Unpopular opinion time

HeadlessHorselessHorseman

On going back to review lesson zero I’m reminded how manic twilight was back in the day. Like, IRL she’d be medicated.
Twilight-as-neurotic-nutjob was an element that was mainly introduced in Season 2, and to be honest, I don’t think it was for the better. Lesson Zero was…exceedingly bombastic, and being turned into yet another shrill kids’ cartoon didn’t serve FiM well.
I prefer the more level-headed, if cynical, version we saw in Season 1. Making Twilight the most sensible one of the cast gave more room to Applejack to stand out as someone who was mature, but a little too pigheaded to be a leader by default.
AC97
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@Spinny
The vital factor regarding viewer perception is it had the narrative disproportionately weighted to sympathizing with Twilight. The others didn’t see the flashbacks Twilight had, they saw less suspicious things than she did, and they had Chrysalis successfully manage to manipulate them offscreen. The fact Twilight handled the callout poorly was just icing on the cake.
@Kiryu-Chan
tbf Twilight should have said something about “Cadance”’s green glow when she was accusing her
Did the show even establish by that point (if they ever did, which I don’t remember) that they can see magic aura colors? I don’t think they did. That element seems like it can be argued that it’s more for the viewer’s benefit on foreshadowing than anything else; for what it’s worth, Twilight’s impersonator in S6 had a purple glow.
Twilight could’ve genuinely just had a detail fail to register anyway, caught up in her grumpiness, and it wouldn’t be unprecedented for her to be oblivious in some fashion; she never was suspicious in the vein of “that couldn’t have been the real Cadance.”
She can be 100% faulted for definitely never mentioning that “Cadance” didn’t recognize the “Sunshine Sunshine” dance, which she knew for certain.
Blissful690
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@Spinny
The vital factor regarding viewer perception is it had the narrative disproportionately weighted to sympathizing with Twilight. The others didn’t see the flashbacks Twilight had, they saw less suspicious things than she did, and they had Chrysalis successfully manage to manipulate them offscreen. The fact Twilight handled the callout poorly was just icing on the cake.
@Kiryu-Chan
tbf Twilight should have said something about “Cadance”’s green glow when she was accusing her
Did the show even establish by that point (if they ever did, which I don’t remember) that they can see magic aura colors? I don’t think they did. That element seems like it can be argued that it’s more for the viewer’s benefit on foreshadowing than anything else; for what it’s worth, Twilight’s impersonator in S6 had a purple glow.
It doesn’t look any different to me. Could you possibly show a comparison with a couple of images?
AC97
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It doesn’t look any different to me. Could you possibly show a comparison with a couple of images?
…That’s the point I was trying to make. “Twilight’s” aura looked normal (“raspberry” was the correct color to name, if it’s being that specific), so that might be taken to retroactively say “changelings can disguise their aura, so even if Chrysalis was called out for it, she could shift it to line up with Cadance’s, if it’s something they could see in-universe to begin with.”
CORDZ2000
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Draconequues Lover zcord
Speaking of comics…that latest comic:fix
While it makes sense to keep discord busy and to do task to more of make up.
The idea that Twilight could threaten discord is silly and she wouldn’t even need to. Discord said that “I’m so sorry it made so much sense in my head, twilight defeats her worse enemies and is filled with confidence, I truly did have the best intentions, I swear I’ll make it up to you” therefore he would do it without needing to be threatened. He only messed with the trio to help twilight who is now showing absolutely no sympathy for him trying to be a good friend, while giving the trio all the sympathy in the world for actually meaning ill intent.
He only turned them to stone after the princesses said they would punish them already. He has never shown any problem with characters being reformed who previously have hurt Fluttershy, if the princesses didn’t suggest it he wouldn’t have done anything. He didn’t even go after Tirek for betraying him in s4 or after chrysalis when she ran away in s6 after kidnapping Fluttershy. He has no reason to mess with the trio, if Fluttershy or twilight simply asked him not to he would do it, heck he bowed to twilight in the finale because he was proud of her. I think he’s actually being made out to be a bigger jerk and more unreasonable than he actually is.
Blissful690
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And whilst we’re on the subject of Discord, I’ll never understand peoples’ dislike of his depiction in A Matter of Principals. I mean, come on, being chaotic is in his nature.
GenericArchangel
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@Blissful690
People don’t like being reminded that he’s actually a massive asshole with an ego the size of a planet. His “redemption” was him becoming a petty, vindictive, passive-aggressive jerk rather than an actually good person.
Which is also why Starlight’s redemption is better. She actually worked on becoming a better person on top of not doing evil.
CORDZ2000
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@GenericArchangel
I disagree starlight may be nicer but that doesn’t make her a inherently better character, she became a nice person in like 10 secs, knowing from experience it takes time to change who u are, discord learns something new every appearance and comes back slightly nicer except for matter of principals. Discord is a spirit of chaos who disappears if he completely changes who he is, he shouldn’t be compared to starlight who is a normal pony who shouldn’t have been a villain anyways because one friend left.
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@CORDZ2000
Except it did take her time. Remember “Every Little Thing She Does”? Yeah. It was a process for her, and there’s an implied time-skip between seasons 5 and 6. We can argue about which character is better written, but if I knew them both, I know which one I wouldn’t want to ever be around.
CORDZ2000
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@GenericArchangel
I mean sure id probably rather be around starlight but I dont value fiction based on how nice someone is or who I like most in real life. That was the only ep starlight was truly allowed to be in the wrong. Its a reason why flash sentry writing is criticized despite being nice. She has a likeable personality and good dynamic with Trixie to the point i dont mind shipping them but she definitely has a lot of flaws in Her writing. Then again every character in the show does. U cant take a being of chaos and expect it to be a perfect nice guy.
That being said discord wasn’t well written in matter of principals because yeah hes a jerk but the specific subtely to his character is that he is one who wants to be better, which is why he either is trying to teach a lesson or genuinely didn’t realize what he did was wrong and apologizes and learns something neither are present in matter of.
CORDZ2000
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).

Draconequues Lover zcord
Ofc when we say would want more to be around we mean as a friend as i would want to be more than friends with discord…look this comment is striked through and spoiled why are u viewing…just ignore this dont think about it 🤫
GenericArchangel
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@CORDZ2000
I’ll counter that Discord does not want to be better unless Fluttershy wants him to be. His entire motivation for the redemption is Fluttershy’s approval, so as long as he has that, he doesn’t give a damn. If my memory serves me, he even admitted as much on more than one occasion.
There’s also the fact that a valid interpretation here is he doesn’t actually care about Fluttershy, he just needs her to be the lone dissenting vote keeping him out of stone. It’s not an interpretation I personally agree with, but it’d be in line with Discord as a character.
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Honestly, I don’t get the whole argument where Starlight forcibly hypnotized Twilight in “Starlight The Hypnotist”. Hypnosis is an actual method used by therapists to help treat their patients and there wasn’t a lot of options to help Twilight with her fear of ladybugs. That and Twilight herself gave her consent to it so it’s not like she was forced into it, plus it was Pinkie barging in that ruined it.
Kiryu-Chan
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@Myoozik
Yeah, I never got the vitrol over that short from some people. Like, the only thing that really bugged me was that her fear of ladybugs was just kinda dumb, but otherwise it was pretty harmless
Vivace
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@Cosmas-the-Explorer
Here’s a handy flow chart.
  1. Did Starlight do something…yeah that’s the end of the sentence. If yes, go to 2. If no, then likely no one argued. Likely because apparently, some got pissed that she dared to appear onscreen in Fluttershy Leans In, even with no dialogue.
  2. Was it before S9? If yes, people definitely had conniptions, some more justifiable than others. If no, it was more quiet, but a few still looked for and found reasons to get upset.
AC97
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@GenericArchangel
Technically speaking, Discord says he gives her “most” of the credit for that, not “only her,” and he does, for the lack of a different option presented in the actual show, care about Twilight in his own way, aside from him hanging out around others, and having a few of his viewpoints shifting therein (his dismissive attitude on love vs being excited for a wedding). I personally wouldn’t humor “doesn’t actually care about Fluttershy” as a valid interpretation worth really exploring if it’s post S4, unless you’re internally acknowledging that it’s diverging from the show, but eh.
He definitely didn’t really care much if any beyond Fluttershy in S3-S4, and Twilight was moreso a source of amusement than anything at that point, though he never really stopped enjoying trolling her, since that’s how he kind of is.
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When I hear people complaining about Discord and point out details that made him a jerk, especially in season 9, I often wonder if they do that with Starlight.
It kinda reminds me of something the artist of Nerf Now said about someone talking about Sylvanna’s characterization in Warcraft. As long as the character is either cute, hot or waifu material, some people try to justify his actions. Which kinda explains all this conundrum.
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@Ring Team
I know you do, but everyone else did. Not moving on from anything bad or tragic can be harmful to one’s health.
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@Myoozik
That part is the only intentional part. Even so, Twilight asked for it. It wasn’t forcibly done. Then there’s other moments that are accidental. No maliciousness and making effort to improve. Discord does everything opposite of her. There, I said my piece on why Discord’s worst than her.
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