Thrond

Zephyr seemed to mostly believe in his own bluster because of how he didn't have to face too much hardship, while Dash at times comes across like she's trying to convince herself, as if her insecurity will go away and nobody will think badly of her if she just makes herself sound great.

They wouldn't dominate every Twilight episode. I don't know where you're getting that from. They don't cram Discord into every Fluttershy episode, they don't bring Gilda back in every new Rainbow Dash episode, and they're not putting Trixie in every Starlight episode. The fact is, Twilight inadvertently hurt Moondancer and had to make it up to her. For her to just forget about all of that and not see her or Minuette at all would be completely out of character.

So... you want her to appear, like, once more? That seems inevitable. We didn't get any Gilda last season either, and we get Discord mainly because he hangs around Ponyville.

I don't know how this misunderstanding started, but I wasn't trying to say adult content or ideas should be in the show. People are acting like im advocating for 'rainbow factory' to be part of canon. I do think they can at least go as far as they have in the past, which was the battle with turok. That is far enough. They could stray over to the edge of that boundary more in plotting, and it would make the show interesting if they did.

 

If you have 3 different blocks, you can arrange them in 6 different ways. If you have 5 different blocks, you can arrange them in 120 different ways. It's the same way with plot elements. Just straying a little towards the boundary gives them so much more combinations for plotting.

I'm not sure what you're asking for. When I think of things Steven Universe does better than MLP, it mostly comes down to 1. adult themes, 2. serialized plot arcs, and 3. queer representation. All of these are things which MLP seems pretty likely to never do: 1 is something it probably does as much as it should, 2 isn't allowed by the channel, and 3 would be nice but is too risky for a big children's toy brand. What else are you asking for?

 

And the battle with Tirek strikes me as the very opposite of thought provoking; it's a big dumb laser show in an otherwise very thoughtful episode. I mean, it works, but I increasingly fail to understand why peopl act like that battle is such a big deal.

Imagining right now how they'd tweet.

 

AJ: unpunctuated, all-lowercase, often brief.

RD/PP: ungrammatical stream-of-consciousness.

FS: Proper grammar, often brief.

RY: Proper grammar, some long words.

TS: Long, verbose posts,sprawling tweet chains.

 

I was thinking more about this, and I didn't really go far enough in my last post about why I find this view so objectionable, because on the surface it doesn't seem that bad. The reality is, the show could lower its quality quite a bit and still be appealing to children. It doesn't need super high quality songs and music, good writing, or innovative plots. It just needs to be average.

 

The question for us isn't whether or not it's good enough for children, it's whether or not it's good enough to support a fandom. If children are happy, and everyone else leaves, then I personally would consider the show dead. For it to justify us going to conventions and meetups and stuff, and defy social norms in liking it, it has to be of better quality than 'just another childrens show'. And, as someone who wants to go to conventions and associating with other diehard fans, I hope it maintains the level of quality to justify doing so. THATS why I want the show to not be the best it can be.

 

These clauses aren't mutually exclusive. The show can be appealing to us while still being appealing to children. The show shouldn't just throw children under busses in favor of bronies. But it should not be limited either. 'we can't do that! this is a childrens show', is an arguement I hope was used very sparingly in production. Because traditional ideals of what a childrens show should be are already very restrictive in and of themselves, and they shouldn't be.

 

in the level of writing, in the level of eloquence, and for the level of music, it clearly exceeds what it needs to be to be appealing to children. That goes without saying. But if this is all one cares about, there is no need to really care about quality at all, let alone think about improving.

 

TLDR; yes, children are a demographic the show is targetting, but pleasing this demographic isnt the only thing that matters.

Children deserve higher quality media, and they deserve media which causes them to think about the world differently, and yes, it's true that pleasing the most easily pleased demographic shouldn't be the backbone of a show, but this show isn't going to break free of its limitations - certainly not under Hasbro's eye.

 

And yes, I get that you are saying all of this because you care about the show, but you need to appreciate its restrictions more. It's unlikely to dig into thematically deeper and darker territory, and there's a good argument that it shouldn't.

 

Mostly, I feel that MLP trying to be more ambitious would only call attention to its restrictions, most notably the time restriction. That's how I feel about a lot of season 5, after all, and so I think all this show needs is to further improve its quality control comedy-wise.

 

So you don't think it can compete with steven universe then, since the other show is allowed to do more things? This is just a status quo arguement. MLP obviously shouldn't be super violent, but theres no reason they have to market it exclusively towards kids, when they have another demographic and its airing on the discovery channel. They can do the same things steven universe can... In other ways. They shouldn't add a fat kid with a gem, but they can do it in other ways.

 

 

Its really annoying to see this being espoused here "Its only a show for children", i am an open brony and get that literally everywhere, and its just not true. Some of the people watching the show are children, but it is an all ages show, not only a childrens show. Some true childrens shows try to co-opt the all ages tagline for themselves, and people may get confused, but there is a difference between a children's show and an all ages show.

 

And the writers are already taking this into account, to some extent, but they need to do it more. Season 6 had refrences to a major horror film, an indiana jones type episode, I'm not sure what else. By your arguement you want less of this type of thing, and more of genericness like the applebloom gryphon cutie mark episode. Your view is an existential threat to the show as we know it, in that if it ever pervades in the writers and producers of the show, it will regress back to the way it was in season 1.

1: Well, as you said, S6 already has a lot of bold stuff, like "The Times They Are a Changeling." Most of the flattest episodes last season seem to have turned out that way due to the writers spending more time on other episodes.

 

2. The griffon cutie mark episode was beautiful and adorable and powerful and how dare you!!!

 

3. The problem with MLP is that it's restricted to 22 minutes and can't stretch stories much further than that. Discovery Family wants to rerun episodes in any order, so there has to be exposition and there can't be any major story arcs, and combined with the show's target audience preventing them from going too deep into darker subject matter or, y'know, same-sex couples, it's hard to do a more complex and nuanced story justice.

In late season 5 and early season 4 it was starting to seem to me like Twilight places way too much pressure on herself as a princess, so I'd like to see that addressed, but that could just be my headcanon.

When love and friendship is above all else the strongest magical source in this series yeah I would say his own love is his own power.

It doesn't exactly seem he can channel it in the same way Chrysalis can; even Twilight rarely actively uses friendship magic, so these particular sources clearly arise spontaneously, and it seems to me that it takes multiple ponies to use such relationship magic. So, no, I don't think his love is his magical power, and if sent into the field, I think he would be unable to tap into it for anything other than motivation,

They should be. If Twilight can get all torn up by guilt over ditching them to leave for Ponyville, she needs to make them a higher priority in life. Not every friend can be your "best friend", but that doesn't make them unimportant.

Again I have issues with how the episode presented that, but really it seemed to me that Twilight was merely concerned that she was rude and unceremonious in her departure; it's feasible that she keeps in touch sometimes via mail, but again, they're simply not the first friends who come to mind, and there's no reason for them to visit each other all the time. Moreover, for them to be recurring, they'd probably either need to dominate Twilight episodes or Twilight episodes would need to become more frequent, which... no thank you.

Shining Armour's love is not equivalent to his magical power. If we compare solely based on love power, it's easy to assume that Celestia's become too guarded to love, and so overall prefers to avoid it, making hermuch weaker. Magically, though? Celestia simply has had more time to hone her skills; Shining Armour would presumably stand less of a chance against an equally juiced up Chrysalis.

 

Also, he didn't fight other threats to Equestria for the same reason that Celestia didn't intervene, which is because... uh... Celestia told him not to? That comes back to the oldest of questions in this show, which is not what you're talking about, really.

The general implication seems to be that they're a sort of military unit which is known for performing in air shows, and episodes such as "Newbie Dash" revolve around them paralleling military culture. To be honest, I kinda think that aspect weakens Rainbow's character arc, as she only ever talks about flying and never about military action, and I really have to wonder if the prestige of the Wonderbolts would be prefereable to the sponsorship money and lack of required military service which comes with a private group, which surely there are at least a few of. Would all the best flyers really default to the Wonderbolts?

 

I know the show probably wouldn't discuss sponsorship, but the militaristic element of the Wonderbolts always just seems beside the point of Dash's character arc. Again, she never talks about military duty; that's blatantly not important to her. It's easier to accept now that she's saved Equestria countless times, but I'm not sure I'll ever like it, even if it is a big part of why I enjoy "Newbie Dash" so much.

I guess I would prefer if Chrysalis weren't reformed. I wouldn't mind so much, but Chrysalis just works too well as a conceited foil for the protagonists and their friendship, and it comes at the risk of damaging my headcanons. Definitely don't go down the "she's got good intentions and is not truly evil" route; she's an arrogant, hotheaded warmonger who would rather starve her subjects under her own rule than try a suggestion from someone else.

The "Steven universe" tag made me think your suggestion was going to be "A CANON GAY COUPLE!"

I mean... such a claim wouldn't be wrong.

When would this happen? When would a pony who can't fly apply for the Wonderbolts, knowing they can't fly? Why would this happen? I don't see a good answer to any of these questions.

 

If an earth pony REALLY wanted to join the Wonderbolts, they'd need a damn good flying device, and even then I feel there's more likely to be separate organizations for pilots of flying machines.

 

I also think that an earth pony would probably construct the flying device *before* applying, which of course changes the scenario significantly from what you're thinking of.

I might be biased, given that I'm not especially fond of either character, but I don't think this show really needs more recurring characters. Plus I sorta feel like Moondancer and Minuette are most likely spending the bulk of their time with their lives in Canterlot, and thus probably aren't gonna be visiting Ponyville all the time. As for why Twilight doesn't visit... well, I just don't see what other stories there are to be told with them, and in spite of everything, I don't think Twilight, Minuette, and Moondancer are all that close to each other.

I'm sure it'll inspire an episode, a two parter at most, but I doubt it'll change the whole show to a more action oriented show 

Yeah, maybe it'll inspire an episode or two (at most), but I don't think it'll cause a major change to the show. To be honest, I feel like shifting to more of an action focus would actively miss the show's entire point, and I just don't understand why some of you want this so much. So I really hope it doesn't do that. 

So, is it strange for me to still despise this episode despite reading all of the points trying to make it seem good? Even after all of these months and all of the time to think it over, I still cannot bring myself to remotely consider this episode anything other than uncomfortable and worthless. It seems I will forever see this episode as a deep scar on a show I love.

You don't like what you don't like; there's nothing weird about that. I know I have episodes I hate despite reading a lot of explanations from people who like them. 

I don't want Starlight and Trixie to be removed or to get less focus...

dis

 

But really, though, I'm pretty happy with the show's direction in most respects, so the closest I can come to something I hope they don't do is continue to make Twilight all bland and infallible like she's been for the past three seasons now. C'mon, writers, surely you can start making her consistently fun and interesting again. Is it so hard?

 

Otherwise, I just hope the trend of improvement which season 6 had doesn't stop in season 7, but I'm not really afraid of that happening, so I guess it doesn't really count. 

Depends: Am I just deleting the specific episode, or am I changing the rest of the show to compensate for it?

 

If deleting the episode has an impact on the show: "Magical Mystery Cure," beyond a shadow of a doubt. Many episodes anger me, but this is the only one which arguably made the show worse because of what happened in it. If removing this episode makes the writers stop feeling the need to put Twilight on a princessly pedestal, then I see no reason it should stay. 

 

If not... well, I'd probably go with "Games Ponies Play," because not only is it a single joke stretched out over 22 minutes, it's also a really unfunny, dumb joke which stretches all credibility. At least "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well" and "Somepony to Watch Over Me" have a point; at least "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows" is largely out of Pinkie's control. The only redeeming quality I can remember from "Games Ponies Play" is that the Crystal Empire is pretty. 

If I could change only one thing which has happened in the show... well, I hate to be "that guy," but I probably would have avoided Twilicorn. The show doesn't seem all that interested in bringing it anywhere especially interesting, and Twilight has only become more boring since and almost certainly as a consequence of becoming a princess. I don't think it's done much good for thevshow, "Twilight's Kingdom" aside.

Something I still don't understand about the matter is the story Applejack told Applebloom in "Where the Apple Lies."

 

This implies that Big McIntosh were living with Granny Smith even before Applebloom was born. If so many staff members imply that Applejack's parents are dead, then how do we explain the story of that episode being before Applebloom was born? It just doesn't make sense to me.

I'm not sure that not seeing her necessarily equals her not being born. Maybe she was just offscreen for some reason, likely because she was too young to care about the things AJ and Big Mac are talking about there.

The morals are definitely still there. Only a couple times recently where they'be been clearly stated, but S6 definitely hasn't scaled back on having its stories teach lessons.

Feel like he's approximately as likely to become an alicorn as the "ReMane 5," but neither seem especially likely to happen anytime soon, at least.

People usually have more than one passion/talent, and there's only been, what, two CMC episodes since they got their marks? Think you're being a bit hasty here.

I'm not hating on you here, I'm criticizing Steven Universe.

 

It isn't progressive. It's a badly written show that appeals to the REAL lowest common denominator, the people that think progressive=automatic masterpiece.

If you say so; that sure as hell isn't how I see it. 

Season 6 had some very bare-bones episodes like "Applejack's Day Off" and "The Cart Before the Ponies", as well as episodes that take on common plot adaptations like "The Gift of the Maud Pie", "PPOV", "A Hearth's Warming Tail", but there were also some that had more plot or entertainment to them like "Gauntlet of Fire" and "Stranger Than Fan Fiction". Earlier seasons had a mix of this as well, but what's changed is that in Seasons 4 and 5, it seemed as if the Crusaders and Mane 6 were working towards a greater goal. It made even some of the more mundane things seem more important, without contrivance. In Season 4 in particular, the Mane 6 were learning the most important lessons regarding their elements in the key episodes, and that paid off with them getting the map and new roles in Season 5. Many Season 5 episodes had the Mane 6 being teachers rather than students which allowed them to pawn off some of the simpler plot elements to characters that had more room to develop, like Discord ("Make New Friends but Keep Discord") or various side characters ("Hooffields and McColts", "The Mane Attraction", "Appleoosa's Most Wanted"), and left the Mane 6 and Crusaders to focus on deeper themes like fear of the future ("Bloom & Gloom"), regret ("Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?"), making amends with the past ("Amending Fences"), and taking on new responsibility (many Twilight and Rarity episodes). "Spice Up Your Life" and "Flutter Brutter", to give some respect, did that, too, but I have different kinds of issues with those episodes that are for another thread.

I don't think I'm ever going to be able to understand where you people are coming from. Maybe we just look for different things in this show. 

 

Having also been watching since season 2, I'm of the opinion that the show's decline began around season 4, when the thematic cohesion of the main story arc ultimately resulted in less character development. In season 4, the whole key subplot accounted for an overall minority of the season, and as I said earlier in this thread, the mane six didn't actually learn  anything from it, and we rarely learned anything new about them either. I like season 2 so much because it expends a lot of its energy on approaching the characters from new angles, and while season 4 is frequently poignant and delightful, I can't think of many times when it really showed us much new about the characters. Those key episodes are among the worst offenders, as they exist solely to challenge an aspect of the mane six which we already know about. I adore "Leap of Faith," but that ain't because it has any meaningful progression for Applejack, and I honestly feel that season 4 broke formula a lot less often than season 6. 

 

As for the mane six as teachers... am I the only person who struggles to see that as a good thing? That's obviously what season 5 was going for, but I couldn't help but see that as effectively denying them any character development whatsoever. I'm apparently the only person who isn't in love with "Amending Fences" or "The Mane Attraction," and a big part of that is that they feel (to me) like they do absolutely nothing to push the show forward. While most of the primary character arcs the mane six had been dealing with have been concluded, I'd rather the writers try to forge new ones rather than apparently give up on them entirely like season 5 seemed to do. Of course, it doesn't help matters that I found a significant portion of season 5 to be rather unenjoyable, but I didn't feel that the mane six grew a whole lot over that entire season. "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" is a good example of how I felt the season often half-assed its themes, as I felt that episode spent way more time on vapid action and grating humour than on Luna's apparent guilt, and I didn't even feel like they handled that guilt especially well - that episode is one of my least favourites of all time.

 

I wasn't a big fan of how basic season 6's throwaway episodes were, but I thought that a good majority of the season either explored characters from new angles or innovated in some way with the show's structure. I guess a big part of my satisfaction with this season is that I found it a lot more entertaining than the previous one, but stuff like RD finally making it into the Wonderbolts, Fluttershy finally not being a doormat, and getting a small glimpse of Applejack's past were especially satisfying to me, and although the CMC's post-marked saga was severely truncated (pretty much leaped straight from the implications of the change to the greatest possible challenge), it didn't feel significantly less satisfying to me than their admittedly strong showing in season 5. I guess I feel that season 6 had its priorities in better order than the previous two seasons, as I feel its more down-to-earth, incremental approach to character development just suits the show more. Different strokes for different folks, but I felt the need to get my viewpoint out there, as nobody else seems to share it. 

This is an automated message sent by the computer of Babyyoshi309 in order to notify his friends that he is currently in a cryosleep until the release of season 7 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

See, this user has the right idea.