Season 7 Episode Discussion [Speculation, Discussion, Spoilers] (SPOILER YOUR LEAKS)

Dustcan
Magnificent Metadata Maniac - #1 Assistant
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Preenhub - We all know what you were up to this evening~
Twinkling Balloon - Took part in the 2021 community collab.
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2020) - Took part in the 2020 Community Collab
Wallet After Summer Sale -
Condensed Milk - State-Approved Compensation

Dogs
@09MurphyM
 
Everyone was kinda exaggerated that episode.
 
Trixie was especially obnoxious. At times she looked almost as if she was trying to piss off Starlight. She was also unusually respectful of Twilight for some reason.
 
Starlight had a shorter fuse than normal. Even before the map disappeared she was conjuring the angry cloud from Trixie’s antics.
 
The Mane 6 was particularly saccharine in their interactions. We’ve known forever that they’re good friends, but they still tend to butt heads every 5 minutes or so from their differences.
 
In spite of the above I can’t exactly say anyone was OOC. Flanderized, but still more or less acting how they normally would.
Lurks-no-More
Sunburst - For supporting the site
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Perfect Pony Plot Provider - Uploader of 10+ images with 350 upvotes or more (Questionable/Explicit)
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Verified Pegasus - Show us your gorgeous wings!
Preenhub - We all know what you were up to this evening~
Artist -
Happy Derpy! - For site supporters
Silver Supporter - Silver Supporter
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition

Relic Unicorn
@Dustcan  
“Flanderized” is a bit too much, and it implies an unintentional drift into exaggerated characterization. I’m sure this episode’s exaggeration of the Mane Six’s harmonious friendship was entirely deliberate, to make the tension and bad communication between Starlight and Trixie more visible.
 
 
@Anonycat  
Well, that’s because she’s not in her stage persona around Starlight or the Mane Six any more.
Darth Sonic
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2019) - Celebrated Derpibooru's seventh year anniversary with friends.
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2018) - Celebrated Derpibooru's six year anniversary with friends.

@CronoM  
That really depends on how you interpret the presentation of the scene. The way I see it, he only part that Celestia was actually controlling was her own narration, while what was actually on screen was a flat out flashback in the meta sense, and thus everything Past Celestia does and says is literally what she said and did at that time. So she really was thinking about closing the Library at the time, and she really did chicken out of sending her to Ponyville until the last minute due to purely emotional and possessive reasons, and not because she’s playing some sociopathic game of chase.
CronoM

@Darth Sonic  
“and not because she’s playing some sociopathic game of chase”
 
Everything’s purely honest or the complete other extreme for you isn’t it? There’s merit in moderation, dude.
 
Celestia is narratively not an honest person or a reliable source of information….we know the backstory a ton better then we can trust her conversation skills. The series is often run by her lying her ass off or giving Twilight a manipulative rule to set things in motion. Even in the SHOWN narrative, the transition of her conversation with Luna in S3E1 and her talk with Twilight is outright two-faced. That doesn’t make her a complete sociopath, but she is manipulative and she is obsessed in making everything about Twi. There are few people who don’t think she’s a little obsessed with making everything about Twi, she gave all credit for Pinkie’s work with the Yaks to Twilight Sparkle.
 
Like you said, show presentation is important.
rdibp
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2018) - Celebrated Derpibooru's six year anniversary with friends.
Birthday Cake - Celebrated MLP's 7th birthday
Not a Llama - Happy April Fools Day!
Friendship, Art, and Magic (2017) - Celebrated Derpibooru's five year anniversary with friends.

Kerfuffle lover
@Dustcan  
Flanderization doesn’t always have to be a bad thing.
 
@Anonycat  
Trixie only spoke in third person when she was putting on an act, even in the past. Go look at the script for Magic Duel and count how many times she says “I”.
Background Pony #D451
@Dustcan
 
Also, they kinda were butting heads. Rarity had no interest in the team building exercise. AJ was perturbed by Rarity yammering on about different shades of purple, RD was rushing them.
 
It makes the super saccharine song stand out more, and after being told they still haven’t finished the course RD just drops her friends to rush off and win.
gingerninja666
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

Kaze ni Nare
@CronoM
 
That obsession with Twilight is why I think Tia was telling the truth. Contriving a situation that ended with Twilight’s alicornification (making her and Celestia share even more in common) is totally something a person who didn’t want to become obsolete in Twilight’s life would do. It’s even implied at the end of the episode that those letters to Tia all along were partially a coping mechanism by Tia.
 
I think she told the truth, and I think she knew it was what Twilight needed to here. You mentioned a while ago that there were 4 options.
 
A. It’s true.  
B. It’s just something Twi needed to hear.  
C. It’s both.  
D. It’s neither.
 
I think it’s C.
 
Also, those obscure methods you mentioned like closing the library and arranging a party rather than just telling Twi what to do is fitting for Celestia’s MO. Celestia often doesn’t come out and tell you what she wants you to do. She organizes something that leads to you making that decision yourself.
 
Make friends - Stop NMM
 
When Twilight was about to lose to Discord, Celestia sent all her friendship letters back to her, and Twi deduced herself what that meant.
 
You and you alone can save the Empire - Disobey what I say.
 
She jazzes up two seperate Grand Galloping Galas, not by announcing that more fun things will happen during it, but by inviting people she knows will make a scene, like the Mane 6 and Discord.
CronoM

@gingerninja666  
I said partially true as option A.
 
Celestia knows how twilight ticks more then anyone, and knows the fears she presented twilight were impossible worries for her to even consider, because her manipulations revolved around knowing what twilight was incapable of doing with her hyperdependeny. Full truth is already off the table, unless you want to throw away continuity.
Background Pony #D451
@CronoM
 
Celestia’s fears were irrational in that episode. Just like Twilight’s fears regarding Starlight were irrational.
 
Just because Celestia had a plan in place for Twilight, some aspects of which involved gambling with the lives of countless people, doesn’t mean that she didn’t also have affection for her. I think that affection, as well as her loneliness in general and how Twilight was her first proper connection in years, led to Celestia becoming scared of things that she wouldn’t be scared of if her schemer hat were on properly.
 
I still think that it would’ve benefited Twilight to have some measure of social skills before heading to ponyville. As I said, every thing she bonded with the mane cast over happened because of the specific trials NMM threw at them. I refuse to believe that Celestia is so clairvoyent that she knew exactly how NMM would try to stop them, and that her attempts would create moments for the element bearers to shine.
CronoM

@gingerninja666  
Look at this another way. Celestia is trying to pretend to twilight that Twilight was a baby bird ready or almost ready to leave the nest. Starlight is older then the mane 6, and her best friend is a drifter who will be by her side where ever.
 
Twilight on the other hand, is not a person who can produce those anxieties in celestia, if anything they would produce the opposite.
 
Tell me straight… Do you think celestia will tell twilight the truth about her hyperdependeny unless she has no other choice? The answer on celestia’s honesty becomes clearer when you ponder that.
Background Pony #C82B
The royal guard have been shown wielding spears before, do you think we’ll ever see them in use?
Background Pony #D451
@CronoM
 
I think that’s just a thing we’ll never agree on.
 
I saw the anxieties Celestia felt towards Twilight to be irrational. She was sending Twi away to someplace she’d never been before, to bond with people (something she’s never done before) and for the first time in years would be beyond Celestia’s tight control. It was a bunch of unknowns all happening at once, and Celestia couldn’t forsee the outcome of the relationships Twilight had because she’s never had friendships before so Celly had no frame of reference.
 
If there was any point when Twilight might grow beyond Celestia, it would be at the point where she made friends with the element bearers and took her place as a hero of Equestria. That’s what Celestia was afraid of. It was not a logical fear she had. It was an emotional one.
Sunset's Minion

Love is King
@Background Pony #915F  
“I saw the anxieties Celestia felt towards Twilight to be irrational. She was sending Twi away to someplace she’d never been before, to bond with people (something she’s never done before) and for the first time in years would be beyond Celestia’s tight control. It was a bunch of unknowns all happening at once, and Celestia couldn’t forsee the outcome of the relationships Twilight had because she’s never had friendships before so Celly had no frame of reference.”
 
I think Twilight’s Kingdom renders that point null and void with the implication that Celestia might have future vision. With that she can pretty know exactly what is going to happen and plan accordingly (unless it’s like Garnet’s future vision, which runs on multiverse theory).
Fleetfoot
Fleetfoot - For Patreon supporters
Perfect Fleetfoot Plot Provider - Uploader of 10+ saucy Fleetfoot images with 350+ upvotes (Perfect Pony Plot Provider)
Woona - To my most special somepony~
Solar Supporter - Fought against the New Lunar Republic rebellion on the side of the Solar Deity (April Fools 2023).
Tree of Harmony -
Non-Fungible Trixie -
Preenhub - We all know what you were up to this evening~
Twinkling Balloon - Took part in the 2021 community collab.
Responsible Disclosure - Lessons from Furbi
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition

Senior Moderator
Fletch the Enfield
I think you people are criticizing Celestia too much, if anything this episode showed how even though she is the all powerful alicorn princess queen of Equestria she is just “another pony” with her flaws and what not.
Background Pony #D451
@Sunset’s Minion
 
If she does have future vision it seems very vague and possibly even rare, since her first thought was to call it a dream before Luna corrected her.
 
With Tirek she only knew he was back. Nothing about where he was or how to find him.
 
To the point I was making, if she somehow had a vision that Twilight would befriend the cast and beat NMM, that doesn’t mean she’d know what would happen after that, and if she’d still have a place in Twilight’s life.
Interested in advertising on Derpibooru? Click here for information!
Ministry of Image - Fanfiction Printing

Help fund the $15 daily operational cost of Derpibooru - support us financially!

Syntax quick reference: **bold** *italic* ||hide text|| `code` __underline__ ~~strike~~ ^sup^ %sub%

Detailed syntax guide