How many times are we going to go over the same lesson?

[ManaMinori 4,149]

Therin lies the dangers of dragging a show on for too long. Repeated territory. Haven't we had episodes that focus on a character biting off more than they can chew, for whatever reason? Pinkie Pie in "Baby Cakes", Spike in "Just for Sidekicks", and now Twilight in " Flurry of Emotions". Should this even be happening, when in earlier seasons, it was Spike who learned through the actions of  his pony friends, and now his pony friends seem to be treading backwards.

[GrimGrimoire 4,973]

Just because one learned the "lesson" does not mean that one or the other cannot slip up. Taking on more than you can handle is a common problem, that is very easy to fall into, even if you already know better. Especially as often times we don't get a choice in the matter (schoolwork, job, etc...).  I don't care if they reuse lessons as long as they put interesting spins on it and make it fun to watch.

[Will Guide 21,371]

Actually the lessons mentioned in the 3 episodes in the OP are actually different.

Baby Cakes: Pinkie learns our "desire for responsibility can outrun our actual ability to handle it"

Just for Sidekicks: Spike wasn't doing his job of caring for the pets, all he wanted was the jewels. In other words, when you commit to a job, you'd better do it!

Flurry of Emotions: Twilight may have been spendingtime with Flurry Heart, but she wasn't spending any QUALITY time with her.

You see? One episode's about too much responsibility outweighing your ability to do it, another episode's about keeping to your job, and an third episode's about QUALITY over QUANTITY! They may all seem exactly the same, but they're not.

[Stone Cold Steve Jobs 22,505]

You are aware this is a show designed for and aimed at small girls, right? It's cool that you want to watch too and you enjoy it as well, but above all this is a children's show. There is going to be some degree of repetition involved because of that. If the show is trying to teach a lesson it becomes more apparent. 

[KrazyDashie 1,847]

the lesson of those three episodes is not just biting off more than you can chew

2 hours ago, WiiGuy2014 said:

Actually the lessons mentioned in the 3 episodes in the OP are actually different.

Baby Cakes: Pinkie learns our "desire for responsibility can outrun our actual ability to handle it"

Just for Sidekicks: Spike wasn't doing his job of caring for the pets, all he wanted was the jewels. In other words, when you commit to a job, you'd better do it!

Flurry of Emotions: Twilight may have been spendingtime with Flurry Heart, but she wasn't spending any QUALITY time with her.

You see? One episode's about too much responsibility outweighing your ability to do it, another episode's about keeping to your job, and an third episode's about QUALITY over QUANTITY! They may all seem exactly the same, but they're not.

wiiguy pretty much stated the other lessons that are present in those episodes as well.

 

plus... to be fair though, none of the other characters were present in the episodes when the said character learned the lesson, or rather went through the same experience. so we shouldn't expect everypony else to learn the same thing as well.  

[BlueStreak98 828]

I did think it felt a bit repetitive and "done" but that was more the nature of the lesson than any specific tie to MLP itself.

[Hierok 11,833]

Well, why would you even mind it. You must see an episode as an individual which tells a storie with other individuals. The storie is is okay, so you can just enjoy the episode. That's how I see it and that's the way I try to enjoy the episodes. 

[Megas 28,122]

Much rather the show try new things, but I don't have a problem with the show running familiar ground. At the very least I can appreciate the show approaching similar problems in different ways, especially if it means taking a poor idea and improving it's problems to make a better episode(Baby Cakes to A Flurry of Emotions, Dragon Quest to Gauntlet of Fire, Mmmystery of the Friendship Express to Rarity Investigates), just to name a few 

 

Of course you also run the risk of doing something really stupid in terms of treading familiar ground and doing shit like 28 Pranks Later, taking an infamously bad episode and somehow making it worse

Edited April 25, 2017 by Whompy Whomperson

[cmarston1 5,964]

To be honest while I can see some similarities between the morals in the episodes, they involved different characters, plus  A Flurry of Emotions was able to put its own spin on things that prevented it from being too much of a retread.

[Brainstorm 4,123]

I think the reason is because sometimes we need to be reminded of some lessons that we've already learned. Sometimes we forget and need to be reminded.