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YMMV / The Night the Magic Died

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  • Ass Pull: The Reveal that Gralo was dulling everyone's wits, as there was no indication of Gralo doing anything more than just blending in well beforehand.
  • Awesome Art: One thing even many of the story's detractors admit is that the artwork is fantastic.
  • Base-Breaking Character: Nahmat is either an awesome, badass character who owns up to her initial criticism or an overpowered, arrogant jerkish author's mouthpiece whose fixes were too little too late.
  • Complete Monster: Gralo, aka Garret, is an evil Krassau who desires to absorb all magic to increase his power, leaving lifelessness in his wake, justifying himself with the belief that his species is superior to all other beings. Having already caused widespread death and destruction, Gralo fled to Equestria to escape punishment and possessed Garret while leaving him conscious, reducing him to an Empty Shell when Gralo had no more use for him. He tries to drain all things magical—-including emotions and liveliness—-from Equestria's population, threatening to obliterate all life in the universe. Gralo also gives breaking lectures to the Princesses and threatens to suck Cadance dry to make them suffer. Gralo was a vile enough being that his kind considers him being banished to the Void Between the Worlds the only fitting punishment, and in his final moments of freedom, he spitefully attempts to turn the Princesses against Nahmat.
  • Designated Hero: Nahmat. The only heroic thing she really does for the first part of the story is go after Gralo. Otherwise she just acts like a self-righteous jerk, Mind Rapes someone with little provocation which she outright refuses to apologize for even after realizing it was wrong, used mind magic on several guards who weren't actually hurting her, and blames Celestia for how mistrusted she was despite Gralo having done a much better job looking trustworthy than her. She did most of Gralo's work for him. She gets better in the final act at least.
    • According to Word of God, she was actually worse in the original, unpublished fanfiction version of the story; instead of admitting her mistakes, she basically had a smug "I told you so" attitude and showed no remorse for her own actions. This may be why the fanfiction version was never published.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Gralo's primary power is stealing magic. The Big Bad of the season four finale is apparently capable of just that.
  • I Knew It!: At least a few people guessed that Gralo was actually a separate entity from Garret all along MONTHS before it was outright revealed.
  • Informed Wrongness: Celestia is supposedly in the wrong for not believing Nahmat...when Nahmat does absolutely nothing to actually justify trusting her, and is at least guilty of assault for what she did to Fluttershy. If anything Nahmat's lucky Celestia gave her the leeway she did after how Nahmat behaved.
  • Narm:
    • When Nahmat delivers her rant to Princess Celestia, she suddenly shifts into a bizarre anthropomorphic form. It looks... really silly and kind of kills the mood of the scene.
    • On page 94, Shining Armor's expression and anguished cry of "NNGAAAHH!!!" can somewhat spoil the mood.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: For some, the end of the story is starting to do this for Nahmat due to making her finally face up to the fact she's also to blame for the situation and having to rely on Celestia and Luna to defeat Gralo.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The fact Nahmat is a rookie Bounty Hunter who lied about her true position and rank could've helped in the Break the Haughty she underwent if revealed earlier and helped actively address the facts that make her a Designated Hero. Instead it's given a write off mention in the epilogue.
  • Unintentionally Sympathetic: Celestia is intended to come off as unreasonable and in the wrong for trying to lock up Nahmat and distrusting her...but up until then Nahmat has done absolutely nothing to disprove the story they've been told about her being a villain, and has in fact enforced it with her actions, making many see her as in the right and being wrongfully browbeaten by someone who only has herself to blame for not being trusted.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Nahmat is meant to be the protagonist and ultimately in the right, especially in regards to her chewing out Celestia...but she has done nothing to disprove the story the heroes were told or earn their trust, and due to her abuse of her psychic powers, Celestia is absolutely right to doubt she gave Shining Armor and Cadence an ability instead of just brainwashing them. It makes her "The Reason You Suck" Speech come off as her throwing a tantrum and chewing someone out to divert attention from her own mistakes.

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