Disappointed in S9 so far.

[Yellow Diamond 7,561]

1 hour ago, Bakugou Is My Man <3 said:

I agree with you 100%. I was hoping the episodes aired this season would entail answering some questions that have been left unanswered or the season having an overall story of the main characters dealing with Grogar and his plans. I don’t want to have to wait until the season finale to see Grogar in action. I know that we are still early in and things may change but right now, I am not very satisifed with the episodes. I will admit that I have high expectations for this season and I realize that they may be a tad too high, however...

I definitely sympathize with you. MLP has struggled with story arcs. The Season 4 story arc, for example, was sporadic. Even Season 5 -- which was excellent overall -- suffered from a similar issue: It introduced Starlight Glimmer in an engaging premise, only to shuttle her off until the finale. They remained wedded to the narrative pacing from Seasons 1 and 2 -- but those seasons worked because the major conflicts (Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis) were self-contained. Ironically, Season 1 probably has the most successful story arc in the show's history: the Grand Galloping Gala.

[Celli 4,332]

On 5/12/2019 at 8:28 PM, VG_Addict said:

I'm kind of disappointed by S9 so far.

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

I can get where you came from. The expectation for a decent closure of any long-running series must be high. Any episode of season 9 so far, beside the premiere, can be put in season 8 and no one will notice. Only two not-so-great episodes this season are Yona and Student 6 episodes, let hope the next student 6 related episode will be just as good as season 8 because any more mediocre episode from them might prove them a burden. Right now, I just want to spend the rest of this season to see Mane 6, Spike, Royal Sister, Starlight and her friends, or any character that I love from season 1 to season 7. This is the final season, every wasted episode will leave a hole in my heart. I may sound a bit dramatic but you guys must know when you realize there isn't much left episode of your favorite show which you invested for years, there wont be many luxury episodes to experiment, to screw around.

After the lastest disaster episode of Game of Throne final season, i'm a bit paranoid. I hope the next mlp episode will give me some smiles because I have to bear one last train-wreck episode that will completely destroy one of my favorite TV show of all time this week...

[bigbertha 410]

17 minutes ago, Bas said:

Can you pinpoint it out more concrete? You are just saying that s1-s3 have been much better, but less so why.

The biggest things for me are the animation and comedy. Seasons 1-3 are a lot bouncier and cartoony which is more appealing to me than the newer seasons which don't anything interesting visually. And the comedy is just better for me in the early seasons. Most episodes back then are pretty consistently funny while I don't laugh as much at most episodes after season 3. The stories of seasons 1-3 aren't much better than 4-9 for the most part, but the animation and comedy keep them enjoyable. Without those two things, the early episodes would be as dry to me as the later episodes.

[Thrond 3,257]

This season is shaping up to be my favourite since, like, season 2 maybe, so I don't agree. I think complaining that we keep getting standard slice-of-life stories is missing the point, plus I genuinely feel that this season has already offered up some of the show's best slice-of-life stories in years, which is to say some of the best episodes ever. 

The unanswered questions people like to bring up nowadays just aren't that interesting to me. I think they've reached a point with Spike's parentage that leaving the question unanswered is probably more meaningful than answering it, I don't see how Celestia and Luna's origin is relevant to anything, and obviously the show will never even confirm that Applejack's parents are dead. I do not believe we need those questions answered. 

And all of the adventure stuff set up in the premiere is the least interesting part of the show to me. I mean it's funny enough but there's not really any emotional centre to any of it. But next week's episode has a lot of potential; putting the villains in comedic situations is something I enjoyed about the premiere, so I'd love to see more of that. 

[n1029 224]

I'm just going to enjoy the ride while it lasts. It's very hard for a tv series to stick the landing so just have to hope for the best.

Fwiw we still have roughly 7-8 hours of G4 Pony material to go. It's still a bit soon to be in the loose end tying mode.

 

Edited May 15, 2019 by n1029

[bigbertha 410]

4 minutes ago, Bas said:

Haven't your first reviews been way more favorable/positive than your rewatched ones? Maybe your expectation from the show shifted along the way?

Generally, yeah my thoughts on the show have gotten more negative. But even on first watch I've never been a fan of seasons 5 and 7. 

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,151]

On ‎5‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 9:27 PM, AlexanderThrond said:

I think complaining that we keep getting standard slice-of-life stories is missing the point, plus I genuinely feel that this season has already offered up some of the show's best slice-of-life stories in years, which is to say some of the best episodes ever. 

That's pretty much my view. I may be in the minority, but I was never really expecting the show to go into an actual season-long arc. I mean, even in the seasons that technically had an 'arc' with was extremely spread out with the majority of the episodes being slice-of-life and largely disconnected from any arc-related episodes. Season 9 pretty much follows my expectations on that.