Shining Armor not invited to Twilight's Birthday party in "Sweet and Elite"

[silvadel 1,393]

I was thinking about how when Twilight's Birthday Party was moved to Canterlot in "Sweet and Elite" that there was no mention of shining armor. I mean you would think that if Twilight were having a birthday party in Canterlot that she would have at least invited Shining Armor to it.

 

This kind of makes me wonder if when they were writing 2E9, they still didnt know about what was going to happen in 2E25.

[Dusty Soul 2,614]

Well lets see there were a lot of episodes between those two... I don't think they plan out the entire season all at once... Either that or they just wanted to save Shining Armor.

[silvadel 1,393]

Actually it might have made the wedding episode stronger if we had a cameo appearance by Shining Armor earlier in the season. As for there being a lot of episodes between them, it is only 16 -- about half the season.

[Homura Akemi 974]

I think it was kind of short-noticed of the producers to give Twilight Sparkle a brother at the dead end of season 2. He was probably busy with royal stuff during the party, or he did get invited and declined without us knowing so.

[Zygen 6,066]

I agree, its a bit strange that shinning armor never showed up before the finale. I believe it was proably just because they didn't know they where even going to give twilight a brother at that point. It could've been them saving him for the finale tho.

[pinkiefan1287 610]

Well we all have to remember that Shining Armor is caption of the guards. So I bet it is very hard for him to get time off even for his sisters birthday party. It would have been cool to see more of him, but maybe he well show up more in season 3.

Edited September 4, 2012 by pinkiefan1287

[Regality 233]

As a captain of the royal guard he'd probably be way too busy to attend social events he might otherwise be going to (such as Twilight's birthday party). That and he probably wasn't even in development yet as a character when the writers were working on that episode.

~~

[irobern2857 95]

they probably had an idea for Shining Armor but it was just a concept so instead of introducing him and having his character locked down they left him out to hack out all the details.

[PonyPowaX1000 69]

I do like Shining Armor but I do think he was last-minute created I doubt the creator's we even thinking about him in Sweet and Elite. Besides showing up to Twilight's party is small compared to all the other times he could've been mentioned.

 

Not that the target audience would've noticed anyway, since the have an small attention span. Target audience happy Hasbro happy

[NavelColt 22,883]

Probably too busy being the lead military figure for all of Canterlot, to have had the time to take a train ride down to Ponyville. Let's recall that it was a spur of the moment decision for Twilight to move her party at the last minute, so Shining Armor wouldn't have known about that. If he had, I bet he would have had time to stop by, since he's in Canterlot already.

[pjsforever 89]

Maybe she just wanted a birthday party among her friends. Her parents didn't show up either, but their appearance probably would have taken the fun out of the episode, so that could be it.

But I think it's more likely that they just threw Shining Armor in at the finale and hadn't thought of him before, they didn't even give him a cameo appearance.

[silvadel 1,393]

Right -- BUT (even though it is shortish notice) it was still long enough notice for twilight to take the trainride to canterlot. So she could have patched a letter through to canterlot before her arrival in the hopes that her brother could at least make a quick showing -- I mean it isnt like the party only lasted an hour.

[Page Turner 607]

Obviously he was invited, but being the captain of the royal guard he was, unfortunately, on duty that night and had to decline.

 

OR

 

Twilight forgot to mention to him that the party had moved, and so he took the train all the way down to ponyville and couldn't find the party.

Edited September 5, 2012 by Page Turner

[Radiance64 7,059]

Well he probably didn't exist when the episode was written, and besides, they could just say she visited him off-screen or something.

[Rarietty 632]

He's captain of the royal guard. He's probably very busy, and we don't even know where he lives or works. If he didn't live in Canterlot (which would make sense) Twilight probably wouldn't bother him to come. Even if he did, Twilight probably wanted a small get together with just her closest friends considering her personality. Maybe Shinning Armor is the kind of fellow that makes parties a really big deal and invites everyone?

 

That, or he's really hard to contact/get a hold of due to his work. Twilight wasn't even planning for her party to be in Canterlot, and she probably didn't want to bother him by asking him to go to a party that was happening that day.

Edited September 5, 2012 by Rarietty

[Pulcinella 1,016]

Lauren Faust actually didn't work on the finale, and she had no idea that Twi was going to have a brother. Also,

Probably too busy being the lead military figure for all of Canterlot, to have had the time to take a train ride down to Ponyville. Let's recall that it was a spur of the moment decision for Twilight to move her party at the last minute, so Shining Armor wouldn't have known about that. If he had, I bet he would have had time to stop by, since he's in Canterlot already.

 

^This. Being captain of the royal guard must be hard work.

[L-PinkVsD-Pink327 177]

Yes, he probably was busy with Guard duties, like everyone else is saying. (After all, we all know how dangerous a time Equestria is in.)

 

I assume he probably at least just sent a card if that song that Twilight sang about him and her was worth jack squat. ("We've never had a single fight."? I call bullshit.)

[Winona the Dog 1,984]

Canonically he was either busy being the royal guard or the writers haven't decided to write him in yet wouldn't want to spoil the season 2 finale wouldn't we?

[L-PinkVsD-Pink327 177]

Canonically he was either busy being the royal guard or the writers haven't decided to write him in yet, wouldn't want to spoil the season 2 finale would we?

 

I agree with what you said, except for the case of where the writers would not have wanted to spoil him.

 

If that were the case, I don't think that was a smart move. Now I'm not a writer in any degree, but I feel the writers may have been able to give some kind of background on him if they were to introduce him then.

 

Now, there's a problem with what I just said. The episode was more centered on Rarity, so adding a new character that had relations to Twilight may not have coped well, as then the episode would have to shift focus to the siblings.

 

But this whole thing doesn't really matter, I'm positive he wasn't thought up until at least after this episode. Nothing they could've done.

 

(Goodness, I spend half this post debunking my own theory.)

Edited September 5, 2012 by L-PinkVsD-Pink327

[sweetolebob18 728]

Shiny was Captain of the Guard. It is possible he had to work or was out of town.

[FlareGun45 2,221]

Forget Shining! I'm wondering why SPIKE wasn't invited to the party! This is TWILIGHT'S birthday! Twilight's! So why wasn't he there? That was my biggest disappointment in the episode. I mean, unless Twilight mentioned that she's going to have a separate party with him and her family, then that would explain it, because it would be a family party, but until then, why wasn't he there?

[EmeraldStar04 250]

Shining Armour was busy playing pony dnd.

[Baykush 328]

Spike wasn't there either so my new headcannon is that they were taking the day off playing however the pony D&D version was called.

[cider float 2,539]

It was sort of a ladies night out and well they were originally going to have it in Ponyville, they just last minute thought of taking it to where Rarity was so they could have it there. 

[Fhaolan 4,494]

Well, given that Shiny's existence was a surprise to all of Twilight's friends when he *did* get introduced you get the feeling something else was going on there.

 

Yes, the writers likely made Shiny up on the spot when they reached the finale, and unlike old sitcoms I don't think they use the whole 'all the writers in the same room tossing ideas around' anymore. It sounds like the writers each work fairly isolated from each other with the head writer handing out assignments. There's not a lot of opportunity for collaboration unless the writers go out of their way to do it themselves.