@SuperSonic15  

 
Doubt it.

Come on guys, enjoy the episode, we don’t have to make a discussion about everything…

@Background Pony #230C  
Yeah, but Twilight still showed anger towards Thorax and Spike during the first refrain of Spike’s song, so she was still considering that Spike had betrayed her, but once she saw how much Spike was putting at risk for Thorax as the song continued, she knew she just could not be angry anymore, and she had to defend him when no one else was willing to, otherwise, how could she call herself the Princess of Friendship if she did not defend her closest friend before she met the Mane Six?
 
@Background Pony #230C  
@Pagan  
@Cirrus Light  
While I still feel they rushed the ending with Cadence, Shining Armor, and the Royal Guards accepting Thorax once Twilight did after saying how proud she was of Spike for risking everything for Thorax, I do wonder if this will come back to bite Cadence and Shining Armor in the flank in the season finale…

@Background Pony #230C  

 
Starlight is proof of this and if they can accept someone like her then there is no reason they can’t at least try to accept Thorax.

@Cirrus Light  
Yes, but the very fact that Spike befriended him and was defending him meant to Twilight (and then the others) that they trusted Spike’s judgment on his moral integrity.
 
Just because you believe that trust should earned, not given, doesn’t mean that MLP characters agree. The characters in this universe seem to go by a rule much closer to “trust is given until proven they don’t deserve it”. This is a country where punishment doesn’t seem to exist if the perpetrator is sorry for what they did and can convince others that they won’t do it again.

@Cirrus Light  
If it can think, talk and understand it can be reasoned with Twilight most likely saw a chance for peace and rather than squander it she accepted it, I completely agree on being cautious and they accepted way too quickly and the episode felt rushed for Cadance and Shining to have made a 180 flip from completely opposed to completely accept was unbelievable but at least some acceptance was expected just not as much as they had shown, they could be dangerous but then again it saved Spike TWICE that has to count for something.
 
Thorax’s description of his kind was contradictory he says they are not like him yet all he shows them doing is hissing, hissing does not equal bad and he states they “need love to sustain myself” meaning that though they are willing to attack others it isn’t just out of some malicious nature it was for a resource they need, a resource that if given freely could be a good grounds for an alliance.
 
But yes I do agree they accepted him too quickly to such an extent.

@Background Pony #230C  
You can be sapient without a moral compass, and they’re an entirely different species so there’s no guarantee they have one.
 
From our perspective outside their reality and knowing what we do, he’s a lot more trustworthy, but they didn’t know what we and Spike do. Even then, trust is earned, not freely given, Changeling or otherwise, but Changeling especially since even by Thorax’s own admission, they’re typically very hissy, unfriendly species looking to invade and all.

@Cirrus Light  
The difference is that mountain lions are not sapient, while Changelings are. You can’t trust mountain lions with vulnerable things because they are unable to have a moral compass or be reasoned with, while the same is not true of a Changeling.
 
It’s likely that they had that protection spell against Changelings on Flurry, anyway.

@SuperSonic15  
I don’t see how the situation with Thorax is all that different. It’s a species that’s known to be hostile and dangerous. It’s not some stupid hate-anger, it’s that they know changelings to be dangerous just as surely as we know mountain lions are dangerous.
 
That’s what really upsets me about this episode. It’s not some intelligent process about proving he’s not dangerous, it’s this dumb “get past your hate” thing, but it’s functionally identical to asking someone to get past their hate of mountain lions and let one in. Then a child sings a song about “night turns to day so a mountain lion can learn to be tame”, then the intelligent and anxious one stands up for him, and the rest of the crew falls in line and shows him the baby.
 
At least Trixie was a person, not some freaky insect creature that parasitically feeds off love. When you’re dealing with a completely separate species, there’s just too many unknowns to immediately be so trusting. Thorax doesn’t even fully trust himself. They should’ve at least asked for an explanation about the hissing at the baby earlier.
 
If I were Chrysalis and I ever found out, I’d use this lesson to put Changeling Spies in the Crystal Empire and eventually take it down. With that level of trust, they’d be easy prey.

@SuperSonic15  
Since Twilight had expressions of shock and concern when Spike announced his defense of the changeling (instead of anger like everyone else), my interpretation is that the song convinced her of Spike’s and Thorax’s friendship, so she trusted Thorax because she trusts Spike.
 
I personally don’t think Twilight did anything wrong regarding Trixie in No Second Prances. IMO, Twilight’s errors in that episode were in being hamfisted in her attempts to get Starlight to choose an easier first friend (she should have sat Starlight down, told her about what Trixie’s was like and tell her her concerns, not “volunteer” friends for her to try out), and her abandoning Celestia without even a status update.

@Background Pony #230C  
Still, I’m certain that as Spike did his song, Twilight realized she was repeating the same mistakes she made with Trixie again with Thorax due to her own past experience, and thus why she was the first to lose the initial anger she had under believing Spike had betrayed her and the Crystal Empire and became more sympathetic as the song went on.
 
That’s why at the end, when Spike looks up in defeat to see various looks of hostility and indecision looking his way, Twilight made the decision that she could not let Spike practically alienate himself and refused to repeat the mistakes she made with Trixie again with Thorax, taking Spike’s side in the matter to convince everyone else to accept Thorax as well.

@SuperSonic15  
It’s a lot easier to be trusting that someone has changed if they’re not immediately acting like an asshole, like Trixie was when Twilight first saw her again.

@Cirrus Light  
Probably not. That would be crazy.

@Somber Star  
[hugs]

@Pagan  
Well, he’s more of a time traveling cultist communist.

@Psyga315  
Never played Command and Conquer, So Kane is the leader of an entire race and he tried to gain a permanent resource and a life for his kind outside of the shadows by Conquering another civilization? Hmm interesting.

@OptimusPrimevil  
Basically the entire scene is Spike trying to convince America to accept a martian, but they’re salty over what his race did a couple of years ago, meanwhile they’re best buddies with Kane from the Command and Conquer games.

@SuperSonic15  
So you’d only distrust your child with a mountain lion if you’d been attacked by one previously?
 
…

@Background Pony #F2DC  
Right. Let the fandom being speculating over the ending of this episode and the worst-case scenarios that might result from alternate outcomes.

@SuperSonic15  
“Does Cadence really want to have a falling out with her sister-in-law and adoptive aunts over personal grudges regarding her wedding?”
 
Cue the alternate universe fanfics :P

@Cirrus Light  
Only if it is from personal experience, which Cadence has due to what Chrysalis put her through before she could finally marry Shining Armor.
 
Twilight may have been livid at the start of Spike’s song as seen during the first time Spike did the refrain, but as she realized that Thorax’s situation reminded her of what happened with Trixie, her anger vanished as she realized she was making the same mistakes again and saw Spike was willing to put everything on the line to defend Thorax: Both his fame and his friendships.
 
@Revan0123  
Plus, unlike Twilight, Cadence had not experienced a similar situation like this recently to help her realize her past was clouding her judgement. So while Twilight was much less angry and more concerned and sympathetic by the second time Spike did his song’s refrain, Cadence looked less angry compared to the first time Spike did the refrain, but was still having a mental battle of indecision as to whether she should accept Thorax or not because of her personal past with Chrysalis. Good thing Twilight came around and stood up for Spike first and convinced Cadence to accept Thorax. Had she refused, Twilight would have probably told Celestia and Luna, and despite Celestia’s own past regarding being defeated in combat by Chrysalis, she would be more understanding due to her and Twilight’s relationship, and told Cadence off, along with forcing her to accept Thorax, especially under the threat of refusing to send help to the Crystal Empire if Chrysalis does return.
 
Does Cadence really want to have a falling out with her sister-in-law and adoptive aunts over personal grudges regarding her wedding? I highly doubt she would want that to happen.

@SuperSonic15  
“As for Cadance, I just could not stomach seeing her that angry, furious, and full of hate, compared to the other times we’ve seen her show anger, no matter how minor, against the likes of Discord, Sombra, and Tirek”
 
If someone tried to destroy my livelyhood and then replace me, I’d be pretty pissed too…

@SuperSonic15  
Is it “full of hate” when there’s a mountain lion in your house and there’s been plenty of incidents recently of mountain lions eating babies?

@Revan0123  
Okay. Sorry about that. I forgot about the episode with that Borg that was independent from the hive mind.
 
Still, I do feel Shining Armor’s anger here can be compared with Picard’s because of what they went through with the Changelings/Borg in the past.
 
As for Cadance, I just could not stomach seeing her that angry, furious, and full of hate, compared to the other times we’ve seen her show anger, no matter how minor, against the likes of Discord, Sombra, and Tirek.

@SuperSonic15  
That too.