Oh, Cadence, What Are They To Do With You? · 5:23pm Jun 24th, 2015

Cadence is best Princess.

Cadence is also very frustrating to be a fan of sometimes.

I absolutely loved her appearance in this most recent episode, displaying a great deal of competence and maturity despite being ultimately unable to stop Spike's downward spiral. Honestly, she's half the reason I enjoyed it so much.

BUT.

But the episode also highlighted to me how one of Cadence's strengths is also one of her biggest setbacks. To put it simply, she's a mare who has her shit together. Similarly to Spike, who is great when used as a supporting character but suffers invented flaws when he's put put front-and-center, from what we've seen of Cadence, she's extremely competent to the point where she doesn't even get to be front-and-center. (Also because she's on an even lower tier of importance than Celestia and Luna, who themselves have never had a dedicated episode and have been gradually shifted into the background as the show goes on - their appearances in Episode 100 further cement this depressing fact. But I digress...)

Also similarly to Spike, it doesn't have to be this way. Spike has built-in conflict in his dragonhood and insecurity, the latter of which was briefly touched on in Princess Spike but never really elaborated on. Cadence, admittedly, is a bit tougher to explore, but there's still a lot of material there for the writers to work with: (Nilhistic but realistic prediction: They won't.) What's her backstory? Is the Crystal Heart book canon? How does she feel about the whole Princesshood thing, and how might the Crystal Empire have changed her opinions one way or another? How does she view Changelings?

I think a workable Cadence episode could be done, exploring one of these big subjects while also giving us a better insight into the more mundane aspects of her life. For example, I could see an episode where Celestia tries to reach out the Changelings, but Cadence takes serious issue with this, and ends up learning a lesson along the lines of "don't judge a big group by the actions of a few" or some such. Maybe a bit high-minded for some of the kids, but I think it could be done.

And while we're at it, a Celestia-and-Luna episode would not go amiss, either; the fandom has analyzed the heck out of those two, but it's always nice to see them in canon.

On an unrelated note, I would love it if the 2017 movie had music like this: