What bugged me about Season 6.

[LeafFerret 3,382]

Okay last post from me. I'm going to bed and I'm not going to be reresponding any time soon (or probably ever if I had the choice) so just an FYI.

 

Fair enough and I do doubt the Mane 6 will play a big role in the two-parters but unlike you I hold that idea in both dread and contempt. Like you've said, this show is called Friendship is Magic, so how about you show off the friendship part instead of the Magic part and have one of the Remane 5 carry the episodes instead of skipping them entirely for a new character?

 

So if you feel like the writers never gave the others a chance, why not rectify that and have them take the lead or get more of an arc? 

 

Okay I think we're coming to a general consensus or at the very least a mutual understanding. Now I will admit constantly having the Mane 6 always on screen is a bad idea. Episodes like Brotherhooves Social and Discord and Dungeons show how good the show can be without the Mane cast and I don't mind them giving more screen time to other characters. Episodes like Make New Friends but Keep Discord and Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep? were great episodes that had the Mane cast play a supporting role. But the fact is I still want the Mane 6 to play a large role and for us to have moments with them. 

 

And how did Starlight's lesson in any way help her beat Chrysalis? They didn't do jack because there was the Thorax Ex Machina that just saved the day for her. Thorax learning about friendship is what saved the day, not Starlight.  Fluttershy and Rainbow could have saved the day if the writers wanted them to but they didn't.  And don't go on about how Fluttershy and Rainbow don't know about Friendship, they know more about than Starlight does and they don't need remedial lessons on it.  Hell they;re the two longest friends on the show. 

The remane 5 had 5 seasons to save the day and the only one we got was Fluttershy saving the town ponies in Season 5 and judging from what I've seen in them, the only ones capable of doing that are either Fluttershy or Applejack, the others would probably have no idea how to do it. They've had their chances but they blew their chance.

 

That what I would like to see, have one of them do Twilight's duties if she's unavailable, that would be a good episode, not relying on Twilight all the time.

 

That, I sort of agree with. I do want them to have a major role in future seasons but at the same time, assist in Starlight in her friendship lessons, I feel that is still incomplete.

 

She was the one who led them to save the ponies, without them, who would know how to stop them, even Thorax had no idea how to stop Chrysalis because he was out of the hive for so long and Starlight was the one to tell him to spread the love in the hive. I think Rainbow has bigger problems than trying to save Equestria, she's too busy thinking about herself and she had chances to be the hero like in Dragonshy.

 

Also, me talking about the mane 6 in future seasons isn't really focused on the whole cast, it's more of give Twilight most of the focus, I mean if someone like Applejack saving the day, I think that would a better episode than Twilight doing it, that sort of gets too predictable at times. I don't mind them seeing them in future seasons, I just don't want to see Twilight have most of the focus or credit for it.

Edited December 28, 2016 by GlimGlam04

[Thrond 3,257]

Ok, this I can address. Rainbow Dash also had no idea what the sport was like before hearing about it, so she also had no practice. Also, Rainbow Dash is a bit more... easily distracted when she has to basically hold still and watch the ball (let's be honest, they're playing a version of soccer/football), basically playing goalie. Rainbow is better where her speed and power will aid her. Fluttershy is more patient and has been shown to be fairly athletic when she tries (I imagine as a result of dealing with animals up to ten times her size on the regular). She doesn't move much, she can focus, and her tail does have a reach advantage over Dashie's, being significantly longer and all. There are also games you just kind of pick up and run with and are just kind of good at. Badminton was mine, and I don't have an athletic bone in my body.

I still find it weird that Fluttershy would so easily outclass the ponies who spend most of their free time on athletics, but I suppose that does make sense. I had other issues with that episode, but that's the main one I had with its actual writing, although I find it surprising that Snails was the only unicorn who was any good at the sport. Although, I remember Rainbow and Applejack having done a fair bit of training before Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie showed up and outclassed them in a single casual match, and even if I'm mistaken, Applejack clearly knew about the sport previously. 

[Glacies Frost 428]

I still find it weird that Fluttershy would so easily outclass the ponies who spend most of their free time on athletics, but I suppose that does make sense. I had other issues with that episode, but that's the main one I had with its actual writing, although I find it surprising that Snails was the only unicorn who was any good at the sport. Although, I remember Rainbow and Applejack having done a fair bit of training before Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie showed up and outclassed them in a single casual match, and even if I'm mistaken, Applejack clearly knew about the sport previously. 

 

I'll just repost my edit here, since I was a little too slow fixing it.

 

EDIT: I will admit they hammed it up a little hard, though, with Pinkie and Flutters being better than them by a wide margin, but... eh, I'll let it slide since it was actually pretty funny to me.

 

I'm not saying this excuses it, since they could have had them only be slightly better because of their unconventional and erratic playstyle. However, they went the joke route for laughs, and while it may be a bit of a waste of decent character moment, I still like it.

 

I understand why you don't particularly like it, and I won't deny the reasons are valid. I just don't outright consider it a bad episode. That's the only real contentious point I have here.

[Sidral Mundet 1,666]

*Cut*

Okay I lied I got one more in me. 

 

There's a whole other season ahead. The writers can easily give them the lead in a two-parter. Hope Springs eternal. (Wow I'm a pessimist and you're getting me to be an optimist )

 

 Indeed it very well could be.

 

Some assistance, I don't want Starlight's plot to be the main thread of the season. Having it be a CMC style thing I'm okay with (Like two to three episodes a season and a clear story progression but not the Main story, but that's me.)

 

Yeah but what does that really have anything to do with her friendship lessons? Honestly Twilight was a rather bad teacher. Starlight has more or less been on her own. Her leadership abilities were never brought into question or were a thing for her prior to the finale. And like I said that whole love power thing came right out of nowhere. And you're overplaying Rainbow's ego, she will always be there for a pony in need, she is the element of loyalty and will do the right thing when push comes to shove.  

[Thrond 3,257]

I'll just repost my edit here, since I was a little too slow fixing it.

 

EDIT: I will admit they hammed it up a little hard, though, with Pinkie and Flutters being better than them by a wide margin, but... eh, I'll let it slide since it was actually pretty funny to me.

 

I'm not saying this excuses it, since they could have had them only be slightly better because of their unconventional and erratic playstyle. However, they went the joke route for laughs, and while it may be a bit of a waste of decent character moment, I still like it.

 

I understand why you don't particularly like it, and I won't deny the reasons are valid. I just don't outright consider it a bad episode. That's the only real contentious point I have here.

I think the episode has enough charms to not be outright "bad," and I also brush off potential issues with an episode just because they entertain me. It definitely is that wide margin of skill which I find so irritating, though. 

[Glacies Frost 428]

Yeah but what does that really have anything to do with her friendship lessons? Honestly Twilight was a rather bad teacher. Starlight has more or less been on her own. 

 

Your turn. This is a nitpick, but this is basically the exact same thing Celestia did to Twilight, only she was much further away and not on hand to answer questions at the drop of a hat. Besides, if I know Twily the way I think I do, she's a very hands off teacher. You get a few lectures, and then you get free study period, and then you get the notecards full of homework (the practical lessons). I'm banking that off screen, Twilight will occasionally go over her own history with her friends in a very verbose fashion to the point where Starlight falls asleep at the table and needs one of Dashie's airhorn attacks to wake her up.

 

You can't force friendship lessons in a classroom setting. You have to put the theory into practice and learn organically. Having a logical understanding really doesn't help on an emotional level. If you try to get how friendship works out of a book, you... get Sai from Naruto (I can't believe I just said that).

[Sidral Mundet 1,666]

Your turn. This is a nitpick, but this is basically the exact same thing Celestia did to Twilight, only she was much further away and not on hand to answer questions at the drop of a hat. Besides, if I know Twily the way I think I do, she's a very hands off teacher. You get a few lectures, and then you get free study period, and then you get the notecards full of homework (the practical lessons). I'm banking that off screen, Twilight will occasionally go over her own history with her friends in a very verbose fashion to the point where Starlight falls asleep at the table and needs one of Dashie's airhorn attacks to wake her up.

 

You can't force friendship lessons in a classroom setting. You have to put the theory into practice and learn organically. Having a logical understanding really doesn't help on an emotional level. If you try to get how friendship works out of a book, you... get Sai from Naruto (I can't believe I just said that).

 

Twilight learns about Friendship on her own but she's far more a normal well adjusted pony where as Starlight has barely any ideas on normal social standings. And Twilight had a ton of lessons prior to the start of the series.

 

Also I agree with you about how friendship is suppose to work. Too bad Twilight doesn't seem to think that way since she gave out friendship assignments like homework and expected Starlight to learn and be a good friend from them. Celestia understood this and gave Twilight the room to grow from them with only the occasional check in, not an assignment sheet with a progress bar that Starlight needed to fill out. 

[Glacies Frost 428]

Twilight learns about Friendship on her own but she's far more a normal well adjusted pony where as Starlight has barely any ideas on normal social standings. And Twilight had a ton of lessons prior to the start of the series.

 

Also I agree with you about how friendship is suppose to work. Too bad Twilight doesn't seem to think that way since she gave out friendship assignments like homework and expected Starlight to learn and be a good friend from them. Celestia understood this and gave Twilight the room to grow from them with only the occasional check in, not an assignment sheet with a progress bar that Starlight needed to fill out. 

 

Welp, Starlight's teacher does have a book about the proper way to do a sleepover... Besides, the homework was just "go and do x activity with y pony." She doesn't really try to force any lessons. If anything it seems like she's just trying to get Starlight to be more social with Twilight's friends so that she can gain the confidence to make her own friends outside the Mane group (barring Trixie, Discord, and Thorax now of course).

[The MegaBrony 218]

I would like to see Starlight get more interactions with one of the characters at a time. And less focus on the Mane 6, come on we have seen enough of that, let background characters have a chance to shine.

The fact that the Mane 6 were captured at the second-to-last episode and showed no resistance is a sign that the writers are running out of ideas for them. There might as well be a completely different series with a completely different mane cast, setting, and continuity. Just buy the 6's toys and send them on your own adventures.

Edited December 28, 2016 by The MegaBrony

[Buck Testa 5,503]

I'll allow that "P.P.O.V." (and, for that matter, "Buckball Season" and "The Cart Before the Ponies") are kinda beneath this show, but otherwise I'm not sure there's a whole lot of episodes from season 6 which I'd put below "It's About Time," and I certainly wouldn't call much of season 6 "amateurish crap" like you did.  

Season premier: Chuck full of exposition and not a lot going on. once you trim out all the expositional fat it basically boils down too "Baby broke a thing, here come evil clouds, lets fix the thing baby broke, everyone is happy." Probably one of the most anemic plots out of all the season premiers 

 

Gift of the Maud Pie: Lazy reuse of Maud Pie for a lazy pun towards gift of the maji, which is this eps plot with no substantial alterations. I like Maud, but they did nothing to expand her character in this episode, nor did they do anything to further Pinkie and Mauds relationship. Rarity was just there cause they needed to exposition why she needed another shop. They could have easily used one of Pinkie's OTHER sisters whom we know NOTHING about to show how their relationship works, instead they went with Maud and did NOTHING with her. 

 

Newbie Dash: Better known as "Rainbow Dash Cringe Compilation" 

 

A Hearth Warming Tail: Literally the Christmas Carol done so by the numbers I'm sure I could find a fanfic that did it better before it ever aired. 

 

Applejacks Day off: Nothing happened other than making Applejack look so ineffective at the thing she is supposedly talented in that it distracts from the actual message of the episode 

 

Spice up your life: The episode that straw mans critique isn't going to get a high opinion out of me, but that's just personal preference, other than that it was a wholly okay episode. Okay being the operative word. 

 

 

Stranger than Fanfiction: Fandom arguments are annoying enough without making an episode about it. Plus they could have handled the premise of two opposing ideas being okay far better than just having it all be resolved in the last couple minutes of the episode. What RD and Quibble needed was a neutral party who could see both sides. Nothing new was revealed about Daring Do or what she is about either. Hell she could have explained to Quibble why her story took the turns it did.

 

Cart before the ponies: Hey lets flanderize the mane six to the point of being unlikable and have them act more immature than the actual children characters 

 

28 pranks later: 6 season of character development for Rainbow Dash? Who needs that?! Chuck it all out the window and make her as bad as season 1 RD, no, WORSE than S1 RD! I swear Pinkie might have been the only one I liked that episode. 

 

Every Little Thing she does: You know how we are reforming Starlight Glimmer? The Pony who almost destroyed Equestria? The one Twilight is inexplicably teaching MORE magic too? What if she uses Mind controlling magic on her friends like a sociopath, feels no remorse about using said spell like a sociopath, doesn't understand what she did wrong when other characters are trying to explain it to her like a sociopath, and then NOT GIVE HER ANY REAL CONSEQUENCES FOR HER ACTIONS WHAT SO EVER, BECAUSE APPARENTLY SAYING SORRY FOR MIND CONTROLLING PONIES WITH MAGIC IS A SUITABLE ENOUGH PUNISHMENT!  

 

P.P.O.V : Laziest damn episode 

 

Where the Apple Lies: Here's an opportunity to show Apple jacks parents and maybe infant Applebloom within the context of her story and perhaps give the Apple Family more depth.....NAAAAAAAAAHHHH lets just reverse some of AJ's and Big Mac's personality traits a bit and do a paint by numbers liar revealed story...cause THAT's not played out to death. 

 

To where and back again: There is an entire topic on how bad this two parter screwed up, and I'm not ready to write it right now. 

 

 

 

Where there good eps and okay eps? Sure! There are plenty I didn't list, and the Saddle Row Review was probably one of my favorite episodes of the series, but that doesn't save the arc in my eyes from being one of the weakest MLP FIM has put out. 

Edited December 28, 2016 by Buck Testa

[cider float 2,535]

What "bugged" you about Season 6 is that there were "bug" ponies?

[Glacies Frost 428]

Every Little Thing she does: You know how we are reforming Starlight Glimmer? The Pony who almost destroyed Equestria? The one Twilight is inexplicably teaching MORE magic too? What if she uses Mind controlling magic on her friends like a sociopath, feels no remorse about using said spell like a sociopath, doesn't understand what she did wrong when other characters are trying to explain it to her like a sociopath, and then NOT GIVE HER ANY REAL CONSEQUENCES FOR HER ACTIONS WHAT SO EVER, BECAUSE APPARENTLY SAYING SORRY FOR MIND CONTROLLING PONIES WITH MAGIC IS A SUITABLE ENOUGH PUNISHMENT!  

 

Can we be friends? Let's be friends, because this is precisely my problem with this episode. I mentioned earlier that mind control is kind of a pet peeve of mine, and in my opinion something only a villain would do. Reformed or not, that's a black mark on Starlight's record for me. I still don't hate her, because I'm convinced that episode was the fault of the writer letting a drunk, lobotomized sociopath write his script for him... with his elbows... while experiencing an hallucinogenic nightmare brought on by whatever was in the tea pitcher that day.

 

That was a relapse in every sense of the term. Controlling others with magic... again, though this time with an actual mind control spell instead of through the removal of cutie marks. There's a point where you go too far, and that was it for me.

Edited December 28, 2016 by GlaciesFrost

[LeafFerret 3,382]

Every Little Thing she does: You know how we are reforming Starlight Glimmer? The Pony who almost destroyed Equestria? The one Twilight is inexplicably teaching MORE magic too? What if she uses Mind controlling magic on her friends like a sociopath, feels no remorse about using said spell like a sociopath, doesn't understand what she did wrong when other characters are trying to explain it to her like a sociopath, and then NOT GIVE HER ANY REAL CONSEQUENCES FOR HER ACTIONS WHAT SO EVER, BECAUSE APPARENTLY SAYING SORRY FOR MIND CONTROLLING PONIES WITH MAGIC IS A SUITABLE ENOUGH PUNISHMENT!  

I feel the same way for Rainbow Dash, I feel any time that an episode of her appears, she quickly forgets what she learnt in a previous episode and it just resets all over again and she never gets punished for it, Trade Ya! and Tanks for the Memories are two good examples.

[Megas 27,044]

The fact that the Mane 6 were captured at the second-to-last episode and showed no resistance is a sign that the writers are running out of ideas for them. There might as well be a completely different series with a completely different mane cast, setting, and continuity. Just buy the 6's toys and send them on your own adventures.

That's more of a sign of shitty writing than anything

 

 

 

Every Little Thing she does: You know how we are reforming Starlight Glimmer? The Pony who almost destroyed Equestria? The one Twilight is inexplicably teaching MORE magic too? What if she uses Mind controlling magic on her friends like a sociopath, feels no remorse about using said spell like a sociopath, doesn't understand what she did wrong when other characters are trying to explain it to her like a sociopath, and then NOT GIVE HER ANY REAL CONSEQUENCES FOR HER ACTIONS WHAT SO EVER, BECAUSE APPARENTLY SAYING SORRY FOR MIND CONTROLLING PONIES WITH MAGIC IS A SUITABLE ENOUGH PUNISHMENT!    

 

 

Not to mention it was her last appearance before the finale after being gone for a long time, and the last chance the writers had to win people over before the finale, and yet they went out of their way to do the opposite

 

to say she didn't deserve the starring role/hero for the finale was an understatement

 

 

 

I feel the same way for Rainbow Dash, I feel any time that an episode of her appears, she quickly forgets what she learnt in a previous episode and it just resets all over again and she never gets punished for it, Trade Ya! and Tanks for the Memories are two good examples.

 

 

In Trade Ya she went out of her way to fix her mistake and in TftM she failed at what she set out to do and instead actually jumpstarted winter, so I guess the writers felt that was enough(whether you agree or not depends on your mileage). S6 is really the only season I felt any real regression with both Newbie Dash and 28 Pranks Later, but both were due to inexcusably shitty writing that I honestly feel was deliberate mainly due to circumstances surrounding both those episodes(Newbie Dash was the episode where she finally realizes her lifelong dream, the episode goes out of its way to do the complete opposite of a milestone episode and dedicates its entire run time to completely humiliate her, while 28 Pranks Later is soooo much like MMDW aka one of the show's most hated episodes, that there's no way, it's impossible to believe that the writers weren't that stupid and didn't see the similarities, but evidently all they cared about was dickriding the zombie hype train)

 

In contrast Starlight is the show's poster child of a Karma Houdini, She was S5's villain who's actions consists of brainwashing an entire village and nearly destroying the space-time continuum, what followed was one of the most pants-shittingly laziest redemptions I have ever seen come out of FiM, with Starlight be given virtually everything on a silver platter, doing nothing to actually earn anything, and given nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Not to mention, she'd pull the same shit deep into S6 where she needed to win over the audience the most, however she goes back and goes and brainwash the remane 5, once more, receiving nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Oh, and the long absences doesn't really help either 

Edited December 28, 2016 by Megas

[Thrond 3,257]

Season premier: Chuck full of exposition and not a lot going on. once you trim out all the expositional fat it basically boils down too "Baby broke a thing, here come evil clouds, lets fix the thing baby broke, everyone is happy." Probably one of the most anemic plots out of all the season premiers 

 

Gift of the Maud Pie: Lazy reuse of Maud Pie for a lazy pun towards gift of the maji, which is this eps plot with no substantial alterations. I like Maud, but they did nothing to expand her character in this episode, nor did they do anything to further Pinkie and Mauds relationship. Rarity was just there cause they needed to exposition why she needed another shop. They could have easily used one of Pinkie's OTHER sisters whom we know NOTHING about to show how their relationship works, instead they went with Maud and did NOTHING with her. 

I have zero issue with these. "The Crystalling" is a story about how stressful being new parents can be; about confronting your embarrassing past; about how even a screw-up like Sunburst (or Starlight) could do great things. And I thought that removing a villain from the equation allowed the show to put more emphasis on how the main characters actually dealt with the crisis, which I loved. 

 

"Gift of Maud" is a very basic retelling, but it's the first episode where we get a detailed look at Pinkie and Rarity's dynamic, it gives us a deeper impression of Pinkie's attachment to her party cannon, and while the story is certainly basic, it does allow for some very sweet moments as we see how much the characters care about each other. It's fun. 

 

 

A Hearth Warming Tail: Literally the Christmas Carol done so by the numbers I'm sure I could find a fanfic that did it better before it ever aired. 

I think most fanfics would stick much closer to the original story than this episode did; see my earlier post for an explanation. 

 

 

Applejacks Day off: Nothing happened other than making Applejack look so ineffective at the thing she is supposedly talented in that it distracts from the actual message of the episode 

Not going to defend this one as "entertaining," but ostensibly the farm was still pretty functional even with Applejack's inefficiency, and it seems to me that getting stuck in a routine which doesn't matter anymore is both perfectly understandable and very in-character for her. 

 

 

Stranger than Fanfiction: Fandom arguments are annoying enough without making an episode about it. Plus they could have handled the premise than just having it all be resolved in the last couple minutes of the episode. Nothing new was revealed about Daring Do or what she is about either. 

That seems like personal preference to me; whole point of that episode was to put some super-dork's knowledge to the test in an actual Daring Do adventure. It's okay for episodes to just be fun, y'know; not that you must change your opinion if you didn't find it fun.

 

 

Every Little Thing she does: You know how we are reforming Starlight Glimmer? The Pony who almost destroyed Equestria? The one Twilight is inexplicably teaching MORE magic too? What if she uses Mind controlling magic on her friends like a sociopath, feels no remorse about using said spell like a sociopath, doesn't understand what she did wrong when other characters are trying to explain it to her like a sociopath, and then NOT GIVE HER ANY REAL CONSEQUENCES FOR HER ACTIONS WHAT SO EVER, BECAUSE APPARENTLY SAYING SORRY FOR MIND CONTROLLING PONIES WITH MAGIC IS A SUITABLE ENOUGH PUNISHMENT!  

Well... that's sort of the point of the episode; I don't think this was handled very well, but the idea is that she doesn't need to be punished severely to come to the understanding that what she did was wrong - if someone is already feeling really guilty, punishing them is just redundant. Wouldn't argue this point if you didn't spend so much of the paragraph listing her bad deeds as if the writers didn't know exactly what they were doing, though; it's still weird to me that she didn't feel guilty until Twilight snapped at her. 

 

 

Where the Apple Lies: Here's an opportunity to show Apple jacks parents and maybe infant Applebloom within the context of her story and perhaps give the Apple Family more depth.....NAAAAAAAAAHHHH lets just reverse some of AJ's and Big Mac's personality traits a bit and do a paint by numbers liar revealed story...cause THAT's not played out to death. 

I'm not gonna say that they picked a particularly good story for a flashback episode, but criticizing the episode because it's not the story you want it to be seems very unfair to me. 

 

Didn't pick at a few which I didn't think I could justify, but yeah, I don't really see all the problems that apparently everyone fucking else does. 

What "bugged" you about Season 6 is that there were "bug" ponies?

For that pun, TEN THOUSAND YEARS DUNGEON. 

 

Can we be friends? Let's be friends, because this is precisely my problem with this episode. I mentioned earlier that mind control is kind of a pet peeve of mine, and in my opinion something only a villain would do. Reformed or not, that's a black mark on Starlight's record for me. I still don't hate her, because I'm convinced that episode was the fault of the writer letting a drunk, lobotomized sociopath write his script for him... with his elbows... while experiencing an hallucinogenic nightmare brought on by whatever was in the tea pitcher that day.

 

That was a relapse in every sense of the term. Controlling others with magic... again, though this time with an actual mind control spell instead of through the removal of cutie marks. There's a point where you go too far, and that was it for me.

 

I felt that Starlight having gone way too far was the point, especially since she hasn't had some major mind re-writing or anything since season 5. I have zero problem with the fact that she did those things in the first place, as that seems appropriate. What gets to me is that she showed zero understanding that she did anything wrong. At least, until Twilight yelled at her, and even then Twilight sort of assumed that Starlight knew WHY mind control was wrong without ever actually telling her - so while I believe that she legitimately thinks she did something wrong, the show hasn't convinced me that she knows why what she did was wrong, and I'm not entirely sure that it intended for that. Finale somehow still worked for me regardless, but I just don't know what they were going for with the details there. 

 

 

In Trade Ya she went out of her way to fix her mistake and in TftM she failed at what she set out to do and instead actually jumpstarted winter, so I guess the writers felt that was enough(whether you agree or not depends on your mileage). S6 is really the only season I felt any real regression with both Newbie Dash and 28 Pranks Later, but both were due to inexcusably shitty writing that I honestly feel was deliberate mainly due to circumstances surrounding both those episodes(Newbie Dash was the episode where she finally realizes her lifelong dream, the episode goes out of its way to do the complete opposite of a milestone episode and dedicates its entire run time to completely humiliate her, while 28 Pranks Later is soooo much like MMDW aka one of the show's most hated episodes, that there's no way, it's impossible to believe that the writers weren't that stupid and didn't see the similarities, but evidently all they cared about was dickriding the zombie hype train)

I maintain that her characterization in "Trade Ya!," "Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3," and "Tanks for the Memories" is more irritating, because they give me the impression that she's not so much a little rude as actively immature. I see just as much meaning behind her actions in "Newbie Dash" as in "Tanks for the Memories," except that meaning doesn't make her look like she has the mind of an 8-year-old. I actually think "Newbie Dash" is pretty sympathetic towards her, considering how much time it spends on her feelings of anxiety on the job (I'm convinced that she boasts to mask her insecurity), although the impressions scene is of course the pits. As for "28 Pranks Later," I can't really justify it aside from saying I found it kinda funny, but it's less about the zombies and more about the moral, which I'm not sure the show has done before. It seems like it would have been pretty easy to do this without having her lose several gained points in sensitivity, so I'll give you that, but unlike "Mare-Do-Well," it at least doesn't contain any scenes of Dash actively humiliating herself for no apparent point besides making her look bad. 

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

Rant threads are attractive like usual, but it's tiring to read the same back and forth stuffs over and over, oh well...

 

So i would say Season 6 didnt reach my expectations after fantastic S5, but it still enjoyable, it has less fantastic eps, but more good to average compare to S4, S4 is a mess, most of my hate lists are in S4, so S6 is a step down to S5 but a better overall season compare to S4, and that enough to be a good season. Do i want another S6? hell no, i always aim high, i want another god-tier season like 5, i want everything but i am not bitching if i dont get what i want, over and over again.

 

Enough of drama shit, i need to stop replying to these kind of thread, 2017 is coming, S7 is coming, i will leave those shits behind me. All board the hype train!!!

[Buck Testa 5,503]

 

 

I have zero issue with these. "The Crystalling" is a story about how stressful being new parents can be; about confronting your embarrassing past; about how even a screw-up like Sunburst (or Starlight) could do great things. And I thought that removing a villain from the equation allowed the show to put more emphasis on how the main characters actually dealt with the crisis, which I loved. 

 

  "Gift of Maud" is a very basic retelling, but it's the first episode where we get a detailed look at Pinkie and Rarity's dynamic, it gives us a deeper impression of Pinkie's attachment to her party cannon, and while the story is certainly basic, it does allow for some very sweet moments as we see how much the characters care about each other. It's fun.   

 

 

Stress as a parent and embarrassment from your past were elements in the premier, but the story of the premier was centered around The Crystaling itself, and that plot, like I said, was terribly anemic. You could have had an episode about parenting being tough without shoehorning it into an episode about bad clouds rolling in because your baby broke a thing. You could have also made an episode that awkward meeting and rekindling of the friendship with Sunburst, yet all three are kind of tossed into the premier and conformed into this Crystaling plot instead of being their own things. None of them are given enough time or attention to be fleshed out, which is ridiculous considering its a two parter. However since a vast majority of the run time of that premier was spent on needlessly time consuming exposition I can see where their time actually went.

 

 

 The party cannon angle quite frankly makes no sense if I'm being honest. She has several party canons that look JUST like it, we've seen them, and she's made no indicator before that one was more special than the other ones. They forced her too miss the cannon because the plot demanded it, not because it was her only one, and that is just bad writing. Also, like I said, Maud added nothing too that story that she hasn't already covered in her previous appearances. As much as I like Maud, I think the only reason she was there is because the writers thought the pun was funny and not because they particularly cared about character development. As for the Rarity Pinkie dynamic, again, nothing was done here we haven't already seen, and Rarity was only there because they needed to show Rarity was getting another store for their actually good episode to be set up. 

 

What they should have done is have her meet with one of her OTHER sisters, like Limestone, and see what their sisterly dynamic is like when they are on one of their gift swapping trips, cause Pinkie even says that her other sisters do this with her too. Wouldn't it have been a much more interesting episode if we got to see Limestone showing a new side to her that wasn't all gruff and angry? Or maybe some new traits out of Marble that aren't just copy pasted season 1 fluttershy traits? 

 

 

 

I think most fanfics would stick much closer to the original story than this episode did; see my earlier post for an explanation. 

 

I'm not talking about most fanfics, I said I bet I could find one in particular that did the story better. The plot is just the skeleton, its what you do with it that matters, and the official version left much to be desired in the writing department. It was quite pretty, and the luna song was nice, but that alone does not make a good episode.

 

 

 

Not going to defend this one as "entertaining," but ostensibly the farm was still pretty functional even with Applejack's inefficiency, and it seems to me that getting stuck in a routine which doesn't matter anymore is both perfectly understandable and very in-character for her. 

 

Yes, that was indeed the moral, but it was executed REALLY poorly, to the point that it was extremely distracting and made Applejack look incompetent when she was previously established as being very good at what she does.I could think of a couple ways they could have gone about that episode to not make AJ look so out of sorts and still get that moral across. 

 

 

 

That seems like personal preference to me; whole point of that episode was to put some super-dork's knowledge to the test in an actual Daring Do adventure. It's okay for episodes to just be fun, y'know; not that you must change your opinion if you didn't find it fun.

 

 

And that is a REALLY cool idea: two super dorks with opposing ideas about how good Daring Do adventure works on a quest with the Mare herself. Really cool idea. Unfortunately the execution was terrible. Not only were they arguing for most of the episode, the part of the plot that is actually interesting barely gets any traction before the whole thing is over with, and then suddenly they have a revelation about differing opinions because plot convenience. What they should have done was trim the fat of the episode and got the plot that people would have been engaged in going as soon as possible. 

 

 

 

Well... that's sort of the point of the episode; I don't think this was handled very well, but the idea is that she doesn't need to be punished severely to come to the understanding that what she did was wrong - if someone is already feeling really guilty, punishing them is just redundant. Wouldn't argue this point if you didn't spend so much of the paragraph listing her bad deeds as if the writers didn't know exactly what they were doing, though; it's still weird to me that she didn't feel guilty until Twilight snapped at her. 

 

Here's the thing with consequences in a story.You need consequences for actions in order for there to be tension and things to overcome. Starlight barely has anything in the way of consequences for her personal actions, so what incentive besides friendship does she have to be "good" anyway? Its not like they are going to lock her up or anything, and they are more than willing to forgive whatever she does, including nearly causing the apocalypse and mind controlling her friends, as long as she says sorry. That is a dangerous message to send to her, and by extension the audience. Her whole entire arc in this season was a trainwreck, but this episode in particular highlights just how lax they are with her. 

 

 

 

I'm not gonna say that they picked a particularly good story for a flashback episode, but criticizing the episode because it's not the story you want it to be seems very unfair to me.

 

    Didn't pick at a few which I didn't think I could justify, but yeah, I don't really see all the problems that apparently everyone fucking else does. 

 

 

Even most of your defenses of this season were "I know it wasn't that good but..." 

 

And that's fine, if you enjoyed it despite its flaws more power too you. I have quite a number of things I could say the same about. With pony though, I know it can be better than this, and it really dropped the ball this season. If they continue down this path, I fear they'll lose it entirely, and maybe me along with it. As much as I enjoyed the show, if its going to go the way of mediocrity I can go and find something that actually cares about telling a good story. I recently watched Gravity falls for example, and I cannot find an episode I thought was "bad" out of both seasons. In this season of MLP alone I'd say well over half the episodes were just terrible from a writing perspective, and the rest were mostly okay with some genuine gems sprinkled in there. The quality difference is alarming too say the least.  

[Thrond 3,257]

 

 

Stress as a parent and embarrassment from your past were elements in the premier, but the story of the premier was centered around The Crystaling itself, and that plot, like I said, was terribly anemic. You could have had an episode about parenting being tough without shoehorning it into an episode about bad clouds rolling in because your baby broke a thing. You could have also made an episode that awkward meeting and rekindling of the friendship with Sunburst, yet all three are kind of tossed into the premier and conformed into this Crystaling plot instead of being their own things. None of them are given enough time or attention to be fleshed out, which is ridiculous considering its a two parter. However since a vast majority of the run time of that premier was spent on needlessly time consuming exposition I can see where their time actually went.

 

 

 The party cannon angle quite frankly makes no sense if I'm being honest. She has several party canons that look JUST like it, we've seen them, and she's made no indicator before that one was more special than the other ones. They forced her too miss the cannon because the plot demanded it, not because it was her only one, and that is just bad writing. Also, like I said, Maud added nothing too that story that she hasn't already covered in her previous appearances. As much as I like Maud, I think the only reason she was there is because the writers thought the pun was funny and not because they particularly cared about character development. As for the Rarity Pinkie dynamic, again, nothing was done here we haven't already seen, and Rarity was only there because they needed to show Rarity was getting another store for their actually good episode to be set up. 

 

What they should have done is have her meet with one of her OTHER sisters, like Limestone, and see what their sisterly dynamic is like when they are on one of their gift swapping trips, cause Pinkie even says that her other sisters do this with her too. Wouldn't it have been a much more interesting episode if we got to see Limestone showing a new side to her that wasn't all gruff and angry? Or maybe some new traits out of Marble that aren't just copy pasted season 1 fluttershy traits? 

And that is a REALLY cool idea: two super dorks with opposing ideas about how good Daring Do adventure works on a quest with the Mare herself. Really cool idea. Unfortunately the execution was terrible. Not only were they arguing for most of the episode, the part of the plot that is actually interesting barely gets any traction before the whole thing is over with, and then suddenly they have a revelation about differing opinions because plot convenience. What they should have done was trim the fat of the episode and got the plot that people would have been engaged in going as soon as possible. 

 

I don't agree that these elements are underdeveloped/uninteresting; I'm not sure what else to add to that. Having such a character-driven slice-of-life without any sort of intricate plot was pretty exciting to me, so I can't agree with that criticism; even the exposition only holds it back a little for me. I forgot that Pinkie had multiple cannons - could you remind me where we saw that? And as for Quibble Pants... well, it seems pretty easy to me to understand how learning that Daring Do's exploits are real would make someone as clever as him come up with the moral. All three of these were very engaging and interesting to me; I'm sorry you didn't enjoy them as much. 

 

I'm not talking about most fanfics, I said I bet I could find one in particular that did the story better. The plot is just the skeleton, its what you do with it that matters, and the official version left much to be desired in the writing department. It was quite pretty, and the luna song was nice, but that alone does not make a good episode.

Okay? It's probably a different take from what the show did, and I rather found the episode to do a lot of really interesting things with the plot skeleton. 

 

 

Yes, that was indeed the moral, but it was executed REALLY poorly, to the point that it was extremely distracting and made Applejack look incompetent when she was previously established as being very good at what she does.I could think of a couple ways they could have gone about that episode to not make AJ look so out of sorts and still get that moral across. 

Really wish the episode was actually about Applejack generally being stubborn, because while I really didn't find Applejack to look "incompetent" - as I said, doesn't exactly seem to hurt the farm too much - it didn't really do anything with what little I found interesting there. Not the hill I want to die on. 

 

 

Here's the thing with consequences in a story.You need consequences for actions in order for there to be tension and things to overcome. Starlight barely has anything in the way of consequences for her personal actions, so what incentive besides friendship does she have to be "good" anyway? Its not like they are going to lock her up or anything, and they are more than willing to forgive whatever she does, including nearly causing the apocalypse and mind controlling her friends, as long as she says sorry. That is a dangerous message to send to her, and by extension the audience. Her whole entire arc in this season was a trainwreck, but this episode in particular highlights just how lax they are with her. 

If at some point Starlight had realized on her own that she had done something horrible, that would have been enough of a consequence for me, but... she never did. I can't help but admire the episode for going that far, but wow did it drop the ball. 

 

 

And that's fine, if you enjoyed it despite its flaws more power too you. I have quite a number of things I could say the same about. With pony though, I know it can be better than this, and it really dropped the ball this season. If they continue down this path, I fear they'll lose it entirely, and maybe me along with it. As much as I enjoyed the show, if its going to go the way of mediocrity I can go and find something that actually cares about telling a good story. I recently watched Gravity falls for example, and I cannot find an episode I thought was "bad" out of both seasons. In this season of MLP alone I'd say well over half the episodes were just terrible from a writing perspective, and the rest were mostly okay with some genuine gems sprinkled in there. The quality difference is alarming too say the least.  

 

Enjoying MLP in spite of its flaws has sort of become a requirement for me, especially with how frustrated season 5 left me. I come to this show in order to be entertained, and with the hope of finding some interesting subtext. There are very few episodes in season 6 which I found to have little redeeming value, and maybe that's me having my expectations lowered by how much I didn't like season 5, but never did I finish an episode as angry as I was after, say, "Made in Manehattan" or "Simple Ways," just to name two of many examples. And, to be frank, I thought there was a reasonable amount of solid storytelling, or at least rather entertaining storytelling (the finale is clearly contrived but it's just so much fun), that I found this season to be surprisingly solid after a few years where the show just disappointed me more and more as it went on. Hoping season 7 continues the improvements I saw in season 6. 

[PonyMage 227]

I appreciate that you don't point fingers at Starlight or Flurry Heart as being the problem. Like you said, if the season was lackluster, it was due to writing. Technically, Starlight and Flurry were good ideas that could have been executed well with better writing. But the writing fell a little flat for me even though I liked S6. For example, No Second Prances imo was one of the show's best plotwise, but it had some extremely awkward writing. Almost everything Twilight says in that episode is painful for me to watch. Especially the prologue. Ugh.

 

I resent you saying that they had overused premises though. Yes, the characters did "relearn" lessons in a lot of cases. In the writers' defenses, it can be hard to keep the show moving forward after so many seasons. A lot of good episode premises would be thrown out the window if they HAD to learn a new moral at the end of the episode.

 

But personally, I had no idea Gift of the Maud Pie was a story cliche. And A Christmas Carol is an amazing story even if you bury it in dog crap. And to my eyes, MLP's version did have some changes. Some would call them marginal, like Starlight trying to erase Christmas entirely rather than only despising it, and the fact she doesn't die, but I don't. They actually change the moral and tone of the story quite a bit. Starlight's mistakes would've destroyed the world; Scrooge's mistakes would've affected only himself for the most part. That changes the story's outlook a fair bit.

 

Also, a "multiple points of view" plot is used often for a reason imo. It almost always leads to a fun story in my eyes, and MLP's was no exception. That episode was just more "cartoon" than "emotional moral/adventure." I don't have an issue with that.

[Color Song 65]

I'm not unbiased. Never claimed to be. 

 

There is nothing inherently wrong with using tried and true plots. HOWEVER, there is a distinct difference between having a general recipe and making it your own thing and doing a half assed job following the barest of outlines of the original plot ideas and barely doing anything extra with it at all besides slapping ponies on it.

I still have to disagree. I think that keeping it as simple as possible and sticking to the barest of outlines is exactly the right way to introduce such complex moral lessons to each generation.

[LeafFerret 3,382]

In Trade Ya she went out of her way to fix her mistake and in TftM she failed at what she set out to do and instead actually jumpstarted winter, so I guess the writers felt that was enough(whether you agree or not depends on your mileage). S6 is really the only season I felt any real regression with both Newbie Dash and 28 Pranks Later, but both were due to inexcusably shitty writing that I honestly feel was deliberate mainly due to circumstances surrounding both those episodes(Newbie Dash was the episode where she finally realizes her lifelong dream, the episode goes out of its way to do the complete opposite of a milestone episode and dedicates its entire run time to completely humiliate her, while 28 Pranks Later is soooo much like MMDW aka one of the show's most hated episodes, that there's no way, it's impossible to believe that the writers weren't that stupid and didn't see the similarities, but evidently all they cared about was dickriding the zombie hype train)

 

In contrast Starlight is the show's poster child of a Karma Houdini, She was S5's villain who's actions consists of brainwashing an entire village and nearly destroying the space-time continuum, what followed was one of the most pants-shittingly laziest redemptions I have ever seen come out of FiM, with Starlight be given virtually everything on a silver platter, doing nothing to actually earn anything, and given nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Not to mention, she'd pull the same shit deep into S6 where she needed to win over the audience the most, however she goes back and goes and brainwash the remane 5, once more, receiving nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Oh, and the long absences doesn't really help either 

Rainbow had 6 seasons to overcome her mistakes and she acts like she had never learnt them to begin with and it feels like a waste of time if you're just repeating the same stuff that she probably would've learnt by now, but I think this is just a case of poor writing or not have any ideas to come up with. If I kept doing the same mistakes over and over again, I probably would be cut and get replaced by someone else.

 

Starlight is still pretty much learning not to rely too much on magic, it's not her fault she doesn't know how to deal with things properly but the difference is that she is making some progress in less time Rainbow did hers.

Edited December 30, 2016 by GlimGlam04

[Buck Testa 5,503]

 

 

I resent you saying that they had overused premises though. Yes, the characters did "relearn" lessons in a lot of cases. In the writers' defenses, it can be hard to keep the show moving forward after so many seasons. A lot of good episode premises would be thrown out the window if they HAD to learn a new moral at the end of the episode.

 

 

That isn't what I said though. I didn't say the problem was they reused plots from previous seasons was the problem, I said they were using paint by number plots and doing nothing with them save for slapping ponies on top of it. There is nothing wrong with using a tried and true plot, HOWEVER, you have to make it your own, else it becomes stale and predictable before the ep even finishes. 

 

Lets say I want to make Mac and Cheese. Its a simple meal and pretty easy to make, you got the cheese, you got the macaroni, you got the stove. Easy stuff. However you will notice a stark difference between Mac and Cheese made straight from a box from the dollar store and the cheese powder wasn't even mixed properly, and a home made Mac and cheese you pull out of the oven that was lovingly made with all types of ingredients and comes with complimentary sides. They are both Mac and Cheese and follow the same basic idea, but one is clearly superior to the other. 

 

There are a lot of episodes this season where they just used the proverbial box instead of making it their own, and that is a big issue for me. 

 

 

 

Also, a "multiple points of view" plot is used often for a reason imo. It almost always leads to a fun story in my eyes, and MLP's was no exception.

 

 

Thing is, there is a clear example of a multiple point of view done right episode in this VERY SEASON, which makes that episode all the more jarring. Saddle Row Review, which I contest is probably one of the single best episodes of the series and the clear winner of the season, told a multiple point of view plot that was actually entertaining, in large part because they made it their own and really highlighted the characters personalities and the fun nature of the show. I don't know who worked on that episode but it blew P.P.O.V out of the water in terms of quality. 

 

I still have to disagree. I think that keeping it as simple as possible and sticking to the barest of outlines is exactly the right way to introduce such complex moral lessons to each generation.

You can use the outline, I'm not saying you can't, but you have to make it your own. If its just the same stuff we've seen before then why even make the episode? You should be striving to say something at least somewhat new with that plot, throwing enough of a spin in there to make it your own. They didn't do that this season. 

[FlareGun45 2,221]

Well I keep seeing this post, so I might as well say something! x3

 

Season 6 was my 2nd favorite season in the series! Right after season 4, cause that book arc, and all the characters had interesting episodes! All the Mane Six, CMCs, and even Spike's episodes were good in my opinion! Plus it was Twilight's best season, and Weird Al got to appear! Also my favorite CMC song is in this season: Hearts as Strong as Horses!

 

But this is about season 6! Now I pretty much enjoyed ALL the episodes in a way. The worse I got was "meh" episodes, and they were mainly AJ's Day Off and 28 Pranks Later; they weren't TERRIBLE, but they just didn't interest me that much. Also, unpopular opinions: I didn't enjoy A Hearth's Warming Tale that much, but I DID enjoy Newbie Dash! The only part in Newbie Dash I didn't like was Rainbow impersonating her friends, but everything else I did enjoy! It's an understandable situation. Hearth's Warming Tale... it's just another Christmas Carol. The only thing I enjoyed in this episode are the amazing songs! Hearthbreakers is still currently my favorite Hearth's Warming episode! PPOV was a good episode up until the end; I didn't like the execution that much, so the ending seemed kinda rushed. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were handled like pros this season, even though Pinkie didn't have an episode to herself at all this season, and Rainbow had 3, which seemed unfair; and this season really brought a new perspective to species that are not always filled with friendship, griffons, dragons, and changelings! 

 

Now pretty much the highlights to me this season is Trixie returning and befriending Starlight, Starlight relating to situations I've been through which makes her my 2nd favorite character, Viva Las Pegasus is currently my favorite map episode, supporting characters being the heroes in the finale (even though I didn't like the situation the main cast was through), Gabby, Thorax, Ember, meeting Fluttershy's family, and of course my ultimate favorite:

 

Nobody on this post mentioned Spike at all, and how AWESOME he was this season! Season 6 is pretty much his best season which gave him so much character development! He bonded with and helped out Starlight with her friendship without Twilight even asking him to, even though I wish Starlight and Spike bonded a little more over the season, and that he didn't have to keep pointing out Starlight's flaws on certain episodes. Spike was at his best in Gauntlet of Fire by for the first time in his own episode: not screwing up, and by befriending a dragon and helping her become leader which started the alliance between ponies and dragons! And if that wasn't enough, he had another awesome episode by befriending the future changeling leader, and starting up what lead to an alliance between ponies and changelings - which gives Spike some credit of saving Equestria in the finale! Plus he finally got a chance to sing a full song that alot of people seemed to enjoy! Even though there were some that thought it was out of place, but hey, it had to happen sooner or later. Also, Dungeons and Discords seemed to confirm that he does have a life outside of the Mane Six and has a friendship with Big Mac; plus how he handled Discord in the episode, he handled like a pro! Anyone agree with this?
 

Yes, even though it wasn't the best season on record, it's really high up for me! When lucky number 7 comes for MLP, I'm really hoping for it to beat 4!

Edited December 30, 2016 by MegaSean45

[Color Song 65]

 

 

 

 

You can use the outline, I'm not saying you can't, but you have to make it your own. If its just the same stuff we've seen before then why even make the episode? You should be striving to say something at least somewhat new with that plot, throwing enough of a spin in there to make it your own. They didn't do that this season. 

 

 One could argue they did make these moral lessons their own by, as you so eloquently put it, "slapping ponies on it." 

[Buck Testa 5,503]

 One could argue they did make these moral lessons their own by, as you so eloquently put it, "slapping ponies on it." 

You could, but it wouldn't be a strong argument. With that argument any reused plot would be made immediately original by just swapping characters with your own. It takes more than that.