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Description
If you use the current year as a pro-Twilicorn argument, stop that.
Source
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And you know it’s bad when the friggin’ Star Wars prequels handled something better than Magical Mystery Cure.
So what’s Twilight’s grand destiny? Why did she have to grow wings? Why did she have to become a princess? What is her ultimate purpose, the thing that 3 seasons have been building up towards?
The answer is nothing. Literally nothing. Since there’s never been any indication that this needed to happen before (or during) Magical Mystery Cure, we have to cheat and look into the future. After Magical Mystery Cure, the show proceeded to spend an entire season showcasing that Twilight’s “ascension” was entirely pointless. We spend the season seeing Twilight insist that nothing changed at all. The S4 finale went out of its way to show that Princess Twilight, even with all the other princesses’ powers combined, could not defeat Tirek.
We have a sequence where Twilight once again realises that real strength comes from the power of friendship. The Mane 6, all together, use the magic of friendship to defeat Tirek.
The explicit message being that Twilight’s alicorn powers fail where good old friendship lazers win.
We had a whole song dedicated to Twilicorn being pointless.
So what’s the point? Twilight’s destiny was to grow wings, but for what? Nowhere in the series, ever, at any point, are we shown that Equestria needs a new princess, and that princess has to be Twilight. Nobody doubts Twilight’s ability to make a good princess, but her purpose. Twilight is a Chosen One without anything to be chosen for.
This retroactively makes the preceding episode pointless – it would even if the plot had made sense. Why did we spend 15 minutes getting emotionally invested in an episode whose ending bears no relation to anything that came before it, and doesn’t affect anything that comes after it?
It shows Celestia as being an incompetent buffoon: she groomed Twilight all her life for a big fat load of nothing. It completely disintegrates all the story-telling potential that was behind Twilight’s studies: we are shown that everything she’s ever worked for amounted, effectively, to a pair of wings (that she was fine without) and a title (that doesn’t mean anything). One day Twilight fixed a spell, and now she’s a princess. The end.
There’s no heroic tale to be told; no grand destiny; no struggle; it just happens…” ~ from this essay http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/435148/how-magical-mystery-cure-ruined-everything#page/4
It basically asks, “If the writers weren’t going to do anything with Twilicorn, then why do it?”
Indeed.
@Background Pony #F140
Like it or hate it, it doesn’t matter in just the concept and delivery. Its also about the time and effort. How is it not bad for the show…if they need to invest so much time and effort on just doing damage control on making the audience find the right balance between not seeing her as a princess, but at the same time, not ignoring the facts?
Y’know, just to reveal alicornship is something you can be born as without achieving anyway.
Seems like a colossal waste of time that could of been used for natural character growth and character driven storytelling. I’m not saying its nearly as bad as it was in S4 like the alicorn potion and other nonsense, but its definitely been a large waste of time.
Its not enough that its no longer bad for the show.
Including the episodes about her learning to fly, getting a castle, and handling diplomatic events? They even pointed out specifically that she was an alicorn twice in season 5.
I think they’ve just been doing a solid job of making it no longer bad for the show.
Well, it’s working for me.
I could probably argue they gave up on character writing a while ago, but so far this season doesn’t feel very different from S4 other than the persistent throwbacks to S1. The movie is supposed to deal with Twilight doing something that Celestia doesn’t think she’s ready for, so you might be on to something with this plotline about Twilight doubting herself. Hey, maybe she’ll renounce alicorn/princesshood after all.
No problem :)
Sure, if they think being repetitive will get views, maybe. Then again, they could always flip the board over, and do something drastic like show Celestia flawed and mistaken about something life-changing. I don’t know man, something seems different about S5 compared to the 1-2 seasons before it. And who knows what they got cooked up for the big movie. Seems a bit premature to give up on the character writing.
Granted, though I appreciate hearing from you all the same.
@CronoM
I dunno, man. Sometimes I think the writers aren’t thinking this much about her development as a character, so why should I try? I definitely see what you’re saying, but what I don’t see is how, if at all, this would change her situation or how she acts. At the end of the day, she’s still going to be the Princess of Friendship that unites the land and all that jazz, so there’s nothing to look forward to anymore. Just one finale- or premiere-only conflict after another.
Anyway, that’s it from me for now. I really don’t have any bigger conclusions regarding the development of this season since this season is only half done. It would be too hasty.
Check Amending Fences 2:38. In prior seasons, Twilight has risked endangering her friends for Celestia’s sake, sometimes down to the wire, without thinking about how her friends are effected as a priority. Crystal Empire and Twilight’s Kingdom are the easy examples. Twilight’s hyper-dependency obstructing her duty to her friends and to herself is how Celestia convinced Twilight to be a princess in the first place. Amending Fences was a changing point, to where it no longer meant the world to Twilight. Additionally, there’s a difference between bargaining for a friends forgiveness, and laying all your cards on the table like her friends do. Twilight transitioned in that episode too, and voiced how unbelievably hard it was.
Sorry, I’m not sure I’m following you here. Could you reword it and spell out the references you’re making?
Oh yeah, they were most certainly too late. 4 and a half seasons was WAAAAAY too late to sell Twilight ever being the world’s best anything concerning something friendship related. The Princess of Friendship title, like you said, doesn’t carry much weight. Its basically a duke position given to 1 out of 6 due to nepotism.
Castle Sweet Castle was an odd one, mature but unusual. All six of them spent half of the episode in denial, they actually addressed how ‘not them’ the castle was, and in the second half they decided they decided memories of the past would be the best thing about the castle. They even removed the welcoming portrait of them all. It had a mixture of bitterness and ‘dealing with it’ as friends. I still haven’t decided whether I would count it at as a good episode, but I guess it depends on whether it leads up to the finale well.
The only evidence focusing on her bookish roots is its like she’s learned how to actually empathize far different for the reasons Celestia made her princess. Even when Spike said she had a job from Celestia and Twi shelved everything because of that, like she’s always done, Twi still hated it. Maybe Twilight wants to make some decisions for herself that don’t coincide with Celestia. (I honestly have no idea why some fans find that idea so horrifying)
“When did Twilight show distaste for being a princess in Equestria Games?” She hated the idea of not hanging out with her friends at large events.
“And when did Celestia ignore Pinkie Pie’s efforts, in Party Pooped?” Of course.
You’re forgetting Castle Sweet Castle, but speaking of that one and Amending Fences: while these episodes were really well made and enjoyable, I feel like they’re too late. It’s like, hey guys, it’s great that you’re starting to care more about show continuity and more consistent characters, but you’re five seasons in already. This would’ve been great if you’d made this episode earlier. Maybe then, Twilight’s title of princess would’ve carried more weight, but whatever. She’s saved Equestria with her friends two or three times by then, so fair enough.
It seems like they’re trying to focus more on Twilight’s quirky bookish aspects of her personality than before, as if to reemphasize that she’s just like she was before she became a princess. Either that or it’s just them trying to have fun with her. It could just be me.
When did Twilight show distaste for being a princess in Equestria Games? And when did Celestia ignore Pinkie Pie’s efforts, in Party Pooped?
Indeed. Although I think we have a different definition of when a show wants to ‘grow up’. The show’s ACTUAL attempt at growing up regarding Twilight has got to be Amending Fences. The way they handled it before then, the first season she became a princess ‘season 4’, was more like a time of perfection and denial. Just because they changed things didn’t mean they made it more adult, heck if anything they made it less adult, more G3 MLP.
And don’t get me wrong. They could of pulled off Twilight being a princess as an interesting concept. But all its seem to have done is made a spectacle about her most boring attributes, while leaving her early, quirky ones in the dust.
Despite having the weakest emotional connections and social skills, Celestia would make sure everything was for Twilight to solve and turn her friends into side-notes. Y’know how she started disliking being a princesshood in Trade Ya! and Equestria Games? She was conveniently distracted from those feelings by the end of the episode so she’d never have to doubt herself.
Heck even in Season 5, Celestia outright ignores Pinkie for her efforts and gives all the credit to Twilight. Nepotism isn’t exactly a theory if its most obvious example is being used in-show.
I didn’t dismiss it as a bad idea either, at first. It seemed, uh, abrupt, and was definitely a spoiler, so I also took a wait-and-see approach. The episode itself is actually rather lovely, but by the time S4 rolled around, I just found the show less appealing and more annoying because of her. Like, after all that pomp and circumstance, after the big high school movie, and now we’re just going to go back to business as usual? It was like a slow burn for me. Then realizing that she was growing taller, too, just made it more annoying, as if telling me I’m not going to like where this is going. So far, nothing I’ve seen from the show, as it focused on Twilight, has convinced me otherwise. The show seems to want to grow up fast, but I’d rather see it go back, even though I know it won’t happen.
Agreed for the most part. I think it’s changed the show, but not necessarily in a bad way.
The ones who are being reasonable were never the ones I took issue with. I don’t need a truce with them because they’re not instigating a conflict in the first place. If they make their statements calmly, acknowledge where something is just personal dislike, and don’t blow things out of proportion or seek to blame someone else for what they don’t enjoy, they’re fine in my book. But the people like OP are not seeking peace. They want the conflict over Twilicorn to spring up over and over, either so they can somehow win it or just for the sake of having somewhere to vent their anger. So of course I don’t have a truce with them, because they wouldn’t keep to one.
I am not recklessly attacking anyone for an opinion, well-informed or otherwise, I am chastising some individuals for poor behavior when expressing their opinions. I don’t care if someone gives two words of explanation or a multi-page essay. I’ve seen good and bad examples of both. The real difference is made by how they act and what they seek to accomplish. Never once did I say that it was wrong to dislike Twilicorn, and this whole time I have not been trying to condemn those who do. Their actions, not their opinions, are what matter. Think about this, Crono- who are you defending? Who am I talking about? And are those two groups even the same?
The “I didn’t start it but I’m going to be the one to finish it” claim? Please.
The “I didn’t start this” excuse doesn’t give you free reign to denounce the people with informed opinions on the anti-Princess Twilight topic as well, not just the idiots like OP.
If you are honestly just complaining about the people who only complain with opinions with no basis yet claim its fact, they themselves are completely harmless. All it takes to easily denounce them is simply saying “That’s just an opinion. Do you have any basis?”, and that’s it. That or just ignore them. You’re never going to stop all the random “OP is being a duck on the Princess Twilight matter” pictures. Why should you try? They can easily be ignored.
The only other effect OP’s like this have is they’re pictures sometimes attract the more informed people who will say, in OP’s comments section, something like “While I don’t agree with such generalization, the reason I don’t like Twilight being the Princess in recent episodes is because (such and such)…”
And there’s nothing wrong with that.
@TexasUberAlles
The antagonism exists in the OP’s like this, sure, but they are harmless on their own. Baseless opinions that can easily be ignored. If people want to bring up more relevant issues based on well informed opinions, with no antagonistic intentions, let ‘em. Its fully within their right, they’re not being trolls, and its none of your concern to hate it. You can hate the OP, no problem, we’ll join you, but anything beyond that and your just being rude to the non-antagonistic people in the fandom as well.
So can we please end this topic? Tensions are high when the fandom at large has such split opinions on a big part of the show, so I know this inevetible, but lets save our attacking and ignoring(preferably ignoring) for only the ‘my opinion is fact with no basis’ idiots on either side, and save calm discussions, debates, and agreeing-to-disagrees between the people on both sides have solid basis for their opinions. You can even use agreeing-to-disagree to end conversations with the arrogant guys who believe their basis is 100% fact.
@Background Pony #973E
@TexasUberAlles
You two attacking people recklessly for their opinions isn’t proving your point, it will only make things worse. So can we PLEASE call a truce? Please?
As TexasUberAlles more or less said, I’m not the one starting this. There’s no “crusade” going on that I wasn’t provoked into. I have no intention of bringing up the issue unprompted. And if people like OP want to run this complaint into the ground any more than they already have, I can’t stop them- but I can and will call them out on their immaturity.
Trixie
SHAME ON US, THE PARIS, TEXAS BRANCH
I have no excuse, SSTB was just the first thing that came to mind. Spelled his bonniedamned name wrong, too.
Could be that the animators make alicorn wings that way intentionally so that when they open it gives a more impressive and majestic effect?
Would explain why all the princess wings do that.
You could have just used Trixie, but noooooo.
>:[
(seriously though, for the first 20 seconds of her appearance I thought the gimmick is she was an earth pony, because where the fuck was her horn in that hat)
Maybe they’re stored in the same extradimensional space as Starswirl The Bearded’s horn.
Princess magic.
Or they’re retractable like feline claws. Just imagine they make a schwing! sound whenever she spreads her wings.