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S02:E25+E26 - A Canterlot Wedding


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First time I ever heard "This Day Aria", I wept. No even going to lie, I wept. And I nearly cried at the "BBBFF Reprise".

Overall, really awesome episodes. I love love love Twilight's two flashbacks, fleshing out history is always a good thing. Queen Chysalis is absolutely terrifying. Leader of a group of beings who feed upon the one thing that can destroy evil, able to transform into whomever they choose to fool their loved ones and weaken them. Flat? Maybe, just a little. Scary? Very much so.

 

"No, I do not love the groom

In my heart, there is no room

But still, I want him to be all mine."

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Queen Chrysalis is the smartest villain of the series so far. Nightmare Moon could've incapacitated the Mane 6 at any time before they had the Elements and Discord basically told the Elements where he hid the only thing that could stop him. Chrysalis planned everything out. She was stronger than Celestia at the point in time she revealed herself, and could've conquered Equestria with her Changeling army.

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I have proof as to who the mare in the photo with Applejack is!

 

 

post-1321-0-72749800-1335216797_thumb.png

 

 

She is Apple Fritter, she was introduced to Twilight in the first episode, she's part of the Apple family!

 

 

post-1321-0-89741400-1335216860_thumb.png

 

 

Good work, I'd never figured out who she was! It's so nice when we get continuity, even in the details

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Large quoting replying time!

 

I loved this post so much I joined to reply to it, lol XP

 

Always glad when I inspire someone to join the forums.

 

- To be fair to the mane 6, in "It's about Time" they listened to Twilight's future disaster thing and in the end it turned out to be just Twilight worrying herself for nothing. Plus, in the beginning of "A Canterlot Wedding" we clearly see Twilight is disgruntled about the wedding since her brother didn't tell her about it, so it wouldn't be hard to think Twilight took her anger and her imagination and started seeing what wasn't actually there (Cadance being evil). Of course, this might not be a very good expalnation for their total disregard of Twilight's warnings but it's what I have...

 

Well, see, it's not so much a case of not listening to Twilight as it is outright ignoring her feelings altogether. They reacted more to Shining Armor's anger and Deceptive Cadance's crocodile tears than they did to their friend. Mind, up until this point it seems likely that they knew very little about Shining Armor, if anything at all, given how Rarity reacts when she learns that Shining Armor is the Captain of the Royal Guard. They had more reason to take Twilight's side than they did Cadance's. It just left me with a sour taste in my mouth because their reaction didn't seem all that realistic. Not even Celestia wanted to entertain what Twilight had to say.

-I think Cadance didn't escape because she was tarpped behind a wall Twilight destroyed (not sure though, i'll have to rewatch it)

 

That is something I considered, yes. It's unclear exactly how the caverns are set up...it could be that both of them were locked into smaller caverns and had to break into the larger caverns, and given that Cadance does not appear to have the same range of magical abilities as Twilight does--speaking of which, remind me to never piss her off--she may have been unable to break out on her own. However, the way the episode progresses, it suggests that Twilight was the only one locked into a small room and that Cadance was in the exterior, larger cavern system, so...it's up in the air.

 

-First: The fact that Celestia was immediately defeated didn't strike me as her being weak. As they said in the episode, Chrysalis at that time was using Shing Armor's love as power. So really, Celestia would have one if it wasn't for that strong love powering up Chrysalis.

 

I agree, but you misunderstood what I was saying. I wasn't calling Celestia weak so much as I was saying she had limits to her power, that she is not the all powerful goddess that many continued to proclaim she was right up until the finale. The finale seemed to finally establish as canon what I suspected about Alicorns all along, that they were merely more powerful beings, but not the omniscient immortal living gods that some said they were.

 

-Second: the foalsitter thing: my personal theory is that Cadance and Shining Armor already knew each other and were close (but not necesarily in love yet). So Cadance took to foalsitting Twilight as a favour to Shining Armor, who couldn't do it himself since he was probably busy.

Nope. The New York Times advertisement, released prior to the episode, specifically stated that they met through her foalsitting of Twilight. That means she foalsat for Twilight before she met Shining Armor.

-Third: I believe Chrysalis knowing about the caves was just due to some good old research. Since she can turn into anyine, getting to secretly kept information wouldn't be too hard.

 

-Fourth: I think she just planned to keep up the ruse until her underlings managed to invade and then Celestia wouldn't have the power to stop them all.

 

-Sixth: it would be interesting to see them come back. Heck, Chrysalis could even team up with Discord somehow: she and her minions could just start infighting between ponies and then when they're no longer friends...BAM, in comes Discord.

 

For the most part we're in agreement here. I too would like to see the Changelings return in the future, possibly as a season miniarc where they are infiltrating in the background in a few episodes and then show themselves full force say, midway through the season, this time acting intelligently and taking full advantage of their capabilities rather than acting like idiots.

 

Not entirely, as I mentioned in my own post, the aura of Shining Armor is the same color as the hue of Twilight's magic, yet it's no where near his actual color pallette.

 

Indeed! I wrote my post prior to reading anything in the thread, intentionally to avoid accidentally copying or otherwise being inspired by what others said in the thread, so I didn't see that. As far as I'm aware though, Shining Armor is one of the few exceptions and that most of the time the aura of magic sticks to their eye color.

 

Either way though, the green was a clear indication, that Deceptive Cadance was masquerading.

 

 

My guess on this part is somewhere around the guess that it's something she uncovered from her hypnotized victim, as caption of the royal guard, Shining Armor must be one of the few ponies knowing about this "prison"

That would raise the otherr question about where she had Cadence imprisoned untill she dicovered the caves though, which I can't personally answer.

 

That's part of why I figured Chrysalis might've been lying or at least not been entirely truthful with Twilight. Notice how she claims it's where she sticks "everyone who gets in her way." That was why I expected for a brief instant that we might see the bones of dead ponies everywhere...instead the only prisoners were Cadance and Twilight.

 

Still, learning from Shining Armor, who most assuredly would be one of the few who would have knowledge of the caverns if anyone would, makes perfect sense.

To the question about why they didn't keep the elements at hoof would be out of fear that they might get stolen? As Shining Armor was hypnotized, I don't think it would have been much of a challange to hypnotize any of the Mane 6 either. Rendering one of the Elements useless means the reast of them are, as seen when Spike was stand-in for Rainbow Dash. Though, of course they couldn't have known that the Elements would be in direct danger so your question still stands.

 

True, true, however I would argue that due to the nature of how the Elements of Harmony function, they would be useless if used by ponies who are mind controlled. The Elements rely upon the bonds of friendship and love between the Mane Six--this is why they didn't work when the Mane Six were Discorded during Return of Harmony, after all. Mind control would probably disrupt those bonds in the exact same way.

 

...which is exactly what you said. Excuse me: I initially misread your post as saying the Elements could be used against Canterlot. (I'll leave my words because they're still true and good information to have.)

 

As has been pointed out to me by others, having the Elements on hoof directly would probably be the only safe way to keep them available...if they were, say, moved to another place more easily accessible, said place would be just as easily accessible to villains as they would be to heroes--Discord as it was managed to snatch the Elements out of the tower...or possibly waited till Celestia removed the box from the room and then snatched them out of that box, but either way he snatched them.

 

Therefore the only safe way to have the Elements available and ready to go would be to have them equipped. Otherwise they probably should stay locked away. It's a question of balance. On the one hand the Elements of Harmony are, as others have said, akin to nuclear weaponry, WMDs, your ace in the hole you only pull out as a last resort. On the other hand, as the events of the wedding proved, if they're not available and they are NEEDED, it's too easy to get caught or beaten into submission and prevented from accessing them at all, making them rather useless. Can't use a weapon if you don't have it, after all.

 

I am thinking that in the future, during Season Three, if the season takes cues from this finale and heads in a more action-oriented direction that we will see the Elements of Harmony out and available.

 

Overall a very nice analysis, capturing many of the thoughts I had throughout the episodes as well, magnificent to read your thought and questions to the plot as well as your overall opinion on the whole thing! Gogo for the long posts! A big and lovely brohoof you get from me Kyro.

 

Thank you kindly. Yours was also a joy to read.

 

 

I have decided to take up the challenge of responding to some of Kyronea's inquiries. After all, my shorter response was conditional.

Let us match wits!

 

Celestia may have anticipated Twilight's importance prior to the magic test which eventually landed her in the position of Princess Celestia's pupil. I am more inclined to believe that, as you said, Twilight's family already held some prominence within the Canterlot community and the royal court. By the time Twilight took her entrance exam, Shining Armor was likely already in training for the Royal Guard. His fairly potent magic further suggests that such power runs in the family. It is completely unclear what their parents do (or did) for a living, but I would venture to guess they are relatively renowned for their magical powers.

 

If Celestia and Twilight's family were already close, then Cadence foalsitting Twilight is not out of the question. Shining Armor went off to train with the Royal Guard, and his responsibilities gradually increased. And it seems quite plausible that Cadence received subtle training by having to look after a brainy, young unicorn. "Baby Cakes" implied that young unicorns can be a hoof full.

 

This is along the lines I was thinking as well. I'll just go ahead and say it outright at this point since it's not fair to keep dodging this: I suspect that Cadance foalsat Twilight so that Celestia could use Cadance to scope out Twilight. I'm very much a believer in the Chessmaster Celestia hypothesis when it comes to the original dealings with Nightmare Moon and the Elements of Harmony, and that Celestia was watching Twilight possibly even from the moment of her birth. Given that Twilight's family does appear to have noble connections, that would probably make it easier for Celestia to be aware of Twilight's existence in the first place...it's possible, after all, that Celestia was monitoring quite a few Unicorn foals in the area who had great potential.

 

What you say about Cadance receiving training in the form of looking after a brainy young Unicorn however...I hadn't thought of that before, but it makes sense, especially given that Cadance was quite young indeed and clearly aged during the flashback. She's no ancient niece of Celestia, after all--she must have been born probably only ten or twelve years prior to Twilight.

 

Night Mare Moon as a salient threat had been forgotten by most ponies until she reappeared. There may have been archived information on the caverns. Chrysalis might also have discovered them by mistake or explored alternate routes into Canterlot. If she had a grand offensive planned, then knowing the pathways to bypass the defendes would be a must to ensure success. The caverns most certainly could have been explored in more detail with respect to their history and geography. The fact that there are caves beneath Canterlot raises a number of questions.

 

 

Nightmare Moon was implied to have been forgotten as a threat, yes, but later episodes appeared to contradict that. She was, at the very least, known as a mythological figure...though, true, it's not as if we here on Earth fear that Kronos or the other Titans are going to break out of Tartarus and start rampaging through Greece or anything, even though most of us know who they are from Greek mythology. So yes, I'm thinking that if she didn't obtain the information from Shining Armor or some other pony directly, it was through archival research. As a "Princess" Deceptive Cadance would have had access to the archives, after all.

 

I look forward to seeing future fanon on those caverns. It's actually quite interesting that we saw them, as I had speculated--though not anywhere online--that there might've been older caverns beneath Canterlot Castle, old secret passages and so on. My own speculations on the extent of these caverns will take some time, however.

Queen Chrysalis showed herself to be both cunning and myopic: she could easily manipulate the ponies around her with just her wits and ability to mimic the physical appearance of other creatures, yet she was completely obsessed with the wedding. In truth, Chrysalis might have thought that once the wedding was complete and Shining Armor was totally under her power, overwhelming the defenses of Canterlot would be relatively simple. Of course, she was also outed far sooner than expected, it seems. Had Twilight and Cadence not returned, the Changeling army could have completely swamped Canterlot.

 

Given her uncertainty and surprise in successfully confronting and defeating Celestia, I doubt Queen Chrysalis desired a direct confrontation. A lot of it might have become a hit and run fight, with Chrysalis feeding off of other ponies until she became strong enough to worry about Frieza---er, I mean Celestia. If I had to guess, Chrysalis expected her army to be on hoof once she revealed her true form and sought to depose Celestia and Luna once and for all.

 

Exactly. As I said, mixed levels of competence. She focused purely on her own goals and didn't think everything through in a way that disappoints me somewhat. It's too bad we couldn't have had hints towards her existence throughout the season...I imagine she's spent most of season two in Canterlot as one pony or another, sneaking in and learning everything she could.

 

That said, I don't think that Chrysalis could have used a Zerg rush tactic to take down Celestia and Luna. Note that even the Mane Six were able to wipe out a significant amount of Changelings before being forced into submission. I imagine that Celestia and Luna, were they to fight with full force against the Changeling army, might've been able to succeed in taking them out...it would probably have drained them, possibly permanently, if not threatened their lives altogether, but I think they could have succeeded. The real question is how Chrysalis would have factored in. She almost certainly would have lost to Celestia without the power she drained from Shining Armor, but would she have been enough to tip the scales in the favor of the Changelings had her and the army matched against Celestia and Luna? It's a question I don't think we'll ever get a real answer to, but I think it's worth investigating in the future in fanon.

 

Celestia or Luna might have sensed a plot to attack Canterlot, though that seems to be highly unlikely. I don't know how the Changelings would have delivered a formal threat without being uncovered. The nature of the threat was opaque; nobody knew what to expect, so they erected a giant barrier and placed more guards on patrol. Even without the details, I still believe her plan was pretty darn clever. Even if the writers avoided elaborating on the nature of executing Queen Chrysalis's master plan, I like that they incorporated a relatively clever villain who didn't immediately open the can of worms in front of everypony. If a few pieces had fallen the right way, Chrysalis might have won.

 

Of course, she didn't anticipate the Mane Six or, really, Twilight's vigilance. Chrysalis was rather poor at Speed Chess, even if her Batman Gambit effectively succeeded.

 

Yes, given the circumstances and that she had to sneak in and sabotage everything from within, she executed a fairly brilliant plan to take advantage of the situation and disrupt Canterlot's defenses. I just question why it was necessary that she had to go about doing that in the first place and how Canterlot became aware of a threat without knowing what the threat was. And as I said, I could only see that happening through some form of stupidly unspecific divination magic, or Chrysalis being an idiot and warning Canterlot in some vague way. I hope we get a better answer in the future, in later seasons, if there are more threats to Canterlot.

 

The hitch here is that Twilight broke everypony's trust by accusing Doppelganger Cadence of being evil. Twilight had been socially ostracized from the wedding, so introducing the Elements of Harmony on stand-by would have been pointless given her absence. The Elements are also the last-ditch weapons for handling enormous threats. It might have been viewed as overkill, akin to telling Tony Stark to wear his Iron Man suit at the wedding. Since they are already in the castle, grabbing the Elements of Harmony in an emergency would not appear to be too difficult.

 

Unfortunately, things got out of hoof very quickly.

 

Did Twilight arguably break their trust? Perhaps. But I still think they would have more reason to listen to Twilight than they would have listen to believe what Deceptive Cadance said. Twilight provided enough reasons for there to at least have been a humoring investigation on the part of Celestia, especially given that a threat was already known to exist! It doesn't make sense that the would just shut Twilight down entirely.

 

As for the Elements, again as I said, there are ways in which they could have been disabled or taken, and getting to them isn't as easy as it appears, especially not if there are wards on that tower that prevent teleportation. You would have to physically run the length of the castle in order to access that tower, and against any threat that the Elements would be needed against in the first place, that to me seems too risky a plan to implement. But again, it's all about balance.

 

I'm completely in favor of Queen Chrysalis returning for revenge. She has the magic and the smarts to be a truly formidable foe. As cool as Discord is, it's hard to imagine him being a recurring villain given his ridiculous amount of power. It would be difficult to keep interesting the Mane Six repeatedly facing off against the Dr. Manhattan of chaos. Chrysalis is vulnerable enough yet most definitely a threat to return without too much trouble.

 

Queen Chrysalis's fate is left unclear: she was knocked into the horizon a long distance away, so her absence would not be glaring. On the other hoof, she could just as easily return down the road with her Changeling army in tow. The writers did a nice job of not writing themselves into a corner.

 

The Changelings, like Tartarus, provide a possible wellspring of story ideas for the future. I'll elaborate on this in a future post in a speculation thread, but suffice to say for now: I agree, and hope to see them again.

 

"You don't watch the news very often, do you, Princess Luna?"

 

It's bizarre that Luna didn't attend the wedding, even if it was held in the daytime. I prefer the Batman solution: she was handling the threat off-screen and then returned, behaving aloof about the situation.

 

Except that she says "Did I miss anything?" as though she were unaware of what all went on entirely. Her not attending the wedding could have simply been due to the fact that she stays awake at night and sleeps during the day, and she might not be all that close to Cadance. Luna strikes me more and more, as I think about it, as an awkward teenager, younger than we might expect.

 

Although that said, there's another odd line of hers that is really confusing. "Stay indoors, Twilight Sparkle." Why does she say this? It makes little sense to me.

 

They have definitely gotten tougher. It's likely a product of the writers being liberated from the strict confines of the first season's "infotainment" stipulation. In universe, however, it more than likely represents the Mane Six's distinct advantage when fighting alongside one another. When they undertake challenges as a team, they tend to be stronger than when wrestling with matters as individual ponies. It definitely harkens back to "The Return of Harmony".

 

The second season has definitely had fewer restraints on it compared to the first season. At the same time, though, the second season has also had other issues. It certainly hasn't been free from the requirements of toy promotion, for example. And I was already aware that Twilight had been growing more powerful and have speculated as to why--speculations that have been significantly bolstered by the events of the finale.

 

I mostly was commentating on the rest of the Mane Six, who up until now haven't had much opportunity to demonstrate their abilities as much as Twilight has.

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Two more things to add.

 

Someone wrote a fiction on this forum that's like a prologue to the story which explains what the threat could be. It might be a little over done but I can still accept the logic behind it.

http://mlpforums.com...inst-canterlot/

 

Also I just had the idea that one of the reasons why Twilight was foalsitted was that her parents were busy doing something possibly important as that's the main reason that sort of thing happens but as we don't know much about them we it's only speculation.

Her parents don't have to be extremely busy either and Twilight could have had some time to sped with them but we could assume that they were busy enough to need a foalsitter or could just use one one even if it was to just give them time to relax.

 

Would be nice to see the show explore her parents a bit more in season 3.

Edited by Dave247
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The Royal Wedding was just,woah. Not at ALL what I expected. I watched them both at once. It was really awesome! though the villian really creeped me out. I was hoping thered be a all of the mane 6 song but the songs were still awesome

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(edited)

(Ugh. My computer, a modern marvel of garbage, crashed without rhyme or reason, wiping out my post as I was crafting it.)

 

Kyronea, our avatars make it appear as if Twilight and Captain America are about to have an epic battle requiring bravery, cunning, and friendship.

 

This is along the lines I was thinking as well. I'll just go ahead and say it outright at this point since it's not fair to keep dodging this: I suspect that Cadance foalsat Twilight so that Celestia could use Cadance to scope out Twilight. I'm very much a believer in the Chessmaster Celestia hypothesis when it comes to the original dealings with Nightmare Moon and the Elements of Harmony, and that Celestia was watching Twilight possibly even from the moment of her birth. Given that Twilight's family does appear to have noble connections, that would probably make it easier for Celestia to be aware of Twilight's existence in the first place...it's possible, after all, that Celestia was monitoring quite a few Unicorn foals in the area who had great potential.

I had a slightly longer reply to this initially, but I'll condense it to this: it would be fascinating if Twilight, clearly a magical prodigy, were the potential fulfillment of some sort of legend. Such is already the case with respect to the Elements, though I mean a legend more specifically tied to Twilight personally. It might explain Celestia being connected to Twilight from afar ever since the latter was a foal: there was reason to believe Twilight would be the manifestation of a prophecy. Just food for thought.

 

Nightmare Moon was implied to have been forgotten as a threat, yes, but later episodes appeared to contradict that. She was, at the very least, known as a mythological figure...though, true, it's not as if we here on Earth fear that Kronos or the other Titans are going to break out of Tartarus and start rampaging through Greece or anything, even though most of us know who they are from Greek mythology. So yes, I'm thinking that if she didn't obtain the information from Shining Armor or some other pony directly, it was through archival research. As a "Princess" Deceptive Cadance would have had access to the archives, after all.

It looks like we're effectively in total agreement on this one!

 

I look forward to seeing future fanon on those caverns. It's actually quite interesting that we saw them, as I had speculated--though not anywhere online--that there might've been older caverns beneath Canterlot Castle, old secret passages and so on. My own speculations on the extent of these caverns will take some time, however.

As I said before, the existence of the caverns raise a number of questions. How long have they existed? Who constructed them? What was their intended purpose? Since Queen Chrysalis is given to deception, one cannot take her explanation totally at face value. As you had mentioned, she might have given the brief backstory on the caverns in order to break Twilight's will.

 

Exactly. As I said, mixed levels of competence. She focused purely on her own goals and didn't think everything through in a way that disappoints me somewhat. It's too bad we couldn't have had hints towards her existence throughout the season...I imagine she's spent most of season two in Canterlot as one pony or another, sneaking in and learning everything she could.

I wonder when the writers planned for Queen Chrysalis to become the villain for the finale? It may partly explain why no foreshadowing existed. Chrysalis must have gone through Canterlot in disguise in order to better understand the security and geography. Replacing Cadance probably came about once the wedding date was imminent so as not to expose herself in disguise for too long.

 

That said, I don't think that Chrysalis could have used a Zerg rush tactic to take down Celestia and Luna. Note that even the Mane Six were able to wipe out a significant amount of Changelings before being forced into submission. I imagine that Celestia and Luna, were they to fight with full force against the Changeling army, might've been able to succeed in taking them out...it would probably have drained them, possibly permanently, if not threatened their lives altogether, but I think they could have succeeded. The real question is how Chrysalis would have factored in. She almost certainly would have lost to Celestia without the power she drained from Shining Armor, but would she have been enough to tip the scales in the favor of the Changelings had her and the army matched against Celestia and Luna? It's a question I don't think we'll ever get a real answer to, but I think it's worth investigating in the future in fanon.

Celestia and Luna fighting the Changelings undoubtedly would have looked like this:

 

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpUIlV95Qwc

(Yet another reason why The Avengers will be My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic The Movie)

 

Chrysalis likely anticipated a confrontation with Celestia and/or Luna sooner or later; my guess is that she expected it to happen later, once the Changelings broke through and overran the palace. With strength in numbers, Chrysalis and her army could have defeated Celestia. Luna's conspicuous absence made the prospect of victory all the greater.

 

Yes, given the circumstances and that she had to sneak in and sabotage everything from within, she executed a fairly brilliant plan to take advantage of the situation and disrupt Canterlot's defenses. I just question why it was necessary that she had to go about doing that in the first place and how Canterlot became aware of a threat without knowing what the threat was. And as I said, I could only see that happening through some form of stupidly unspecific divination magic, or Chrysalis being an idiot and warning Canterlot in some vague way. I hope we get a better answer in the future, in later seasons, if there are more threats to Canterlot.

If I had to venture a guess, the Royal Guard was given a vague yet ominous anonymous threat. I have no idea how it would be delivered (perhaps by magic scroll?). Given that Canterlot is generally peaceful, any threat to safety would prompt a strong response. Nevertheless, it does not explain why the barrier was erected---unless they were aware of an army potentially invading Canterlot. Perhaps the Changelings overran an outpost or the like?

 

Did Twilight arguably break their trust? Perhaps. But I still think they would have more reason to listen to Twilight than they would have listen to believe what Deceptive Cadance said. Twilight provided enough reasons for there to at least have been a humoring investigation on the part of Celestia, especially given that a threat was already known to exist! It doesn't make sense that the would just shut Twilight down entirely.

The hints of an explanation were that the other ponies thought Twilight had become zealously possessive of her brother, hence her sudden dislike of Cadance. Furthermore, the other ponies (Mane Six) took Doppelganger Cadance's behavior at face value, seeing as they did not know her previous. It was really Shining Armor's response, however, that scuttled an investigation: affirmative and clear spoken, he apparently explained why Twilight had misinterpreted the events thus far. With emotions riding high (and being fed upon), rational consideration did not prevail. We can say that Celestia should have listened to Twilight, at least heard her case. Obviously, that did not pan out.

 

We can really chalk it up to Shining Armor's rebuttal.

 

As for the Elements, again as I said, there are ways in which they could have been disabled or taken, and getting to them isn't as easy as it appears, especially not if there are wards on that tower that prevent teleportation. You would have to physically run the length of the castle in order to access that tower, and against any threat that the Elements would be needed against in the first place, that to me seems too risky a plan to implement. But again, it's all about balance.

Another consideration is that having the Elements on hoof is a fast way to have them potentially lost or stolen. A potent magic user could get the drop on everyone and teleport one of the Elements and/or its carrier outside of the castle. Keeping them locked up is the best means by which to keep them secure until they are absolutely necessary.

 

For the sake of narrative, though, the story would be far less interesting if the Mane Six just zapped Chrysalis as soon as she appeared. It's similar to why the protagonists in Dragon Ball never gather all seven Dragon Balls to protect them even though bad guys keep attempting to use them for evil: there would be no immediate danger if everyone planned ahead.

 

Except that she says "Did I miss anything?" as though she were unaware of what all went on entirely. Her not attending the wedding could have simply been due to the fact that she stays awake at night and sleeps during the day, and she might not be all that close to Cadance. Luna strikes me more and more, as I think about it, as an awkward teenager, younger than we might expect.

All jokes aside (not to imply you are joking in this response), Luna might not have been "sleeping" in the conventional "wake me up in seven hours" sense. It could be that Celestia and Luna were originally intended to "hibernate" or enter a deep slumber to recover their energy. Celestia became the strongest of the two, carrying out the functions of raising both the moon and sun, so she may not require the same amount of rest. Luna, on the other hand, is clearly weaker, and she may only be capable of taking care of the night before slipping off into a deep sleep.

 

In short, your final sentence may be apt for another reason entirely than intended: she is not as developed as her sister in terms of power.

 

Although that said, there's another odd line of hers that is really confusing. "Stay indoors, Twilight Sparkle." Why does she say this? It makes little sense to me.

That seemed to be more about Luna wanting as few disturbances as possible when on duty.

 

The second season has definitely had fewer restraints on it compared to the first season. At the same time, though, the second season has also had other issues. It certainly hasn't been free from the requirements of toy promotion, for example. And I was already aware that Twilight had been growing more powerful and have speculated as to why--speculations that have been significantly bolstered by the events of the finale.

 

I mostly was commentating on the rest of the Mane Six, who up until now haven't had much opportunity to demonstrate their abilities as much as Twilight has.

 

Season two definitely broke from the first season's formula. One wonders if season three will dabble in storylines which last longer than two-part episodes.

 

It was great to see the Mane Six have their moment together as a team to take down an evil force. Most of the time, and I think this is partly what you were getting at, it hinges on Twilight getting everything into place. This time around, the Mane Six went into battle all at once.

Edited by Thereisnospoon303
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(Ugh. My computer, a modern marvel of garbage, crashed without rhyme or reason, wiping out my post as I was crafting it.)

We all know that one...

Kyronea, our avatars make it appear as if Twilight and Captain America are about to have an epic battle requiring bravery, cunning, and friendship.

 

Would Captain America consider Twilight a worthy opponent? I know nothing about him.

I had a slightly longer reply to this initially, but I'll condense it to this: it would be fascinating if Twilight, clearly a magical prodigy, were the potential fulfillment of some sort of legend. Such is already the case with respect to the Elements, though I mean a legend more specifically tied to Twilight personally. It might explain Celestia being connected to Twilight from afar ever since the latter was a foal: there was reason to believe Twilight would be the manifestation of a prophecy. Just food for thought.

 

Specifically to Twilight, perhaps in the sense of Twilight returning the balance between Dark and Light, or between Sun and Moon? I've seen the concept before...I've never been too sure what to think of it. I mean, granted, I do believe that Twilight and the rest of the Mane Six were born to be the spirits of the Elements of Harmony, but I'm a little hesitant to give Twilight too much more special unique qualities beyond that...she'd be approaching Mary Sue territory.

 

As I said before, the existence of the caverns raise a number of questions. How long have they existed? Who constructed them? What was their intended purpose? Since Queen Chrysalis is given to deception, one cannot take her explanation totally at face value. As you had mentioned, she might have given the brief backstory on the caverns in order to break Twilight's will.

 

Based upon the magical qualities of the gems, I assume their intended purpose was to mine for those gems. After all that was a mine cart that Cadance and Twilight rode during This Day Aria, which says to me the gems were valuable.

 

...in fact, given the history we saw put into fable form in Hearth's Warming Eve, I wonder if Canterlot wasn't the original Unicornia settlement.

 

I wonder when the writers planned for Queen Chrysalis to become the villain for the finale? It may partly explain why no foreshadowing existed. Chrysalis must have gone through Canterlot in disguise in order to better understand the security and geography. Replacing Cadance probably came about once the wedding date was imminent so as not to expose herself in disguise for too long.

 

True, it would have been a bit difficult to foreshadow if Chrysalis wasn't developed until most of the way through the season. With luck, though, the writers will attempt to foreshadow for future villains.

 

Celestia and Luna fighting the Changelings undoubtedly would have looked like this:

 

(Yet another reason why The Avengers will be My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic The Movie)

That was an awesome clip...and probably a fairly good approximation of how their battle would go.

 

Chrysalis likely anticipated a confrontation with Celestia and/or Luna sooner or later; my guess is that she expected it to happen later, once the Changelings broke through and overran the palace. With strength in numbers, Chrysalis and her army could have defeated Celestia. Luna's conspicuous absence made the prospect of victory all the greater.

 

That does seem like her most likely plan. I still wonder though if she wasn't intending some underhanded method of slaying the Princesses instead, such as my flippant suggestion of assassinating them in their sleep. If they sleep in the manner you suggest later in your post, that might've been quite easy to do if she stayed in disguise.

 

If I had to venture a guess, the Royal Guard was given a vague yet ominous anonymous threat. I have no idea how it would be delivered (perhaps by magic scroll?). Given that Canterlot is generally peaceful, any threat to safety would prompt a strong response. Nevertheless, it does not explain why the barrier was erected---unless they were aware of an army potentially invading Canterlot. Perhaps the Changelings overran an outpost or the like?

 

Unless they were given an anonymous tip by someone who was aware of the Changelings, that explanation still falls flat. The Changelings overrunning an outpost also strikes me as a bad explanation because such an occurrence would have given away what the Changelings were, meaning that again Canterlot would have been investigating everyone and anyone for possible Changeling replacement.

 

The hints of an explanation were that the other ponies thought Twilight had become zealously possessive of her brother, hence her sudden dislike of Cadance. Furthermore, the other ponies (Mane Six) took Doppelganger Cadance's behavior at face value, seeing as they did not know her previous. It was really Shining Armor's response, however, that scuttled an investigation: affirmative and clear spoken, he apparently explained why Twilight had misinterpreted the events thus far. With emotions riding high (and being fed upon), rational consideration did not prevail. We can say that Celestia should have listened to Twilight, at least heard her case. Obviously, that did not pan out.

 

We can really chalk it up to Shining Armor's rebuttal.

 

 

Well, I suppose...I did say that even I almost believed Shining Armor, after all, even though I knew for certain Deceptive Cadance was a villain at that point. I don't think I'm ever going to feel good about how that scene progressed, but I will give it that, at least.

 

Another consideration is that having the Elements on hoof is a fast way to have them potentially lost or stolen. A potent magic user could get the drop on everyone and teleport one of the Elements and/or its carrier outside of the castle. Keeping them locked up is the best means by which to keep them secure until they are absolutely necessary.

 

For the sake of narrative, though, the story would be far less interesting if the Mane Six just zapped Chrysalis as soon as she appeared. It's similar to why the protagonists in Dragon Ball never gather all seven Dragon Balls to protect them even though bad guys keep attempting to use them for evil: there would be no immediate danger if everyone planned ahead.

 

Both points equally true, especially the stealing part. That said I do try to analyze from within universe, if possible, so while the out of universe explanation of preserving the quality of the narrative is certainly acceptable from a writing standpoint, it still makes me wonder what kept them from doing it in universe. I, however, would be willing to chalk it up to a lack of experience resulting in a misjudgement on their part. I suspect in the future we WILL see the Elements made available.

 

...

 

Which means we'll also probably see the Elements being destroyed...

 

All jokes aside (not to imply you are joking in this response), Luna might not have been "sleeping" in the conventional "wake me up in seven hours" sense. It could be that Celestia and Luna were originally intended to "hibernate" or enter a deep slumber to recover their energy. Celestia became the strongest of the two, carrying out the functions of raising both the moon and sun, so she may not require the same amount of rest. Luna, on the other hand, is clearly weaker, and she may only be capable of taking care of the night before slipping off into a deep sleep.

 

In short, your final sentence may be apt for another reason entirely than intended: she is not as developed as her sister in terms of power.

 

...I really like this idea. It does suggest a couple of possible issues, such as, say, during Celestia's thousand year reign, the possibility that she might have needed to hibernate for a couple of days every fifty years or something like that, which might've left either the sun or the moon in the sky for a bit longer than normal, but on the whole I am willing to adopt this idea into my headcanon straight away. It makes too much sense not to.

 

That seemed to be more about Luna wanting as few disturbances as possible when on duty.

 

Maybe. Still seemed like an odd thing to say.

 

Season two definitely broke from the first season's formula. One wonders if season three will dabble in storylines which last longer than two-part episodes.

 

It was great to see the Mane Six have their moment together as a team to take down an evil force. Most of the time, and I think this is partly what you were getting at, it hinges on Twilight getting everything into place. This time around, the Mane Six went into battle all at once.

 

Goodness gracious I want to see plot arcs so much. I vastly prefer plot arcs to an episodic structure and would dearly love to see this show give villains a chance to actually develop for once. Every single villain, whether they be minor antagonists or major threats to Equestria itself has been a one hit wonder, showing up and being smacked down within the same episode. The show writers have more than enough talent to extend plot arcs...if Season Three has a whole plot arc, or even just a few small mini arcs, I will be one happy pony fan, that's for sure.

 

I wouldn't mind more chances to see the Mane Six battle it out with foes either...we don't need to turn this into The Powerpuff Girls or something where they're fighting things every week, but some more action wouldn't be a bad thing in my mind.

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Everything in that post.

 

0_0;

 

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu7addIxTtI

 

(Checked your profile, change boy to girl).

 

And here I thought I was obsess with some of the characters on the show.

 

Though, in retrospect I have kisses my computer screen with some of the characters on the show as well.

 

Not to mention Queen Chrysalis and Cadence look hot...

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I'll post just a few more of my thoughts, in no particular order.

 

Yes, given the circumstances and that she had to sneak in and sabotage everything from within, she executed a fairly brilliant plan to take advantage of the situation and disrupt Canterlot's defenses. I just question why it was necessary that she had to go about doing that in the first place and how Canterlot became aware of a threat without knowing what the threat was. And as I said, I could only see that happening through some form of stupidly unspecific divination magic, or Chrysalis being an idiot and warning Canterlot in some vague way. I hope we get a better answer in the future, in later seasons, if there are more threats to Canterlot.

 

1. I think I've figured the threat part out: It's very possible that the threat (which was said to have been "made", rather than just "discovered") could have been deliberate on Chysalis's part, for 2 purposes: we can see that Deceptive Cadence is mind controlling SA, a task no doubt made much easier by having his prodigious magical talent focused on the barrier, leaving him weaker and more susceptible to her. It also gives her a reason to keep casting it on him, saying it's to cure his migraines.

 

It also has the more subtle effect of creating a false sense of security. The threat results in Shining Armor being asked to make the barrier, and think that now they're protected. If Chysalis had already infiltrated, she could take advantage of the fact that they are placing most of their trust in the barrier.

 

2. Luna didn't just tell Twilight to stay indoors, she first challenged her with "Who goes there?" She thought it might be someone up to bad deeds, and warned Twilight to stay indoors so that she wouldn't have to keep wasting time challenging her whenever she appeared out of the dark. It's also likely that their security measures would have included a curfew, which of course Twilight was breaking.

 

3. The Royal Alicorn Sisters are definitely immortal, but we now know they aren't omnipotent. (Or omniscient, since then Celestia would have known that she couldn't win in the first place, otherwise she would have been more like her encounter with Discord.)

 

4. Kathleen Barr is the voice of Crysalis, a different VA to Ember from Danny Phantom. Kathleen also provided us with Trixie's voice.

More to come as I think of it...

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I just realized people will now probably look back at other episodes and scream "CHANGELINGS" everytime the animators put the same background pony twice in a scene XD

 

It's moderate replying to reply time!

 

Well, see, it's not so much a case of not listening to Twilight as it is outright ignoring her feelings altogether. They reacted more to Shining Armor's anger and Deceptive Cadance's crocodile tears than they did to their friend. Mind, up until this point it seems likely that they knew very little about Shining Armor, if anything at all, given how Rarity reacts when she learns that Shining Armor is the Captain of the Royal Guard. They had more reason to take Twilight's side than they did Cadance's. It just left me with a sour taste in my mouth because their reaction didn't seem all that realistic. Not even Celestia wanted to entertain what Twilight had to say.

The problem, I think, is that Shining Armor intervened. See, Twilight had already spoken to them about how a bad person Cadance was and the 5 had listened and refuted her accusations. After that Twilight again reappears and again accuses Cadance, only this time it's not just that she's bad, but outright evil. Her only proof is seeing Cadance using her magic on her brother...but then Shining Armor steps in, defends his bride and even has an alternative explanation for what Twilight saw. It's so convincing that even Twilight thinks she made a mistake and tries to apologize. Maybe if Twilight had not second guessed herself and instead asked her friends to trust and help her they might have done so, but as they saw it Twilight misunderstood something, let it blow out of proportion (and this wouldn't be the first time) and now needed some alone time to think about all she had done. In fact, maybe the reason they left her was so they could try talking to her brother to try and make him change his mind...

 

...or maybe the plot required them to not believe her and that's that. But I don't like that so i'll keep trying to come up with excuses for the mane 6 XP

 

I agree, but you misunderstood what I was saying. I wasn't calling Celestia weak so much as I was saying she had limits to her power, that she is not the all powerful goddess that many continued to proclaim she was right up until the finale. The finale seemed to finally establish as canon what I suspected about Alicorns all along, that they were merely more powerful beings, but not the omniscient immortal living gods that some said they were.

Ah I see. I never really thought they were "omniscient immortal lining gods" it would either contracdict earlier episodes or just plain mean Celestia is a troll, pretending to need the help of the mane 6 for fun.

 

Nope. The New York Times advertisement, released prior to the episode, specifically stated that they met through her foalsitting of Twilight. That means she foalsat for Twilight before she met Shining Armor.

I avoided prior spoilers so I didn't know. I really hope she did it because Twilight's family was special then, and not because of some scret prophesy that made Twilight more special than she already is.

 

For the most part we're in agreement here. I too would like to see the Changelings return in the future, possibly as a season miniarc where they are infiltrating in the background in a few episodes and then show themselves full force say, midway through the season, this time acting intelligently and taking full advantage of their capabilities rather than acting like idiots.

I wrote in another thread the changelings could win if they slowly started switching places with ponies in the villages and after that Canterlot. By the time Celestia realized, she would be overwhelmed.

 

But of course, evil can't win. So I doubt they'll use their brains if they ever appear again -_-

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Neither did Faust, apparently. :P

 

 

Okay, a little to much information there.

 

haha i need to learn more about pony's ^^

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The problem, I think, is that Shining Armor intervened. See, Twilight had already spoken to them about how a bad person Cadance was and the 5 had listened and refuted her accusations. After that Twilight again reappears and again accuses Cadance, only this time it's not just that she's bad, but outright evil. Her only proof is seeing Cadance using her magic on her brother...but then Shining Armor steps in, defends his bride and even has an alternative explanation for what Twilight saw. It's so convincing that even Twilight thinks she made a mistake and tries to apologize. Maybe if Twilight had not second guessed herself and instead asked her friends to trust and help her they might have done so, but as they saw it Twilight misunderstood something, let it blow out of proportion (and this wouldn't be the first time) and now needed some alone time to think about all she had done. In fact, maybe the reason they left her was so they could try talking to her brother to try and make him change his mind...

 

...or maybe the plot required them to not believe her and that's that. But I don't like that so i'll keep trying to come up with excuses for the mane 6 XP

 

Again, I'm willing to accept that answer, but I do so grudgingly, because I would have preferred they listen to Twilight instead of ignoring her.

 

But eh, I'm just going round and round in circles if I repeat myself on that any more than I already have.

 

Ah I see. I never really thought they were "omniscient immortal lining gods" it would either contracdict earlier episodes or just plain mean Celestia is a troll, pretending to need the help of the mane 6 for fun.

 

Most did speculate, up until now, that the Alicorns were like goddesses, though. Celestia does appear to be treated that way, and in several episodes her name has been invoked like one would a god. Truth was there was still a lack of evidence either way, enough to both support the goddess interpretation and to support my interpretation...until the finale. With the finale, my interpretation is clearly canon.

 

I avoided prior spoilers so I didn't know. I really hope she did it because Twilight's family was special then, and not because of some scret prophesy that made Twilight more special than she already is.

 

It's one of those bits of information that may become lost within a few weeks, or even considered to be apocryphal, much like how people already believe Chrysalis is a fan name.

 

I wrote in another thread the changelings could win if they slowly started switching places with ponies in the villages and after that Canterlot. By the time Celestia realized, she would be overwhelmed.

 

But of course, evil can't win. So I doubt they'll use their brains if they ever appear again -_-

 

Oh, they'll use their brains. They just won't use them in undefeatable ways. The rules of narrative, and the limits of the target demographic--not to mention plain common sense--means there's no way the villains would ever truly win, but I think it would be foolish to the extreme to not take advantage of the possibility of Changelings returning.

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Would Captain America consider Twilight a worthy opponent? I know nothing about him.

Probably not as a hand-to-hand (or hand-to-hoof) combatant, no, though Rogers wouldn't want to pick a fight with a kind, brainy little pony. He's a nice guy himself, and I'm sure he'd be impressed with Twilight's organizational and tactical smarts. I'm sure they would get along swimmingly after getting accustomed to one another.

 

I just enjoy the juxtaposition of Twilight's mischievous smirk and Cap's confident gaze.

 

Specifically to Twilight, perhaps in the sense of Twilight returning the balance between Dark and Light, or between Sun and Moon? I've seen the concept before...I've never been too sure what to think of it. I mean, granted, I do believe that Twilight and the rest of the Mane Six were born to be the spirits of the Elements of Harmony, but I'm a little hesitant to give Twilight too much more special unique qualities beyond that...she'd be approaching Mary Sue territory.

Indeed. While magic may make it all complete, the story isn't about her, even if she is arguably the central character. It's not My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle and Friends. Without the whole of the Mane Six, nothing is accomplished. I think that is helpful to bear in mind.

 

Still, I don't oppose Twilight maintaing an elevated role. The trouble is balance; as soon as AJ, Dash, Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy become superfluous, we have some serious problems. In some ways, the ending of the finale helped remind the audience implicitly that Twilight isn't the all-powerful solution to problems, and neither are the ruling princesses.

 

Based upon the magical qualities of the gems, I assume their intended purpose was to mine for those gems. After all that was a mine cart that Cadance and Twilight rode during This Day Aria, which says to me the gems were valuable.

Probably, yes. The gems could also amplify magic. Therefore, jokingly I must ask: "Celestia, have you been trying your hoof at making a magical super weapon?"

 

...in fact, given the history we saw put into fable form in Hearth's Warming Eve, I wonder if Canterlot wasn't the original Unicornia settlement.

It could be. The mines are extremely old and forgotten, so the project may have been abandoned once Equestria was founded or when Celestia became princess.

 

True, it would have been a bit difficult to foreshadow if Chrysalis wasn't developed until most of the way through the season. With luck, though, the writers will attempt to foreshadow for future villains.

That would be lovely. A story arc villain has real potential for that type of exploration.

 

That was an awesome clip...and probably a fairly good approximation of how their battle would go.

The clock is still ticking on how long it will take before Brony artists begin making the connection between Queen Chrysalis's Changeling army and Loki's army in The Avengers. In fact, once The Avengers comes out, I'm sure Bronies who saw the film will produce some awesome fan art of the Mane Six involved in action-oriented hijinks.

 

That does seem like her most likely plan. I still wonder though if she wasn't intending some underhanded method of slaying the Princesses instead, such as my flippant suggestion of assassinating them in their sleep. If they sleep in the manner you suggest later in your post, that might've been quite easy to do if she stayed in disguise.

If they sleep as deeply as I suggested, then killing them in their sleep would be the optimal way to depose of them. But one princess would already need to be neutralized---otherwise, one of the princesses would be there to protect the other.

 

Hmm. Would Chrysalis have disguised herself as Celestia or Luna, I wonder? The Changelings could adopt the appearance of a target creature with ease, so it suggests that Chrysalis could play that gambit if she so desired. Furthermore, as an aside, I wonder if the Changelings are capable of taking the form of non-quadrupedal creatures?

 

Unless they were given an anonymous tip by someone who was aware of the Changelings, that explanation still falls flat. The Changelings overrunning an outpost also strikes me as a bad explanation because such an occurrence would have given away what the Changelings were, meaning that again Canterlot would have been investigating everyone and anyone for possible Changeling replacement.

I cannot draw up a satisfactory explanation for the nature of the threat and why the Royal Guard subsequently decided to effectively fortify the entire city---not with the information on hand. By "satisfactory" I mean I cannot even convince myself of a working answer. It is most definitely a glaring MacGuffin.

 

Well, I suppose...I did say that even I almost believed Shining Armor, after all, even though I knew for certain Deceptive Cadance was a villain at that point. I don't think I'm ever going to feel good about how that scene progressed, but I will give it that, at least.

Sure. I know that feel, bro. The scene has a number of loose ends which were not as neatly tied up as they should have been. Still, I'll hold Shining Armor's explanation as the best offering and leave it at that.

 

Both points equally true, especially the stealing part. That said I do try to analyze from within universe, if possible, so while the out of universe explanation of preserving the quality of the narrative is certainly acceptable from a writing standpoint, it still makes me wonder what kept them from doing it in universe. I, however, would be willing to chalk it up to a lack of experience resulting in a misjudgement on their part. I suspect in the future we WILL see the Elements made available.

 

...

 

Which means we'll also probably see the Elements being destroyed...

Potential twist for the season three opening?

 

In a lot of sentai shows, e.g., Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, Power Rangers, there are newer, stronger enchanted items provided to the characters almost each season as the newfound threat proves to be more powerful than its predecessor. We may not see the Elements destroyed, per se, but replaced by stronger items, perhaps emerging directly from the Mane Six. I have no idea how it would play out, yet the promise of a potentia recurring villain means the Mane Six may need to receive a power upgrade, for lack of a better term.

 

As for an in universe explanation for not having the Elements at the ready: I doubt it can be found. The power of the Elements is still so very vague. Who knows exactly if and when they can be wielded outside of major threats which have manifested themselves? Or, more plausibly, what Princess Celestia understands the proper usage of the Elements to be.

 

...I really like this idea. It does suggest a couple of possible issues, such as, say, during Celestia's thousand year reign, the possibility that she might have needed to hibernate for a couple of days every fifty years or something like that, which might've left either the sun or the moon in the sky for a bit longer than normal, but on the whole I am willing to adopt this idea into my headcanon straight away. It makes too much sense not to.

Hey! Go for it! I don't mind feeding headcanon, so long as the idea seems plausible and functional within the confines of the universe.

 

Goodness gracious I want to see plot arcs so much. I vastly prefer plot arcs to an episodic structure and would dearly love to see this show give villains a chance to actually develop for once. Every single villain, whether they be minor antagonists or major threats to Equestria itself has been a one hit wonder, showing up and being smacked down within the same episode. The show writers have more than enough talent to extend plot arcs...if Season Three has a whole plot arc, or even just a few small mini arcs, I will be one happy pony fan, that's for sure.

 

I wouldn't mind more chances to see the Mane Six battle it out with foes either...we don't need to turn this into The Powerpuff Girls or something where they're fighting things every week, but some more action wouldn't be a bad thing in my mind.

 

Agreed and agreed! I would prefer a few mini arcs which eventually culminate with one larger climax at the end. In this way the writers can avoid turning MLP: FIM into a full-fledged action adventure cartoon, and a number of different plots can be explored over the course of the whole season. The action is great because it is relatively rare; the fact the ponies deal with "slice of life" problems more regularly than enormous threats to their world increases the novelty of powerful big bads desiring to conquer Equestria.

 

As I said before, the writers left the door wide open for Queen Chrysalis to return. I would be disappointed if she never appeared again for the whole of season three. It would seem to be such a waste of a tease as well as an especially devious villain.

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Probably not as a hand-to-hand (or hand-to-hoof) combatant, no, though Rogers wouldn't want to pick a fight with a kind, brainy little pony. He's a nice guy himself, and I'm sure he'd be impressed with Twilight's organizational and tactical smarts. I'm sure they would get along swimmingly after getting accustomed to one another.

 

I just enjoy the juxtaposition of Twilight's mischievous smirk and Cap's confident gaze.

 

Fair enough. It is an amusing juxtaposition.

 

Indeed. While magic may make it all complete, the story isn't about her, even if she is arguably the central character. It's not My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle and Friends. Without the whole of the Mane Six, nothing is accomplished. I think that is helpful to bear in mind.

 

Still, I don't oppose Twilight maintaing an elevated role. The trouble is balance; as soon as AJ, Dash, Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy become superfluous, we have some serious problems. In some ways, the ending of the finale helped remind the audience implicitly that Twilight isn't the all-powerful solution to problems, and neither are the ruling princesses.

 

Exactly. I've seen a few comments elsewhere--comments I disagree with--that suggested the rest of the Mane Six were unimportant in the finale, that they could have been replaced by any other set of ponies and the plot wouldn't have been affected. I find that questionable at best...sure, there was a lot of focus on Twilight, but of COURSE there was going to be focus on Twilight. Shining Armor is her brother, after all.

 

That said, the whole of season two was mostly individually focused rather than focused on the Mane Six as a whole, as we've discussed many times. Let's hope Season Three rectifies this.

 

Probably, yes. The gems could also amplify magic. Therefore, jokingly I must ask: "Celestia, have you been trying your hoof at making a magical super weapon?"

 

I've speculated elsewhere, principally in my Rarity analysis, that gems in Equestria are used for this purpose in general...not so much magical super weapons as for any sort of magic. For instance, gems might be a crucial element in the Magitek that the ponies employ. We do know from Word of God that magic is central to most electrical devices in Equestria. Thus, I wonder if everything is built with some sort of gem as the power source, or at least used in some manner. Gemtronics rather than electronics, so to speak.

 

 

It could be. The mines are extremely old and forgotten, so the project may have been abandoned once Equestria was founded or when Celestia became princess.

 

It seems quite likely...I suspect the mines were mostly tapped out by that point anyway, as there didn't seem to be too many useful gems left beyond the few that Twilight shattered in that small room.

 

If they sleep as deeply as I suggested, then killing them in their sleep would be the optimal way to depose of them. But one princess would already need to be neutralized---otherwise, one of the princesses would be there to protect the other.

 

True. It would probably be easier to neutralize Luna first, and then Celestia, because Luna is demonstrably less powerful than Celestia.

 

Hmm. Would Chrysalis have disguised herself as Celestia or Luna, I wonder? The Changelings could adopt the appearance of a target creature with ease, so it suggests that Chrysalis could play that gambit if she so desired. Furthermore, as an aside, I wonder if the Changelings are capable of taking the form of non-quadrupedal creatures?

 

 

Following up on what I just suggested, I would argue that Chrysalis could have killed Luna, then disguised herself as Luna to fool Celestia into believing Luna is fine.

 

I cannot draw up a satisfactory explanation for the nature of the threat and why the Royal Guard subsequently decided to effectively fortify the entire city---not with the information on hand. By "satisfactory" I mean I cannot even convince myself of a working answer. It is most definitely a glaring MacGuffin.

 

I'm going to let it slide for now in the hopes that at some point Megan McCarthy or someone else involved with the show will provide a suitable answer.

 

 

Potential twist for the season three opening?

 

In a lot of sentai shows, e.g., Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, Power Rangers, there are newer, stronger enchanted items provided to the characters almost each season as the newfound threat proves to be more powerful than its predecessor. We may not see the Elements destroyed, per se, but replaced by stronger items, perhaps emerging directly from the Mane Six. I have no idea how it would play out, yet the promise of a potentia recurring villain means the Mane Six may need to receive a power upgrade, for lack of a better term.

 

As for an in universe explanation for not having the Elements at the ready: I doubt it can be found. The power of the Elements is still so very vague. Who knows exactly if and when they can be wielded outside of major threats which have manifested themselves? Or, more plausibly, what Princess Celestia understands the proper usage of the Elements to be.

That's the sort of thing I'm thinking could occur with the Elements of Harmony. We know so little about them, true, which is why I hope we will get to learn more about their history. Given that the most likely reason for Discord to return in Season Three is a history lesson of sorts, that may tie into the history of the Elements.

 

I speculate on the possibility of them being destroyed because, as it stands now, they're a glaring plot hole issue. They're too powerful if used, but they also can't just keep being conveniently out of reach. Destroying them seems like the best possible choice, to avoid them being invoked every time a villain shows up. Rainbow Dash might approve of a rainbow to the face for every little problem, but the writers wouldn't, and neither would I.

 

Hey! Go for it! I don't mind feeding headcanon, so long as the idea seems plausible and functional within the confines of the universe.

 

My headcanon is full of all kinds of strange ideas. The notion of Alicorn hibernation is rather tame compared to saome of them.

 

Agreed and agreed! I would prefer a few mini arcs which eventually culminate with one larger climax at the end. In this way the writers can avoid turning MLP: FIM into a full-fledged action adventure cartoon, and a number of different plots can be explored over the course of the whole season. The action is great because it is relatively rare; the fact the ponies deal with "slice of life" problems more regularly than enormous threats to their world increases the novelty of powerful big bads desiring to conquer Equestria.

 

As I said before, the writers left the door wide open for Queen Chrysalis to return. I would be disappointed if she never appeared again for the whole of season three. It would seem to be such a waste of a tease as well as an especially devious villain.

 

Indeed. There's no reason a season arc or even miniarcs have to be all about action or drama. We can have plenty of slice of life moments within said arcs, or better yet, deeper explorations of the relationships each of the Mane Six has with each other. We know they're all friends, but we still don't have a good idea of what, say, Twilight and Pinkie Pie do together on a regular basis, or what Fluttershy and Applejack do together regularly. When we do see the Mane Six interact, it's usually all together, or in the typical pairs/trios we've come to see. Season Two broke this mold a little bit, but it hasn't been broken nearly enough for my taste.

 

Mostly I just want to see arcs because it means the writers are having a lot more control...as I understand it Lauren Faust originally had to fight fairly hard to allow the show to have twenty-two minute episodes to begin with, instead of splitting them off into two eleven minute episodes like a lot of other cartoons. Adding arcs would improve things greatly. And we've technically already seen follow up episodes akin to arcs in the first season: the Gala trio of Ticket Master, Suited for Success, and The Best Night Ever. Each built on the previous one, though unlike most arcs they were mostly disconnected from each other, particularly in terms of episode spacing.

 

I probably shouldn't hold my breath for arcs though. Hasbro might veto that notion no matter how many ratings the show gets.

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Hello Cadence. Sunshine sunshine etc.

Hm.. she doesn’t- AH. That descending violin riff is going to prove an important leitmotif within the next 15 minutes I bet.

 

Hey that’s the Sabrina Alberghetti cameo. Yaaay

 

I WAS RIGHT!! Curse my textual form, I wasn’t loud enough, it’s all my fault!

*c-3po.jpg*

I WAS WRONG! Curse my grammatical incorrectness, “it’s my entire fault!”!

 

Changelings. Totally not ripped off from Star Wars.

 

Well that was an incongruously badass scene for a show about candy-colored miniature horses.

This may just be the coolest thing I’ve seen this year until it gets superseded by my brother’s wedding next month.

 

A villain’s true form song? Why not a song featuring Shining?

“Our feelings we with difficulty smother (‘culty smother)

When Constabulary Duty’s to be done (to be done)

Oh take one consideration with another (with another)

A Policecolt’s lot is not a happy one. (happy one)”

Oh right, the love spell that Shankveld’s OC is essentially a replica of (or vice versa).

 

“Weeeeeee”

Oh, I mean

“Nooooooo”

 

And ending transition to denouement could easily have carried over into a third episode if they had the budget and time fit-with-all because I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks that final conflict was a bit terse.

 

OK the rather verbal “Mwah” by Shining Armor’s kiss now the most out of place line in the entire show and it bothered me, I’ll be blunt.

 

Like season 1 before it, season 2 has concluded with a rather uniform opinion from me: I enjoy it. It has its quirks, foibles and moments of brilliance but levels out as likeable.

However there are those specific moments that drill holes in the experience that, like drilled holes, can’t be smoothed over by a friendly wink and sandpaper. The obtuseness of the ending, Spike fiddling with the cake figurines and the Bachelor Party jokes my specific citations for this episode. But similar sort of “holes” exist for me in each and every episode except probably about five of them, which is what tolls a bell of doom in the distance within the realm of my mind, that my interest in ponies will be temporary.

Pixar animated features do not have such holes, but then again comparing the level of creative intention and financial support is like juxtaposing a really sporty go-cart with a Lamborghini strapped to a roller coaster in space.

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Also Pixar movies have many more people working on them for far longer than a weekly show could ever have, so that's a factor too.

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Changelings. Totally not ripped off from Star Wars.

Changelings were known creatures of myth before George Lucas was even born. Besides, there are far better representations of them in other movies and shows than in that crappy movie.
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Changelings were known creatures of myth before George Lucas was even born. Besides, there are far better representations of them in other movies and shows than in that crappy movie.

 

Thankfully Attack of the Clones will never be the gold standard for cinema, let alone Star Wars.

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Changelings were known creatures of myth before George Lucas was even born. Besides, there are far better representations of them in other movies and shows than in that crappy movie.

 

Which is why I said they were totally not ripped off of Star Wars.
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Bridle Gossip:

Twilight: There are no zombie ponies!

 

Royal Wedding:

*Zombie ponies shows up*

 

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