soulofthereaver

You hit the nail on the head with that word there: change. But i'd like to amend the tense: it's not just that times HAVE changed, it's that they ARE changing. Or at least they do if we make them. And FiM is a vehicle for social change if i ever saw one. You know Meghan McCarthy retweeted something writer M.C.A. Hogarth said about the finale: That is just beautiful! The show is changing children's perceptions about what being a person of high status (in this case a princess) means. They're learning it's not just exposure and wealth and image, but that it's about the necessary qualities that make you fit to hold that position. If a child can see that in a second, there's no reason we shouldn't. I am aware that this change has the potential to make her less identifiable as a role model on the immediate level, but i think she could be rather something to aspire to. In fact i think that's the intention of the writers. They're teaching the kids: Don't want to be a princess - a person who has shiny things and gets attention, aspire to be a princess as someone who deserves their status and uses it and her abilities for good. Well i'm not sure what direction the show will now take, but i suspect that they're going to turn the epic dial up to eleven, and offer different and interesting challenges that take advantage of the alicornication. And brother, after MMC, the writers earned trust credits up the wazoo.

Ah but here's the rub! You know the word Hero originally comes from greek mythology, where it literally meant a demigod(that is a son of a god and a human) or a person otherwise marked from birth by the gods, who went on a quest and faced trials, to finally take their birthright and a place among the gods. Twi here is different. Yes she's highly talented, but she is just a normal unicorn. All the power she's gained, all the enlightenment she's achieved is a direct result of her hard work and her sacrifice. And yet.... she still earns her place among the gods. This makes her more realistic to me, not less so. Certainly more than say Hercules or Achilles. That's a powerful message right there: you don't have to be marked from birth by an outside force to be able to reach greatness. You can reach it through devotion and work and your own will. This is compounded by the commentary on imposed destiny versus the kind of destiny you fulfill by following your heart (seen in the cutie mark plot twists ) The show tells you in a realistic, and non-cheesy way that you are what you choose to be, and you can become anything you truly set your mind to.

How is a season finale about how friendship builds up the best qualities in you, helps you learn to be a better person, and ultimately lets you make more of yourself than you could have otherwise been not about friendship anymore? Or magic duel where the lesson was how friends and a little smarts help you where raw power cannot. Or the season opener where you are taught to set aside personal glory and let your friends carry the day for the sake of others. Or the discord episode that teaches you how sometimes valuing a friendship is more important than getting your way all the time. I'm seeing some of the show's most poignant lessons on friendship right here in season 3. How come you're missing them?

Pinkazoid: Does that mean it's changed for the worse? I don't think so. In fact quite the contrary. It's grown with the fans, and diversified the stories and message, and improved its style. If it HAD remained the same as Season 1, it would have become stale. Change is good, yo.

Yeah this is actually what made me write that wall of text up there. When i heard complaints that the story was 1) bad/poorly written and 2) clashing with the show's spirit, i thought "have we been watching the same show"? Not only does it not go against the spirit of the show, it fulfills it, it's its crowning jewel so far (pun intended ). Moreover, it uses story elements that have gone into the greatest, most epic sagas the world has known since f***ing Ghilgamesh!

So I watched Magical Mystery Cure along with the rest of you yesterday. I know there was a lot of reasonable and unreasonable controversy surrounding it, both before, and even now after it’s been revealed to be what i perceive to be an amazing episode, exemplary of FiM and what it stands for. But I’m not here to review MMC, I’m here to talk a bit about the underlying message and philosophy that pervades it, as with most of the show’s stories. Looking beneath the pastels of the candy-coloured equines we love so much, we see that the episode carries a weave of quite complex and deep ideas and themes. The story talks about maturity, about nobility (of the soul, not in the mere aristocratic sense), about the fruits of virtue and how they can transform one, make one more than they could be before. Finally MMC shows us, perhaps more pointedly than any other part of FiM before it, the meaning of the phrase “Friendship is Magic”. Twilight’s journey is the archetypal Hero’s Journey of the Monomyth, that story pattern which shows up again and again in folk lore, mythology and stories around the world. Her Path is the Path of Friendship, and as any hero in the beginning of her journey, she is reluctant to assume her role. As she is first sent by Celestia to Ponyville, she cannot yet fathom the importance her friendships will have on her Path, and how they will shape her and the world around her. As she reluctantly assumes her journey, however, she receives the Supernatural Aid, another key step in the Hero’s Journey, in the guise of the Elements of Harmony (both in their artifact form, and as personified by her friends). Armed with these, along the course of the show she will repeatedly go through the Road of Trials parts of the mythical journey. Her tribulations test and strengthen her bonds of friendship with the main six, and through them cultivate in her the virtues of charity, compassion, devotion, integrity and optimism that Celestia so fondly observes in her. This is the true meaning of the Elements, or rather it is what the Elements mature into, both as persons and the qualities they embody. And once Twilight shows the sacrifice of Ego (which represents the Atonement stage of the journey) required to abandon personal glory and put the safety of the Crystal Ponies first, her mentor knows she’s ready for the final stage, Apotheosis. Apotheosis, which literally means to be raised to Godhood, is the normally symbolic stage at the end of the Journey where one physically “dies” to be “reborn” into a higher form, that is they go through a profound internal transformation which spiritualizes them. Twilight’s case is both literal and symbolic; even as is she is apparently burned by the finished spell and then reborn as a demigoddess, she does so because all the goodness, all the virtues, all the magic that her friends have built within her over the course of her journey have made her more than she originally was or could have ever been. This, the show tells us, is true nobility, the magic of friendship as practiced through the care we give each-other, is able to transform us, make us better than ourselves. This is true maturity, the kind of maturity that retains childlike innocence, and foregoes the cynicism, bitterness, and loss of magic in the way we look at the world, that so often accompanies growing up. In front of this Nobility, the Sun Goddess herself bows her head. I cannot say I have ever seen a cartoon show that made one consider such bold and beautiful ideas. It is one of the reasons I love it dearly, and it’s why I consider this season’s finale, as well as the entire Journey that lead up to it, so wonderful. Hopefully, this post will give you some food for thought as well, and help better appreciate the work that’s been put into this unique story that we partake

Twinhead, Did ya read my previous posts? It looks to be more of a matter of enlightenment and perspective than raw magical power, which even if it is increased comes gradually, not *snap* instant Luna/Celestia level. From a storytelling standpoint it could open up new possibilities as she explores her newfound nature, and how she relates to others during her changes, etc.

Cutie Mark switching aside, i'm really more interested by the line in that synopsis saying Twilight is going to learn how to weave her own magic! This reminds me of the tabletop RPG Mage: The Ascension where sorcerers could do premade spells of "linear magic", but true Awakened Mages could change the patterns of reality dynamically at will. And i think here that's sort of a thresh-hold level between "regular" unicorns and the demi-god-like alicorns. It's not so much a matter of raw power (for instance i think Twilight is potentially more powerful than Cadence, even as a unicorn) but a matter of enlightenment. Once you tap into some sort of primal insight on how magic works and what magic is, you become much more attuned to it, and your physical being changes in response (hence the ethereal quality of the sisters' manes for instance). Methinks the cutie mark crisis looming on the horizon may give Twi the push to cross that brink, and become one with magic itself, as i'm sure Celestia knew might probably happen one day given Twilight's the element of magic. Like So

I've heard all the doom and gloom, and all the neigh-saying, but as one of the (apparent) minority of people who actually want to see Twilight ascend to alicorndom, i'm thinking that the writers, who have apparently been foreshadowing this from AT LEAST the crystal empire, have not half-flanked this and know what they're doing. But i'm curious on your ideas as well. Those who think that Twilight as an Alicorn could work without being all "Oh noez the show is ruined Forever!!!", please do share possible scenarios on how exactly they could do it. The three main situations would be when 1) Twilight is an alicorn only temporarily and reverts either by choice or turn of events after an episode, 2) she can become one periodically in times of great urgency but still defaults back to unicorn, sort of like a super sayian mode, or 3) she's alicornified permanently. Obviously the third case would have the most lasting impact and i'm curious how you think that in this case the show dynamic could be preserved or changed for the better. My own thoughts are that either - as a new-minted alicorn it would take her years to grow into full power, so she'd not be a god mode sue who renders her friends obsolete. Yes she'd have a power upgrade most like, but that would open up new plot lines to explore, and new problems to overcome, and new ways in which her friends could help her solve them. And i think social-wise nobody's forcing her to move to Canterlot or anything, though i could be wrong, and i'm curious to see how the show writers would solve that. Ok i've rambled enough, what do you think?