RulesofRarity

I've been revisiting the 2nd half of the show recently and I eventually had to rewatch one of my least favourite episodes 'No Second Prances'. This rewatch got me thinking that Trixie would've been a better fit as Twilight's student. The personality differences between Trixie and Twilight (and the rest of the main cast), along with Trixie's lack of magical ability would've made for more interesting dynamic and greater challenge for Twilight as a teacher. As No Second Prances states, stage magic is something that Trixie has that is unique to her and something Twilight is not interested in. In contrast, Starlight's primary trait is being exceptional with actual magic which Twilight already has. Her secondary trait is leadership also covered by Twilight. I think Starlight should've remained a villain. As a protagonist, she's redundant and poorly characterised (in comparison to the Mane 6) whereas her traits were fine when she functioned as an evil Twilight.

It got completely out of hand in the later seasons. There was no reason that there should've been an entire episode dedicated to background ponies or an entire episode about addressing fan critcisms especially legitimate ones!! The best episodes of the show were the ones that were fun and delivered good themes like cutting off toxic friends but those episodes became rarer and rarer as time went on.

Yup. The quality of the show went south when they started focusing more on lore and worldbuilding than the characterisation which was the show's strength. MLP was always better as a slice of life show focusing on interpersonal relationships.

Everyone keeps wondering about Twilight but what about Flurry Heart? We see that she eventually rules the Crystal Empire and she should also have an extended lifespan.

Yeah, this is a stretch. The Treehouse should still exist though. Like how the Tree of Harmony survived for thousands of years.

That was so wholesome. I really enjoyed it.

Nope. I wouldn't watch it. MLP was good because it was a kid's show.

Yeah, I didn't like the School of Friendship. The School just symbolises how friendship became a religion in the later seasons that needed to be "taught" to the other species in the show. The Student Six were just dull.

This looks really interesting and fun, honestly.

I agree with this. I didn't care about it not being the real Grogar and the Legion of Doom worked fine as the final threat. The problem was that they sacrificed Discord's character for the sake of a pointless twist. They could've had Chrysalis break out Tirek and Cozy Glow somehow or done literally anything else. The revelation that it was Discord orchestrating this whole mess ruined the finale for me.

Definitely 6 or 8.

I think you could definitely say that Cadence was underrated. Cadence fulfilled her role as a SUPPORTING character perfectly. Cadence didn't get loads of unnecessary development because she didn't need it. She was there to be another mentor figure just like the other Princesses. She didn't get terrible episodes like 'A Royal Problem' and 'Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep' where the writers try and fail to develop her instead she got cute episodes where she bonded with Twilight or Shining. This is why I can't help but laugh when people call Cadence boring when she really isn't any worse than Celestia and Luna. I also don't get the criticism that Cadence didn't do anything signifcant or relevant either because it's not true. I'll list some things: Cadence along with Shining defeated Chrysalis after Celestia got her ass whooped and the Mane 6 couldn't get to the EOH. Cadence maintained a shield over the Crystal Empire to the point of exhaustion and saved Spike and the Crystal Heart. She tries to teach Twilight a way to manage her stress in the 'Games Ponies Play' and gives her amazing advice in 'Once Upon a Zepplin'. Cadence was the one that suggested they send Twilight after Tirek in 'Twilight's Kingdom" but this idea is shot down by Celestia who instead makes the catastrophic decision to send Discord. She's the only Princess that puts up a fight against Tempest When you actuallly recall these moments, it shows that Cadence isn't fundamentally less useful than Celestia and Luna despite appearing less often. The real reason why people have an issue with Cadence specifically is because she's another Alicorn Princess who was introduced to sell toys and whose existence contradicted what we thought we knew about Alicorns. Despite that, Cadence's introduction didn't cause a decline in quality in the show. In fact, I'd argue that 'A Canterlot Wedding' is one of the shows best 2 parters (if not the best). Ultimately, the reaction to Cadence shows that the people cared way too much about lore and that led them to finding fault in things where there wasn't much fault. We should actually be happy that the writers spent more time on the characters we cared about instead of trying to force Cadence into a role she wasn't designed to occupy just because she's an Alicorn.

The show was always at its best when it was focused on appealing to its target demographic and the show existing as a means to sell toys wasn't a bad thing.

A lot of the problems with the show started because they began focusing more on listening to the Bronies, the majority of whom had no idea what made the show successful in the first place.

It's Spike or Discord.

I agree. Magical Mystery Cure was rushed and I get why people were concerned about Twilight's ascension ruining the show but they actually handled it quite well. MCC was followed by Season 4 which was far better than S3. The show explored the implications of Twilight's acension and gave her a role that made sense.

Yeah, I was cheating with that one

Spike wasn't useless at all.

Are people still salty about Alicorns? It has been years. They should've set G5 in a different continuity to avoid nonsense like this.

Shining Armor and Cadence using the power of their love to defeat Chrysalis was pretty magical.

Rarity being as fed up with Starlight as I was at various points throughout the latter half of the show was great.

A. Because Twilight’s character gets hurt pretty bad in No Second Prances due to Magic Duel’s ending. Twilight appears as a massive hypocrite because that ending makes it seems like she’s forgiven Trixie. Without Magic Duel, Twilight at least isn’t a hypocrite because she wouldn’t of forgiven Trixie but if that’s the case why would she be so distrustful of her in No Second Prances? I think the issue lies in Twilight's capacity to forgive someone like Starlight(her plan would've destroyed the world) whilist seeminly being unable to forgive Trixie(she was under magical influence) for what she did in Magic Duel.

People just don't like episodes that portray their favs in a negative light even if that's the point of the episode.

Celestia really did suck.