Season 5 episode discussion (Stream & episode links in first post)

@SeraphimDawn
 
my question is, when did Ponyville become that? there is no way starlight would be able to do that to Ponyville unless there was multiple attempts to rewriting the past that we are going to be seeing.

it seems spike will be more involve with twilight in this finale.

@Nutkicker12  
Well, in EQG3 Twilight does mention time LOOPS. Starlight has her hooves hovering over the reset button it seems.

…I just realized that certain people who frequent this thread didn’t complain about Twilight’s recording spell making her even more OP or it being an ass pull… Still haven’t seen the episode yet, so I don’t know whether or not they actually foreshadowed it.

@Jarkes  
They didn’t.
 
It’s not really worth it anyway.

@Crystal Neighybánya  
I’ll admit, I always thought it was a poor decision to redeem Starlight Glimmer given what we know of her, but the smallest bit inside of me thought that they could do it competently. It would be a bitter pill to swallow, but there was the tiniest possibility that it could sort of work if written and developed just right.
 
However, with this new image and what goes on according to the teaser, there is pretty much no way to redeem her in the episode without it feeling like some kind of ass pull. With taking over Ponyville (and likely all of Equestria), messing with a filly for petty revenge, and all of her prior actions, there’s just no logical way to redeem her. And heck, if it’s her and not Nightmare Moon who gets to be the one to make a public embarrassment out of Celestia, the Wonderbolts, and the Royal Guard again, we can add high treason to the list as well.
 
And how can she do all of that and be redeemed in the same episode? It doesn’t make sense in my opinion and I doubt it could all be done in an hour.
 
What next? Is she going to join forces with Nightmare Moon? The more I learn about the finale, the more I think it will stink. Sorry for being overly pessimistic, but I just have a bad feeling is all. Hopefully, the show can surprise us again, but my expectations are low as of now.

@Manaphy  
Starlight truly believes in her malicious ways. It looks to be that she is deep in it. If Tales of Zestiria taught me anything, hellions who embody people and spirits who are truly corrupt and not misguided, cannot be purified through conventional methods. Unless they change themselves. But likely those types will never change.
 
Unless Twilight does something very drastic…  
Lambda!

@Background Pony #0B84  
never heard the ‘s’ when she said that. now I know.

time to put spoilers up i want go in with as little info as possible

Fuck.
 
Everything.
 
I can’t wait for the Glimmer defense squad to try and defend this bullshit.
 
Starlight Glimmer is the cancerous wart that is going to be the death of this show.

@ghostfacekiller39  
and the season was doing so well too. hate it when a season ends with a sour note. especially with a sour character such as starlight

@Nutkicker12  
Well, most of it was pretty darn great.
 
At least there’s that.
 
But yeah, like I said long ago, for every Luna, we have a Discord, so here’s the overdue payment for Sunset.

Whatever it’s going to be. Can’t be as bad as MMC or Princess Spike bad right?

I’d withhold my judgement until I see the finale.

@PonyPon  
yeah but whenever I re-watch a season on a binge that ends sourly, after every episode I dread cause I know how sourly it ends on and I end up going :D to >:l and it’s a feeling I don’t like ending a season on. I’m also not one for skipping episodes no matter how bad.

So basically, pretty much everyone in this thread has already made up their minds that it’s going to suck and they’re going to go into the episode expecting it to suck. Well, guess what? When you go into something expecting to hate it, of course you’re going to hate it.

@Jarkes  
Unless it’s actually good.
 
Then you can be happy to have been wrong.
 
And it’s just the one aspect of it’s possible conclusion we’re not fond of.
 
That ‘hate because you expected to hate it’ is bullshit.

@SeraphimDawn  
I usually do myself even if I’m coming in with either a positive or negative preconception. though with what we know of the finale and the plotline they are using has made it really hard for me to think that this will have anything that goes beyond “well that’s a neat possibility” which are only ever a neutral thing to say.

@Nutkicker12  
You guys sounded like you already watched the episode.
 
Now, you CAN lower your expectation to a point where everything would end up seeming good.

@Jarkes  
Well, I came into Rarity Investigates thinking it’d suck and ended up liking it a lot, so there’s still a chance that I may enjoy the finale. However, my expectations will be quite low going into it, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I disliked it. Sorry if my pessimism was a bit much. Just not too fond of where the episodes seem to be going, especially since I loved The Cutie Map. I’d be calm if the finale doesn’t diminish the enjoyment I had from that episode.
 
Besides, Night Glider is awesome and adorable. Double Diamond, Sugar Belle, and Party Favor are also cool and cute. Maybe they’ll be in the finale, which would be a plus for me, but it’s starting to not look that way. Still have my fingers crossed for that.

@Jarkes  
I expect to hate it, but I’m going to try my best to remain open.
 
I never really like two parters anyway. Always feel too serious. My expectations were low before this.
 
Although if they do try to pull Glimmerdemption after all of this, I’m going to be fucking pissed regardless because that’s just freakishly stupid. I don’t care about her story or how much they flesh her out. I hold this show to higher standards than stupid, shoddy writing.
 
Expectations are below ground level, but hopes are still somewhat there. I want it to be good, but I don’t expect it to be.
 
I expected not to like Hearthsbreaker either, but lookie at how much I enjoyed the episode - it even gave me a new favorite character. I’m open to new things :V

But then, MMC was an episode in it’s own case. We expected it to be bad, and it was badly put together. I don’t blame MA Larson for any of it. He was left with the task of “writing” an episode which was already pretty written up by piles of Hasbro mandates that he didn’t have enough breathing space to perfect the episode in anyway. Who’s bright idea was it to give them a 1 part finale for that crap?
 
At least the episode gave us some memorable songs.

@SeraphimDawn
 
Well, it WAS intended to be both the series finale AND was originally meant to be a two-parter…

@Jarkes  
It would’ve been a pathetic and embarrassing ending to a show that by then, solidified it’s reputation as a great show. I’m glad they didn’t end it there.  
Such an ending would have been hideously abrupt and leave us with a myriad of questions that would never be answered.  
Especially when the previous episode before MMC was a preparation to the Equestria Games.

@Jarkes
 
No, it was always supposed to be one part.
 
It got a bunch of rewrites because season 4 was greenlit after the script was done, and Larson couldn’t do it himself due to having already left to work on his book.