Shame he dosen’t kill pinkie

@621Chopsuey  
could be there is a connection between the nightmare and the pony of shadows. whatever stygian found, it was drawn to his anger and jealousy. it could be it left shards that seek out those with strong negative emotions.  
O.o
 
that could explain the black orb thing we saw in the flashback with luna’s transformation. Of course the shard possessing and alicorn would have a vyer different effect, especially an alicorn who is has inherently connected to the night.  
ut after nightmare moon was defeated, another shard was formed by the nightmare, becoming whatever strange figure we saw.  
however it is seemingly stated that during celestia’s rule the dark places of the earth, least around equestria, have eroded or even vanished completely.
 
in the end while the shadowy creature is banished, it does not mean something cannot bring it back. hmmm

@thorondragon  
Like Castle Mania’s PoS haunting the Castle of the Two Sisters?

@Background Pony #F234  
Tirek is a bit of both scheming and brute force. he used brute force when he could but could easily recgonize when it would not give him the advantage.  
there oculd be more potential for depth, albeit not redemption, too. The one time he even refered to scorpan, he showed no intention of seeking vengeance, nor did he blame his brother for the betrayal. Hell it seemingly implied that though his brother was turning against him, he did not raise a hand at scorpan.  
in the end scorpan was a traitor….. it was for the good of all in the end, but scorpan still turn against his kin when he could not reason with him.
 
With stygian here the conflict was less defeating him and more if they could save him…. and saving him proved to be the better course.  
Though he was a physically theratening foe, he had no hope of recovering his strength before his enemies got ot him. Celestia could have easily defeated him in this state, albeit not without a sizable conflict.

@PonyPon  

 
‘Wah wah, he wasn’t interesting, blah blah.’
 
It’s the Sombra drama all over again. This villain’s purpose wasn’t about flaunting power, his purpose was to show how even the ‘legendary pillars’ , more specifically Starswirl - who’s been praised to high heaven since this show began - is capable of making mistakes. The Pony of Shadows is a symbolic villain, in the same way Sombra was a presence villain, Tirek is a brute strength villain and Chrysalis is a scheming villain.
 
If y’all don’t like the format used, that’s fine. Just don’t make it sound like it’d have made sense to fill episode minutes with Tirek 2.0 when that wouldn’t have fit the theme for this episode.

@Background Pony #296F  
i wonderif they are gonna have it that the pony of shadow sowed its own ‘seeds’ before being banished. and we have a bunch of other creatures like it around.

@Background Pony #5739
 
The comics add to the Lovecraft feel too, with the Arthur Jermyn/protagonist of Shadow Over Innsmouth style reveal that Shadow Lock is descended from Stygian’s shadow form (or maybe the shadow thing possessing someone else, it’s never made clear).

@Background Pony #5739  
not to mention Celestia’s rule has left whatever wells odf dark energy to either be missing or, at least, far, far into the corners of the world.
 
in a sense it was about saving the pony of shadows than defeating him. and finding a way wihtout sacrificing everyhting.

@Background Pony #5739  
Hmm,
 
Sound about right

Once you think about it, The shadow part of stygian is some unknowable evil not at its full power when it meets the full cast. It has its own place (possibly some worshipping ground) that stygian stumbled onto and it was implied to not have a form when it spoke to him. Starswirl did whatever it took, even sacrificing himself and a few others, to get rid of it. Then they trapped it in limbo like before.
 
Sounds like HP Lovecraft.
 
@gingerninja666
 
@Dustcan
 
@PonyPon

@Dustcan
 
I… am going to stick up for him here.
 
I actually found him very interesting. Like, he’s not NOT dangerous. He’s enough of a threat to force Starswirl to the point of “whatever the cost” mode. He was just going up against the ENTIRE cast at full strength and they actually make the plot about HOW they’ll beat him rather than if. That’s different. That’s something that hasn’t really been done before.
 
I felt for the guy. I felt sorry for Stygian. I got where he was coming from. He was a strategist who wanted to be a hero.

@RIG  
Pretty damn weak as our villains go.
 
And he doesn’t get much stronger or smarter as things went on.
 
No wonder he wasn’t a hero like the rest of them.

@RIG
 
The only villain to get some buildup.
 
And he’s the least interesting of them all.

i will be honest: the whole thing with the PoS was anticlimatic as fuck.