This is a psychological and sociological breakdown of Tempest Shadow's character in the My Little Pony 2017 movie, addressing some criticisms I see as misguided or false.
As if you thought I couldn't sink lower.
The next we see Tempest, she's trapped behind rubble, separated from Twilight. But the next piece comes with the next next time, after Twilight along with the Storm King falls into the vortex of air. We see it on her face: utter disbelief. She just got saved, physically by Twilight, then by her friends, but before that she was saved mentally by Twilight, the only person, probably for the remainder of her life after the first incident, to ever call her a friend.
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But Twilight lives, and the main part is when all her friends crown around her, because in the back we see Tempest, walking up the rubble, but then, after seeing Twilight surrounded by everyone, her smile disappears as she gets ready to walk away.
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This is someone who has one a lot of bad things, and seeing everyone she'd put through so much finally winning, she might not have felt like she was worthy of being Twilight's friend, or even showing her face around her friends at all.
But before she can walk away forever, the Storm King returns, climbing over the railing, armed with a rock ball thing Tempest took out the princesses with. Then, something else great happens, Tempest does what a true friend would do, showing the good side of her Twilight knew was there. Not even giving it a second thought, she jumped over everyone and took the hit, functionally giving her life to both save her new friend and stop the Storm King once and for all.
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But thankfully, Twilight now has the staff, Tempest is saved. And everyone stands around, wondering their next move.
Now the next thing that happens is one of the biggest things for me, and something that I think finishes off her arc in a fantastic way. Because, she decides to give the magic back, but it isn't just that, it's the way it's done: No look towards her horn before making the decision, no talk about it. Because in this moment, she forgot about it. In this one moment, she forgets about her past, she forgets about her troubles, her pain, and she thinks about others. She shows the best side of herself, no longer obsessing about her horn or feeling incomplete. And she fixes everything, giving the stolen magic back without a passing glance at what has been on her mind every moment, motivating her since she was a child.
