In Tirek's "FIENDShip is Magic" comic, it is shown that his father is well aware if his lust for power, but doesn't do anything to address it beyond brute-force discipline. As far as I can recall there is no in-depth exploration of where Tirek's lust for power came from, but there's your Daddy issues.

Edited by DoctorWTF on Jun 9th 2022 at 6:03:14 AM

Could work. And I could have Nova get Tirek to stop and think by asking him exactly why he wants the power that he does.

It's pretty well-documented that Tirek is extremely ambitious, but why exactly does he want that power? To take over the world?^note OF COURSE! To exact retribution on someone for some wrong committed? Power for the sake of power is a hallmark of the Sith, and is a huge part of the reason why they get locked in a feedback loop of diminishing returns and ultimately fall, and that would play into the actual villain/s of my story and what they represent, so thematically it'd tie in rather nicely.

Edited by Rytex on Jun 9th 2022 at 8:48:43 AM

Mind you, I'm not saying "adult in a child's body" is a bad idea. Hell, "Baby-Doll" was one of Batman: The Animated Series' best episodes for that reason.

But then you need to set that up from the start. It can't be an after-the-fact retcon, because then it just feels like a copout for a poor writing decision.

> because then it just feels like a copout for a poor writing decision.

cop out or

expected twist?

I don't think anyone was really expecting that particular twist.

I meant unexpected twist,whoops

I don’t remember seeing people making a big deal about Twilicorn or EQG. Is that weird? Though, I didn't use Derpibooru or /mlp/ back then.

I'm not sure about forums other than this one, but I definitely remember Equestria Girls being very controversial on this forum when it first came out. I remember I was one of the few people here who actually was looking forward to seeing the movie, because a lot of other people either thought the artstyle looked too Uncanny Valley and/or didn't like the concept of the Mane 6 as human high school girls because they thought their human counterparts should be adults (and/or just didn't like the high school setting in general). For quite awhile we had a separate thread for Equestria Girls so that people who didn't like the spinoff could avoid having to see discussion about it.

Edited by Rainbow on Jun 11th 2022 at 6:59:50 AM

To this day,I'm convinced the humanised ponies were the result of an exec seeing fanart of mane six as humans and being like "hey look,there's a trend we can exploit!"

no idea about this thread, but Twilicorn was a ridiculously huge deal and is the biggest breaking point for the fandom

Post of the Week #3509

Posted by Ace Of Scarabs on Fri, 22nd Jun '12 8:48:22 AM - Post #231268 in the old thread

I don’t remember seeing people making a big deal about Twilicorn or EQG. Is that weird? Though, I didn't use Derpibooru or /mlp/ back then.

I didn't either, but I still remember them being incredibly controversial at the time.

Actually, the EQG controversy was mainly before it came out. The main criticisms were about Flash Sentry being perceived as a shallow love interest character in a show that never even mentioned romance to begin with, so it was seen as being strangled by the red string by default. The other criticism being the designs looking rather... anorexic, compared to regular ponies and other girl shows, with unfavourable comparisons to doll series such as Winx Club, especially regarding the tie in dolls.

The former was basically confirmed by the movie and remained strong, while the latter seems to have died down, though the anorexic look remains very notable, especially since it is only the girls who have the design, and then only the young, pretty ones.

And yes, Twilicorn was a huge controversy, and certainly split the fanbase.

Edited by Redmess on Jun 11th 2022 at 8:12:21 PM

I still don't really get the Twilicorn controversy. It feels kind of...quaint compared to later issues the show would have?

^Almost every season finale would be controversial in some way.

Season 3 had Twilicorn, Season 4 had the Castle of Friendship, Season 5 had Starlight, Season 6 had the Changeling reformation, and Season 9 had the Grogar twist.

And the seasons that didn't have a controversial season finale still had something controversial about them. Season 7 had Fame and Misfortune and Season 8 had the School of Friendship and the Student Six.

Edited by CastletonSnob on Jun 11th 2022 at 11:28:39 AM

I liked the Young Six though :(

My only criticism of them is that they needed a lot more screentime.

With Twilicorn, you had to be in the fandom back when it happened to really appreciate the uproar it caused. It just looks tame now compared to later controversies, but I remember how divisive it was at the time. And looking back, that may well have been the show's Jumping the Shark moment because of how it limited the direction Twilight's character could go in.

Edited by Javertshark13 on Jun 11th 2022 at 3:47:08 PM

The problem with the Young Six is that they are both underutilized by the show and permanently overshadowed by the main cast until about halfway into season 9. This means that, outside of their debut, they get very little personality or conflict, and pretty much no character development, because all episodes they appear in are about the Mane Six' conflicts and lessons, not theirs.

I think people were also wary of them as yet another cast herd, right after the introduction and immediate sidelining of the Pillars, and the introduction of the School, which was seen by many as too blatantly merchandise driven and the staff just trying whatever they could think of to keep the show fresh, which at that point already was in some decline, together with the fandom.

So, as someone who was around back then, yes EQG and Twilicorn were major, major "controversies" in the fandom.

Back then, the fandom was extremely volatile and whenever the wind blew the wrong way, panicky voices would cry out "END OF THE FANDOM!" and everyone would rage and panic. So no one ever wanted anything to change. Everything should just stay the same, without character evolution or anything.

Twilicorn and EQG were two Not-roversies that happened within weeks of each other, but they were essentially a powder keg that had been set to blow for over a year because of a number of developments over that time.

First, Faust left the show shortly before S2 began airing, which started the panic about the quality of the show going downhill. Then Derpygate happened. Then came "A Canterlot Wedding" and the introduction of Cadance, which some people took to mean the end of the Faust canon. Then there was a long hiatus that summer and fall, followed by an announcement that S3 would only have 13 episodes (to meet the 65-episode syndication). People thought the show was ending, but then they said there would be a Season 4.

So now comes the announcement, and people lost their friggin' minds over this. People outright left the fandom over this. The sheer amount of rage and vitriol about this was just hysterical. People sent hate mail to Mitch Larson over this. It was bad. It was an extremely dumb thing to get mad at, but people did.

EQG released at the wrong time and didn't have enough information. We all knew it was essentially meant as a competing brand against Monster High, but with people more interested in the cartoon movie than the toys, and people still mad about Twilicorn, out comes this commercial for Generic High School Movie #47 But With Ponies, and more people lost their shit and noped out.

They also released a Sunset Shimmer blind bag that mentioned she was Princess Celestia's former student, and the fandom latched onto that and declared her a Mary Sue, well before we knew anything about her role in EQG.

Edited by Rytex on Jun 11th 2022 at 6:33:51 AM

Yeah.

And yet despite everyone's worries the show continued for six more seasons and was a very solid cartoon all the way through.

Season 3 had Twilicorn, Season 4 had the Castle of Friendship, Season 5 had Starlight, Season 6 had the Changeling reformation, and Season 9 had the Grogar twist.

Twilicorn was a much bigger controversy than any of those, with the possible except of the stupid Grogar thing. I'm not even sure why 4 and 6 would be controversial at all. Starlight was more at the level of "occasional bitching on the TV Tropes thread", but I think people were mostly just awed by the cool time travel plot, and griping about a hasty redemption is nowhere near the level of the fandom shaking impact that Twilcorn had.

Also, by the time the later seasons rolled around, anyone who would be put off by such things was already gone. S3 happened while the fandom was still really big.

Edited by storyyeller on Jun 11th 2022 at 1:17:15 PM

I dunno, I remember a lot of pretty long-lasting upset over the Starlight thing — although I grant that the Grogar twist may have eclipsed it. It may not have blazed as strong as the other controversies, but it smoldered for a good long while.

I wasn't in the fandom for the aliconization so I can't really comment on that.

The Starlight hate was very widespread and it's, in part, why I get annoyed with people who rant about characters "not deserving redemption". I remember one person I knew at the time who blew up about Starlight and compared her to...the North Korean government, for some reason?

Just because the worries were proven wrong doesn't mean they weren't valid at the time, mind you. We really didn't know how Equestria Girls would pan out, and there were a lot of details that pointed towards it being a very cliche high school movie.

And some of those concerns were absolutely right, like Flash Sentry being a shallow love interest.

Not like many other love interests in the show any less shallow or chemistry any less developed. I never truly understood the hate Flash Sentry got.

Edited by VeryVileVillian on Jun 12th 2022 at 2:29:27 PM