>>10869
>Even if some parts to me feel... hard to explain for whatever reason or another.
With Celestia, eventually some of her decisions would come to be seen as less and less rational inevitably since she was originally written to be mysterious, leaving nothing there to stand up to scrutiny when contradictory or odd things come up later in the show. Frankly, and this suggestion will be harsh and obviously the show could never have done it, but for the sake of the story, Celestia needed to be killed off. Whether before, during or after Twilight ascends doesn't matter so much next to the fact that having her around for the entire rest of the show after that just snowballs into what really becomes the show's cluttering issue: simultaneously trying to move constantly forward, whilst never leaving a single thing behind. More and more new comes into the world of Equestria, but nothing ever dies to make way for it. It makes the change feel strangely unnatural - almost like how it'd be surreal to read Lord of The Rings but discover halfway through it's an alternate universe copy where Gandalf never dies and he's just Gandalf the Grey from the beginning to the end, Balrog or not. Really the story that was growing in these early seasons was too ambitious, in a certain sense - I don't think it could ever have grown to it's full potential due to the company that owns it and being a children's property. Because regardless of my specific point here or the outer trappings of the show, at it's core it is a Fantasy Epic, and you have to neuter an epic when it's for a children, sadly.
In fairness to Hasbro, they did do something similar to what I'm suggesting with the 1986 Transformers movie, and it produced what is, for me, one of the greatest things ever. But sadly, the backlash to that "taught" Hasbro their "lesson", a lesson they ideally would never have learned.
>>10913
>Might be the best episode of the season.
Right on, brother. I think we're on the same page with this one.
>why did it stick out to me so much more this time?!
How long after the pilot did this come out back in the day? Because I feel like Twilight's role in the story is very close to the one she has in the pilot, and so it complements that very well indeed.
>This is one of the things that makes the show feel alive and complete. The world has its own set of rules and logic that is trying to follow.
I think MLP as a franchise succeeded in having a consistent throughline of a certain philosophy of Harmony which informs not just the lessons and worldbuilding, but the characters and direction of the show. I was questioning recently why I like EqG so much specifically as a PART of MLP when it's in many ways so disconnected, and I think perhaps it's that it draws from this exact same slightly vague notion of Harmony. Whatever it is, it's exemplified by Winter Wrap Up, both the episode and the tradition.