@nightshroud96
Oh no, I hate the whole "kidnap everyone offscreen" thing. It's lazy, convoluted, and a bit sad that that was the only way they could give Starlight the win.

@hollowblade
Its iffy due to if Chrysalis was too arrogant to nab Starlight(who's past keeps getting brought up and how dangerous she can be), then she should been too arrogant to nab Spike too.
Starlight literally lives with Spike and Twilight now, its bad planning to not nab all 3 there(and look what happened, it bit in Chrysalis's ass hard).
Before someone goes "he saved the Crystal Empire", Chrysalis's arrogance would have made her handwave it as "he got lucky".
Outside of the Crystal Empire, Spike is not well-beloved/known unlike the Royal Family and the Mane 6.

Spike hasn't gotten to save the day anywhere near as much as the Mane 6 there.

@nightshroud96
Yes.

Although I can accept that Chrysalis thought him important enough to nab in the first place.

@Background Pony #7980
Honestly how Luna got nabbed too was just humiliating.
Getting snatched like that on her domain(the night).
Before someone says she was in the dream-world, pretty sure she would instantly "wake up" if someone tries to grab her.

The writers.. left quite another dark mark here for the sisters..

@Red-Supernova
For me, that and the fact Spike got robbed big time is what bothers me about this finale.
HE was the one who befriended Thorax, not Starlight.
But instead.. the spotlight gets taken by Starlight.
Would it kill them to have Spike AND Starlight assemble the team and save the day if it was so important for Starlight's development?

@Red-Supernova
I guess it would have been better if they at least showed an implication that they were being kidnapped. Kinda like that once scene in "Princess Twilight Sparkle" where the vine grew out of the castle floor and grabbed Celestia. I think it was the off-screen kidnapping that made the fandom angry over the episode. Either that, or they were mad that the mane six were sidelined.

@Background Pony #7980
Oh yeah, there's that. So its either implied that 24 hours have passed since Starlight left for her village and then returned to Ponyville, or its something else that the writers won't bother to explain because "We're done, your problem now lol."

@Red-Supernova
Well, I don't think they kidnapped EVERYONE while they were sleeping. Starlight left for her village when the mane six were awake. When she came back, it was clear that they have already been kidnapped and replaced. And I think all that happened on the same day. So the mane six were awake during the kidnappings. I think Celestia may have been the only one asleep when she was kidnapped. Seeing that Luna and Celestia's kidnapping was taking place during the night.

@hollowblade
I'm fine with the writers' choice of having Starlight's time to shine and while I did like this two parter for other reasons, leaving the job of explaining how everypony got kidnapped on us is very lazy storytelling.

Wait, did they say that everypony was kidnapped when they were sleeping? If so, I can see how that would work since the slime they produce is their best way to incapacitate their enemies.

@hollowblade
Luna's awake when she's dreamwalking. When she was being kidnapped she was halfway in dream world and halfway in the real world. That's how the changelings were able to kidnap her I guess.

But yeah, I guess it would still raise questions for the other ponies kidnappings.

4/10


@Red-Supernova
It's pretty sad that the only way to allow their new main character to save the day is through the most contrived way possible.


@Background Pony #7980
In what way, in their dreams? The problem with that scene is that the logical deduction is that everyone is being replaced in their sleep. But if Luna is asleep how is she aware she is being kidnapped? If she woke up and saw what was happening, but was than somehow knocked unconscious, than she wouldn't be able to dream in order tell Starlight anything. Than you have to think the imagery is literal, but than it's like what, can Changelings enter dreams now? It's also completely unnecessary since Starlight is immediately suspicious of everyone when she gets back anyway, with that leading her to finding out they all have been replaced.

@Red-Supernova
Well, I mean…we did see Luna getting kidnapped. So I just assumed that all of them were kidnapped the same way.

@Background Pony #7980
Only because when we questioned how did everypony get kidnapped, the writers just gave us a big "I dunno"?

That one time Discord looked genuinely scary.

The dumbest episode

Ah yes. One of the most controversial episodes of FIM.