Thoughts on Josh Haber regarding the show

[Megas 27,051]

I don't think he's a very good story editor, in fact I don't even know if he actually does any story editing. For starters, he let Newbie Dash happen so that puts him dead last in regards to story editors. I've made it clear multiple times I dislike S6 but I've also came to the defense of S8, and even then I still think the season had a lot of bad spots. I don't know how much say a story editor has, but the change from S5 to S6 when Haber was in charge, to S7 when the Lady Writers were in charge, the change was reaaaaally noticeable. S6 was the only time I was legitimately upset with the show and the writers multiple times, it was the only season I considered dropping the show, and while every other season feels like a collaborative effort, regardless of a writer's track record, S6 was the only one that felt like how good an episode was relied entirely on who wrote it. It was incredibly unfocused with Starlight being made an incredibly important character yet barely having any presence in the main meat of the season, while a lot of episodes felt like they relied way too much on gimmicks and rarely gave any thought to the characters themselves. 28 Pranks Later is probably the worst offender as it completely relies on the outright bastardization of the entire cast solely because the writers cared more about their stupid zombie theme. When I saw these episodes I didn’t think “well that sucked” or “that could have been better”, I thought “someone approved this”

The worst part is that it has the most creative freedom of all seasons in the show and nothing to hold it back, yet it has some of the series lowest lows despite this. Compare this to the other two unpopular seasons of the show, 3 and 8, but those two, especially s3, had a lot of things holding them back either by Hasbro themselves or by constraints, such as the school for S8, which the writers admitted was difficult to implement, S3 was told to do a lot with very little time, half the length of a normal season, and several episodes had to undergo several rewrites, including the finale which had the burden to establish essentially an entire character arc within the span of 22 minutes complete with a huge status quo change AND  had to completely change again once they found out the series was renewed again, something MA Larson himself said was incredibly difficult. By comparison, S6 has absolutely no excuse for its misstepts

I've admitted I like season 8, it has a set theme for the season and followed through with it's arc, but I feel it's biggest problem was entirely on execution, as a lot of episodes that focused on the season's school theme was incredibly inconsistent. Honestly though, I do think S8 was mainly better than S6 because with two people as story editor, there was less bullshit to go through

Edited April 20, 2019 by This Whomps

[Kion 7,374]

Josh Habers  not only a great writer but he’s my favorite writer. He  writes some of the best episodes of the whole series. He’s not afraid to try something new with stories. He’s awesome the show is so lucky to have him. 

Edited April 20, 2019 by Mane 6

[gingerninja666 487]

Season 6 is one of those seasons for me. Where it's quality is kind of infamous, but every single time I stop to think, I can't really pinpoint a large amount of episodes I disliked from it. There were some to be sure, and I didn't like Gauntlet as much as others did, but nowhere near enough to ruin the episodes I liked a lot.

Edited April 20, 2019 by gingerninja666

[Dark Qiviut 22,160]

1 hour ago, vgmaster9 said:

Since Josh Haber was the story editor of the two seasons (6 and 8) that were considered to be objectively the worst

Disagree.

Season 6 felt a lot like an experiment or transition. With the majority of the old crew departing (Polsky the only pre-S4 writer), new writers and new editor took over, and most episodes lack polish. Yes, it's FIM's worst season, yet is mediocre on the whole. However, since returning in S7, he's been a major cog, and Dubuc et al helped a ton.

And, yeah, I don't call S8 one of the worst, when I argue the exact opposite.

13 hours ago, vgmaster9 said:

Most of the veteran writers have been in all of the first five seasons.

Despite this fact, the current crop handles the job quite well.

[RDDash 18,848]

I would never guess if Mr Haber was in charge when the episode would air, but I can tell if it's good or bad based on my personal preferences. So it depends.

Edited April 20, 2019 by R.D.Dash

[KH7672 1,604]

9 hours ago, This Whomps said:

It was incredibly unfocused with Starlight being made an incredibly important character yet barely having any presence in the main meat of the season...Compare this to the other two unpopular seasons of the show, 3 and 8, but those two, especially s3, had a lot of things holding them back either by Hasbro themselves or by constraints...By comparison, S6 has absolutely no excuse for its misstepts

I have to disagree with you on this assertion, as the timeline of production will show that there is a reason Starlight wasn't utilized properly in Season 6.

First we have confirmation that the writing crew at DHX wanted to put her onto the cast of the show way back when they finished writing the finale at least around mid 2014 since Haber started working on the season 6 premiere late 2014

Quote

 

She was conceptualized to be part of the show way back in 2014 months before she even made her first on screen appearance. The reason this is important has to do with Hasbro and the show being a product to sell merchandise. Back in 2014, Starlight had little to none of it in the works (at most a brushable) so in terms of marketing thrusting her into the spotlight would have been a huge marketing faux pas on Hasbro's end as at that point she wasn't even on the public's radar so why would they want to put resources in a character apart from the Mane 6 that has no public appeal in their eyes. Hasbro as a company is very narrowminded when it comes to their media and unfortunately it is difficult to make such a big story change on a more market based show. It's very likely Hasbro did have a strong influence on Starlight's execution in Season 6 but that was all predetermined back in 2014 when DHX got the okay to keep her in the show but with stipulations. (Secondary character status,  not a part of the Mane 6, kept only to episodes she is the focus of in the same vein as the CMC and Discord). Unfortunately, it was too her detriment to treat her character that loosely defined, but by late 2015 when the finale reception was in full swing, Haber had little to no influence on the writing production of the Season anymore so him and Jim Miller just had to roll with it.

Edited April 20, 2019 by KH7672

[Thrond 3,257]

I liked seasons 6 and 8 way more than 5 and 7 so if anything he's done a lot of good for the series. 

[FlareGun45 2,221]

So here's this: Haber and Dubuc both do better when they're working together!

[Them's Seeing Ponies 282]

I have mixed feelings on Haber's role and influence on the series as a whole - as a writer he can produce genuinely quality material (Bloom and Gloom, Stranger Than Fan Fiction and the recent Sparkle's Seven), but his work as story editor is more divisive altogether (S6 is easily the show's weakest season, and while S8 is an improvement, I nonetheless wouldn't claim it to be one of the best seasons or even in my top 4) and I generally dislike his overall 'style' of writing and tone - whilst Haber is surprisingly adept at writing for Spike, many of his episodes (both as a writer and SE) watch (from my perspective) somewhat disappointingly, particularly in regards to his tendency to overuse both certain clichés (see also his S4 work and most of S6's basic plotlines, which, as SE, he presumably had major input in) and comedy (which typically relies on characters acting generically crazy via huge emotional takes and exaggerative facial expressions (which is utilized in S6 frequently to the point of becoming tiring) and sitcom-esque exchanges, which exude a more uninspired air than the quirkiness of the Faust/Renzetti era or M.A Larson's absurd self-referentiality in S5, particularly when ubiquitously inserted across S6).

However, I wouldn't say that Haber's influence has been particularly negative either - his writing style is certainly more distinct than many of his S4 contemporaries (with the sardonic nature of his episodes displaying, at least, a stronger creative vision to some extent than, say, Natasha Levinger or Scott Sonneborn) and his tendency to remain with the series almost (barring the first half of S7) entirely persistently over six seasons of its nine-season run (even if the result has been a mild fatigue of his stylistic choices) is pretty admirable, particularly given that he was thrust into the SE editor presumably with little choice at the end of S5 (with virtually none of the writing staff barring the Lady Writers and Nick Confalone, both new at the time, remaining fully on-staff) and was forced to revamp virtually the entire writing staff of the series with much of its best (and veteran) crew (McCarthy, Thiessen and a ton of animators and storyboard artists) and resources absent on the movie at the time (alongside his creative obligation to continue the series beyond its two most acclaimed seasons at the time whilst simultaneously introducing a new main cast member). So yes, while I wouldn't consider Haber one of the show's best writers (or even the best SE - he's nearer the bottom to me given S6's thinner editing of individual episodes, which let some egregious issues slip through frequently), his contributions to the show are ultimately difficult to overlook. 

Edited April 21, 2019 by Them's Seeing Ponies

[FearTheBelle 55]

"Objectively the worst." I disagree, and that view can't even be objective.

[JMTV99 1,348]

My thoughts on Josh Haber as a writer? He's alright. He wrote some pretty good episodes like Castle Mania and Simple Ways back in Season 4, but I don't think he wasn't as good as some of the previous writers in the earlier seasons like Lauren, Meghan, Larson, Amy, Corey, Polsky, etc. Heck, even short lived ones like Natasha Levinger. I mean, he's decent when to comes to writing ambitious and unique ideas, but in execution, it feels very weak.

However, when it come to Josh Haber being the story editor for S6-9, I'm not a big fan of him, at all. His style of his story editing weren't as memorable compared to McCarthy, or hell, even Rob Renzetti. It felt very by-the-books and meandering and it didn't have any meat to it or didn't go all out with his creativity to keep me watching the show. At least with the earlier seasons had a lot of creativity when it comes to their storytelling and made them memorable and intriguing, even it's worst episodes had redeeming qualities to them.

Also, here's something I really noticed when it comes to the later seasons when Josh was in charge. I remember watching through Season 6 back in the day, I noticed the quality went downwards and it wasn't as memorable compared to Season 5. Looking back on it many years later, I can honestly understand why. We all know Faust left the show after Season 2 and McCarthy took over, but when Meghan left after Season 4 and 5 to worked on the 2017 film, I noticed the series had been taking a completely different direction, in terms of characters, stories, and themes when Josh Haber (and later Nicole Dubuc) took over, and bring in new freelance writers instead of bringing back the previous writers, it just wasn't at the same level of quality.

The problem that I had with the later seasons is that it feel so...manufactured, both corporately and fan-service-y rather than actually having a coherent storyline that can appeal for both kids and adults. There's no passion and there's no love. It felt so paycheck inducing that really annoys me.

So yeah, that's my opinion on him. Decent as a writer, but not a great story editor.

If you guys like him, that's great. I just wasn't too crazy about him.

Edited May 10, 2021 by JMTV99

[Megas 27,051]

My filter's been turned off since I read the leaks, he's a hack and one of the worst things to happen to the show

Edited October 2, 2021 by Megas

[JMTV99 1,348]

On 2021-05-10 at 1:46 PM, Megas said:

My filter's been turned off since I read the leaks, but he's a complete hack and one of the worst things to happen to the show

To be fair, I heard a little bit about the leaks, but I'm not sure if those were true or not, but I wouldn't say he was complete hack either. It's just the ideas he had could've been handled by much better writers and story editors like Megan McCarthy or Joanna and Kristine.

[Sasoriman 128]

I've never thought much of Haber's involvement with the show, let alone the rest of the writers, new or veteran, because I was focused more on the content and dialogue of each episode. Maybe that's why I thought Newbie Dash was a good episode, though I still concede that it could've been better somehow. It wasn't until halfway through season 7 and the start of season 8 that I started to pick up on the shift in tone and who was writing what episodes. 

@MegasWhat leaks are you talking about?

Edited May 20, 2021 by Sasoriman

[JMTV99 1,348]

21 minutes ago, Sasoriman said:

I've never thought much of Haber's involvement with the show, let alone the rest of the writers, new or veteran, because I was focused more on the content and dialogue of each episode. Maybe that's why I thought Newbie Dash was a good episode, though I still concede that it could've been better somehow. It wasn't until halfway through season 7 and the start of season 8 that I started to pick up on the shift in tone and who was writing what episodes. 

Yeah, I can see what you're coming from.

[Megas 27,051]

1 hour ago, Sasoriman said:

@MegasWhat leaks are you talking about?

The infamous 2019 Ponychan leaks where almost literally everything from the show's production(including different songs, original drafts for various episodes, animatics, emails, etc) was released on Ponychan(and sift through by 4chan)

[Sasoriman 128]

Holy shit.

I knew China leaked several episodes, and the Dutch did the finale, but God. All. Mighty. That was one hell of a year for everyone trying to avoid spoilers; meanwhile, all I did was sit back and watch the fireworks.

Edited May 21, 2021 by Sasoriman