@Northern  

The attempts the community and moderators of said community (broadly) of pony culture made to bully fellow community members into submission so they weren’t allowed to voice their opinion about this spike my heart like a stake to this day. Very few people on the pro-alicorn side should be proud of how they acted during this event, even most of those who did not actively bully the other side certainly stood aside and rested easily in the silence the bullying won them from uncomfortable thoughts, never mind how many people had to be harassed out of the community to get it. I only just recently managed to claw my way back to feeling decent enough to interact with the community at all, having completely vanished for nearly six years because of the actions taken in service of shutting up people who disagreed with the direction of the show.
 
If polling about the finale among the broader community was any indication, things didn’t turn out so great for the people who did like it either. Godspeed to them, wherever they are. At least they saw the light eventually, when it was far, far too late to correct course.
 
This was and remains a bad idea. It destroyed Twilight Sparkle as a character and the entire show spiraled downwards from there for six more seasons. The quality control didn’t really drop until season 5’s finale and what came after, but the inevitable slide started here, when the community slowly bullied the crowd who disagreed with the direction into submission so no pressure could really be mounted.
 
Now the community is slowly grinding downwards as more and more of the fairweather friends and summertime soldiers slake off into the dusty sunset, leaving only the people who actually cared to lament what the ruffians broke whilst they were here. Maybe once the party’s over, those of us who actually live in this house, maybe even some of us who built this house and were thrown out during the party… Maybe we can start regarding it the way it was when it was a place worth having a party. Start righting the furniture. Start making it home again.
 
God I hope so. I really, really do.

@fastbreak333  
Besides, there’s a reason they still credit her at the beginning of every episode. Since she’s basically the reason the show is what it is today, I’d say she deserves to voice her preferences.

@GamerOfChaos  
Because I’m subscribed to this picture. Why are you giving Faust trouble for something she said a long time ago? It’s irrelevant now.

@GamerOfChaos  
Were you, like, banned for a year or something and you’ve been savin’ up on Anti-Faust the whole time? How many of these ancient corpses are you going to dig up and yell at, man?

@GamerOfChaos
 
Actually, she wasn’t bitching. These tweets had nothing to do with Princess Twilight itself. She was genuinely asking if Funko had made a unicorn Twilight figure because she wanted a complete collection. This was established back when this image was posted over a year ago in the earlier comments.

@fastbreak333  
And you’re here too why?

@GamerOfChaos  
…this was over a year ago, you know that, right?

No, get used to it. You left voluntarily. Stop following the show if you’re just gonna keep bitching about it. God, I’m beginning to really hate Faust.

@Background Pony #E262  
I don’t think there are many who are “obsessed” as you say, but otherwise, I agree that the post you quoted raises some decent points for why things turned out pretty subpar in that arc.

@TexasUberAlles  

 
Pretty much this. People upset or annoyed with Twilicorn are that way because of this predicament, aside from just being generally obsessed. Whether they’re angry with the writers or Hasbro or no one in particular, it’s a little frustrating.

@redweasel  
Nah, we don’t know if this was intentional or not. Lauren Faust created unicorn Twilight Sparkle, and she was a non-princess unicorn for 3 seasons. It could be a simple matter of relevancy to her. I know when I think of Twilight Sparkle, she made a far bigger impact on me as an unicorn. When I envision Princess Twilight Sparkle, I associate her more with the ‘4 princesses’ group then the ‘Mane 6’ group. And that’s somewhat problematic since the Mane 6 are the protagonists. I’m okay with Twilight as an alicorn, but after the castle in the middle of ponyville, its kind of hard to imagine a scenario with one and not the other. I have no idea what Lauren’s reaction was to the castle…did she ever comment on that?
 
While she did state early on Twilight was being drawn toward being Celestia’s successor, she never said in what manor or if it was supposed to actually go down. She’s refused to give her stance on Princess Twilight Sparkle, just that her vision of Twilight’s plot is most definitely not the same as Meghan’s.
 
Either way, there is still a good chance that this was not intentional. At least as far as I know.

should we tag this with lauren is trying to start shit

@CronoM  
Yeah, go for spoilers, I haven’t the time to watch the whole thing

@Hugobertington.Esq  
Is that a rhetorical question or are you asking for spoilers?
 
Cause while the mocking of both the execution and end result of Twilight becoming a princess is mostly subtext, there are actual scenes in Rainbow Rocks devoted to discrediting how Twilight became a princess in the first place.

Oh, haha! This really happened, eh? Rather funny if you ask me.

@CronoM  
So….How did RR punch a gaping big water ingress into the good ship HMS Princess Twilight?

@TexasUberAlles
 
Yeah. There’s a reason we have a “Larson you magnificent bastard” tag. I think my favorite one was when he tweeted about that bootleg Alicorn Fluttershy toy that cropped up about a year ago: “Why is everyone so upset at this? Now Twilight has somepony to attend all those funerals with.”

@Jarkes  
I didn’t record it, sorry, I just walked up and asked him in person in the hallway. You should have seen the “Tha palookas I hafta deal wit’ in dis job” look on his face when some other guy (politely) asked him if he expected all the criticism and turmoil over Twilicorn when he wrote MMC. His ability to laugh at haters is truly admirable; I definitely appreciate that he fully realizes he’s got one of the best jobs in the world.
 
@The Twelfth Doctor Whoof  
he did the best he could within the constraints he had  
I really think the show was sort of a victim of its own success in Season 3; by that point– months and months before any of it aired– they knew that they’d garnered a much larger fandom than anyone ever expected, and they all hoped they’d get to make more seasons, but Hasbro did so much foot-dragging on the contract renewal negotiations that it ending up damaging the overall storyline. I am absolutely certain that S3 would have been markedly different if the crew had known for certain, in advance, that they were either definitely going to get renewed for new seasons or definitely get sent home like (almost) every other animation crew that reaches 65 episodes. There was a lot of narrative flailing going on at a point in the series where they really needed to be using that short amount of storytelling space to wrap things up, but they bypassed a lot of opportunities to do so, like they kinda sorta could tell they would get an S4 eventually, but they didn’t want to write everything as if they were and then get Teen Titansed or Fireflyed.

@Background Pony #3BBD  
>That doesn’t count, because it’s situational; she only “proved” that because she was set up in the right circumstance. It’s quite likely that the other five would’ve responded the same way, but does that mean they also deserve to be princesses?
 
True enough. Not just giving her all that magic and telling her to keep her, in Celestia’s opinion, unworthy friends in the dark, the fact that she mastered all that magic through anger in a heartbeat and fought in ways Twilight never could made it look like an OC’s power trip.
 
>schizophrenia ≠ multiple personalities  
Maybe bi-polar would be a better description of how they switch from treating her as Twilight the naturally flawed to Twilight the Messiah and back again? :/

@The Twelfth Doctor Whoof  
>Also, I still don’t feel Twi earned her wings – well, “Twilight’s Kingdom” did a pretty damn good job at convincing me of that, but she already had her wings by then.  
That doesn’t count, because it’s situational; she only “proved” that because she was set up in the right circumstance. It’s quite likely that the other five would’ve responded the same way, but does that mean they also deserve to be princesses?
 
>The show is almost schizophrenic in how it treats her.  
schizophrenia ≠ multiple personalities

@The Twelfth Doctor Whoof  
Definitely agreed with you there.
 
Also, since you haven’t seen Rainbow Rocks yet, that’s the reason behind not knowing about the Mane Eight tag. No worries.
 
By the way…GOOD MOVIE. Somehow felt more relevant and honest then the last 4 finales/premiers and EG1 combined. It provides a whole lot of closure to the issues they forced Twilight to ignore in S4. It does the exact opposite of what Trade Ya! did and more, and actually gives hope for the future of MLP not spiraling into the same pattern me and Ebalosus talked about.

@Background Pony #11AE  
Just check ‘mane eight’ for upvotes over 1000. Who else would I be talking about?
 
:?

@Background Pony #11AE  
Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle The Anointed One, Spike… and Derpy? Heh. No. Probably just a typo.
 
@CronoM  
I know a lot of people criticize the IDW comics for “character derailment”. But I would much rather have the Princesses be actual characters, even if their portrayal isn’t 100% in line with the show. I like all three pre-MMC Alicorns, but Luna is really the only one who comes close to getting characterization within the show itself. I’m sure we’d all like that to change.
 
As to these tweets: WHY LAUREN WHY? DON’T YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU’VE DONE?!
 
I can only imagine how /mlp/ (bunch of crazy Faust-worshippers) exploded over this.
 
I’m no stranger to the Twilicorn Drama. But I’ve tried my best to be measured and reasonable about it while still expressing my disapproval. <obama> Let me be clear: </obama> I am not against Twilicorn as a general concept. My beef was in how it was handled, with its near-total lack of foreshadowing and a trigger (the counterspell) that was, frankly, an ass-pull. Also, I still don’t feel Twi earned her wings - well, “Twilight’s Kingdom” did a pretty damn good job at convincing me of that, but she already had her wings by then.
 
I can’t blame Larson too much for MMC; I think he did the best he could within the constraints he had, especially since he had to write it as both a series finale (because 65-episode curse) and open-ended enough to continue it if MLP got renewed.
 
Really, most of my issues with Twilight have little to nothing to do with her becoming a Princess. Like Ebalosus said, that was just a symptom of a bigger problem the show has. That problem is Twilight herself - she never suffers any real consequences for her actions and she’s been placed on this pedestal not only by Celestia, but by the narrative itself. The show is almost schizophrenic in how it treats her. On the one hand, she obviously dislikes the extra attention and clearly knows she’s fallible. But the universe seems to be constantly telling her “You’re perfect” and reinforcing the idea.
 
I haven’t seen Rainbow Rocks yet, but it seems like I really need to, if it actually addresses some of this insanity. If S5 rolls with it too, so much the better.
 
As an aside, “Trade Ya” was one of the only episodes of S4 that really just pissed me off. Strangely enough - and ironically, considering my opinion of the character - it’s because I really wanted to see more of Twilight. Her reaction to and coping with being forced into duties (like being arbitrator at the swap meet) is, I think, a far more interesting conflict than what we got.

@TexasUberAlles
 
Wait, he did actually specifically say this? Could you please provide a relevant link, because it would be nice to have some official confirmation on whether or not that’s true…