BastementSparkle

506667 Welp, my job is done. *Poofs into nothing*

506665 Here I am. Rising's special attack for when he wants a certain post number.

Dear @Deae Rising Shine~ Well, couldn't let you write a letter to me without returning the favor, could I? When I first became a fan of MLP, I actually mostly stuck to myself for those first few years. I read fics and watched videos and lurked forums but was always hesitant to actually join in and take part myself, until I eventually decided to make my account here. Was kind of nervous at first, but it was totally worth it to make the friends I did, especially you who's stuck with me for all this time through everything. I couldn't ask for a better friend, and I'd say meeting and getting to hang out with you was the best part about joining this fandom, even more than the show itself or fanfic's or anything like that could be. You've made my life a lot better than it would have been otherwise, even just by hanging out with me and I can't thank you enough for it. So, thanks for everything. Best friends forever. In Mlem, Base Horse.

506003

506001 Neato.

505999 Post.

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504999

Honestly, not too enthused about this so far. FIM is my favorite cartoon ever, but...well, I really didn't like Season 9 and I kind of hate the show's ending and prefer to ignore it, so the premise of a show set after it just kind of doesn't appeal at all. Unless it's set far, far in the future and only barely references FIM, leaving most of it vague which might work. If it's like...set during Twilight's rule or something and featuring the Mane Six's kids or whatever I'll probably just not even watch it, I have no desire to see that at all.

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504549 RISEY!

504547 Why hello MLPForums! What have ya- ...Wait, is this the right website?

Because lot's of things changed, not just from earlier seasons to later, but practically from season to season. The general "Feel" of the show changed multiple times over it's run, Season 1 and 2 have a different style to them than say Season 6 and 7. The early seasons are a lot more simple, not to mention there were lot's of changes as the show went on, like characters being added or story arcs that some people might like while others don't, like certain characters being reformed or the friendship school. Even season to season the show would make changes, for instance I enjoy most of the show, the first 8 seasons, but I hate Season 9. But everything that makes me despise Season 9 is exactly what somebody else loves about it.

Extremely cute designs and enjoyable animation, charming and likable characters, a fairly interesting world for a kids show and once I got to "Winter Wrap-Up" and beyond, some pretty solid songs. Really I just enjoyed everything about the show, and it took me back to when I was younger and used to watch a lot of cartoons, made me feel like a kid again.

Depends on just how powerful the one villain is though. Grogar at the start was shown to effortlessly push around the other three, and you could imagine with his own bell he'd only be all the more powerful and terrifying. Plus, he didn't necessarily have to be alone, Grogar was stated to be "The Father of Monsters" who gave life to awful creatures who terrorized Equestria. That easily could have been set up for Grogar calling forth an army of the monsters he's created to fight Equestria's forces and allies.

I don't think it was intentional on Sunset's part, more so that Wallflower just "Slipped through the cracks" so to speak. Sunset probably didn't care all that much to remember all the people she was bullying when she was a villain, except for the ones who were a threat or she specifically wanted to use in some way, so I could see her being awful to Wallflower and not caring to remember. Then she turns around and becomes better and tries to make it up to everyone, but if all the other students find Wallflower so forgettable too and Wallflower never calls much attention to herself then I don't think it's too unbelievable that Sunset could miss her without realizing. Them being on the same committee definitely makes it a bit weird though. If I were rewriting that, I think I'd just make it much more detailed and clear. Show Sunset bullying Wallflower in flashback, shoving her against lockers and being that generic bully to her from the first movie. Show more explicitly that people often seem to ignore or forget her...they don't dislike her or anything, she just doesn't stand out at all. Then show her seeing Sunset, this person who was so cruel getting to "Redeem" herself, and she get's all of these friends and love Wallflower never had, and Sunset keeps making amends and helping everyone else, but as usual nobody really notices her getting left out. Nothing personal, she's just forgettable as usual. Just make it all very clear so there's no confusion about it all. Also, don't make her part of the yearbook committee.

To be fair to Wallflower, Sunset's empathy powers do show that she was actually ignored even before she found the memory stone. The impression I got was that what the writer's intended was that Sunset was cruel to everyone and that included Wallflower, but everyone else ignores her for the most part. Then suddenly Sunset turns around and becomes a better person and everyone starts to love her, meanwhile Wallflower is still ignored and Sunset never reaches out. All Wallflower sees is the horrible bully that was so cruel to her and everyone else becoming loved while she's still a nobody, and Sunset never apologizes or makes amends to her, so even seeing all this she still thinks of Sunset as that bully who hurt her. Then she finds the memory stone and starts using it to "Fix" things, making her problem worse, but she's so messed up at this point she doesn't even realize she's doing that. I actually think it's a good backstory in theory, but the special rushes it and does a horrible job at conveying it.

It wouldn't be any more immediately dangerous than trying to reform Discord, who was only kept in check by having the elements being pointed at him and even that was kind of a stretch, since there wasn't much stopping him from simply snapping his fingers and doing something to the bearers. I think there's actually enough evidence in the show that it would be possible with any of them, especially in Frenemies. Chrysalis would be the hardest, she has the potential but she is...very adamant about staying the way she is, kind of hard to totally blame her after what happened in Season 6, at least from her perspective. Certainly would be interesting to see all this brought up.

There's really only two changes I particularly care about. First and biggest one is: Grogar should be real. Not Discord in a Grogar costume. I want this plot twist put through a shredder, set on fire and it's ashes launched straight into the sun. Grogar should be the final villain of Season 9. Second one is that I really we should have seen the ponies make some attempt to reform Tirek and Cozy. It doesn't have to work, but they should try. It's kind of a sore spot for me that nobody ever really did, especially with Season 9 existing and doing such a good job at humanizing them. Discord got his own episode's worth of a Fluttershy reformation program, Twilight had to really work to talk Starlight down, and even Chrysalis at the very least got offered the hoof of friendship by Starlight once, seems odd that these two just got...well, nothing.

Yes, that was my point, though you worded it better. Discord's plan initially works flawlessly, but he was arrogant enough to believe that was simply it, he wins, game over. He didn't understand friendship enough to realize what he did could be reversed and was so stupidly confident he didn't realize they'd reharmonized. Yeah, Discord getting backstabbed the way he did is my issue, because it doesn't make much sense. It requires him to have not been monitoring the trio at all, which he not only easily could do, but would do. Discord pays attention to the toys he's playing with and he's even implied to spy on his own friends more than a few times, so why not enemies he's manipulating? He'd know they have the bell and that they're doing stuff behind his back. I can buy that he'd pull off a stupid plan like this, I can even buy it backfiring in his face somehow due to him overlooking something, but the specific way it happens really only goes down because the plot demands it does and no other reason.

He's overconfident, and not as much of a chessmaster as he sometimes like to pretend he is, but I don't think he's ever been quite as dumb as he was in this season before. In Season 2 he was actually shown to be fairly intelligent, with his fatal flaw being that once his plan was complete he's arrogant enough to assume his victory is permanent and thus he stops paying attention to the mane six. Here he screws up because he doesn't even bother to monitor the people he's trying to manipulate at all, which feels very unlike him. I've kind of always felt like they tolerate him because from a certain perspective, he's kind of a child. He says Fluttershy is the first friend he's ever had, he's new to friendship and probably real social interaction to an extreme. He's never really had to care about how people other than himself feel before, and considering how powerful he is I wouldn't be all that shocked if getting turned to stone by Celestia and Luna just might be the first time he's ever had to face any kind of consequence for anything he's done. He has all the emotional and social maturity of a literal child alongside basically godlike power, and then on top of that he's a being of chaos. He's definitely the kind of person that would require a ton of patience.

I understand the idea, I even think in theory it's not a bad one. I just don't like the execution, or that it comes at the expense of a real Grogar, or that it's the last big contribution to the show Discord makes. The way it's handled makes Discord look extremely dumb to an extent he's never been before, and he doesn't get much of a chance to make up for his mistakes because the show is ending, at best he just breaks the ponies out of prison. That's a nice start but far from enough, it leaves his character on a really unsatisfying note. The fact that he's actually allowed to not only suggest but help carry out the trio's punishment even after all he did is also a real sore spot for me. It also sours his involvement in the Season premiere retroactively, which I actually quite liked, plus the lesson he taught the girls there, that they don't need the Elements to use their friendship power is...kind of ignored for the entire finale, up until they relearn it at the end.

Agreed. Also agreed, and if Chrysalis could be helped by someone I sincerely doubt it'd be Starlight. I was more so saying it's odd that Starlight didn't try. Even just a token "You don't have to do this, we can talk it out!" or whatever would have been nice. Perhaps. But Discord was an even bigger "If" and that turned out to work. Kind of. At the very least he's genuine about liking Fluttershy and he's restraining himself from turning the world into a madhouse. If they could try with him, don't see why not with Cozy. Well, I don't entirely agree...but I'll admit, I probably would have liked it quite a bit more if it wasn't for the Discord twist and all the lost potential of Grogar. It's certainly got some cool action scenes at least.

Yeah, it would be nice. Especially later in the show the Mane Five kind of turn into a bit of a hivemind in Season two-parters. Season 9's premiere is a good example where they're all so gung-ho about ruling Equestria right off the bat. Which is especially odd since they sort of end up not doing any ruling later on anyway. Some of Season 9's writing is really strange. In this case I was comparing Season 9 Chryssy to Starlight from her finale though, where all she wanted was revenge on Twilight. In that case she didn't care much about doing what was best, she just wanted to get back at Twilight because she felt wronged. Even after seeing the damage she's causing she nearly ends up tearing the time travel scroll apart anyway, partially out of denial of what she saw, but still. Though I think you're being a little more charitable to Starlight than I would be here, I'm not sure her village was ever truly about doing what she felt was right as much as it was about enacting control and having "Friends" who wouldn't, or couldn't leave her. She already seemed to have come to her own conclusions about friendship though, so I think she'd probably just see any and all classes through her own twisted lens. She'd need some kind of specialized help, and of course she didn't immediately listen, why would she? She's not given any real reason to think she's wrong except others saying she is, and considering she outsmarted them all she has no real reason to listen. If she can be helped it'd take a lot more than just a few words. Honestly, I think if they had been reformed it could have been FIM's best reformation. We've never seen the show actually humanize and make the villains sympathetic before their reformation like this. Any sympathetic traits they may have usually only show up in the same episode they reform in, but here if they went that route they'd have built it up a lot better.

It bugs me mostly because through Season 5 to 7 and even the movie the show was really hammering the point home about trying to reach out. Starlight, the Changeling's, the Pony of Shadows, Tempest, etc. Constantly our heroes are encountering villains who can be stopped or helped if they just take the time to try, and then in the last two seasons they just...stop. Like, it's fine to not have the villains reform, but it's odd to have the heroes simply stop trying, feels like it's going a bit against previous lessons. Twilight and Starlight especially should both have it pretty drilled into their heads to try by this point. Especially weird with Chrysalis and Starlight, because Chrysalis in the Season 9 finale is basically doing the exact thing Starlight did in the Season 5 finale, trying to take revenge on the pony who they both felt "Took everything from them", yet Starlight doesn't try to help despite Twilight having done exactly that for her in the same situation. I didn't mean Cozy would be easy to reform because she's a kid, just that it'd be easy to try. She has no special powers, she can't eat magic or shapeshift or warp reality, she's just a manipulative pegasus filly. The second somebody catches onto her manipulative schtick she's powerless. Even with Rusty Bucket, who actually wanted to help her and be her friend, she couldn't do anything to him once he kept saying no, because all she's really got going for her is smarts and a cute factor that fails once the façade drops. Our heroes would lose nothing by trying to help her except their time. Cozy Glow only thinks of friendship as a source of power though, and to an extent she's not even wrong. In this show especially it literally is, but she never seemed to really understand friendship was more than that, she's just thinking of how she can use it for herself. Friendship is actually specifically the thing she's power-hungry for. Even then in Frenemies when she and the other villains work together she specifically admits it "Felt better somehow". Not even just good, but better. She snaps out of it because of Chrysalis, but if she came to that conclusion in another scenario without Chrysalis, who knows what could have happened? Same with Tirek too.