spoiler Season 5 short rant

[Yellow Diamond 7,561]

That's not the only problem. Appleoosa's Most Wanted's Troubleshoes and other characters where a thorn in the eye. And thanks Dave Polsky for giving living ammunition for Starlight Glimmer's "equality".......... Not! What the hell did he smoke for his ideas? Crystal crack?

 

I don't understand this strain of criticism. How does the writing of "Appleloosa's Most Wanted" justify or endorse Starlight Glimmer's "eutopian" vision? Didn't Trouble Shoes learn to embrace his talent and thus his Cutie Mark? That directly contradicts the notion of ponies needing to be purged of their Cutie Marks.

 

Whatever the case, provided that an instance occurred wherein Starlight's view on Cutie Marks was shown to have merit, it wouldn't necessarily serve as an instance of bad writing. She may indeed have some yet unexplored grounding, however flimsy, for viewing Cutie Marks, or destiny, as a hindrance. Should that be true, it could prove very interesting.

[Espada12 17]

I don't understand this strain of criticism. How does the writing of "Appleloosa's Most Wanted" justify or endorse Starlight Glimmer's "eutopian" vision? Didn't Trouble Shoes learn to embrace his talent and thus his Cutie Mark? That directly contradicts the notion of ponies needing to be purged of their Cutie Marks.

 

Whatever the case, provided that an instance occurred wherein Starlight's view on Cutie Marks was shown to have merit, it wouldn't necessarily serve as an instance of bad writing. She may indeed have some yet unexplored grounding, however flimsy, for viewing Cutie Marks, or destiny, as a hindrance. Should that be true, it could prove very interesting.

Thats not true but you know how it goes or maybe you dont

[Yellow Diamond 7,561]

Thats not true but you know how it goes or maybe you dont

 

Pardon me, but what's not true?

[Espada12 17]

Pardon me, but what's not true?

My shock and surprise that you were going to eat my gingerbread house

[Yellow Diamond 7,561]

My shock and surprise that you were going to eat my gingerbread house

 

I was genuinely curious. But I've since figured out what you talking about beforehand.

 

When I said, "Should that be true...", I was referring to Starlight having possibly experienced a negative event in her own life regarding Cutie Marks, prompting her to take extreme measures. It's very likely that she's wrong on all accounts because Cutie Marks and their associated talents are so valuable -- both for individual ponies and for Equestrian society. It's one of the difficulties of making a sympathetic and/or partially reasonable antagonistic when we've already witnessed how awesome Cutie Marks can be.

 

If the writers can in any way underscore some appeal in Starlight Glimmer's philosophy, my hat would be off to them. They'd deserve praise.

[Espada12 17]

I was genuinely curious. But I've since figured out what you talking about beforehand.

 

When I said, "Should that be true...", I was referring to Starlight having possibly experienced a negative event in her own life regarding Cutie Marks, prompting her to take extreme measures. It's very likely that she's wrong on all accounts because Cutie Marks and their associated talents are so valuable -- both for individual ponies and for Equestrian society. It's one of the difficulties of making a sympathetic and/or partially reasonable antagonistic when we've already witnessed how awesome Cutie Marks can be.

 

If the writers can in any way underscore some appeal in Starlight Glimmer's philosophy, my hat would be off to them. They'd deserve praise.

I cant even see what color Cutie Marks is without a drawn picture

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

Really now, we're not getting any more CMC focus here in this season than in any season prior.

 

 

To be honest, I've always felt they've had too many episodes and focus really, from day one. The CMC's "AH WANT MAH CUTIE MARK!" plot felt boring and just got staler as the series went on.

Sweetie belle and Scootaloo feel like they've got some character past that and have been developing a little to be enjoyable (Sweetie belle and rarity especially as focusing on them as sisters leads to some diabetes level cuteness from Sweetie), but Applebloom still feels stuck in a rut without any character past her cutie mark obsession

But, there's also a good chance of them giving some extra heavy focus due to them possibly getting their cutie marks this season too, which might eat up another episode too.

 

Its not so much that I feel they're increasing in focus so much as I feel they really don't deserve the time given to them when we have better and more interesting characters who would benefit from the time instead.

 

Plus, Applebloom feels like she's really hurting AJ, as her episodes over the past couple seasons have often been hijacked by applebloom instead of focusing on AJ heavily, which really hurts her since her episodes tend to have either granny or Applebloom end up being the focus. (Somepony to watch over me for example.)

 

 

 

 

You could just as easily pin the blame on the Luna, Discord, and background pony episodes for why there's less Spike and no Celestia.

 

The key difference in my view here though is that I feel that Discord, Luna, celestia and spike are all fairly interesting characters who generally produce good and enjoyable episodes, while I don't feel the CMC generally pay off. So I don't blame the other side characters for stealing time since they hold their own in entertainment, while I feel the CMC fail to justify their keep.

 

[Captain Trek 32]

Slice of Life is exactly the type of episode that this show should NOT make.

 

I think the best episodes of the season have been ones centered on a mane six character and focusing on their flaws and struggles (Amending Fences, Canterlot Boutique, and Scare Master). Now there have been some bad ones, like Tanks For The Memories and Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep, but those both scaled the conflicts up to absurd levels, which in their case hurt them imo.

It's okay to take a break from the main characters once in a great while. I think of Slice of Life as being akin to the Next Generation episode Lower Decks, which gave us some insight into what the Enterprise's existence looks like from the perspective of crewmembers who aren't Picard and the other senior officers. It wasn't as seamless as Lower Decks, but it was plenty enough fun to more than make up for that, or at least I thought so. But like Lower Decks, Slice of Life is the short of thing that, whilst you shouldn't necessarily not do it, if you do do it you should do it extremely sparingly. Fortunately, I don't think there's going to be a problem with that, seeing as Slice of Life was an X00 episode in the same vein as episodes 100 and 200 of Stargate SG1, meaning the next time we're likely to get something like it is episode 200. That would be early in season 9, and season 9 is something I think we can all agree is wishful thinking at best...

 

Dragon Quest, Secret to my Excess, and Spike At Your Service.

Umm, what? Dragon Quest wasn't too bad, but Secret of my Excess and Spike at Your Service were AWFUL! XD

 

If the writers can in any way underscore some appeal in Starlight Glimmer's philosophy, my hat would be off to them. They'd deserve praise.

Totally agree. Well said.

[LZRD WZRD 1,929]

Umm, what? Dragon Quest wasn't too bad, but Secret of my Excess and Spike at Your Service were AWFUL! XD

 

Really? I thought all 3 were great character building moments for Spike. Certainly had more depth to them than anything he's gotten since.

[sweetolebob18 724]

As far as Spike goes, he has had some good episodes.

Dog And Pony Show

Secret of My Excess

Power Ponies  IMO, these are all good episodes.  But, over all, Spike has had FAR more lame episodes than good episodes.  Sadly, Do Princesses ... is typical quality for a Spike episodes.

 

The CMCs aren't that bad.  Their episodes are usually fairly good.  The Bloom & Gloom episode wasn't as good as For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils, but it wasn't bad.   I'll admit you've got a point about Appleloosa's Most Wanted being lame.  It might be the worst CMC episode ever.

One Bad Apple & the one where they are trying to be flag ponies for the EQ games (ICR the name) are pretty good, for instance

[CastletonSnob 3,023]

Would you consider Inspiration Manifestation a Spike episode?

[Guest]

 

 

Umm, what? Dragon Quest wasn't too bad, but Secret of my Excess and Spike at Your Service were AWFUL! XD

 

How were they awful? Please explain.

[Captain Trek 32]

Would you consider Inspiration Manifestation a Spike episode?

 

I count it, yes.

 

As for why I think Secret of My Excess and Spike at Your Service are terrible, I'll re-watch them and post up a quick review of each for you guys to read. Expect an update soonish.

 

(Also, is anyone else having problems getting paragraphing to work right?)

Edited September 25, 2015 by Captain Trek

[MLPFanatic34 3,234]

Would you consider Inspiration Manifestation a Spike episode?

I would consider it a Spike episode.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

I would consider it a Spike episode.

I generally consider it more of a rarity episode.

 

But honestly, that episode is probably one of the absolute BEST episodes of the show, so that's a definite feather in spike's cap either way that he was featured so heavily in it.

rarity's surprisingly entertaining when she's evil, I wish that would happen again.

[Bart1002 39]

 

 

The Princess Spike episode didn't show that and portrayed him as untrustworthy and good for nothing.

 

 

 

Less screentime for the CMC, but especially Applebloom. She's a distraction in the interaction between Applejack and the others.

  

 

I agree with your point that the CMC shouldn't be major characters in the show, they take screen time away from the Mane 6.  However, I thought those Spike episodes were good.  In Princess Spike, he has good intentions.  He is trying to be helpful to Twilight Sparkle by letting her catch up on sleep.  He was trying his best as a second-in-command; however, he didn't possess the wisdom to deal with problems requiring authoritative intervention like Twilight Sparkle did.  Thus, he caused some mishaps.  Despite abusing his authority toward the end, he learned a great moral, that we all play a part in society, no matter how big or small.  Also, Spike appears to possess wisdom of a higher degree than Twilight in some areas.  The whole conflict in Boast Busters would have been resolved significantly quicker if Twilight had taken Spike's advice to assert her friends and her town.  Also, the episode Lesson Zero would not exist if Twilight had taken Spike's advice to be chill.  In The Best Night Ever, the Mane 6 would have had loads of fun together if they had listened to Spike's suggestion on how to spend their time at the Grand Galloping Gala.  It is late currently where I am, so I'll stop there, but I wanted to show that Spike is a good character.  There should be more episodes of him IMO.

[The Nth Doctor 652]

Castle Sweet Castle spent way too much time on the Mane 5 ruining Twilight's castle

 

What they should've done was have them kick Twilight out for some fresh air while Twilight wanders around Ponyville and remembers all the good times she's had in the one and a half year she's spent there

 

She then winds up in front of the ruined tree and shares a moment with Spike before heading back to the castle to find out her friends have brought a little bit of their lives in to make the place feel less lonely

 

 

And Dash needs to face the music for her actions at Cloudsdale

Tresspassing and destruction of private property, as well as all the damage she caused by nuking Ponyville

 

It's a shame she wasn't pulled from the Wonderbolts Reserve for that

She could then redeem herself in Rarity Investigates by finding Spitfire while Rarity uncovers Wind Flyer's plan

[Limeblossom 482]

  

 

I agree with your point that the CMC shouldn't be major characters in the show, they take screen time away from the Mane 6.  However, I thought those Spike episodes were good.  In Princess Spike, he has good intentions.  He is trying to be helpful to Twilight Sparkle by letting her catch up on sleep.  He was trying his best as a second-in-command; however, he didn't possess the wisdom to deal with problems requiring authoritative intervention like Twilight Sparkle did.  Thus, he caused some mishaps.  Despite abusing his authority toward the end, he learned a great moral, that we all play a part in society, no matter how big or small.  Also, Spike appears to possess wisdom of a higher degree than Twilight in some areas.  The whole conflict in Boast Busters would have been resolved significantly quicker if Twilight had taken Spike's advice to assert her friends and her town.  Also, the episode Lesson Zero would not exist if Twilight had taken Spike's advice to be chill.  In The Best Night Ever, the Mane 6 would have had loads of fun together if they had listened to Spike's suggestion on how to spend their time at the Grand Galloping Gala.  It is late currently where I am, so I'll stop there, but I wanted to show that Spike is a good character.  There should be more episodes of him IMO.

 

I can't deny that Spike was also the voice of reason in the first seasons.

You're not the only one who wants to show Spike as a good character. But therefore we should go to the fan section. I've no confidence in the writers today.