Talk:To Where and Back Again - Part 2/@comment-10390252-20161007084634

That was an excellent ending! It felt organic and a logical progression of the whole Changeling arc (such as it is). That doing the one thing that, instinctively, no Changeling ought to be willing to do - to share love openly and without reservation - should change them forever.

This also feels like a satisfactory ending to Starlight's character arc too. She has 'graduated' in a way, not simply due to her understanding of the Magic of Friendship but also because of the trust she has taught herself in her own decision-making. Who would have guessed that it would be Trixie of all ponies who would be so key to that development?

There are so many questions to answer though. Is this the Changelings original form? If so, how did they become so fallen? I think that Chrysalis knows the answers but I doubt that she'll ever be willing to tell. I was fascinated by the ascended Changelings' appearance, though. The 'dark' Changlings are very ant-like but the ascended ones look more like beetles, with their wing cases and shining iridescent colours. It's symbolic, I think, of their change in nature: the ants are all servants of the hive but beetles are entirely individual in nature.

As for Chrysalis...? Well, she had the one thing that all Changelings desire above all else, to be free of the Hunger, placed before her and she rejected it rather than lose her power over her people. That tells you a lot about her essential nature. You could tell that she desperately wanted that gift that Starlight and Thorax were offering her but that the price to her pride and sense of self-importance was simply too high in the end.

This is not the end of the Changelings' story, I think. This is, I think, the beginning of the Changeling Civil War. As a Queen, Chrysalis can breed up an army in less than a year and I cannot see her tolerating the continued existence of Thorax and his fellow 'abominations'; that is the insect's way of mind.

BenRG's Rating: 8.5/10 - Doesn't entirely redeem the show from The Cutie Re-Mark but it goes a long way.