gingerninja666 
"[@Tirimsil":](/pony/season-9-discussion-thread-no-spoilers/post/4566486#post_4566486
)
Well, I thought it added a personal twist to the final conflict. It's why I liked Shadow Play. The core problem wasn't solely "Bad man wants to destroy/conquer the world". It had something relating to the show's themes in it.
Here, it's a similar thing. It has villains that use a dark form of friendship. A conflict partly caused by a friend making the wrong decision, and calls to task an aspect of Discord's personality that he's always had that was never adressed.
And about Twilight, in the latter half of the season they've made a big show of how she's been getting better. She's been more in control and calm and coming into her own as a leader. So this kind of reveal shatters that by having her believe it's all a lie. It's a deconstruction of all those insufferable "trickster mentor" characters you see in every show ever who teach using unorthodox methods. Only in other shows it always works, and the dickish teacher is vindicated.
Kaze ni Nare
Well, I thought it added a personal twist to the final conflict. It's why I liked Shadow Play. The core problem wasn't solely "Bad man wants to destroy/conquer the world". It had something relating to the show's themes in it.
Here, it's a similar thing. It has villains that use a dark form of friendship. A conflict partly caused by a friend making the wrong decision, and calls to task an aspect of Discord's personality that he's always had that was never adressed.
And about Twilight, in the latter half of the season they've made a big show of how she's been getting better. She's been more in control and calm and coming into her own as a leader. So this kind of reveal shatters that by having her believe it's all a lie. It's a deconstruction of all those insufferable "trickster mentor" characters you see in every show ever who teach using unorthodox methods. Only in other shows it always works, and the dickish teacher is vindicated.