I wish Thorax had a longer arc

[Philweasel 139]

12 minutes ago, MegaSean45 said:

It's kinda weird, is Throax meant to be a character for Spike's story, or Starlight's story? Cause Thorax is one of those rare characters that hang out with multiple characters in multiple occasions! Rarity's got ponies like Coco, Sassy, and Photo Finish; AJ's got Rara, the Apple family, Flim and Flam... Thorax was Spike's friend first who proved he was a good changeling, then Starlight helped come to power.

Well considering said upcoming episodes... both?

What's strange is that they haven't interacted with him at the same time yet. Starlight and Spike are really close, yet Thorax always seems to catch them alone.

[Drunkfrank 1,125]

Just now, Marimo said:

I don't believe that would've actually been passed by creative since this would require an episode where the character we follow is someone we've never met before and know nothing about. Hence why they would introduce a character by having us follow someone we're already familiar with, in Thorax's case it was an episode where we were following Spike.

Where does that faith come from? And that's kind of a bad ending to go on, you spend a whole episode following this character, seeing him have to weather through all these challenges, and is just chased off at the end? That's just a miserable ending during a story with no actual catharsis. I know it's meant to set up Spike's episode, but you said it would be 610 while Spike's episode didn't air until 616 (which was almost three months later). At the very least two parters can get away with having a more downer ender since they're intentionally meant to be continued in the next episode, which usually airs the same day.

He's not someone who needs to be restricted to just one character's episodes. A supporting character is capable of having connections to multiple main characters

The faith would come from us seeing how good Thorax is, it wouldn't end with him being chased off, but with him in the cave, trying to figure out what to do. It's interesting, it's how more complex arcs work, not every episode needs a direct happy ending because we will be getting one later. Hence, the arc of his character.

Of course there are reasons why they wouldn't do it, that's why...they didn't do it if they ever even had the idea, it doesn't change the fact that it would have made Thorax's story feel far more complete and like a journey for his character.

[Marimo 555]

33 minutes ago, Ryanmahaffe said:

The faith would come from us seeing how good Thorax is, it wouldn't end with him being chased off, but with him in the cave, trying to figure out what to do. It's interesting, it's how more complex arcs work, not every episode needs a direct happy ending because we will be getting one later. Hence, the arc of his character.

You said he would be chased off at the end.

1 hour ago, Ryanmahaffe said:

but instead, he has to flee because the second he walks in, guards start chasing him as the citizens scream in terror, forcing him to hide in the frozen north, where the episode ends.

And while it's not technically him being chased off being the very literal last thing we see, there is no real story beat or actual significance afterwards when all that follows is him sitting in a cave going "Well now what?"

And the story doesn't really seem interesting, it just seems more like set up revolving around a character the audience doesn't even know anything about yet or involves any of the main characters they are familiar with. And without at least an immediate followup, that ending seems less "Find out in the future what happens to him" and more like the show just took a break from the main cast to showoff this new character who is different, sets him up as this really optimistic and good person, only for the world and other characters in this world to beat him down with no promise this will actually be followed up on and the only lesson you can glean from it is that if you're different you should stick to your own kind because you don't get anything out of leaving them and you'll be hated by others no matter how good you yourself might be.

And I know how the story eventually goes for Thorax, but the way you would want the story to be told I don't believe the story telling would be positively received from that episode alone. The storyline would be better received later on, but your addition of an episode would still be kind of unnecessary and maybe even a detraction.

Honestly, probably the better way for your episode to end would to have Thorax go through a more positive ending, maybe making a friend in some non-pony friend or something, which gives fuel to his optimism and ends on him approaching the Crystal Empire, but don't show him actually arriving there. We can find out things didn't go well in The Times They Are A Changeling, we don't need to see every detail and this allows the episode to keep a more optimistic ending and message, the episode can better serve as both a stand-alone story and part of a longer arc.

Edited August 7, 2017 by Marimo

[Drunkfrank 1,125]

36 minutes ago, Marimo said:

You said he would be chased off at the end.

And while it's not technically him being chased off being the very literal last thing we see, there is no real story beat or actual significance afterwards when all that follows is him sitting in a cave going "Well now what?"

And the story doesn't really seem interesting, it just seems more like set up revolving around a character the audience doesn't even know anything about yet or involves any of the main characters they are familiar with. And without at least an immediate followup, that ending seems less "Find out in the future what happens to him" and more like the show just took a break from the main cast to showoff this new character who is different, sets him up as this really optimistic and good person, only for the world and other characters in this world to beat him down with no promise this will actually be followed up on and the only lesson you can glean from it is that if you're different you should stick to your own kind because you don't get anything out of leaving them and you'll be hated by others no matter how good you yourself might be.

And I know how the story eventually goes for Thorax, but the way you would want the story to be told I don't believe the story telling would be positively received from that episode alone. The storyline would be better received later on, but your addition of an episode would still be kind of unnecessary and maybe even a detraction.

Honestly, probably the better way for your episode to end would to have Thorax go through a more positive ending, maybe making a friend in some non-pony friend or something, which gives fuel to his optimism and ends on him approaching the Crystal Empire, but don't show him actually arriving there. We can find out things didn't go well in The Times They Are A Changeling, we don't need to see every detail and this allows the episode to keep a more optimistic ending and message, the episode can better serve as both a stand-alone story and part of a longer arc.

I said he would be chased off and the ending would be a final moment with him in the cave. I never said what would happen in the cave

You are also putting too much focus on the ending, that was not my point at all. The point was I would have wanted an episode about Thorax's struggles and triumphs getting to Equestria, only to realize he has more work ahead of him to undo the damage that his kind caused.

Regardless of whether or not it fits in the context of the show, I strongly feel Thorax needed an episode dedicated to him to make his arc more rounded.

However, while the show might have issue tackling this, I can very easily see it being done in the comics or a novel.

[Truffles 2,033]

On 8/7/2017 at 10:04 AM, Lambdadelta said:

I am annoyed when Spike sings the song 'A Changeling can Change' and Starlight said that he is a reformed changeling, COME ON, he is not a reformed one, he already a good guy in the beginning.

Ahahaha, irony, the upcoming ep of S7 is To change a changeling, which technically an episode about reforming bad changeling...

That why i dont like The Time They are a changeling as much as people do.

While I agree with you Thorax was born different, there was a bunch of time between his birth and the invasion of Canterlot that we have no inkling as to how he behaved.

As @CypherHoof stated, Chrysalis was likely culling The non-conformists in her brood, so it stands to reason he took part in a great many missions that would give others pause as to how "good" he really was. Missions that involved him mimicking other ponies and sucking their love to return it to his queen, just so he could survive and not stand out too much.

Even if he backed out at the last minute during the invasion and left after that, he probably did some things in his past he's not particularly proud of.

It would be really awesome if they had an episode where he was feeling guilty and had to confess this to his new dragon and pony friends in a flashback episode, but I'd be surprised if they would do this because there's so many characters in the show now giving him a whole episode to himself seems unlikely. Unless it somehow tied into Chrysalis' return and revenge.

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

5 hours ago, Truffles said:

Missions that involved him mimicking other ponies and sucking their love to return it to his queen, just so he could survive and not stand out too much.

That ep would be better if writers could do sth like that, anyway, very good point.