Scrying Mind

I particularly enjoyed these episodes because of how they pose questions not only to the characters, but to the audience. A core element of the episodes seems to be idol worship and the difficulty of accepting when someone you've been told such great things about turns out to be wrong. Starswirl had been mythologized to the point of faultlessness, but in the same way we wouldn't recognize the real-life Horatius as the same Hero at the Bridge, the ponies in the show didn't recognize Starswirl through what had been remembered of him. They're forced to cope with that, and most of them cope poorly. Twilight follows her consistent characterization of making bad decisions when she's worried about impressing her idols (which has earlier been shown with Celestia), and the other element bearers side with her. The only pony who doesn't get swayed into trust like this is Starlight. Moreover, we're shown that Starswirl had grabbed leadership for himself and discredited the other pillars enough to be the voice for them, and that they'd do and believe what he said. The Pony of Shadows is a disappointing villain only if we need him to be a villain. He's propped up as this huge menace, but he fails to really do much. He kind of throws a temper tantrum and runs away to hide. This was jarring to me when I was watching it for the first time, but everything clicked when I realized I couldn't trust Starswirl. Honestly, I see Starswirl as the real villain of the episode, and it is a marvelous job for this type of "villain by arrogance and accident" going on. Only Starlight managed to really take the initiative to help Stygian, but I don't think we can completely chalk that up to her having experienced being a villain before. I definitely see it much more as her irreverent, insolent attitude putting in real work of helping her question the ponies she's told to trust. After all, if it weren't for Twilight's blind idol worship with Starswirl, I absolutely think the Mane Six would have talked to Stygian sooner. When I mentioned before about the episode posing a similar question to the viewers as to Twilight, I mean that I see a lot of complaints about how Starswirl is portrayed as unlikable when we expected him to be likable, or that Twilight wouldn't act like that (despite consistently making bad calls throughout the show when she has a chance to impress her idols). People consistently talk about the Pony of Shadows as "the villain of Shadow Play". The episode asks us if we are able and willing to accept when we're being lied to or misled by people we otherwise trust, and a lot of us have a very hard time with that.

So I've been thinking a lot about "The Root of the Problem" ever since I read it. It stands out to me as unusual for My Little Pony, and I've picked apart its structure and message. The thing that's weird about it to me is that, while a lot of MLP stories are about how people should come together and talk, or about how being traditionally "good" and sticking with your friends is the right way to go, this arc definitely seems to have a strong core component that, sometimes, ecoterrorism is justified. The collateral damage caused by the deer isn't really delved into as a huge moral failing on their part. If anything, it's shows as a justifiable anger response. The thing that's important is that, towards the end, the deer are shown to be the good ones without reservation, but their methods to hurt innocents. How do you guys feel about that? Is there anything else that stood out about this arc to you?