Dumbest thing I have seen on MLP

[Party Cannon 876]

Magic Duel, last episode, had a lot of great moments. The end with Twilight's various "tricks,"AssassinShy, Zecora being Yoda, the list goes on. Yet, this episode also had the dumbest thing I have yet seen on this show.

 

What was it?

 

The flying animals. What the hell. Apparently, this was simply a trick Twilight wanted to try out and later Trixie helped her with it. At first I did not question it, as there was more going on in the story. However all day afterwards I could not wrap my brain around its stupidity. THIS IS COMING FROM A PINKIE PIE FAN. This show has had its share of the ridiculous, which I love, yet all those times it was for the sake of being ridiculous, or it wound up having a reason to it. This animal levitation weirdness was just plain stupid, as it was never explained nor practical applications of this spell were apparent. What ultimately enhances this is it was done by the most practical rational pony in the entire show.

 

The trick/spell is not even wow worthy. It is just a waste of screen time. If I had to attribute it to something, it would be the writing. It must of been that the superb writer(s) of this episode put so much awesomeness into it already, that when they needed to come up with a spell for Twilight to do, they just thought "F*ck it, flying animals."

 

It is not a central plot point, but I was simply flabbergasted at how this egregiously idiotic thing made its way into this fine episode.

[Undyne 1,483]

Well, I honestly thought they have downed Twilight's magic in this episode. 

 

Recall from the second episode of Season 3 where she FLIPPED GRAVITY. THE HELL. And she's having to practice levitating a few animals that most likely, weight about 1/20th or the Ursa Minor.

[FoxyCryptid 4,330]

Well, I honestly thought they have downed Twilight's magic in this episode. 

 

Recall from the second episode of Season 3 where she FLIPPED GRAVITY. THE HELL. And she's having to practice levitating a few animals that most likely, weight about 1/20th or the Ursa Minor.

 

Maybe it was the toll of concentrating on that many individual objects at once? There's raw strength, and then's there's the actual skill to use it. 

Edited February 2, 2013 by Shoboni

[dad george 105]

They needed something casual to get the "It was a normal day in Ponyville, but then something shitty happened" effect. This was a bit too casual, but it wasn't supposed to be a real story element. It was supposed to give the watchers the feeling like they where just doing their thing when Trixie suddenly appeared.

Also, it gave Fluttershy some spotlight.

 

Also, they never said Twiley was doing something special. The way I feel it Twiley was just getting some casual practice, but Fluttershy was freaking out about it and making it a huge deal. I feel like the whole moment is SUPPOSED to give you that "Well that isn't special, Twiley did much cooler stuff"-feeling, to make the fact that Fluttershy is making a big deal out of nothing more outspoken.

Edited December 2, 2012 by Kahr Kunne

[khaine21x3 789]

It was just a basic levitation spell which she performed on the animals , most animals in equestria are semi sentient so they enjoy being levitated around like some human teenager probably would.

[Wubsie 1,123]

Magic Duel, last episode, had a lot of great moments. The end with Twilight's various "tricks,"AssassinShy, Zecora being Yoda, the list goes on. Yet, this episode also had the dumbest thing I have yet seen on this show.

 

What was it?

 

The flying animals. What the hell. Apparently, this was simply a trick Twilight wanted to try out and later Trixie helped her with it. At first I did not question it, as there was more going on in the story. However all day afterwards I could not wrap my brain around its stupidity. THIS IS COMING FROM A PINKIE PIE FAN. This show has had its share of the ridiculous, which I love, yet all those times it was for the sake of being ridiculous, or it wound up having a reason to it. This animal levitation weirdness was just plain stupid, as it was never explained nor practical applications of this spell were apparent. What ultimately enhances this is it was done by the most practical rational pony in the entire show.

 

The trick/spell is not even wow worthy. It is just a waste of screen time. If I had to attribute it to something, it would be the writing. It must of been that the superb writer(s) of this episode put so much awesomeness into it already, that when they needed to come up with a spell for Twilight to do, they just thought "F*ck it, flying animals."

 

It is not a central plot point, but I was simply flabbergasted at how this egregiously idiotic thing made its way into this fine episode.

Well it looks like your jimmies have been rustled.

Yeah the trick wasn't all that I have to admit. But I think that the writers were paying more attention to Trixie more than anything.

I guess this shows even the best of people can be lazy. :/

Also I was wondering during the whole episode if Twilight could finally use that fail-safe spell again.....

EDIT: I thought this too but then after watching it again it looks pretty complicated.

Just think about it, she moved multiple living life forms at the exact same time in different directions. There is also some layer work.

Edited December 2, 2012 by Chalk The Chao

[Music Chart Fan 819]

I agree that Twilight's show of levitating animals in shapes in the air didn't seem particularly impressive to me. From what we've seen, it doesn't seem to be very difficult for unicorns to levitate animals or levitate multiple objects at once, so Twilight levitating multiple animals at once shouldn't be that difficult either.

 

I also didn't like Fluttershy's complete overreaction to her animals being levitated in the air. Judging from several other episodes where ponies/animals fell from great heights and were unharmed, I think that even if Twilight were to accidentally drop the animals, they probably would not be seriously (or at least not fatally) injured either. Fluttershy's reaction made me wonder she even cares that much about these non-sentient animals in the first place, but that might just be because I don't care that much about non-sentient animals.

[Arcanel 3,041]

Well, screw this, I'm not writing it all again for the third time, I'm copy-pasting what I wrote in the Show Discussion thread before!

 

 

 

 

As for the impressiveness, we also have to consider the fact that, this was probably a show arranged for the delegates of Saddle Arabia coming to Ponyville. For all we know, they are all earth ponies as well (like the crystal ponies), and a magic show like the one Twilight imposed is probably highly impressive for any resident of Saddle Arabia.

 

The animals coming from someone doesn't make it more impressive, but it does make a certain pegasus worry as hell, and a certain unicorn to treat them with the utmost care. I'm not saying that it makes more impressive for anyone outside Fluttershy's or Twilight's circle, but it does increase the risk factor for Twilight. The care is this. Regardless of who she is lifting, she WILL do it with the utmost care anyway. But Twilight probably asked Fluttershy about letting her using the animals for the trick show, something which might have taken some convincing words for Fluttershy to agree, so Twilight knew better than anyone how important was this to happen, for the safety of the animals, for Fluttershy, for the confidence in her own magic skills, AND for the task of making anyone around her in the magic show (especially the delegates from Saddle Arabia) impressed. I think that, whoever you are, you're STILL going to feel that in your mind.

[Snowfeathers 43]

I'm not entirely sure if I remember right, but wasn't Twilight shown sweating quite a bit while she did the trick the first time?
IMO, that means it took at least a decent amount of concentration- Maybe it was just moving all the individual animals around consistently in the same pattern. Nevertheless, that little shot did show that she had to put effort into it, that it wasn't just "oh-whoop-dee-doo-i'll-just-levitate-all-these-animals-there-we-go". That made it nicer in the end, I think, when Trixie helped her out(notably without breaking a sweat?).

It was just a simple plot device, with a little shot of callback/Trixie redemption at the end.

[Sunbro 4 Lyfe 939]

*sigh* while people like you post about shitty tricks. im more focused on the fact that TWILIGHT SPARKLOE BROKE THE FOURTH WALL!

[XUNUSEDXXX 3,459]

I kind of agree. She's been capable of showing much greater magical feats like picking up a who knows how many tons ursa minor and carrying it a far way to a cave, so why is picking up a few animals and levitating them in a figure 8 anything super special?

[NavelColt 22,883]

As much as I wouldn't treat this quite as intensely as you have, I also found the flying animals thing to be a bit retarded. We've seen Twilight do incredible things like time travel, you'd think they could come up with a slightly more interesting 'hard trick' for her to work on.

 

"Twilight Sparkle, you have let Spike defeat defeated King Sombra, it is now time for you to move on to your next level of studies, just as I mentioned."

 

"And what is that, princess?"

 

"Levitating animals."

 

The above is very tongue and cheek, and I will smack fillies if this gets serious responses.

[gypsy_tambourine 18]

*sigh* while people like you post about shitty tricks. im more focused on the fact that TWILIGHT SPARKLOE BROKE THE FOURTH WALL!

Yeah, this. Also, while levitating the ursa was awesome, it was still just one thing going in one direction. I imagine this was less about power and more about finer levels of control. When she does levitate things, it's rarely (if ever) more than one item, and never in multiple directions at the same time. Precision can be just as impressive as power.

[Arcanel 3,041]

Yeah, this. Also, while levitating the ursa was awesome, it was still just one thing going in one direction. I imagine this was less about power and more about finer levels of control. When she does levitate things, it's rarely (if ever) more than one item, and never in multiple directions at the same time. Precision can be just as impressive as power.

AT LONG LAST I FOUND MY MIND MATE! Seriously though, this is another thing. We just had an entire episode that showed that poewr isn't everything...I'm thinking that Twilight was going to concentrate for something more..."refined" than powerful espeically if, again, like I said, it was chosen as something that the delegates from Saddle Arabia might have been more intrigued in.

[Circadian 1,273]

Well, she was trying to turn an apple into an orange in Too Many Pinkie Pies. Twily's just studying way too hard on trivial things(as usual). She's a detail oriented pony after all. It's one of her greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses. 

[AegisReflector 886]

If this was concerning a show like Breaking Bad or The Walking Dead, then I would be more inclined to agree with your annoyance at this other plot point. But, bare in mind, this is Friendship is Magic, a show designed for families and, more specifically, kids. If they were to design the episode especially for us Bronies, they would take more time to edge out flaws and have more continuity between episodes, but Twilight having her seemingly powerful magic training reduced to just levitating animals is most likely just an oversight on the writers part because they are writing episodes on a kid level, not a teen or young adult level.

 

I honestly didn't pay attention to the logistics of Twilight's magic lesson. I paid attention to the duels between Twilight and Trixie, the main focus of the episode. I would like to say that Bronies sometimes take episodes waaaaaaay too seriously when FiM doesn't try to make complex storylines. It merely just tries to brighten our day with cute but heroic and epic adventures of 6 awesome ponies, nothing else. Just be happy that the Trixie storyline was enough to make you interested in the episode, and don't overdo yourself by focusing in on elements that are just not really that major to complain about. I don't think it was "dumb", just think that writing on a level for children to understand is what makes storylines sometimes too linear or kerskuffled.

[Just some guy 1,070]

I think it was more of an exercise, to keep Twilight's magic capabilites in tip-top condition.

 

You wouldn't bench 300lbs if you just wanted to stay fit, you'd do as much as you can without straining yourself much.

[Circadian 1,273]

If this was concerning a show like Breaking Bad or The Walking Dead, then I would be more inclined to agree with your annoyance at this other plot point.

 

If this was concerning a show like Breaking Bad or The Walking Dead, I'd have to agree with you on that one. I can't really see how levitating animals would make any sense whatsoever in that context.

 

Actually, in Breaking Bad it would probably be magnets. Bitch.

[gypsy_tambourine 18]

AT LONG LAST I FOUND MY MIND MATE! Seriously though, this is another thing. We just had an entire episode that showed that poewr isn't everything...I'm thinking that Twilight was going to concentrate for something more..."refined" than powerful espeically if, again, like I said, it was chosen as something that the delegates from Saddle Arabia might have been more intrigued in.

You know what they say about great minds...   Like you say, I imagine that Saddle Arabia doesn't have the same critters, so such a precise display with unfamiliar creatures would be more impacting in a demonstration.

[Critical Hit 69]

*sigh*

Allow me to explain.

The animals in Equestria are made of Dark Matter.

Twi and Spike, along with all other ponies (except Applejack) aren't.

Therefore, it's easier to disrupt gravitational fields than to lift them with magic.

... and apparently Twi's magic is weaker than most ponies bodies seeing as everypony can pick up most animals.

Then again, animals (except a select few, Ursas for an example) may have an innate ability to partially disrupt gravity that only activates when touched by another animal or a pony, and in that case, her magic isn't weak, the animals' gravity disrupting ability just doesn't kick in when being magically manipulated.

 

---

 

In all seriousness, that's pretty weird. I gotta watch that episode tonight.

Edited December 3, 2012 by Critical Hit

[Colt 555]

Well here I will stand in defense of the magic power output Twi showed on the animals... someone has to do it.

 

 

Maybe taking this to the weight lifting side of magic and not the complexity of the spell itself is where some ponies can get lost.

 

Controlling the individual movement of 12 different subjects can get kind of tricky. And not making them a not so cute mass of flesh inside a magic field could also prove to be hard.

 

Think of how many times has Twi and other unicorns make "multi-target" spells. Almost always is an individual spell that takes effect on a singular OBJECT. Few times we have seen control on more that 1 thing at the same time.

 

Also we don’t know if that was the first time in the day she practiced with her magic as far as I could see she looked kind of exhausted from using that kind of magic so It could be more of a magic depletion issue.

 

I also think some of you are letting through the fact that she is not using her magic on things, this are living beings. Magic could have different rules on living creatures that with normal objects. Taking the fact that the ursas ARE MADE OF F’NG STARS AND SPACE we can assume they are no close to enchant normal living creatures.

 

Still Im playing to be the devils advocate here I also think it was pretty lame, If I were a pony from a distant land and Celestia takes me to see a young mare making small animals fly I would be… disappointed to say the least. 

[Clarity 3,094]

Oh, yeah...that.

 

In the premieres, Twilight violated the laws of gravity and used dark magic and blew up her library. I even made a thread about it, concerning over the fact that she may be becoming overpowered.

 

And now, in this episode, she suddenly had trouble with levitation spells, the most basic type of magic. I was hoping she would do more than spinning animals around in figure eights. The way she did the illusions--using smoke--seems actually to be advanced magic, or at least more than levitation. She was quite underpowered in that episode, or at least a lot more so than in the Crystal Empire.

[Sunny Fox 5,952]

I kind of agree with the OP, especially when you take into account "reshelving day" from "Secret of my Excess". There Twilight was simultaneously levitating an entire library of books at once, while also spending concentration on reading titles, remembering which section they belong in, and moving them to the correct shelf, all while the other books continue to dance around her. In contrast to that, spinning a few animals around shouldn't seem at all impressive.

[Dr. Vojislav Seselj 691]

Well, I suppose that was very peculiar, "regular" animals do not like to be levitated around like some entertainment slaves

 

Eeyup.

[Creamy Arty 6,252]

 

If she can easily and happily separate every book in her library into two circles, rotate them in opposite directions; pick out multiple books at a time, read their titles, and sort them into various sections, then moving a few compliant animals in a single direction shouldn't cause her to break a sweat and look so strained.

 

Maybe she slacked off for a while and was out of practice.