Absolutely not!
Mate, if I'm gonna be real? The way you've portrayed yourself is as someone trying to get other questers to willingly destroy any chance of an even slightly happy ending, and not even being coy about it. So this statement is kinda unbelievable. It could be completely true, but I just don't see it.
I think that we still have leeway, but it is rapidly shrinking and will be easier if we do not actively risk shrinking it now.
He's, for some reason, entirely convinced himself that Harmony is actually totally the Super Evil Big Bad who deliberately wants to lure the Worms in and have them destroy the world. Despite it making no sense.
So do most people think it's that Velvet is too optimistic about the outcomes if we bring Twilight back?
…that would be nice. But the QM has given no indication that will happen. The QM is (usually) very "the option does what it says", so I feel like there would've been a note at the end of the last update noting the change in status after we talked to human Twilight twice.
They seemed rather marginal (probability-wise) to me, but what do I know? If we cared enough to have spared a follower action, we could have had Rarity or Fluttershy actually check on Twilight so we can confirm any assumptions we are making that she is improving (we still can, actually) and that she isn't still a shut-in. (Remember how she "received" the wedding invitation.) Sidenote @OurLadyOfWires it might be nice to explicitly ask Cadance about how Twilight is doing when we have the opportunity, given the players' and Velvet's interest in her. I know we got a brief note in Cadance's dream that she failed to "save Twilight", but Velvet doesn't know that.
I kind of assume this means her therapy/love magic failed, but I guess you could take it to mean her cult kidnapping—not sure if you intended that ambiguity or want to clarify that as well?
You misunderstand, a bit. The thing in contention is not that Harmony's light attracts Worms. We know it does, because it's the brightest thing in Nowhere, and finding out how to get around that seems to be the premise of the Harmony victory path. The thing that Shaper believes is that it is doing it on purpose with the express intent of destroying the world, and therefore anything Harmonious = Evil and Bad.
That's disingenuous, Shaper is one of the extremely few here that does not charge our Sons with the sins of the father, so it is not a surprising motivation.
Is it? Is it really? Because unless Shaper's stopped since I put him on Ignore, he consistently advocates for taking Regrettable Actions all the way up to the 6/7 mark, which objectively would make the world a worse place several times over. I don't know about you, but "we saved the world but it's only one step away from being a post-apocalyptic nightmare, and it's directly our fault that it's that way" is not a good or happy ending imo.
that's fair.
We shouldn't assume we can predict what she'll want to do.
A "perfect" ending was never really going to be possible considering that our QM has never shied away from giving us TRUE difficulty and making us pay for our mistakes. Something that in most quests doesn't really happen.
that's a very good way to put it.
Your definition of Love is (at least sometimes) very twisted, considering you often mention "loving" our wolf-children
Case in point.
I have to disagree we have discharged our duty and debt to Twilight.
Admittedly she'd take some effort to be made useful, including for example lessons. But yeah, while I DON'T want to take her she WOULD be useful.
I'm going to argue it was a mix of bad choices and REALLY bad luck.
That's a valid reading. the point is that Axe is also fairly emotional, and for all we know she might not want anything to do with this world ever again for taking her sister from her.
Fresh eyes that truly understand how awful the wolf is will always refuse the Wolf unless it's life or death.
I think you might be overstating the degree of power Velvet would have. Not even the mightiest of Hours was ever TRULY Omnipotent.
that might be worse. What if we can't come back? It's false hope.
And this is why you're just not credible. You argue in bad faith, as if valuing other things beside "fight the worms" automatically means we want the Worms to win.
If anything I'd rather believe that Harmony is attracting them TO KILL THEM rather than doing it maliciously.
The funny thing is they have been commiting their own sins literally since the moment they were born. Considering Evil is, well, Evil and Paranoia actively divides ponies and we can't forget Ash giving nightmares to ponies.
Well, a good while ago he was quite persistent with it, but nowadays it's just a comment whenever something related comes up- or when we annoy him enough to only type a sentence or two, then its wolf time as well.
I repeat what I pointed out at the time, our latest Son is free of malice.
So far, the lore that has been seen comes from Velvet and a dead snake.
No he is not, he is just smarter than the others.
Problem is not that Velvet can't teach her initial steps to go to Mansus herself, it is that cultists usually needed some kind of support structure to pull through. Or dread, fascination and other Mansus dangers would get to them rather soon. Otherwise they would not gather in cults and other organizations.