S4 Episode 25 & 26 - Twilight's Kingdom [Finale]

Oh wow. This had a lot of things up and down for it.
First off, let's start with nitpicks. Why is Tia sleeping with her regalia on? Seems kinda uncomfortable. Their plan of shoving all the pony powers into an inexperienced host is kinda a big gamble. Kinda really disappointed Tia didn't turn pink mane after drained of powers. This just brings up question on why Lulu had a different mane style in Season 1.
Apparently none of the ponies has any combat experience or tactics. "Let's charge the monster by charging all in a straight line." No blitzing, no attacks other than straight magic beams. Starting to think any one of us could take over Equestria at this point.
And lastly, the designs for Rainbow Power... Yeah, I'm pretty sure that part was mandated by Hasbro. Tacky looking stickers on them, none really appeal to me. Twilight is probably the one I'm least disappointed in.

But anyways:

Tia, Lulu, and Cadance singing? *squees*
That whole fight? Aweseomesauce. Really reminds me of DBZ. Really had hoped Twilight at one point would've decked Tirek in the schnoz. Tirek for appearing in the first place. Also understand that they can't just kill him outright like they did in G1. Twilight is now apparently the most fight capable pony. Really reminds me of attacks from Fighting is Magic. Needs a bit more variety with magical attacks though. Pure magic missiles can only get you so far. Would've been cool if she messed with the lights i.e. shroud of darknessed the area or solar beamed Tirek, but fight is still satisfying. I see some Discord-Celestia ship nodding at the end.

Also:



And lastly, a bit of headcanon taken from <a href="http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/753/293/723.png">this</a>: Dissy could've taken on Tirek, but then Twilight would've still been feeling useless. So the entire finale he was acting. And it definitely hurt him to 'betray' Fluttershy, but necessary so that the final key that he gave Twilight would've worked. Otherwise why would have he kept Twilight's stain glass picture?

Looking back on how everyone has been treating discord I am not surprised that he sided with Tirek, or that he had learned enough about friendship to be convinced he had one with him as well.  (lol-ed at the lamp he had was the one the CMCs made)  Should have had a better contingency plan there, pal.  Also, holy shit I did not ever believe Tirek could swallow CHAOS itself.  
I was sooo sad when the tree house was destroyed! I do agree that the rainbow power looked pretty awful but that is just hasbro selling toys.  
Now that fight scene. They were all like: pew pew pew, Zap, boom, kerpow, and... and... words cannot describe how awesome it was.      All of the (target audience) kids watching this probably just became 4 years wiser and more badass from proximity to this finale.
I can not wait to watch this again with my whole family when finals are over.

I wouldn't say an oversight so much as character design is hard. Or general laziness.

I'd say the latter is more likely as apparently the change only translated to them not having to animate the manes.

swicked wrote:I really don't think Discord "kept" that one window with twilight in it. He stated he hadn't gotten to it yet, and we could see he was still in the process of playing with them. There could have been a lot of windows similarly untouched at the time.
I think it's funny that cutie marks don't represent a pony's soul, but their ability to do magic. Like, after being depowered, pinkie would still be able to throw parties. She doesn't rely on earth pony strength or attachment to nature to utilize her special talent. Despite, her mark was gone when she lost her connection to a magic she doesn't really care about.

I always just assumed that her spontaneous party stuff was magic. Maybe she'd figure it out eventually, but how to you go from pulling party supplies from a pocket dimension in your rear end to actually preparing things?
But that's probably just a visual cue of being drained. When they all got their butt marks switched, it messed with their memories and really didn't seem to touch on their magic bits and bobs.

Oh, and a neat worldbuilding bit: apparently, it's easier to suck magic out of unicorns than either other type. Which is, I think, the first in-show confirmation that EPs even have magic. I don't think they confirmed it elsewhere, anyways.
There was also Tartarus. Which... really doesn't seem that secure. No wonder super powered bad guys are such a persistent problem.

Re Cadance:
Stumbled across a crude joke on Cadance (using the same frames in show to describe their jobs)
Celestia, you raise the sun. Luna, you raise the moon. And Cadance, you raise my brother's flag.
But yeah, they are pretty inconsistent with roles and the priorities.

Big question: What distracted Cerberus in the first place? Dun Dun Duuuuun!

More seriously from another comic I stumbled across:
Sombra: "He tries to eat all magic known to Equestria and he gets a life sentence, but when I try to take over an empire, I get the death sentence?!?" It's really too bad that Tirek doesn't get nuked.

OneMoreDaySK wrote:More seriously from another comic I stumbled across:
Sombra: "He tries to eat all magic known to Equestria and he gets a life sentence, but when I try to take over an empire, I get the death sentence?!?" It's really too bad that Tirek doesn't get nuked.

Could be that Tirek was defeated with the help of the Elements whereas Sombra got nuked by the Crystal Heart. As far we can tell the Elements don't kill. Sombra just was unlucky that they didn't decide to use them. 

So for some odd reason, Tia didn't let the girls bring along the elements, just to force a position where nuking Sombra was the only option? Wow, that's kinda evil.

Sombra was no more killed than he was the first time around- I don't think any baddie has been straight up nuked short of Chrysalis, and she just got a Team Rocket Blasting off Again!
Sombra was put back in whatever weird ethereal prison he broke out of, near as I can tell. Everyone's the Joker in a cardboard prison. Then, if Discord actually all the way changes that makes a pretty good argument for why.

Something I forgot to mention before, was yet more confirmation that Friendship is Magic. I think they already cleared it up before (I think, can't remember) but when the theme of the problem was magic sucking and Twilight was asked if she helped someone with a magic problem I was pretty worried that they were gonna have her Rainbow Eyes thing be literally lift-things-with-your-mind magical. Even more when Plan B was "Give Twilight all the magic!" I was glad to see it was actually a friendship thing with Discord.

swicked wrote:

Meleagridis wrote:I always just assumed that her spontaneous party stuff was magic. Maybe she'd figure it out eventually, but how to you go from pulling party supplies from a pocket dimension in your rear end to actually preparing things?

I think Pinkie works well-enough as an example, but another would be Filthy Rich. He could hardly be less "earth" pony, by the looks of things. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, too. What would really be taken from them?

It's not as prime an example, but Filthy's business sense could be likened to the same sort of power that makes EP farms so successful. He just knows where to find fertile investments instead of soil.
His kid, however, is tougher. I'm straight up reaching now, but it might be that her bullying IS her talent. The ability to find and exploit insecurity and weakness is going to be her trademark in a life destined for aristocracy and intrigue. They'd have less to lose from being less extraordinary examples, yeah, but so does Applejack when compared to Pinkie.
(On a side note, if the above is true then Tiara losing a borderline magical ability to see the flaws and vulnerabilities in others might take away her sense of superiority and a serious attitude problem)

swicked wrote:

Meleagridis wrote:There was also Tartarus. Which... really doesn't seem that secure. No wonder super powered bad guys are such a persistent problem.

Yeah, very confusing. Twilight said that Cerberus guarded the gateway to Tartarus, a place full of evil monsters, but we can plainly see he strictly guards the stairway up the mountain Tirek is locked up in a box upon.

I file this under the same thing as the de-powered hair or anything about Cadance. Simple team fault, either from poor writer-illustrator communication or the inability to be consistent. Which is bad. Viewers shouldn't be pulled out like that, even the ones not supposed to be watching. Mistakes happen, though. Just hope it goes better next time.
Overanalyzing nerd crack explanation for Cadance, though? She only exists to give Twilight stability in the royal quadret, sent off to guard the Empire because it was a good place to put her and it keeps her too busy to wonder why she's there despite being more of a guardian than an embodiment of anything. She deserves to have the 'what am I doing' moment more than Twilight, but giving her time to think about it would freak Twi out even more. Cadance is already a close friend, so having her there and happy helps keep Twi calm.
(Don't believe it, just thought it up)

But we saw his horn blast off in the ensuing explosion? Explain that.

OneMoreDaySK wrote:So for some odd reason, Tia didn't let the girls bring along the elements, just to force a position where nuking Sombra was the only option? Wow, that's kinda evil.

Well, she did assign Twilight a "test" to save the Crystal Empire, guess using the Elements would be cheating and Twilight wouldn't learn anything in the process. Also, not having the Elements didn't in itself put them in a position were they had to kill Sombra, the events just played out that way, unfortunately for him.  

Meleagridis wrote:Sombra was no more killed than he was the first time around- I don't think any baddie has been straight up nuked short of Chrysalis, and she just got a Team Rocket Blasting off Again!
Sombra was put back in whatever weird ethereal prison he broke out of, near as I can tell. Everyone's the Joker in a cardboard prison. Then, if Discord actually all the way changes that makes a pretty good argument for why.

Sombra exploded, I'd say that qualifies ad dying.
Not to mention:
"Sombra, much to his horror, shatters to pieces in a flash of light, along with his dark crystals. On February 22, 2013, Meghan McCarthy referred to him as being "dead now"." - Pony Wiki
"Dead now", eh? We all know how villains just love coming back to life.