So wait it took them 3 weeks to put together that?

[cider float 2,538]

So it took them 3 weeks to put together already written fan lore. They might as well have combined fan videos on all that and none would be wiser.

 

Guess this episode is trying to put new ponies on the shelves of Toys' r' Us because you know buck creativity.

[Pastel 7,630]

So it took them 3 weeks to put together already written fan lore.

Pretty sure they finished this episode weeks (or months) ago.

As for why we waited 3 weeks, no idea.

And I've never heard of a fanfic of Bon Bon being a secret agent, Gummy being very intelligent or Octavia and Vinyl going to a wedding on a DJ booth.

[Superstars111 79]

Fan lore is complex and twisted. It's one thing to look and see which background ponies people like. But not all fan lore is compatible. For example, from this episode, it looks pretty clear to me that Doctor Whooves isn't literally The Doctor from Doctor Who. A reference to him, certainly. I really don't think they could have made it any more obvious that he was a reference to The Doctor without giving him a blue box. But he doesn't seem to actually be The Doctor like fanfiction would say.

 

I don't typically read fanfiction (from any fandom) because of how tangled it can get. I mean, there is some good fanfiction out there, but it's rare enough that I don't want to waste my time looking for it. People see some character with no lines and decide to create this whole random personality based on what they want, but that new character isn't canon. The name, the body, sure. But not the character. Or people see two canon ponies and think they would be cute as a couple, based on this random tidbit or that obscure scene. Sometimes a random tidbit or obscure scene can give a lot of information, but most of the time, people are just blowing things way out of proportion.

 

I actually really enjoyed this episode, because I got to see some background characters that we haven't gotten to know very well. Yes, the bodies and names have become very popular in the fandom, but we know next to nothing about the actual characters. A good episode should be understandable without being emersed in the fandom, and this one was. I know because I understood it, and like I said, I don't typically read fanfiction- especially MLP fanfiction. So, rather than just having an episode about what we already know, they let us meet some characters that were previously unknown. Surely they took inspiration from the fandom, but I can imagine how hard it must have been for them to be questioning which stories to keep, which to throw away, where to tweak, where to keep... It's not as easy as it might sound. Because although there was a lot of fanservice in this episode, that wasn't their only goal. They were also trying to develop real characters that we could care about, even if they're not the center of attention for every episode, or even for one.

[Evilshy 5,090]

Shows like this are finished months in advance, 3 weeks was probably to hype it up, or because of some other thing showing on the same channel.

[Snow Frostflame 3,568]

I thought it was amazing and definitely worth the wait...

[cuteycindyhoney 13,316]

Fan lore is complex and twisted. It's one thing to look and see which background ponies people like. But not all fan lore is compatible. For example, from this episode, it looks pretty clear to me that Doctor Whooves isn't literally The Doctor from Doctor Who. A reference to him, certainly. I really don't think they could have made it any more obvious that he was a reference to The Doctor without giving him a blue box. But he doesn't seem to actually be The Doctor like fanfiction would say.

 

I loved how they sort of melded him with Dr. Emmett Brown to soften a direct reference to Doctor Who. "Great Wiggling Stallions!" is a strange substitute for "Great Scott!" though!

[Lisa 5,553]

Guess this episode is trying to put new ponies on the shelves of Toys' r' Us because you know buck creativity.

 

I think the lack of creativity wasn't because of a financial benefit, but because they just tried to make an episode purely based on appealing to bronies and giving them massive nerdgasms, and nothing else. Sure there's that moral in the ending, wait, what was that moral again?

 

Exactly.

Edited June 15, 2015 by Monique

[FrostedHeart 63]

I'm not going to talk about the fan lore since that's already been covered but.... you know it could have taken them a long time to do for it's animation? Seriously, all that lighting those visuals and everything would take weeks with a lot of work from a lot people to do, especially with the animation of Octavia and Vinyl playing as well as when they were riding through Ponyville!

Animation like that takes a long time to do.

[The Awesome One 1,315]

You talk like this is something that should have been made in a couple minutes using MS Paint. Besides, this is not the reason we had to wait three weeks. More to do with building up the hype.

[SpeedIsMagic 37]

Oh neat;  More topics criticizing an episode which was basically a thank you from the creators to us. 
We can't even accept an episode made for us; because in essence it wasn't made for (Me/you).

 

With this out of the way; let's dive into the actual reason the show was held back.

Here's something that urks me already,
The creators have ABSOLUTLEY no control over when the episodes get aired. 

They make the show; complete the show. Weeks or months in advance before the premiere date.
ONLY The Discovery Family channel gets to decide when it get's aired.

They decide if it's weekly, or not. Since they control the time slots, and what get's broadcasted.
They essentially can withhold an episode Indefinitely - if they desire.

Look at Top Gear EU Season 22. Episodes are completed but the BBC 2 Network has withheld them.

This is the networks doing. Despite the different situations that have occured, this is an example of a TV Network holding back already completed content. TV networks do stuff like this all the time, for special events or such. 

 

I love how absolutely one has brought this up until now; and just slammed the animators and creators of the show out-right without realizing how TV actually works.

 

100 Episodes is a big milestone yes. But that also means it can be syndicated/ IE Re-runs and the lot.

I know this seems a bit harsh; but this is the fact. Yell at Discovery Family for the show being pushed back.
Not the animators/ writers/ producers/ Voice actors, etc. No-where did the 3 week wait state that the episode had to be fixed, or worked on, as a reason for the 3 week hiatus. So not sure where evreypony is getting that fact from in-order to yell at the animators.
So we are left to blame the network.

 

Edited June 15, 2015 by SpeedIsMagic

[manic 121]

I loved how they sort of melded him with Dr. Emmett Brown to soften a direct reference to Doctor Who. "Great Wiggling Stallions!" is a strange substitute for "Great Scott!" though!

Did you notice the remark about he's had "Decades, or centuries" of scientific research?

[Dark Qiviut 22,457]

No. Discovery Family/Hasbro pushed Slice of Life three weeks ahead to build up hype, but the episode itself has been in development for at least one year, and Will Anderson (the background musician) finished the music for it at least a month before the episode was about to air. Typically, the writer takes three weeks to finish the twenty-minute script, and chances are that was complete sometime in early-2014. The animation takes the longest, usually beginning about a year or fourteen months after the rest of the stuff is finished, like the voice-acting, songs, and animatic. Flash animation is tedious, so it takes the longest to complete. You can hypothesize that Slice of Life went gold sometime in mid-May.

 

Oh neat; More topics criticizing an episode which was basically a thank you from the creators to us.

We can't even accept an episode made for us; because in essence it wasn't made for (Me/you).

Just because Slice of Life is a gift for the fans doesn't entitle you or anyone else here to praise it blindly. No one episode deserves special treatment; either critique them equally or don't critique them at all. The core of a good episode is a story; if the story is poor, then the episode is going to suck, and Slice of Life should be called out for this if the writing is poor.

Edited June 16, 2015 by Dark Qiviut

[SpeedIsMagic 37]

Main issue:

Most the for the episode is basically that it was made for the fans, which if you bothered to read the description or the episode title. 
It's clear to see that it was. 

Issue with current retorts:

I don't mind people debating about the episode when there's actual points being made.
Other than "This sucked", "Wow, this was made for nergasms", etc . No real constructive criticism involved.
The point was with those 2 lines of text was about the select group that are unhappy because it didn't cater exclusively to them and their interest.

Plus there was no real conversation about the episode >on  THIS topic<. (Yay Topic De-railment)

 
The minimal conversation about the actual episode was with my post, with the first 2 lines of that post.
Which didn't really delve into the episode itself, but rather most of the generic negativity over it. With no real points being made. 
So don't know where I'm on my knees praising the episode in a matter of 2 lines of text; as the rest are about the actual topic at hand instead of the episode.

That being said the main focus here being the "I waited 3 weeks for this?" issue.  
With a abhorrent amount of ignorance no less. Not the actual content of the episode at all, but the wait for the episode.
So I kind of find it funny that you tried to change the issue, a bit. With trying to get the focus shifted to the actual episode itself despite clear context that this is not the main point of the topic.
 
I do believe we have those types of topics already.

 

[MAIKUN 262]

Let's face it you guys: If Hasbro had any common sense in the first place, they wouldn't let ratings be this low, especially with milestone episodes like this. BUT If they continue this behavior with S6, then the likelihood of S7 seems to be uncertain, if not doubtful. Can't help but think the show will also be on some future Hasbro streaming project. The way Discovery Family treats this show sorta reminds me of how Cartoon Network treated Young Justice...I hope it doesn't go that route.

 

Maybe future seasons, I meant a lot of the people they want seeing the show watch TV on the internet. I don't know if Hasbro is planning a streaming project, but most of the US kids' TV networks are making them now. I meant why not Hasbro start planning an streaming project by now?

 

The question is: Is there any way to make the show (I meant Season 5) even better or successful on Discovery Family? I have an idea: Why not move the show in Canada from Treehouse TV to YTV (like a Day-and-Date broadcast between US and Canada at 11:30 am), Right?

Edited June 16, 2015 by MAIKUN

[Red Cedar 1,408]

First, the episode was likely completed several weeks ago. It takes approximately a year to complete one episode. The animators don't determine scheduling. (For example, there is an episode later in the season that would appear, from the title, to be another Hearth's Warming Eve episode. As it stands, it is scheduled to air around Christmas.)

 

Second, all the ponies featured in the episode already have been toys.

[Marimo 555]

 

The way Discovery Family treats this show sorta reminds me of how Cartoon Network treated Young Justice...I hope it doesn't go that route.

The show gets the most timeslots of any other show on the channel, still gets regularly promoted, and with new episodes airing at a regular timeslot. Sure it's been going on break, but so do shows like Adventure Time. What if they're just trying a trade off, some more short breaks during the season to reduce the extra long hiatus between seasons, so maybe we won't have to wait almost a year like the hiatus between seasons 4 and 5?

 

 

The question is: Is there any way to make the show (I meant Season 5) even better or successful on Discovery Family? I have an idea: Why not move the show in Canada from Treehouse TV to YTV (like a Day-and-Date broadcast between US and Canada at 11:30 am), Right?

 

What does the latter part of your paragraph about changing what channel it's on in Canada have to do with the former part about ideas to make the show more successful on Discovery Family.

[Koukatsu 5,899]

I don't understand all the blame towards the show "not being done" and "taking three weeks to fix", etc etc. If it needed fixing, it would have been done a long time ago, seeing as season 5 was finished early last November. Just sayin'. :\

 

I rather enjoyed the episode, but it essentially made my headcanon about Derpy canon. xD

[Marimo 555]

I don't understand all the blame towards the show "not being done" and "taking three weeks to fix", etc etc. If it needed fixing, it would have been done a long time ago, seeing as season 5 was finished early last November. Just sayin'. :\

Season 5 was still being worked on after that. That tweet was by Daniel Ingram, who's just in charge of the songs, not the animation.

 

In fact Meghan posted just two months earlier in September that the writing was all done.

https://twitter.com/mmeghanmccarthy/status/512077484083261440

And it takes longer than two months to storyboard, record voices, animate the episode, and then score it.

Edited June 16, 2015 by Marimo

[Koukatsu 5,899]

Season 5 was still being worked on after that. That tweet was by Daniel Ingram, who's just in charge of the songs, not the animation.

 

In fact Meghan posted just two months earlier in September that the writing was all done.

https://twitter.com/mmeghanmccarthy/status/512077484083261440

And it takes longer than two months to storyboard, record voices, animate the episode, and then score it.

Silly me, you're right. Of course he'd mainly mention that regarding the music. xD

Meh, I still don't feel the wait was that big of a deal. The episode was awesome. :U

[Pinkamena Dianne Pie 465]

I have almost a feeling that they waited to air the episode in lieu of the recent mlp convention that just happened. Maybe not, but just my thoughts.

[RarityFan01 2,444]

I'm tired of Hasbro trying to please bronies. IT DOESN'T WORK!  When bronies say they want something, don't give it to them because they really don't want it! Ignore the bronies and only care about kids! You did that before, and that's why we started to like the show! 

[cider float 2,538]

First, the episode was likely completed several weeks ago. It takes approximately a year to complete one episode. The animators don't determine scheduling. (For example, there is an episode later in the season that would appear, from the title, to be another Hearth's Warming Eve episode. As it stands, it is scheduled to air around Christmas.)

 

Second, all the ponies featured in the episode already have been toys.

They don't have the Muffins and Time Turner lab playset yet.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,854]

Simply put, it was either to build hype, something that the network wanted, or both.

 

And let me say this; How many tv shows, let alone kids shows, have an entire episode dedicated to what the fans have created? (Some of it at least) Not many as far as I know.

 

The episode was a love letter to the fans and with that in mind, I absolutely loved it. I enjoyed every second of it.

[[NULL] 907]

I'm tired of Hasbro trying to please bronies. IT DOESN'T WORK!  When bronies say they want something, don't give it to them because they really don't want it! Ignore the bronies and only care about kids! You did that before, and that's why we started to like the show! 

Wait, Hasbro makes the show? I always thought it was DHX.

 

Anyway, as someone who expected the episode to be horrible, and isn't even a fan of the background characters, I was surprised to even like the episode, let alone that it would work on it's own. All the character's personalities were established, and for a premise with so little plot, I found most scenes to be surprisingly entertaining (although that's subjective).

 

But I'm pretty the writers don't write solely for kids or the fans. They have a good track record of writing for themselves, and I think it still shows. If they wrote solely for the fans, they would've made Lyra and Bon-Bon a couple, rather than making Bon-Bon a secret agent. If they wrote just for kids, it probably would've been a generic preschool show.

Edited June 17, 2015 by SpaceOnion

[RarityFan01 2,444]

Wait, Hasbro makes the show? I always thought it was DHX.

 

Anyway, as someone who expected the episode to be horrible, and isn't even a fan of the background characters, I was surprised to even like the episode, let alone that it would work on it's own. All the character's personalities were established, and for a premise with so little plot, I found most scenes to be surprisingly entertaining (although that's subjective).

 

But I'm pretty sure DHX doesn't write solely for kids or the fans. The writers have a good track record of writing for themselves, and I think it still shows. If they wrote solely for the fans, they would've made Lyra and Bon-Bon a couple, rather than making Bon-Bon a secret agent. If they wrote just for kids, it probably would've been a generic preschool show.

They control what is shown because they make the toys. Making any pony homosexual in the show is a show suicide. 

Edited June 17, 2015 by RarityFan01