SoL finale.

[CastletonSnob 3,089]

Do you think the show should do more SoL-oriented finales like they did in The Best Night Ever? Or would you rather have finales stay as high-stakes epic adventures?

[Odd Ball 231]

I say stay with the adventure style finale, and make one involving the CMC.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,700]

Do you think the show should do more SoL-oriented finales like they did in The Best Night Ever? Or would you rather have finales stay as high-stakes epic adventures?

 

I'd be fine with SOL finales so long as we get more Adventure episodes in the middle of the seasons; The only real reason why I would be massively opposed to them removing the Action/adventure finales is that that's pretty much our ONLY chance for good big stakes adventure scenarios.

If we got more episodes like "do princesses dream of magical sheep" and power ponies every season, so we got about 3-5 adventure/fighting episodes during the season, I'd 100% be happy with a slice of life finale, but as things stand I'm pretty sure removing the action finales would just result in a loss for the adventure catagory

 

 

 

Honestly, the finales have seemed to have been on a downward trail in stakes/action ever since S4. Sure, tampering with time TECHNICALLY had bigger stakes than either of the S4 two parters, but it was in an Indirect way; It felt massively more low key than fighting Tirek or even the plunder vines, mainly due to starlight's actions more or less feeling like they were relying on writer Plot armor to work.

The S6 finale felt like it bounced back up, but the action and fighting still felt like a drastic drop from S4.

[Thrond 3,271]

I have no real attachment to the action-adventure element of the show, so I really would be happy if a finale wasn't about a great threat to Equestria for the bajjillionth time and focused on something more laid back. At this point I'm kind of desperate for anything different, but I feel like a single-episode, low-stakes slice-of-life could do a great job of capping everything done in the season and giving a real sense of finality. 22-minute party in Twilight's castle, I'I telling you.

 

Of course, action/adventure isn't really what I like about this show, and I wouldn't mind if the show went full sitcom, so I'm a little biased.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,164]

Personally, I would prefer to stick with the adventurous finales as they help to spice up the formula a bit; IMO.

 

That said I wouldn't be against a SoL finale as long as it's quality, and it provides closure to the season.

[Megas 28,139]

Best Night Ever is still the best finale ever.

 

Even without that, I haven't liked the recent finales, having a SoL finale would at least be a decent change of pace, especially since SoL is where the show really accels at imo

[Foxy Socks 2,603]

I don't think so, as they have to have two parts anyway. I prefer them the current way.

[Steve Piranha 29,496]

I always trust the writers know what they're doing. But as Unlikeable Pony wrote, it would be cool if there's a season finale that doesn't involve Equestria going bonkers, as long as in the middle of the season has a good amount of adventure episodes for a change . Still, a season finale doesn't necessarily need to have global meltdown problem, nor ass kicking, nor Sailor Moon transformation; just being meaningful, and have closure. 

 

 So far, the show has Best Night Ever (S1's finale), and (to a point) Magical Mystery Cure (S3's finale). The former was pretty average SoL, but it was compensated for a bigger number of adventure episodes. The latter was more emotional, because big things were at stake, but not Equestria, but their whole lives instead, but suffered from odd spacing. I personally wouldn't mind a SoL finale that the stakes are once again the personal lives of the Mane6, as I feel they are relatable, and still gives closure... It has to increase the adventures that season however

[cmarston1 5,964]

I would be perfectly fine with a slice of life series finale.

[Luminance 2,187]

I don't really mind a "slice of life" finale for a little change of pace. I don't need a high stakes, adventure filled, epic, OP finale but something else that can potentially incorporate into a well written finale to end a season without the world at risk. Plus that opens up room for songs that convey character emotions rather than action filling in the time.

[The MegaBrony 219]

There should be more SoL finales to keep stakes more personal and relatable. The grander the scale, the more focus goes to spectacle rather than character development. At this rate, Season 10's Big Bad will be the Internet itself (like in Dikembe Mutombo's 4 1/2 Weeks to Save The World)...

[Unlikeable Pony 2,700]

There should be more SoL finales to keep stakes more personal and relatable. The grander the scale, the more focus goes to spectacle rather than character development. At this rate, Season 10's Big Bad will be the Internet itself (like in Dikembe Mutombo's 4 1/2 Weeks to Save The World)...

That would hold true if the villains kept being introduced as more threatening a things go on; But Tirek and Discord honestly were the biggest stakes villains yet, as far as power levels go, so Escalation really isn't an issue.

Hell, one of the big issues with the finale for this season was that people were pointing out that Chrysalis and the changelings Nabbing pretty much everyone in equestria without anyone noticing reeked of plot armor since they were usually seen as lower tier villains by most people. (Likewise, the throne being introduced out of nowhere being THAT powerful of a power nullifier just so discord couldn't snap his fingers and solve everything like the episode lampshaded)

 

 

The fact that they DRASTICALLY Nerfed the power level of the mane six (By getting rid of the EOH) means that they've likewise drastically jumped backwards in Villain threat/power levels, so it's going to take a LONG time till they ever reach the threat level of Prior villains like Tirek and Discord. I don't expect anyone to reach that level until the movie.

[Thrond 3,271]

There should be more SoL finales to keep stakes more personal and relatable. The grander the scale, the more focus goes to spectacle rather than character development. At this rate, Season 10's Big Bad will be the Internet itself (like in Dikembe Mutombo's 4 1/2 Weeks to Save The World)...

I thought "Twilight's Kingdom" did a good job of connecting the immediate stakes (which were massive and probably can't be topped) to Twilight's own confusion about her life. While that episode was about Tirek and the threat he represented, it was also very much about how Twilight reacts to the aforementioned threat, and how that links to her own personal issues of the moment.

 

I did not, however, think that "The Cutie Re-Mark" did anything remotely interesting with Twilight, and while I liked Starlight's reformation, most of the episode has nothing to do with that. I haven't seen this season's finale yet, but at this point, the "defeat major threat to Equestria" plotline feels like it's peaked and is starting to get tired, and so I'm worried that Starlight leading the heroes is just a gimmick.

 

A "slice-of-life" story can be widely varied in what that means, but these adventure-type finales seem to be repeating themselves. Meanwhile, you look at the last several finales, and they've deescalated if anything - "The Cutie Map" reduced the scale of the villain's plans in exchange for the show's darkest tonal experiment yet, and "The Crystalling" allowed its entire first half to be straight-up character-driven slice-of-life, and then focused more on damage control than defeating a villain in its second half. Meanwhile, the finale formula has been largely unchanged over the five plus episodes it's been used in, and I'm growing tired of it. 

Edited October 17, 2016 by AlexanderThrond