Season 9 Discussion Thread [NO SPOILERS, DF airings only]

Don't
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Get up and Jump
@kleptomage  
Her portrayal was different then, she was clearly selfish but not a Sociopath , she was closer to Tirek in terms of just being a foreign conqueror who doesn’t care who they stomp in their quest, if anything she seemed less evil than Tirek because we didn’t know if she cared about her hive or not
gingerninja666
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

Kaze ni Nare
@Broken Adam
 
It’s more that we didn’t know much about her. A Canterlot Wedding showed us what she’s like when she’s completely in control. Where she gets to put forth any face she wants to put forth.
 
TWABA and other episodes that came later showed us what Chrysalis is like when actually pushed by something. When she’s forced to make a choice. It’s all well and good to say that you care for your hive when you’re in a position of power and you’re winning. But when you’re losing or feel threatened it’s a different story. At least that’s how I see it.
Mr.Myoozik
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To me the turning point for Shining Armor and Cadance was the birth of Flurry Heart. They had so much unused potential until that point but her birth reduced these two to almost nothing else but parenthood. They couldn’t even spend a single afternoon away from her without breaking down. That was used for comedic effect but unfortunately it reinforced that issue.
About one of the only exceptions to that was the Shining x Twilight fight for the sibling supreme
 
Flurry Heart was just a mistake and she could’ve been a good character, but sadly she was wasted to be a typical magic baby who fucks shit up cause plot. Shining Armor and Cadence could’ve had their own adventures together or hell, have that B plot of them in the art museum as its own episode because it provides for good comedy and development for the both of them. Instead it just became a stereotypical portrayal of a couple having a baby for the first time that fiction loves to exaggerate.
 
@Dustcan  
Feels bad man
Vivace
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“ShimSham my GlimGlams”
@TheRocketMan  
Many say the Mane 6 have forgiven worse crimes, but they haven’t forgiven criminals who were this remorselessly malicious. And everyone mad that Cozy is petrified legitimately does believe her age outweighs her crimes. They’re wrong, of course. Equestria doesn’t consider age a mitigating factor.
AC97
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@kleptomage
 
Chrysalis is the best villain because of how vicious she is.
 
She’s rather… Disneyesque overall. I love it.
 
@Broken Adam
 
Even if you’re only going by her debut, it’s quite easy to notice that with Chrysalis, “find food for my subjects” was clearly in the context of “gain ultimate power,” not “nourish my poor starving subjects,” coupled with the fact that she enjoyed every aspect of what she’s doing, which probably aren’t traits a sympathetic villain will usually display.
 
Those fanon depictions of Chrysalis typically missed the point. It was always about her above all else. The “desperate caring mother” portrayal always had very little basis in canon. The sadistic, severely narcissistic and arrogant megalomaniac that’s a possible rapist on the other hand? That’s who Chrysalis is, at her core.
AC97
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@Mildgyth
 
They might not even be conscious in there in contrast to Discord. I can’t see how Chrysalis could gain power from love considering how her statue looks the way it does, while we’re at it, lol.
Background Pony #5203
Flurry Heart was just a mistake and she could’ve been a good character, but sadly she was wasted to be a typical magic baby who fucks shit up cause plot. Shining Armor and Cadence could’ve had their own adventures together or hell, have that B plot of them in the art museum as its own episode because it provides for good comedy and development for the both of them. Instead it just became a stereotypical portrayal of a couple having a baby for the first time that fiction loves to exaggerate.
 
Pretty much, yeah.
 
@Mildgyth  
As i say, old enough to knowingly plot mass death on your own, old enough to suffer the consequences.
 
Pretty much, yeah. I don’t understand those who say Cozy was treated unfairly or didn’t deserve her fate IF the others did deserve it.
Vivace
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@Mildgyth  
“She’s. A. CHILD. You don’t execute (yeah, they call it an execution despite its reversibility) a child no matter what they do.”
Spinny
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@ILoveMyoozik
 
At least that only happened in a few episodes, though. I remember the reaction when Flurry was introduced, and people thought the whole season was pretty much going to be centered around her. At least she remained a very minor character.
AC97
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
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@Mildgyth
 
Also, I don’t care how old or young you are, you gleefully threaten to murder others in cold-blood, like Cozy Glow did in about the first five seconds of Episode 25, absolutely knowing what death is? You’re soulless at your core.
Mr.Myoozik
StarTrix Forever! - Derpi Supporter
Silly Pony - Celebrated the 13th anniversary of MLP:FIM, and 40 years of MLP!
Shimmering Smile - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of Equestria Girls!
Solar Hero - Went above and beyond for the Solar Deity, drawing from the power of the sun itself to bring balance to the fight against the Lunar Insurrection (April Fools 2023).
Flower Trio - Helped others get their OC into the 2023 Derpibooru Collab.
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King Sombra - Celebrated the 10th anniversary of The Crystal Empire!
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@Spinny  
I just thought she was an unnecessary character through and through so I’m glad that they didn’t give her the spotlight, which brings up another problem of why bother creating her in the first place. Though I gotta say that they didn’t make a good case with her with shitty episodes like A Flurry Of Emotions.
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Annoying fan has arrived
@Vivace
 
@AC97  
I wish Smart Heart would understand that and stop trying to enforce the contrary with Memes and new threads that have the sole purpose of bashing the finale
gingerninja666
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

Kaze ni Nare
I still like the dark idea of a future where Flurry is the only alicorn left and needs to be raised to liberate Equestria after the Mane 6 fail.
Summersong
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aka Summersong
It was clearly originally not “Chrysalis is a terrible queen”. No, the original point was that all changelings were parasitic vampire monsters.
 
But guess what happened? That’s right, the fanon portrayed changelings as darling little woobies and the show just couldn’t resist swiping yet another fanfic idea - but did not extend it to Chrysalis.
 
So the story then became “everybody only did attacked Canterlot ‘cause Chrysalis forced them to and even Ocellus was part of it”.
 
Yeah okay it totally makes sense that only two changelings in the hive were actually assholes (Chrysalis and Pharynx) and yet the entire rest of the hive, numbering at least thousands, never ousted them ever.
 
Let’s not forget that Chrysalis is clearly tempted by Starlight’s offer of friendship but slaps it away out of stubbornness, and that Cozy / Chrysalis / Tirek are clearly shown developing a friendship, which is the only possible way that Discord’s idiotic scheme could have been a smart idea, and then they never follow up on either!
AC97
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
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@Spinny
 
Starlight wasn’t threatening to execute completely helpless prisoners (she was angry, not gleeful, if we’re thinking of the same part), and the lack of surprise at seeing Twilight again after the Twilight and Spike incident in her finale appearance indicated she didn’t really expect the latter to kill them.
 
Cozy Glow… wasn’t quite like that.
AC97
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
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@Tirimsil
 
If it was ever a viable option to go “hey, why doesn’t Chrysalis just ask for love,” you think it would’ve been conceivable that she could’ve been talked down in A Canterlot Wedding? Reason I ask is, I’ve seen that done in fanon.
 
I’d say… probably not.
 
I’m not sure how Chrysalis’ A Canterlot Wedding plan was ever supposed to be seen as anything other than needlessly cruel. Changelings, as shapeshifters, can probably get love through more mundane subterfuge? Instead of brazenly attacking the capital of a nation in broad daylight?
 
That just screams “I’m doing this to satiate my massive ego.”
 
And regarding Frenemies…
 
Queen Chrysalis: The Magic of Friendship is like a disease! An infection that spreads to those around you! I watched it infect my hive! I will not let it get me!
Cozy Glow: Same.
Lord Tirek: Obviously.
 
It was resolved in that very same episode. Future episodes reinforced it, with Tirek being as pissy as ever that he returned stolen magic to stay under the radar in The Summer Sun Setback, in contrast to that brief part in Frenemies.
 
What happened in Frenemies was nothing more than a bait-and-switch we put way too much stock in (I’ll admit, I’m guilty as charged there). We automatically assumed “hey, this backstab won’t work on Grogar, right? So they’d have to go back on their previous resolve,” but that’s not what happened.
 
It would honestly be weird to have freaking Tirek reformed, the one who decided his plans of draining magic from an entire country was more important than listening to his brother’s pleas, because he’s literally so greedy he enjoys sucking the life out of you.
gingerninja666
The End wasn't The End - Found a new home after the great exodus of 2012

Kaze ni Nare
@Tirimsil  
I’m still not sure where this idea that all the changelings save Pharynx and Chrysalis were suddenly retconned to be good people came from.
 
The Changelings impersonating the Mane 6 were definitely assholes in TWABA, no forcing required. The Changedlings were still dicks in To Change a Changeling, being judgemental and dismissive of their leader’s family. They were just weenies about it. In some ways you could argue that Pharynx was one of the few Changelings with conviction. The others just kinda did whatever they thought made their lives easier, be that obeying Chrysalis or going right along with Thorax’s reforms. Pharynx believed what he believed because he thought it made the hive as a whole safer, regardless of personal convenience.
 
The episode doesn’t paint Pharynx as a bad person. It’s like those arguments I hear about how Daring Do was written to be the bad guy in Daring Doubt when she’s just as nice as she always was.
 
MLP is a black and white show for the most part, but it seems like whenever it tries to introduce even the slightest hint of nuance, the reaction is to act like it’s still cast in the absolute starkest shades of glittering white and deepest obsidian.
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