Misunderstood episode(s)?

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

Do you have an episode or a list of episodes that recieved a negative response that you felt was overblown or undeserved?

 

Edited January 1, 2019 by TheAnimationFana

[Steve Piranha 28,747]

17 minutes ago, TheAnimationFana said:

Do you have an episode or a list of episodes that you feel recieved a negative response that you felt was overblown or undeserved?

 

Newbie Dash and Fame and Misfortune come to mind

[Dashy 4 Ever 4,832]

Most of the episodes from Season 8 received a lot of negative reviews while I just enjoy watching them.

[imawesome 449]

28 Pranks Later.  I thought that the writers didn't intend for some in depth character analysis or moral. They just wanted to have fun, and I had fun with this episode. Sure, the moral was sloppy, and RD was not at her best, but I had fun and sometimes that's all a MLP episode has to do: be enjoyable. 

[Once In A Blue Moon 894]

I think that Newbie Dash got quite a poor response (I thought unfairly) despite what I thought was actually a good message.

 

On reflection I suppose if there appears to be a negative message, and that's what people take from it, then the criticism is fair in that the episode failed to communicate the intended message properly, so perhaps I shouldn't judge the response as 'unfair' - though that would put it solidly in the 'misunderstood' category.

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

3 minutes ago, Steve Piranha said:

Newbie Dash and Fame and Misfortune come to mind

I agree regarding "Fame and Misfortune".

"Newbie Dash" on the other hand.... 

[Megas 27,050]

Spike At Your Service, it makes Spike look dumb but the episode feels well intentioned, and both AJ and even Spike still gets a cool spot in it, not to mention it has some god-tiered chemistry between the main 6

18 minutes ago, Sondash Studios said:

Most of the episodes from Season 8 received a lot of negative reviews while I just enjoy watching them.

This too, only two episodes this season I thought were genuinely bad(NCC and A Matter Of Principals), but I thought most were fine for the most part, including some more unpopular episodes like The End In Friend and Yakity Sax

Edited December 31, 2018 by This Whomps

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

Just now, This Whomps said:

Spike At Your Service, it makes Spike look dumb but the episode feels well intentioned, and both AJ and even Spike still gets a cool spot in it, not to mention it has some god-tiered chemistry between the main 6

Well, outside of all of the inadvertent references to slavery.

[Misty Shadow 7,065]

Feeling Pinkie Keen and What About Discord are the most misunderstood episodes of the show without a contest in my eyes. Moreso the latter. FPK has always been, and still continues to be, mainly misunderstood by oversensitive atheists (whom I have no problem with, as I liked the episode even in my atheist days) who misinterpret the moral as anti-science and pro-Christianity despite an objective look at it showing that the real moral is just against arrogance and for having trust in your friends. What About Discord is misunderstood by all sorts of different people who mistakenly view the episode as just something "intentionally unfunny that they're not supposed to get". In reality, the writer's intent is to get you to relate to Twilight's frustration with not getting the in-joke and the real jokes of the episode actually revolve around how the characters react to the joke and Twilight's frustration. 

Looking at the replies this thread got while I was typing this, I am surprised no one mentioned these two episodes yet. I am very pleased to see some bring up Newbie Dash though, I always believed that episode was reviewed too harshly by a lot of people for being "too mean-spirited" despite a good portion of this show being mean-spirited. 

Edited December 31, 2018 by CloudMistDragon

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

To be fair, "Newbie Dash" was destined to disappoint *some* people due to it being so anticipated. 

The majority of us were expecting it to be triumphant and uplifting, and the actual episode was written by a first time writer who wrote a sour, unpleasant, and mean-spirited 22-minute putdown for Rainbow Dash.

Edited December 31, 2018 by TheAnimationFana

[Them's Seeing Ponies 282]

FPK and Spike at Your Service stand out the most to me. FPK is typically panned (rightfully, might I add) for the clunky and awkward execution of its moral, but the remainder of the episode, despite some repetition at times, is genuinely hilarious and entertaining (moreso than many of the more popularly-cited comedy episodes later in the series) in typical lighthearted Faust fashion (particularly the random slapstick befalling Twilight whilst stalking Pinkie, which speaks for itself as one of S1's quintessential moments). Conversely, Spike at Your Service does feature a mischaracterized Spike and unfortunate implications regarding his loyalties towards Twilight, but Whomps is right on the money regarding some of the comedy/dialogue between the M6 (the false Timberwolf scheme, Dash's fanfiction and the reactions to the rock tower being absolutely golden in particular), which redeem it from being terrible from my perspective. 

Edited December 31, 2018 by Them's Seeing Ponies

[EpicEnergy 22,064]

I think many episodes as well as the MLP movie have been misunderstood.

Edited January 5, 2019 by EpicEnergy

[gingerninja666 487]

6 minutes ago, TheAnimationFana said:

To be fair, "Newbie Dash" was destined to disappoint *some* people due to it being so anticipated. 

The majority of us were expecting it to be triumphant and uplifting, and the actual episode was written by a first time writer who wrote a sour, unpleasant, and mean-spirited 22-minute putdown for Rainbow Dash.

I always had a soft spot for Newbie Dash because I loved the ending. And just how banal-y realistic the way Dash became a bolt was.

[FlareGun45 2,221]

Equestria Games! I know people wanted the games themselves and I don't blame them, but it was a fantastic Spike episode regardless! One of the best! 

[Black Sabbath 2,484]

The mysterious mare-do-well. Maybe not the entire episode as much as the part where the mane six brags about their heroic accomplishments to Rainbow Dash. I see a lot of people saying that that means they were equally bad as Rainbow, but that sort of ignores that the entire plan was to make Rainbow realize how annoying it was listening to someone else bragging and that Applejack, at the end of the episode, flat-out says that bragging about your accomplishments is okay as long as you don't overdo it (which Rainbow did and the rest of the mane six didn't).

[Megas 27,050]

1 hour ago, gingerninja666 said:

I always had a soft spot for Newbie Dash because I loved the ending. And just how banal-y realistic the way Dash became a bolt was.

I disagree with the episode being "realistic" considering it blatantly ignores everything RD has learned for 6 seasons to go anywhere(which before then the episodes were really good at remembering each other), which if anything makes it unrealistic, all for the sake of that awful impressions joke. This coupled with how anticlimactic RD becoming a WB was at the beginning, eally gives the impression that the writers just didn't care

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

8 minutes ago, This Whomps said:

I disagree with the episode being "realistic" considering it blatantly ignores everything RD has learned for 6 seasons to go anywhere(which before then the episodes were really good at remembering each other), which if anything makes it unrealistic, all for the sake of that awful impressions joke. This coupled with how anticlimactic RD becoming a WB was at the beginning, eally gives the impression that the writers just didn't care

What frustrates me most about the episode is that the concept of the episode is brilliant, but the execution is awful.

Edited December 31, 2018 by TheAnimationFana

[Thrond 3,257]

"Feeling Pinkie Keen" - I don't really get this one's moral but I think it has some high quality slapstick. To me this is one of the show's funniest episodes, and too often that seems to be overlooked due to the poorly-handled moral. 

"Owl's Well That Ends Well" - While Spike's jealousy is mostly frustrating to me, and kinda prevents me from enjoying it, I do appreciate how important Twilight is to him, and vice versa. And the tenor of Twilight's disappointment, in turn, reveals how much he means to her. I think people are too willing to believe Spike could have been replaced when the evidence is mostly pretty flimsy.  

"Dragon Quest" - This one does a very good job of moving Spike out of his comfort zone, which in turn makes him realize how comfortable he was among ponies and how much the ponies in his life meant to him. It reminds us that family is a social bond, not a biological one. Plus it actually has Spike interacting with characters other than Twilight and Rarity, which is unheard of nowadays. 

"Babs Seed" - I think there's something to the idea of going to an adult you trust to get help with a bully, and I like that this tries to reveal the emotions that could inspire such violence. I think Babs is more complex than most one-off characters in this show, and think this episode might have been better appreciated were it told from her perspective. 

"Equestria Games" - I have a hard time believing the Games themselves would be more satisfying than this story of Spike struggling with insecurity, which I think is genuinely one of the most mature stories in the entire show. 

"Slice of Life" - I think the absurdity of this thing is enough to carry it; I understand maybe half of the references, but I enjoy this mostly because it's just so weird and frantic, rather than because of anything that's familiar to me.

Most of season 6, but especially: 

"The Crystalling," which finds an ideal synthesis between characters' mundane struggles and looming calamity;

"A Hearth's Warming Tale," which is well-liked but doesn't get enough credit for subverting its own source material;

"Newbie Dash," which is way more sympathetic towards Rainbow Dash than people realize;

"Flutter Brutter," which is somewhat excessive but also finally sees Fluttershy not being afraid of everything in one of her focus episodes;

"Spice Up Your Life," in which Rarity promotes conformity only because she has good reason to think that will save the business;

and "To Where and Back Again," which streamlines its own adventure into a vehicle for its protagonists' banter and insecurities.

Also,

"A Royal Problem," which is the first time that Celestia had been granted human traits for a whole episode, and the first time Luna had been brought down to earth since season 2.

"Triple Threat," which I think is funny enough to make up for its story problems.

"School Daze," which is a bit drawn out but gets extra points for the students' charming personalities, an interesting theme about opposing xenophobia, and an unusually good use of Starlight. 

"The Mean 6," which is probably the show's purest attempt at comedy yet and deserves way more credit for it. Maybe at some point they can ditch the moral entirely. 

"Father Knows Beast," which is surprisingly specific about Spike's own lacking parentage, and wrings a lot of emotion out of that absence. 

Also, Equestria Girls: Friendship Games, which is weird and has kinda ambitious themes; the whole Equestria Girls short series, which finds a more confident and fresh niche than the movies ever did; and "Rollercoaster of Friendship," which at its best seems almost like self-parody. 

 

 

2 hours ago, TheAnimationFana said:

Well, outside of all of the inadvertent references to slavery.

I think that's suggesting it makes more sense than it does. Spike works for Applejack out of his own free will, she wants him to stop, and the "dragon code" is never explained, so I think that's overthinking it. 

 

[heavens-champion 1,893]

4 minutes ago, AlexanderThrond said:

 

"The Crystalling," which finds an ideal synthesis between characters' mundane struggles and looming calamity;

 

 

 

I don't see it. I think it would have worked better as slice of life.

[Thrond 3,257]

Just now, heavens-champion said:

I don't see it. I think it would have worked better as slice of life.

I would not have complained if that episode were fully slice-of-life, but I do think having Sunburst save the day because Starlight knew to get him is a very satisfying way to deal with their issues in that episode: both regard themselves as failures of a sort, and yet even they were able to do great things. Especially the former, whose skills had a purpose even though he didn't realize it. 

[Goat-kun 2,496]

"Misunderstood" is a word arthouse hipsters use when trying to stray from the fact that their "provocative" and "deep" installation is literally just dried dog feces on a canvas. Well, it's also used by Starbucks hipsters against Star Wars Fans and ComicsGaters. We just don't understand why Jake Skywalker was sucking on sea camel titties while the whole galaxy was smoldering on the brink of another war. It's just too deep for us right-wing hillbillies. And he didn't even have a rug to tie his room together.

 

Anyhow, there are no misunderstood episodes, just a bunch of fans trying desperately to deliberately misunderstand a hater's perspective. That one is a simple correction: Is it fun? No. Then it's bad. Clearly subjective. However, may I be so bold as to suggest that large groups of targeted people like some things more than others. It all comes down to this. Get rekt.

[DonMaguz 1,023]

3 hours ago, CloudMistDragon said:

What About Discord is misunderstood by all sorts of different people who mistakenly view the episode as just something "intentionally unfunny that they're not supposed to get". In reality, the writer's intent is to get you to relate to Twilight's frustration with not getting the in-joke and the real jokes of the episode actually revolve around how the characters react to the joke and Twilight's frustration. 

Agreed, I cannot stop laughing every time I watch 'What About Discord?' it is not intentionally unfunny, it's god tier funny to watch Twilight get jealous and making up all sorts of excuses to avoid letting go that she didn't bond with her friends during last weekend.

Take it from someone who missed lots of parties and party moments during his youth to get up early the very next day. At least one monday a month I had no idea what my friends talked about, it's incredibly funny to watch someone as dedicated as Twilight to go through the same thing, and adding the mean spirited Discord to the mix just made the episode a whole more absurd and funny.

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

28 minutes ago, AlexanderThrond said:

 

"Newbie Dash," which is way more sympathetic towards Rainbow Dash than people realize;

 

How?

[cmarston1 5,951]

I generally feel like Flutter Brutter is better than some people give it credit for.  While I understand why people would dislike Zephyr Breeze, even if while I am mostly neutral towards the character, Fluttershy's strong characterization in this episode more than makes up for any problems I would have with Zephyr Breeze.

 

[gingerninja666 487]

1 hour ago, This Whomps said:

I disagree with the episode being "realistic" considering it blatantly ignores everything RD has learned for 6 seasons to go anywhere(which before then the episodes were really good at remembering each other), which if anything makes it unrealistic, all for the sake of that awful impressions joke. This coupled with how anticlimactic RD becoming a WB was at the beginning, eally gives the impression that the writers just didn't care

I mean the sheer mechanics of how Dash became a bolt. She signed up, passed their tests, was a reserve for a while, someone retired into a teaching position, and RD was promoted based on her accolades as a national hero.