What I’m finding ironic, though, is that, in hindsight, the idea behind this episode wouldn’t even make sense without the comics considered. Given that the show didn’t do anything to explore why Nightmare Moon is so feared and reviled whereas the comics did.

@pen5011  
Is not some kind of big deal.  
Made with more accurate timing i suppose the majority would have liked it. But is not like this is some kind of important issue. The haters got over it already.

@pen5011  
I totally agree with you. The episode was awesome, Luna dealing with these emotions was awesome, and the comment section makes me want to vomit with just how much disapproval and criticism they put into their words. You’re mean, people, because you’re just spamming this picture with unnecessary aversion.

@pen5011  
That’s not the problem. After all this time they made Luna look like all of a sudden she had some kind of epiphany and realized “hey, i was evil… i should regret and self pity starting by… now!” and so she started to deal with the situation like an emo teen cutting herself while listening to the linking park (talk about thousand years old princess…) just for an episode inwhich in the end she is being resetted, and we can easily assume this matter will never be mentioned again.

@angrybrony  
Again.
 
And thank you.

@Background Pony #2686
 
 
@pen5011  
luna showing her emotions isn’t the problem its the irresponsible way she handled them to the point were she almost doom equestria

@pen5011  
Yeah, I get kinda tired of people bitching and acting like showing emotions is a bad thing or something, or just laughing at it and making people feel worse.  
I’m sorry, world, for not being 100% stoic at all times.

@pen5011  
Comments: Anytime, you whiny sod.

Me: “Wow, this episode probably hit the closest to home any show has ever done before. I feel Luna’s pain, and am now completely in love with her. let’s see if anyone else shares this same feeling with me.”
 
checks comments
 
Me: “well apparently showing emotions is now a form of edge, and it’s better to bottle up those emotions or else you’re unlikable and become a joke to everyone. thanks again comment section.”

@Background Pony #ED91  
Oh, what the hell, I’ll laugh anyway… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA…!! XD

@Background Pony #ED91: No hint in the show that suggests that she was possessed or cursed? Luna’s expression at 2:02 in this video may suggest otherwise. I’ll grant you at the very least, it may indicate that she never intended on becoming Nightmare Moon, or didn’t know what would happen when she did. But it’s pretty clear the girl’s no longer herself after she becomes Nightmare Moon. Besides, one has to wonder where the dark magic came from in the first place, or why she seemed to recover too quickly after she was purified.
 
Besides, for example, there’s no hints that Cadence was a natural-born alicorn. But the idea that she isn’t a natural-born alicorn, and ascended to alicornhood after she get her cutie mark is pretty much considered canon to the show. So there’s no reason to assume the same can’t be said for the idea that Luna was cursed or possessed when she became Nightmare Moon.

@Background Pony #CE8A  
“some sort of evil magic” can mean everything. And doesn’t deny that Luna could have cast it upon herself. There is no hint in the show she was possessed or cursed by someone/thing else.

@Background Pony #DD2A: I’m saying something else was part of what made Luna into Nightmare Moon. Especially given that Lauren Faust herself said, and I quote, that “some sort of evil magic turned Luna into Nightmare Moon”. And it seems to me that what’s often forgotten is that her bitterness was still a factor in how she transformed in the first place. Considering that a negative emotion is needed for the Nightmare Forces to take hold of any host in the first place, and feeding on those negative emotions is what helps it maintain that hold. So nothing regarding Nightmare Moon’s backstory in the first episode of the series is being tossed aside even with the Nightmare Forces considered. But at the same time, you know how legends don’t always adhere to what exactly happened.

@Background Pony #CE8A  
Hold on, I’m not saying I don’t like Tantibus for making Luna realistic. What I was saying was that Tantibus does a better job at making Luna sympathetic than the Nightmare Forces. Mainly because I like to think that Nightmare Moon was created by Luna’s emotions going haywire (sort of like a berserk Shadow from Persona 4), so if you say something else made Luna Nightmare Moon then you’re tossing aside something that was established in the FIRST EPISODE! (“The bitterness in the young one’s heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon.”)

@Background Pony #EA0A: How does making Luna more realistic make her lose her interesting points? It’s natural she would have emotional scars from the whole Nightmare Moon thing even happening in the first place. Not to mention, it would be natural to feel some sort of burden from going through with what’s essentially a Deal With the Devil.

CRAAAAAWLING IIIIN MY SKIIIIIN

@Background Pony #EA0A  
I was kinda afraid they would when i’ve seen that thing. I’ve really appreciated that at least they didn’t go into the possession territory. I agree is much more interesting having Luna becoming Nightmare Moon by herself cause of her own purposes. IDW screwed up badly from this point of view. Nightmare Rarity… it would be laughable if it would not be so unbearably retarded.

At least they didn’t pull the possession card like IDW did with the Nightmare Forces.
 
I’m sorry, but I find that Luna is sympathetic because of Nightmare Moon. So if you just out and say she was possessed by something other than her negative emotions, that makes her lose interesting points for me because it takes what Luna Eclipsed and the first episode had said and ran it through that freaking eye drill from Dead Space.

@Background Pony #ED91  
It’s reasonable enough to think she internalized it, hence why she doesn’t seem that guilty in most of her other appearances. She was punishing herself every time she slept so she could behave normally when awake.
 
Plus only about a year and a half has passed since she was freed, so its not like it has actually taken THAT unreasonably long for her to deal with this.

@Background Pony #ED91  
Isn’t the whole episode about her learning not to be one?

@Background Pony #ED91  
the point was to give a good and interesting episode.  
or to expand and close up some long standing issues.

@gittonsxv  
When people will realize that not always char dev is good or made properly?  
This is one exampkle IMHO inwhich is made the wrong way. They pulled out of nowhere an angsty and self pitied Luna for just an episode inwhich she return to normal at the end? What was the point? That’s why i think this was made too late. Is kinda like years later Luna realize “oh, right now that i think about it i was a some kind of demonlord, i should regret and whine about it… let’s start now!” and that’s just for the sake of developing nher out of it right away. No matter how i look at it, it simply seems stupid.

@Background Pony #ED91  
character dev is good any time and we know/see little of luna.

What i really don’t understand… what’s the worth of pulling out this stuff now in the fifth season. I could have understood in season one or two. Not now completely going against the depiction of Luna they made till now. It could have been a good idea but it come too late for all this regret and self-pity.

@Sub Hoofer  
Agnstception