Musings on Banishment Spells
So we've seen banishment spells about five or six times in the show now, each time with varying degrees of success.
Obviously the first (and often revisited) instance is Celestia's banishment of Nightmare Moon. This was accomplished with the use of the the Elements of Harmony and sealed her in the Moon for 1000 years. This severed Celestia and Luna's Connection to the Elements and rendered them dormant, the apparent price for using them to banish instead of to heal.
Another banishment spell actually occurred sometime before this, when the Royal Sisters worked together to banish King Sombra to the shadows and the icy wastes of the north. Unfortunately it's unknown if the Elements played any part in this, but it is known that Sombra was able to spirit away the Crystal Empire with him, so it is unknown exactly how effective this spell was.
A more effective banishment spell is demonstrated by Starswirl the Bearded, who was able to open a portal to another dimension briefly to cast the Sirens (who would later become the Dazzlings) out of Equestria. A spell similar to those one was later attempted on the Pony of Shadows, though fortunately the Elements were able to purify Stygian so that he did not share the same fate as the evil shadow.
The most recent example is of course a more focused banishment spell used by Starlight Glimmer to banish Discord from school grounds 'forever'. We received some insight as to why the Wlements turn Discord to stone instead of vanishing him, as it is revealed that such banishment spells may be effective at barring his physical form, but his spirit is still more than capable of wreaking havoc. However, this does establish that there are banishment spells that can bar an entity from a place without necessarily having to seal them away. This could be useful, for instance, in safeguarding a homestead on the frontier or in enforcing a restraining order.
What other examples of banishment spells in the series can you think of?
Do you think banishment is useful as a punishment? Or does it just shunt the problem to another time ot place without actually dealing with it? If you could banish someone like Starlight, would you?
Why do you think banishment spells drain the Elements of Harmony? Does this mean banishment is inherently wrong?
Submitted August 09, 2018 at 11:50AM by TheKnackerman
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/comments/95yp7v/musings_on_banishment_spells/?utm_source=ifttt
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