Scoring Each Season of Friendship is Magic (Season 4)

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

13 minutes ago, AlexanderThrond said:

Oh, so that's why you prefer the later seasons. Personally I prefer the slice-of-life stuff. 

I like the slice-of-life stuff in the later seasons as well, but I like how it leaned in on the fantasy more.

[Thrond 3,257]

1 minute ago, TheAnimationFanatic said:

I like the slice-of-life stuff in the later seasons as well, but I like how it leaned in on the fantasy more.

I didn't really appreciate this show's fantasy aspects until season 8, but I felt that season 4 did that stuff a lot better than the next three. 

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

1 minute ago, AlexanderThrond said:

I didn't really appreciate this show's fantasy aspects until season 8, but I felt that season 4 did that stuff a lot better than the next three. 

Nah, Seasons 5-8 all handled the fantastical aspects pretty well, IMO.

[Thrond 3,257]

1 hour ago, TheAnimationFanatic said:

Nah, Seasons 5-8 all handled the fantastical aspects pretty well, IMO.

Agree to disagree - though what I meant was that season 8 did that stuff very well.

Edited June 2, 2019 by AlexanderThrond

[PinkieShadow 4,053]

To me the stories got better and better, they learned a lot before and I think here in s4 they got the grip of it all.

[Splashee 28,537]

@TheAnimationFanatic, to me, Season 4 was annoying. I had just caught up to the show's live schedule a few weeks before Twilight got her wings in Season 3, and I had to wait for Season 4 while watching Equestria Girls over and over. Then when Season 4 finally started, they didn't really do anything with Twilight as a princess (after the first episodes), except paste the wings on for every scene. This was clearly seen in "Bats!" and "Rarity Takes Manehattan" where ponies keep ignoring Twilight, or Twilight bullying Fluttershy in that song.

Then I was super hyped for the song "Apples to the Core" in episode "Pinkie Apple Pie" after seeing the animatic that was released many weeks before, just to realize they did a weak job animating it (just compare them two, and see how much was lost, especially Apple Blooms solo, or the repeated chorus).

Sure the season had "Pinkie Pride" with super guest star... I really didn't feel that one. Yes, it made me upset to see Pinkie upset, who doesn't? But the rest was just not my cup of tea. I like some of Wierd Al's own parody songs, but none of the songs in the show pleased me in the same way.

"Filli Vanilli" had some really awesome music and plot, and I am probably the only one who loved Pinkie scaring Fluttershy all the time. But here the animation of Fluttershy's face (such as size) varied too much, and her tail was placed oddly in some scenes that distracted me. This is like key moments for me when I hear people saying the animation picked up from previous seasons. The beats in the acapella songs were not properly quantized, and I wished they were, otherwise they were probably the catchiest I had heard from the show.

Tirek was the big thing that they did great. And god I have never liked the rainbow powers. Also, I did not like the library getting destroyed, or the new castle. One thing that I noticed was that the fight between Tirek and Twilight was just animation and not really part of the story. What that means is, the animation team made the season good, not the writers. I don't like that.

I have skipped some episodes, because I don't remember much about them. Some were superseded by Season 5 and 6 making them better. So overall, for me, Season 4 was the downhill to the series. it wasn't until the 100th episode in Season 5 that I actually felt the show was trying to please us again.

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

@Splashee You're allowed to be wrong. /s

[Splashee 28,537]

1 hour ago, TheAnimationFanatic said:

@Splashee You're allowed to be wrong. /s

How can this be okay?

Tail is coming out of butt crack! Season 4 is full of these oddities! Outrageous!

 

 

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

6 minutes ago, Splashee said:

How can this be okay?

Tail is coming out of butt crack! Season 4 is full of these oddities! Outrageous!

 

 

It's called an animation error. Which EVERY season has. 

[Splashee 28,537]

Just now, TheAnimationFanatic said:

It's called an animation error. Which EVERY season has. 

Too many of that same error in that same episode. I would accept it if it was a one time thing

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

Just now, Splashee said:

Too many of that same error in that same episode. I would accept it if it was a one time thing

Ok, now you're just being anal and nitpicky.

[PinkieShadow 4,053]

5 hours ago, Splashee said:

How can this be okay?

Tail is coming out of butt crack! Season 4 is full of these oddities! Outrageous!

 

 

Error or not, in this case, it's just fun. Just look at that Bic Mac *rofl*

This picture is a good canidate for  "What are they saying"   (wich gives me a completely new idea, thanks pal!)

[Emerald Heart 24,588]

6 hours ago, Splashee said:

How can this be okay?

Tail is coming out of butt crack! Season 4 is full of these oddities! Outrageous!

 

 

Big Mac's like-

"Dat ass."

[PinkieShadow 4,053]

28 minutes ago, Emerald<3 said:

Big Mac's like-

"Dat ass."

@Emerald<3 He he heee, see join in the game here

 

[ChB 18,532]

Season 4 is one of my favorite seasons, because it is very consistent in quality. It may have fewer "five star" episodes than some seasons, but it has the most episodes that I would rank four stars or better. (At least, it felt that way as I was watching through it on Netflix.)  

[bigbertha 410]

Season 4 is an incredibly frustrating season. It's not because the episodes themselves are annoying (the only outright annoying episodes in this season are Three's a Crowd, Daring Don't, and Somepony to Watch Over Me), but because it's so close to being the best season of the show. Most of the episode ideas are great. There are certain moments scattered throughout the season that are great. Testing Testing 1 2 3 is great. But so much of the season's potential is squandered.

Maybe the lost potential wouldn't be as bad if so many episodes weren't so close to living up to their potential. Maud Pie just needed to rely less on its dry humor. Equestria Games, Flight to the Finish and Rarity Takes Manehattan just needed to tighten up their pacing, For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils just needed the dream sequence to drag less. Filli Vanilli just needed to cut Pinkie out. 

There are some episodes that either didn't have potential to start with or didn't show off how good they could've been at all (Inspiration Manifestation comes to mind in the latter category), but the amount of episodes that came so close yet ended up so far is frustrating. 

I completely understand why someone would find this to be their favorite season since there is a lot of appreciate here, but it all gets overshadowed by my disappointment. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.