>>222319>Who's Grogar again?If you were paying attention to any of the threads - nevermind the episodes themselves - you’d know that he was introduced as the main villain of this season
>Is it some earlier-gen characterYes. Smart cookie. He is from Generation 1.
>they're bringing back for muh nostalgiaSighNo. First off, that doesn’t make any sense because unlike people who watch Star Wars or Star Trek, virtually no one in the target audience (or actual audience) has watched the 1980s series and would be Nostalgic about it, because virtually no one who watches the show is in their 40s. This show targets children under the age of 10, who can be 100% expected to have never watched the older series, and the “briny” audience is mostly in its 20s.
Second, this is not bringing back a character for “muh nostalgia” because each my little pony series exists in a separate continuity, and so it’s not really “the same character” in the way that bringing Lando back in Star Wars episode IX is bringing back an old character for “muh nostalgia”
So what the hell is wrong with the show acknowledging that it is not the first television series of my little pony? It’s nice to have nods to the mythology. In any event, the writers aren’t really tied to however the character was portrayed in the older series, and continuity nods don’t hurt anything. Look at how The Smooze is depicted in “make new friends but keep Discord,” versus Generation 1.
>. I miss when the villains were school bullies, giant dragons existing in the wrong places, and overhyped shit partiesSighEvery single season has had a fight against strong, world threatening villains, as either an opening two-parter, a closing two-parter, or both. Some have had the villains as an arc. Your reference to season 1 episodes completely overlooks the fact that the very first two episodes of the series, season 1 episodes 1 and 2, feature - you guessed it! - an ancient evil that the heroes defeated through friendship lasers. And Nightmare Moon is also in part a mythology nod. Her intent, to bring about eternal night, is a reference to Tirek, the villain of the first ever my little pony special, “Rescue at Midnight Castle.” Hell, her line “the night, shall last, forever!” is a nod to Tirek’s line “now begins the night that never ends!”
Every season had epic villains at the beginning and or end, and mundane problems in most episodes in the middle. This season is not at all different. If you paid attention to other new episode threads, you’d see that this season has had bonding with someone else’s daughter, dealing with a burned down tree, and a high school dance as forming the conflicts in various episodes. Those are mundane. The only thing different this season is that the villains of the season finale have an arc, from the first episodes to the last, with some episodes about them in between.
>Let's not destroy the earth, since my new friends live here"? That could be interesting. But let me guess, will the bad guy be all "Ew, friendship!" and flinch away from the gay?Nigel, please. We’re on episode 8 of 26. This is obviously only the end of Act 1. Making this episode into what you demand of it would be the writing equivalent of premature ejaculation. It’s far too early for a complete resolution to the villain characters. Doing that this episode would be like the Avengers ending the moment Loki is captured the first time, or Halo CE ending suddenly at the end of Silent Cartographer with the button you press blowing up the whole ring.
And further, this resolution is basically how “The Cutie Re-Mark” ended, with Starlight Glimmer realizing her attempts to seek revenge on Twilight invariably caused greater harm.
>A whole episode dedicated to a mini-redemption arc featuring a squad of villains who really would make good heroes/side characters.That’s what “To Where and Back Again” was, featuring Thorax, Trixie, Discord, and Starlight Glimmer in the heroic roll, which was set up with multiple episodes for those characters prior to it.