.... and so, with episode 21 "Every little thing she does" we have yet another good even if not perfect episode that could have been a lot better if they didn't had to use Starlight.

Because, you know... you just had to involve mind control when doing a "redemption arc" episode about a pony that basically brainwashed an entire city.

It really shows how she is sorry about that and how much she must have pondered over her past in the last months.

But you know, they must think it is funny.

The equality pony must constantly Mary Sue any task that involves magic and must also try to control others in acting how she wants every single time.

That is as far as her character development has been so far ;_;

Some time I wish this season was a little more "anime styled" than MLP will probably ever be.

At least, that would have given nice possibilities for multiple episode spanning sub-plots.

Well, at this point I am starting to hope that the finale won't have "kidnapped mane 6" but instead resort on the Celestia's rule of "she has to go alone".

@b_jonas btw, be aware that EG4 has been released on a brasilian? TV network, in its original english dub.

As such, rips are already starting to make their way to the mayor video sites.

Be careful if you are going to youtube or the such.

I think that I will try to see if I am able to catch the netflix release. Should be 1 October if I remember correctly.

@Derpy I think I heared that some people saw EG4 somehow. I didn't know about the details. I'll be careful, and I'll wait till next weekend for the official release probably.

@Derpy I agree. Starlight was the bad part of the episode. This season is heading into the direction where it might be best to pretend that the whole story of S6 didn't even happen, even if there are enjoyable parts of the individual episodes. Maybe all of it was a hallucination by somepony.

Some of the earlier episodes were good, but I wouldn't lose much if it turned out that their stories didn't actually happen.

I can still enjoy them as non-canon stories.

(The best episodes were E5, E8, E9, but there were other good ones.)

@b_jonas At this point, it is evident what the issue with Starlight is.

They decided to turn an "evil" character into a "nice" one.

@Derpy The issue with Starlight is bad writing in season 6, compared to the previous 5 seasons.

I wouldn't give all the blame to the writing. Just one thing

Although I admit the problem does seem to be focused around Starlight mostly.

So maybe there is a problem specifically with that character.

But I still think she could have been written much better, if you just throw away all that's happened in S6.

Also, I've been watching a lot of Phineas and Ferb episodes in the last few weeks. They're very funny.

It's very different from MLP, and sort of like the Powerpuff Girls, in that you need a lot more suspension of disbelief to watch it and believe that it all actually happens.

Just like in Powerpuff Girls, Phineas and Ferb has some hard to beleive invisible force that makes sure that almost everything changed is returned to normal by the end of the episode.

Look, probably I am getting boring by now. But all of the Starlight problems came from just one thing.

There are much more just funny parts of the episodes, and very few serious episodes that provoke strong emotions.

@Derpy Probably. And they messed that up. If they wanted to turn her to somewhat nice, they could have done much better.

nope, that isn't the point

let me finish.

the problem isn't the reforming.

she isn't the first, she probably won't be the last.

Let me also try to explain how I see Starlight Glimmer in E21 specifically. The part I like about her portrayal is that she's become something like Discord, in that she's a powerful but amoral guy, she decided to be nice but doesn't know how to do that, so she needs the constant guidance of her friends (especially the Mane Six) to tell her what not to do when she gets carried away. That part I totally like, it's something that could realistically happen to Starlight.

But what I don't like is what she's doing. She's showing very little initiative. For some reason she wants to impress Twilight and tries to go along with her friendship lessons and magic lessons, and stay in the castle and not do anything else. That's something I can't imagine Starlight doing.

She could be reformed to be nice, but she'd always have her own ideas about what she wants to play, rather than just sitting in a castle and playing the obedient apprentice of Twilight (whether she succeeds in that or messes up).

That's how I see her. But go on about how you see her too.

Oh, and by the way, other than Starlight herself, E21 was a good episode.

Except I still don't quite understand why Pinkie is more upset about the ruined cake than about Starlight telling her she wasn't allowed to sing.

@b_jonas Look, I have my personal head-cannon that the Pink One wasn't even controlled like the rest and was more in a "You will pay for this" mindset.

@Derpy That is possible, but that doesn't explain why the cake is more important than the singing.

@b_jonas because she couldn't eat the song?

And the no singing part was before Starlight mind-controlled her.

But this is a small complaint. Maybe I don't understand Pinkie well. Sometimes she doesn't understand herself either.

Anyway. As I was saying. I am fine if they want to reform Starlight.

I would even be fine if the they wanted her as the 7th mane six (even if I think they missed many better options, starting from Sunset going to Trixie and ending with Moonlight)

but either they keep her as the old "evil" character

or they fully go for a "good&kind" one

I still don't think MLP will make her a "7th mane six", any more than they made the other candidates (Spike, Apple Bloom, Discord, Sunset etc) a 7th mane six.

the Repetitio Ab Nausea "joke" of her trying to mindcontrol EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER SHE INTERACTS WITH (saved Trixie, but only because she was the one agreeing on everything she said) was old the first time, annoying the second and plain bad the third.

@Derpy Yes, I agree completely with that.

This isn't Snoopy and the Peanuts, where you have characters that just have one single characteristic to them and are just constantly showed doing that.

Shroeder can just be "one who likes Beethoven" because that works. In a 4 panel strip.

They aren't an anime either.

Starlight isn't Vegeta, constant reminding of "I am not a weak sweatheart like Goku" aren't funny for her.

She is a pony, not a alien prince of a warrior race full of ego.

If they are to show a character growing, that character must avoid to do the same error again and again.

Yet this is what Starlight does.

either she is fearing someone learns what she has done or she is trying to force someone in doing what she wants.

Wait, forgetting option C. She is trying to force someone in not learning what she has done

Again, I have said that before, but this episode would have worked a lot better if it was someone else in place of Starlight.

Trixie herself could have worked pretty well.

@Derpy Probably yes, though you need a few more changes after replacing the pony.

Considering that she is a character that has always been drawn as trying to over-boast her magic skill, probably because she has some insecurity that she try to hide behind that

We might need somepony who actually could have a motivation to take friendship lessons assigned to them by Twilight. Maybe Discord could do that. I'm not sure if Trixie could, but perhaps, if Starlight coerced her.

Obviously Trixe should have had a reason to be there in place of Star.

Or maybe Trixe just has more respect to Twilight these days then before she was a princess.

I meant that if she was, the reaction would have been more bearable coming from her than from Star, who did the same multiple time before and obviously learned nothing.

Princess Celestia could probably make anypony to take friendship lessons, but that would be even more repetitive with S2 E3.

@Derpy Yes.

@b_jonas At this point, I am somehow hoping that they do a scene with Starlight once again trying to mindcontrol someone, only to have the spell bounce off. Then the target explains that "Twily put an anti-mind control spell on everyone after you tried to brainwash the pony at the vegetable-shop to give you a discount yesterday"

@Derpy I don't think that would work.

@Derpy See giantitp.com/forums/… (where I reply to someone who's already brought up some similar magical protection against Starlight)

@b_jonas nope, wouldn't at all. But at least it would be a sign that they don't care anymore about the characters been likable.

> Starlight Glimmer has proved in S5 E26 that she's such a competent wizard that Twilight can't just defeat it by fighting her with force. If Twilight or some other pony were to slap her with a horn locking spell, she'd just remove it somehow

^ to be honest, the only thing that the episode did right IMHO was showing the exact opposite.

That Twily hadn't really have to try to make the other work.

@Derpy I admit that here I'm a bit influenced by my headcanon image about Starlight, and how much preparation she did off-camera. But at least in the show she seems to react quicker to unexpected emergencies than Twilight does.

I think she's a more practical type of wizard, whereas Twilight has a lot of book knowledge and not enough practice.

@b_jonas I am more influenced by the comics instead, that have probably show more the nature of Twily "magic" than what the show have spelled out (not that you can't come to the same conclusion from reading between the lines, they just won't do the work for you)

and I still believe that the equality pony stands no chance.

@Derpy Maybe. I'm not sure Twilight would want to take that chance at least.

@b_jonas more like "I have already seen my teacher have to live with a sister stuck on the moon. If given the possibility, I would prefer to avoid living a thousand years carrying the same weight."

@Derpy Right.

> Magic=Friendship. This is established with the series' title. Sure it's usually worded the other way around, but the reflexive property says if A=B, B=A. So there.

....................

(Insert Flowey "you are lame" face here)

Ever wondered why it is "Friendship is Magic" and not "Magic is friendship"?

FOUND!

@b_jonas I think that I will make a wall-poster out of this quote...

> There's a poll going on over at Equestria Daily about which one event in the show you could undo (such as Discord never being reformed, no Flurry Heart, no Equestria Girls, etc.) and I found it amusing that so far the winning vote is going to the Golden Oak Library never having been destroyed

Well... for one the library didn't have much space to house a second pony, nor doors you could hide behind when trying to skip your lessons.

> 2. Sunset Shimmer did/does it better. Every part of it too. She was evil, but her plan (while silly) wasn't really that petty. She didn't get away with being evil scotch free. And she's developed actual friendships with the EG cast. She even has a better name and color scheme.

and don't forget that she did have her own dose of the distrust medicine as shown in RR after she become "good" like Discord did. So far, all the distrust and talking behind-your-back Starlight fears is only in her own mind.

@Derpy That's a tough one. If I had that choice, I'd definitely ask the pony princesses, and accept their decision, because I just don't have enough information.

Specifically, according to S4 E22, Princess Celestia sent a lot of books to Twilight, and those are probably in the library, but I don't think they are very valuable and irreplacable. The Golden Oak seems like a small local library compared to the ones in Canterlot, the old castle, and the crystal empire. And the ponies have cheap printing press according to at least two episodes, so any books other than very old ones will probably have lots of copies.

@b_jonas Already said what was the important part in the library that the staff didn't even realize they had missed

(it would have been so easy to add that into "Castle sweet castle")

the beehive

@Derpy What? Why is the beehive so important? Besides, if you need one, I think you could get a new beehive to the castle.

@b_jonas because that was a living creature (actually, a whole community) that always shared the tree from the first day we saw it and it would have been nice to see someone care?

Instead, we can only argue that it got blown up with anyone noticing?

anyway, probably we won't get any more Starlight until the finale.

@b_jonas Which I bet will involve mind control.

And since we are at it, Starlight out-powering Discord because reasons.

@Derpy Dunno. It's possible.

Mind control with dilated pupils, or mind control with huge rainbow ray zaps?

The rainbow ray zaps probably won't appear again after they were featured both in the E4 finals and EG2.

@b_jonas considering that Sunset started crying a second before turning into a demon, I am still thinking that the Rainbow beam work by showing you how you should be ashamed of yourself, not by brain washing you.

@Derpy Quite possible.

@b_jonas My headcanon is that you experience a nice view like the one from Twily alicornification, replacing all the memories with images of your bad actions. All in about a second.

Other theory, the beam enhances your empathy to Flutter pony levels.

@Derpy Is that similar to the headology used on the Duchess in Wyrd Sisters by Pratchett?

@b_jonas I will have to admit that I was only able to get one, maybe two of the Pratchett books where I live ("fantasy" was most ignored by libraries and still is if you exclude the usual commercial stuff like Eragon or extremely famous like LotR, GoT or Harry)

@Derpy Sadly I couldn't read all of them either. The original ones are hard to find, and are mostly sold as paperbacks, so I can't just read them in bookshops even when I find them.

But Wyrd Sisters is one of the few Discworld books I've read.

You know... I realize you still won't be able to make much sense of this, not having played the game...

but it just occurred to me that it would be pretty interesting to see Starlight inside Undertale.

Yep, you should find a way to move the main theme from murder/mercy to some less direct....

but if you managed to find a way to do that, the equality pony would have a nice experience there.

Yes..... a nice one.

A very nice one.

she needs her own Flowey...

@Derpy Game of Thrones is now more famous than Discworld? That sounds sad, but it's probably true.

It's sad because Game of Thrones only became famous recently here, shortly before the TV series made it very famous.

@b_jonas more blood, more random death, more violence and adult contents... Yep, it has what it takes to be famous.

what did you expect? People to like candy colored ponies?

That isn't macho enough

@Derpy I'm not sure. One one hand, the holywood TV series clearly matters a lot in spreading Lord of the Rings, Song of Ice and Fire, and Harry Potter. On the other hand, I'm quite sure that SoIaF started to become popular here in Hungary about a year before it got a TV series and years before that in the US,

Harry Potter became famous worldwide in 2000 when Goblet of Fire was published in English and the Hungarian Translation of the Prisoner of Azkaban was published, again one year before the film series, and I believe LotR was famous before the films although I don't really remember that.

So either films or TV series retroactively cause books to have become famous a year before they are shown, or films and TV series are made very quickly of famous books so that they use the popularity of the books to gain more viewers.

Both of those are hard to imagine, because you can't make films or TV series that quickly, and people can't learn about future films that quickly.

Let me ask about this in Sci Fi SE chat.

@b_jonas actually I was just stating that I am not impressed that a series like GoT became famous because violence sells, nothing more.

I wasn't arguing of the influence of the TV version on all of this.

just of the contents.

@Derpy Of course. But I sort of wanted to say that maybe GoT is very famous now, compared to Discworld, because it has a modern high budget TV series, not because of the violance.

But I'm not sure that's true.

Is Star Wars (which is also very popular now with the new movies) also sold by the violence?

@Derpy: Mos Eisley says both Harry Potter and SoIaF started to become popular years before I thought above.