destiny trope if it’s in regards to a Destiny that goes against the main characters goal or is a Destiny envisioned by the Big Bad.

I don't think Destiny as a trope is bad itself. It's when it's relied on too much as a plot device that makes it seem like the characters are lacking free will and being shoe-horned into a specific role with little explaination.

7705343
Can you stop spamming this same comment on every thread? It is annoying.

7705403
But at least Season 8 did have some consistently to it in regards to the past seasons.

7704867
So they basically did what Cozy was doing? Didn't some people claim that her plan would have killed a bunch of ponies or something and use that as ammunition to condemn her? I guess its okay when Twilight and her friends do it.

This just makes the trio's, and especially Cozy's punishment even worse on hindsight as it makes the heroes look hypocritical. Especially Discord, who I'm guessing will and/or did something bad again.

I mean, the moral distinction is pretty clearly between state and non-state actors. The state can use force or the threat of force to make subjects comply with its directives, but subjects and outside actors may not raise violence against the state or its subjects.

It happens in this case that the creation of the crystals was *counterproductive* policy from the standpoint of state survival, as their existence and function led directly and almost immediately to state collapse. But that's a matter of Twilight and her friends being bad rulers, not necessarily wicked people.

7705693
A benevolent tyrant is still a tyrant, unfit to be called good.

Turning a blind eye when convenient and stating the same acts carry any less evil, any less cruelty purely by intent is a fallacy.

7705545
Not really. It kinda has the same problems.

People have pointed out the way magic drain affects individuals is inconsistent with the fourth season*, and we never do get a explanation for how Cozy Glow and Tirek communicated.

Don't get me started on "The Key Of Unfettered Entrance."

It also further exaggerates the idea from Season 7 that Twilight is a out of touch corny teacher, when in "Twilight Time" she was shown to be really good at it.

Plus they made Cranky into a Svengalop knock off during "A Matter Of Principles".

Season 9 does take a sledge hammer to all the cannon which came before it, but Season 8 utilized it's own rewrites of character depictions and basic lore.

*Technically the movie's fault, but it's still present in Season 8 so...

7705765
But in the end.... aside from a throwaway line from towards the end of Horse Play... at least The Royal Sisters showed no interest in retirement whatsoever, right? :P

7705766
I mean if that's what annoyed you personally, sure.

Like I said, I saw most of Season 9 plot points coming, including that one.

They had been trying too hard and too long to tack on accomplishments to Twilight without bothering to flesh them out.

So there was no way they were going to stop at 'school teacher'.

7705419
A good compromise for Destiny that could replace it would be Karma; the concept of "What Comes Around, Goes Around." If you're acting Evil, there will come those that will rise up and defeat that Evil; be it from outside forces or from disenfranchised within their ranks that can either pull a Heel-Face Turn to stand against their dark masters.

Alternatively, instead of having a Chosen One who will serve to stand up against the Dark Lord, why not just have the Hero be a random guy from a farm or village that embodies traits or characteristics that make them stand out that can be used against the Dark Lord when the two inevitably cross paths. But to flesh it out and not overblown the main lead as the Chosen One, we can instead make him a Magnetic Hero or The Paragon who serves to lead others by his example to rise up against their oppressors. In this way the story would revolve around the message of "Anyone Can Be A Hero."

It is part-and-parcel as to why Superhero Teams are so widely popular, if there’s one Superhero of the team you don’t like; there are several others you can enjoy.

7705771
Okie

7704941
Apparently Spike wasn't acknowledged AT ALL either despite his significance.
Not even by Discord

7732258
Poor sweat Spike. The one time anyone remembered his contributions, and it was for having hands.

7732306
Him being part of the show's final rainbow laser should have marked the end of Spike being shafted.

7704867
Thankfully, MYM Chapter 4 retcons this silly nonsense.