The show's biggest problem.

[CastletonSnob 3,025]

I think the show's biggest problem is inconsistent characterization. This is due to the show not having a permanent group of writers, meaning the characters' personalities can vary wildly depending on who's writing the episode.

I don't understand why the show can't have a permanent group of writers who understand the characters, or at least make the new writers watch previous episode so they can get a good grasp of them.

[MangoFoalix 24,898]

In my opinion, I think there have only been a few duds of an episode this season. People keep on complaining that Season 8 sucks but in my eyes, it's not that bad of a season. For the characterization, I think the characters ARE pretty consistent over the episodes. Having a character act just a little bit out of character for themselves in my opinion makes the show even more interesting to watch. I don't agree with the episodes that have them completely out of character but being out of character isn't really that much of a bad thing.

[RDDash 18,867]

I had to re watch episodes multiple times just to appreciate its brilliance, but when you watch it for th first time ever it kind of doesn't leave the best first impression. My only complaint is that the show is completely random and all the even'ts that happened are in the random order.

[Dethde 20]

Agreed, season 8's band of writers make each episode seem out of universe and characters seem out of character.

One of my pet peeves was Fluttershy Leans in where it feels like blatant fan service that they push fluttershy's assertiveness this far.

God 28 pranks later has to be the worst episode of the season.

[Will Guide 21,325]

45 minutes ago, VG_Addict said:

I think the show's biggest problem is inconsistent characterization. This is due to the show not having a permanent group of writers, meaning the characters' personalities can vary wildly depending on who's writing the episode.

For once I agree with you after the first paragraph. The inconsistencies do seem to spring from the new writer's lack of experience with using certain characters.

[Misty Shadow 7,088]

I don't see what the problem is with Season 8. Only episode that's officially aired so far in it that I understood the contempt and criticism of writing characters as out of character for was Non-Compete Clause, which I actually liked. The show's biggest problem in general for me is not the characterization of the protagonists, it's the characterization of the villains. Discounting the ones that get reformed, none of them have much personality.

9 minutes ago, twichlove said:

Agreed, season 8's band of writers make each episode seem out of universe and characters seem out of character.

One of my pet peeves was Fluttershy Leans in where it feels like blatant fan service that they push fluttershy's assertiveness this far.

God 28 pranks later has to be the worst episode of the season.

Fluttershy Leans In and 28 Pranks Later are Season 7 and Season 6 episodes respectively, not Season 8 episodes.

[碇 シンジン 27,427]

I think the show is trying to be more episodic and have as little longer term development as possible and underplay those developments when possible. I think to ease the show to a younger audience.

[Purple Pharaoh 23]

12 minutes ago, twichlove said:

Agreed, season 8's band of writers make each episode seem out of universe and characters seem out of character.

One of my pet peeves was Fluttershy Leans in where it feels like blatant fan service that they push fluttershy's assertiveness this far.

God 28 pranks later has to be the worst episode of the season.

I am loving much of season 8 and Fluttershy Leans in was part of it. She had a goal and saw it through and didn't back down. It was so good to see her not having a panic attack for once. I wish I knew what she did for income though. That will bother me forever unless it's stated. Ironic, seeing how she's the one who had to give tough love to her brother for not having a job.

28 Pranks was well done but for some reason I didn't care for it. I guess this is why I don't do analysis videos, I can't always articulate why something didn't entertain me, even though I find no (well relatively few) faults with it. 

I think the episode with AJ and RD competing at the expense of the students was the worst episode of the season thus far. They regressed to season 1 antics and the idea that the students assumed they were trying to teach a lesson by bad example just felt lazy and too tidy for the mess that it actually was.

Edited August 6, 2018 by Purple Pharaoh

[DonMaguz 1,023]

I think that the variety of writers has provided the show with a good amount of different scopes on the characters and their traits, allowing them to grow better and be more widely explored than they could have been under just few writers.

Of course, that variety of scopes derives into some stretching or even OOC moments from time to time. But I think that, in the long run, the quantity of writers over the seasons is a positive thing to the show and the characters in it.

[ccb20yes 81]

51 minutes ago, twichlove said:

Agreed, season 8's band of writers make each episode seem out of universe and characters seem out of character.

One of my pet peeves was Fluttershy Leans in where it feels like blatant fan service that they push fluttershy's assertiveness this far.

God 28 pranks later has to be the worst episode of the season.

I actually liked 28 pranks later.

[Dethde 20]

1 hour ago, CloudMistDragon said:

I don't see what the problem is with Season 8. Only episode that's officially aired so far in it that I understood the contempt and criticism of writing characters as out of character for was Non-Compete Clause, which I actually liked. The show's biggest problem in general for me is not the characterization of the protagonists, it's the characterization of the villains. Discounting the ones that get reformed, none of them have much personality.

Fluttershy Leans In and 28 Pranks Later are Season 7 and Season 6 episodes respectively, not Season 8 episodes.

Yeah, i know that, should have worded it differently but i was saying They were the worst out of their own seasons individually.

 

26 minutes ago, ccb20yes said:

I actually liked 28 pranks later.

You can have your own opinions and i respect that.

[ccb20yes 81]

11 minutes ago, twichlove said:

Yeah, i know that, should have worded it differently but i was saying They were the worst out of their own seasons individually.

 

You can have your own opinions and i respect that.

I thought i was really cool having everypony act like zombies, with the rainbow stains on their mouths like blood, and the title a play on the 28 days later movie.

[Dethde 20]

1 hour ago, Purple Pharaoh said:

I am loving much of season 8 and Fluttershy Leans in was part of it. She had a goal and saw it through and didn't back down. It was so good to see her not having a panic attack for once. I wish I knew what she did for income though. That will bother me forever unless it's stated. Ironic, seeing how she's the one who had to give tough love to her brother for not having a job.

28 Pranks was well done but for some reason I didn't care for it. I guess this is why I don't do analysis videos, I can't always articulate why something didn't entertain me, even though I find no (well relatively few) faults with it. 

I think the episode with AJ and RD competing at the expense of the students was the worst episode of the season thus far. They regressed to season 1 antics and the idea that the students assumed they were trying to teach a lesson by bad example just felt lazy and too tidy for the mess that it actually was.

Erm, i'm pretty sure Fluttershy Leans in wasn't a season 8 episode, I didn't dislike her overall goal and her achieving it, it's just that first off she apparently doesn't have enough knowledge of Angel and has to go to a vet, but we'll ignore that for now. The mane six in that episode felt dumbed down and just boring, but we'll ignore that. Fluttershy didn't feel like Fluttershy, the way she acted and the fact that she didn't even talk out the problems and went straight to ignoring them was even worse, she completely rejects any contribution or suggestions from the "Experts" and then just... builds it anyways while McColt and her friends come and resolves the issue. Wonder why she didn't do this from the start. Overall, her rejection of help, being impossible for me to sympathize with and the fact that she fixed the issue so easily without an expert's genuine experience and does it Perfectly made me genuinely dislike this episode.

God i absolutely hate 28 pranks later, the horrible writing, the fact that RD's past character development was suddenly rejected, the fact that the ENTIRE TOWN joined in with the prank, a prank that could scar RD forever, stereotypical zombie tropes, etc.

Non-Compete clause was a pretty meh episode i'd agree, felt like a season 2/1 episode and not an episode after the clear character development from "Buckball Season".

 

6 minutes ago, ccb20yes said:

I thought i was really cool having everypony act like zombies, with the rainbow stains on their mouths like blood, and the title a play on the 28 days later movie.

I personally don't think stereotypical zombie tropes make up for a genuinely terrible episode, but as i said i respect your opinion and the opinions of others.

[Purple Pharaoh 23]

6 minutes ago, twichlove said:

Erm, i'm pretty sure Fluttershy Leans in wasn't a season 8 episode

Oops! You're right.That was a S7 episode.  I'll have to rewatch it since I've only watched it once and I don't remember thinking she was out of character, though I will concede that her friends seemed a little bland but maybe upon a second viewing I'll be able to add more to it. I just really liked to see Flutters work towards a goal where her friends weren't literally and metaphorically pushing her while she freaks out. She used her assertiveness lessons and applied them. I was happy for that in the episode if nothing else.

[Dethde 20]

Just now, Purple Pharaoh said:

Oops! You're right.That was a S7 episode.  I'll have to rewatch it since I've only watched it once and I don't remember thinking she was out of character, though I will concede that her friends seemed a little bland but maybe upon a second viewing I'll be able to add more to it. I just really liked to see Flutters work towards a goal where her friends weren't literally and metaphorically pushing her while she freaks out. She used her assertiveness lessons and applied them. I was happy for that in the episode if nothing else.

I liked that, but the fact that the rest of the episode and even that could have been done SO much better just soils the episode for me.

[Megas 27,069]

I'm gonna be that guy and say that a lot of it is due to story editing, or lack thereof. While I don't think it's as bad as S6, it shares a lot of my same problems in that it feels a very unfocused and making a lot of mistakes it really shouldn't and could have easily been avoided if someone had actually looked at the episodes submitted and think "wait, I'm positive people will hate this." 

Much like S6 and S8, S7 was mainly dominated by new writers, yet in that season you can tell the Lady Writers tried their damndest to make sure everything made sense for the characters and the story, despite a few blemishes. S6 and 8 just let some writers run wild and results in some really dumb bullshit making it through the airways

 

Edited August 6, 2018 by This Whomps

[Sliding Bolt 4,358]

I believe earlier seasons had a permanent writing staff. I don’t know why they decided to switch to their current system. I still love it but I think it would be better if they kept a permanent writing staff.

[CastletonSnob 3,025]

8 hours ago, This Whomps said:

I'm gonna be that guy and say that a lot of it is due to story editing, or lack thereof. While I don't think it's as bad as S6, it shares a lot of my same problems in that it feels a very unfocused and making a lot of mistakes it really shouldn't and could have easily been avoided if someone had actually looked at the episodes submitted and think "wait, I'm positive people will hate this." 

Much like S6 and S8, S7 was mainly dominated by new writers, yet in that season you can tell the Lady Writers tried their damndest to make sure everything made sense for the characters and the story, despite a few blemishes. S6 and 8 just let some writers run wild and results in some really dumb bullshit making it through the airways

 

It's not as bad as S6, but it's not far off.

The Lady Writers were the best story editors the show's ever had.