Explore Equestria.

[CastletonSnob 3,089]

I have to say, I'm disappointed with how the "Explore Equestria" theme is being handled. I was hoping for more adventure episodes, more worldbuilding, and going to locations we haven't seen. Instead, we've gone to the Crystal Empire and Manehattan. So far, the only place that's really been explored is the dragon lands.

 

What do you think? Would you like more of what I just talked about? Or is it fine the way it is?

[Unlikeable Pony 2,700]

I have to say, I'm disappointed with how the "Explore Equestria" theme is being handled. I was hoping for more adventure episodes, more worldbuilding, and going to locations we haven't seen. Instead, we've gone to the Crystal Empire and Manehattan. So far, the only place that's really been explored is the dragon lands.

 

What do you think? Would you like more of what I just talked about? Or is it fine the way it is?

Yeah, I agree. The explore equestria thing is total bollox.

 

I figured, with the map, they'd be sending them all OVER the place, showing us new areas and giving us worldbuilding while having the mane six do all sorts of stuff and have adventures. The only place we've "Explored" has been manehattan, and we've ALREADY SEEN THAT.

Okay, okay. There was the dragonlands; and that is WHAT I EXPECTED. Episodes like gauntlet of fire where we go to a place we've never seen, encounter a group or race we don't know much about, have an adventure, and then go home. (On that note, I'd also like to point out how GOF is well liked and probably the best episode of the season)

 

I'm thinking that the explore equestria line was what hasbro told them to do, and the show staff basically said "Lolfuck that shit" and ignored it past a couple bare minimum episodes to stick to the theme, much like how the shadowbolts were a giant plot tumor in Friendship games despite being a major part of the toyline.

 

 

 

 

So, Unless they pull a MASSIVE 180 and have the second half of the season be about sending them all over equestria, I'm thinking we're not in for much else this season about exploring.

[CastletonSnob 3,089]

 

Okay, okay. There was the dragonlands; and that is WHAT I EXPECTED. Episodes like gauntlet of fire where we go to a place we've never seen, encounter a group or race we don't know much about, have an adventure, and then go home. (On that note, I'd also like to point out how GOF is well liked and probably the best episode of the season)

 

 

I'll say it again: I never thought I'd see a SPIKE episode be considered one of the best episodes of the season. 

[Goat-kun 2,531]

INB4 slice-o-lifers tell you how it was never officially said that this season was about exploring Equestria, and if you filthy, adventure-starved savages don’t like it you should just leave the fandom.

 

Anyway, my theory is that this season is about Mane 6 fulfilling their dreams and teaching others to do the same. Do I feel a little cheated and unimpressed? Eyup, especially since the episodes we do get are doing a shitty job at conveying how far Mane 6 have come, and thus I still wanna see more exploring and less … whatever this is. But let’s face it: it’s not like we didn’t feel it coming. Hopes are they’re burning all their good shit and personnel on the movie, so we’re left with whatever’s on the bottom of the barrel. I daresay its residue tastes like spoiled grape juice.

[CastletonSnob 3,089]

INB4 slice-o-lifers tell you how it was never officially said that this season was about exploring Equestria, and if you filthy, adventure-starved savages don’t like it you should just leave the fandom.

 

Anyway, my theory is that this season is about Mane 6 fulfilling their dreams and teaching others to do the same. Do I feel a little cheated and unimpressed? Eyup, especially since the episodes we do get are doing a shitty job at conveying how far Mane 6 have come, and thus I still wanna see more exploring and less … whatever this is. But let’s face it: it’s not like we didn’t feel it coming. Hopes are they’re burning all their good shit and personnel on the movie, so we’re left with whatever’s on the bottom of the barrel. I daresay its residue tastes like spoiled grape juice.

You don't like this season so far?

 

 

[Unlikeable Pony 2,700]

You don't like this season so far?

 

 

Well newbie dash is pretty much one of the worst episodes to come out of this show yet and its more or less the "cap" to dash's dream to join the wonderbolts, so those of us expecting to see characters fulfilling their dreams are a little upset at this season

 

 

Not speaking for goat-kun, but the only episode that I truly found Good this season was Gauntlet of fire and TGOMP, and the rest have all been either just "Meh" or downright horrific (Newbie dash)

So far the season is a definite downgrade from S5 and a HUGE downgrade from S6. I'm hoping they turn things around, but I really don't have much hope is the thing. I KNOW that Starlight is the big theme for this season, and I Just don't GIVE A SHIT about her and have found her episodes to be pretty "meh" this season.

 

So that means that, Even IF the upcoming Slice of life episodes are great (I AM hugely hyped for the upcoming rarity, Fluttershy, Rarity/Pinkie, ect. episodes for example), I KNOW that I'm in for some more Crappy Starlight glimmer SOL episodes and pretty much GUARANTEED that the finale will revolve around her again.

 

 

So its just that we've got a bad start and a guarantee that there will be more "meh" to come, so its going to be unlikely for this season to measure up to past seasons.

 

 

INB4 slice-o-lifers tell you how it was never officially said that this season was about exploring Equestria, and if you filthy, adventure-starved savages don’t like it you should just leave the fandom.

 

 

To be honest though, from a logical perspective, it'd make sense for them to suddenly scrap any and all adventure episodes and move that stuff to Guardians of harmony in order to differentiate what GOH offers

[Goat-kun 2,531]

You don't like this season so far?

 

 

It’s a bit more complicated. The episodes themselves aren’t so bad if you look back at all the previous seasons, but as far as their content is concerned, I don’t really like where they are going with all this. They are just so forgettable and mediocre. Even the Newbie Dash episode feels like just another lesson episode that’s crawled out from the bowels of FIM’s history when it’s supposed to represent the current pinnacle of her development. The only two things that I’ve seen people being positively excited over for more than one day were Ember and Spirit Luna, both smelling more of adventure than slice of life. Well, call me blind but the period after Gauntlet was the only time I’ve seen more episode related posts on this forum in a while. Now we’re back to Glimmer apologia and standard forum meta.

[ManaMinori 4,149]

I agree. We're not create really exploring Equestria wiy th places we've been to

[Goat-kun 2,531]

Not speaking for goat-kun, but the only episode that I truly found Good this season was Gauntlet of fire and TGOMP, and the rest have all been either just "Meh" or downright horrific (Newbie dash)

 

 

To be honest though, from a logical perspective, it'd make sense for them to suddenly scrap any and all adventure episodes and move that stuff to Guardians of harmony in order to differentiate what GOH offers

At this point, such a move seems like a logical one indeed, but hiring a team of writers that can actually write adventures while fragmenting the show into FIM and GoH is something I just don’t see happening. We don’t even know if GoH is here to stay or what exactly will it use to promote itself besides the IDW comics. And you said it yourself: Gauntlet is one of the better episodes this season, and it has managed to make our fandom excited post episode. This could imply that slice-o-lifers are just a bunch of haughty birds chirping their lungs out at the very top of the fandom tree and that folks below are thirsty for similar episodes.

 

Could this be a miscalculation on part of our glorious writers? Damn, sometimes I feel like I’m a Nod insurgent arguing against GDI.

 

Adventure will set us free! Faust lives! One vision! One purpose!

[TheAnimatorOfficial 567]

I think this season isn't quite as intuitive because the elite showmakers are working their tails off (no pun intended) on the movie. If there's a season 7 it will be better.

[cmarston1 5,964]

To be honest, I am disappointed in the whole Explore Equestria motive that this season is supposed to be about.

The show actually has a map of Equestria and their are multiple locations that we haven't even seen before such as Las Pegasus, and Hollow Shades that could make for some pretty interesting worldbuilding and entertaining episodes.

But instead the show focuses on Ponyville 90% of the time and the only locations that we get such as Canterlot, Manehatten and the Crystal Empire, have been seen a billion times already.

The show even has a perfect opportunity in order to get the main cast in order to go to these new locations with the Cutie Map.

But it barely gets anything to do, and halfway through this season is the first time that it will actually play a role, despite being marketed as being important in season 5.

I would love for some more expansion on the show's lore (which is one of the reasons why Gauntlet of Fire was good as it actually managed to do the whole explore equestria thing that this season is being marketed as and should be about) but I don't think we are going to get any more in the foreseeable future.

At least the movie will give us some more, I guess.

Edited May 21, 2016 by cmarston1

[Steve Piranha 29,496]

Yeah, I'm also a bit disappointed with the Explore Equestria theme, while in the actual show, the only new thing we've seen are the Dragon Lands. The rest are still Poniville, Canterlot (with an upcoming episode revisiting it, AGAIN ), The empiyah, and Manehattan (which we've been exploring a lot of it lately ). I mean, yes, I wasn't expecting FiM to explore new places in every single episode, but it kinda rubs me in the wrong way that we're about to reach half season and we've seen ONLY ONE new place so far. We got Hollow Shades, Fillidephia, Baltimare, Las Pegasus, etc

[CastletonSnob 3,089]

Why do you think the show isn't exploring more places?

[Jinxie Umbra 149]

'Tis true that the locations thus far have been repetitive, but I do like the continuity between the episodes. And there is still more than half a season to go, so I'll wait before passing judgement.

[Number62 1,267]

I don't read much info about the show (mostly so I can watch the episodes cold), but what source(s) state that this season will have tons of exploration?

[Steve Piranha 29,496]

It was never explicitly stated, but with the theme of Traveling Equestria, we kinda expected new places by now. Yes, it delivered on the theme so far, but all but the Dragon Lands were already explored, having more places to look at if you see the map 

[Unlikeable Pony 2,700]

 The empiyah

 

The stupid thing is that the crystal empire legitimately HAS a ton of crap that could be explored: its a borderline unknown location with a history that modern ponies are largely unaware of, and tons of secrets from its past that could be explored.

 

Like the crystal heart, how it was formed, the history of its past rulers and beings, ect. Based on the comics talking about how the empire used to imprison beings too powerful for TARTARUS beneath its snows, there's certainly alot of potential there. but all we got was "new princess".

 

 

It was never explicitly stated, but with the theme of Traveling Equestria, we kinda expected new places by now. Yes, it delivered on the theme so far, but all but the Dragon Lands were already explored, having more places to look at if you see the map 

I'm hoping that the first half of this season was just to get the mandatory Starlight episodes out of the way and that we're going to be getting an increase in exploration soon, based on the Upcoming Rarity/pinkie episode sounding like the map's returning.

 

Key word there though, HOPE

[pony.colin 156]

wait, is season 6's main theme supposed to be about 'exploring Equestria'? Is that true? Link for source please?

 

Because, seriously, I was not under that impression AT ALL that this was supposed to be a 'world-building' season.

[Wind Chaser 4,768]

They did fail to deliver on that front, but then again, MLP has a poor track record with season-long arcs and themes. We haven't seen the map at all this season, and it only factored into a handful of episodes last season. To that, we did get only a limited amount of new locations, with Manehattan returning twice and the Dragon Lands possibly being the only new one, unless old Canterlot from "A Hearth's Warming Tale" factors in.

 

Even though Season 5 didn't commit itself to an overarching theme, we still got a lot of cutie mark-focused episodes, including a whole character arc for the Crusaders, and a few episodes revolving around adventures with the map. Even though Cutie Mark Magic wasn't official in the show, they did work it in somehow.

 

Season 4 was the best at committing to an arc, with the Rainbow Power keys. The only thing I have to say about that is that the episode quality was all over the place, but that's beside the point.

 

Season 6 never committed to this theme, unfortunately, and most of the episodes seem to be playing it very safe. I give props to "Gauntlet of Fire" for expanding Spike's character, "A Hearth's Warming Tale" for its epic musical atmosphere, "The Saddle Row Review" for sharp dialogue writing, editing, and a fresh creative choice with the interview format, and "The Crystalling" for delivering an entertaining second part. Other than that, though, the episodes we got have played it very safe and haven't gone full bore with the potential of underused characters and themes.

[CastletonSnob 3,089]

They did fail to deliver on that front, but then again, MLP has a poor track record with season-long arcs and themes. We haven't seen the map at all this season, and it only factored into a handful of episodes last season. To that, we did get only a limited amount of new locations, with Manehattan returning twice and the Dragon Lands possibly being the only new one, unless old Canterlot from "A Hearth's Warming Tale" factors in.

 

Even though Season 5 didn't commit itself to an overarching theme, we still got a lot of cutie mark-focused episodes, including a whole character arc for the Crusaders, and a few episodes revolving around adventures with the map. Even though Cutie Mark Magic wasn't official in the show, they did work it in somehow.

 

Season 4 was the best at committing to an arc, with the Rainbow Power keys. The only thing I have to say about that is that the episode quality was all over the place, but that's beside the point.

 

Season 6 never committed to this theme, unfortunately, and most of the episodes seem to be playing it very safe. I give props to "Gauntlet of Fire" for expanding Spike's character, "A Hearth's Warming Tale" for its epic musical atmosphere, "The Saddle Row Review" for sharp dialogue writing, editing, and a fresh creative choice with the interview format, and "The Crystalling" for delivering an entertaining second part. Other than that, though, the episodes we got have played it very safe and haven't gone full bore with the potential of underused characters and themes.

Do you think the show should have more adventure episodes, or stay slice of life?

[Wind Chaser 4,768]

Do you think the show should have more adventure episodes, or stay slice of life?

Even though I believe the show's format could be a bit more open, i.e. more freedom to do multi-part episodes in the middle of a season as opposed to just the beginning or the end, the format they have going for them right now works pretty good. I'd like to see a good mix of adventure and slice-of-life elements, which is what made this show unique in the first place.

 

The subject matter of the episodes themselves is more the issue than the genre or style used.