I'll have to watch it again to contrast and compare your opinion before I can give a good assessment for your reaction to the episode in question.

I"m still on a emotional high but the turn around was fast but hey they only had 22 minuttes so youhave to admit thye didn't have time to write out much. I mean it not a fanfic that not under time restraint.  the songs at least sped up the narrativs and the ellection was of course only 5 minutes.  The slver spoon part was very good. still what Silver's talen then..

All I cared about was the line about AJ's parents....oh sure, sure, I absolutely adored the episode. One of my favourites. But damn AJ....    ; - ;

Talking of a guy who just a few months ago defended Princess Spike.

I think the lower level of the conflict worked to the episode's advantage. Sure all these Crusader episodes were leading up to something, but I don't think we were led to reasonably believe this was going to be that one. It's great for this moment to have struck them when they least expected it, and for the conflict not to be contrived into something absolutely huge just because. They didn't intend for this to be that moment, and it turned out to be.

It didn't have to be epic, because it's the Crusaders, doing Crusader things, and finding out they were so good at something they just began to realize they were amazing at. It's fitting an episode that starts so typical and innocuous ends up with such an epic finale. They're not the Mane 6. Let their moment be different.

I think the lower level of the conflict worked to the episode's advantage. Sure all these Crusader episodes were leading up to something, but I don't think we were led to reasonably believe this was going to be that one. It's great for this moment to have struck them when they least expected it, and for the conflict not to be contrived into something absolutely huge just because. They didn't intend for this to be that moment, and it turned out to be.

 

It didn't have to be epic, because it's the Crusaders, doing Crusader things, and finding out they were so good at something they just began to realize they were amazing at. It's fitting an episode that starts so typical and innocuous ends up with such an epic finale. They're not the Mane 6. Let their moment be different.

Honestly, I hardly care about that aspect of the episode. I just thought it was poorly written. Dialogue, as usual, is little more than a plot recap or a way to drive how characters feel into your head. But nobody seems to notice since the animators throw in at least one "meme face" into every conversation. This is not how you make memorable scenes, it's how you get a goldfish's attention.

Talking of a guy who just a few months ago defended Princess Spike.

 

Princess Spike wasn't filled with awful songs or condescending dialogue. At least it was a natural progression for Spike's character. This episode is about as G1 as I've ever seen the show.

I"m still on a emotional high but the turn around was fast but hey they only had 22 minuttes so youhave to admit thye didn't have time to write out much. I mean it not a fanfic that not under time restraint.  the songs at least sped up the narrativs and the ellection was of course only 5 minutes.  The slver spoon part was very good. still what Silver's talen then..

See, I didn't think the songs sped up the narrative at all. They were just restating what had just been conveyed in dialogue immediately beforehand. They're redundant and even worse, they're bad (imo ). I do agree the Silver Spoon part was great, but that was like a fraction of the episode. It's not really that impressive to have a character say exactly what the audience has wanted her to say for 5 season. Not saying it's bad obviously, just way to little to salvage the episode for me.

Princess Spike wasn't filled with awful songs or condescending dialogue. At least it was a natural progression for Spike's character. This episode is about as G1 as I've ever seen the show.

Sure, you can believe that if you want Spencer. I just sit here, and keep having fun.

Sure, you can believe that if you want Spencer. I just sit here, and keep having fun.

Hey, I'm not stoping ya man. Go crazy.

 

1) More telling, not showing. It's really annoying to see how much dialogue (and song lyrics!) are there to simply hammer in the narrative. That first song was essentially recapping what the CMC are as if we're idiots. The opening song of MMC was used to juxtapose the upcoming conflict, whereas this one is the equivalent of a play/game program.

 

Musicals handle showing vs telling in a completely different way.  If you're not extremely familiar with musicals it probably would feel like there's over the top telling, but it's really appropriate for a musical episode.

Thing is, take a famous musical like West Side Story.  In any normal movie if they wanted to tell you that there's two gangs who are rivals, they'd show them have a fight or kill someone or something to make you understand that.  In West Side Story you got a choreographed fight scene with them singing about their gang war in the intro.

Musicals rely heavily on telling to tell the basic plot of a story.  The showing that happens is done through the music... you get the basic plot through the lyrics and understand the emotions and motives of the characters involved through the music and style.

A great example of that sort of showing in this episode is in The Pony I Want to Be.  The song DT sings about her life and the song during the playground building at the end are actually both the same song (you can check the credits, the playground is credited as a reprise).  By changing a couple lyrics and moving it from minor to major, Ingram completely changed the emotions and meanings behind the song to tell a different part of the story, and used the similarities in the two versions of the song to demonstrate the growth DT went through.

Musicals just handle showing and telling differently... Ingram and AKR actually did a phenomenal job in their storytelling in here IMO.

Musicals handle showing vs telling in a completely different way.  If you're not extremely familiar with musicals it probably would feel like there's over the top telling, but it's really appropriate for a musical episode.

 

Thing is, take a famous musical like West Side Story.  In any normal movie if they wanted to tell you that there's two gangs who are rivals, they'd show them have a fight or kill someone or something to make you understand that.  In West Side Story you got a choreographed fight scene with them singing about their gang war in the intro.

 

Musicals rely heavily on telling to tell the basic plot of a story.  The showing that happens is done through the music... you get the basic plot through the lyrics and understand the emotions and motives of the characters involved through the music and style.

 

A great example of that sort of showing in this episode is in The Pony I Want to Be.  The song DT sings about her life and the song during the playground building at the end are actually both the same song (you can check the credits, the playground is credited as a reprise).  By changing a couple lyrics and moving it from minor to major, Ingram completely changed the emotions and meanings behind the song to tell a different part of the story, and used the similarities in the two versions of the song to demonstrate the growth DT went through.

 

Musicals just handle showing and telling differently... Ingram and AKR actually did a phenomenal job in their storytelling in here IMO.

I understand how what you're saying, but some of the songs were redundant imo, since they recapped exactly what had just been said or shown. If a song isn't going to tell me anything new, then it better be a damn good one. And for me, all of the songs were really forgettable and seemed superfluous.

Care to cite specifics, or is this an exercise in generalization from someone who's heart isn't in it anymore? I get that you didn't like it, but this review reads no differently than a political analyst on CNN using buzz words and soundbites instead of examples to validate their point. 

As far as 'tell don't show' ... I have one word for you and other analysts who use that picked up buzz word without doing the actual work of studying narrative development ... Fitzgerald. 

Care to cite specifics, or is this an exercise in generalization from someone who's heart isn't in it anymore? I get that you didn't like it, but this review reads no differently than a political analyst on CNN using buzz words and soundbites instead of examples to validate their point.

 

As far as 'tell don't show' ... I have one word for you and other analysts who use that picked up buzz word without doing the actual work of studying narrative development ... Fitzgerald.

 

Wow Jeric, way to take the high road and slander me for daring to not go into detail in a reaction blog. I did provide examples thank you very much, but if you'd like me to be extra specific here's the actual lyrics from the first song I referred to:

"We've been searchin' for our cutie marks

For a while now

Tryin' to find out how we fit in

So many ways we've tried before

But we keep on tryin' more"

Unless you've never seen the show before, this dialogue is painfully redundant and it doesn't even sound good on top of that.

And believe it or not, I don't parrot "show, don't tell" from other analysts. It's something that a.) I've been taught in school by teachers and college professors and b.) is something that I myself can determine seems artificial and superfluous in most dialogue, especially in this case. It's not a dogmatic commandment and when I've used that I've explained why it's a bad thing (see my original post).

I'm not really sure what you mean by "Fitzgerald" as you didn't bother to cite any examples, so I'll refrain from comment. I'm not some idiot who spouts "show, don't tell" whenever a character begins explaining things, but when they state what we already know in place of real, interesting dialogue, don't expect me to be impressed.

Anyway, I'm not sure why you're attacking me, especially since unlike some political analyst, I'm not pushing an agenda. I'm sharing my thoughts and you're free to disagree with me. Funny how you don't go into the episode thread and chastise other members for saying "OMG best episode ever!!!" who don't give specific examples for why that's the case. This is not an in-depth review or analysis, simply a place to share my general thoughts (hence the title). I'm glad it's generating discussion, but please refrain from attacking me and my motivations when responding to my points in the future. Thanks.

If a song isn't going to tell me anything new, then it better be a damn good one.

First song started off the episode, so that was obviously new information to that episode.

Second song was a musical version of the dialogue of the election... if that scene was gone it'd just cut straight to Pip winning from asking them to help, so that's new information obviously.

Third song explained DT's emotions.  We saw how her mother treated her but had no information about her emotions until the song, so again, new information.

Fourth song detailed the struggle of DT's choice on whether to change.  This is another scene that can't be cut out... getting rid of the song means that we'd have her say she was planning on screwing over Pip and then she'd instantly pop over to the school and do the opposite.  So again, new information in this song.

Fifth song was them building the playground.  Again, getting rid of this would mean the episode would go straight from DT saying her dad would pay to CMC gettinng cutie marks... it was a necessary scene to build the plot.  Again, new information.

Last song was the only one that was even remotely close to a song about what just happened, but again, just cutting off the episode after they got their cutie marks with no celebration or discussion would have made no sense.

Not liking the songs is fine, that's a personal preference.  But don't try and claim that they have no purpose and don't add to the story.