Twilight's Kingdom -- A potential jump the shark moment for FiM?

[LZRD WZRD 1,929]

You forgot my personal favorite Mary Sue.

I knew I was forgetting one!

[sweetolebob18 728]

Clever Clover

 

I agree w almost everything you said in your opening post.  The only thing I would seriously argue with is calling it a war.  I'd say it was more a bar room brawl.  Nobody got killed, Tirek went to jail, & her friends were OK (more or less).  +T  learned the valuable lesson that brute force isn't always the best answer.  Sounds like a bar brawl to me.

 

"Jump the Shark" moments can only be seen in retrospect.  I agree, it looks like they are planning to take MLP in a more "Rescue Heroes" direction & I REALLY hope I'm wrong about that.  (Hey, I want to watch "Rescue Heroes", I'll go watch "Recue Heroes".  IMO, MLP is better & that is why I watch MLP).  Still, the writers have done well so far.  Magical Mystery Cure didn't wreck the show, Season 4 was almost as good as Season 3 (& some of the episode were great).  The writers haven't failed us yet & we just have to trust them.  When you're hot, you're hot & they're hot.

 

As to showing the consequences of the battle, I agree.  T's grief for her home is a good start.  Showing she isn't the only one to suffer losses like that would show actions have consequences & fighting can hurt others.

[Soul Flare 403]

This brings me back to when everyone was scared that the show would have been completely different after Twi's ascension in Season 3.

[Dulset Tarn 441]

This brings me back to when everyone was scared that the show would have been completely different after Twi's ascension in Season 3.

Most people I know were afraid that it would be exactly the same as if it never happened. And hey, it was.

[Jammo 986]

Violence is the only language that speaks to Tirek. I don't think it was bloodlust, more losing her home and books was enough of a dick move that Twilight got mad enough to lash out. You would too. I don't thinks Twi's reaction was villainous or unwarranted. Some types of characters can't be reasoned with and they are often the most frustrating, anger inducing opposition. Tirek was a dick, Twilight had the power of three demigods in her, she acted in a very realistic, albeit emotionally driven way.

 

What would you do if you didn't know about the rainbow powers? Especially when you're emotionally distraught over your house being nuked. Twilight is a very logical pony, but also very neurotic. She doesn't cope well with actions that defy her understanding.

[Dulset Tarn 441]

Violence is the only language that speaks to Tirek. I don't think it was bloodlust, more losing her home and books was enough of a dick move that Twilight got mad enough to lash out. You would too. I don't thinks Twi's reaction was villainous or unwarranted. Some types of characters can't be reasoned with and they are often the most frustrating, anger inducing opposition. Tirek was a dick, Twilight had the power of three demigods in her, she acted in a very realistic, albeit emotionally driven way.

 

What would you do if you didn't know about the rainbow powers? Especially when you're emotionally distraught over your house being nuked. Twilight is a very logical pony, but also very neurotic. She doesn't cope well with actions that defy her understanding.

The other princesses specifically gave her one job, and she did the exact opposite. Might not have been an awful idea or anything but just sayin'...

[Cleverclover 1,526]

 

 

Tirek was a dick, Twilight had the power of three demigods in her, she acted in a very realistic, albeit emotionally driven way.

 

It was power that she couldn't control---power that she had been trying to get a handle on just moments earlier. 

 

You're right though, Twilight has always been very logical, which is why I feel her jumping straight into a fight was such a low moment for her. Because she clearly didn't seem to even be angry with Tirek until his actions personally affected her, in spite of everything he had done. Because she clearly didn't seem to have any plan in mind except for to blast the shit out of him until he was dead. Because she clearly showed no regard for any animals or other ponies that might have been in the area and could have been easily killed by her blasts, nor did she show any regard for Ponyville which was apparently a few feet away from the battle and could have easily been caught in the crossfire. 

 

Sorry, but her home being destroyed was no justification for her to lose any and all sense of rationality. 

[Jammo 986]

It was power that she couldn't control---power that she had been trying to get a handle on just moments earlier. 

 

You're right though, Twilight has always been very logical, which is why I feel her jumping straight into a fight was such a low moment for her. Because she clearly didn't seem to even be angry with Tirek until his actions personally affected her, in spite of everything he had done. Because she clearly didn't seem to have any plan in mind except for to blast the shit out of him until he was dead. Because she clearly showed no regard for any animals or other ponies that might have been in the area and could have been easily killed by her blasts, nor did she show any regard for Ponyville which was apparently a few feet away from the battle and could have easily been caught in the crossfire. 

 

Sorry, but her home being destroyed was no justification for her to lose any and all sense of rationality.

 

To me what gets to me is people complaining "Twilight is a Mary Sue, she's too perfect", but then when she shows humanity (Or poniness whatever) and does something that doesn't seem logical people complain about that. Isn't a good thing that characters act like humans and can lose it? Twi's lost it several times before, this was just something that would push her over the edge. Twilight has huge lapses in logic when her neuroses get to her.

[RainbowTashie 379]

I detest Twilight's Kingdom with a burning passion for reasons that I could honestly write a lengthy essay over. But that's not what I'm making this topic to talk about. I'm making this topic to discuss the precedence that this episode sets, and what it will probably mean for the show going forward. 

 

To start off, let's talk about the treatment of the mane five (Twilight's friends).  

 

Season 5 seems like it's clearly going to change up the show by having the mane six going on "friendship adventures" across Equestria, so it seems to me like the slice-of-life nature of the show will be taking a backseat for the most part. We know that the season premiere will involve the mane six going to a town where all the inhabitants have equal signs for cutie marks, and the recap previews for Rainbow Dash and Rarity show that they will somehow end up with equal signs as well. It's unclear what exactly this will do to them, but judging by their reactions (Rarity: ) , it clearly can't be anything good, and this presents the issue. 

 

The mane five were reduced to complete helplessness in Twilight's Kingdom while Twilight got to have her own solo moment of heroism that she didn't have to share with anyone else. This from the same show whose theme up to that point had been solving problems and overcoming challenges through friendship, rather than through individual efforts.  

 

So with Rarity and Rainbow Dash confirmed to be stripped of power, how much of a stretch is it for me to assume that it will happen to the rest of the mane five as well? How much of a stretch is it for me to assume that Twilight will have to be the one to save them yet again? After all, Princess Twilight Sparkle actually went an extra mile to suggest that the mane five are completely useless without Twilight. It will annoy me to no end if they're reduced to helplessness again while Twilight is not, or if we're treated to Twilight being glorified above them before they all eventually solve the problem.  

 

Bottom line, I want the subtitle of the show to remain Friendship is Magic and not Twilight is Best Pony.  :okiedokielokie:

 

 

Now let's talk about Twilight herself, and what this means for her. 

 

Firstly, I view the battle as her actively attempting to take Tirek's life purely out of vengeful bloodlust, rather than out of any desire to protect Equestria from him. This is because she did not engage him until his actions affected her personally, and before then, she wasn't even angry. She engaged him recklessly, and clearly did not take into consideration any other ponies or animals that might have been in the area who may have easily been killed by her blasts. I view the battle to be her absolute lowest moment in the show, and cannot for the life of me understand why everyone loves it so much (other than how well-animated it was, and I'll admit that I was impressed with it at first).  

 

With that in mind, I know that there's going to be an episode where she laments over the loss of her destroyed library, and that's nice and all. But there's another type of episode that I would love to see more than that. I would really like to see an episode where Twilight revisits the site of the battle, sees all of the destruction (which had better not just magically disappear when season 5 starts), and then comes to a realization of just how far she had taken it. The reason I want to see this kind of episode is because it definitely seems like Twilight is going to be walking away from the battle without the slightest bit of damage to her psyche, which, in my opinion, is absurd.

 

Twilight has always been portrayed as very down-to-earth, but still very playful and fun-loving. This is something that never changed when she became an alicorn. So the notion that in a single moment, she can just snap from  into   , then just snap straight back is just utterly ridiculous to me. It's like the equivalent of an easygoing and carefree man going to war, seeing and participating in a ton of battle, and coming back and remaining the same easygoing guy he always was. It doesn't work like that. He would more than likely be struck with PTSD, and it would be quite some time before he came back to be the same guy he always was. 

 

I'm not saying that Twilight should develop PTSD or anything like that, but seeing her just come straight back to who she was directly after engaging in an intense life-or-death struggle is just something that makes her completely unrelatable. If season 5 had an episode that focused on her coming to realize just what she did and what she's capable of, it would at least make her seem like an actual person again. In fact it would probably go as far as to make me actually feel better about her.

 

And lastly, perhaps my biggest worry about Twilight's Kingdom is the notion that the bronies are running the show now. 

 

Does anyone honestly think that DHX had the original target demographic of FiM in mind (7-10 year old girls) when they animated that battle sequence? No. It was made for no other reason than to please the bronies who had been clamoring endlessly for a grimdark moment in the show. 

 

It was fine when it was just little in-show references to the fandom. But pandering to them on a level like this is just going too far, particularly when it goes against the themes of the show like Twilight's battle did. I think it's fair to assume that if bronies were the ones actually doing the writing for FiM, it would be quite a different show, to say the least. So the idea that the writers are now trying to write the show in a way that pleases the bronies is a bit disturbing to me. 

 

I'm not saying that fight scenes do not belong in FiM. But if they do happen, they need to include all of the mane six unless they're simply not present, (like with Applejack's fight in Somepony to Watch Over Me), and they should not be quite as intense to the point where I actually believe that the characters are in it to the death. 

 

I'm truly hoping that the battle in Twilight's Kingdom will be the last of its kind. 

 

Anyway, that's just my thoughts. Sorry about the tl;dr. 

but twilight had her key episode essentially the mane 6 all had their key episides where it challenged the element they represent bla de blah