I knew there being six main students wasn't a mistake.

I've been rewatching Season 4 and accumulated a lot of notes, thoughts and musings in a ridiculously long draft; how does everyone feel about colossal long posts? Because it's long. 110 lines even, unless I miscounted a few. Should I split it into manageable sections, perhaps halfway? Or... I suppose it's not that much of an issue to scroll past, just a brick to read if you don't just ignore it...

You guys dismissed the idea when I brought it up a while back, though.

Also, wasn't Twilight's element the element of Magic, not Friendship?

^ She's also strongly associated with Friendship, though. Princess of Friendship and all that.

That being said, I think that this is as much a semantic distinction as anything. After all, isn't it true that Friendship is Magic?

The Elements of Harmony as a whole seem to represent the general concept of friendship and getting along though, so having the Element of Magic alone be that doesn't make much sense.

Magic is something more abstract than the others, at once both the centerpiece of the Elements and a connection to something even deeper. Years ago, I'd have compared it in that sense to the Crest of Light.

Edited by Zennistrad on Oct 15th 2018 at 9:23:06 AM

I've always thought it was weird that the last element was Magic, not Friendship. Take Twilight's speech in the series premiere - she says that the last element appears when the other 5 are present - isn't that talking about friendship, not magic?

Anyway, I think it's a bit ironic that I disliked School Raze, but not for the reasons anyone else did. Everyone else is complaining about plotholes or unfortunate implications, and I just thought Cozy Glow was annoying.

I can't help it. I just love how HARD she tries.

"Oh dear" is one of my fav line reads by her. She puts a certain inflection on it that I adore.

Huh, someone else saw the suicide parallel

Suicide parallel? That's the first I've heard of anything like that.

Personally, I definitely saw Rockhoof in "A Rockhoof and a Hard Place" as being... well, perhaps not suicidal as such, but definitely the TV-Y equivalent thereof.

You missed a whole discussion then.

Parrellel? How's it not explicitly suicide?

Also, Discord not being permanently contained isn't headcanon. It's well established by other episodes

You are not wrong to find her annoying, Storyyeller. You are SUPPOSED to be annoyed by her. I was too.

I read Rockhoof as being suicidal as well. He wanted to be Discorded permanently. He didn't WANT to come back. He just thought that it would be a nice, symbolic way to die as a monument to his own legacy.

I mean, the symbolism of that would be quite poetic, but it is still suicide.

It being a factor in the decision to rehabilitate him is headcanon. Whether or not Discord ever would have broken out again is impossible to know. We, the audience, are now aware of a weakness in his imprisonment, but so are the protagonists whose responsibility it would be to keep him imprisoned.

However, it ultimately doesn't matter whether he would or not. What matters is whether or not it was on Celestia's mind when she made the decision. Did she choose to rehabilitate him based on the idea that he couldn't be permanently contained?

Nothing in "Keep Calm and Flutter On" ever suggests that she or any of the protagonists even considered it. Indeed, his reformation is approached like a crazy wild idea that probably won't work but could yield great returns if they pull it off. Returning him to stone is considered an acceptable recourse in the likely event that it fails. Not one character involved in his rehabilitation actually considers it necessary for the future safety of Equestria.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Oct 16th 2018 at 4:54:32 AM

I'm still not quite sure WHY Celestia wanted him reformed, or if she even had something specific in mind. She kind of sounded like she had something in mind, but whatever that was never materialized.

I think if she had just said "He is just too dangerous to even take the risk of him escaping again, so we should try to reform him now to eliminate him as a risk to the country", that would have been much clearer.

Post of the Day #2306

She explained that she wanted to use his magic for good. In effect, her position on the matter was that Discord has a crazy awesome Story-Breaker Power and it'd be amazing for Equestria's safety and prosperity if he could learn to put that to positive means.

Unfortunately, as is the nature of narrative, Discord is conspicuously absent during most of the Adventure plots because his powers are a crazy awesome Story-Breaker Power. He'd completely wreck the plot if he was hanging around for, say, the Storm King's invasion or Starlight Glimmer's village or the Pony of Shadows debacle, etc. etc. So, as is typically the case with "Awesome Things That Will Ensure Our Safety" in stories, the positive results she intended to achieve never really come to fruition 'cause, like, the show still needs to have a plot.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Oct 16th 2018 at 8:10:49 AM

Personally, I definitely saw Rockhoof in "A Rockhoof and a Hard Place" as being... well, perhaps not suicidal as such

Oh, I thought we were still talking about School Raze, hence my confusion about the suicide comment.

Honestly, Discord's entire character concept pretty much ensured he had to be treated this way. He was too iconic and popular not to bring back, but the problem is that if he returned as a villain again, his Story-Breaker Power would require his defeat feel like a deus ex machina. Discord's most consistent character trait may be that he vastly overestimates how much control he really has over anything, but he's not stupid. He wouldn't allow the chance for the elements to be used against him again, not without a contrivance that stretches suspension of disbelief.

So, from an out-of-universe perspective, the only option left was to reform him. Which is fine, but also necessitates he always be written out of the plot to preserve conflict.

Edited by Zennistrad on Oct 16th 2018 at 10:34:36 AM

I'm still 10 episodes behind, so this is all going over my head.

One more season to go (if the leaks are true). Any predictions for it?

I expect a bit more ambitious writing, since the end of the show is in sight, so they can feel safe in making more radical decisions for the story without fear of messing up future story potential.

I'd like the students to be the next Mane Six. As much of a pipe dream as it is I'd like to see what they get up to with their own series.

Given the sheer strength of brand presence, G4 will undoubtedly continue in the form of supplemental products after the show ends, in much the way Transformers G1 is still going in expanded universe materials.

You may well get your wish then, in some sense.

The best thing to do with Discord might have been to treat him kind of like Q (For what I understand; I haven't seen the series in question): Bring him back in a continuously antagonistic, but not as nearly dire, fashion.

Like, have it justified as "Sure, you won the game for Equestria and I'm now in stone for 1,000 years, but my spirit can still challenge you to a game for the fate—OF THIS PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICH YOU WANTED TO HAVE FOR LUNCH!"

And if the inevitable question of "If you can do that, why not try to take over Equestria again", just reply, "If Chaos never follows a rule, it becomes predictable in its own way. gotta keep you on your toes about being on your toes."

Every badguy they've ever faced is Discord in a different guise,hence why he's not always there