Which episode do you think had the most potential but needed a rewrite?

[Azureth 687]

Like an episode that had the most potential to be good but was in most desperate need of a rewrite? For me, it would be Newbie Dash. Could have been good.

[Jeric 46,861]

Oh this is a great question! There are a few that felt like gems that were not executed well. The one that most comes to my mind is Hard to Say Anything. The premise of a shy Big Mac wanting to initiate a romantic relationship with Sugar Belle but needing some confidence or help is solid. The internal conflict is solid. The external conflict is not. They could drop the entire competitive suitor trope, and the CMC, and sub in the one character that connects both Sugar Belle and Big Mac tangentially ... Starlight Glimmer. From there the episode writes itself easily. Starlight would have her own motivation for helping Big Mac as well, and trying to make up in a small way for her run as a villain. She could easily be the catalyst for misunderstanding and bad advice in a more sensible manner than the CMC. Big Mac would obviously listen to her because she knew Sugar Belle longer. 

 

And yes, Newbie Dash is another one that just needs an overhaul. 

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,597]

Non-Compete Clause would have benefited from a re-write. Instead of having Applejack and Rainbow Dash being unable to work together and needing to be saved by the students, how about this:

The students how are having difficulty working together. Twilight puts AJ and RD in charge of organizing a trust building exercise, but the two can't agree on one to use. So, each of them creates an exercise on their own. The students fail both tasks. Then, AJ and RD are seemingly put in danger, and that's when the students finally use teamwork. Only for the whole thing to be a test set up by both AJ and RD.

It develops the students, shows how far the main characters have progressed, and everyone comes out looking good.

Also, as amazing as Parental Glideance was, I think one line from Raimbow's parents acknowledging that they were a bit overzealous would've gone a long way. 

Edited October 24, 2018 by Theanimationfanatic

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,597]

The Crystal Empire was a very good opening two-parter, but I feel like it would have been even better if it dealt directly with the fallout of A Canterlot Wedding. Have Twilight not trusting her friends and family after they abandoned her. In Part 1, the group has a heated argument about the rehearsal, and in Part 2, they come back together to make amends.

Twilight's nightmare could be being abandoned by her loved ones, Spike's fears could be about Twilight sending him away could be tied into the rehearsal. 

Edited November 3, 2018 by Theanimationfanatic

[Denim&Venöm 19,385]

• Castle sweet castle: this episode could've gone a long way in reassuring fans who missed golden oaks. It should've addresed the complaints, shown Twi's difficulty in her new castle, her going through the ashes of golden oaks. Let Twi be the audience stand in for this adjustment. And maybe offer hope when the seeds for of a new golden oak are literally planted. Instead of, y'know, staging a running goose chase with Twi's friends and turning the carcass of her old home into a chandalere.
• The one where pinkie knows: the perspective of this was all wrong. We as the audience should be wondering why Pinkie was acting strange(r), and then be given the big reveal that Cadence is having a baby. But with the big surprise blown, why should we care what Pinkie does as her friends find out? 
• The Mean Six: this episode might as well have taken place in a vacuum. Chrysalis and her mean 6 were non factors and both Twi and the ToH were deus ex machina's. The whole crux of this episode was for Twi to give a speech on how they're all friends. Instead, make it more adventurous. Have Starlight be the one who figures out something is wrong. Have her ruin chrysalis' plan again. Have the mane 6 meet the mean 6 head on, and when they can't win, they take a page from Teen Titans. "If we can't defeat ourselves, perhaps we can defeat eachother." then everypony turns their strengths against the others weaknesses. And I dunno, maybe have the ToH blow chrysalis away for good measure. 
• Yakity sax: just tell us why the hell the instrument means so damn much to pinkie? Heck, i'd swap it for the flugle horn. At least she has past history with that. 
• Friendship games: look, the whole moral of picking yourself up after failure and having the courage to try again is a great one. But I wouldn't have spent the season long arc of the friendship games on it. That needed to be a proper sports episode. So much could've been done. RD trying to work with her team. Interactions with the griffons. The wonderbolts applying their lessons from Dash. Heck, have Lightning Dust lead her own team as a last minute entry. There was so much potential there. The spike episode doesn't have to be scrapped. Just don't scrap the Equestrian games for it. 

[Twilight Luna 31,423]

I think the obvious one that comes to mind is the Magical Mystery Cure. It needed to be at least two episodes but everything was crammed into one which lead to a lot of plot holes and head scratches by viewers. 

Edited October 24, 2018 by Twilight Luna

[BornAgainBrony 2,398]

37 minutes ago, Theanimationfanatic said:

The Crystal Empire was a very good opening two-parter, but I feel like it would have been even better if it dealt directly with the fallout fallout of A Canterlot Wedding. Have Twilight not trusting her friends and family after they abandoned her. In Part 1, the group has a heated argument about the rehearsal, and in Part 2, they come back together to make amends.

Sombra (and by extension, Cadence) was terribly under-used given the all the suspenseful buildup. He finally attacks and then gets taken out two seconds later. That should have been far more interesting than it ended up being. But then, maybe that's how we got Twilight vs. Tirek, as a sort of apology for what Sombra and Cadence should have been like.

Edited October 24, 2018 by BornAgainBrony

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,597]

3 minutes ago, Twilight Luna said:

I think the obvious one that comes to mind is the Magical Mystery Cure. It needed to be at least two episodes but everything was crammed into one which lead to a lot of plot holes and head scratches by viewers. 

They should've scrapped Spike At Your Service and made it Magical Mystery Cure: Part 1. 

It would have spared us one of the worst episodes of the entire show and would have made the finale flow a lot better.

[Twilight Luna 31,423]

22 hours ago, Theanimationfanatic said:

They should've scrapped Spike At Your Service and made it Magical Mystery Cure: Part 1. 

It would have spared us one of the worst episodes of the entire show and would have made the finale flow a lot better.

If they had made it a normal length season, they could have built up to the finally properly. But Hasbro wanted to end it early so they could have everyone work on the EQG movie instead.

Most episodes where Spike has to learn a lesson are poorly done, like Princess Spike. Everyone could tell where it was going within the first couple minutes. 

Edited October 25, 2018 by Twilight Luna

[Oleks 1,993]

Shadow Play. Too many interesting characters and possibilities, too little time. And the villain seemed to bland. Maybe the comics help to improve the perception of this two-parter, but I want to enjoy FiM without having to use supplemental materials, so I'd rather have Shadow Play rewritten into at least a 4-parter.

[DonMaguz 1,023]

I got excited when in 'The Cart Before the Ponies' the CMC showed different interests than their sisters and I think the resolution could have been better with them switching teams and showing the difficulties of working with someone they're not used to (having problems to speak up to a not so close adult) instead of making the big sisters complete morons (even driving the carts which was supposed to not be allowed).

[碇 シンジン 27,433]

Sombra, to kill him off like that in the episode imo wasn't the best resolution to his character. 

There are some interesting concepts behind his character and the crystal ponies that could have been explored  in more detail which would have been pretty interesting 

[Sparklefan1234 172,984]

2 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

The one where pinkie knows: the perspective of this was all wrong. We as the audience should be wondering why Pinkie was acting strange(r), and then be given the big reveal that Cadence is having a baby. But with the big surprise blown, why should we care what Pinkie does as her friends find out? 

 I enjoy G.M. Berrow's books so, when I saw this episode I was *extremely* disappointed. 

I wish she would have made it a guessing game instead of telling us before the theme song played. 

[Dark Qiviut 22,447]

2 hours ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

 I enjoy G.M. Berrow's books so, when I saw this episode I was *extremely* disappointed. 

I wish she would have made it a guessing game instead of telling us before the theme song played. 

Speaking of GM Berrow, Fluttershy Leans In would've been far better if rewritten, too.

1. Speed up the pacing. A sloth is faster.
2. Spend way more time on the conflict, and make Fluttershy share some of the blame for how atrocious she is as a client.
3. Evolve the contractors so they're not one-dimensional antagonists. As is, they're some of the worst characters of the show.
4. There's no weight into Fluttershy's goal, as the show never foreshadowed it. Rather than have it as some mysterious life-long goal, the vet wishes for one, and Fluttershy will talk to her friends to help them out.
5. The moral (a reversal of Suited) is completely different. Rather than use the construction of an animal sanctuary be a shoddy framing device for the lesson on creativity, use the episode so Fluttershy and the vet learn lessons on communicating and balancing their ideas to the contractors.

Edited October 24, 2018 by Dark Qiviut

[FlareGun45 2,221]

Father Knows Beast for sure! Instead of using a fat cabbage to take advantage of Spike, why not have a cool dragon father, but then it would force Spike to choose who he'd rather be with? I mean this episode just forced him to choose, and the slimeball got away with it! Plus, an appearance of Twilight's family to show they're his family too!

[Thrond 3,263]

I tend to be kinda soft on episodes like this, even when I don't really enjoy them. When it comes to stuff like "Fluttershy Leans In" or "Non-Compete Clause," I think the basic idea is just too flimsy to really save those stories, and that they should have been scrapped altogether. But there's a lot of episodes where I do see potential, and wish they'd just been handled a lot better. 

• Boast Busters - This has a lot of that season 1 charm, but the mane six needed a better reason to be mad at Trixie, and Twilight needed a better reason to be self-conscious about her magic.
• Bridle Gossip - Maybe if Twilight never quite gave in to mistrusting Zecora this would have been a lot more enjoyable. I mean, all the poison joke stuff is pretty clever, so having a voice of reason on the team all the way through would have helped. 
• Feeling Pinkie Keen - This episode's already pretty great but that moral needs elaboration. 
• Green Isn't Your Color - Needs a better reason for Twilight to stay quiet; as is, the solution seems really convenient. Lots of funny moments here which could have made for a great episode. 
• Luna Eclipsed - I think Pinkie's actions could have seemed less hurtful. I like Princess Luna a lot in this episode, and feel she was mistreated by the townsponies. 
• The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 - I just feel this needed a better reason for Applejack to oppose the Flim-Flam Brothers in the first place. There's a lot of charm but I can't get down with the moral. 
• Putting Your Hoof Down - Could have used more buildup to "New Fluttershy," and could have blamed Iron Will a bit less. "New Fluttershy" is fun, but comes out of nowhere. 
• One Bad Apple - Tell this story from Babs' perspective and suddenly it's one of my favourites in the show. 
• Just for Sidekicks - Fun episode, but better motivations for Spike would have been nice.
• Spike At Your Service - I like the mane six in this, so I wish Spike's behaviour made more sense. 
• Princess Twilight Sparkle - Somewhere in this mess is a solid emotional core, but it needed a lot of tidying up. See also: Rainbow Falls. 
• Daring Don't - Love the Daring Do stuff, but I think Rainbow could have been less inept in this. 
• Bats! - If this had somehow taken Applejack's argument a little more seriously, it might have been more enjoyable. 
• The Cutie Re-Mark - Either less portent or more time spent on the bad futures would have made this a lot more fun, and it could use a more realistic view of the mane six's importance.
• Newbie Dash - Tone down Dash a little bit, strip out the impressions part, and somehow suggest the Wonderbolts would stop using the nickname if RD asked, and this would probably be in my top 10. 
• The Cart Before the Ponies - There's a good moral in here somewhere, so it just needed to make the older sisters less aggressive and selfish. 
• Buckball Season - A tighter pace and any excuse for Fluttershy to be so good at buckball would have gone a long way.
• Every Little Thing She Does - Either Starlight needs to realize the moral on her own, or Twilight needs to sympathize with her less. And a bit less goofy humour would have helped. Starlight not knowing right from wrong is interesting, and Starlight being anxious about friendship lessons is sympathetic, but I don't think this can get away with doing both. 
• Rock Solid Friendship - Tone down Pinkie, give Starlight a personality, and change the ending and you might have something. 
• Forever Filly - The moral is great, so I would have enjoyed this if Rarity were toned down and figured out the moral on her own. The dog subplot was also a bad idea.
• Shadow Play - Tell this story from Twilight's perspective, cut almost the entire first part, and generally make the tone less serious and you might have something here. 
• Yakity Sax - Loosen the conflict a little bit so it's less sudden and the mane six are more sympathetic and this would be pretty satisfying. 

[RulesofRarity 493]

14 hours ago, AlexanderThrond said:

 

• Luna Eclipsed - I think Pinkie's actions could have seemed less hurtful. I like Princess Luna a lot in this episode, and feel she was mistreated by the townsponies. 

I agree so much! It's clear Pinkie's actions were hurting Luna by making her feel upset but the episode doesn't bother acknowledging that instead it proclaims Pinkie a "genius". The townspeople were finally starting to accept Luna before Pinkie ruined everything.

As for the episode that I think needed a rewrite, I think Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep  would've been a lot better if Luna didn't create the Tantabus and it was instead an external force independent of her.

 

Edited October 25, 2018 by RulesofRarity

[DonMaguz 1,023]

12 minutes ago, RulesofRarity said:

As for the episode that I think needed a rewrite, I think Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep  would've been a lot better if Luna didn't create the Tantabus and it was instead an external force independent of her.

Really? I know the episode is not the most praised one, but the Tantabus as the (internal) embodiment of Luna's guilt is one of my favorite ideas I've seen in the series.

[RulesofRarity 493]

1 hour ago, DonMaguz said:

Really? I know the episode is not the most praised one, but the Tantabus as the (internal) embodiment of Luna's guilt is one of my favorite ideas I've seen in the series.

I find the concept interesting in theory but it's ultimately the execution that lets the episode down. I just can't get behind the idea of Luna creating something so potentially dangerous just to punish herself. Her reasoning is weak as well, she claims that she created the Tantabus so that she'd never forgive herself for how much Equestria "suffered" because of her. The problem is that Equestria didn't suffer at all because of Nightmare Moon, both times she was quickly defeated and Equestria clearly doesn't hold any grudges because "Nightmare Night" is a fun holiday for kids.

I feel that making the Tantabus an external force instead of an internal one would've fixed a lot of issues with the episode. For starters it would've removed the murkiness of Luna creating something like that, and think the idea of Luna trying her hardest to move on from her brief stint as Nightmare Moon but being unable to because the Tantabus would've been completely heartbreaking but compelling.

[Thrond 3,263]

2 hours ago, RulesofRarity said:

As for the episode that I think needed a rewrite, I think Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep  would've been a lot better if Luna didn't create the Tantabus and it was instead an external force independent of her.

Well, sure, that would make the episode merely boring and empty rather than borderline offensive.

Personally, I do think the Tantibus as created by Luna might have had potential, but they’d basically need to have written a completely different episode around it to make that work. 

[RulesofRarity 493]

On 10/25/2018 at 7:18 PM, AlexanderThrond said:

Well, sure, that would make the episode merely boring and empty rather than borderline offensive.

Personally, I do think the Tantibus as created by Luna might have had potential, but they’d basically need to have written a completely different episode around it to make that work. 

I'll take boring and empty over what we got to be honest.

[RDDash 19,206]

Grannies Gone Wild: make it so that Applejack advice would actually matter at the end, not make her in the party pooper she ended up being.

Friendship University: I would have bought the moral of the story if the episode was more solid, Twilight just been throwing wild accusations and half the time she only heard about brothers from AJs mouth.

Edited October 26, 2018 by R.D.Dash

[heavens-champion 1,905]

On 10/24/2018 at 9:40 PM, AlexanderThrond said:

I tend to be kinda soft on episodes like this, even when I don't really enjoy them. When it comes to stuff like "Fluttershy Leans In" or "Non-Compete Clause," I think the basic idea is just too flimsy to really save those stories, and that they should have been scrapped altogether. But there's a lot of episodes where I do see potential, and wish they'd just been handled a lot better. 

• Boast Busters - This has a lot of that season 1 charm, but the mane six needed a better reason to be mad at Trixie, and Twilight needed a better reason to be self-conscious about her magic.

Like, say, Trixie isn't just boastful on stage, but off-stage, as well?

[Thrond 3,263]

5 hours ago, heavens-champion said:

Like, say, Trixie isn't just boastful on stage, but off-stage, as well?

Something like that wouldn't hurt. 

 

[Sepul-Coloratura 762]

I like these kind of questions.

The Cutie Re-Mark Part 1 and 2.

Because even if it already feels so epic, nothing actually happened that much. It was just a short slideshow of alternate futures of different villains conquering Equestria. We only get to dive into the thinnest layer of 'What If' scenarios. They don't actually do anything with those. (Kinda like how they showed Celestia and Nightmare Moon fighting in season 4 premiere. They were mostly for fans.) They only show the minimal and basic (and the most obvious) things that pretty much most people would come up with those futures. If you say only getting to see it happening on screen is awesome enough, it's fine because it is awesome. But I think they should have actually done something unique and unexpected with those different situations. I enjoyed watching those episodes, but it could have been even better.

(I liked To Where and Back Again more than this because they did something unique and unexpected with a Changeling invasion scenario. They focused more on "what's gonna happen next?" than "how did it happen?". We can pretty much see how the Changeling invasion would happen but we don't know what we would do then.)

P.P.O.V

I liked how it started and the message that even the closest and oldest friends can go wrong sometimes. Instead of trying to find an objective conclusion and what actually happened, they could have focused more on how everybody was being so wrong.

MMMMystery on the Friendship Express

I liked the hommages and the structure of the episode, but the ending that the they ate the cake for an important contest just because they wanted to was so wrong. And mashing up all their food and getting No.1 was even worse because they all lost an opportunity to compete fairly and individually. They didn't even apologized to Mr. and Mrs. Cake.

The Parent Map

They had a chance to explore Starlight and Sunburst's past and backgrounds. They made one of the most interesting subject into a most uninteresting episode. There are million ways to explore this subject, but I don't think the direction of the episode wasn't wrong. Mostly the pacing and directing was the fault.

A Matter of Principals

A good combination of characters, good subject, dealt completely wrong without a good understanding of the characters. The resolution wasn't right too.

Molt Down

Spike's growth had to happen at one time and getting wings were necessary, but this was executed awkwardly.

Edited October 29, 2018 by Sepul-Coloratura
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