Thrond

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I can't even say whether becoming an alicorn did anything for Twilight,

She can fly now! Also she's probably immortal. 

A lot of things would have made more sense if the show had expanded on the "lore" of the alicorns, but I also have never considered My Little Pony a serious fantasy series and generally don't see how it benefits from trying to be one. Twilight becoming an alicorn and a princess would be a lot more coherent and meaningful if those things were at all relevant to the show's focus, but that also speaks to how irrelevant those events actually were to Twilight from an emotional perspective; it still wouldn't be anything she ever seemed interested in, so why should I care? 

So I don't really have the same priorities as you regarding this show. 

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Were the sisters major characters in "The Summer Sun Setback"?

No, and that story doesn't have much to do with them. 

Cadance being an alicorn has no real bearing on what I think about her. I just like her and would have loved to see her personality further developed. 

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I also have never considered My Little Pony a serious fantasy series and generally don't see how it benefits from trying to be one.

I would've been perfectly fine with it being a slife-of-life show. The problem is that it isn't always that as it has teased more fantastical elements. And when it has tried to use those more fantastical elements (i.e. 2-parters), it doesn't succeed.

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Twilight becoming an alicorn and a princess would be a lot more coherent and meaningful if those things were at all relevant to the show's focus, but that also speaks to how irrelevant those events actually were to Twilight from an emotional perspective; it still wouldn't be anything she ever seemed interested in, so why should I care? 

Then Twilight becoming an alicorn and a princess were meaningless events. I don't like these kinds of shallow and arguably desperate attempts to look more ambitious because that makes the show look clueless instead. It's more reason for the show to have only stuck with slife-of-life stories and not bother with whatever they do in 2-part episodes (and stuff like "Magic Sheep", but I digress).

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So I don't really have the same priorities as you regarding this show. 

It obviously doesn't help that the fantastical elements are of major interest to me.

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Cadance being an alicorn has no real bearing on what I think about her. I just like her and would have loved to see her personality further developed. 

I think Cadance seemed like a nice and fun character, and I would've liked for her to be given more to do. I just don't think alicorns should be brought in willy-nilly because they are (allegedly) special. If they weren't, why are alicorns not more common in Equestria?

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I would've been perfectly fine with it being a slife-of-life show. The problem is that it isn't always that as it has teased more fantastical elements. And when it has tried to use those more fantastical elements (i.e. 2-parters), it doesn't succeed.

I do think the two-parters can be fun, but mostly as spectacles. For the most part I tend to like them despite the show’s underdeveloped mythology, though there are some fun ideas; the more they try to seem like serious fantasy, the less interesting they are to me. In particular, the first two premieres seem fairly non-serious regarding those elements. 

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I think Cadance seemed like a nice and fun character, and I would've liked for her to be given more to do. I just don't think alicorns should be brought in willy-nilly because they are (allegedly) special.

What do you mean by “brought in”?

For Cadance, I think her relative youth and personal connection to Twilight gives her enough reason to just pop up whenever. Though I also like Luna and Celestia just popping up whenever.