season 8 S8's biggest improvements over S7?

[Dark Qiviut 22,583]

A good or average as an FIM season can be, every one of them room for improvement. Season 7 is no exception. Despite being a really good season, Season 8 is capable of fixing or doing at least one thing better than last year and has done that so far.

So, my question to you is this: Can you please name me at least one current improvement from S7 and explain why?

---

From me, despite Season 8 not being as as good as Season 7 so far, it improved from Season 7 in at least six components.

1. The dialogue is much more organic, especially since Grannies Gone Wild. Most of the episodes this season are very dialogue-driven, so if you're going to make it good, best to tidy up the lines. Most of the dialogue is really crisp, emotive, and full of personality. Sometimes you'll get a variety of starts, stops, pauses, and fragments. The characters really play off with one another, particularly with the snark and occasional teasing. It's like S8 took one of Shadow Play's biggest strengths — its dialogue — and expanded upon it.
    
2. Spike has a more inclusive role. Yes, he was good in S7, too, but for the most part, he was placed to the side unless the story demanded it. Here, he's a lot more involved with more appearances. Additionally, his snarky side, which we saw a lot in S1 and 2 before mostly disappearing since, returned, and many of his lines add punch to the humor.
    
3. Speaking of humor, the comedy is extremely sharp. There are a lot of fantastic jokes this season. Some off the top of my head include:
   1. Ocellus disguising herself as Rarity and fooling Fluttershy in the process.
   2. Starlight slyly telling TS she's not a "princess" princess, resulting in Twilight deadpanning a "Thanks."
   3. Luna getting cross at Celestia for raising the sun during the nighttime play.
   4. Sunburst flopping the gate with a deadpanned expression, causing the PA system to constantly blare out, "Welcome to Sire's Hollow."
   5. Stellar Flare's snark.
   6. Discord throwing shade at the greeting-card industry for commercializing Valentine's Day.
   7. Spike teasing Discord.
   8. Gallus: "Leave them hanging?"
   9. Spike conducting the Dragon Pledge to Twilight's students.
   10. The "Your mom" joke.
   11. Just about every line by the Mean Six.
        
4. The exposition, one of FIM's bigger weaknesses as a whole, feels much better hidden. For some examples:
   • Chrysalis recapped why she's wandering around in the Everfree Forest by herself, but the episode cleverly disguises it by having her talk to pictures she took of the RM6 with a crazed lust in her attitude. The RM7 hide it, too, thanks to previous tension and playing off with each other.
   • Break Down uses Spike and Big Mac to explain why Sugar Belle and Hearts & Hooves Day matter to BM so much, but the dialogue isn't one straight line and sometimes interrupted by tangents and jokes. Sugar Belle's explanation related to her cousin is word for word from Spike's guess earlier, turning the telling into a well-done joke.
   • Grannies Gone Wild's exposition very early is very comedy-driven with some classic slapstick. Because the exposition and tone didn't take itself so seriously, the jokes stand out.
      
5. Pinkie's characterization feels a lot more consistent. Out of the Mane 8 last year, Pinkie was at the bottom of my list, because she looked really dumb in Rock Solid Friendship and Secrets & Pies. Here, she's a lot more solid, thanks to her terrible first impression of Mudbriar, showing to be a responsible teacher in Marks for Effort, and a kid-like joy in The Mean Six while also defending a frightened FS to Twilight (not knowing it was Snarkle previously).
    
6. The episode quality in the first half is more consistent. While it doesn't have the highs of Glideance and TPP, it doesn't have the lows of Hard to Say Anything, either. When they're good, they're really good, and the less-than-good episodes are few in between. It's the most consistent first half of the series.

Edited June 10, 2018 by Dark Qiviut

[Ganondox 899]

I think Season 7 was significantly better than Season 8. If anything improved, it's having a stronger sense of continuity. 

[Castle Bleck 19,440]

For starters, no Fame And Misfortune.

 

At least Fake It 'Til You Make It and Non-Compete Clause only had one or two OOC jerks (as opposed to a whole townful) -- and even then, at least they were still funny.

Edited June 10, 2018 by A.V.

[Megas 28,092]

Honestly, there’s none I can think of, the season as a whole feels like a huge step down 

[CastletonSnob 3,089]

So far, S8 has been WORSE than S7. 

[Thrond 3,271]

It's actually fun more often than not, most episodes emphasize humour, character, and story before a hamfisted moral, it usually takes the perspective of the character learning the lesson rather than someone else reacting to them, and there's a lot more creativity in execution. Simply put, there's a lot more flavour so far, and even in milder episodes like "Surf and/or Turf," there's a lot more imagination compared to something like "Campfire Tales." We get details about setting and society rather than a bunch of derivative myths, and none of the other episodes have that same sense of mildness. It hasn't really fixed the occasional tendency for characters to be obnoxious just to deliver a moral, but it's a lot less frequent - by this point in season 7, there were like five different episodes based on that principle, and every single one of them led us to sympathize with someone other than the character learning a lesson.

In addition, while it's far from perfect, this season has a stronger feel for the mane six. Their personality traits give rise to stronger jokes, their usual set of interests and anxieties is given more dynamic context, and the writing more successfully finds amusing and satisfying scenarios for them, rather than shoehorning them into a specific moral story. Most of all, there's just a significant increase in energy, which appears best through the abundance of clever comedic asides, which in turn makes the lessons communicated more satisfying. This season's penchant for comedic noodling is just a stronger method of thematic delivery than rigid, on-the-nose structures like "Marks and Recreation" or blandly charming tales like "It Isn't the Mane Thing About You." The storytelling has always been predictable, but this significant increase in pizzazz makes it a lot more appealing. 

[Truffles 2,033]

On 6/9/2018 at 11:44 PM, Dark Qiviut said:

Spike has a more inclusive role. Yes, he was good in S7, too, but for the most part, he was placed to the side unless the story demanded it.

While S8 is only half over, it already feels like he's a much more important member of the cast than he was last season. And unlike last season, if the story took place in a geographical location that made sense for him to be present, this season he was there - either with a cameo or a brief speaking appearance. It felt strange they had a bunch of stories taking place in and around the castle last season and Spike was nowhere to be found. Or stories where he should have had a stake in events like "It Isn't the Mane Thing About You" where he gets a cameo but is unfazed by Rarity's condition. Turn that around and contrast it to "Molt Down" where Rarity is there to fully support him when he has his own embarrassing condition to endure.

And he should have appeared in "Fame and Misfortune," too, though his complete MIA status in retrospect was probably a blessing in disguise.

On 6/9/2018 at 11:44 PM, Dark Qiviut said:

The exposition, one of FIM's bigger weaknesses as a whole, feels much better hidden. For some examples: 

Not only did they do a better job of melding the explanations of past events, but the episodes in this season feel better connected with one another. Some of it may simply be that this is the first season in a while where the premiere has tied the theme of the season together via the Student 6. Last season didn't even have a traditional 2-part premiere, the season before's Flurry didn't figure into the finale, and S5 only had hidden hints of Starlight that she was out there plotting. But none of her spying figured into the narrative of the individual episodes.

And speaking of intra-season continuity, it was bold of Haber to give Spike wings in the first half of the season - something that will affect his portrayal for its remainder. S3's "MMC" was a finale, and "CotLM" didn't occur till episode 18 of S5, and even then there were no more CMC-centered episodes until the following season. And we know

Spoiler

Spike isn't quite finished this season, and I'm sure those wings are going to be brought up some point by his special visitor.

And @Ganondox is right in saying there's a larger sense of continuity overall. Even the little things that don't require exposition (or ones they didn't even bother to explain) - they just put them out there, and those viewers who have been following all the episodes will catch them and those that haven't won't get confused. They've been getting better at doing that in these later seasons and not seeming to worry about making episodes quite so stand-alone, and S8 has been the best at it yet.

[Conred 274]

This season so far is way worse than Season 6. There is no improvement, just absolute lack of story editing.

[Brainstorm 4,123]

I would say, showing the map as extended, meaning they have more Friendship Missions, Spike gets his wings, which can come in handy on missions like in the DragonLands, Changeling Hive, and Mount Aris.

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

S8 didn't have many god-tier episodes just like S7 (Parental Glideance, A Royal Problem, The Perfect Pear, Discordant Harmony) but it has better overall score compare to S7 first half, only truly bad episode this season is Non-compete Clause, the others are 7 out of 10 at worst. S7 just has many low-tier episodes that give you a bad impression of the season, until some amazing episode save them from being mediocre, they has Fluttershy Leans In, Honest Apple, Hard to Say Anything and Not Asking for Trouble (which is a not good choice for mid-finale). S8 so far didn't have many WOW factor to me, they are very predictable so far but they are more enjoyable overall, not exceptional but consistent.

[gingerninja666 487]

On 6/10/2018 at 8:09 PM, AlexanderThrond said:

It's actually fun more often than not, most episodes emphasize humour, character, and story before a hamfisted moral, it usually takes the perspective of the character learning the lesson rather than someone else reacting to them, and there's a lot more creativity in execution. Simply put, there's a lot more flavour so far, and even in milder episodes like "Surf and/or Turf," there's a lot more imagination compared to something like "Campfire Tales." We get details about setting and society rather than a bunch of derivative myths, and none of the other episodes have that same sense of mildness. It hasn't really fixed the occasional tendency for characters to be obnoxious just to deliver a moral, but it's a lot less frequent - by this point in season 7, there were like five different episodes based on that principle, and every single one of them led us to sympathize with someone other than the character learning a lesson.

In addition, while it's far from perfect, this season has a stronger feel for the mane six. Their personality traits give rise to stronger jokes, their usual set of interests and anxieties is given more dynamic context, and the writing more successfully finds amusing and satisfying scenarios for them, rather than shoehorning them into a specific moral story. Most of all, there's just a significant increase in energy, which appears best through the abundance of clever comedic asides, which in turn makes the lessons communicated more satisfying. This season's penchant for comedic noodling is just a stronger method of thematic delivery than rigid, on-the-nose structures like "Marks and Recreation" or blandly charming tales like "It Isn't the Mane Thing About You." The storytelling has always been predictable, but this significant increase in pizzazz makes it a lot more appealing. 

And so far you seem to be liking Starlight a lot more this season.

[Thrond 3,271]

7 hours ago, gingerninja666 said:

And so far you seem to be liking Starlight a lot more this season.

Yes, that certainly helps.

[Oleks 1,994]

For me, the biggest improvements are in the aspect of humour (this season's jokes made me laugh more often the S7's ones) and the consistency nods. And that's about it so far. But if they keep adding more epic faics, S8 will soon be the greatest one in this component.

[Kadeda 178]

It's dialog in general. They continue to improve dialog wise.

[heavens-champion 1,907]

On ‎6‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 5:10 AM, Conred said:

This season so far is way worse than Season 6. There is no improvement, just absolute lack of story editing.

Nah. Season 6 has less story editing than Season 8.

[PacificGreen 1,163]

I kinda feel like both seasons have had a fair mix of good, decent, and meh episodes, with most of the weaker episodes happening at the start of the season (For Season 7, Fluttershy Leans In, Honest Apple, and, I know I might get hate for this, Parental Glideance; for Season 8, the premiere, Fake It, and Non-Compete Clause). So it's kinda hard to mention anything that's a step up since they seem to be on fairly equal footing. If this season follows the pattern of the last, though, hopefully the season will significantly improve in the second half.

If I do have anything to say, it's probably that there's no episode like "Fluttershy Leans In" in this season.