CommanderPonyShep Posted June 30, 2014 Report Share Posted June 30, 2014 Back then, I was constantly told that, alongside being flashy, over-the-top, and comparable to Dragon Ball Z minus the slow, repetitive, multiple episode-long pace, that it also had an overriding point. Technically, it was to show that alicorn magic was ineffective against Tirek, who absorbed the entire pony population's magic plus Discord's. Rather, Twilight Sparkled needed her friends to help her defeat Tirek, namely by unlocking the blue box to gain and utilize Rainbow Power. The friendship motif was further reinforced by the five thrones for each of the Mane Five, as well as two more for Twilight and even Spike, inside the Rainbow Palace that would become her new home from now on.But when I saw analysis videos by people such as Dr. Wolf 001 and BronyCurious, they never established that that was what they saw. Dr. Wolf saw the Rainbow Power as product placement, which I'm perfectly aware it was, while BronyCurious said that it bordered on Deus Ex Machina despite its overarching friendship motif. Not only that, but Digibrony didn't see any friendship motif in the Rainbow Palace himself, because what he saw, instead, was an empty, hollow dungeon that had none of the comforts and warmth of Twilight's old library. I know you were perfectly aware, and Hell, even Timsplosion -- who did a comic about Sibsy adding "Dragon Ball badassery" before the Rainbow Power scene -- was aware of that, too. But you don't seem to care about overarching theme so much as superficial elements.The reason I bring this up is because I'm trying to get my mindset off of the idea that any story with an ensemble cast is the same thing as crossovers like Justice League and Avengers, and therefore the main-protagonist and supporting cast must be equal in nearly every way, at least in-terms of character-arcs and storyline significance. I'm perfectly aware that Twilight has been and will always be the main-protagonist, while her friends simply help her like any supporting cast would. But at the same time, I'm constantly fighting with myself over the idea that main-protagonist and supporting cast must be equal with each other, just because crossover teams like the Justice League and the Avengers were equals.I mean, even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had a designated main-protagonist, and that was the leader of the team, Leonardo! The rest were two sidekicks, including machinist Donatello and slacker Michelangelo, and a disgruntled anti-hero, Raphael. And as a result, it would usually be Leonardo who'd fight the main-villain, like Shredder, while his four brothers handled the henchmen. That goes for Optimus Prime and the Autobots, or Duke and the G.I. Joe team, or the average Red Ranger and his fellow Power Rangers, or Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirate crew, etc. In each of those examples, the whole team was designated into main-protagonist/leader, and supporting-cast, so of course the former would fight the main-villain, while the latter handled the henchmen!And, it's because of that fight between Twilight and Tirek did it further reinforce the notion that MLP is not a crossover in the same vein as Justice League and Avengers, and therefore the main-protagonist has to be given special treatment compared to his or her supporting cast, whose only job is to help the protagonist, if not lack character arcs of their very own. And, unfortunately, I've been treating it like the Justice League and Avengers, even though I'm supposed to treat this more as a self-contained universe, like TMNT, Transformers, G.I. Joe, Power Rangers, and One Piece, which do designate their heroes into main-protagonist and supporting cast. I'm constantly thinking that Twilight must be equal with her friends in nearly every way, despite the fight scene, even though that's never going to happen. And I need to stop that line of thinking if I ever have any chance of finding some good in the Season Four finale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Posted June 30, 2014 Report Share Posted June 30, 2014 Oh, for the love of... Shep, just stop, please... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CommanderPonyShep Posted June 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2014 Oh, for the love of... Shep, just stop, please...Hey, at least I'm not being as annoying as I used to. I'm actually trying to fight off that perception that DBZ is like Justice League when it isn't, because DBZ is a self-contained universe, while Justice League is a crossover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosewind Posted June 30, 2014 Report Share Posted June 30, 2014 Since you already have a thread talking about this same episode, the "overarching theme" does not need a new thread. Please take this discussion to your original thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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