Why I love the Pillars

[Toastypk 920]

I've run across various posts in recent weeks from people posting about how they dislike the Pillars. I'm not going to try to get in the way of anyone's opinion, but post after post got me sort of a teensy bit bummed out. So instead, I'm just going to share some positive, and say why I love these guys.

I've always likened MLPFIM to something like an RPG, or at least with a lot of fantasy RPG-ish elements, especially when the mane 6 have to stop big bad guys. So too do I love the world building and happenings Equestrian history. We've gotten things like the Elements of Harmony, then the Tree of Harmony, and the often-mentioned but never seen Starswirl the Bearded. Season 7, though, really tied everything together in a wonderful way.

With the various episodes showing us these legendary figures from years ago, only to have them all not only have come into the same group, with Starswirl, but to have become basically the precursors to the Elements of Harmony and starting a lot of the backstory to many elements of the show!

Not to mention the Pillars themselves have cool designs, influenced by various regions of the world, like Flash Magnus's pegasus-y Greek/Roman influence, and Rockhoof's Nordic/Viking aesthetic. Not to mention Somnamubla has become a fan favorite. The six of these ponies even got stories in the IDW comics alongside the show.

Then there's their whole backstory of how they came to be, by the unicorn Stygian, which gets mentioned in the show, but gets detailed more in the Legends of Magic comics, looking to find ponies to help his village, only for him to later fall from grace through the worst possible miscommunication, thus setting off a lot of elements from the show, leading to the whole group having to disappear to save the world... only to suddenly come back much later and finish their confrontation, this time with healing and forgiveness. I love their story and how it ties everything with the show together!

The only problem I can say though, is that such major characters to the world were barely utilized after their return. We only really had a catching-up with them all in Rockhoof and a Hard Place, and to reunite for the final episodes only to get massively trounced. But that's sort of a consequence of having a show with lots of characters and only having 26 episodes to work with to fit them all in, not to mention new characters like the beloved Autumn Blaze.

But regardless, I just felt like posting this and sharing something positive.

So, huge love to the Pillars! (And Stygian, too!)

Edited August 29, 2021 by Toastypk

[Misty Shadow 7,084]

I never got the disdain for the Pillars. The idea of legendary heroes from a millennium ago being a precursor to the Mane 6, that was a genius idea with relatively good execution. Will always love Stygian. Best shadowy boi besides Sombra. 

School of Friendship, that was the thing I understood the distaste for. 

[Will Guide 21,325]

There was nothing in the show I outright despise. Not the Pillars, not the School of Friendship, not the Young 6. And I am quite satisfied with how Season 9 ended

[Megas 27,064]

There's nothing extensively wrong with them in theory, they're a good idea, but you could tell the writers didn't give a shit about them even from the moment they came together, and especially once they got new toys to play with. Even in the leaks, they went out of their way to point out they didn't want to use all of them, just Starswirl and Rockhoof, you know the ones who've already had multiple focuses instead of giving the others a fair shake

Edited July 1, 2022 by Megas

[Landi 597]

I actually like the characters themselves, my issue is just with how much wasted potential there was with them. After season 7, I was interested to see how season 8 would further develop them, but when season 8 came around, they were shoved to the sideline. Other than Starswirl and Rockhoof, they hardly were even there, and it seemed like the writers were too busy with the terrible School of Friendship and the bland student six to further develop these interesting characters. In conclusion, I like the Pillars and think they had good potential, but the writers unfortunately just cast them off to the side (at least the Legends of Magic comics were still able to develop these characters a bit).

[Tom Gallagher 33,521]

I never hated them, they were just a bit wasted. That's all. I struggled a little bit with their story because it was quite convoluted but I liked them as characters and they were likable enough. There were far worse things to come.

5 hours ago, Landi said:

Other than Starswirl and Rockhoof, they hardly were even there, and it seemed like the writers were too busy with the terrible School of Friendship and the bland student six to further develop these interesting characters.

Namely that!