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Derpy
Derpy
7:55 AM
The finale is drawing closer.
The days passes and I can't help but worry about the premises in the synopsis.
The return of "an old foe" isn't worrying me at all. The only way to totally blow tha bit up I can think off would be pulling back Sombra as the bad guy - after he has redeemed himself in the comics --. Also, considered that the premiere was in the Crystal Kingdom and there is still the baby alicorn thing to reuse.... I am pretty sure the "foe" is Queen Chrysalis.
To be completely honest, the synopsis could also allude to an "old enemy" that hasn't been shown so far, with the "old" just begin a "from pony history" thing. This would allow for a nice unexpected plot - like calling in the alleged "Shadow Pony" or something similar. But I wouldn't count on it (actually, I wouldn't even hold my hopes on them using the windigos....).
Anyway, whatever the enemy is, I am not worried. I doubt they would do anything horrid there and I also strongly doubt they would call time travel back in again...
The second point is starting to get worse.
It seems that the mane six will be out of the picture for most of the episode. The simplest explanation (reinforced from the "save her friends" part in the synopsis) is that they get kidnapped. This has the foul smell of the despicable "Plot required incompetence" , that miserable plot device that has a character magically turn into a fool just because he/she don't get to outshine the intended protagonist.
It is a "removal of competence" that I have found to completely hate in the past, whenever I came upon it.... so I am not really fond to see the mane six turned in six useless "I will wait here till you save me" furniture just because Starlight has to get her episode....
And remember, EG2 was basically "Episode of Sunset", but that doesn't mean the other got out-shined constantly.
Then there is the "recruit supporter for the rescue" part. This lucky has many ways to work. They can either bring back the people of "Equality Town" - and this would be nice, they can bring all the characters from this season (Trixie, Gilda&Gaby, Ember, Thorax.... ) and this will nice would also be far from credible (yep, because we all know that Starlight knows Ember) and would require much more attention to work out
or they could recruit the supporting characters we usually see and give them a chance.
There are rumors of Discord still having another main appearance in the season, the finale could be it. Having Discord, Spike, the CMC and maybe even Shining have an active role for once could be a nice addition.
The main point is that whatever they do, the supporters need to not just be Starlight court, added in just to "bring the numbers" up while she gets all the scene.
And that brings us to the mayor problem. The episode closure.
So far, all point to this begin "Starlight's finale".
And I fear what this could mean.
I hope this isn't going to end up with a new alicorn... but still, all seems like a pretty farfetched attempt at "fast-fowarding" the evolution of a character so that she gets on the same ground as the others. All in about... A premiere, a Trixie episode, a finale and little more..
The mane six had 6 season to come to this point. Character like 'Shy have grown a lot, with baby-steps each time. Even Sunset had at least a full movie to show her change (and got some better "I feel remorse" scenes than Star, since those seemed more remorse and less shame)
Yet, I seriously think this whole "You're gonna love me" thing will end up in the worse way I can foresee.
With a new throne in the castle.
I guess that with enough time I could even accept that.
But then there is the other issue.
Up to now, the 2017 movie leaks have given no indication of Starlight even appearing in the movie. I am pretty convinced that the plot wasn't really build to have the "main 7" but just the old "main 6".
And since they don't have much time left, I utterly fear any attempt at adding in the Equality Mary at the last minute....
Wow- this was long.
@b_jonas good luck actually reading all of this.
 
 
7 hours later…
b_jonas
b_jonas
4:21 PM
@Derpy About the final, obviously I can only speculate too, so most of my guesses will be wrong. Firstly, I'm not worried about the recruiting part, because when a pony needs help, they usually find the right ponies for the task.
The tree chest castle map is active again, and it can serve as a convenient way to get the Mane Six out of this episode. Twilight and the rest of the Mane Six are convinced from the experiences so far that the map can choose the right pony for the right job, so if the map chooses Starlight and whatever other companions, then the Mane Six will stay put. Alternately, the Mane Six might be busy in some other location.
Bringing time travel back is indeed a possibility. Starlight can either recreate the time travel spell, or the spell is lost to the heroes forever, as the plot demands, for the S5 final was ambiguous enough on this. If the threat turns out to be something that can only be stopped by traveling back to the past, because it's too strong now for the heros to damage it, or if the old foe is someone who travels back to the past and grabs Starlight with her, that Starlight will be a time traveler.
If time travel is involved, then it's easy to get the Mane Six out of the way, simply because they traveled back to before the Mane Six even got their cutie mark, or something.
As for the "one of the ponies' oldest and greatest foes", I would rather think it's a foe we haven't seen yet in the show, or only in a passing mention. "Oldest" just means the threat was active in very old times, way before the first season. Twilight, Starlight, or Princess Celestia might know already about that threat, since the first two read a lot of book, and Celestia is, you know, very old.
Now here's some speculation that is actually very unlikely to happen. The oldest and greatest foe of ponies is dragonkind, as a whole. We've seen dragons already, but within the timespan of the series, they weren't a very big threat to ponies, in the sense that the mane six and Spike could deal with the single dragon in S1, then with multiple teenage dragons in S2 and S6.
But now for some reason, dragons are rising very strong, there are many of them, they are trying to start a pillage that could destroy the entire equestria to ruins. The dragon queen Torch is trying to stop them, but either the dragons don't recognize her commands, or she turns out to be the lord of only a smaller dragon nation that currently contains mostly the teenage dragons, not the large group of elder dragons that are now preparing to attack.
In any case, the dragon threat is so dangerous that a two-parter season finale is required to resolve the situation.
The heroes would include Starlight, Spike, and queen Ember, and might include other ponies. At the start of the story, they would find out about what threat the dragons pose now. They would get horrified about how strong the large group of dragons are now, and find that they can't do anything. The situation would seem hopeless, which might be where the first of the two parts end.
Then eventually the heroes do enough detective work and learn about dragon lore and history to find out that even if the dragons are too strong to stop now, they could travel back to the past to some crucial event a thousand year ago that enabled the rise of the dragons, and change the entire course of history that way.
Basically, they find out that the reason why the dragons grew strong is that the spirit dragon Ugin has awaken from his thousand year long slumber. So in the second part, Starlight and some companions time travel back a thousand year to the crucial fight called Ugin's Nexus where Nicol Bolas fights the dragon Ugin, and convince Sarkhan Vol that he shouldn't save Ugin.
Then they come back to the present, find that Ugin is dead, the dragon nation never grew strong, and dragons are no longer a big threat to Ponyville.
Oh, and as for other episodes, apparently E24 also involves the tree chest castle map, and has a longer description now.
Longer than the short TV guide descriptions that is.
 
 
3 hours later…
b_jonas
b_jonas
7:42 PM
@Derpy Oh, and I don't think you'll see a new alicorn. You could see one of the alicorns we already have, or Discord in an alicorn costume, but I would guess they won't have a major role in the finale.
@Derpy Queen Chrysalis is actually a reasonable guess for an enemy to see in the finale, but if she's the enemy, then why would the TV guide description for E26 say "against one of the ponies' oldest and greatest foes"? Is Chrysalis really one of the oldest?
But yes, something with Crysalis could perhaps be very interesting if they do it well.
 

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