Does no show-wide story arc make MLP less interesting?

[Grepper 3,192]

Over the past few months I've noticed that my interest in MLP is declining. Here's my idea why.

 

Shows like Steven Universe and Gravity Falls have captured more of my interest with their (apparently) show-wide story arcs and more mature themes.

 

A show-wide story arc is what a show slowly builds towards from its beginning to its end for an ultimate finale. Both of the shows I mentioned, SU and GF, slowly give small pieces of the story in each episode, and they add up to make a large, epic story.

 

MLP is okay, but the entire show doesn't have a grand, intentional story arc. What happens in each season is made up on the fly if I remember correctly and it doesn't seem thought out as well as the other cartoons I mentioned.

 

The individual stories are okay, but I like looking forward to the grand story a show tells, too.

 

--

I'm not leaving the forums or no longer watching the show, so don't panic.

It should be obvious, but please don't get mad if I have a different opinion about what makes a show good than you do. Feel free to give your opinion, though.

 

Note to mods: I found this post to be related largely to MLP, so I'm posting it in Show Discussion, even though it mentions other cartoons.

[Nightfall Gloam 18,260]

I personally prefer shows with a "show-wide" story arc, but it doesn't bother me that much at all that shows like My Little Pony don't have one. 

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

I am usually satisfied with season long arcs, like how we had the box setup in season 4 and the leadup to the equestria games going on as well.


I found this season kind of boring due to not really having much of an arc besides "Starlight is where's waldo" and that being rather non-compelling.

[Frostgage 7,975]

Well with the season-wide arcs at least there's always one going on. I like show-wide stories but the lack of one doesn't bother me too much in FiM.

[Discordian 6,015]

I'm kind of in the "it wouldn't really make a difference" camp. It is what it is. I can watch Spongebob just as easily as I can watch Digimon and enjoy it all the same.

[Justin_Case001 4,891]

I enjoy the show very much as is, but I really wish they would do bigger story arcs.  The S4 box didn't really amount to much in that dept imo, since they didn't talk about it much.  Yeah, they all got their keys, but it didn't feel like a constant development, where you're getting pieces of a story each week, y'know?  (I also hold to the headcanon that if they truly understood and could fully manipulate the power of their elements, they would have been able to pick up a rock on the ground and use it as their key, but that's a tangent.)  I'd love to see some really grand story arcs, though.  Show-wide would be great, though I guess it's a little late.  Season-wide would do me just fine.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

It's a tale of preferences; if you will. Look at the following shows:

 

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Largely episodic

 

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Somewhat episodic, but episodes were built on a central arc

 

Both remain widely popular and remembered for what they were, so again; it just relied on what each individual viewer likes. Personally I love MLP and SU, so...yeah.

[EQ_Theta 459]

As much as I would like to see larger story arcs, the show still has young kids as their target demographic and given how this show would have abysmal airing schedules from time to time, there is a possibility that they would miss out on the bigger story whenever they decide to tune back to the show. A show-wide arc works fine in my book but how the show goes is Hasbro's call to make and they wouldn't bend over backwards to change their target demographic.

[pony.colin 156]

Wasn't the 'season story-arcs' a secondary thought that only started being used in later seasons ? Like more of an after-thought really. What I'm trying to say is, didn't mlp:fim originally start out as just being a slice of life only type of media?

 

Wasn't MLP:FIM meant to originally have slice of life, story of the day type of style and not meant to have a grand over-arching narrative?  I would love a grand over-arching story, but I think we've got piece-meal stuff because, it was only thought up a secondary thing as the series was dragged out.  And at best, maybe Faust had other plans, but I don't know how much different MLP:FIM if she had stayed on.  I would want to know though. Maybe she did have big plans? I just don't know about it. 

Edited December 18, 2015 by pony.colin

[Mesme Rize 15,683]

They could maybe do this, but here is the thing. Theta already said that this is still a show with a young audience in mind no matter how much Bronies like to pretend that it's their show. That's why MLP has a TV-Y rating, while Gravity Falls has a TV-Y7 (although it could easily be PG) and SU even has a PG rating as far as i know.

 

Kids are not known to have a big attention span. so of them probably already forgot what happend 5 episode ago. The show gives the characters growth, but they won't give us that much continuity. I am not trying to insult kids or anything, i just talk it like i see it.

[cmarston1 5,959]

Well I would have liked to see more of the cutie map actually doing something in season 5 and maybe see more of starlight glimmer in the background before the finale.

But this isn't the type of show to have major ongoing story arches, so I don't know.

[Number62 1,258]

I'm also losing some amount of interest in the show, and it's not because the show is episodic. The show has implied or even brought up many interesting ideas but either does them poorly or doesn't explore them at all.

 

I don't mind if a show is episodic because it can still tell a bunch of good if self-contained stories. A show can have a story arc and still be uninteresting for whatever reason.

[BastementSparkle 20,326]

Not really, sometimes it's nice to just watch a self-contained story on it's own. You don't always need a show-wide story arc or even a seasonal arc. Those aren't bad things, but a lot of my favorite MLP episodes aren't connected to an Arc in anyway. I at times have almost the opposite problem. A huge arc is more often not interesting enough to keep me watching a show, and if I don't like the Arc very much it can affect my enjoyment of the single episodes.

 

With my other favorite show, Doctor Who, I experience something similar. While I do enjoy the arc's they have in the more recent series, and they've had some great moments, the more stand-alone feeling episodes are more often than not my favorites. I would really enjoy a season of just the Doctor and his companion going on adventures, like the classic series often was. No arc, or big plot, just all of time and space. But people crave these big story arc's and often complain when an episode doesn't tie into them, calling it "Filler" even when the episode was perfectly enjoyable on it's own.

[Grepper 3,192]

Maybe I just like tightly-written characters and stories the best.

I often find it hard to quantify why I like or dislike a story.

[Megas 27,671]

No. Aside from the little Grand Galloping Gala arc, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and the CMC's character arcs I don't find myself caring for much of the "arc" related episodes or stories. I find myself perfectly happy with the episodic, well, episodes

Edited January 6, 2016 by Megas75

[KatonRyu 1,033]

I like season-wide arcs, but MLP was never set up as such a show. While there may not be a very strong continuity in the series, there's definitely a lot of progression with regards to the characters and their environment, like Twilight being insecure about her role as a princess to confidently being the Princess of Friendship, and Discord going from pure evil to an actual friend.

 

You have to keep in mind that we bronies aren't the target demographic. It's first and foremost a kids' show that we all happen to like. I think MLP is good at what it wants to do, and that doesn't require a world-changing arc every season.

[BlueBrony 388]

If you think about it, the "show wide story arc" was supposed to be Twilight Sparkle's eventual rise to princess. I think that Lauren Faust said that originally she thought of having Twilight Sparkle become a princess eventually (as a series ending climax) but was not able to steer the ship at all after season 2. At the end of a short season 3, Twilight becomes a princess, and Hasbro decides to keep the train moving. Now suddenly the writers need to come up with a continuing arc to the story that already achieved its climax. It makes sense that after season 3 the show has lost a sense of where it is trying to go as an overarching narrative. 

[Drunkfrank 1,125]

I would say yes, but not by much, I am still an obsessive fanboy either way... Although I would just prefer a season wide intense story arc

If you think about it, the "show wide story arc" was supposed to be Twilight Sparkle's eventual rise to princess. I think that Lauren Faust said that originally she thought of having Twilight Sparkle become a princess eventually (as a series ending climax) but was not able to steer the ship at all after season 2. At the end of a short season 3, Twilight becomes a princess, and Hasbro decides to keep the train moving. Now suddenly the writers need to come up with a continuing arc to the story that already achieved its climax. It makes sense that after season 3 the show has lost a sense of where it is trying to go as an overarching narrative. 

I think the show arch is Twilights rise to REPLACE Celestia, not just become an allicorn

[Riganthor 484]

I dont mind that there is no grand storry line but it would be amazing if they could add one without losing the random episodes

[Grepper 3,192]

If you think about it, the "show wide story arc" was supposed to be Twilight Sparkle's eventual rise to princess. I think that Lauren Faust said that originally she thought of having Twilight Sparkle become a princess eventually (as a series ending climax) but was not able to steer the ship at all after season 2. At the end of a short season 3, Twilight becomes a princess, and Hasbro decides to keep the train moving. Now suddenly the writers need to come up with a continuing arc to the story that already achieved its climax. It makes sense that after season 3 the show has lost a sense of where it is trying to go as an overarching narrative. 

 

That's a really good point. If you're correct, we've passed the main story arc.

[BlueBrony 388]

 

I think the show arch is Twilights rise to REPLACE Celestia, not just become an allicorn

I think it would be neat if the show went that route.

[AlbaTross 1,586]

I kind of turn to anime if I want a deeply involved flowing narrative where every single episode builds on the last. I like that FiM has off episodes, as I can enjoy the characters and any lessons they might learn or fun moments that might occur, largely because episodes can be enjoyed on their own. I like to run through the series in order periodically, but I alternate between that and just putting on any episode that comes to mind. Not everything needs to build up to an involved story arc, though this show kind of strikes a happy medium between that and shows like The Simpsons or Family Guy that might have continuity stuff but it's more of an afterthought while the status quo is fairly key.

 

FiM's story progresses season after season. Starting with season 3 every season finale has shaken up the status quo significantly, and seasons 4 and 5 both had buildup to what was to come. Season 4 was a little more coherent from a narrative standpoint as it didn't have more than one overarching arc, while season 5 had the whole affair with Starlight Glimmer, as well as the cutie map episodes, and aside from the season 5 intro, they do not really intersect. Sure, the finale involved the cutie map in a deus ex machina sort of way, but it didn't really intersect with the going around solving friendship lessons sub-plot.

 

In any case, I think the show has a reasonable balance between continuity and off episodes, and I don't know if forcing an overarching story arc that blankets absolutely every episode would be beneficial. Now the comics are another matter. I think they would benefit from a little more continuity as next to anime and manga, comics thrive on continuity. I love the comics, but more as FiM material as they really don't perform well as a comic series from an objective standpoint. I understand that they have to walk on eggshells as they can't impact the continuity of the show, but I do think they're kind of held back by being B canon material. If there's a stage for involved continuity, it's the comics, but for the time being I highly doubt that's in the cards.