My Little Pony

[Rossum]

Well, the one in Dragonshy spoke and I think the one in Owls Well that Ends Well did too. I figure it's a case of older dragons not really needing to speak on a regular basis. Like they've all reached retirement age and just prefer to take long naps or something.

Younger dragons like Spike and the delinquents need intelligence and socializing to succeed and become strong enough to build up their hoard. When they become older, they've probably staked out their own territory and built up a hoard to sleep on for decades at a time.

Once they reach full size they are basically big enough to defend what they have and have the resources so that they don't need to go out dealing with other dragons. In fact, dealing with others could be more hassle than it's worth since others might want to take their stuff.

Kind of like how millionaires want to maintain the status que that keeps them rich while less wealthy individuals could want changes in the system that could benefit them. Young dragons are rambunctious, greedy, and social which encourages them to do stuff that could get them territory and gems. Then when they grow up they stay in their caves, sleep for decades, and basically conserve energy for centuries.

Just be glad that dragons don't become political lobbiests, CEO, or investors. Then Equestria would have hundreds of nigh immortal dustfarts living in caves, throwing money at things to get more jewels, and viciously devouring anypony that complains about the situation.


Dang, now I have the image of some kind of Mr. Burns dragon living in a cave with a computer spending centuries checking his stock portfolio and trolling poniesn on forums. Or pretending to be a teenage filly and luring colts to his secluded cave in Dragon Mountain.

[Crazedwraith]

Nice episode. I was just thinking 'Again Twilight runs away when she's can teleport' and then she... teleported.

So Spike keeps the egg/phoenix as pet? Not say return it to its family. That was a weird touch.

[evilsoup]

Well the family flew away, and I don't think it would be safe for spike et al to return there anyway, due to those dickhead dragons. DO you think that phoenix will turn up later? Or will it be like Tank and Owlowicious? (obviously the second one).

I was waiting for most of the episode for one of the big dragons to tell them to 'cut that shit out kids, you're giving me a headache'. Or for Twilight to slap one of the dragons in the face for disrespecting the GPoP.

Also, hopefully this episode will finally shoot down the rarity/spike ship.

[Crossroads Inc.]

The general thought is that because of the Dragon attack, the parents considered the egg and left. After all the nest was destroyed and for all they knew the egg smashed.

That said, it would be a nifty bit of continuity if Spike latter had to return it to it's parents.

Ok so a little bit more detailed summary...

First off, hurray for more world building!
While we didn't get any names for the regions we say, it was good see more land outside of Equestira.
Also including the Phoenix was a nice surprise, means Philomena wasn't one of a kind, but an ongoing species.

What let me down on the Dragon aspect, was any interaction at all from the adults...
I kept expecting toward the end some elder Dragons coming down with a sort of "Young Man were you off bothering Phoenixs again? You are in SO Much trouble!"
I guess I wanted to see something like that just because, as they are now, Dragons seem to be inherently Jerks with just seems out of place for Equestria in general.

Another unwelcome surprise was the Disrespect of Princess Celestia. It basically means either those Dragons really WERE Jerks, or that Celestia, outside of Equestria, is not really seen a "god" the way she is for the Ponies. One would imagine that no mater how much of an asshole you where, you wouldn't call someone who could imprison you for 1000 years "Namby Pamby"

[evilsoup]

Well it's routine for asshole teenagers to try and disrespect authority. Maybe the adult dragons know better.

And man, those dragons were more than jerks. What, exactly, were they going to do to the baby phoenixes? Eat them D: ?

[lordofchange13]

Perhaps this shows that the writers are leaning towards Celestia being just a stupidly powerful unicorn and not a god.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Perhaps this shows that the writers are leaning towards Celestia being just a stupidly powerful unicorn and not a god.

Which makes sense for a kids show, but lets the fandom down...
I mean really, on a children's show you don't exactly want to stir up parents ire by making the head Pony TOO much like a God and such. Despite the fact that it would make the fandom cream it's pants if they did

As for the Phoenix attack... The more you think about the more disturbing it is..
Most creatures in Equestria seem at least partial sapient.
They defiantly show signs of being self aware, many of them interact with Ponies in way a normal "animal" never could. And almost all seem to have an inherently understand of Pony language (obviously due to magic)

So goading Spike into trying to smash the egg is quite nearly the Equestrian version of attempted infanticide.
Rather creepy really.

[evilsoup]

She raises the sun every morning and raises the moon every night. She's arguably more powerful than some actual mythical pantheons; by any meaningful definition Celestia is a god. Plus we've seen both Rarity and Fluttershy use 'with Celestia as my witness!'

Plus the Smith family were 'pilgrims', and ended up in Canterlot (yeah I know out-of-universe they were referring to the US founders); maybe they were on a pilgrimage to Canterlot to see the God-Princess incarnate and offer their tribute of seeds.

But of course, just because the ponies treat her that way doesn't mean anyone else would. As far as anyone outside of Equestria knows, the sun and moon just work on their own. And again, those asshole infaticidal teenage dragons might just be posturing idiots, perhaps the adult dragons know better WRT Celestia.

[lordofchange13]

I agree with you evilsoup so let me rephrase: Maybe the writers are leaning towards Celestia being a stupidly powerful unicorn as opposed to some sort of creator deity.
Also form what you said my mind keeps creating the concept of Celestia= Anthropomorphic Silver Superman

[tim31]

"I think he's Crackle's cousin."

"Huh. That'd explain it."

[Revy]

I wouldn't go so far as to say Celestia is a deity. The unicorns were making the sun rise back before Equestria had been founded, and the general opinion of them was that they were "A bunch of freaky snobs!". Plus we know Celestia had a mother at some point. And then there's the fact that she just found the Elements of Harmony, so someone else made a set of magic gems more powerful than her, Nightmare Moon and Discord. About the only unique power she seems to have is apparent immortality (as does Luna). Everything else she does can be accomplished by a sufficiently powerful unicorn, and even her longevity might be the work of a spell, potion, or the Princesses golden apple tree.

[Zixinus]

I just realized: did Derpy make an appearance in this episode?

[lordofchange13]

No, Derpy was not in this episode as far as i can tell.

[Irbis]

I sort of expected a plot twist of the young dragons actually needing the phoenix eggs for something; Perhaps the act of eating egg is needed for the dragon to really breathe fire or allows him to grow wings, and they wanted to help Spike by doing that. Cue choice between becoming a true dragon or staying loyal to his pony values. Instead, we got kind of trivial jerks. Le sigh.

Also, why AJ, PP and FS were in that episode at all? You could have cut them all and nothing would have been lost, giving more time for ending; A note of them being too scared/busy would have sufficed. Instead, we go really OoC Fluttershy that selectively dropped half of her character growth (says 'no' but forgot she got over her fear of dragons in Dragonshy) and did bodily harm to Rainbow Dash.

Plus, kinda disliked the whole 'derpy' dragon and in fact most of the new dragon designs. They look like torn from entirely different story than Spike or S1 dragons.

Oh, and it looks like Twilight finally learned how to teleport others, not only herself, even learned how to teleport only others. Nifty.

Which makes sense for a kids show, but lets the fandom down...
I mean really, on a children's show you don't exactly want to stir up parents ire by making the head Pony TOO much like a God and such. Despite the fact that it would make the fandom cream it's pants if they did

Truth be told, I always hated that bit of fanon with passion. The very first minute of very first episode shows Luna and Celestia to be just a strong beings, not gods, yet fandumbs keeps inventing reasons for Celestia to somehow be a God/Empress/Creator/Whatever. Why can't she be just a princess? In fact, actual princely titles, like Her Most Serene Highness, fit Celestia far more than Royal/Empire ones. I just don't get it.

She raises the sun every morning and raises the moon every night. She's arguably more powerful than some actual mythical pantheons; by any meaningful definition Celestia is a god. Plus we've seen both Rarity and Fluttershy use 'with Celestia as my witness!'

But of course, just because the ponies treat her that way doesn't mean anyone else would. As far as anyone outside of Equestria knows, the sun and moon just work on their own. And again, those asshole infaticidal teenage dragons might just be posturing idiots, perhaps the adult dragons know better WRT Celestia.

We know unicorns did that before Celestia. Are they gods, too? We also know a single unicorn can bend the flow of time

Plus, everyone outside of Equestria just might have invested a few skill points in Astronomy and they know how universe actually works, supposed sun/night raising being possibly just a scam ran first by work-abhorring unicorns, then Trollestia, seeing the only time we see her 'raising' the sun it was done in manner easily copyable by any pegasus...

As for the older dragons knowing better, one was willing to ruin a big portion of Equestria for 100 years, while another (rampaging Spike) was able to ruin the shit of a lot of ponies for a pretty long time, neither meeting with any sort of divine retribution. At best, we saw limited commitment of one military squad. So, no, this doesn't hold water, really.

[Revy]

Also, why AJ, PP and FS were in that episode at all? You could have cut them all and nothing would have been lost, giving more time for ending;

I actually miss having more of the mane cast around. I like season 1 episodes more for that reason. I get all the reasons why they do it, but I likethe mane six, and I like seeing them in episodes even if they only have a small part. I mean can you imagine watching TNG where four or five episodes go by without having Riker or Picard in them? Or a bunch of Stargate episodes in a row with no Teal'c or O'Neill? When a show has a main cast of characters that I actually like a lot, then I like to see them in the episodes I watch, even if the episodes are focusing on one particular person or pony.

Oh, and it looks like Twilight finally learned how to teleport others, not only herself, even learned how to teleport only others. Nifty.

Ehh, Twilight has always been able to teleport others. In episode 3 she teleported herself and Spike. In Fall Weather Friends she was able teleport a scroll by itself. More recently she repeatedly teleported Spike (and snagged Pinkie by mistake) in an effort to clean his cheek.

Plus, everyone outside of Equestria just might have invested a few skill points in Astronomy and they know how universe actually works, supposed sun/night raising being possibly just a scam ran first by work-abhorring unicorns, then Trollestia, seeing the only time we see her 'raising' the sun it was done in manner easily copyable by any pegasus...

In the second episode the sun actually fails to rise because of Celestia's absence. Later we see Discord screwing with the night/day cycle after he takes over. It's clearly not a scam. The series creator even confirmed that if Nightmare Moon wasn't stopped, the lack of sunlight would have pretty much ended all life on the planet due to plant life dying out.

As for the older dragons knowing better, one was willing to ruin a big portion of Equestria for 100 years, while another (rampaging Spike) was able to ruin the shit of a lot of ponies for a pretty long time, neither meeting with any sort of divine retribution. At best, we saw limited commitment of one military squad. So, no, this doesn't hold water, really.

In the first instance Celestia specifically asked Twilight to deal with the problem, and thus held off doing anything about it in order to give her student a learning experience. Had Twilight and her friends failed to move the snoring dragon, Celestia might very well have dealt with the issue. In the case of rampaging Spike, the events don't actually last very long. We know Celestia isn't all-knowing - In Lesson Zero she only showed up and dealt with the problem because Spike wrote to her and told her what was happening - in this case there simply may not have been enough time for her to find out before it was dealt with. She is essentially head of state. She could have been in a meeting or at a city on the other side of Equestria, and the situation was over before she even found out. You can't expect her to instantly know everything happening everywhere in Equestria at all times, and then swoop in to save the day. Of course as Lesson Zero shows, if she does find out about a problem and it is urgent enough that it can't wait, she will deal with it.

I think it warrants pointing out as well that despite being greedy, violent and extremely powerful, dragons are not running amok through Equestria, aren't tearing apart Canterlot looking for goodies, and haven't tried to outright take over. Something is obviously stopping them from turning Equestria into their personal stomping grounds, especially given how many of them we see in this recent episode. My guess would be that they know better than to piss off the local pony princess. Except for a bunch of teens, but it seems that teenagers in just about any species like to stick it to the man and bad mouth authority figures.

[SpaceMarine93]

DeviantART artist niban-destikim wonders why THIS didn't happened:



http://niban-destikim.deviantart.com/

[lordofchange13]

Only Trollestia could reduce a dragon to tears.

[SpaceMarine93]

Only Trollestia could reduce a dragon to tears.

No, she exiles them to the Moon after a question relating to bananas. Though considering this offense it's a wonder she hasn't exiled the dragon to their analogue of Pluto.

Chances are, if the ponies of Equestria hear about this they would had either demand the Dragon leadership to hand over the teenage dragon (named Garble, apparently) or launch holy pony fatwas against him, given the fact that he had essentially insulted their absolute monarch and their goddess.

[Revy]

Only Trollestia could reduce a dragon to tears.

"Oh yeah?!"

[lordofchange13]

Only Trollestia could reduce a dragon to tears.

"Oh yeah?!"

Characters Special attacks do not count.

[Wing Commander MAD]

How did I know we were going to see an 80's training montage in this epidsode?

Also, lol at the meathead pony. Apparently, steroid abuse shrinks pegasus wings... I dub thee Meathead.

[lordofchange13]

[lordofchange13]

missed the edit time-This guy is freaking scary!





We can now add Fluttershy to the list of mentally unstable ponys.

[Bright]

We can now add Fluttershy to the list of mentally unstable ponys.

Wasn't this already more than evident?

"YOU'RE GOING TO LOOOVE MEEEE!" doesn't ring any bells?

[lordofchange13]

We can now add Fluttershy to the list of mentally unstable ponys.

Wasn't this already more than evident?

"YOU'RE GOING TO LOOOVE MEEEE!" doesn't ring any bells?

That was more of just over blown frustration then mental instability. Most people who get really angry tend to act like a truly insane person. But her fear of ridicule wasn't heightened by emotion stress so it seems more real to me. Just my opinion though.