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ph00tbag

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Everything posted by ph00tbag

  1. The teasing in Newbie Dash was never meant to embarrass her on purpose, if you're discussing character motivations. The writers definitely did it on purpose in both cases, though.
  2. Did the ponies around her have to do anything in particular? It's already gotten pretty egregious. If they had done something more than just go, "wow," what else would it have required? Stop moving the goal post on me.
  3. Aside from it explicitly being about humiliating her, yeah, you're exactly right. It constitutes less of the episode's bulk, yes, but more for time constraint reasons than because the story doesn't linger on moments of her being embarrassed. And granted it's more Schadenfreude and less Fremdschämen, but that's just because Rainbow Dash's awareness of the humiliation and her reactions make it easier to find funny. Ultimately, though, I don't know if I can convince you if you don't think the fireworks were "out of its way."
  4. A Pinkie Pie episode where she's not shrill and unbearable? Unthinkable! Who does May Chan think she is, writing a Pinkie Pie that has actual depth? Amy Keating Rogers? I mean, Pinkie actually has an enormous range of emotions in this episode. Bemused. Grumpy. Relieved. Vexed... Even when she's incorrigible, she's whimsical and relentless. And even though the laws of nature are but putty in her hands, her thought process remains grounded in reality. I'm serious, it's been so long since Pinkie was written this way, I had forgotten it was possible. Put Chan on more scripts, please, especially ones with Pinkie. I love how on the balloon ride with the Mane Six, Rainbow Dash yells at Pinkie that no one is playing her game. Payoff for being patient? Check.
  5. Something something Rainbow Dash Torture Porn. I mean, at least it's torture porn that goes towards developing Rainbow Dash's past. I mean, the relationship between Rainbow Dash and her parents, as presented, and in context, is really, really messed up, but it's a backstory, which is something we don't have much of for Dash. And it's good that this event clears the air that had apparently been so clouded between Dash and her parents. Rainbow learns the context behind her parents' actions, and they learn just how much of a gulf their exuberance has quietly created between themselves and their only daughter. The healing of this gap happens pretty quickly in this episode, but we don't have years and years ahead of us for implicit trust to be rebuilt. Now, you may ask, is it really that bad? My reply is, kinda. Yeah. When Scootaloo says that Rainbow Dash's confidence comes from her parents, I feel like the evaluation belies that fact that Rainbow Dash has dealt with crippling performance anxiety, and is characterized by false bravado in the face of uncertainty. Rainbow Dash is capable of quite a bit, but because, since her foalhood, every damn thing she does has been the best thing her parents have ever seen, she has no metric for achievement that's grounded in reality, and so she's never quite sure if what she's doing is good enough. The thing is, there's a difference between praising achievement and praising effort. The latter will reward the act itself, and thus will encourage more effort. However, the former will really only encourage achievement, and counter-intuitively, children who are consistently rewarded for achievement are less likely to try again, lest they fail to meet or exceed the last standard they met. It's a wonder Rainbow Dash stuck with racing and stunt-flying as long as she did, although I have my suspicions as to why. It is important to take note that, yes, Rainbow Dash felt humiliated when her parents praised her for doing poorly, but it's also important to understand why: she knew that she hadn't earned it. And when it continued as she began to perform better and better, she began to understand that it really was all meaningless. And even when she emulated the effect in her adult life with her chest-puffing to mask her anxieties, it was clear that it was entirely false. In her view, she had no idea whether she could maintain the standard or not, and the higher the stakes, the less it really helped. Rainbow Dash not only felt ostracized by the unclear metric for success her parents provided her with, but never really learned how to evaluate herself, either. On the other hand, Rainbow Dash never confronted her parents about it, because they apparently never established a line of communication with her about her feelings based on trust. This, too, kind of messed her up for life. Another major trait of Rainbow Dash is that she has the emotional IQ of a damp stone, and is even worse about communicating her emotions clearly. Now we know why. Her parents apparently never stopped to ask her, "Dashie, does it bother you when we do the biggest fan routine for every little thing we do?" In fact, they must not have asked her about her feelings much at all, because she clearly didn't feel that she could trust them with her feelings at all. Like she said, "my parents and I have a delicate relationship." Relationships with open lines of communication based on trust are typically not delicate ones. So we this healthy relationship where Rainbow reinforces her parents' humiliating behavior because she doesn't know how to tell them that it upsets her. You know what's most insane about this? I think that not telling her parents about her successes was one of the greatest things that happened to Rainbow! Think about it. When we first met her, what was her job? Middle management in the municipal service? The Equestrian equivalent of a garbage truck driver? I have nothing but respect for the hard work our municipal service members do every day, and they probably deserve a lot more pay for what they do, but it's not stunt flying; not by any stretch of the imagination. The inflection point for Rainbow Dash's life, when she begins her trajectory towards achieving her lifelong dream, is the moment Twilight Sparkle unites the Mane Six, and provides a support network based on trust and honesty. Rainbows friends provide her with a meter stick for success. When she fails, they acknowledge the failure and comfort her, and when she succeeds, they recognize her accomplishments. In either case, they applaud her for her efforts above all. They also hold her accountable for the mean things she does, and thank her for the kind things she does. It is with this support network, and explicitly without her parents, that Rainbow Dash changes from her spiral into an unfulfilling life, to her meteoric rise to achieve her dream. In that context, yes, there is definitely a reason Rainbow didn't tell her parents she's a Wonderbolt: they're the reason she damn near didn't become one. My hope is that the benefit to Rainbow's relationship with her parents after the events of this episode is twofold: One, I hope that they tone down the incessant cheerleading, and let Rainbow set the boundary of, "okay, now you can be happy for me, but otherwise, just give me a withers to cry on." Two, I hope that the drama of the episode's third act has shattered the obstructions to communication between Rainbow and her parents, so that she can openly tell them to give her space. Ultimately, this episode comes from a critical event in every person's coming-of-age never having occurred for Rainbow: the moment where the parents realize their kid is an independent adult, and when the child realizes their parents are unique human beings who cannot read their child's mind, and who can totally be in the wrong in the relationship. As delayed as it is, I think this episode qualifies as this coming-of-age event. So I hope it is treated as such in future Rainbow episodes. Also, poor Cheerilee.
  6. I'm really digging this episode, so to speak. I'll be honest; in Maud's first appearance, I found her rather tiresome. She was impassive, not just to a fault, but to a point where literally nothing about her was effectively conveyed. I've always drawn comparison, myself, between Maud and Daria Morgendorfer. The thing about Daria is, she's not really impassive, she just reacts in muted, unexpected ways. When an event occurs, there are small changes in her expression, but the active, emotive responses of everyone else make it feel like nothing is really happening to Daria. Maud is explicitly supposed to have this kind of role in the story of episodes about her, but her expression never changes. Her voice is similarly uninflected. From an animation perspective, I get it--key frames are more work than repeated frames. Why put in a new key frame that will really only be noticed by nerds, when you can just keep the face the same and only lose the nerds that want a little bit more. But it ultimately makes the character less compelling. This time around, though, things are different. Maud's face is more expressive, if quixotic and subtle. Her jokes are more clearly Daria-esque jokes, and it's good to see her interacting more actively. Starlight is perfect for Maud, and I think helps with Maud's unreadability by providing a lens to put her into focus. Just as Daria's character was inscrutable without a Jane to tell the audience what not to take seriously, Starlight begins to learn where she needs to inject her own sense of humor to play off Maud's parched irony in the episode. I hope we get a lot more of this pair, because I have loved the dynamic since I first watched Daria. I'm especially eager to see Maud play off of Trixie's obliviousness.
  7. I still hear "O Fortuna" every time Flurry Heart appears onscreen. Needless to say, this episode was much more ominous to me. I want to say that bringing such a young foal to a room with all those infectious foals is potentially disastrous. But then again, if she dies, then I'm actually okay with that.
  8. "Applejackilicious" is all I got out of that.
  9. I have a friend with similar views on the Changelings, and looking forward to this episode, he and I both had a lot of discussions about this very topic. I can definitely understand the reasoning behind why this episode would make Changeling fans upset. There's a notion that the Changeling outlook could be reconciled with ponies without the aesthetic needing to be changed, because it's not inconceivable that a Changeling could participate in a mutualistic relationship, where they are loved for their contributions to society, and everyone wins. In a way, this isn't really so far from that. But I think what it says is that Changelings are capable of love themselves, which allows them to be feedback loops of love. From a purely thermodynamic standpoint, this is horrific, but I think that it makes sense from a storytelling perspective, and I think it actually helps to make Chrysalis even more insidious, like a pony version of Stalin. Her cold black heart is the reason the Changelings were starving, and is the reason their bodies were so deformed. I actually think it makes Changelings even more tragic, really.
  10. Well, this was pretty much my favorite season finale thus far. I feel like there were very few, if any, execution flubs along the way. Starlight's development was really great to see. In a season where the write staff has struggled to consistently express her struggle with her past and its integration into her new self, It's heartening to see them ending on a high note. The growth is demonstrated thematically at first, then explicitly through her dialogue with others. And it's the fact that theming is employed so consistently throughout the plot that makes this episode so delicious. I also love, love, loved Trixie in this episode. She's still a boastful, incorrigible PoS, but it's really adorable how Starlight weakens her facade, and so Trixie does all these little things for Starlight to show she cares. Like when they're running from the Town, and Trixie is hiding Starlight in her cloak, or when she hammers home the episode's main point to Starlight by telling her that even if she's afraid of leading, she's good at it, and needs to do it in that moment. It's even cooler that this scene is right before Trixie goes off to distract the Changelings so Starlight and Thorax can go on. This both casts Trixie as a principled hero in her own right, while also showing that for the first three quarters of the episode, she was like a set of training wheels for Starlight, and at the end of the episode, the training wheels are off, and Starlight is riding on her own. Trixie was also wonderful in the way her relationship with Discord evolved. Their bickering throughout the second half was a delight to watch, and I love how they wound up making up and forming a very odd couple relationship by the end of everything. Discord already has a very weird way of expressing his feelings (particularly the way he teases and needles Twilight because he wants her to like him but doesn't know how to do that, so he just winds up pissing her off), and the fact that Trixie is just as awkward and prickly makes their attempts at rapprochement so fun to watch. To boot, Chrysalis was especially nasty this time around. Her entrance was so creepy, and I love that the show went out on a limb like that. In presentation, Chrysalis has all this rage and resentment, and it's made her an even more compelling villain. The unhinged notes in her delivery sold it in particular. Kathleen Barr deserves a lot of kudos for this performance. I particularly like that she's so fargone that she ultimately rejects Starlight's entreaty to come to the side of light. It makes her a much stronger villain, and creates the potential for her to appear more often and continue to be a foil to the cast of this show. Really, the only personality that felt flat to me in this episode was Thorax, and that's really only a relative thing. He's not a badly developed character; he's just a very milquetoast personality. He doesn't have the snark of Discord or Trixie, and isn't having a panic attack like Starlight, so it feels like he's just there to move things along, and, in the final scene, deal the killing blow to Chrysalis's plan. I also appreciated the lack of song. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I felt like the songs have been a little too forced lately. A song wasn't necessary to move this plot along, so I'm glad they avoided it. I also liked that the coups d'etat was left offscreen. It puts the viewer in the mind of the protagonist. You wonder right along with Starlight what the hell is going on. And the fact that it's never really revealed, and unlikely ever to be, means its up to the viewer, which makes Chrysalis as clever and conniving as she needs to be at the cost of literally no screen time. Keeping some things offscreen is often necessary to keep up tension, and I think it was very well-applied, here.
  11. Not my top episode, but certainly a great episode, nonetheless. Vapor Trail is absolutely adorable on every level, and definitely way out of Sky Stinger's league. I love watching Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle interact. I feel like those two are closer to each other than they are to the rest of the Mane 6, even with Fluttershy being Rainbow's foalhood friend. They just seem to be much more genuine and at ease with each other, as though there's no expectations to be met anymore. They're always themselves. There's a sense they really care about all of their friends, but they seem to have a more natural rapport with each other. This is another episode that brings that out in them.
  12. Oh, that's a good point. Chrysalis is a hell of a schemer, though.
  13. It's not like was actively looking for Changelings at the time. These are creatures that can look like anything. A well-organized enough coup wouldn't take more than an hour--magical ability needn't even come into it. The biggest difficulty would be in moving all of them to the badlands without being caught.
  14. So let's get the elephant in the room out of the way. It's not so much a problem that Starlight used a spell to make ponies do what she wants. Refer to my post in the teaser thread to read my thoughts on the ethical implications of mind control in the world of MLP. That's a question of using a spell that's neither good nor bad in a way that's bad. On the surface, that's a moral quandary that is presented and resolved as a learning opportunity for Starlight, and it's done in a way that's honest and real. Starlight tries to solve a problem using her strengths, and in so doing causes more problems than she solves, and has to apologize. In particular, I felt that the resolution of it all was very well-crafted. But even in that, I felt that the real problem was highlighted: Starlight already knew that using mind control to make ponies do her bidding is wrong. It feels like there's a degree of regression, there. Though I'll cop that she seemed to be grappling with some social anxiety issues at the time, and may not have been in her right mind. The poor girl was literally having a panic attack in the library. Interestingly, the spell-casting seemed to calm her down. One wonders if the spell-work was more of a displacement activity, unattached to the spell's goals. Not that it makes the results any less problematic, but I think it makes them more understandable. So that's out of the way! Let's talk about why, despite the dissonance of Starlight's use of mind control, I liked the episode. There's a couple other things that I think get laid aside too quickly in the discussion of the episode. For one thing, I really liked the subtle development of Starlight's relationship with achievement. Starlight is so accustomed to performing exceptionally, and being recognized for it, that she's terrified of the perceived consequences of being bad at something, so she avoids novel experiences, and the ponies that would guide her through those experiences. This is a conundrum observed in childhood development, as well, where children who are praised for making attempts at new things tend to perform better overall, and tend to improve at everything they try, while those who are praised for initial achievement tend to idle at the place of that achievement, and rarely try new things or improve. Starlight displays this tendency to a T, and I'm glad that Twilight, rather than make a fuss about the mind control thing, focuses on convincing Starlight that it's okay to suck at some things, but it's important to have fun with them, nonetheless. I also really liked the episode's explicit message, that while being able to offer your own skills to your friends is important to friendship, being able to share in the things your friends enjoy doing is also important. You can get to know someone really well by letting them share their skills and interests with you, and it will make them like you more to know that you appreciate the things they can do. And in fact, your own lack of skill in those things can be a bond-forming experience. In a nutshell, it's not really important what you do with your friends, as long as you make an effort to have a good time with them. Starlight was so caught up with what she was doing, that she lost focus on why she was doing it. Not that she ever really had a focus on it. A few observations: Starlight has a "NO EQUALS" drawing in her room. I laughed harder than I should have. Pinkie Pie is a fan of Lazy Town maybe? Applejack's references. It's hard to stay mad at somepony who's covered in flour.
  15. So what Starlight is doing here fundamentally violates an assumed "right to mind" that we have in the world of humans, where the ability to directly control the workings of the mind is but a flicker on the horizon of technological progress. To us, this is a deeply wrong thing Starlight is doing. But this isn't the first time this has happened. Lesson Zero had Twilight mind controlling the whole town. Hearts and Hooves Day had the CMC forcing two ponies to fall in love. In both cases, there weren't many far-reaching ramifications. In fact, when Cadance makes two ponies stop fighting and express their love for each other, it is seen as a positive thing. It seems that in a world where mind-control is a reasonably accessible action, it is approached with a degree of de minimis consideration, and intent is a factor. If something goes wrong, then the perpetrator is chided, "you really shouldn't do that," and allowed to go on their way. Perhaps an analogy is in order. Humans have a way of sending projectiles at a broad range of velocities with astonishing accuracy. Depending on intent and scope of the method used, we have different approaches to dealing with the consequences. If I fire a ping-pong ball at my buddy as a prank with a pneumatic gun, he'll probably just laugh, even if I give him a nasty welt. If I try to throw a pen at a co-worker so they can use it to sign a document, and it pokes them in the eye, they'll shrug it off, and certainly not demand reparations. But if Billy shoots his little sister with his bebe gun, and she tells on him, Mom and Dad will scold him, and probably take the gun away for a time, even if it didn't do any permanent damage. I guess what I'm saying is, morality adapts to circumstance. If mind control is a reality, a more nuanced morality will grow upon it, like barnacles on the keel of a ship. What Starlight is doing is something that seems suspicious over the course of the few seconds we see, but is really nothing new. All that said, Starlight seemed to imply that mind control would be distasteful to her in No Second Prances, by ironically, and self-deprecatingly, referring to it as the way she'd make a friend. It seems odd to me that she'd actually be fine with with this. Then again, Starlight's gig is using drastic magic to solve very simple problems without really thinking extremely hard about the scope of the consequences. "Fiducia compele," seems to mean, "compel trust!" In other words, it doesn't seem to be so much a spell to put the Remane 5 under Starlight's control as it does a spell to force them to trust her. Take from that what you will.
  16. This was, if nothing else, an entertaining episode. Applejack and Fluttershy are a duet I wish we could see more often. I liked that the show accurately read them both as rather introverted, and unlikely to find much to enjoy in a place like Las Pegasus. Overall, while Gladmane's ploy didn't make a whole lot of sense from a business management standpoint, it does highlight the kind of people who build their social success by making sure those with the capability to take them down are mired in their own drama. Toxic people are a force in every social group, and it's important to be able to be open about that before it becomes a problem. I loved how so many ponies would just go up to the fountain and drink from it. Enough do it that I have to assume it's just normal in Equestria.
  17. English, of course, 普通话, ein Bisschen Deutch, そしてとっても少し日本語.
  18. I don't know, if the chronology reflects the order of presentation, then it would appear that Griffonstone's main problems all predate the arrival of RD and Pinkie. Even so, I wouldn't expect the hearts and minds of Griffons to change within a couple months. It will take time for the idea to percolate.
  19. This was a nice episode. I liked how Scoots felt compelled to humor Gabby because of her own disability. That was a really sweet touch. More than anything, I can't get enough of Gabby's cute little pawsies. They're so adorable.
  20. Field: I would say keep the circular field. There is a Play Area with a five meter radius. Outside of this, there is a loop, the scoring area, two meters wide. An offsides line separates the field in half. Notes: The only concern here is that a score attempt could be made between a Forward in one corner of the play area, and the Goalkeeper in the catercorner part of the scoring area. But this is balanced, because it leaves a very low attack surface for the opposing Guard to cover. Equipment: A ball, probably a soccer ball. A volleyball may also work. Either a true basket on a pole, or a fishing net on a pole would work for me. My concern with a basket would be that it may be a challenge to keep the ball from bouncing out, although that may be desirable for those looking for a challenge. I say to keep it on a pole in order to mimic a Unicorn's ability to move the bucket at will. Players: At the most minimal, a Forward, who is tasked with scoring. A Guard, who prevents scoring. A Goalkeeper, who manages the goal bucket in order to ensure scoring. Notes: I sense the field could be expanded, and more players added. In much the same way there are types of Rugby based on player count, it's possible this could happen with Buckball. Play: The Forwards and Guards stand in their team's half of the play area, while the Goalkeepers stand in the opposite half of the scoring area. At the start of play, the two Forwards stand facing each other across the offsides line. A Referee tosses the ball into the air between them, and they attempt to strike the ball, with any part of their body, either towards their defender, who can set up a play, or towards their Goalkeeper, in the opposite scoring area. When a Forward attempts to score, the opposing team's Guard attempts to block, while the Goalkeeper attempts to catch the score attempt in the bucket. If a score is made, a point is awarded. The ball will then be given to the opposing team's guard, who will strike the ball toward their Forward, who will attempt to score. If the attempt is blocked, the ball is considered still in play, and the Guard will then strike the ball toward the Forward, who will attempt to score. A ball that lands on the ground is dead, and possession passes to the opposite team of the player that last touched it. Therefore, if a score attempt misses and lands on the ground, it will pass to the other team's Guard, but if the Guard blocks the attempt, and fails to recover, then it will go back to the attempting team. This continues until one team earns six points, at which point, they win. Notes: It's worth noting that a Guard could move right up to the offsides line to block a score attempt. This would be balanced by the fact that a properly angled attempt that got past the Guard would be an almost guaranteed score. Allowing any part of the body reflects the fact that Pinkie's playstyle was not prohibited. Penalties: Juggling - A Guard may only strike the ball twice in succession per possession before it must be struck by the Forward. That is, after blocking an attempt, the Guard may only strike the ball once more, to set up a play for the Forward. A Forward may strike the ball only once per possession. Any more strikes from either player per possession constitutes juggling, and will result in forfeiture of possession. A Forward also may not strike the ball towards their own guard, nor may a guard touch the ball once their Forward has touched it. If there are more than one Guard, each may only strike the ball once. Holding - Guards and Forwards may not hold a live ball. Doing so constitutes holding, and will result in forfeiture of possession. Offsides - Forwards may not cross the offsides line before striking the ball, nor may the Goalkeeper enter the play area at any time in attempting to secure a score. If the forward steps over the offsides line before striking the ball, or the Goalkeeper steps into the play area before catching the ball, it constitutes an offsides penalty, and results in forfeiture of possession. Any score earned is invalid. Illegal Formation - Guards may not attempt to score. This is an illegal formation, and results in forfeiture of possession. Any score earned is invalid. Out of Bounds - Goalkeepers may not leave the outer lines of the court. If they step out of the court before catching the ball, it is out of bounds. Any score earned is invalid. Goal Tending - Guards may not leave the play area, nor may a Forward attempt to block. If a Guard leaves the scoring area before blocking an attempt or a Forward successfully blocks an attempt, it is goal tending, and a point is awarded to the opposing team, even if the opposing team committed an offsides and/or out of bounds penalty. Foul - Pushing, shoving, checking, or otherwise touching opposing players, beyond incidental contact, is expressly forbidden, as is intentionally aiming strikes at opposing players. Intentional or excessive contact or fouling will result in a free attempt at scoring. Minor infractions will result in a Yellow Card. Major infractions, or two Yellow Cards, will result in a Red Card, and expulsion from the game, as well as further penalties determined by the referee, depending on the severity of the foul. If a team does not have enough players in reserve to fill each position, they will forfeit the match. Notes: Restricting the Goalkeeper to the scoring area creates a tradeoff for lobbed attempts, since the higher the angle, the more difficult it is to plan an accurate trajectory, especially when striking the ball rather than throwing. The Juggling rule prevents stalling. I particularly prefer the Holding rule, as the play in Buckball Season seems centered around striking. Finally, a more detailed rulebook would likely dictate that a referee attempting to tell whether a striking foul or goal tending has occurred when a ball hitting a Forward prevents a goal, is whether the Forward moved into a space the ball could be realistically expected to go. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The sport I've concocted here has a lot more in common with beach volleyball instead of handball, but I feel like that's what we see in the episode proper, right down to the first-to-X format of the scoring. If the ball can be kept in play, the pacing would actually be rather blistering, and there would be a number of skill tests, as well as coordination, and decision points to keep things interesting.
  21. I rather enjoyed this episode. It was kinda odd for me to see Fluttershy get so vocal about not wanting to play Buckball on the train, but other than that, the characters felt pretty natural. All in all, this episode was pretty simple, although I like how mature Dash and AJ were. All too often, those two, Dash in particular, are depicted as loath to compromise, but they pretty much figure it all out on their own, from start to finish. It's always good to see the writers capture the maturity that the Mane 6 has learned since the show's beginning. Personally, I'm trying to figure how buckball would be played by humans.
  22. You made a comparison. Nazis were involved. This isn't even important. Why can't you be wrong about something that literally has no bearing except to remind you that reference to the Third Reich is always a rhetorical shortcut, and not supporting evidence? The conflict isn't even so much Spike struggling with his fame. He actually takes it for granted, and underestimates its power and importance, both to the ponies around him, and to himself. When Thorax questions whether there's anything Spike can do, Spike flippantly suggests that his influence will sway them, but as the episode progresses, he gradually loses that original confidence, first walking back his original plan and suggesting that Thorax hang as a pony for an indeterminate period, and eventually loses his nerve entirely. That is the rising action you've willfully ignored. When he goes back to apologize to Thorax is the climax. His song is the falling action, and the time after his song is the denouement. The song isn't about his relationship with Thorax, because that's not what the episode isn't about. When some aspect of an episode is about what the episode about, and isn't about what the episode isn't about, that's not a problem. Maybe this episode could have told the story from the perspective of a different narrator. It didn't. But not every episode is going to be quite so sophisticated. Sometimes they're just solid episodes that are fun to watch.
  23. Strictly speaking, Godwin's Law only stipulates that the longer a discussion goes, the probability of Hitler or the Nazis being mentioned approaches one. But a popular corollary of the Law is that the one who brings up Hitler or the Nazis loses the debate. You don't have to call anyone a Nazi. You just have to mention them. You're misunderstanding me. I'm saying the whole story is only incoherent if you act like Spike's personal conflict is inconsequential. But it's not. Whenever Thorax is on screen, Spike is, too. Literally any time you're watching Thorax, you're also watching Spike interact with the plot, and all of those interactions, even if they are rooted in the changeling conflict, serve to impact the plot of Spike's development. In fact, the climax is about Spike making the decision to support Thorax despite the damage it could do to his reputation, and that decision literally solving all of his problems. Twilight even devotes a whole speech to how proud she is of Spike because he didn't betray his morals for personal gain. The central conflict of the episode was front and center in the denouement. You have to be ignoring all of this to be missing it. I wouldn't even argue that Starlight is much of a close friend, at least not for her part. Starlight doesn't know Twilight, or her friends, even, that well, and acts like it. She has to be cajoled into attending Twilight's Hearth's Warming party. She's usually awkward and anxious around Twilight and her friends. And it feels like Twilight has staked enough of her professional self-esteem on this thing with Starlight working out that she very well could be driving for a closer relationship with Starlight than she would otherwise.
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