S09:E15 - 2,4,6, Greaaat

[Sepul-Coloratura 756]

Who is that blue pegasus with rainbow colored mane that thinks cheering isn't important?

[Megas 27,064]

Yeah, no, this one fucking broke me. After 9 seasons and the writers are still pulling this shit even when everyone and their fucking mothers always hates it, no. I don't buy that they actually thought this would be a good episode to send out. They have to know. This is the last bloody season of the show and I expected a good send off, but at this point I honestly think they've been actively trying to sabotage her episode, as if they hate you for liking RD. And that fucking ending just reeks of the writers jerking it to themselves thinking about how clever they are with that bloody moral. So fuck this I'm stopping here. I shouldn't have to put up with this anymore

Edited August 12, 2019 by Kiryu-Chan

[Sparklefan1234 161,861]

1 hour ago, PathfinderCS said:

I'm not a fan of this episode. It had it's cute moment that I enjoyed, but the overall story felt weak and Rainbow Dash came off WAY too much as a jerk in my eyes. Almost felt like it was treading NCC waters again; in a sense. :/

 

27 minutes ago, Dark Qiviut said:

Yesterday’s episode was a terrible appearance for Rainbow Dash. Completely selfish and unaware of how hurtful her behavior toward her students were. Despite Twilight tricking Dash into learning a lesson and artificially putting her whole tournament at risk of cancellation to accomplish her objective, Dash should’ve been way more mature by working with her student and teach cheerleading from the start. This episode, as I already stated, is her own Honest Apple.

 

How can the writers possibly expect me to say "It's ok, Dash. I forgive you." when she acts like such an enormous jerk for (What feels like.) 

19 minutes out of a 22 minute episode? 

[DonMaguz 1,023]

@Dark Qiviut If so many episodes handle her so bad, I wonder why people keep stating Rainbow's selfishness as being 'out of character', her selfishness is a fundamental part of Dash's character and while it is sometimes exaggerated for the sake of plot convenience, it is by no means 'out of character' for her behavior.

[Dark Qiviut 22,173]

12 minutes ago, DonMaguz said:

@Dark Qiviut If so many episodes handle her so bad, I wonder why people keep stating Rainbow's selfishness as being 'out of character', her selfishness is a fundamental part of Dash's character and while it is sometimes exaggerated for the sake of plot convenience, it is by no means 'out of character' for her behavior.

Because for something like putting more focus on teaching, she should've already passed that point. Also, if this happened sometime in S1 or 2, you can work with it, as she was less mature back then. We're in season 9; it makes no sense for her to learn a lesson on doing a job she may not like while supposed to be a teacher to those who want to emulate her best qualities.

[Sepul-Coloratura 756]

This episode is the epitome of MLP's recent episodes' problems. Fundamentally, the story isn't inspired and it seems that the show runners don't care about making a good episode and doesn't try enough to push themselves any further. I'm assuming of course, but the episode is self evident. I really don't want to be mean to the student six either, but it proves my point that they are bad episode generators.

It seems like the show runners wanted to stop earlier, their interest in the show was long gone, but they had a whole season left. Now it feels like they are just passing the episodes like Rarity's uninspired manufactured dress (and at least those dresses were good quality). They seem to not know how their own property works, and they don't even care. After Season 8, my last hope was that they would at least try a bit harder to make the final season a worthy conclusion to the whole series, even that they aren't talented as much. Now that hope is gone. This was the last straw. Even the worst episodes before weren't this devoid of passion.

They just don't care as much anymore.

Edited August 12, 2019 by Sepul-Coloratura

[DonMaguz 1,023]

4 hours ago, AlexanderThrond said:

Dash being lazy and dismissive was annoying.

This is the reason why I don't get how was the premise of this episode accepted.

Did someone really thought that a dismissive Rainbow Dash without any interest on an activity would be entertaining in some way? She's always been a pony of action and this episode showed her from her least entertaining angle.

[Megas 27,064]

1 minute ago, DonMaguz said:

@Dark Qiviut If so many episodes handle her so bad, I wonder why people keep stating Rainbow's selfishness as being 'out of character', her selfishness is a fundamental part of Dash's character and while it is sometimes exaggerated for the sake of plot convenience, it is by no means 'out of character' for her behavior.

That's the problem right there. There's a huge difference between addressing a character flaw, and then there's amplifying particular flaws on full blast at the expense of her redeeming qualities(inb4hurhur she has redeeming qualities lolol!!1!). Not to mention this episode completely goes against other traits like her loyalty, and eagerness, and even cheer(which she's show to believe is important in past episodes, even in the same bloody season). Like I said, it just feels like they're going out their way to make it a miserable experience

[Sepul-Coloratura 756]

3 minutes ago, DonMaguz said:

This is the reason why I don't get how was the premise of this episode accepted.

Did someone really thought that a dismissive Rainbow Dash without any interest on an activity would be entertaining in some way? She's always been a pony of action and this episode showed her from her least entertaining angle.

She acted like under Discord's spell in season 2.

[Thrond 3,257]

32 minutes ago, DonMaguz said:

This is the reason why I don't get how was the premise of this episode accepted.

Did someone really thought that a dismissive Rainbow Dash without any interest on an activity would be entertaining in some way? She's always been a pony of action and this episode showed her from her least entertaining angle.

I thought last week’s had a bad premise as well, but at least there was some fun to be had there. She’s been lazy in the past, but it was in a very different context.

I feel like these past few seasons have made a lot of important steps forward, but their low points feel so much lazier.

[RDDash 18,866]

Personally I wasn't impressed when I saw Fluttershy starting freaking out at the mention of training ponies at buckball.

You know, I said to myself: this is not season 9 Fluttershy this is season 1 Fluttershy. Okay, and then lazy Dash happened. Of course.

Edited August 12, 2019 by R.D.Dash

[Odyssey 5,713]

Eh. Can't say I liked this one much. It's... actually really bad.

Dash is unlikeable in this episode. Very, very unlikeable. Just because she's proud of her own interests doesn't mean that she doesn't care for what people like. She's shown plenty a time that she's ready to help someone, even if it means putting herself aside (I feel that Secrets and Pies does this a lot better, and is a lot funnier with the approach imo). But that loyalty was not there at all, her ignoring the cheerleading team and placing the coaching role onto other ponies was dickish, being so self-absorbed that she "doesn't get" what she was doing wrong, and her overall approach to things and the way she sounded was dismissive. The fact that the cheer squad just had to spell out to Dash to ask ponies on what to do to help, and tell her why she's a terrible coach is so terribly forced that it just hurts the story. The third act with the training montage was nice at least, and the performance at the end felt a bit satisfying to see the pay-off. But Twi's last line was just. No! Nonono! Arrggh!!!

If nothing else, I don't hate anything else in this episode (although Snips' money-making running gag got old fast), it's really just Rainbow Dash. Oh well, maybe next week's episode will be nice.

[Splashee 28,537]

7 hours ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

This episode is the epitome of MLP's recent episodes' problems. Fundamentally, the story isn't inspired and it seems that the show runners don't care about making a good episode and doesn't try enough to push themselves any further. I'm assuming of course, but the episode is self evident. I really don't want to be mean to the student six either, but it proves my point that they are bad episode generators.

It seems like the show runners wanted to stop earlier, their interest in the show was long gone, but they had a whole season left. Now it feels like they are just passing the episodes like Rarity's uninspired manufactured dress (and at least those dresses were good quality). They seem to not know how their own property works, and they don't even care. After Season 8, my last hope was that they would at least try a bit harder to make the final season a worthy conclusion to the whole series, even that they aren't talented as much. Now that hope is gone. This was the last straw. Even the worst episodes before weren't this devoid of passion.

They just don't care as much anymore.

By show runners, you mean the writers (including story editor)? Because I did see quite an increase in unique animation from season 9 as a whole, like new facial expressions.

Could it be the fact that the animators are still as much in love with G4 as we are? But Hasbro and the writers want to move on (getting tired of G4)?

 

Or is it worse? Are the animators in trouble, getting thrown out after G4 ends? And they are trying to show their talent for their next job? I really am thinking "Rainbow Roadtrip" animation company taking over for G5, which might not be true.

2 hours ago, R.D.Dash said:

Personally I wasn't impressed when I saw Fluttershy starting freaking out at the mention of training ponies at buckball.

You know, I said to myself: this is not season 9 Fluttershy this is season 1 Fluttershy. Okay, and then lazy Dash happened. Of course.

Oh yea! I forgot about that one! I mean, saying this just proves what all the fan ponies in "Fame and Misfortune" said about Fluttershy. But that was in Season 7, and we are in Season 9 now, so does that makes us (fans) look bad if we start this argument again? That's kinda why I didn't want to talk about it.

But more or less, any Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy (or Rarity) going back to their Season 1 states at this point is just painfully bad. Put those states into the Student 6 instead, and make the Main 6 actually worth princess status or at least professor (in school of friendship) status.

Edited August 12, 2019 by Splashee
Needed to respond to another quote, because it was goooood point!

[Rushing cash 824]

I guess I have an unpopular opinion regarding this episode, I thought this one was better than the last, and to be honest I liked this episode overall. Half the episode was boring with some dissapointing stuff but it was worth it for the good ones. Smolder was great here, and the ending was really good. I will give it 7/10, it was better then the last laugh, uprooted and sweet and smoky, but its still mine 4th least favorite episode of the season so far. 

[JH24 385]

On 8/12/2019 at 5:52 AM, Dark Qiviut said:

Yesterday’s episode was a terrible appearance for Rainbow Dash. Completely selfish and unaware of how hurtful her behavior toward her students were. Despite Twilight tricking Dash into learning a lesson and artificially putting her whole tournament at risk of cancellation to accomplish her objective, Dash should’ve been way more mature by working with her student and teach cheerleading from the start. This episode, as I already stated, is her own Honest Apple.

However, despite her being out of character and unlikeable, I can’t place her appearance or the episode close to the worst. Several episodes prior handled her worse than this.

1. May the Best Pet Win, Tanks for the Memories: abusive to animals. The former by being cruel to those who want to be her pet and dismissive toward Tank. The latter for treating her company with Tank to be more important than keeping her alive. Sorry not sorry, I don’t pity Dash over having to wait three months during the winter!
2. Rainbow Falls: Gaining an ego and then actually thinking about abandoning the relay team representing her town in favor of the “cooler” Wonderbolts squad.
3. Mare Do Well: No explanation needed.
4. 28 Pranks Later: jumpstarted the MDW ripoff by scaring the daylights out of FS while knowing she hates being pranked.
5. Newbie Dash: What supposed to be her milestone episode turned out to be one of the biggest torture porns of the entire show. It remains the show’s biggest black mark.
6. Compete Crap Clause: Lusting to win Teacher of the Month, she and AJ focus more on winning than the Young Six’s safety, causing a Yona to nearly drown! Rather than learn their lesson, they act passive-aggressive toward each other and nearly became bite-a-cuda dinner!

When Rainbow Dash wisened up, she worked hard to help the students make the cheerleading become the go-to moment of the tournament, and there were many other moments here that worked. It’s the worst episode this season, sure, but compared to almost the rest I listed, it’s not terrible.

You've described it very well. I hadn't even realized RD had so many bad episodes during the series. I agree with you on almost all the episodes you listed, except (respectfully) for Newbie Dash. I confess i have a bit of a soft spot for that episode so my views on it are subjective, but after watching 2,4,6... I feel the latter is even worse for Rainbow Dash as a character.

I agree Rainbow Dash had a very tough time in Newbie Dash, but I can't help but feel her character was portrayed much worse in the season 9 episode.

I don't want to bother anyone with my own views on Newbie Dash but what makes a difference for me is that in Newbie Dash Rainbow at least realized herself that she was wrong. In 2,4,6... she didn't realize it at all. 

This episode would have worked for me if Rainbow Dash had begun to feel guilt after seeing Yona and Ocellus cry. Rainbow questioning herself could have lead to her realizing what she had done, and Smolder could have been the one to give her one last nudge in the right direction. But Rainbow still didn't care even after seeing her students cry and Smolder had to spell it all out for her, which made her "redemption" (which should have been touching/sympathetic) even worse.

Unless I missed it she didn't even apologize to the squad. Instead we got a "I'm awesome and I'm here to make your cheer squad awesome as well, because I care about you!"

In Newbie Dash she pulled some pretty bad stunts but she never seemed mean-spirited (more like desperate). She realized her mistake by herself and apologized for it. In this episode she just came across as a jerk who doesn't care about others until suddenly she does because Smolder has to tell her.

Edited August 13, 2019 by JH24

[BornAgainBrony 2,395]

8 hours ago, Kiryu-Chan said:

That's the problem right there. There's a huge difference between addressing a character flaw, and then there's amplifying particular flaws on full blast at the expense of her redeeming qualities(inb4hurhur she has redeeming qualities lolol!!1!). Not to mention this episode completely goes against other traits like her loyalty, and eagerness, and even cheer(which she's show to believe is important in past episodes, even in the same bloody season). Like I said, it just feels like they're going out their way to make it a miserable experience

Yeeeeah, I'd hope they're past this point being in the final season, but sometimes I feel like they bring on new writers, and they just watch the first few episodes and think they have a good handle on the characters, even after seven more seasons of development. It'd be interesting to do a statistical analysis on this and find out if there's any correlation between certain writers and the infamous episodes that needlessly shatter the integrity of the characters to pieces.

 

8 hours ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

This episode is the epitome of MLP's recent episodes' problems. Fundamentally, the story isn't inspired and it seems that the show runners don't care about making a good episode and doesn't try enough to push themselves any further. I'm assuming of course, but the episode is self evident. I really don't want to be mean to the student six either, but it proves my point that they are bad episode generators.

It seems like the show runners wanted to stop earlier, their interest in the show was long gone, but they had a whole season left.

I don't think that's really fair. This isn't a Student Six episode. The focus is kept on Rainbow Dash. Some of the Student Six are just there to be on the receiving end of Dash royally screwing up.

That's a really sad state of affairs if the writers actually feel like they're out of ideas. The S9 premiere brought in a whole ton of "Hey, we've never done THIS before" that should have made writing S9 to be ridiculously easy. They easily could've taken a cue from G1, and gave this season some additional continuity. Equestria doesn't know it yet, but war has been declared. That this fact has been ignored, and it's beginning to feel like we won't see Grogsy again until the finale, is pretty sad. Doesn't mean it had to go all Game of Thrones, but we could have been seeing the chess pieces being moved as they put their plans into action. And that just brings me to another thought that was going through my head while watching this episode. Thinking back on the lyrics of "Better Way to Be Bad," I couldn't help but wonder if that's what was happening, because...

8 hours ago, Sepul-Coloratura said:

She acted like under Discord's spell in season 2.

...yep. I was getting nervous that someone was manipulating her, or even Chryssy pulled one of her old switcheroos. These are the kind of things that easily could have been used, if anyone was feeling like they were having trouble with ideas for new episodes. Repelling attacks from an unseen enemy would've been a great way to bring out some new lessons, and would've fit the premise that was set with Sombra's demise.

3 hours ago, R.D.Dash said:

Personally I wasn't impressed when I saw Fluttershy starting freaking out at the mention of training ponies at buckball.

You know, I said to myself: this is not season 9 Fluttershy this is season 1 Fluttershy. Okay, and then lazy Dash happened. Of course.

 

1 hour ago, Splashee said:

Oh yea! I forgot about that one! I mean, saying this just proves what all the fan ponies in "Fame and Misfortune" said about Fluttershy. But that was in Season 7, and we are in Season 9 now, so does that makes us (fans) look bad if we start this argument again? That's kinda why I didn't want to talk about it.

After all of the "Twilighting" that I've been seeing complained about this season, it seems like somebody over at DHX has become obsessed with seeing ponies go into full-blown panic attacks.

[Dawn-Sunlight 1,228]

I seriously seem to always have an unpopular opinion, but I loved this episode and thought it was a MUCH better version of the other buckball episode we got earlier this season.  I thought that this episode was amazing.  Although most of that might come from my love of Smolder.

[gingerninja666 487]

I really didn't hate this episode all that much. I wonder why, because it's not like I can argue with people who say that Dash should know better by this point.

 

I guess part of it is because, well, I like the idea of the moral. Smolder was the best part of the episode and what she said was true, Dash is highly energetic and unstoppable when she cares about something, but when she doesn't she's lazy and highly flippant. Like, that IS a true thing about her personality. So an episode where Twilight maneuvers her into coming to terms with that has merit I find. It's just that the episode goes too far in making RD look uncaring.

 

I also like how in the final season we're finally getting additional characterization for Snips. I like his opportunistic capitalist persona. It could slot him into a lot of situations. Hell, give him a scene with Flim and Flam.

 

In general though, I just find it hard to be mad at bad episodes of a show like this. Because it's so episodic that they're easily ignorable. Non Compete Clause didn't make me like the ending stretch of season 8 any less, because they have nothing to do with each other.

[Dark Qiviut 22,173]

6 hours ago, Odyssey said:

But Twi's last line was just. No! Nonono! Arrggh!!!

12 hours ago, Kiryu-Chan said:

And that fucking ending just reeks of the writers jerking it to themselves thinking about how clever they are with that bloody moral. 

Just to go back to this, because I have major problems with that line, too.

Rainbow Dash wasn’t on her best day and was so self-absorbed, selfish, and apathetic towards cheerleading that she risked ruining the tournament. Come on, Dash, these students were TRYING to put up with you and asking her to teach her how to perform something potentially show-stealing, but Dash would rather ruin it? Why? Because she wasn’t coaching the buckball team!

However, after a Well-deserved calling out (which should never have happened had she not be so flanderized and OOC), she worked really hard to not only make them forgive her, but also make the cheerleading performance more interesting than the game itself. If there’s ever another buckball tournament, they have something equally interesting to look forward to.

So what does Twilight going all Trollight mean and why it’s the worst moment of the season?

1. It calls back memories of what the RM5 did in Mare Do Well and 28PL. Rather than tell Dash upfront, they go behind their backs just to make her get it. For those two, it took to the very end with them actually telling her to her face. This behavior is cruel and unbecoming for the show. Here, Dash learns her lesson well before the climax, so she began to get much earlier, but imagine if she didn’t and Twi told her at the end. Can you imagine just how dirtier that would feel to the audience?
2. Twilight intentionally put the whole tournament at risk just to teach Dash a lesson. This conflict was artificial; Twilight started it by putting her there out of the blue. But because of that snide, passive-aggressive line, do you know what this means? Twilight knew well in advance that Dash would not take this “demotion” very well, do less than minimum effort to help the students prepare for the halftime show, try to sneak away and get involved with it, potentially ruin all hope they have for it, and make them quit cheerleading practice. She used both Dash and her students as guinea pigs just to make Dash learn a lesson. This is unbecoming of a teacher and leader, and shows no trust with Dash and the student body.

The reaction from some reminds me of my own following Princess Spike. After a mess of an episode and conflict, Spike was given a bouquet of Dragon Sneeze trees, restarting his allergies and forcing him to sneeze forcefully at the rebuilt statue. But what made that moment so atrocious is how it solidifies a very sexist position within the show. Spike had been the show’s buttmonkey from the beginning, and several episodes either neglected him despite being an important part of Twi’s life (like not being at Twi’s birthday) or made him the butt of very unfunny slapstick (Owl’s Well, the Spikeabuse from Fall Weather Friends and Castle Mane-ia). Additionally to being the only non-pony of the Mane cast, he was also the only male. Beating down the only male in a pro-feminist show is as misandrist and anti-feminist as it comes.

Now, is what happened here anywhere nearly as bad as Twilight’s line? Not close. However, Spike had more than half a season and several more from that point forward to recover, and he hasn’t had an episode close to this level of quality since. We’re now in the last season, and if you look at the synopses of what’s to come,

Spoiler

this is likely her last solo episode, as Daring Doubt will have her and Shy team up. Dash won’t get many chances.

Does DHX hate Dash? Not at all. But this episode reaffirmed the implication that they have plenty of trouble writing her well, a problem that goes all the way back to S2. Kaita Mpambara is one of the best new writers, so for him to write that big of a stinker is massively disappointing.

[Megas 27,064]

55 minutes ago, Dark Qiviut said:

Does DHX hate Dash? Not at all. But this episode reaffirmed the implication that they have plenty of trouble writing her well, a problem that goes all the way back to S2.

DHX? Maybe not, they're just the animators? The current writers on the other hand I'm fairly positive they do. We've seen this same shit since MMDW. People hated it then and they were good enough to never let something happen ever again from S3-S5, say what you want about episodes like Rainbow Falls, at the very least, it was well intentioned. Come season 6 onwards, they've been doubling down on this garbage with the likes of Newbie Dash, 28 Pranks Later, NCC, and now this. It's happened so much, all with the same problems and all with the same reactions, that I refuse to believe it's by accident. The fact that it's on the last season just makes it one last fuck you to both the character and her fans, especially with the promise of giving everyone proper send off they could have used this for one last Wonderbolts outing instead(which they pretty much sent to die once she got in, which makes just makes this debacle even worse)

Edited August 12, 2019 by Kiryu-Chan

[Drunkfrank 1,125]

I didn't hate this episode, I enjoyed Rainbows uninterested talk at first but it got annoying over time. Smolder was great though

And Yona...
After Uprooted where I liked her she has gotten klutzier, more clueless and just feels annoying now, she has dropped to one of my least favorite students. 

This episode was mediocre, but I didn't despise it.

59 minutes ago, Kiryu-Chan said:

DHX? Maybe not, they're just the animators? The current writers on the other hand I'm fairly positive they do. We've seen this same shit since MMDW. People hated it then and they were good enough to never let something happen ever again from S3-S5, say what you want about episodes like Rainbow Falls, at the very least, it was well intentioned. Come season 6 onwards, they've been doubling down on this garbage with the likes of Newbie Dash, 28 Pranks Later, NCC, and now this. It's happened so much, all with the same problems and all with the same reactions, that I refuse to believe it's by accident. The fact that it's on the last season just makes it one last fuck you to both the character and her fans, especially with the promise of giving everyone proper send off they could have used this for one last Wonderbolts outing instead(which they pretty much sent to die once she got in, which makes just makes this debacle even worse)

Member Tanks for the Memories?
I member
The last time I finished a RD episode and went "wow, amazing."

[Dark Qiviut 22,173]

1 hour ago, Kiryu-Chan said:

The current writers on the other hand I'm fairly positive they do.

Even with all the crap, I don’t believe they hate her. If they did, they wouldn’t publish:

1. Stranger Than Fan Fiction: Not big on Quibble’s portrayal while away from the con, but Dash was fantastic.
2. Top Bolt: Twi and Dash help out Sky Stinger and Vapor Trail, and their portrayals were among the best of S6.
3. Glideance: You and I have sung its praises from the get-go. Dash’s Putting Your Hoof Down, and done right.
4. Grannies Gone Wild: Despite initially wanting to skip out, she works tirelessly to keep the Golden Mares safe, and the episode sympathizes with her. She rightfully earned her way to the roller coaster.
5. The End In Friend: Mare Do Well done right.
6. The Washouts: Dash’s best episode.
7. Common Ground: Dash at her best. Tries her best to help Quibble learn buckball to bond with his stepdaughter.

[Megas 27,064]

6 minutes ago, RyanMahaffe said:

I didn't hate this episode, I enjoyed Rainbows uninterested talk at first but it got annoying over time. Smolder was great though

And Yona...
After Uprooted where I liked her she has gotten klutzier, more clueless and just feels annoying now, she has dropped to one of my least favorite students. 

This episode was mediocre, but I didn't despise it.

Member Tanks for the Memories?
I member
The last time I finished a RD episode and went "wow, amazing."

She's had some good episodes in between but save for the ones done by Josh Hamilton, most of those were by people who stuck around since S4/S5 like Nick Confalone or the Lady Writers, whom are known to put a lot of work in their episodes, which highlights one of the later half of the show's biggest problem imo, namely episodes live and die by the writers, because a majority of these episodes don't feel like team efforts, or feel like they had effort put into them,  and most just feel flaccid as a result

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,543]

Just now, Kiryu-Chan said:

She's had some good episodes in between but save for the ones done by Josh Hamilton, most of those were by people who stuck around since S4/S5 like Nick Confalone or the Lady Writers, whom are known to put a lot of work in their episodes, which highlights one of the later half of the show's biggest problem imo, namely episodes live and die by the writers, because a majority of these episodes don't feel like team efforts, or feel like they had effort put into them,  and most just feel flaccid as a result

I have faith that "Daring Doubt" will be a better sendoff.

[Drunkfrank 1,125]

Just now, Kiryu-Chan said:

She's had some good episodes in between but save for the ones done by Josh Hamilton, most of those were by people who stuck around since S4/S5 like Nick Confalone or the Lady Writers, whom are known to put a lot of work in their episodes, which highlights one of the later half of the show's biggest problem imo, namely episodes live and die by the writers, because a majority of these episodes don't feel like team efforts, or feel like they had effort put into them,  and most just feel flaccid as a result

I think that only applies to specific characters in some cases, as I think the show has been pretty consistent in episode quality since s4, far more good than bad but the bad is really bad in some cases.

Just now, TheAnimationFanatic said:

I have faith that "Daring Doubt" will be a better sendoff.

I had forgotten about this one. Yeah, a lot of my hope is in that one.