@Red-Supernova  
Shouldn’t Thorax have told Cadance and Shining Armor everything that changelings can do? Including turning into objects?  
He should at least tell them in case Chrysalis hunts him down due to he might spill crucial info that will screw the buggos up if their foes found out.  
And Chrysalis seems to be completely ignoring that Spike befriending Thorax is what ultimately “corrupted” her hive. Starlight’s speech lit the fuse but its Spike befriending Thorax that ultimately sown the seed that led to her downfall.  
And yet she just completely ignores Spike while focusing too much on Starlight.  
Like I said, if Chrysalis was too arrogant to nab Starlight(despite her spies would most likely heard about what Starlight can do AND she lives with Spike and Twilight), she would have been too arrogant to nab Spike.  
The writers just screwed logic to shaft him for Starlight sadly..
 
They should have realized that it wouldn’t have killed them if Spike AND Starlight led the team.  
Maybe Luna too since she’s a reformed enemy but also to redeem herself for being strangely absent when Celestia and all of Canterlot was in danger by the changelings.

@nightshroud96  
I’d say she was in disguise as an inanimate object from outside the windows. She is a Changeling after all.  
Yes, but they never accounted for Changelings turning into inanimate objects. We’ve seen that even Thorax and later Ocellus can do the same.  
That’s exactly why she captured Spike along with everypony else. He went from being “insignificant” to becoming a threat to Chrysalis’s future.
 
I understand. Spike should have been one of the main characters of that finale but they also wanted to give Starlight more time to shine. I would have liked to known what the thought process was behind their decisions for this two parter and see why Spike’s importance was axed. But whatever excuse they have for not reforming Chrysalis I will not except since “good” Discord exists.

@Red-Supernova  
Seems pretty weird if Chrysalis was there.  
In fact wouldn’t she get caught since the place was on high alert for buggos?  
In fact wouldn’t she go after Spike due to its him befriending Thorax that ultimately caused her to lose her hive. Starlight may have done that speech, but it was ultimately Spike who sown the seed that led to the changelings’ reformations. And yet apparently she didn’t seem to acknowledge/be aware AT ALL about Spike and Thorax becoming friends.
 
As for Starlight, I like her actually.  
But when she ends up getting stuff that should have been Spike’s(like this finale), I get pissed off.  
That and her backstory, those are the only two problems I have with her. Other than that, she’s fine

@Background Pony #7980  
I’d say the former.
 
@nightshroud96  
Part of me likes to think that when Spike brought Thorax back to the castle to stand up for him, Chrysalis was secretly watching the whole event. Once everypony left the room, she flew back to her lair to take action.
 
@nightshroud96  
But you don’t hate Starlight, right?

@Background Pony #7980  
They could have had Luna get to shine too.  
Like helping saving her sister given how she was seen nowhere when the changelings attacked Canterlot in the season 2 finale and apparently Luna missed the whole thing according to her only line when she showed up again.  
Her freaking sister was in serious danger but Luna was nowhere to be found till after the buggos got booted.

@hollowblade  
And Spike got robbed greatly.  
Heck, while it was interesting that the Mane 6 got taken out and need someone else to save them, it gets shot in the foot when the very ponies that kept getting shafted so the Mane 6 can save the day(such as Luna) or someone that is often in the girls’ shadows(Spike) gets captured like that..

@hollowblade  
As much as I loved this finale, I have to agree on that bit. Giving everyone except Luna an offscreen kidnapping wasn’t a good idea. Like I said before, they should have at least foreshadowed that they were in danger, like what they did with Celestia in the season 4 premiere.

@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.