>>5719
>I think the castle itself was in part just not used much after Season 4 and during its SoL stories in that season it still had an air of mysteriousness applied then only being treated with that true mudaneness after the introduction of the students. Your point still applies of course.
I perfectly knew that I omitted the fact that the show didn´t revisit the Castle until the 8th season (the Tree of Harmony was seen again in Shadow Play though). However, as soon as they decided to continue with it,we saw what happened when the students decided to go there.


>Indeed it doesn't. Those events still happened even if the subtext is changed later.
despite the mundane feeling brought later, the fact that those places have hold prominence over time means that the stories behind them were still relevant. My theory of what lore matters or not depends on the screentime given to that. This means that each time a pillar appears, you will instantly remember their lore because you ask where they came from.

Despite the tree of Harmony becoming a crystallized treehouse and more familiar, you remember inside your head how relevant it is because of its presence in the show, those amounts of lore that runs inside its branches. No matter how much the legend or the mysticism present was in that place, that lore is attached to what it represents and how it marks the next directions for the show. So, it´s more like talking about layers that compose its history. Originally meant as a sacred place for the royal sisters and then, ending up as a huge plot device for other relevant events that surpasses its original intent.

You have posted the Pony of Shadows from Castle-mania and funnily enough, those eyes didn´t mean anything at the time except the spooky feeling a la Scooby Doo. However, the writers went ahead with it and that subtle spookiness became the central point of the latter half of season 7. From a spook ending out of nowhere to the darkness that Sytgian held inside towards the pillars long ago, introducing even a comic arc like Legends of Magic.

That´s a huge stretch and with lots of lore galore because of that single moment.