S09:E26 - The Last Problem

[Jane 123]

Just now, Bas said:

¿Por qué piensas eso?

her magic is far from being able to raise the sun, her cutie mark has nothing to do with it, but it is related to the tree of friendship/ harmony, she did not move the sun at the end of the song.

[Jane 123]

On 11/10/2019 at 10:43 PM, Bas said:

I got no idea why you quoted me in Espanol.

I'm sorry, I have problems with the Google translator.

[Jane 123]

On 10/15/2019 at 1:16 AM, Dark Qiviut said:

Additionally, moving a capital isn't as easy as it looks, even in fiction. I don't know if this is correct, but hasn't Canterlot been Equestria's capital since before Celestia and Luna became princesses? If not, then Canterlot has been the capital for at least a millennium. Its chronological history well outperforms that of the smaller Ponyville.

Luna and Celestia ruled from Castle of Two Sisters, which was literally in the middle of nowhere, until Celestia banished Luna to the moon.

Twilight has a castle, apart from having the Friendship School next door, in Ponyville, not in the middle of the forest like Celestia and Luna, so that gives it a point. Now, about the capital, Ponyville is a town that every time seems to be bigger and inhabited by more ponies, after the final battle, Ponyville is the capital of the union of all creatures, there is the Friendship School , which seems to be a place for other creatures to adapt to living in Equestria. So, to me, it makes no sense that Twilight rules from Canterlot.

[Dark Qiviut 22,379]

1 hour ago, frida said:

Luna and Celestia ruled from Castle of Two Sisters, which was literally in the middle of nowhere, until Celestia banished Luna to the moon.

Even so, Canterlot was presumably the connected city and not a far travel from the castle, so their royal relations came through there. When their original residence was destroyed a few years later, it only made sense for Celestia (and Luna a millennium later) to move there permanently.

1 hour ago, frida said:

Now, about the capital, Ponyville is a town that every time seems to be bigger and inhabited by more ponies, after the final battle, Ponyville is the capital of the union of all creatures, there is the Friendship School , which seems to be a place for other creatures to adapt to living in Equestria. So, to me, it makes no sense that Twilight rules from Canterlot.

Ponyville’s population increased a lot over the years, but it’s still smaller compared to Canterlot. In addition, the princess teaches students in a nearby magical unicorn school system (and some students, like Twilight, live on the castle grounds), has connected landmarks, and runs important ceremonies and meetings with delegates, committees, and relations with diplomats of other countries. Whenever there’s an arrangement with diplomats, they’re usually with Canterlot. Canterlot has been Equestria’s capital for generations, something Ponyville doesn’t have. It takes a world of planning and resources to build a capital, much less switch it.

[Senko 459]

On 11/13/2019 at 1:37 PM, Dark Qiviut said:

Ponyville’s population increased a lot over the years, but it’s still smaller compared to Canterlot. In addition, the princess teaches students in a nearby magical unicorn school system (and some students, like Twilight, live on the castle grounds), has connected landmarks, and runs important ceremonies and meetings with delegates, committees, and relations with diplomats of other countries. Whenever there’s an arrangement with diplomats, they’re usually with Canterlot. Canterlot has been Equestria’s capital for generations, something Ponyville doesn’t have. It takes a world of planning and resources to build a capital, much less switch it

Didn't stop them just upending Twilight's life and ending the summer sun festival. I blame bad plot myself.

[doomie-22 19]

On 10/30/2019 at 9:52 PM, AlexanderThrond said:

Given how much you complained earlier about her outliving her friends, I'm a bit surprised you're arguing with me on that point. 

I've had a long while to come to terms with this fact.

On 10/30/2019 at 9:52 PM, AlexanderThrond said:

My complaint is that Twilight didn't play an active role in becoming a princess, so it always seemed like she was constantly reacting to something that someone else decided for her. It's easy to assume why she would want to become princess, but she never says it out loud, and Celestia never asked her what she wants. 

She didn't play a role in becoming princess? She solved an ancient spell that Starswirl himself couldn't solve — she created new magic. And it was clear since "Cutie Mark Chronicles" that Twilight revers Celestia like a goddess. Again, it was Celestia who inspired Twilight to pursue an interest in magic. It was Celestia who Twilight was always striving to be. Of course she wouldn't mind becoming a princess and taking over for Celestia.  

On 10/30/2019 at 9:52 PM, AlexanderThrond said:

What do you mean "did away with"?

Since "Lesson Zero", Twilight has had a bad habit of freaking out over the stupidest things. They finally did away with this in episodes like "It's About Time" and "Games Ponies Play." Then, for some asinine reason, they brought it back in "A Trivial Pursuit", all for the sake of some cheap laughs, completely disregarding the fact of how out of character this made Twilight. Then, in "The Summer Sun Setback" they literally throw away any kind of character development she could've gotten with this line: "I know how I used to react, but I really have changed. Panicking won't solve anything. But we can handle whatever problems come our way as long as we handle them together!"

[Thrond 3,263]

38 minutes ago, doomie-22 said:

She didn't play a role in becoming princess? She solved an ancient spell that Starswirl himself couldn't solve — she created new magic. And it was clear since "Cutie Mark Chronicles" that Twilight revers Celestia like a goddess. Again, it was Celestia who inspired Twilight to pursue an interest in magic. It was Celestia who Twilight was always striving to be. Of course she wouldn't mind becoming a princess and taking over for Celestia.  

You’re probably right that she didn’t mind it, though I always thought her admiration of Celestia was more about magic than about rulership. I just don’t really understand why I should find her ascension interesting or satisfying. 
 

49 minutes ago, doomie-22 said:

Then, for some asinine reason, they brought it back in "A Trivial Pursuit", all for the sake of some cheap laughs, completely disregarding the fact of how out of character this made Twilight.

There was also some of that in the holiday special “Best Gift Ever,” though I thought that made much more sense for her.

 

50 minutes ago, doomie-22 said:

Then, in "The Summer Sun Setback" they literally throw away any kind of character development she could've gotten with this line: "I know how I used to react, but I really have changed. Panicking won't solve anything. But we can handle whatever problems come our way as long as we handle them together!"

That sounds like confirming her character development to me. She learned not to freak out so much several times already.

[Truffles 2,033]

Whew. Finally getting around to some more detailed thoughts on the last episode of the series.

As I said earlier in the topic, I liked the finale. (Comments about E24 and E25 I'll put in their proper topic at another date.) As for "The Last Problem," it did what I always hoped the last episode would do: Let the show wind down properly rather than cutting it off right after the evil-gets-defeated/reformed-climax. Such an ending would have been unsatisfying after 9 season run. The fact that they even did a fast-forward was even more than I could have hoped for. I thought we might get something like that in the last few moments of the episode, but to wrap a whole story around Future Twilight and Future Spike (see what I did there? Lol.) was unexpected.

Having said that, the structure of the flash-forward to flashbacks comes off as a little choppy. While I loved the detailed view we got of the future, the jumping back and forth didn't allow for me to settle in with the "new" characters. I felt like I didn't know them even though their personalities and voices were more-or-less the same. And not having the ReMane 5 appear in their future forms till the end was a little disappointing. While it was clear they needed to hide them to keep Luster Dawn insisting "friendships fade," I couldn't help but wonder if it was also to keep the audience guessing as to whether the ReMane 5 had passed on by the time this episode takes place.

In the end, the ReMane 5 do show up and allows the biggest reveal as to how their lives turned out. Pinkie's outcome is the most apparent, while the pairings of Appledash and Fluttercord are left a little more open to interpretation. Rarity's is the most obscure since the only confirmation is she continues to be a successful businessmare, having expanded all the way to Yakyakistan. There's no indication she ever married like she wanted to in S1, no indication of foals, and no indication any relationship between her and Spike rekindled. Of all the main characters, they left hers the most open to interpretation by the fans. I imagine those who didn't like this episode due to the constraints it put on the future characters' lives at least appreciated Rarity's ambiguous future.

And speaking of Spike:

On 10/13/2019 at 10:35 AM, DonMaguz said:

Edit: One nitpick I have is how they gave those broad shoulders to Spike, he's a dragon, he should look more lizardly IMO.

On 11/2/2019 at 11:03 PM, The Recherche said:

Spike is far too anthropomorphic and disproportionate.
...
Spike should instead be growing into a more traditional dragon, as was much more common in the earlier seasons.

This here. Agreed 100%. Anthro-Spike was a bit of a letdown, even though I get why they did it:

On 10/13/2019 at 6:21 PM, Senko said:

I found Twilight and Spikes new look to be slightly odd, Spike's match's his childhood dream dragon quite well

This comment pretty much explains it here, and there's plenty of evidence he's been working out to try and achieve that goal from his daily mirror checks, like this famous one:

So I get it. But it does seem a little odd how disproportionate his limbs have become:

His arms almost touch the ground, and his legs have barely grown at all. (My initial thought upon first seeing him was he was shaped like Gizmoduck, lol.) I suppose this could just be him going through the awkward "teen dragon" phase (teen as in physical traits, not actual age) since another dragon had these weird proportions:

Garble was also all torso and no legs with arms that seem too long. So hopefully Spike will grow out of this look at some point and resemble a more standard dragon, though his physiometry seems to indicate he might grow up to look more like Torch than one of the standard large dragons, like this guy:

(On a side note, I'd like to think this is the dragon from Dragonshy who took a brief wake-up from his nap to attend the coronation. :))

Still, I think they could have simply taken that Spike posing in front of Starlight above and used a scaled-up version, maybe with a longer snout, as his young adult model. It's certainly more dragon-y and less human looking. If it weren't for the movie, I'd still wonder where Spike's notion that he had to take on bipedal human characteristics as the image of "ideal masculinity" came from, but it's clear there's a bunch of anthro species in their world that we just don't see that often outside of the occasional Capper cameo or Iron Will.

What's more confusing is how Smolder managed to look like this:

She's older than Spike but managed to maintain her established serpentine look. Even that would have worked better for him, but like I said, it seems male dragons go through this awkward anthro stage during their early adulthood.

In the end I'm not too disappointed, however, since on the inside he's still the same sweet-yet-snarky guy we've known since S1.

 

Luster Dawn was okay, though I agree with @Music Chart Fan that she was a bit curt with her responses to Twilight and Spike's explanations. But then I think back to how rude Twilight was to all her friends in many scenes during S1, so this may have been the angle the writers were aiming for in order to show history repeating itself with this new protege.

The song was really good, and it's hard for me to decide whether I like this song or "A Better Way to be Bad" more. They're both excellent in their own right.

Some other interesting stuff I noticed in the final episode:

Aww. Shining Armor still showing some of that liquid pride for his little sister.

It was neat to see how far Pharynx has come in terms of empathy, actually showing concern for Twilight when she stumbled on the balcony.

This is probably the funniest visual from the finale: Everyone forced to "drink" the applesauce in their glasses with Big Mac feeling sheepish over his miscue. (Now he knows that look AJ got from Granny when she messed up that apple trivia question, lol.)

Spike's devil-may-care attitude above says it all about how little this bothers him. XD

 

On 10/13/2019 at 12:32 PM, Justin_Case001 said:

I just don't understand why she couldn't rule from her castle in Ponyville.  There's no logical reason why she couldn't.

Political reasons, probably. She may be ruler, but she wants good relations with the other royals and it would be a slap in the face to them if she moved the capitol from Canterlot to Ponyville. Which, despite it having a castle, hasn't yet become the metropolis Canterlot is that dignitaries visiting from far and wide would come to expect upon their arrival. I could imagine in a century or so it may be feasible to move the capitol if Twilight still feels it's important to her to be back in Ponyville.

Though even that I think is unlikely. Twilight and Spike may have made Ponyville their home for some time, but we need to remember they both grew up in Canterlot. Spike for certain was born (hatched) there, and there's a good chance Canterlot is also Twilight's birth city. So even though Twilight was sad to be leaving her friends, there is a sense of home to the place she's returning to. Plus her parents are still there, too.

On 10/13/2019 at 12:32 PM, Justin_Case001 said:

Given the slow aging of dragons, I think it's safe to assume that dragons, like alicorns, are either immortal or have extremely long lifespans.

Mapping a dragon nap to a rough estimate of a human nap, I calculated dragons live to be about 25 million years old. That's close enough to immortality.

On 10/13/2019 at 12:32 PM, Justin_Case001 said:

The way they handled Spike is, for me, one of the greatest things they've ever done on the show, and by far the best part of the finale.  (Kinda thought he looked stupid, though.  Wasn't a fan of his aesthetic, but I think it's safe to assume that he will one day look like the badass big dragons like the one in Dragonshy.  One day, he's gonna be like Smaug, and Twilight will ride him.)

We're definitely in agreement here!

 

On 10/18/2019 at 5:35 AM, Music Chart Fan said:

Does Spike's saying that he doesn't need to bring the Power Ponies comic to Canterlot imply that Twilight and Spike aren't going to take all of their belongings to Canterlot? Does that mean that they plan to come back and stay at the castle in Ponyville at least occasionally? Will Starlight and whoever else lives in the castle (Sunburst?) have to do maintenance on Twilight's and Spike's stuff for whenever they come to stay?

My thinking was he simply didn't care about some of his old belongings anymore, and if they got thrown out/traded in Rainbow Falls he wouldn't care. I have to imagine he's taking all his comics that are considered collectibles, however.

It was nice that Spike realized how much leaving such items behind was bothering Twilight and decided to take it after all, even though he stated he was losing interest in reading comics.

On 10/18/2019 at 5:35 AM, Music Chart Fan said:

So are we to presume that these star spiders of Rarity's voluntarily agreed to this work load and these work conditions? Would Fluttershy approve of what's going on here?

I think Fluttershy actually helped here and told the spiders what Rarity wanted and they agreed to do it. Maybe Fluttershy paid them for their work in flies, lol?

 

On 10/18/2019 at 5:35 AM, Music Chart Fan said:

Wow, Spike has a normal clock with 12 hours marked, and an hour and minute hand. As I recall, the depiction of clocks on this show has been kind of all over the place.

That's interesting! What scene is that in? I'll want to go back and take a look. I remember you stating in another recent review the wonky hour counts the clock had.

On 10/18/2019 at 5:35 AM, Music Chart Fan said:

I can't help feeling that Twilight's position as ruler of Equestria is rather lonely and depressing. Luster Dawn tells Twilight that "as far as I can see, you rule by yourself now", and Luster Dawn is apparently unaware of the Council of Friendship. All of the Mane Seven - except for Spike, perhaps - are late to the Council of Friendship meeting, and almost all of them, including Spike, say something that suggests that they're really busy these days.

I would hope these missions Spike is doing is at the behest of the princess and that he's around to be her "royal advisor" more often than once a moon. He did state that his work as ambassador has become "a full-time job," but perhaps it was just this one mission of trying to strike a peace between the Diamond Dogs and Abyssinians?

On 10/18/2019 at 5:35 AM, Music Chart Fan said:

Is future Rainbow still a regular performer with the Wonderbolts? They seem like an organization that would place a high priority on athleticism, and at some point, I would think that Rainbow's aging body wouldn't be able to keep up. Or does she perhaps have a less strenuous part in the shows, akin to what Wind Rider would have done back in "Rarity Investigates!" before Rainbow took his place?

That's a good question. Since the montage showed her flying in the center of the formation, I have to presume she's still actively captain. (It's notable none of the other Wonderbolts are present, anymore. Presumably they retired.) It would be logical that Rainbow would put retirement off as long as possible since being in their squad was her lifelong dream, and by the tenor of RD and AJ's talk when they enter,  it still sounds like they're still active and competitive with one another. Also, Rainbow was the youngest team member so even if 20 years passed, she'd only be in her 40's. I admit I don't know what age the Blue Angels pilots are forced to withdraw from the squadron, however.

On 10/20/2019 at 9:56 AM, Justin_Case001 said:

I watched through the episode a second time with my mom, and I spotted something that I didn't see the first time around...

...

Oh well.  At least he wasn't actually in the episode.

Having Tempest in there was a nice touch, though. And look - in that same shot we even get to see Twilight's parents one more time.

 

On 10/25/2019 at 5:20 PM, Sh Pie said:

Middle-aged Rarity has a grey streak in her mane. Hmmm, I wonder if that means she's the oldest of the Mane 6?

I always thought she was (shall we say) the most mature of the Mane 6, so seeing the gray doesn't surprise me.

 

On 10/27/2019 at 3:36 PM, doomie-22 said:

It doesn't help that the finale strongly implies that Twilight and Spike will be subjected to having to watch all of their friends slowly one by one in only a few short years due to all of them dying of old age while they're forced to go on living.

Spike has had to live with the fact that he would outlive all his friends since Dragonshy. So I'm not sure how things are much different except that now he at least has a family member who will always be there for him and Twilight has him to always be around for her.

 

On 10/27/2019 at 3:36 PM, doomie-22 said:

The bad thing about "The Times They are a Changeling" is the fact that it completely rewrote its own lore just to make this plot work.

What lore are you referring to? The continuity between it and "A Canterlot Wedding" was on target as far as I can tell.

 

On 11/8/2019 at 9:04 PM, frida said:

now we only had bad adult versions of them very badly made, and Yona EXAGGERATLY large.

Yaks are naturally large, and she doesn't look any larger to me than her relatives. I think the issue with adult Yona is her eyes were kept large relative to the size of her head. All the other adult yaks from previous episodes have eyes that are smaller (and most of the time hidden) and it appears to me in order to save time they simply took Yona's head and scaled it up and pasted it onto an adult yak body.

[Senko 459]

4 hours ago, Truffles said:

Though even that I think is unlikely. Twilight and Spike may have made Ponyville their home for some time, but we need to remember they both grew up in Canterlot. Spike for certain was born (hatched) there, and there's a good chance Canterlot is also Twilight's birth city. So even though Twilight was sad to be leaving her friends, there is a sense of home to the place she's returning to. Plus her parents are still there, too. 

Maybe but there's a difference between grew up at X and home is X. From what we've seen Twilight's entire childhood was books, studying and raising Spike whereas Ponyville is friends, party's, wonderful memories and home. Just look at the fact of how hard losing the Golden Oak Library hits her compared to her literally dancing with joy at being allowed to move to Ponyville in the first place. She may have grown up in Canterlot but Ponyville is where she found a home. Which ties into this . . .

4 hours ago, Truffles said:

Spike has had to live with the fact that he would outlive all his friends since Dragonshy. So I'm not sure how things are much different except that now he at least has a family member who will always be there for him and Twilight has him to always be around for her. 

and my earlier comments Twilight only gets one chance to have friends like the ones she made in Ponyville all else aside in the future they're going to be different because she'll have more experiences and will be the princess first and the friend second. Look at how she and Celestia tend to view their relationship differently or even her and Luna. I really dislike the fact that even if the writers/producers//Hasbro felt she had to take over she wasn't allowed to see the friendships to their natural end first before she had to become the ultimate figure of authority in Equestria. I feel she permanently lost so much by having to take on this role too early.

[Music Chart Fan 819]

11 hours ago, Truffles said:

Luster Dawn was okay, though I agree with @Music Chart Fan that she was a bit curt with her responses to Twilight and Spike's explanations. But then I think back to how rude Twilight was to all her friends in many scenes during S1, so this may have been the angle the writers were aiming for in order to show history repeating itself with this new protege.

Yeah, I'd like to think that Twilight wasn't that bad, even at the beginning of the show, to the point of her being dismissive or a know-it-all right to Princess Celestia's face as she's trying to explain an important lesson. But I suppose that Luster Dawn's relationship to Princess Twilight may be different than Twilight's more deferential relationship to Princess Celestia, and as you point out, the writers may have been trying to replicate Twilight's generally more snarky/exasperated attitude in the early part of the show.

11 hours ago, Truffles said:

It was neat to see how far Pharynx has come in terms of empathy, actually showing concern for Twilight when she stumbled on the balcony.

Good catch, I had missed that. I like Pharynx, so that's nice to see.

11 hours ago, Truffles said:

That's interesting! What scene is that in? I'll want to go back and take a look. I remember you stating in another recent review the wonky hour counts the clock had.

It's in the scene where the Mane Six all cry together about Twilight's having to move to Canterlot, and Spike reminds them that "you should be more worried about missing the train to Canterlot!":

And, for another example, the clock tower in "Hearts And Hooves Day" (S02E17) doesn't have the hours explicitly numbered, but it has 12 marks around the face, and has what looks like an hour and a minute hand:

Contrast those two normal-looking clocks, though, to these examples from "Dragon Dropped" (S09E19), in Spike's room and in the post office. They both may have hour and minute hands, but they only have 8 marks around the face, and for the clock in the post office, those marks may not even be evenly spaced:

And also contrast to the grandfather clock in Twilight's office from "School Raze - Part 1" (S08E25), which has four hands and 16 marks around the face:

I'm sure that there are more examples, but those are ones that I recall off the top of my head.

[Truffles 2,033]

8 hours ago, Senko said:

Maybe but there's a difference between grew up at X and home is X. From what we've seen Twilight's entire childhood was books, studying and raising Spike whereas Ponyville is friends, party's, wonderful memories and home. Just look at the fact of how hard losing the Golden Oak Library hits her compared to her literally dancing with joy at being allowed to move to Ponyville in the first place. She may have grown up in Canterlot but Ponyville is where she found a home.

I look at Twilight's life in Canterlot vs. Ponyville differently. For me, her life in Ponyville was akin to the time we as humans spend in school. I remember how much I disliked school, similar to how Twilight initially disliked moving to Ponyville. But like Twilight, I was surprisingly upset over having to say good-bye to pretty much everyone I knew since kindergarten when it came time to graduate from high school. For many of us, we only get to see those friends once every year or even ten years during class reunions. Twilight gets to see her old friends every moon and swap stories inbetween the business of running the empire. And those meetings don't preclude the possibility of her flying/teleporting  over to Ponyville for surprise visits, something we saw Celestia do from time to time.

And there's evidence she has plenty of fond memories growing up in Canterlot that don't involve books. She did a whole song about it at the end of season two, and we got another glimpse of how happy her life was with her family in Sparkle's 7. Plus I feel like now that she's fixed the problems she created with Moondancer, she and their little group of friends can become closer again. Not to say they'll be a replacement for the ReMane 5+Starlight, but it will certainly help her not be as miserable as some have theorized.

I guess if I were to summarize my take on all of this is it's the audience who is feeling the pain of their separation more than she is feeling. But then again I didn't get particularly emotional at the end of this episode because of all the jumping around from past to present. For me, the most emotional scene this season was Big Mac's wedding a few episodes back, probably because that was a tighter arc like that of the CMC getting their cutie marks. Second would be the last scene at Pony Joe's, but I'll save my thoughts on that when I do "The End of the End" commentary.

8 hours ago, Senko said:

Twilight only gets one chance to have friends like the ones she made in Ponyville all else aside in the future they're going to be different because she'll have more experiences and will be the princess first and the friend second. Look at how she and Celestia tend to view their relationship differently or even her and Luna. I really dislike the fact that even if the writers/producers//Hasbro felt she had to take over she wasn't allowed to see the friendships to their natural end first before she had to become the ultimate figure of authority in Equestria. I feel she permanently lost so much by having to take on this role too early.

I agree that she was dragged into this new job too early, and perhaps doing the fast-forward at the beginning of the season would have made more sense and allowed a narrative of how much closer the Mane 6 had become since the end of S8. But I suspect it was a matter of resources at DHX. The older characters we saw in the montage were simplified versions that only had to be good enough for a few seconds of screentime. For an entire season of aged-up characters, more work would have to be put into the models. The directive was always she would become ruler at some point, and without the show doing a Simpsons and going on for 30+ seasons (which very few wanted) in order to show the continued growing bond between all of them, it pretty much had to happen as it did this season.

 

1 hour ago, Music Chart Fan said:

Yeah, I'd like to think that Twilight wasn't that bad, even at the beginning of the show, to the point of her being dismissive or a know-it-all right to Princess Celestia's face as she's trying to explain an important lesson. But I suppose that Luster Dawn's relationship to Princess Twilight may be different than Twilight's more deferential relationship to Princess Celestia, and as you point out, the writers may have been trying to replicate Twilight's generally more snarky/exasperated attitude in the early part of the show.

Since I watched seasons 1 and 2 mixed together, I didn't see at first how rude Twilight was in season 1. Once I got the S1 and S2 DVD's and could watch them separately, I was shocked at how bitchy she could be at times to those around her, even after she stated she couldn't stand ever leaving her new friends at the end of episode 2. I guess it's a good sign of character growth that she wasn't as bad in S2, since having 9 seasons of often seeing her devolve into "Mudbriar Twilight" would have not allowed for her to become as popular as she is.

It's interesting that you pointed our Luster doesn't seem as enthralled with Twilight as Twilight was with Celestia. I feel that's a nice little nuance to Luster's character that will make things interesting as the fandom moves forward writing stories for the two of them.

1 hour ago, Music Chart Fan said:

It's in the scene where the Mane Six all cry together about Twilight's having to move to Canterlot, and Spike reminds them that "you should be more worried about missing the train to Canterlot!"

Thanks!! And you know what? Because the one Spike is holding is the only one with the detail of numeric hours on the face of his stopwatch, I'm just going to assume that one is canon and all the others are due to lazy artists. (Also, once again Spike pulling stopwatches out of his "Dog and Pony Show" secret pockets he has in his thighs or rump, lol.)

LOL on the 8 and 16 hour clocks. That would be great for computer programmers, though, if the day had sixteen hours in it since us programmers like power of two numbers due to how the binary system works.

Edited November 17, 2019 by Truffles
fixed confusing sentence

[Senko 459]

I guess it depends on where you view her home is, me it's ponyvile, you it's canterlot.

 

@Music Chart Fan TImekeeping in Equestria must be an interesting occupation "It's 16 oclock time to go to bed."

Edited November 18, 2019 by Senko

[Thrond 3,263]

On 11/17/2019 at 11:22 AM, Truffles said:

I look at Twilight's life in Canterlot vs. Ponyville differently. For me, her life in Ponyville was akin to the time we as humans spend in school. I remember how much I disliked school, similar to how Twilight initially disliked moving to Ponyville. But like Twilight, I was surprisingly upset over having to say good-bye to pretty much everyone I knew since kindergarten when it came time to graduate from high school. For many of us, we only get to see those friends once every year or even ten years during class reunions. Twilight gets to see her old friends every moon and swap stories inbetween the business of running the empire. And those meetings don't preclude the possibility of her flying/teleporting  over to Ponyville for surprise visits, something we saw Celestia do from time to time.

 And there's evidence she has plenty of fond memories growing up in Canterlot that don't involve books. She did a whole song about it at the end of season two, and we got another glimpse of how happy her life was with her family in Sparkle's 7. Plus I feel like now that she's fixed the problems she created with Moondancer, she and their little group of friends can become closer again. Not to say they'll be a replacement for the ReMane 5+Starlight, but it will certainly help her not be as miserable as some have theorized.

I think she has a foot in both. It's hard for me to tell exactly how much time has passed over the course of the show, but I do think it was enough for Ponyville to become her new home. It's also worth noting that she won't be experiencing Canterlot the same way she did before going to Ponyville: she'll be living in the royal castle, and her relationship to the normal ponies of the city will be completely different. 

I don't really like comparing her time in Ponyville to school, because it makes her experiences there sound like a means to an end. And to an extent I guess they were - she kept writing to Princess Celestia about friendship lessons she learned, after all. But if Celestia hadn't asked Twilight to be her successor, then Twilight wouldn't have had any reason to leave. It's not like there were structured classes for Twilight to learn friendship, she just sort of moved and made friends and became a better person. So I think it's a different situation - it's probably more like moving when you get a job offer. 

On 11/17/2019 at 11:22 AM, Truffles said:

since having 9 seasons of often seeing her devolve into "Mudbriar Twilight" would have not allowed for her to become as popular as she is.

Speak for yourself. Part of me wishes she was a little snarkier a little more often. Maybe not to season 1 levels, but still. 

 

[Truffles 2,033]

15 hours ago, AlexanderThrond said:

I think she has a foot in both. It's hard for me to tell exactly how much time has passed over the course of the show, but I do think it was enough for Ponyville to become her new home. It's also worth noting that she won't be experiencing Canterlot the same way she did before going to Ponyville: she'll be living in the royal castle, and her relationship to the normal ponies of the city will be completely different

I agree that's she'll have her hooves in both places, and that's why it was notable that Canterlot was her former and once-again home. My feeling from some of the comments was that she'd be miserable being away from her life Ponyville, and I just wanted point out that she still had ties there. It's true she won't have the life she once knew as a kid, though that is true for pretty much anyone who has grown up and returned to live in their hometown. (Admittedly, going from flying kites with your two brothers to ruling the nation with one of them is a pretty big change, lol.)

[Senko 459]

I just get the feeling she's happier as the headmistress of the school of friendship living in small Ponyville than she is as the isolated ruler of Equestria in Canterlot. In Ponyville she had friends, in Canterlot she has subjects. Her big brother is living somewhere else, her parents seem the sort to travel and will eventually pass on. Even her mentor Celestia is gone from Canterlot all she has left is Spike and he's starting to grow away from her too. Think how much it hurt to miss the events of her 3 day weekend and now expand it out to a moon, hearing second hand of Granny Smiths passing and Applejack having to deal with that, of the crusaders graduating, of Rarity opening a boutique in yakyakistan rather than being part of it like she was at Manehattan.

Edited November 20, 2019 by Senko

[Jane 123]

I never saw Twilight as director of the Friendship School, but if she had her own school, why does she now have to direct a magic school if she is the governor? Nor is it that she has much skill with magic to teach it ...

 Didn't Celestia really find anyone else in the 1000 years that she was ruler to replace her?

[Jane 123]

Am I the only one who thinks it would have been interesting if Starlight had her mane as she had it in the last timeline of `` The Cutie Re-Mark ''? I mean, I would have somehow predicted the future by having Twilight and Starlight with ethereal hair

[Jane 123]

 Luster is right, they shouldn't teach friendship in a magic school, it's like studying in a science school and someone wants to teach you about religion. Twilight makes of friendship dictatorship, first, imposed friendship as the most powerful magic, denying the magical abilities of ponies like Starlight and creatures like Discord, and now forces his students to make friends instead of teaching them magic. In addition, to Twilight having a favorite student, as Celestia did with her, there are high chances that one of her other students will become a Moondancer 2.0, so I am not very much in favor of favoritism of these teachers for a single student , instead of teaching everyone equally.

[CypherHoof 26,482]

15 minutes ago, Jane said:

 Luster is right, they shouldn't teach friendship in a magic school, it's like studying in a science school and someone wants to teach you about religion

Considering the entire SERIES is about the magic of friendship, that seems a little off?

[Jane 123]

6 hours ago, CypherHoof said:

Considering the entire SERIES is about the magic of friendship, that seems a little off?

Friendship is not learned in a school.

[CypherHoof 26,482]

1 hour ago, Jane said:

Friendship is not learned in a school.

I think Twi and GlimGlam, with their literal school of friendship, might disagree there, but that's not the point. The very first episode was where Celestia sent her star pupil to Ponyville to learn of the magic of friendship; There is certainly precedent for Twi telling HER star pupil to make some friends.

[Luxuria 1]

In all honesty, I didn't care for the episode, I wish I was a person who could write episodes off as "not canon" but I know it is, and I can't for some reason (seriously, teach me).

 

I'm not really a fan of "Where are they now?" epilogues when it comes to stories like MLP. They work, that's not something I can deny, but for different kinds of stories. I like opemended, well, endings to things like this. Because at least there, you aren't stuck with bad closure, even if that means none at all.

 

Avatar, good ending, because there was a lot of room to destroy the story as it was. Comics came out, that scared me, and it wasn't great, but it didn't kill me. Korra came out; the death of the magic for me. It really just destroyed the world, I knew eventually any world would grow, but not seeing it, made it less real somehow.

Now, my biggest gripes about the closure. I did not like the nigh, undeniable confirmation that Twilight will now outlive get friends. I realized it, and was fine with it even, but seeing it put a big ol'stamp on rewatches, I'll always feel weird knowing where they're headed.

 

A big one for me, and ere I go further, the is mostly personal, as my favourite character was Pinkie Pie, and I did not like the paring of her and Cheese. It doesn't sit right with me. I'm not a fan, and I wish I could have somehow renamed unprivy. 

 

Didn't like Twilight's and Spike's design, but especially Spike. He looks like his fantasy of himself from the Diamond Dog episode, which is a fun nod, but it's just not right.

 

I could probably go on, and nitpick, but they are my biggest concerns. I liked the ending of episode 25, it was a good ending, reminiscent of first finale, slap the book closing on that, and I would've been happy. The end, overall, felt like a fan colouring in the blank spots left by episode 25. PinkieXCheese, the Appledash implications (I'm not a fan), the Lyra X Bon confirmation (I am a fan).

 

Honestly wish I could've went back and warned myself against it, or at least for the power that some people seem to have - to pretend it isn't canon.

[Jane 123]

22 hours ago, CypherHoof said:

I think Twi and GlimGlam, with their literal school of friendship, might disagree there, but that's not the point. The very first episode was where Celestia sent her star pupil to Ponyville to learn of the magic of friendship; There is certainly precedent for Twi telling HER star pupil to make some friends.

I repeat, it is a magic school, Twilight should teach only about that, and stop meddling in the interpersonal relationships of  her students.

[Jesse Terrence 2,968]

9 hours ago, Luxuria said:

In all honesty, I didn't care for the episode, I wish I was a person who could write episodes off as "not canon" but I know it is, and I can't for some reason (seriously, teach me).

 

I'm not really a fan of "Where are they now?" epilogues when it comes to stories like MLP. They work, that's not something I can deny, but for different kinds of stories. I like opemended, well, endings to things like this. Because at least there, you aren't stuck with bad closure, even if that means none at all.

 

Avatar, good ending, because there was a lot of room to destroy the story as it was. Comics came out, that scared me, and it wasn't great, but it didn't kill me. Korra came out; the death of the magic for me. It really just destroyed the world, I knew eventually any world would grow, but not seeing it, made it less real somehow.

Quote

Now, my biggest gripes about the closure. I did not like the nigh, undeniable confirmation that Twilight will now outlive get friends. I realized it, and was fine with it even, but seeing it put a big ol'stamp on rewatches, I'll always feel weird knowing where they're headed.

 

A big one for me, and ere I go further, the is mostly personal, as my favourite character was Pinkie Pie, and I did not like the paring of her and Cheese. It doesn't sit right with me. I'm not a fan, and I wish I could have somehow renamed unprivy. 

 

Didn't like Twilight's and Spike's design, but especially Spike. He looks like his fantasy of himself from the Diamond Dog episode, which is a fun nod, but it's just not right.

 

I could probably go on, and nitpick, but they are my biggest concerns. I liked the ending of episode 25, it was a good ending, reminiscent of first finale, slap the book closing on that, and I would've been happy. The end, overall, felt like a fan colouring in the blank spots left by episode 25. PinkieXCheese, the Appledash implications (I'm not a fan), the Lyra X Bon confirmation (I am a fan).

 

Honestly wish I could've went back and warned myself against it, or at least for the power that some people seem to have - to pretend it isn't canon.

Double quoting the part I think I should reply to on this one.

I agree on many things, but some I don't.

The confirmation on Twilight outliving her friends is actually good, giving the alicorn status some sort of divinity or at least superiority to the rest of the pony races in the show. I had a huge issue since Magical Mistery Cure with Twilicorn because, disregard how she was almost a demigod (although they kept just the princess label due kid friendlyness), she really never displayed an actual upgrade on her powers, to the point where GlimGlam (an unicorn with a made up artifact) could beat her and her way to go about it had to be through negotiation (which was actually good on itself for the message within the show). For the rest of the show Twilight was more a politician than a demigod (which theorically would fit the princess tag, except princesses don't really do much in politics nowadays, not even kings and queens do), and honestly, she could have done just that without the alicornification. She was good enough as an unicorn to perform the same tasks she had been doing until the end of the show as an alicorn.
That she outlives her friends also helps with the message of that last episode. Their friendships would remain disregard the distance and the time, and once her friends were through, the fond memories would remain and live in Twilight's heart (as corny as it sounds).

The PinkCheese shipping thing was sort of set up earlier in the season, so it didn't really make a surprise to me by the last episode. Not that it didn't surprise me earlier on the season, though. I mean, it's been a looooooong while since the last time Weird Al helped the show. Bringing him back and making that set up was rushed and should have took longer like the FlutterCord couple, but it felt a bit more logical anyway. However I never thought of Pinkie to be the one getting married. It kind of felt more like something Rarity would have done given some of the plots of her previous episodes.

Spike design was an easter egg that didn't really seem all that much of a good idea for the show finale. I completely agree it was a bad choice on design, having seen so many badass dragons in the past and having his grown dragon design from season 2 being actually cool. His design for the finale doesn't do any justice to the wise and mature character he's supposed to be. He's a chad on that design when he should be a brilliant diplomatic.

The AppleDash thing was a horrible nod to the fanbase. There was never any sort of actual development on their relationship going into that direction. They were shipped against all logic just to please that awkward fan idea of having all of the mane6 being shipped with one another. And having RD turn into a typical Butch hair style included seems far too lazy and stereotypical. They could have done way better.

Now, the LyraXBonBon thing is another annoying nod to the fanbase that shouldn't have really happened. Personally, I have never really liked that interpretation of Lyra on the community given there are better ones out there (the background pony Lyra feels more likely to actually be a character with a personality, for instance). They could have picked the otherkin Lyra with the hand obsession as well. At least that would have been funny. But the lesbian Lyra? What for? Did they have to fullfil their homo shipping quota for the SJW? Hay, if we take in consideration the canon, wouldn't it be just wrong to have a secret agent in a long term relationship due the obvious risky nature of her job?

The show finale was sort of a train wreck. I still think it was better than Magical Mistery Cure and most of the filler school episodes of season 8, but it fell short for the show finale. It was disapointing though I didn't really expect much from it.

[Senko 459]

As I've said before in the Twilight/Starlight fight Twilight uses several times the magic Starlight does (if you count up all the spells and compare their fighting) and they both tire out at the same time. In raw power Twilight wins whereas Starlight is better at fighting.