PoniesPlus

A couple MLP: FiM Season 2 rethinks:

The Return of Harmony:

•Since they were the ones who broke his seal and released him upon Equestria by bickering among themselves, after Discord was re-sealed, it would have been nice to see a little moment where Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, upon seeing the Mane Six, which include Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle’s respective sisters, Applejack and Rarity, and Scootaloo’s hero, Rainbow Dash, reconcile with each other after the way Discord drove them apart, they in turn reconcile with each other and promise never to fight again lest something like this ever happens again. That would make them playing in the next episode properly consistent.

•What would have better motivated Discord to bring chaos to Equestria and turn the only people who could oppose him against each other and potentially end their friendship, by perhaps exposing each pony’s respective flaws to each other, would be that he himself never had any friends because his lack of self-control and a conscience drove everyone away out of fear of him and of the terrible consequences of his powers, so he simply just decided, “Fine! If you won’t give me a chance, let’s see how you all like how I live up to my name!” He may only say friendships like the one the Mane Six have would never work due to the significant flaws they indeed have that would put a damper on an otherwise perfect bond…only because he himself wouldn’t work on his own issues, like using his powers more constructively to prevent the people from fearing him, and so instead he decided to play up his bad reputation since no one shared his idea of fun.

Lesson Zero: Aside from perhaps being a criticism of how meeting a strict formulaic structure for every episode will take a toll on the characters, Spike could have had a stressful reckoning with a paranoid Twilight to get her to listen to reason to the point he would have to be real firm with her. Twilight previously called him out for lying to her and being hostile towards Owliscious, but what if that was her way of convincing him he was being careless and unreasonable? This would be an opportunity for Spike to do the same thing for her. He would have to say more than, “Snap out of it!” It still wouldn’t work, but it would speak to how their relationship is very much like two siblings looking out for each other when one of them acts seriously out of line.