@TexasUberAlles  

 
Not really. The protagonists would just zap her and her “army” would dissipate back into the populace, or otherwise be dispensed with her. This has been demonstrated with Chrysalis, Sunset, and the Dazzlings.

If Celestia doesn’t kick some a$$ she’s called useless
 
If she does, there’d be cries of “muh dues ex machina!”
 
Poor Sunbutt will never win

@danail24
 
Again, what good would wiping the smooze do? We had just seen that shooting it with magic doesn’t work.

@TexasUberAlles  
While I agree with you on Chyrsalis and the Gala, you’re kinda stretching it with the Plunder Vines bit. That was very obviously supposed to be interpreted as them being captured.

@danail24  
Those all have perfectly reasonable explanations that make a lot more in-universe sense than “lol alicorns r useless”, though. Chrysalis was already at Queen power levels before she used her species bonus to ÜberCharge on Shining Armor’s love, so if Celestia had used enough power to defeat her… it probably would have gone poorly for the hundreds of Ponies in the wedding party. We don’t really know that the Sisters were even “captured” by the Plunder Vines; what were they even doing in the Tree’s cave anyway? It makes more sense that they were there to sustain the tree until Twilight learned her Lesson For The Week, and the vines were just sort of… on them; Twilight was able to zap them off of herself when she wasn’t being gassed by those creepy facehuger things. And Celestia was so freakin’ obviously just screwing around at the Gala because screwing around at the Gala is a thing she does.

Celestia isn’t able to stop Chrysalis at the wedding and gets her flank whooped really fast - FAIL  
Celestia and Luna get captured super easily by black tentacle vines - FAIL  
Celestia gets her magic disabled and is rendered so helpless, she can’t even wipe off the slime - EPIC FAIL
 
Lesson - Alicorns are not warriors. They’re just like any other damzel in distress. (it’s just that I’ve read a lot of fanfics involving all powerfull god like Celestia and Luna.)

That is a very, very small animation error. A bit nit-picky.

@TexasUberAlles  
Yeah, but we’ll have to wait until we learn more with what will happen in the finale anyhow. Maybe at this year’s San Diego Comic Con perhaps.

@Darth Sonic  
@Background Pony #1A74  

 
@SuperSonic15  
It would be pretty freakin’ scary, though, if Starry Glim comes back for the finale leading an army of tens of thousands of converts that the princesses can’t just fix by zapping them.

@Background Pony #1A74  
Yes she did. And no she isn’t. 2 out of 2!

“I’ve been dying to see her act like she did in the flashbacks with her battles against Nightmare Moon and Discord”
 
Didn’t she need to rely on the Elements in both of those? Not a thing anymore, especially not for her who is not a bearer connected to them, like the mane 6.

@Somber Star  
I put the blame on the writers.
 
Also, if Starlight Glimmer returns in the season finale and goes after Celestia and the other Princesses after failing with Twilight, I will go nuclear at seeing the Princesses being rendered helpless again, this time by a measly unicorn with a heretic ideology on friendship instead of a nasty villain like Chrysalis or Tirek.
 
How pathetic or humiliating would that be to Celestia? Unless Twilight gave her a heads-up about Starlight after returning home from dealing with her.

@SuperSonic15  
Maybe she’s a closet masochist? Ever notice how Twilight never finds out Celestia has been kidnapped until significantly later in the day than the event? Or that the things she’s been trapped in were not even difficult for her to escape from? Like the Changeling ooze she was cocooned in. Uni Twilight had some on her hooves and just obliterated it. Or the vines she and Luna were wrapped up in. Like they couldn’t just teleport out, manipulate them like Rarity, or destroy them with raw force like Twilight does. What if the only reason Celestia is losing so much is because she’s going through a phase where she doesn’t like to win?

@Darth Sonic
 
Nah, I don’t buy that.
 
It’s clearly a case of ‘Pinkie doesn’t REALLY have those powers, they’re just there for comedy and laughs’. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to take anything in the show remotelly seriously ever.

@Darth Sonic
 
I don’t see why you think the show can’t be both at different times? There are clearly different levels of drama and action going on depending on the story in FIM. The comics especially tend to go both heavier AND sillier than the show at times.
 
This is an entire universe. You can tell a comedy and a much more dramatic story in it. What I meant by my comment ws that a side gag in a comic isn’t a good standard to assume a character’s physical strenght.

@Background Pony #1A74  
Honestly, even that sort of thing can be explained in terms of characterization rather then the slapstick being flipped off like in action cartoons. Pinkie is a mare of impulse who does things as they come to her, so it could simply be a case of it never occurring to her to use her powers in these sort of more serious scenarios.
 
In summary, she only does certain things in certain circumstances because it only ever occurs to her to do those things in those circumstances, and not because she literally can’t.

@Psyga315  
One scene in one episode does not a Shonen Anime make.
 
Honestly though, I see scenes like those as them experimenting with ideas for a more drama and action oriented G5.
 
Or an entirely original action series of there own making. I really would like to see DHX get a series in which they can go all out on the action front. MLP or otherwise.

@Psyga315  
Don’t expect too many of those.

@Darth Sonic  

 

@Darth Sonic
 
There’s still a line. Pinkie can’t really break the laws of reality to solve serious problems, but she can do that in gags. Just an example.

@Background Pony #1A74  
>Serious Canon.  

 
This show is, at least in part, a comedy. This isn’t some Shonen anime or action cartoon, where the slapstick elements are treated as exaggerated comedic relief. There is not distinct line between slapstick and reality in a show where the slapstick is an integral part of it’s DNA.
 
Don’t get me wrong, trying to create such a line when discussing more serious reinterpretations of the show. Like say for a more serious minded fanfic. But it has little place in direct discussions of the text itself.

@toxicitzi
 
I never said the four alicorns weren’t powerful. They certainly are the most powerful ponies around and have unique abilities.
 
All I’m saying is that people tend to exaggerate them into some godlike all-powerful beings that can do pretty much anything, and then cry foul when the writers don’t portray them quite that way, even though that was never said to be the case.

@Red-Supernova  
@Somber Star
 
Yeah, but she seems to always end up being a Damsel In Distress because of the writers when I’ve been dying to see her act like she did in the flashbacks with her battles against Nightmare Moon and Discord, or in the comics when she fought and defeated Chrysalis the first time, or went ballistic on her parallel counterpart for hurting both our Luna and the parallel Luna.
 
It’s just not fair with what they did to her in her Season 5 debut, even if she was only acting the part by doing nothing and being just as discomforted and annoyed with Discord and the Smooze as Twilight and everypony else was to conceal her enjoyment of their antics.
 
Darn it, Meghan!! Give Celestia a break already!!

@Somber Star  
I’d go on explaining still just how much more complicated and grounded in reality radio jamming devices / radiation guards are, but I think you get the point by now.
 
needless to say, I’m never going to be fired up whenever I hear the words “anti-magic” as a whole explanation, because it’s impossible not to find that lacking. Discord didn’t need anti-magic goo covered all over his body, he could basically make reality his and twist it any way he wanted, changelings were easily more advantageous in being an organized army that completely nullified their opponents by draining them, nullifying a certain thing about them completely is besides the point of everything else.
 
my point is, they could at least show that they’re trying. It’s not that something cancels out another thing which is the problem, it’s more in how they do it and how well they’re masking the bare bones of a general idea that goes behind it.
 
@Background Pony #1A74  
I’m afraid you’ll have to tell Meghan McCarthy that, or the ACW episode, because, those two would beg to differ..
 
also the season 4 finale would beg to differ… because it clearly show cases the strength of 4 single alicorns being pitted against the entirety of Equestria + a super villain.
 
the crystal empire would also beg to differ, or more specifically, Cadence. Shining Armor too.
 
then there’s the whole night traveler thing with Luna, the season 3 finale where Celestia is traveling just fine on ethereal planes that probably imply an alternate world, or walking through time, whichever you think fits better.
 
 
there’s really a lot of things at least somewhat evidencing in a subtle way that, Celestia, or any of these alicorn beings, are more than meets the eye, just as much as talented unicorns, if not more.