What was the worse thing about Season 6?

[Them's Seeing Ponies 282]

On 05/10/2017 at 5:26 AM, Kiryu-Chan said:

Yeah this an issue I noticed halfway through the season, there were lots of episodes that felt really tropey, and lots of episodes heavily relied on dumb gimmicks rather than good storytelling 

I heard somewhere that this might be due to Josh Haber writing to poke fun at these tropes. The issue is that when he is involved in placing these tropes into episodes, the 'poking fun' is not made all that clear, so most Haber-involved episodes come off as bland in a strangely awkward way (although I do like some of his work, and 'To Where and Back Again' is actually a fine season finale). 

In general, I thought the major issue in season 6 was just the general tone. Many of the episodes felt very 'vanilla' and uninspired (possibly due to the above), which I feel contradicts with the reason I initially loved the first two seasons (many of the episodes had 'vanilla' premises, but used a unique charm and style of humour to pull them off, whilst Josh Haber's greatest weakness is ironically his humour, which is not a good position to be in when you tend towards writing simpler stories for a show like this - episodes such as 'The Cart Before the Ponies', for example, would have been vastly more entertaining had more thought been taken towards adding more humour to beef up their skeletal concepts) and many others ("Applejack's 'Day' Off", "P.P.O.V", "Where the Apple Lies") came off as either weirdly bareboned or awkward (particularly "P.P.O.V", which stacked misaimed characterization on top of its blah premise and did nothing to spice up any of its own plot points or tone). While I wouldn't say Haber was being lazy (no evidence to suggest anything but the opposite, actually, considering he returned later in season 7), many of season 6's episodes feel surprisingly lazy as a results of these factors.

Edited October 20, 2017 by Them's Seeing Ponies

[GrimGrimoire 4,973]

Has anyone mentioned Zephyr Breeze yet? Because it was totally him.

[Stardust Balance 7,740]

The worst for me, the lack of development and exploration behind Starlight. She's barely ever used in a season that was just made to see her journey through redemption.

[Them's Seeing Ponies 282]

17 minutes ago, Stardust Balance said:

The worst for me, the lack of development and exploration behind Starlight. She's barely ever used in a season that was just made to see her journey through redemption.

Yes, I would also agree here. Starlight was surprisingly underused in season 6 and not much thought was taken into developing her outside her few focus episodes (one of which was a Christmas Carol clone, which didn't exactly do much for Starlight's development because most of the episode played within the story Twilight told, even if Snowfall's ideology mirrored Starlight's at the time) and the fact that we were hit with pointless filler episodes such as 'The Cart Before the Ponies', 'Applejack's "Day" Off' and 'P.P.O.V' instead of addressing and introducing more facets of Starlight's character when it was most necessary worsens this issue.  However, I will give that season 6 is not nearly as guilty of making Starlight as bland as she was in season 7 (season 6 barely gave her much once her questionably grey morality was conquered, but I feel season 7 should have been more consistent with Starlight's personality in general) nor shoehorning her into an episode wherever they can (why was she in 'Fame and Misfortune' and 'Triple Threat' asides from for the sake of being there?).

Edited November 3, 2017 by Them's Seeing Ponies

[Stardust Balance 7,740]

8 minutes ago, Them's Seeing Ponies said:

Yes, I would also agree here. Starlight was surprisingly underused in season 6 and not much thought was taken into developing her outside her few focus episodes (one of which was a Christmas Carol clone, which didn't exactly do much for Starlight's development because most of the episode played within the story Twilight told, even if Snowfall's ideology mirrored Starlight's at the time) and the fact that we were hit with pointless filler episodes such as 'The Cart Before the Ponies', 'Applejack's "Day" Off' and 'P.P.O.V' instead of addressing and introducing more facets of Starlight's character when it was most necessary worsens this issue.  However, I will give that season 6 is not nearly as guilty of making Starlight as bland as she was in season 7 (season 6 barely gave her much once her questionably grey morality was conquered, but I feel season 7 should have been more consistent with Starlight's personality in general) nor shoehorning her into an episode wherever they can (why was she in 'Fame and Misfortune' and 'Triple Threat' asides from for the sake of being there?).

I feel that the main point of season six should've been revolved around Starlight for the most part. Not that she had to be in every episode and steal the show for the others, but they missed a great opportunity to explore a character whom had years of bitterness and ingrained self-beliefs steadily learn over the time the value of compassion and friendship. I wouldn't have minded more if she did appear in episodes where she wasn't the focus at all, in the background reading a book or conversing with another pony, just something to show that Hasbro doesn't simply include to have something focused on her own development. They want us to treat her like Spike or the Mane Six? Then give us some consistency! It took me until season seven to fine grow from indifferent to tolerant and eventually fond of her.

[Them's Seeing Ponies 282]

Just now, Stardust Balance said:

I feel that the main point of season six should've been revolved around Starlight for the most part. Not that she had to be in every episode and steal the show for the others, but they missed a great opportunity to explore a character whom had years of bitterness and ingrained self-beliefs steadily learn over the time the value of compassion and friendship. I wouldn't have minded more if she did appear in episodes where she wasn't the focus at all, in the background reading a book or conversing with another pony, just something to show that Hasbro doesn't simply include to have something focused on her own development. They want us to treat her like Spike or the Mane Six? Then give us some consistency! It took me until season seven to fine grow from indifferent to tolerant and eventually fond of her.

I think the writers were a little too nervous about integrating Starlight in season 6. You can sense a kind of uncertainty in her earlier episodes because her inclusion was a departure from the normal at the time. One thing I definitely will give season 7 is that this timidity largely disappeared and Starlight's appearances now feel more confident than in season 6, hence her larger number of focus episodes in the former.

[Adamgreen 1,130]

Starlight's redemption in season 6 was underwhelming. Which is sad.

 

[Drunkfrank 1,125]

It was inconsistent. It started out okay and then had a decent streak of episodes with some great episodes and some bad ones. We had Applejacks Day Off, The Cart Before the Ponies, and 28 Pranks Later all really close to each other, all bad episodes, but the last 8ish episodes were fine.

It was just not up to par with the standard set for the series, luckily season 7 came and remedied that with some of the best episodes of the series and little to no bad ones (F.U Honest Apple)

[Le Trotteur Sauvage 13,053]

Applejack's "Day" Off. That's the worst thing about season 6. What were the producer thinking when they watch the episode ? Did they really watch it before releasing it ? To this day I still don't understand why, and what happen during this episode. Was that a lack of inspiration ? Or were they too lazy to write an other episode ? I don't understand