My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Live Reactions & Discussion)

Well, Moondancer didn't respond to that by making other ponies' lives a living hell. She just shut herself away.

Gwen... yes? If it is an in 'verse recognized fact that she was taking it WAY to damn seriously, and it wasn't actually any good reason to turn out like she did beyond her being way to obsessed.. it is WAY better then, simply that one thing somehow being a perfectly justified reason to go that nuts.

Not really, because, and maybe I missed something, it's never acknowledged in-universe that it was an overreaction.

edited 28th Nov '15 7:42:25 PM by PrincessGwenevere

Except she should have known Tirek, he apparently had stolen magic from EVERYWHERE in Equestria...

Yeah but she doesn't know that the mane 6 had anything to do with stopping him.

From her perspective, Tirek just randomly showed up and drained her, and then a little while later, everything went back to normal.

It is acknowledged in universe. Twilight reacts to hearing this with slight bewilderment. I know this because it was the exact reaction I had to learning this.

@Gwen: Twilight was busy trying to prevent a Time Crash. Noting that Starlight might've been going overboard a bit wasn't a priority. Also the fact that a lot of the crap Twilight deals with involves ponies overreacting to things. Heck, the Hooffield and Mc Colts basically started a war over how to care for wildlife. Trixie enslaved a town because the cast ruined her show. Nightmare Moon tried to take over an entire nation because she felt under-appreciated.

Heck, even among her friends, they tend to go overboard. Applejack moved out of town because she lost a rodeo. Rainbow Dash tried to cancel winter so her pet turtle wouldn't have to hibernate. Twilight herself brainwashed Ponyville because she was worried about missing an assignment. She did acknowledge that it was a pretty mundane reason, but that particular aspect of the situation wasn't the most important thing to dwell on at the moment.

My point is, it is completely in-characters for ponies to freak the hell out over things. Granted, Starlight is a pretty extreme example even by that standard, but given the type of stuff that Twilight has seen and been through she's in no position to give Starlight crap over it. That a friendship like that could sour her on friendship is believable. The issue is more that this Freudian Excuse appeared out of nowhere solely to make her sympathetic for the sake of the redemption sequence.

It really wouldn't have taken much to allude to it. Starlight alluding to that event as a justification for her town, or heck, just her having a picture of Sunburst in her house or something would've gone a long way towards hinting at the fact that there's a reason for her issues.

edited 28th Nov '15 7:58:37 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Either way, baby Starlight was adorable.

Baby ANY pony is adorable.

Okay, I see your points. Though, I'm still stuck on Starlight's Freudian Excuse vs, her reaction to it. Maybe because it's so severe and played straight compared to the other examples in show, except maybe Luna's. And even then, one could argue that Luna was also being manipulated by darker forces that egged on her on.

AJ skipping town is an overreaction, but it's also rather in-character for her. She plays a provider role in her family, she promised the town money, so she did what she thought she had to to keep her promise.

Twilight and Rainbow are definitely over the top in the reason vs reaction department, but the fact and the way that they overreacted was played for laughs.

I guess I agree with JT in that the Freudian Excuse was dropped in there with no prior hinting to it. I'll watch it again tomorrow when I'm less tired and see if I can form a more coherent train of thought.

This is fact.

edit: OKAY ONE MORE THING BEFORE I GO TO BED. (Spoilers for Undertale.)

edited 28th Nov '15 8:31:19 PM by PrincessGwenevere

OH YEAH WHO'S READY FOR SEASON 6

THESE NEXT SEVERAL MONTHS ARE GOING TO BE

GREAT

Can someone please clarify this for me: the trope page for Part 2 says that Starlight is now the 6th ranger, but does she technically count yet?

You never leave.

Not really.. not till we see how this actually alters things, if at all. Whether she's an actual part of the mane cast, or simply another secondary character that will get a few episodes focused on them like Discord.

If she gets added into the credits with her own line in the theme, Imma be pissed. Mostly because it'd ruin the flow of the theme to add a line. I'm very picky about music sounding right.

Alright, having had to work today, I finally caught the new episode, and...

Meh.

So Starlight ends up as another pony who did bad things because they had no friends, and gets reformed in one go and all past transgressions forgiven because they agreed to make friends in the end. Just how many times are we going to go through this plot?

At least Sunset had to save the school from the Sirens before the rest of the world forgave her.

Until all the jerks are reformed and converted toward the Church of Friendship.

Twilight is the friendship pope.

Discord was worse, arguably, and he got reformed.

He's still an asshole, though, so I don't know how "reformed" he even is.

And this is an issue.... why? it's perfectly clear that is simply how Pony society works, they are just plain far more forgiving and willing to let the past remain the past then we tend to be.

i think we're upset that Starlight had all this build-up, Hasbro deemed her such a great villain that she even came back in the season finale, and was such a strong presence in her episodes...... and yet all of that was due to one single moment where she held a grudge?

I mean, they forgave Discord after he sold them all out to Tirek (and he knew what he was doing, unlike Starlight). It's better than, say, blowing her with the magic cannons again.

STILL A BETTER EXCUSE THAN BROLY'S!

edited 28th Nov '15 8:48:12 PM by AdricDePsycho

Yeah I know friendship n all that, but really, villains all get redeemed and turned around WAY too easily and quickly in this show, no matter who they are.

Finally watched the finale and

DDDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMNNNNNNNN

they didn't pull any punches for this one

unicorns OP plz nerf

rainbow dash confirmed most important character

edited 28th Nov '15 8:50:28 PM by EpicBleye

Again that matters.... why? First off, noting 'built her up" or 'judged her as anything' further then that.. 'Hasbro" didn't have shit to do with this, unless you have proof otherwise. So once again, this matters... why? We know ponies can and do totally lose their shit over the slightest issue. And even for that, Starlight clearly took it WAY to far.

It's not like this was anything we actually had a reason to need to know, or her to mention, it was clear something went wrong in her past, but what, really doesn't matter to to much.

There are still those that are just beaten. Sombra, Tirek, Chrysalis...

Some get redeemed. Discord, Sunset, Trixie, Gilda, and Starlight...

The first three are evil overlords. Those are hard to turn to good.

I'm wondering if next season will continue the map plotline. This finale was actually kind of unrelated to the ongoing "map calls ponies to fix a problem" thread we've been following all season. Sure the map was involved, but it wasn't really a culmination of anything. It isn't like last season with the keys and the box, is this something that's going to continue on next season, or will we move on to a new thread?