Were the pillars why Starswirl's spell didn't work for him?

[CypherHoof 26,483]

Been thinking about a topic raised elsewhere in sugarcube corner, regarding Starswirl's exaggerated reputation, which presumably when given was deserved., and then started thinking about how he couldn't get his "last masterpiece" to work;

A mark of one's destiny, singled out alone fulfilled.

then twilight's correction:

from all of us together, together we are friends; with the marks of our destiny made one, there is magic without end.

Now, celestia said this was because Starswirl didn't understand friendship like Twilight did, but I think it is more than that; the spell, as corrected, may not have worked for anyone but Twilight.

The source of Twilight's power is her Element; her Element was first realised within her during the Rainboom event that links all six ponies, and fully expressed during the fight with Nightmare Moon. The Elements, as reconfigured for their new owners, took the form of their cutie marks, literally the marks of their destiny; and it is in the combination of those elements, focussed on Twi, that allow her own Element its fullest expression. When she activates the spell, that is (again, literally) what happens - all five of the other pony's elements activate and direct their power onto Twilight, allowing her to move on to her "princess" form.

So, was this intentional? did each of the Princesses have to complete this spell in her own way, in order to gain their wings? Is this the final test for that process?

Well, lets put that aside a second and ask - why didn't this work for Starswirl himself then? why could Starswirl, using the spell as given, reach his Alicorn state?

Well, his personalization there is both arrogant, and straight out of the "Snowfall Frost" playbook - "Work hard, Learn, and use your skills to better Equestria".

Starswirl was the greatest unicorn mage of his generation, and when Stygian sought out the Pillars to defeat the Sirens, who else would he seek out as the Pillar of Sorcery but Starswirl? The final Unicorn of Legend to complete the group.  And for this he was devalued and finally banished from the group he had formed, because Starswirl was not capable of understanding what he had brought to that group, what he had done.

But for all that, Starswirl was no longer "singled out alone" - he was part of a larger group, one more powerful than the sum of its parts, and while had taken command of that group, the spell, as written, no longer described him.

Thoughts?

 

[Justin_Case001 4,900]

Starswirl's spell from MMC is one of the greatest mysteries of the show, one that we will surely never get an answer for.

For starters, there's a lot of continuity errors if you delve too deeply into this.  See, when MMC first came out, it seemed to be assumed and understood, though perhaps not explicitly stated, that Starswirl's spell had something specifically to do with the Elements of Harmony.  Essentially, people speculated that he was attempting to unlock the power of the EoH, or utilize them as a weapon, or some such.  But along comes Shadow Play, and now we know that the EoH didn't even exist until long after Starswirl and the Pillars banished themselves to Limbo!  Starswirl wasn't do anything with the elements whatsoever.

So, what was his spell?  What was it intended to do?  Why exactly did the unfinished spell shuffle up the EoH if it had nothing to do with them when it was written?  And perhaps an even more interesting question--what exactly did the finished spell do when Twilight cast it?  I'm not sure we got a definitive answer to that.  So... like... if she were to cast it again, what would it do?  There's a lot to unpack, here.  One could write a lengthy essay on this.

I'm not sure we have enough information to even speculate as to what Starswirl was trying to accomplish with his spell.  However, my best guess is that he was trying to do something with cutie marks.  But what, I have no idea.  Whatever it was, it failed.

So, I get really into this stuff, especially the cutie mark lore.  I'd like to take a detour to unpack exactly what happened with the mane 6's cutie marks in MMC.  If you don't really care, and would like to just read about Starswirl's spell, skip to the next paragraph.  So, it's important to note that the unfinished spell did not shuffle the mane 6's cutie marks.  It never had any effect on their cutie marks.  It shuffled the elements to which they are connected, and that f*cked up their memories, making them believe they were meant for each other's job/talents.  At this point, I need to explain my thoughts on cutie mark lore in general, and how they work.  Read this.  Done?  K, so, my interpretation is that the mane 6's memories were altered, and their core beliefs about what they were meant to do changed, and thus, their cutie marks changed on their own, no magic required (well, besides whatever latent magic gives rise to the appearance of the mark in the first place.  Not counting that.).  Later on, Twilight reminded them of who they were supposed to be by having them try their proper jobs/talents.  Twilight used no magic whatsoever to do this.  Trying their proper talents triggered a reversion of Starswirl's spell, causing their memories to be restored.  When they remembered everything, their beliefs about who they were reverted back, and this, their cutie marks changed back--again, no magic directly required for the cutie mark change.  The spell effected the elements, which effected memories.  The marks changed as a result of the internal self-perception of each pony.  But again, why did Starswirl's spell affect the elements if they didn't even exist when he wrote it?  We'll never know.  Scratch that--answer: show writers didn't think that far ahead.  :/

So, we don't know what Starswirl's spell was intended to do.  But what did the finished spell do when Twilight cast it?  Did she actually cast it?  I'm not so sure she did.  She wrote down the words in the book.  How does that equate to casting a spell?  Unicorns don't cast spells by reciting the words.  They just focus power through their horn and it does the thing.  Why would the spell spontaneously cast because she writes the words down in the book?  If you watch the scene, she closes the book and puts it away, and there's a bit of a delay.  The only horn power she was using was the telekinesis to hold the book.  I don't believe she cast the spell at all.  I believe that the subsequent element reaction was just part of her alicorn transformation, which I believe is an entirely natural process.  Each ascended alicorn's transformation may look different.  We don't know what Cadance's transformation looked like.  She also started as a pegasus and gained a horn, so that's already different, and it also means that Cadance couldn't have finished or cast any spell on herself to cause the transformation, which in turn would mean that somepony else either had to cast a spell on Cadance, or that it's a natural internal process, as I believe. 

Back to Twilight--she was connected to and holding her element, so her transformation caused a reaction with the elements ( I guess?).  I mean, why would Starswirl's spell, finished or not, cause the elements to zap whoever cast it?  It just doesn't make any sense to me for any part of that reaction to be from the spell.  I think it was all Twilight's transformation, and had nothing to do with the spell.  It is also my headcanon that Celestia's "movie theater" was a dream that didn't physically happen.  That was really Tia, though, as she just entered the dream as Luna does.

So... yeah.  I think the whole element reaction was just part of the natural alicorn transformation, and Starswirl's spell was never cast.  I don't think the spell was intended to make one an alicorn.  I don't think that's how alicorn transformation work, anyway.  I believe it's a natural, internal process.  But even if you believe that Celestia directly cast a spell on Twilight (and Cadance) to transform her, which I'll concede could be the case, that still does nothing to explain Starswirl's spell, and still points to it never being cast.  So, that means we are no closer to the big mystery--what does it do??  Perhaps we'll find that out on the day we find out how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop.

 

[EpicEnergy 23,222]

I think Starswirl was too arrogant to be able to make the spell work. Only someone who truly knew friendship would have been able to make it work.