Disregarding all edginess and ridiculous fanfics, what could the show actually do to advance the more negative sides of Equestrian lore? We know they have Tartarus, which seems to be used as a garage disposal for evil, but seeing how all of that came to be would be interesting, since Discord obviously had no part of it.
>>27373617
Absolutely, and in fact I think it would do the show a world of good. FiM's always had this weird uncertainty where pastel horseland lived side-by-side with strikingly grimdark bits.
> Ponyville is this happy little town filled with cute places like "sugarcube corner"... that happens to be built right next to a hostile forest filled with nightmareish creatures that periodically emerge to cause destruction.
> The local variant of Christmas celebrates the genocide of a race of equally genocidal ice spirits that could only survive by inciting hatred.
> The power of TRUE LOVE is used to repel a swarm of the closest thing to succubi we'll ever see in a kid's show.
> Ponies wield all kinds of fantastic powers they use to beautify their world... and also use to repeatedly mind-control, mind-rape, and otherwise psychologically violate others.
> A trio of kids celebrating not-Valentine's whipped up possibly the world's most dangerous date-rape drug, strong enough to take down a civilization.
It's honestly quite a bit of a tease - we rarely get to see the darker side of things unless they get really, really bad (and even then, it's only briefly). There are all these hints that Equestria's got a rather dark side lurking just out of sight, yet the show pointedly refuses to acknowledge it but for a handful of brief moments that are rarely (if ever) mentioned again.
>>27373617
If you want adult themes then why not watch an adult show?
>>27373906
I'm not saying I want adult themes, but the writers have shown multiple times that they have the gall to show staple locations being destroyed, including the entirety of Equestria. Would it kill them to show the initial dark side of things in that fashion, and make the results of it into an arc, rather than a 5 minute scene at the end of a season?
>>27373787
The mind control stuff is what really gets me.
They just treat each other like objects all the fucking time, but only when it comes to magic.
>>27373906
No other show has more than one main horse character.
>>27373906
Because those shows don't have ponies in them.
>>27373617
I prefer the show being sillier, I mean what horribly negative elements are there in the Mushroom Kingdom?
>>27374016
I dunno, though Bowser's triggered the destruction of the universe twice now. You figure it out.
We definitely saw the possible result of a grave mistake in today's episode, with the destruction of a small town. I had to go out on a feasible limb, and say that some ponies definitely died; there were ghostly figures shown. Luna's bit really did speak to me. A majority of A Christmas Carol parodies had always shown the death of Scrooge, but never have it extended to the death of many.
>>27374016
The river Twygz
>>27373617
Has it ever been established how Equestria came to be? Before Celestia and Luna ruled their kingdom?
>>27374241
The tribes joined together, then Celestia and Luna showed up from god knows where
>>27374241
I assumed that it was a wasteland.
>>27374251
They came from what they described as "the alicorns," but it's not clear if they were living in Equestria or what was.
>>27374125
This.
And a sort of counter/addition to what >>27373787 saidnice numbers btwCome to think of it, Pony Holidays are a lot more serious than their human counterparts.
Hearths Warming Eve celebrates not only the founding of their nation, but the conquering of creatures that were actively killing off everyone, and the friendship formed allowed them to rebuild civilization from practically the ground up. And the traditions brought and supposedly power the force that keeps those creatures at bay.
Nightmare Night celebrates the literal defeat of Nightmare Moon, and as stated, the tradition is to hide yourself in costumes and gather offerings via candy to prevent her from ever returning.
Even the Summer Sun Celebration is to commemorate the day Celestia took the burden of raising the Sun from the Unicorns... Who according to the books, weren't quite up to the task. Just the power required to raise and lower the sun one day would drain the magic of 6 unicorns *permanently*.Or just one Starswirl.Though Celestia restored their magic soon after her ascension, because for some reason moving the sun makes her stronger.
Makes it not that surprising they fervently follow their traditions. They're serious and well known parts of their history that they dare not forget, lest ponies like Snowfall Frost would allow the Windegoes to return, bringing about the destruction of Equestria as they knew it.
>>27374259
Shit, imagine if there were episodes that went in depth on what you said. Not turned up to 11 in the crazy factor, bet still just showed the more grueling parts of equestria...
Hearth's Warming Eve is a pretty dark holiday considering that you basically HAVE to have it or everyone is fucked.
>>27374259
My headcanon is that the groups of ponies led by Hurricane, Puddinghead, and Platinum were all who was still alive when they were forced out of their kingdoms.
So where do you think the Wendigo came from? I'd like to imagine that they're ghosts of sirens.
>>27374411
At the very least they have to be related.
Both feed on hatred and aggression for power, and they look strikingly similar in terms of body shape.
Though hypnotizing ponies to war against each other is a lot less destructive than creating a near global scale magic nuclear winter.
>>27374411
Kinda silly, but I think they're manifestations of extremely strong emotions that are prevalent in the world at the time. Basically, malevolent egregores. Or something.
>>27374357
HEADCANON ACCEPTED
>>27373617
>what could the show actually do to advance the more negative sides of Equestrian lore?
Leave it to the imagination of the viewers. Really, that's it. If you leave some things open-ended, and up to the imagination, then the viewer can fill in the darker stuff with whatever they want, whether or not it fits in with the show.
Also, acknowledging death in a serious manner. No one has to die, but recognizing that we're never going to see someone who means a lot to a pony we already know because they're gone forever, and not on some vacation, that would give the show some weight. But I don't think they'll touch on that, seeing as how Tank hibernating was supposed to be about him dying.
A bump for later.
I want to see what the ponies were like before the wendigos and founding of Equestria.
Seeing as they were divided by race and all, and were all too eager to wage war with each other, some serious shit must have happened a long time ago.
What does anyone think about the alternate universes present in the season 5 finale? Did carry any maningful tones? Did they succeed? I like to think that they did. A shame that we won't visit them again.We can hold for the comics, right?
>>27376192
I mean... they were cool and all, but they didn't really contribute anything to the episode (which with a running time as short as they have, is an important consideration).
I also get mildly annoyed at being teased like that. Since they're all invalid alternate universes anyhow, all they seem to have done is spawned a fuckton of autistic power level arguments.
>>27374257
My headcanon is that they came from a land outside Equestria and are the equine equivalent of elves as portrayed in J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium who were not native to Middle Earth but rather came from another land known as Aman aka The Undying Lands.
>>27374487
It makes a lot of sense actually, Luna did create a magical being out of her guilt. It seems the field of magic in FiM can create demon/eldtrich being out of strong emotion.
>>27374139
Lel underrated post
>>27374411
>So where do you think the Wendigo came from?
>The Tribes have been at each other's for who knows how long
>The Wendigos appear during Starswirl's time
>Clover the Clever, Starswirl's apprentice, was the one to activate the fires of friendship
What if Starswirl created the Wendigos to bring the tribes together?
>>27377944
>Starswirl is Ozymandias.
He probably did it 35 minutes ago, too.
