Does a story arc really help the show?

[Mesme Rize 15,681]

It's indeed something some people here on the forum and also outside of the forum wished. They want one large story arc for one entire season, with one villain making reapperances, because it would make the show more interesting for them and would probably bring in a bigger audience.

 

Now, it would probably cause one thing that i really wished for awhile and that is a bit more continuity. While i don't think that the continuity is bad in this show, it certainly can't hurt to add a bit more into it.

 

However, there is a problem with turning the show into a one season adventure arc and i think that it could hurt the appeal of the show.

 

95% of the shows episodes are episodic slice of life stories, with a bit of adventure here and there mixed inbetween and you don't need much explanation from earlier episodes, to really get what is going on. If you want to recommend pinkie pride to a newcomer? Go ahead and do it. Want to show him Power Ponies after that? No problem.

 

This is where the problem with the season long arc comes. If you are a newcomer and you come in to a season long story arc in the middle of it, you need to first get all the way to the beginning and watch it first and you also can't just recommend certain episodes from it, because it might not make sense if you don't have the context from the previous episodes.

 

We also have to realize that kids between the ages of 3-7 sometimes don't have the attention span to follow such a long arc and that's pretty much the audience, that Hasbro wants to sell their toys too.

 

I don't say that a story arc might be bad, maybe it can actually kinda good. But i am not sure if it will bring in a bigger audience and that's what i think the writers think about.

 

What are your opinions on it?

[Unicorncob 5,637]

How to not do a story arc; hype up an event, and then push said event in the background for a lackluster and/or recycled plot

 

cough equestria games cough

[Mesme Rize 15,681]

How to not do a story arc; hype up an event, and then push said event in the background for a lackluster and/or recycled plot

 

cough equestria games cough

 

And that's also another thing. Do these writers know how to do a story arc?

 

Don't get me wrong, most of them are good. But planning out an entire season, with stories linked between them, is far more difficult then planning one episode.

[Unicorncob 5,637]

And that's also another thing. Do these writers know how to do a story arc?

 

Don't get me wrong, most of them are good. But planning out an entire season, with stories linked between them, is far more difficult then planning one episode.

 

I think they are, considering the thing with the chest and keys, but the problem with the Equestria Games arc was the payoff

[hfiosdhvsdovsdio 86]

I think a story arc would be hard to keep up with in more than three episodes but I think maybe two or three episodes would be a do-able thing with it's target audience, and I don't know if this counts but with the first episode and the season 2 premiere episode they managed to do it with two with a "Previously on My Little Pony" card and a sum-up of what happened, so also they could maybe also do that.

Edited January 19, 2016 by Treeclimbyou

[Megas 27,136]

Story arcs are nice but I don't think the show really needs it, most of its best episodes are standalone episodes

 

That said I'd still like to see a smaller arc similar to the Grand Galloping Gala.

[cmarston1 5,953]

Well personally, I would like to see some more continuity in the show. I don't think this show could pull off an ATLA story arch, but with the map, I would like to see a bit more explorations to fantasy places. So I would like to see some more interesting worldbuilding.

[BastementSparkle 20,312]

A huge story arc really isn't necessary. Single episode adventures and slice of life tales have worked completely fine. I don't mind things like the keys or the map though, they weren't anything major and they didn't affect the story too much.

 

 That said, a more involved story arc could certainly be interesting. I wouldn't complain about having one if it was done well. The only thing that bothers me is the inevitable complaints of "Filler!" whenever an episode doesn't tie into it, which has already happened in previous seasons somewhat anyway. That's more just a problem with some of the fanbase being kind of silly than the show itself though.

[Riganthor 484]

I think the show is great as it is I dont mind if they do or don't add a storry arc of any discription

[Steel Accord 6,658]

Well maybe not a constant thing, or even a major one, it does give the show a sense of continuity. Season one had the Grand Galloping Gala, more recently we had the map. It doesn't have to be a permanent fixture that every episode revolves around but it grounds the episodes that feature it with a sense of buildup.

[Mesme Rize 15,681]

A huge story arc really isn't necessary. Single episode adventures and slice of life tales have worked completely fine. I don't mind things like the keys or the map though, they weren't anything major and they didn't affect the story too much.

 

 That said, a more involved story arc could certainly be interesting. I wouldn't complain about having one if it was done well. The only thing that bothers me is the inevitable complaints of "Filler!" whenever an episode doesn't tie into it, which has already happened in previous seasons somewhat anyway. That's more just a problem with some of the fanbase being kind of silly than the show itself though.

 

That constant complain, whenever an episode is considered "filler" and automatically labeled "not good" because of it, always fascinated me. If we look at most episodes of the show, you can also easily label them as filler.

[BastementSparkle 20,312]

 

 

That constant complain, whenever an episode is considered "filler" and automatically labeled "not good" because of it, always fascinated me. If we look at most episodes of the show, you can also easily label them as filler.

 

 

It's a weird complaint. I see it mostly used for seasons 4 and 5, mostly after they started doing more major arcs. It's like the entire point of the show becomes the overarching arc, and any episode not adding something to it is failing to add to the show, as if the slice of life adventures, morals, and everything else falls to the wayside in their minds.

 

 I've also seen it referred to that Season 5 was somewhat lacking in this manner. There was less of an ongoing story, and that this makes it a step-back, that it's a case of quality dropping. I can see the appeal to the idea of a continuing story, and understand the excitement to find out what happens next, but nobody seemed to really care about the lack of it in earlier seasons. Makes me wonder what changed, why it's such a big deal now.

[VengefulStrudel 1,486]

Personally, I prefer the show as it is, slice of life and adventure episodes that all lead into a small story-arc finale. I don't think a season-wide arc would benefit the show that much, if at all.

 

I'd rather they kept it as it is, independent episodes with premiere & finale arcs and maybe an underlying theme behind the season (like the keys in S4 or the map in S5).

[Sidral Mundet 1,666]

Does the show need a season long story arc? No, it's worked perfectly fine without one.

 

However I would like to see one or alternatively that the two-parter "epics" disappear. One of the main reason I'd liked to see a season long story arc is that it would make those premiers/finales with the fate of Equestria in the balance actual matter.  To me, with each passing season, there is a greater and greater disconnect between the two-parters and the middle SoL style episodes of the seasons. I mean the two-parters are styled as such that the events that take place are super important but they never get mentioned, they have no impact on anyone's life outside of the 1 single item that is the reward at the end of the finale that barely plays any role in the show. Having whatever happened in the premier come back and change how events play out makes it feel like that event has an impact, that it was important. So I would like it so that those events do matter to the characters or that they stop trying to make them as big as they are, especially if they aren't going to cover the consequences of such actions.  And that's basically why I want a season long story arc, I would like to see consequences of the actions set forward. 

[SBaby 660]

I wouldn't mind a season-long story arc.  I think it would be amazing to see, especially if there was a recurring villain for the whole season, building up to a major payoff either in the finale, or starting before the finale and having a major final battle in the finale itself.  It amazes me that fans of this show are so against this, because cartoons and kids' shows have been doing this for decades, and it's a formula that clearly works, over and over and over again.  If the formula didn't work and kids didn't like the idea of an ongoing story arc, the concept would have been wiped from existence long ago.

 

There's this absurd notion that it would somehow serve to make the show inaccessible to newcomers.  That's not true either, because you'd still have the slice-of-life aspect of the episodes.  Slice-of-life aspects would be intermingled with the main plot that is occurring in the arc.  This is how many kids' action shows do things.  You've got the issue of the day (which is slice-of-life related), the villain hatches some kind of scheme to take down the heroes, the heroes stop the scheme, and the resolution of the issue at the end.

 

People that bring up these arguments often aren't aware of how season-long arcs work.  This is how they work:

 

You've got the premiere where the big bad is introduced, and he or she does something to threaten the main characters.  During this intro phase, you see the main characters struggle with the villain, because it's new and they're out of their element.  They typically discover some kind of new power within themselves that allows them to stop whatever scheme the villain hatched, but not the villain themselves, because the villain isn't directly involved.  This is the intro to the season, which serves to introduce a new threat to the characters, showcase what challenges lie ahead for them, as well as establish the new status quo for the season.

 

Most of the regular episodes of the season involve the villain launching themed attacks against the main characters, based on what is happening in their lives.  Got a dance or party that one of the characters is attending?  Throw a monster-of-the week at them to interrupt their plans (if your villain is on the petty Rita Repulsa-esque side).  Or here's a better idea.  Turn that random character who can't seem to get a line right for a play she's trying out for, into a monster and have the characters fight it to turn her back to normal.  Maybe they even have to employ a new attack or power in order to reverse the spell that turned her into a monster.  This all ties into what I mentioned above, the episodic nature of the season would serve to be more accessible to newer viewers, while the ongoing plot of the overall season keeps the current audience engaged.  You don't lose the slice-of-life aspect of the season.  It's still there, and is in fact a plot point for the monsters of the week.

 

At some point, you have the end arc, which normally involves the characters coming into their full power for the season, a fact that would have been building up since the premiere (the characters have a new power, but despite using it more frequently, they don't necessarily know everything about it).  Something happens, and they manage to unlock their full power, which initiates the final battles of the season, leading to the villain's ultimate defeat at the end.  This is the culmination arc, where the characters apply everything they learned over the course of the season to ultimately triumph over the villain.

 

Again, this is more/less in line with the formula seen in most action cartoons and kids' shows.

Edited January 20, 2016 by SBaby

[PinkieatHeart 208]

I think it'd be interesting to have a big story arc, but I really like the "slice of life" episodes too... I don't know if I'd really wanna change it, but if they came up with a really cool story arc I'd love to watch it. :3

[Number62 1,247]

It's all about execution. I'll take good episodic storytelling over a bad story arc. A good story arc can still have the episodes stand alone while having obvious continuity between the episodes.