YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S6 E26 "To Where and Back Again – Part 2"

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Was Chrysalis straight-up lying about changeling's needing to steal love for the sake of her own power? Or did she honestly not know any better and her Control Freak and Revenge Before Reason tendencies prevented her from accepting otherwise? Was her repose before her Redemption Rejection faking it to spite Starlight or sincerely considering it before her vengefulness overcame her.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Despite taking out everypony except Starlight, Chrysalis is defeated with as much effort as the giant timberwolf.
• Ass Pull: Some saw Chrysalis's Power Nullifier throne appearing for the first time in this two-parter convenient, as it blocks everything but changeling magic and is strong enough to even affect Discord. Others saw it as necessary because otherwise there would be no story if Discord could simply solve everything in an instant.
• Broken Base:
  • The changeling's new forms and being cured of their Horror Hunger. Some like it as appropriately symbolizing them becoming whole and overcoming their dark past, consistent with fan-speculation about their possible redemption, and opening up creative potential for the race. Others dislike them as garish, removing what made them well received, and carries undesirable, Aesop-breaking, implications by portraying what made their race unique as things they were better off being cured of.
  • The conclusion of Starlight Glimmer's redemption. Some felt it was sufficient to overcome her past misdeeds, flaws, and address her criticisms. Other felt it relied too much on contrivance to hand Starlight a redemption she didn't earn. Still others liked it but felt it was held back by her lackluster redemption arc building up to it.
• Contested Sequel: To "Twilight's Kingdom" and "The Cutie Re-Mark". After two action-packed finales, some felt the enforced lack of similar action made for a unique, interesting conflict while others felt it just made it boring in comparison. There's also a lot of divisive plot points and debate over how the changes to the Status Quo measure up to the major changes fan have come to expect from finales.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • Countless questions abound in regards to the Changeling Kingdom now that the ousting of Chrysalis has started a new age of freedom. What will the fashion, cuisine, recreation, and architecture aspects of its new culture look like?
  • How will Chrysalis deal with the sudden loss of her kingdom and status? And seeing how there's a possibility that there's still a few of the old changelings around, how will Chrysalis rebuild her hive and exact her revenge on Starlight?
  • Now that Thorax has to rule the Changeling Kingdom, there are some questions regarding his brief stay in the Crystal Empire. How much of a fulfilling experience was it for him to learn about friendship and receive love from Cadance's family and the Crystal Ponies? How many more friends did he make there? Will he ever come back to visit them again?
• Fan Nickname:
  • On Derpibooru, pictures and screenshots with the reformed changelings have the new tag of "changedling".
  • "Moose Beetle" is one of the new names given to King Thorax for his mandible antlers which many are agreeing is a bit excessive for his new design. "Stag Beetle Horse" is another name as he looks like a deer and a stag beetle which is actually very fitting as the name Stag Beetle was derived from the large mandibles of the male beetle which resembles the antlers of a stag (male deer).
  • Fans have taken to calling Starlight's Team "The Suicide Squad" since they're not exactly hero material and are, more or less by Equestrian standards of social image, ex-criminals.
• Fanon: There are a few fans who teasingly suggest that the Trixie whom Discord pulled out of Trixie's hat is actually the one from the Equestria Girls universe pony-fied.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: The rough animatic was seen as superior to the final product. Highlight included Discord's drawing off the changelings coming of as a Heroic Sacrifice, Trixie being more badass fixing the Plot Hole of why the changelings didn't pursue the others, and mitigating the complaints of changelings Heel–Race Turn by Thorax's transformation being into a generic reformed changeling design rather than his extra-gaudy "Moose Beetle" design and that a completely ordinary changeling was capable of this being more impactful.
• Moral Event Horizon: Queen Chrysalis was shockingly evil upon her debut prior, but crosses to irredeemably when she attacked Starlight Glimmer and attempted to drain Thorax's love when they challenged her rule by the latter having discovered a cure to their Horror Hunger, invalidating her prior mitigating motivation of feeding her subjects. This, followed with her refusing the offer of redemption for the good of her subjects, established her as a pure tyrant irredeemable even by what had become a notoriously forgiving series.
• Narm:
  • The changelings' new, Evolution Power-Up forms to some fans, who feel they are a bit too over-the-top.
  • Chrysalis's line, "Just as soon as I drain every last ounce of love," and Thorax's "I can feel the love inside me slipping away!" sound rather silly with the word "love" simply being used in such a grim context. This sentiment is reflected in the Bronies React episode covering this finale.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Starlight Glimmer further redeemed herself to many, since having her magic nullified (which also somewhat addressed critiques of Starlight's magic being inexplicably strong) forced her to show off how far she improved as a character to save the day. She also got very entertaining interactions with three other reformed villains.
• Squick: When Chrysalis first appears, she emerges from behind cocoons like a spider and twists her head around like she has no bones in her body, complete with the sickening sound of joints cracking.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: There's a part of the fandom that are unhappy with the new changeling designs, preferring the old and darker look.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • A number of fans would have liked to see how the other characters were captured by the changelings. Explaining how the changelings managed to topple every powerful being in Equestria offscreen would be interesting to see, and it would help clear out the plot.
  • In addition to Discord, giving other characters who have personal ties to the captured ponies a chance to return and join Starlight's group, such as Gilda, Maud Pie, and Ember.
  • With a "They Missed a Chance to Make a Perfectly Good Joke" during the episode, while Trixie and Chrysalis are both voiced by Kathleen Barr, did anyone else wanted Trixie and Chrysalis commenting on each other's voices?
  • Keeping the changelings' ugly cute looks after their redemption would have made for a more powerful message against judging books by their cover, as well as taken up Mystique's statement from X2: X-Men United that just because you can change your shape to conform to expectations doesn't mean that you should have to.

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